Chapter TextThe building was silent as Oni strolled through it, the soft hum of air conditioning the only thing disturbing the peace. Unfortunately, there would be no fighting to break this silence. No screams of anger or fear or pain, no cracking of bones or tearing of flesh, nor any cacophony from a myriad of quirks being used. That was not why he came here.
If all went well, there would be fighting yet tonight, but there were things to do before then.
This wasn't even a hideout or abandoned building where he would normally find himself for such things. It was a regular old building, inside and out, without so much as a hidden room.
It was a doctor's office, settled on the western edge of Kamino. A general practice office, to be precise.
This was where Iona's parents had brought her when her quirk manifested.
He'd been meaning to do this, and had put it off long enough. He was here to take a closer look at this office and the doctors and other staff within.
Somehow, the Triad had learned of Iona's quirk, and Oni intended to find out how.
The Triad was widespread, sure, and kidnapped enough people that only a masterful execution of the organization or a great deal of manipulation—or a combination of both—could explain why their existence hadn't been discovered yet, but in all the data that had been acquired by himself and Shadow, he'd learned that they very rarely took children. Excessive numbers of victims aside, kidnapping children attracted an additional layer of attention and scrutiny. People could go missing all over the place without anyone really batting an eye, but getting children involved tended to stir people up. Likely why the Triad had attempted to take Iona in the middle of the night, disposing of her parents when they did to prevent them from kicking up a fuss.
The point is that the Triad targeting Iona would not have been a crime of opportunity. It would've been deliberate, in response to her quirk. Oni just needed to find out how they learned of it.
There were a whole host of potential avenues that the information could've reached them, with at least half of those being some variation of word-of-mouth where the doctor or staff or Iona's parents talk about her quirk and whoever was told or whoever happened to overhear passed that information along to someone else, on and on until it reached the wrong person. But Oni favored those which had the doctor as the—deliberate—informant. The logic was there, and it made too much sense; where would an organization whose sole focus is kidnapping people for their quirks most like to have an informant? Why, in a doctor's office, where anyone inside would have access to the medical information of all the patients, including their quirks.
That, and the avenues of word-of-mouth were impossible for Oni to track, as absolutely all of them would involve following a trail of innocent civilians, whom he could not, and would not, target for his methods of information gathering.
So, here he was at the doctor's office, slowly and methodically scanning every square inch of the place as he headed for the office of Iona's doctor, searching for anything that might point towards illicit activities, not that he really expected to find much of anything.
All For One was smart, being a centuries-old supervillain at the head of a criminal empire left no other alternative. And although there was plenty of room for incompetence in the delegation and management of the Triad, which he was sure to almost completely keep his hands off of, Oni's experience with the Triad had showed that, more often than not, competence reigned supreme. It was unlikely that, assuming this office was involved, there would be any physical trace or evidence to link it to the Triad. No phones or letters or emails, nothing which could give someone like Oni a thread to pull on.
Not that-that would stop him from looking for one, of course.
By the time he was stepping into the office, he'd scanned through the entire building, top to bottom and bottom to top more than once, and had found nothing out of place or the slightest bit suspicious. But then, this trip was more about eliminating possibilities than finding anything tangible.
He hummed quietly as he sat down at the doctor's desk, powering on the computer. It was password protected, but that didn't mean much to him.
He'd relied on Rei for this sort of thing for much of his vigilante career, and while he would never stop appreciating her or the help she'd given, it was more a matter of convenience, delegation, and her desire to keep him safe in her own way that had led to that, rather than an outright lack of ability on his part. He might not have known much of anything about the inner workings of computers just a few months ago, but nothing was hard for him to learn when he put in just a modicum of effort, and with Rei transitioning over to a permanent normal sleep schedule, it had been necessary to do just that.
Oni soon had the computer unlocked and, as he waited for it to finish starting up, cracked his neck and pulled on the speed quirks that hadn't already been activated. As soon as the desktop was up, he pulled on 'Quick Thinker' as well, slowing the world around him.
Windows and files flitted across the screen, opening and closing as fast as he could read through them, far faster than any normal person would've been able to perceive, and likely a great many enhanced individuals.
Oni grinned as he worked. Sometimes he really liked his quirks.
A few minutes later he was turning the computer off again, having concluded his search. Nothing of interest. He still had all the other computers in the building to search, but with his prime suspect temporarily cleared it was definitely starting to look like he wouldn't be finding anything here.
He sighed, leaning back in the chair and kicking his feet up onto the desk.
"Let's see here." He murmured. "If I were a megalomaniac supervillain scumbag, who wanted an informant, or informants, keeping me apprised of interesting quirks, how would I go about it?"
He hummed absentmindedly as he considered.
'Well, for starters, any potential informant would have to be someone whose loyalty would be absolute, so either someone with something to gain which could be promised, or,' he glanced at the picture on the desk, showing the doctor, his wife, and his young child, 'someone with everything to lose which could be threatened. Bonus points if the potential informant is facing a desperate situation of some kind that he cannot resolve himself.'
'Acquiring the doctor's loyalty would be child's play. A simple yet effective demonstration of both my power and my ability to use it to harm, and a threat to harm not him, but those he cares the most about should he run his mouth, and I have a loyal informant.'
'As a prerequisite for even speaking to him in the first place I would know the ins and outs of his and his family's daily life. Where they go, what they do, when they do it. Who they talk to, who knows them. I would learn anything and everything I need to to recognize a deviation that might indicate betrayal.'
'With a portal quirk, arranging for a meeting, both initial and any others, would be nothing. But how to handle the actual delivery of information? It would have to rely on the informant being the one to reach out, as quirk manifestation appointments, while commonplace, aren't guaranteed to happen every single day, with new patients who have already manifested being even rarer, and reaching out to the informant just for him to have nothing to pass along yet would be an inexcusable waste of time.'
'The simplest method would be a cheap, encrypted phone to send messages. No potential for anything to be traced back to me. Physical messages are an option, but anything physical creates additional points of failure and detection.'
'So. An informant with extensive leverage against him to ensure he stays in line, with a phone capable of passing information along to me and instructions to do so any time he conducts a quirk manifestation appointment.'
Hmm. Maybe. That's certainly how Oni would go about it—well, really he would just cut out the middleman and just retrieve the information himself. Just sneak into the office like he currently is and get what he needs—but he couldn't be sure if that's how All For One would do it, especially considering that the information is being conducted by a proxy and not directly.
But even being unsure, this gave him something tangible to look at. An avenue to follow. Though, there were still a lot of potential suspects. The criteria he laid out could apply to any number of people in this building, anyone with something to gain and/or lose, and reasonable access to the information.
He sighed, standing up and heading for the door. Better get to searching then, to start shortening the list.
After searching through the rest of the office, and after a quick patrol through Musutafu—which resulted in a single low-level thug being dropped on Tsukauchi's doorstep—Oni was emerging from the shadows of his room. He took a moment to make sure everything was as it should be before moving to stand in front of his windows, looking out over the city.
Another moment to enjoy the view and he was pulling Tamako from where they were watching over Iona.
"Tamako." He said by way of greeting. "How would you feel about doing some detective work?"
He felt their interest pique at that and grinned, knowing that he needn't have even asked.
"What kind of detective work?"
"You know that I was looking into potential leaks linked to Iona's run-in with the Triad tonight. I'd like you to shadow the current prime suspect."
He waved his hand and a miniature copy of the doctor appeared floating in the air in front of him, courtesy of his illusion quirk.
"Doctor Morio Shimamoto. Doctor and resident quirk specialist at the West Kamino Family Practice."
Shimamoto had a decidedly average appearance. Thin build, a face that didn't stand out in any way, glasses, black hair cut relatively short, no visible quirk mutations, residual or current. His quirk was a simple auditory enhancement, barely even worth a glance. The man managed to look blander and more unnoticeable than Tsukauchi, which was something of an achievement.
"You aren't going after him yourself? Usually you'd just torture the information out of him."
"If I knew for sure that he was guilty, I absolutely would. I'd have already broken him. But I don't, so I can't. I don't even want to use nonharmful methods like 'Siren' on an innocent person."
"That being said." He continued. "He is our prime suspect, the one most likely to be who we're looking for, and I have no qualms about asking you to watch him for a bit."
"What makes you so sure that it's him?"
"Because he's the one I would pick, were I in All For One's shoes."
"What do you want me to do, specifically?"
"In a few hours, we'll head back to the office, where you'll hop over to him. Watch him through the day, keep an eye out for any way he might be contacting someone about the quirks he sees. Don't interact with him, don't even look through his memories until you get some confirmation of his involvement, and at the first sign of detection hop back to me."
"And if I do find something I'm guessing you'll take it from there?"
