I'm exceedinglyrarely chilling in JaxWolf4's (Author of Nah, I'd Adapt) Discord Server. It's a chaotic lobotomy mess. Not for the faint of heart.
Here's the updated link (hopefully it works, thank you, LoserOfLife):
Disc: Cf3r7hqMf
-Story Start-
The darkened sky had begun to lighten up, the dark haze of clouds seeming just a smidgen clearer to the onlookers.
The beautiful dawn within Musutafu was accompanied by a much more dire strait.
Sirens blared in the distance, as Hero and Policemen alike scurried the main streets and alleyways.
And within one specific alleyway, not too far from one of the hospitals within Musutafu, walked a lanky man.
The sun had yet to rise enough to lighten the dark and dim alleyway, which smelled downright rotten and sewage-filled.
The man's 'walk', if it could even be called that, was of a steady, slow, almost crawlish pace.
Each of his steps was accompanied by an agonised groan and a deep exhale. The man's jaw appeared to be injured, as it hung loose, barely stitched and put together.
His maw opened with each periodic pained breath, revealing a mouthful of blood and a noticeable amount of missing teeth, and those that remained, yellowish and grimy, were either shattered or barely intact.
His posture was hunched back to the extreme, a lone hand holding his chest, keeping himself steady amid the crawl that imitated a walk.
The sirens were a blur, a distant murmur, a whisper against his ears as he walked.
The foul rotten odour, but a passing numb smell.
He didn't know where he was.
Had he been more mindful, more clear-minded, he would have easily discerned where he was - the Musutafu Ghetto.
But that didn't matter.
He escaped.
No, that didn't matter either.
What mattered was the drumming of his heart, that itch, that bloody itch.
That home. Those faces.
The walls of his head drummed with the force of a thousand drums, as if a sledgehammer had been pounding and pounding and pounding incessantly at them.
The pain.
The hatred.
The fury...
The sounds of footsteps went unnoticed by the absentminded escapee as a man approached from within the depths of the darkened alley, no electricity or lights running through that hopeless corner of Musutafu, except one broken lamp lighting up the lanky figure's rasp breaths.
A predatory smile, eager to have found easy, exploitable prey. "Hey! If you're marching on so confidently looking like that, you wouldn't mind doing a guy a favour and giving some change for food-"
His words were cut short by a sudden, manic scream, "ITTTT HURTTTTTTTTTTTTTTSSSSSSSSSSSSS!"
The lanky figure suddenly launched towards the gobsmacked man, who backpedalled with keen instincts, his eyes widening in genuine fear at the guttural roar of pure, vile, putrid hate that left the 'prey's bloodied lips.
The glee in those eyes was swiftly replaced with sheer terror as they met the manic, hateful red glint of the injured man. They met for only a second before the foolish robber's face disintegrated into dust.
The rest of his body dropped with an almost foreboding and audible thud below the injured man.
Yes, it was audible.
An almost momentary sigh of relief left his lips.
And it had just as quickly been replaced by that very same drumming, that very same itch. His heart was moments away from exploding.
"IT FUCKINGGGG HURTSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!" He screeched as he fell on the ground helplessly, barely on his knees, on top of the person he had just murdered.
His breaths quickened to the point of hyperventilation, as he held onto his jaw with a single hand whilst the other scratched at his neck.
Nay, it clawed at his neck.
He clawed.
He clawed.
He clawed.
He clawed.
He drew blood, which didn't matter.
He had to reach that itch, he had to-
"Look what those hypocritical Heroes did to you, Tomura." A sympathetic, almost bell-like tone revealed itself a short distance behind him.
It was soothing, it was insidious... and it was comfortably familiar.
The pounding lessened, but the itch, still there, had to be corrected.
The clawing resumed, and with them the steady, leisurely approach of footsteps seemed inaudible to the spiteful Tomura, his eyes tearing up and his breath still in a manic state of hyperventilation.