A tiny illusory Oni appeared next to the doctor, picking him up by the throat and throwing him against the window, before beginning to slowly and methodically remove body parts, to the tiny, high-pitched screams of the doctor.
"Got it." Tamako said, giving off the mental equivalent to a grin. "This sounds like fun."
"Perhaps. But fun or no, this is likely to be a drawn out investigation. We've no idea how often he might be contacting the Triad, assuming of course that he's doing so at all. If we're unlucky, this could even take days."
He turned away from the window, letting the tiny him and the bloody remains of the tiny doctor fade away to nothing. "We've a few hours yet before you'll start. Stay with me until then. I'll walk you through everything we have so far, and what I'll be doing while you're away."
Three days later and the search hadn't yielded any results. Tamako had been watching the doctor all day, from the moment he got to work to the moment he left, and yesterday and then again tonight they were even taking it a step further by watching him until he went to sleep. Izuku, on the other hand, had been doing his best to thin down the pool of suspects.
The doctor's office was a relatively large one, with twenty-eight employees working there, from the doctors to the nurses to the janitors to the one single part-time accountant who only showed up twice a week. All of them had some potential to be the one he was looking for.
Everyone there could, in theory, either access or overhear relevant information, and the methods and reasons for contacting the Triad were too myriad to serve as an exclusionary criteria, so he couldn't actually exclude anyone from the suspect pool entirely, but what he could do was sort them by how likely they were to be the one he was looking for.
He could rank them based on certain criteria like how easily they could access the information, whether or not they had a family to threaten or a problem to solve—or that had been solved at some point in the past—and how easily their loyalty could be bought or otherwise guaranteed.
So he'd been combing through every bit of data related to the employees that he could get his hands on. What their specific jobs were, how well they got along with their coworkers, what route they took going back home, whether or not they had families, and if they did, whether or not there were any unique circumstances. Social media, emails, payment and bank records, camera footage… It was a lot of information and was quite boring sorting through it all.
Izuku heaved a sigh, leaning away from his computer. It was so exhausting to do things legally, like some kind of boring do-gooder. Trying, even for someone of his attention span.
The fact that it probably wasn't legal for him to be peeking at people's bank statements and private emails, rather that it was probably very much illegal, was neither here nor there. Here he was, investigating this matter for the past three days, and not a single bone had been broken. He was falling behind on his quota.
He pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment, before shaking his head. He raised his hands and, with a quick flourish, a swarm of illusory documents filled the room. Profiles on every employee in the office. Another flourish and they arranged themselves in neat lines, with his current ranking of most likely to least likely.
At the very bottom of the list was one of the three receptionists. An older woman with no family, no other extenuating circumstances that could be leveraged against her for her loyalty, and who was very outspoken about villainy. Extra emphasis on the very. She gave off a similar vibe as Recovery Girl; A woman with strong morals and an ironclad will that would bend to no one and nothing.
Near the top, at second most likely, was one of the two janitors. He had access to the entire building, and was a single father. And more than that, his daughter was currently sick with something that would probably be rather expensive to treat. Taking advantage of that situation would be as easy as waving a wad of money in the man's face.
Then, at number one, unsurprisingly, was Shimamoto. He had full access, an easily leveraged wife and child, and there was the bonus of him actually knowing what he was looking at when it came to quirks.
So, basically he was right back where he'd started. Suspecting Shimamoto, waiting for Tamako's search to yield results, and with no other more likely suspects for them to switch to.
Izuku leaned his elbows on his desk, resting his head in his hands. And still there was the very real possibility that this office wasn't involved at all. He remembered the report on Iona's quirk, written by this very same doctor, which described her undergoing more detailed examination, with equipment that definitely wasn't present at the pediatric office, which meant more doctors who had seen her quirk up close. Not to mention the unknown, but probably large number of people who might've learned of her quirk through word of mouth.
He let out another sigh. He was fully committed to this search, to locate the connection between Iona and the Triad, assuming that it could be found, but it would've been really nice to find a convenient bit of glaring evidence for him to follow. The sooner he gets this done the better, especially with Yueii's summer camp right around the corner. If possible he'd like to get it done before then.
Izuku gave an absent wave of his hand and all the profiles vanished. He was just starting to consider taking a cursory glance at the hospital Iona had gone to for the additional tests when Tamako snapped back into his head. He winced a bit at the discomfort caused by the great distance as they wasted no time in reporting.
"It's him. He just sent a message to someone with a cellphone that definitely isn't his normal one. He sent a name, an address, and some basic quirk info."
Izuku smiled, thanking his luck as he rose up from his desk.
"Excellent. Let's get to work then."
Izuku shifted over to Oni in record time, donning his outfit and his quirks and then dropping into the shadows of his room less than a minute after getting the report. He first emerged in Shadow's basement, as was his usual before going out anywhere as Oni, then, taking a moment to orient himself and judge the distance, he dropped once more. He stepped out of the shadows on the rooftop of the doctor's apartment building, already locating the man several floors below him. For good measure, he also found the phone that had been used to send the message. It wasn't hard, as it was still sitting right in front of him.
Shimamoto was sitting at a desk in a tiny office, head in his hands. His wife and child were already asleep. Oni could feel guilt radiating off of him even at this distance, which was close to the edge of 'Observation's effective range. That all but confirmed his earlier theory, that something—likely his family—was being leveraged against him to ensure loyalty.
That didn't change what was about to happen, of course, but it did ever so slightly raise Oni's opinion of him. But something just slightly more valuable than dirt was still practically nothing.
Pulling on 'Ghost,' he sank into the shadows again, emerging in the corner of the office, behind Shimamoto. Moving quickly, he crossed the room in two strides and had one hand on the back of Shimamoto's neck and the other grabbing the phone, before sinking back into the shadows.
He dropped his hold on 'Ghost' as they reemerged, and threw the man onto the roof, sending him sprawling.
"Huh- What!?" Shimamoto shouted. "What's-" Oni's boot on his chest knocked the air out of him, shutting him up, and a bit of extra pressure prevented him from sucking in another breath.
"Unless you want your child to grow up without a father, I suggest you keep your mouth shut until I tell you otherwise. Nod if you understand."
It took a second for his words to register through the rising panic of not being able to breathe, but as soon as they did, Shimamoto nodded.
"Very good." Oni said, lifting his foot and allowing the man to breathe.
He stepped back, and gave the man a few seconds to catch his breath, before continuing.
"Your name is Doctor Morio Shimamoto. Is that correct?"
Shimamoto nodded, looking up at Oni.
"Do you know who I am, Doctor?"
He shook his head. Not surprising, so far from his usual hunting grounds, and his escapades against the Triad in Kamino weren't exactly something that would be widely known, especially not to someone who wasn't directly involved in the Triad's business.
"My name is Oni. I'm a vigilante. Normally I operate in Musutafu, but certain circumstances have had me branching out lately. Namely, I've been making it my business to crush the Triad."
He felt a jolt of fear from the man at the mention. Extra confirmation.
"Now, I would hope that with my saying that, it should be pretty clear as to why I'm here tonight, why I grabbed you."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Shimamoto tried. "I-."
Oni snapped his fingers with enough force for a small shockwave to rocket across the rooftop, cutting him off.
"Nope. Wrong answer. Try that again and I will break every bone in both of your arms and both of your legs. It will take me six hours, and I will make sure you're conscious for every second of it."
He took a step forward, and delighted in the spike of fear from Shimamoto, even as he visibly resisted the urge to scramble away from Oni.
"I know that you are an informant for the Triad. I know that they are likely threatening the life of your child or wife, or both. I also know that just a few minutes ago you sent a message to them about a new quirk for them to acquire."
Oni held out the phone for emphasis, and saw Shimamoto's eyes widen, and at the same time felt something he'd never felt with 'Observation' before. It was an odd mixture of calm and an utterly empty feeling. An initial guess identified it as hopelessness.
He flipped open the ancient device and navigated to the message in question, which hadn't been deleted. A mistake on the doctor's part. He took note of the information and, in the background, started mapping out where the address was and judging the distance to travel there.
"Do you know who these messages go to?"
Shimamoto shook his head, and when he spoke his voice was despondent, matching up to the hopeless feeling Oni was getting from him. "No. They never met with me in person. They left that phone and a note inside my apartment, with no sign of a forced entry. The note said that if I didn't do what they wanted, or if I went to the police, that they would come again and kill my wife and daughter."
Oni hummed. "And what exactly are they having you do?"
"The note included a list of criteria. Any time I encountered a quirk that met any of the criteria, I would send them the address."
"What sort of criteria did they give you?"
Shimamoto gave an absent wave. "Broad elemental quirks, highly specialized combat-oriented quirks, sapient quirks. Basically anything that was either sufficiently useful for fighting or that was particularly unique."
Oni forced back the urge to break something at the reminder and direct confirmation that this was the man who had set the Triad on Iona and robbed her of her parents.
"How much do you know of how they operate? Do you know where the people are taken? Or how soon after your message the Triad goes after them?"
"I don't know about the where, but they're always quick about collecting the people I send them. Whoever the messages go to, they sometimes like to send messages back to mock me, thanking me for the useful information. Those messages are always there by the time I wake up."
And there was the incompetence slipping through the cracks. Had it been All For One handling this directly, there likely would've been no return message, but somewhere along the lines, the quality had slipped a little and now Oni had a guaranteed link to whoever this person was.
"I see. Well this has been very helpful. Thank you, Doctor, for your assistance. It has been invaluable. Now there's just one last thing to do before I leave."
Shimamoto looked up at Oni just in time to get hit by a shockwave from 'Conqueror,' which let Oni grab hold with 'Siren.' The man went blank immediately.
"Now then, Shimamoto. You will answer my questions truthfully. Was any of what you said a lie, to the extent of your knowledge?"
"No." Came the blank reply.
"Do you know anything else about the Triad?"
"They probably have a teleportation quirk. They didn't trip the alarm system in my apartment when they broke in."
Well, not necessarily. Even without going through the shadows, Oni could get past the alarms just the same. But maybe this was a sign that Kurogiri was just a bit more involved in the Triad than the scumbag himself.
Oni nodded, satisfied, and turned away from Shimamoto. He still would very much like to eviscerate the man for what he did to Iona, but he pushed that urge back. Shimamoto was just the tool. Someone else was responsible for using the information he was sending. He would spare Shimamoto, and deliver his punishment several times over to whoever the person responsible was.
He waved a hand over his shoulder. "You will forget this conversation. When I drop my control you will go back down to your apartment and then you will forget that you ever left."
Between one step and the next he sank into the shadows once more, dropping his hold on 'Siren' and activating 'Ghost' just before he vanished.
He was mildly surprised, an instant later, to find himself in mid air when he reemerged. Halting his fall and getting his bearings, he found that he'd missed his intended target by a few houses. He was on the next street over.
Oni took stock of the area as he floated over to the house of the man who was evidently to be the Triad's target. It was a peaceful suburb on the outskirts of the city, individual houses packed in close, each one complete with a tiny front lawn. It would be a shame for the peace to be disturbed by the Triad.
Looking a bit closer, he located their target. And a rather ideal target he was. The man, one Akio Tsujii, lived alone, and in this quiet area, there would be almost no one to notice and not many to miss him once he was gone. His quirk, 'Time Out'—according to both Shimamoto's text and 'Appraisal'—allowed him to halt all kinetic energy, excluding his own, within a radius of about ten meters around him.
Oni could definitely see the appeal of taking a quirk like that. It was one of those that made him regret that Tsujii wasn't a criminal.
He landed on the front porch, and immediately settled himself in the rocking chair that sat off to the side. It hadn't even been five minutes since Tamako informed him of Shimamoto's message, and it was still relatively early in the night—Tsujii wasn't even asleep yet—it would likely be a few hours before anyone actually arrived to act on the information.
He sighed as he rocked back and put his feet up on the railing that bordered the porch. Between waiting for the Triad here, and then following the trail back to whomever had received the information, this was likely to be a long night.
Oni grinned though, as he thought about what he would be doing, at the chaos and destruction he would wreak, and the panic, fear, and pain he would dish out. It'd been too long since he last went after a group, and this had the added bonus of punishing those who had wronged Iona. And when he finally got his hands on whoever was directing these insects? When he found whoever it was who had gotten Shimamoto's intel and made the decision to ruin people's lives and condemn them to any manner of suffering? Oh, the things he would do…
His smile took on a feral edge. It would make this prolonged search so very worth it.
Oni perked up when he noticed three people enter the range of 'All Sight,' driving in in a utility van.
He got up out of the chair, stretching. It took them over three hours to get here; enough time for him to start considering just leaving Tamako with Tsujii and finding someone to torment while he waited. Sure, there had to be some amount of waiting to let the people in the area fall asleep, but really, they could've at least had the decency to move with somesense of urgency.
He sighed, and reminded himself that not everyone could be as capable and talented as him, that normal people were constrained by the bizarre concept of "limitations."
"Really going for the god-complex here, aren't you?"Tamako chimed in, privy to his internal dialogue.
Oni smirked. He could feel the amusement in Tamako's words. 'I think that, when you can do the sorts of things I can, when you can move faster than sound and collapse buildings with a punch and change the weather with a wave of your hand, when you can teleport across half the planet and incapacitate people without moving a muscle, you're entitled to just a little bit of pride from time to time. Besides, where's the risk when I'm self-aware and I always have people like you to make sure my head never gets too big?'
"Now then." He said, stepping off the porch. "Let's have some fun, shall we?"
He could feel Tamako's anticipation within him as he walked towards the road, debating just letting the van ram into him for the sheer shock value.
And as much as he joked about them being insects, one glance at the quirks present showed that, somewhere in the chain of command between whoever Shimamoto messaged and the people here, there was at least one person who knew what they were doing.
Obviously, going up against someone like Tsujii meant that reliance upon standard physical attacks would be completely useless. So the three quirks in front of him had clearly been chosen with that in mind.
Name: Kingo Imari
Quirk: Sloth. Focus/Visual.Manipulation/Debuff/Energy.
Upon visual contact, slowly drains the target's stamina, resulting in eventual loss of consciousness.
Name: Shizue Hamada
Quirk: Telekinesis. Focus. Manipulation/Kinesis.
Allows the user to move objects through mental control within an effective range of 40 meters. Weight limit decreases as distance increases.
Name: Ninsei Itoh
Quirk: Invisibility. Focus.Transformation/Sensory/Illusion.
Allows the user to render himself completely invisible.
The ability to fight and incapacitate Tsujii without needing to move, and the ability to sneak up on him, which was probably their plan A.
Oni was looking forward to adding them to his arsenal.
The van pulled up right next to him. A few steps to the left and it really would have slammed into him. It took them a few minutes of sitting there, looking at the house and either confirming that it was the right place or psyching themselves up, but eventually they got out and started heading towards it.
Oni fell into step right behind them and enacted one of the ideas he'd come up with in the three hours of waiting.
A quick touch to the back of their necks and a painless tug on their quirks had all three quirkless in an instant. Then, with a wave of his hand, the world around them went black, an empty, endless void. In the same instant he moved several steps ahead of them.
They stumbled in the darkness, confusion and the beginnings of fear and panic radiating off of them. Their surprised exclamations were masked by his illusion quirk. No one in any of the nearby homes would hear anything that happened.
Oh how he would love to break these little insects, but he needed information from them. He would get it, but first he would have some fun.
As their surprise began to fade, Oni dropped his hold on 'Ghost,' becoming visible once more. They noticed him immediately, being the only thing in the void that wasn't them. He saw the moment they noticed, then the moment they recognized him, and then the moment the recognition registered and the resulting emotions.
Itoh experienced pure, unadulterated dread. Oni's reputation in Musutafu preceded him by a mile, and it seemed that the Triad was starting to get the picture as well. He already knew that he wouldn't be coming out of this with all of his limbs intact. Smart little insect.
Imari had skipped right past fear and dread and straight to hopeless. He obviously knew what was coming, but there was no fight or flight response, no rush of adrenaline, no chance of fear giving way to desperation and leading him to struggle and fight. At least, not unless Oni dialed things up a bit of course.
Hamada, on the other hand, had gone the opposite direction. Her reaction was anger. She knew what was to come, but refused to accept it, she would try her best to resist. Again, until Oni took this further.
Oni laughed, and with the illusion quirk it became loud and booming, echoing across the empty void. "Such amusing little humans you are. Dread, hopelessness, fury. Such emotion, and all I've done is stand before you. But surely, if you know so much about me to be feeling such emotion, you must know why I'm here. You must know what I've come for."
"Oh, and Hamada, Itoh, surely by now you've realized that your quirks no longer function. Please do us all a favor and stop trying."
He could see with 'Observation,' even though they no longer even possessed their quirks, that they were trying to use them. Itoh was trying so desperately to become invisible and flee, while Hamada wanted so much to tear Oni in half. He noted, in the background, that the prediction aspect of 'Observation' must be based more on the target's expectations than the limitations of reality.
"W-what!?" Hamada yelled, still so angry, but now with some fear beginning to take hold. "What have you done!?"
"Why assume that I have done anything? It's not myquirk that does not listen. I'm not the one who's lost control over one of the basest aspects of man. I'mnot the one with less control over myself than a child. Really, you've had your entire lives, and you still haven't come to terms with your own inadequacy? And here I was under the impression that you were adults."
Oni shook his head. "But that's beside the point. Your worthlessness, while partially responsible, is not the reason I've come for you."