The footsteps ceased before him, as his eyes barely registered the strange hand appendage that slowly inched towards his face, eventually settling onto his broken visage tightly.
Slowly, the hyperventilation began to weaken with noticeable effect as Tomura's breath hitched.
"I went to great lengths to retrieve this, but you deserve this award for managing to escape on your own. It would have been a shame if I had to deal with it myself, getting up is quite an effort for a man of my condition."
Tomura, a note calmer now, the drumming weaker, the itch almost non-existent, had expressed his unadulterated fury:
"I'LL KILL THEM..." He growled, with a raspy voice, his words barely recognisable amid the jaw injury, his breathing hastening once more.
"Kill who?" The calm, almost insidious voice inquired, as it lowered itself to reveal to Tomura the familiar visage.
A masked man who exuded an almost disturbing, intrusive air about him.
Tomura's eyes narrowed as his mind ran at a thousand miles an hour, trying to force an image of who he wanted to kill. Who he hated.
Hazy memories.
Ah, it fucking hurts.
He was there, with Kurogiri, the Nomu and his army of fodder.
IT HURTSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
Not a sentence left his lips, and a sharp, too sharp a pain that lingered even to this moment took away his consciousness.
"ALL OF THEM!" He spat out, "EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE FUCKING CHILDREN! ALL MIGHT! ALL OF THEM!"
A placating hand nestled on his head, a familiar soothing sensation, "Yes! And you will! All Might," He said that with audible contempt, "and those nuisances will all be dust beneath your feet."
His tone softening even more, but keeping its almost slippery and venomous tint to it, "There's nothing wrong with making mistakes, Tomura. It's alright. You can simply try again; not everything goes as planned. Take this as a lesson-"
"WHAT LESSON, MASTER?! ALL MIGHT ISN'T DEAD!" The itch grew once more, but the hand that had stuck to his face seemed to do wonders.
"Yes, a shame we had lost the Nomu, but we have learned things of great value in its place. Now, let's get you back to safety and treat those wounds." He clicked his fingers, and a warp gate suddenly appeared, revealing the misty-figured Kurogiri.
"Kurogiri?" Tomura rasped out.
The eyes within the mist nodded, "The Master freed me with ease. They hadn't realised what had hit them." He explained in that usual baritone, lecturing and politely irritating tone.
Growling and wincing at the lingering pain, Tomura's eyes glared at the welcoming hand extended towards him by his Master.
The hesitation was only momentary, as he seized that hand with a four-fingered grab, pulling him up into a barely-qualifiable standing position.
No visible expression could be seen on the masked man, but the tone that left his lips was certainly accompanied by a smile. "Step forward, Tomura Shigaraki. The next time we strike, you will be far stronger and sufficiently prepared."
With hatred and barely subdued fury still oozing out of his injured figure, Tomura nodded and stepped towards the gate, with his Master following alongside him.
It closed, leaving but a corpse with a dusted head in a lonely, damp street in a new dawn.
But for All For One? He had a dear colleague and friend to check up on.
-------------------------------
A damp, metallic, spacious room.
What appeared like incubators, with things that appeared barely human, more mutant wrapped in liquid, different shapes, sizes, Quirks.
The electric hum of machinery permeated the eerily silent and grim room of steel and pipes.
A stout short man, his bald head and moustache the striking features, rummaged with noticeable panic across what appeared to be an old cartboard box.
Within it, a myriad of notebooks, old, weary and very outdated.
Arguments, Counterarguments, all to a specific theory, this man had preached his entire long life.
His expression was pale, sweaty and clearly uneasy; the frown on his lips was one of panic, genuine distraught.
A shiver went down his spine as he froze at the familiar voice calling out to him from behind. "Well, Doctor. Care to share what you have discovered?"
The short man slowly turned around to meet the face of the masked man standing with an almost patient air to him, yet the anxiety within the doctor seemed to only spike.