He took a step forward, putting just enough weight into it to shake the ground a touch, though hopefully not enough to wake anyone nearby. At the same time, he chose to dial things up a bit with his illusion quirk. With the step, a visible shockwave spread through the void. Where it passed, it transformed the black, empty void into a fiery hellscape. He delighted in the way all three criminals recoiled at the change from pitch black to almost blinding flames, and at the skyrocketing emotions as they registered the change.
Itoh was beginning to hyperventilate, and Oni could feel desperation in him, quickly mounting and sure to lead to some fun. Imari's hopelessness, a little surprisingly, wasn't changing, but was instead growing more intense. If Oni wasn't mistaken, then the man might be heading straight for a major psychotic break pretty soon. And finally, Hamada's anger was quickly being overpowered by fear. Between the situation, the scenery, and the loss of her quirk, and her anger was fading fast.
Oni laughed again, much louder this time. He took in an exaggerated breath. "Ah, I must say, these emotions of yours are tremendous. I do ever so love the emotions you humans experience when faced with an impossible situation."
Oni's smile widened at what 'Observation' showed him. Finally overwhelmed, Itoh screamed, fear and desperation creating a lovely mix as they finally pushed him to act on his survival instinct. Still screaming, he charged at Oni, fist raised and lack of quirk seemingly forgotten.
Oni let him approach, doing nothing to stop him. When the punch came, wild and frantic and horribly messy, Oni grabbed his arm and, with a little help, let his own momentum flip him over to have him land hard on his back.
Without even looking down at him, Oni raised a foot and brought it down, hard.
Oh, the looks on Hamada and Imari's faces as they took in the explosion of blood and gore as Itoh's head burst like a watermelon would fuel Oni for months. The fear in Itoh as he took in the same sight was just icing on the cake.
Because as with everything else, this too was just another application of his illusion quirk. His foot landed just next to Itoh's head, close enough to clip off his left earlobe.
These three insects were scum, barely worth the breath Oni wasted in dealing with them, but nonetheless he stood by his determination to not kill. He'll wound, maim even, and psychologically torture if the chaotic mess of emotions welling up in Imari was anything to go by, but he would save the killing for later.
He laughed again. "Oh, how amusing you three are. But, as fun as this is, there are things that must still be done tonight. So with that in mind…" He raised a hand, and let out a pulse with 'Conqueror.' "Obey."
"Now then…" He said, dropping his hold on the illusions around them, and reigning himself in. "Where did you all come from?"
Oni smiled as he strolled towards a tiny, innocuous building in Kamino, right on the coast. It was not a friendly smile by any means.
The three criminals had been ever so helpful and gave him the location that they'd come from. In the end, Oni left them, broken but not injured, on Tsujii's front lawn, with instructions to lay there until the police arrived to pick them up.
He scanned through the building he was approaching, and through the much more extensive underground portion—as was the Triad's usual—and found the man he was after.
This wasn't the man, unfortunately, wasn't the one he was really after, but if he was correct, this one would be able to lead Oni to him.
Oni hummed as he walked, considering how to go about this. He could very easily just incapacitate the entire hideout in one go with 'Conqueror,' or speed through it faster than anyone could process, both of which he'd done before. He was very tempted to, as it would bring him to his target that much quicker, but before that, he had something he wanted to try…
Reaching the building, he circled around it until he found the little electrical box on the wall that connected the building to the city's power grid. He grabbed hold of it with 'Ferrokinesis' and promptly tore it loose, discarding it onto the roof of a neighboring building.
The building and all of its underground areas went dark immediately, as did much of the surrounding area as the exposed, torn cabling tripped something. He wasn't too concerned about it though. He had a basic understanding of how the electrical grid worked and, sure enough, power came back to the rest of the area seconds later, leaving the exposed wiring in front of him silent and no longer sparking.
Smiling at the confusion that was already beginning to bloom within the building, he circled back around to the only door it had, the only access point for the entire hideout. Surely that had to violate some kind of fire safety law.
The door was one of the obscenely secure, thick metal doors. The kind that belonged more on a vault than whatever this building was supposed to look like from the outside. The kind that he could still tear apart with minimal effort, but which none of the quirks inside would be able to handle if it, say, lost the ability to open.
Placing a hand against the door, he activated 'Liquid Metal' and liquified it. But instead of falling into a puddle, Oni grabbed hold of it with 'Ferrokinesis' and forced it to keep its shape. Mostly.
He warped the metal, spreading it out. At his direction, it crept outward along the walls, both inside and out, and along the ground. Not enough to compromise the thickness too much, but enough that it would hold in place against all but the most determined.
Releasing his hold on 'Liquid Metal,' he allowed the door to start hardening back into a solid, locking in place.
A few moments later, the building was completely sealed. No escape for anyone inside. No running from what was coming.
His smile widened at the thought of what was to come, and with a small laugh that he quickly forced back down, he fell backwards, sinking into the shadows on the ground.
His first target was a room with three criminals, confused, looking around for who-knows-what. All three were facing away from each other.
Oni emerged right between all three and, picking one at random, moved towards him. He crept up behind the man, footsteps silent not because of a quirk, but just from years of experience. He waited until he was within arm's reach of the man, almost breathing down his neck, then grabbed his shoulders.
"Boo." He said, manipulating his voice just enough to make it a bit more echoey than it ought to be.
Just as the man started to process it and the scream started to leave his throat, Oni sank back into the shadows, taking the man with him. He had the illusion quirk create a replica of his voice to laugh, slowly echoing into silence after they were gone.
They reemerged back outside the building, with Oni immediately pushing the man into it with enough force to knock the air out of him and shut him up. A hit with 'Conqueror' kept him quiet.
He waited just a few seconds, then went back, where the other two were frantically looking around, calling the third's name. This time he wasted no time. He emerged directly behind one of them, at just the precise moment that the other looked at her. Oni hooked an arm around her throat, and with a smile at the other, drug her down into the shadows, where she quickly joined the man.
The last criminal was just starting to process the fear, and was turning to run for the door when Oni returned. He popped up directly in front of the man, grabbing at his shoulders, trapping him in place.
"Where are you going? Don't you want to play with me?"
The man spluttered, still caught in his fear, not quite realizing that he needed to do something, to run or fight or do anything to escape what was before him.
Before he could reach that conclusion, Oni reached up to grab his head, then headbutted him hard enough to drop him.
Oni laughed, and this one he copied to all over the hideout, letting it echo for everyone to hear as he dropped back into the shadows.
The next room had a few more criminals in it, and this time he emerged right where everyone could see him. He watched their emotions as they noticed him, watched the transition from the slight fear that was already there, to confusion, to recognition and panic, to anger. All of them, almost simultaneously, rushed towards him to fight.
He stepped forwards to meet them, smirking at what he was planning. This would involve some on the fly practice with Shadow's quirk, but the fun that would come of it was worth it.
As the first reached him, with a fist wreathed in crackling electricity, he neatly stepped around it, grabbing at the arm and flipping the attached criminal in an exact mirror of Imari, but this time, instead of landing on the ground, Oni knocked him out with a focused pulse from 'Conqueror' and let him fall into the shadows at his feet, sinking away without Oni.
Oni smiled as his attempt succeeded. He'd all but mastered teleporting himself, and was quite skilled at taking others with him, but this was his first time sending someone or something through without him. He was glad to see it succeed, even if the criminal emerged several meters away from where he'd intended. Refinement would come with time and practice, as always.
The next criminal rushed him with a knife that seemed to blur and warp as it moved, shifting between one knife and two. Getting a sudden idea, Oni focused on it and had it sinking into the darkness in the middle of the room. The woman, unable to stop herself, followed it through, though she was out cold before she was even halfway through.
The third, having witnessed two of his allies disappear entirely in just a few seconds, slid to a stop, or tried to. Oni darted forwards before he could react, grabbed his arm and the back of his shirt, and spun around and tossed him towards a wall. As with the others, this one was unconscious before he sank into the shadows.
Four criminals left. Oni darted forwards once more, planting a foot on the chest of number four, and sending him flying. He sank into the shadows as well but instead of emerging outside with the others, he reappeared out of thin air right next to number five, colliding with him and knocking both out cold. Oni gave them both a pulse with 'Conqueror' just to be sure then dropped them both through the shadows to join the others.
For the last two, Oni teleported right between them, hooking an arm around their shoulders and pulling them close, resulting in absolutely skyrocketing fear in both.
"So, where would you two like to go?" He asked, shaking them both gently.
"W-what?" One of them found the courage to ask.
"Well, so far I've just been sending all of you to the middle of the arctic circle. Some of them have probably already frozen to death. But I'm feeling a bit merciful, so I'll let you two choose your destinations. Now, the options are: arctic circle like the rest of them, the middle of the Sahara Desert, the middle of the ocean, Point Nemo to be specific, or about thirty-thousand feet over the Rocky Mountains in America. I'll let you take your pick."
"Oh!" He continued, startling them both. "I've never tried it before, but I bet I could even get up into space with this. So how about it? Feel like going to the moon? I'm sure it'd be a lovely view for a few seconds before your eyes start to boil in your skull."
The criminal to his right reached his limit and passed out, getting a laugh out of Oni. "Well, I guess it's Sahara Desert for him. With the winds and shifting sands, he'll be buried in a few hours and no one will find the body for anywhere from a few decades to a few centuries."
A quick pulse from 'Conqueror' and the man was outside with the rest, leaving just Oni and the criminal who was just barely holding onto consciousness.
"So now it's just you." He said, shaking him again. "Whad'ya say? What kind of sightseeing are you in the mood for?"
The man just sat there panicking and almost hyperventilating for several long seconds. Then, showing resolve and courage that Oni didn't think was possible for weak little insects like this, he gulped and said "Sahara."
"Oho, smart choice." Oni said. "Highest chance of survival by far."
He patted the man's shoulder. "Off you go then."
A second later he was sent to the others right outside the building.
Oni sighed as he moved towards the door. This was going quite well. Now what other games should he play?
Oni whistled as he walked, almost skipped down the hallway. The sharp noise echoed through the darkness, and when there had still been criminals to hear it, it had sparked fear in them.
In his hands sat the glaive he'd purchased from Mayeda all those months ago, that he'd barely used since but for short stints. The blade, strengthened by 'Reinforce' carved a thin trench through the concrete wall next to him, the sound of it joining his whistling. The hallway behind him was littered with discarded limbs and slowly pooling blood. There weren't, however, any corpses.
One notable benefit to becoming more familiar with Shadow's quirk, was that he didn't need to worry about administering first aid himself. He no longer needed to worry about the potential lethality of lopping off limbs and slicing through flesh. Now whenever he did such things, he could just drop the criminal right into a hospital directly and let them clean up the mess. Sure, doing that presented the minor issue of cutting the police out of the equation, as instead of being arrested and then taken to the hospital, they were just being administered into the hospital's emergency care. But really, Oni wasn't overly concerned. For one, everyone he sent there was now missing at least one limb. Aside from the weeks of recovery time, he didn't imagine that many of them would be too eager—or even capable, in the case of those who were missing legs—to return to crime. And then there was the fact that the Triad could very well have spread its roots into the police departments in the area, so arresting members of the Triad wasn't a sure thing.
And sure, he could send Triad members to Musutafu to be arrested, but he didn't feel like going through the effort of sending them to a completely different city just to arrest them. And as much as he enjoyed irritating Tsukauchi, there were limits to how far he wanted to take things.
But all of that was beside the point. The point was that Oni was having the time of his life mutilating criminals, and glad to have the freedom to do so without having to worry about killing them.
Oni stopped his whistling as, at long last, he finally made it to the final person still conscious in this hideout, sitting just on the other side of the door Oni now found himself next to.
After a quick crack of his neck, Oni slammed the butt of his glaive against the door, shattering it. He wasted no time, darting through the wooden shrapnel and straight for the man inside. He spun the glaive around and drove it right through the man's shoulder, following through to pin him against the wall behind. His smile stretched wide at the pained scream that rang through the room.
"Aw what's the matter? You act like you've never been stabbed before."
Oni backhanded the man, hard enough to knock out a tooth, and remove the glasses the criminal was wearing. It shut him up.
"C'mon," Oni slapped him again, front hand this time, and a bit softer, "eyes up. Stop whining. I've got places to be and you've got questions to answer."
"O-Oni." The man grunted through the pain and fear, looking up at him. "What do you want?"
"Oh how nice of you to ask. The rest of the animals here just attacked me on sight. No manners at all. Honestly, what sort of operation are you even running here where your followers have no concept of basic politeness."
Oni's grin turned sharp, and he put a little weight on the glaive, causing it to shift around which, with the blade still in the man's shoulder, had him groaning.
"I'm looking for your boss, or whoever you report to. Whoever it is who's receiving target intel from informants and telling you to go retrieve them."
"I-. I don't know what you're talking about."
Oni tilted his head. "You sure that's the approach you want to take? You sure you want to lie to the guy who just impaled you and who obviously knows that you know about what he's asking you? You maybe want to change your mind before said guy decides to start plucking your fingernails off?"
The man was trembling now, though whether it was from the pain, the fear at Oni's threat, or the fear of punishment from whoever was above him, Oni couldn't say.
"I can't… I can't tell you. They-. They'll kill me!"
"And what a terrible loss that would be." Oni responded, pouring as much sarcasm into those words as he physically could. "Oh how the world would mourn the loss of the little insect who isn't even worth the air it takes to speak his name."
Oni pulled on his scaled claw quirk, and placed a claw against the man's uninjured shoulder, with just enough weight to carry the unspoken threat.
"It looks like you'll just have to decide what you fear more, them or me. Because maybe they'll kill you, maybe they won't. But what I can promise you is that I won't kill you, and I can promise you that that's worse. You and I will get to know each other very well, and we'll both get to see what the limits of your mind and body are, and in the end, I'll leave here with what I want, and you'll be left here broken and bloody but still very much alive for them to maybe kill you later."
"So what'll it be?" Oni asked, leaning in closer, pressing harder with his claw and piercing the skin. "Would you like to give me what I want and maybe die later? Or would you prefer to withhold it and definitely suffer now? And just so you have a clear idea of what will happen to you, no matter how long it takes for you to break and give in, I will be removing your arms and legs before I leave. I will ensure that, even if they don't kill you, you will never again be able to walk, or feed yourself, or even wipe your own ass."
Oni brought the rest of his fingers down, pressing against his shoulder. "You have ten seconds to make a decision before I make it for you."
There were tears streaming down the man's face, and dread was rolling off of him in waves, palpable even without 'Observation.'
"Shibuya!" The man yelled after a second. "He's in Shibuya. Shuji Yashida. He directs most of the activity in central Japan. The hideout is disguised as a private emergency clinic, but it's a front. It's all Triad."
He slumped, fear turning to hopelessness and tears still rolling down his face. "Please. That's all I know."
Oni blinked, and then had the sudden desire to slap himself. Because he knew the location that the man was talking about. Even without hearing the address from him he already knew the fake clinic.
It was the location that Shadow had tracked down. The one he'd presumably attacked when he'd been caught and turned into a Noumu.
Screw slapping himself, Oni wanted to drive his head right into the concrete wall next to him, for all the good it would do him.
He'd been deliberately holding off on attacking the clinic, as this was the closest link he was aware of to All For One himself, and wasn't quite sure if he could match up to the villain yet. He'd wanted to be sure that he wasn't marching into the same fate as Shadow. But to think that all this time he'd actually known the location of the man responsible for hurting Iona.
Oni growled, tearing the glaive out of the wall and out of the criminal, slicing it through the air to dislodge the blood before storing it back into 'Hotbar.' A snap of his fingers and a pulse of 'Conqueror' and the criminal was deposited on the floor of the Musutafu General Hospital.
He was holding off, but no longer. All For One or no, he would not be letting this opportunity go. He'd set out to right some of the wrongs against Iona—only some, because nothing he could do would make up for her lost parents—and would see it through, but it wasn't just about that anymore. This was about Shadow now, too. He hadn't yet extracted his pound of flesh for that violation—he didn't count his rampage the night after the Hosu disaster—and it was long overdue.
With one last cursory glance through the underground hideout to make sure he hadn't missed anything, he sank into the shadows once more. When he reemerged, it was on the street directly in front of the clinic. A car honked at him, swerving to avoid slamming into him, but he paid it no mind, for what he saw inside the clinic had immediately captured all of his attention.
He found Shuji Yashida all right, but it was the figure next to him that really interested Oni; the one that wasn't so much a figure as he was a swirling cloud of purple smoke.
Kurogiri.
Well now, this was quite the development, wasn't it?
Kurogiri was in the same room as Yashida, the only part of him visible being his glowing eyes in a tiny cloud of smoke. Yashida was talking to him, and from the looks of things seemed to be quite panicked. Oni could certainly feel the fear rolling off of him.
Interesting, had he perhaps somehow learned that Oni was pursuing him? It would explain the fear and panic; there were few people who could afford to notbe scared upon learning that Oni was after them. Maybe he'd heard of Tsujii's acquisition being interrupted, or had some way to monitor Shimamoto and knew that Oni had questioned him.
Looking a bit closer, Oni read Yashida's lips.
"-not understanding me! He's coming for me! He has to be! You know what he does to us, you have to get me out of here!"