"The Nomu I had created... treated like a damn toy by your investment to defeat All Might was defeated." He spat out, his distaste at the idea of Tomura using his creations like that leaking out easily enough.
But it was as gone as soon as it appeared, "That much I could fathom. Yet it remains that neither Tomura nor Kurogiri had managed to escape. With you being called to investigate Nomu's condition, I would presume you are in a position to have some clearance to hear about the ongoings?"
The stout man shook his head, a grim line on his face. "They only called me in to check on my creation..."
"A shame, truly. In that case, I have to rely on our dear Aoyama-kun for information, but I wager he won't last long before exposure at Tomura's reckless haste. Shame indeed."
"Nevertheless, Doctor. I find the capture of those two peculiar. After our battle, All Might shouldn't be in the condition to capture Kurogiri before he creates a gate for their escape, let alone while exhausted following his fight with the Nomu. You have ingrained that condition well, had you not?" His voice was calm, measured and utterly unsurprised at the notion of All Might leaving triumphant against their plan to kill him.
Yet, something felt wrong to him; it couldn't have gone this wrong.
It was fortunate he could act fast before they discovered that he, All For One, was behind this attack; otherwise, retrieval of Kurogiri and Tomura would have been a much more... troublesome farce.
Something was unaccounted for.
At the very least, he hoped that Tomura's effort had managed to kill at least one student, wipe that arrogant, smug, pretentious smile off the Symbol of Peace's face.
The Doctor's frown deepened, turning downright grim, "I had ingrained that-"
Something All For One called out, "Is anything the matter, Doctor?" His voice probing, almost piercingly knowing, "You seem disturbed. It's okay, you can tell me."
Licking his lips nervously, the Doctor's lips parted, "The Nomu's Quirks had-" He paused, hesitating in his wording as he shook his head and quickly took out a copy of a diagnosis within his robe and handed it to the masked All For One, who had to utilise a Quirk to comprehend the writing.
"The Quirk Factors I had carved into the Nomu had been destroyed, even his original Quirk was destroyed." He rose up, his words careful and trepid, his finger pointing at an image of a disorderly, chaotic mess of what appeared to be random, chaotic particles. "The structure of the Factors had been sliced apart, collapsing the Factor itself. Nothing is left to take or work with."
All For One paused at that revelation, his sight focusing on that very drawing.
He could not suppress the strange, uncomfortable, pervasive and overwhelming emotion coursing through his entire being.
He had never in his long life seen, let alone imagined, something so...
So...
"Revolting." His voice was low, dangerously low, and exuded bitter contempt.
The Doctor nodded eagerly, "Exactly!" His frustration and unease, but visible relief at the reaction of his master leaking out, he quickly moved to draw out one of those aged, dusty notebooks.
All For One appeared almost nostalgic, almost. "The counterarguments to The Quirk Singularity Theory?"
With a beligerent yet reluctant conceding tone, the Doctor nodded and elaborated. "Every one of those I had disproven, yet they kept not believing in empirical evidence and statistics!"
"One of the better ones that was a hard fight for me was this one..." He handed out the notebook to All For One, who seized the notebook with his other free hand.
"The Anti-Factor Phenomenon Argument."
The Doctor explained, "It supposes that the Quirk Singularity Theory is true. And to counteract it, a Quirk or multiple Quirks will be born to stop it. A natural predator of the Quirk, an antithesis of the Quirk. An Anti-Factor. The collective is termed as The Anti-Factor Phenomenon."
"Due to a lack of evidence, in contrast to my divine theory, it was easy to dispute. The only thing remotely coming close is Eraserheads' Erasure Quirk, but that simply affects the activation of a Quirk Factor. Nothing remotely close to damaging the metaphysical Quirk Factor, let alone destroying its very structure to make it useless."
All For One fitted the puzzle pieces easily. "You say this, Anti-Factor, is responsible?"