He couldn't see Kurogiri's response—a lack of lips made lip-reading rather difficult—but Yashida clearly didn't take it well. His fear skyrocketed.
"What do you mean!? I've done everything you asked! I've been doing my job and doing it well for years! You can't just hang me out to dry like this! Please!"
Another pause for Kurogiri to respond.
"That was a fluke, and almost purely because of the very problem currently on his way here! So what if that other shithead found us? We took care of him, and you got a new pet out of it. You-."
And that was where Oni decided Yashida was no longer allowed to speak.
He poured focus into 'Conqueror,' letting it build pressure. As soon as it peaked, he unleashed a shockwave that consumed the building. Every piece of glass shattered, and every criminal dropped, with the exception of Kurogiri.
Dropping into the shadows at his feet, Oni emerged right in front of Kurogiri.
"Kurogiri." Oni greeted with a smile, leaning back on the desk that Yashida was now slumped over. "What a pleasure to see you again. How's things? Still being a piece of shit? Still hanging around All For One and the man-child?"
"Oni…" Kurogiri growled, a surprising amount of venom in that one single word. "I see you're being a nuisance as usual. It would seem that this one," his glowing eyes didn't move, but Oni could almost feel his gaze shift to Yashida, "wasn't simply wasting my time."
"I do aim to please. But honestly, any opportunity to inconvenience you and the rest of the League of Astounding Assholes is a privilege."
"Say," Oni continued, "How would you feel about portaling me over to that bar again for another round of Shigaraki attempting to persuade me into joining his cause? I promise to be on my absolute best behavior this time. I will absolutely refrain from eviscerating him the moment I see him."
The blob of purple smoke shifted, and Oni got the impression of Kurogiri standing up straight.
"Be warned. He has taken notice of your continued attempts to interfere with his operations. You try his patience. If you continue, we will take action against you."
"Is that a promise? Because I have no intention of stopping, so…"
Oni stood up, tucked his shirt and vest into Hotbar, quickly followed by his mask, and transformed his upper body. A second pair of arms sprouted, and all four grew scales, his head became draconic, scales sprouted all across his torso, and spikes sprouted along his spine. The whole process took less than two seconds.
He held his arms out to the sides, and let loose with 'Conqueror.'
"Here I am." He taunted. "And here you are. If you want to stop me so badly, this is your chance. Let's have some fun."
If Kurogiri felt anything at Oni's display, he didn't show it. Oni couldn't even feel anything from him with 'Observation,' though that might just be because it couldn't receive input through Kurogiri's portals, which is where the metal container housing his true self would be.
"Rest assured." Kurogiri said. "Your time will come. But in the meantime, he has a gift for you."
Another cloud grew into existence, growing large enough that Oni could've jumped through it if he wanted to. From it dropped a purple figure that he recognized instantly. It was a bit different than the ones he fought before; a bit leaner, and missing the exposed brain, but it was still obvious what it was.
"Another Noumu?" Oni questioned, skeptical. "Hopefully it's more impressive than what you had back in Hosu."
In the back of his mind, he connected Kurogiri's words to the appearance of the Noumu and didn't particularly like his referring to it as a gift. Did he mean the quirks, or did he mean the fight?
"I believe you'll find this one to be more interesting than the fodder before. Your interference has prompted us to accelerate certain timetables. This Noumu, and the others like it, we have taken to calling the Near High-End."
Hearing its name, the Noumu looked up at Oni, and he felt a jolt run through him as their eyes met. His lips pulled back in the best smile he could manage, even as a slight tingling sensation started creeping up his fingers.
There was intelligence behind those eyes. Basic, rudimentary, animalistic intelligence, but compared to the braindead Noumu he'd fought before, this one might as well be a genius.
More than that, it was triggering a similar response as the USJ Noumu. It wasn't as intense, but Oni was feeling fear. This one was less than half the size of the USJ Noumu, wasn't even as tall as Oni, and with how skinny it was and the way it was slightly hunched over, it looked downright frail. But despite that, Oni could feel the power rolling off its tiny frame. It might not be as physically imposing, but Oni had no doubt that this one could've torn the USJ Noumu in half.
Oh, this was sure to be interesting.
Keeping most of his focus on the Noumu, Oni used the shadows to send Yashida to Shadow's basement. Interesting new developments and exciting upcoming fights aside, he wouldn't be letting the man escape what was coming to him.
"Ragdoll." Kurogiri said, prompting a low growl from the Noumu. "Kill him."
There was an explosion and suddenly Oni had two fists trapped in his hands. He startled at the speed of the attack. It was mostly instinct that had him catching it.
He braced as the Noumu, Ragdoll apparently, struggled to free itself. The room shook under the tremendous force, and cracks spiderwebbed across the floor. Another surprise. The strength it possessed, while not overpowering, was more than he'd expected.
His grimace/almost smile stretched wider. "Well now, this is sure to be fun. Do tell him that I appreciate this gift. Though I'd appreciate it more if the next one could be delivered in person. Now, if you'll excuse me, I intend to enjoy this to the fullest, and to do that I think we'll need a bit more space to play."
He spared a glance and a middle finger at Kurogiri. "Until next time."
With that, he sank into the shadows, dragging the Noumu with him. An instant later they dropped onto the sands of Dagobah. Oni released the Noumu's fists and it immediately broke away and put distance between them.
They simply stared each other down for several long moments, and oh how Oni loved the tension in the air, the slight instinctual fear that still raced through him, despite having all of his enhancers active. He'd be putting some proper thought into the situation and the implications when this was over, when cooler heads could prevail, but in the meantime maybe he could actually treat this as a gift.
"He called the Noumu Ragdoll." Tamako chimed in. "Do you think this is the hero?"
'Doubtful. There are recent news reports featuring the Pussycats, and none that mention the disappearance of Ragdoll. Unless the process to turn someone into a Noumu is ridiculously fast, it's probably just a coincidence.'
'Now just sit back and enjoy the show, Tamako. This is something I've been waiting for an opportunity to try out.'
'Weapon Mastery' was a great quirk. The way it made handling weapons as easy as breathing, even if he'd never touched the particular weapon before, was quite fun, and the theories that it stirred up as to how it actually achieved the effect scratched Oni's analysis itch. Definitely in the upper tiers of his quirks.
But somewhat recently Oni had gotten an idea regarding the quirk. He'd wondered in the past just what could be considered a weapon for the quirk's function, and had confirmed that things such as claws granted by other quirks did indeed count as weapons. But what about his body as a whole?
Certainly, with his physical abilities and raw combat potential, it wasn't a stretch in any way to consider his body a weapon, but could he go that far with the quirk?
As he activated the quirk now and felt himself drop into a ready stance, all four arms held out in front of him, as naturally as if he'd done it himself, he found that, yes indeed, he absolutely could go that far with the quirk.
"Oh. This is going to be so much fun." He whispered to himself. "Do try your best to entertain me as long as you can."
Apparently deciding that it had waited long enough, the Noumu charged forward, silent but for the soft explosion of sand as it kicked off. Another difference between it and the other Noumu, this one wasn't screeching its head off like a mindless beast.
It threw a punch aimed at Oni's head, and Oni neatly turned out of its path, moving only as far as necessary to avoid the hit; the punch passed a hairsbreadth in front of his nose. At the same time, his two left hands came up to uppercut the Noumu. The resulting shockwave tore across the beach, displacing sand, but the Noumu didn't go flying as it should have.
'Shock Absorption.' He noted.
Bringing his right hands around, he struck the Noumu in the chest, putting more force into this one. This time it did go flying. Not as far as it should have, but enough to create some distance, and enough to confirm that this new instance of 'Shock Absorption' was about as powerful as his was.
The Noumu corrected itself midair, and as soon as it touched down there was another explosion of sand and Oni found himself startled for the second time in one day when it came at him faster than before. This time the fist hit him, overpowering his shock absorption and knocking him back several feet.
Oni twisted in midair to dodge the follow up attack, catching the Noumu by the neck and slamming it into the ground, before planting another punch into its torso. His fists were drawn back for another hit when the Noumu vanished from under him.
Startling him once more—he was going for a personal record at this rate—the Noumu appeared right behind him, already drawing its fist back to hit him.
He used his flight quirk to shift to the side to dodge, then spun around and delivered a lariat to the Noumu's neck. Before it could retaliate or teleport again, he planted another double punch to the side of its head, sending it flying towards the water.
It twisted in midair again, and Oni had just enough time to register that it wasn't trying to right itself to land and launch towards him before it was popping into existence right next to him, hitting him and sending him flying.
"Wait. Isn't that-?"
'Yes.' Oni cut them off, already righting himself and spinning to avoid the oncoming blow, throwing a counter punch only for it to disappear and end up behind him, throwing another punch.
'It's the same quirk.'