Clicking his tongue, the doctor gave a grave, reluctant nod. "Nothing else makes any sort of logical sense in all of my experience. This is an unprecedented first; nothing else remotely resembles it. You take Quirks, One For All transfers Quirks. Nothing damages or destroys them-"
"Except the Anti-Factor." All For One hummed in acknowledgement, "So you say that thing defeated the Nomu, and it was not All Might?"
The Doctor gestured lightly with his hand, "Turn to the next page." He then answered the question, "I don't know. I am not privy to that information; to them, I am but a Quirk Expert. It might be that they collaborated in the defeat, but what is guaranteed is that the Anti-Factor made contact with my creation, and that is a fact."
All For One did as suggested, and his hands trembled momentarily at the sight on the next page of the report.
The Nomu appeared like any regular corpse, not a single sign of the Doctor's handiwork whatsoever, except the exposed brain.
"A student, then?" All For One murmured, fitting the pieces together.
"Most likely. Quirk Singularity and the progression of Generations would certainly allow something like that to be born... but allowing is one thing, for it to appear..."
"Then it seems Aoyama-kun will be conversing with me sooner than anticipated."
"Anything on the prowess of the Anti Factor? If the Quirk Factor of it is to simply destroy other Quirks, then it should be weak in actual combat."
"Nothing, unfortunately."
"How disdainful. A Quirk that is better left eliminated rather than taken or left alone." All For One suppressed the urge to pinch his head at the potential catastrophe.
He'll have to kill the one who has that vile thing. But first, he'll need to figure out who and what he is dealing with. If it's weak, then he can have the thing eliminated quite easily.
Otherwise...
"One For All and the Anti-Factor within the same city, the same country. If it is weak, Doctor, would more with that kind of Factor be born, you suppose in your expertise?"
"If you eliminate it before it is allowed to breed, then it would lower the chances. But similar Quirks appear all the time. You simply have to overpower them all, Master."
"As is the case." He hummed, "Very well, be on stand by and continue your good work. If the circumstances prove to be as dire as they could be, be aware that there lies a possibility of needing to move your laboratory alongside Tomura to a different, more suitable location."
Sighing, the Doctor's eyebrows creased in frustration, but he nodded in understanding. "That possibility had weighed in my mind before."
"At ease, Doctor. In the worst case, there is nothing a good, convincing argument wouldn't do to push the Anti-Factor to our side, perhaps trap him. Continue your work, I will see to it that all alternatives are exhausted before that happens." He encouraged with one last, almost easygoing, jesting tone.
With that settled, a warp gate stretched open in front of All For One as he walked into it, "I'll be keeping this copy, and send me a digitised print of that counterargument as well." He ordered, leaving the Doctor once more alone in his laboratory and his creations.
He was rather fond of it; he'd prefer not to move, if possible - it would delay his work and trouble his routine.
And he loved his routine.
Kept him at his best.
"One For All and the Anti-Factor... Master has a point." He conceded the notion.
One For All grew with time, whilst his Master was already weak, and the same was the case with All Might.
Tomura Shigaraki is to be groomed as his Master's successor, and even with the growing state of One For All, his research will prove superior in their clash, of that he and his master held no doubt.
But the Anti-Factor?
Depending on what it was... this was no place to nurture a successor, nor nurture his research.
If it were as predatory as it was implied in the counter-argument, it could sniff Quirks out...
And that is a terrifying notion.
To Be Continued!
-Author Note Start-
Nothing much to say except this might be one of the, if not the most important, chapters in the fic for reasons that I hope came out as semi-obvious. Can't let his investments run dry and all.
Hope the order of events wasn't too confusing, but AFO basically rushed out to fix the mess before he could get any accurate information on WHAT happened rather than the result, etc...
You know, that people don't actually realise this is AFO and tightly secure the package (Shiggy and Kurogiri in Tartarus or smth).
Anywho, hope the chapter was enjoyable for y'all!
Love ya and bu bye!