Shadow's quirk. Somehow the Noumu had Shadow's quirk and was using it in the fight to great effect. Either All For One had found another quirk that was nearly identical, or it was possible to somehow duplicate a quirk. Was it a difference in All For One's variant of the quirk? Could he give a quirk to multiple people once he had it? Or was it something else at play? If nothing else, this explained why so many Noumu had similar exceptionally powerful enhancers and regeneration quirks.
Oni sighed internally, both at the new information to consider and at the damper to his excitement.
The Noumu charged at him again, and Oni caught its hands in his own. Oni's lips pulled back in another grim smile as they grappled against each other, the world around them seeming to tremble at the force of it. Strength, speed, and durability great enough to rival his own, presumably a regenerator buried in there somewhere, and then the ability to teleport. All For One had definitely upped the ante with this one, and Oni was all for it, especially since he would end up with a significant boost to his abilities when this was all over.
"Well, I feel like that was a good enough warmup. What do you say we dial things up a notch?"
Oni brought his free hands forward to smack the Noumu's chest, with enough force to send it flying, had he not kept his grip on its hands. Spinning around, he flung it down the beach. He didn't let it get far though, or give it a chance to recover. He sunk into the shadows and emerged right in its path, raising his arms to clothesline it, sending it tumbling across the sand.
This time it managed to move before he could follow up. Not even bothering to right itself it teleported next to him, making use of its wild spin to swing a leg at him. Oni countered with a teleportation of his own, putting him right behind it and just above. He swung downwards with his two right fists, planting it into the sand. He spun in midair, aiming to drive it further into the ground with a kick when he was hit with surprise number four.
With his foot inches away from the Noumu, his body suddenly slowed, feeling like he was moving through liquid. The Noumu teleported again, and landed a punch to Oni's gut, following up with another to his side that managed to hit significantly harder, and that sent him flying.
He impacted the concrete wall that separated the beach from the adjacent road, shattering a good portion of it. He dedicated some of his focus to figuring out what just happened as he moved through the shadows, catching the Noumu from where it had been chasing after him and throwing it towards the ocean.
'Observation one.' He thought. 'It has another quirk. One that can slow my body. It had no effect on my mind, but it seemed to cut the speed of my movement in half. That should be fun to deal with.'
Relying mostly on instinct, he spun around as the Noumu flew away, guessing when and where it would teleport. His fists impacted its gut, only slightly left of where he'd intended. His free hands grabbed the back of its head and brought it down to meet his knee, before planting a foot in its chest to send it flying.
'Observation two. Possible limit on how often the quirk can be used. Possible recharge time. Further testing required. Observation three. It was either hiding its true strength or it has another quirk. That last hit shattered most of the ribs on my right side. It was on the second hit in a row, so a potential combo quirk? An increase to strength with each successive hit? More testing required.'
The Noumu moved through the shadows to get back to him again, already throwing a punch. This time Oni let it hit him, paying close attention to the force of the impact. The first hit impacted his chest, just powerful enough to overpower 'Shock Absorption.' The second hit his right side, and he watched as the impact shattered his ribs just as before. Then for the third hit he brought his left arms up to block and found himself surprised when both were torn away with an explosive shockwave that sent him rocketing down the beach.
"Yep." He grunted through gritted teeth, even as his arms were regrowing and the Noumu was chasing after him. "Definitely right on that one."
He halted his momentum with his flight quirk, stopping in midair. Spinning around, he planted a foot into the Noumu's side, sending it right into the ground. Spinning again, he went to follow through with a punch, when he felt himself slow again.
This time he was ready for it. When the Noumu twisted around his punch and threw one of its own, he used his flight quirk to force his body to move, not bothering to restrict the speed. It was slower than it should've been—considerably so as his organs weren't turned into soup—but more than enough to move him out of the Noumu's path.
When the slowing affect didn't cease, he poured more focus into the flight quirk to control his movements with more precision. Moving his arm out to the side, he accelerated towards the Noumu and delivered another lariat to its chest, sending it towards the water again. This time the effect disappeared.
'Three seconds between uses. Possible limit.'
'Observation four. The slowing effect is most likely reliant upon visual contact. The effect only ceased when eye contact was broken.'
The Noumu appeared right in front of him, and he swung a fist to counter the one it threw, only for it to disappear and that thrown fist to hit him in the back.
'Observation five.' He thought as he flew, already twisting to right himself. 'This Noumu might be a bit smarter than originally thought. It's hiding its strength and quirks, and revealing them to score a greater hit. It also has the ability to feint. Both of which means it can plan ahead and think deceptively.'
He smiled as he ducked below the Noumu's kick. A Noumu that was matching him in a fight, that could think on top of that? More fun for him.
Reaching up, he latched onto the Noumu's leg, swinging it around and over his head, and then down into the sand with an impact that shook the ground. Not giving it an instant to rest, he swung it back up into the air and threw it straight up. He then teleported right into its path and threw a punch that sent it right back down into the ground.
He followed it up with a stomp, intending to plant his foot straight through the Noumu's torso, but this time it managed to recover. It teleported to a standing position and tried to grab his leg right as he was coming down. Was it trying to copy what he'd done? Perhaps there was enough intelligence in there for it to hold a grudge?
Oni teleported away, emerging right next to it and throwing a punch that would send it flying into the concrete barrier, just as it had done to him. But at the last second, just as it was twisting to counter, he teleported again and hit it from the opposite side.
'Yeah, you're not the only one who can feint.'
Teleporting once again, right into its path, he caught it by the back of the neck and planted it into the sand. As expected, it teleported out of the way when he went to follow through. He twisted to intercept its punch with one of its own, then as they went to do it again, his body slowed just before their fists were about to connect. It twisted around his punch and hit him in the chest, the impact hitting hard enough that it felt as though his heart exploded—his ability to check with 'All Sight' confirmed that it hadn't really. He used his flight quirk to dodge the third and to break line-of-sight, but it teleported right to him, planting another fist right into his gut.
An instant later he was moving through the shadows to create distance. Ignoring his now-soupy organs and the significant chunk of flesh that had been torn from his back with that shockwave, he stared down the Noumu as it immediately chased after him. Waiting just long enough for his regeneration quirks to start piecing him back together, he rushed forwards to meet it. Their hands latched together in another vicious grapple, shaking the world around them.
Stepping into it, Oni headbutted the Noumu with a force that displaced the sand below them. Then, bracing himself, he twisted his arms, spinning the Noumu in midair, before jumping up and delivering a kick that drove it down into the sand. It teleported before it could impact the ground and countered with its own kick that sent Oni flying.
Righting himself with his flight quirk, Oni launched back towards it, a smile stretching across his face.
Oni slowly lost himself to the fight. Time blurred and became meaningless in the adrenaline-fueled haze that he gladly surrendered himself to. He and the Noumu could've been fighting for seconds or minutes or even hours. It was impossible to tell, even more so with how skewed his sense of time already was with his processing speed.
Eventually he became aware of a deep aching throughout his body. Hundreds or perhaps even thousands of hits taken and dealt out in return, his shock absorption being overpowered over and over again and his regeneration quirks being forced to keep him whole almost constantly and his body was starting to wear, to the point that he could feel it through the haze.
After a particularly harsh three-hit combo that hit him right in the chest, hard enough that his heart exploded—actually exploded this time—along with his lungs, Oni began to consider actually ending the fight. Another few dozen attacks traded between them and decided to do just that.
Launching forwards to meet it for another grapple, Oni dropped his claw quirk an instant before they made contact, and went to take the Noumu's quirks—or perhaps just one, to draw the fight out a bit more, he'd decide when he could see what it had—as soon as they met, but instead of the cluster of quirks he'd been expecting, he found surprise number five.
He couldn't feel any quirks. No heat, no flame coursing through the Noumu, just waiting for him to take it into himself, nothing.
His eyebrows drew together as he thought, even as he and the Noumu struggled against each other. With the number of quirks the Noumu was sure to have and with how powerful they obviously were, there's no way he could be missing them—not that that was a possibility to begin with. Someone could have the weakest, most innocuous quirk in existence and he would be able to feel it the instant he made contact just like any other quirk. This also wasn't the case of a transformation or mutation of the flesh that blocked his quirk. He'd encountered those before, and knew what it felt like, and this wasn't that.
So, possibility one: Somewhere in the cluster of quirks stuffed into the Noumu's body was one that could interfere with the function of his. With All For One having another instance of the quirk, and knowing how it worked—assuming their quirks were even similar at all in how they stole quirks, and assuming that he even knew that Oni had the quirk to begin with—it wasn't impossible.
Possibility two: The Noumu wasn't alive, or otherwise wasn't a normal living being, to the extent that Noumu could even be considered such to begin with.
His eyes narrowed at the Noumu. He'd yet to actually damage it enough to see its regeneration in action, assuming it had one. It was just a hunch, but he wanted to see what happened if he dealt it significant damage.
Using his flight quirk, Oni accelerated his body straight into the Noumu, throwing it back. Teleporting into its path, he grabbed one of its arms and planted his foot on its neck, before tearing the limb loose. Dodging its wild counter swing, he teleported away, creating distance.
The Noumu righted itself, and as it launched back towards him Oni could see where its arm was regrowing. However…
Looking down at the arm that was still in his hand, he watched as it seemed to liquefy. Dark purple/black flesh became brown sludge that dripped down into the sand below.
So, living or not, clearly its body wasn't normal. It might be like Kurogiri; real body tucked away somewhere while the rest of it was made of something else.
The only problem with that theory, however, was that he could inspect its body with 'All Sight.' To the extent that he could see, its body looked normal. Its skeleton and musculature was slightly deformed, probably from whatever process that turned it into a Noumu to begin with, and its brain was perhaps slightly smaller than it ought to be, but everything else was as it should be. It still had all its organs, and they all looked normal, down to the smallest level that 'All Sight' was capable of observing.
In addition to that, he could see no sign of a potential "real body." Kurogiri could keep his real body hidden with his portals. Hell, with a quirk like that, he could be in a dozen places simultaneously. But he'd seen no sign of a similar quirk with this one. It certainly couldn't be using Shadow's quirk to achieve that effect. That quirk couldn't be used for a partial teleport—keeping part of the body in one spot, while the rest was elsewhere—it was all or nothing.
So, not likely to be a Kurogiri situation, but he had a feeling he knew what was actually happening. The only downside was that testing this theory meant ending the fight.
With a resigned sigh, Oni held out his right arms, and used his flight quirk to accelerate towards the Noumu again. This time he didn't just not limit it, he actively pushed the quirk to go faster.
His hearing immediately cut out with a massive explosion. And his arms were torn from his body with the lariat to the Noumu's chest.
Coming to a stop some distance past it, he turned to see the Noumu's bottom half frozen where it had been when he hit. It was already starting to liquefy. The top half was already brown sludge scattered across the sand.
Oni grimaced. A clone. He knew because he recognized this quirk, or at least one that bore striking resemblance. He had an analysis request come through a few years ago for a cloning quirk. The clones were created from a brown sludge-like substance produced by the user, and were reduced to that same substance when destroyed. It would seem that All For One managed to get his hands on the quirk at some point.
He sighed. At the further complication, the loss of his fun fight, and at the presence of his spectator.
Moving through the shadows, he appeared right next to Eraserhead, who was about to jump over the concrete barrier onto the beach. He'd arrived a few minutes ago, and had wisely kept well clear of the fight.
"Hello Eraser." He greeted, leaning forwards to rest his arms on the barrier. "Enjoy the show?"
The man was quick to shake away his slight shock at Oni's appearance.
"Oni." He greeted, as gruff as ever. "The precinct's been getting noise complaints for a while now. Tsukauchi figured out that it was you causing the disturbance and sent me instead of an officer."
He gestured out at the torn-up beach and the destroyed section of the barrier a short distance away. "Care to explain?"
"I had a chance encounter with Kurogiri tonight," Oni answered, "while following a particular trail of criminals. This fight was a gift from his boss, though I suspect it was actually just them testing the effectiveness of this line of Noumu."
"The League of Villains? So they're making more of these things… and making them stronger if that fight was any indication. Just what were you poking around in to run into them?"
"Just a particularly pervasive criminal organization. There was a very specific individual who I needed to find. Someone who caught my attention in the way you really don't want to; the 'someone is going to lose a few limbs tonight' kind of way. I left quite the mess a few cities over getting to him."
"Anyways." He continued before Eraser could say anything to that. He could feel the mild concern in the man. "As it turns out, my target had a link to the League, and happened to be meeting with Kurogiri when I caught him. Kurogiri and I threatened each other a bit, then he dropped the Noumu on me, and now here we are."
"Speaking of which." Oni stood up straight, stretching his arms over his head. "I still need to punish my target. I had to drop him elsewhere while I dealt with this."
"Oni wait." Eraser said. "This organization you were talking about, can you let me in on them? If they have ties to the League of Villains, that's something we have to know. After their attack on Yueii, and then on Hosu, we've been trying to find them. Anything you can give us would help."
Well, on the list of things Oni wanted to do, that right there was towards the bottom. He absolutely did not want Eraser, Tsukauchi, or any of the other heroes or police they would call to be getting involved with the Triad. If the League, and the Triad by extension, possessed Noumu like the one he fought tonight, then few would be able to challenge them. He had no intention of letting anyone else meet the same fate as Shadow, certainly not by his own hand, and certainly not anyone he actually cared for like Eraser.
So no. Oni wouldn't be telling him anything. In fact, he was a second away from teleporting away without another word when he got an idea.
Maybe it was the adrenaline still coursing through his body, making him giddy, or maybe it was just that he hadn't seen Eraser in a few days. Whatever the reason was, Oni felt like messing with Eraser a little bit. And in a way that he normally wouldn't consider, because it would mean showing another ability that he had no reason to reveal. But he was still riding the high from his fight. So, following the split-second urge and not letting silly things like common sense or rational thought hold him back, he waved his hand, activating his illusion quirk.
"Sure, Eraser. But before we do that, could you do me a quick favor and check your hand?"
After a split second of confusion, Eraser complied, raising his hand to look and freezing when he saw the miniature Oni standing on his palm. It did a little jig to some music that Oni tweaked to sound like it was coming from off in the distance, finishing it off with four middle fingers raised up at him.
Oni waited long enough for Eraser's confusion to turn into that particular kind of exhaustion that only came from dealing with Oni, before activating 'Ghost' and slipping into the shadows, the defeated look on Eraser's face committed to memory.
When Yashida finally woke up, it was to find himself pinned to the floor of Shadow's basement, his arms, legs, neck, and waist pinned to the concrete floor by pieces of bent rebar. Oni would have to repair the holes later, but it was well worth it considering what was about to happen.
He waited until the man was fully awake and aware before dropping his hold on 'Ghost' and revealing himself. Yashida's eyes locked onto him immediately.
"Oni." He started, keeping surprisingly cool. "Where am I?"
"The house of one of the many people you've hurt. Specifically, the house of the man you earlier referred to as 'that other shithead.'"
Yashida's brows scrunched together for a moment. "Wha-. That other vigilante? Shade, or whatever his name was?"
"Shadow." Oni corrected, ice in his voice. "A few months ago he attacked your clinic and ended up being turned into a Noumu. That's the first of the two sins I'll be punishing you for."
"P-punishing?"
"Yes. Punishing. But first, tell me, Yashida. Does the name Iona Kateyama mean anything to you? Does it ring any bells?"
He felt confusion from the man. "What? No, why would-." And then realization. "Yes. I remember. Sapient quirk. A priority target that failed. It was the first instance of contact between you and the Triad."
"Very good." Oni drawled, false enthusiasm dripping off his words. "At least now you'll understand the reason why I'll be doing what I'm about to."
He took a step forward and increased the output of 'Conqueror' until sweat began to bead on Yashida's forehead. "Because of you, Iona lost her parents, was forced to watch them die in front of her, and was almost subjected to any number of horrors at the hands of the Triad. You stole something very dear from her, and very nearly managed to steal her childhood as well."
Oni turned away, tilting his head. "Now, I know that you are far from the only person responsible for what happened that night. Between you, Shimamoto who supplied the information, the collection team and the facility they were dispatched from, and many others all the way up to King Shit himself, All For One. Some of them have already paid, and some will pay the price as soon as I can get my hands on them, but you, Yashida, you will have the honor of temporarily shouldering all of the blame."
"You see, years ago, I established a precedent amongst the criminals of Musutafu. Do not come for where I make my home; do not threaten my family; do not disturb my peace. Violate these rules and I will end you and send a message to everyone else written in your blood."
He turned back to Yashida. "She might not have been my family at the time, but you threatened Iona. The violation of that rule carries over now that she is. Now, there won't be any messages sent with this, but let me tell you, Yashida, I'm going to take so much pleasure in cutting you open."
There was a spike in Yashida's fear. "C-cut me o-. You're going to dissect me!?" He all but screeched.
Oni laughed. "Oh no, no of course not, don't be absurd."
He paused for a brief moment, letting it stretch out just long enough for the barest hints of relief to start blooming in Yashida.
"No. Dissection is the term used when a dead subject is cut open. What I'm about to do to you is called vivisection. You will be kept very much alive for this."
He smiled as he pulled on his metal claw quirk, letting the long, thin blades sprout from his fingertips.
He stepped forward. "Let us begin."
Yashida's screams started up before Oni's claws even made contact.