"Hello listeners!" A hero, Present mic yelled out for the entire stadium to hear. "Can I have a hey!" he shouted.

Utter silence.

"Huh, tough crowd" he shrugged and scratched his head, not his problem that they acted deader than a cemetery.

"Now, you may ask 'hey, what's this practical exam going to be about?' Well, we have something special for all you listeners!" Present mic yelled in glee, using a small remote he switched the screen behind him to turn on.

The screen depicted 4 robot black figures, all of them looking like massive mechas. "So… the goal is torack up as many points as you can by destroying these robots. Some have 1 point, some have 3, and some have 2 points in them. It's indicated on the painted sigil by its side." He explained, and like lightning, someone raised their hand to ask a question, Present mic just huffed and gestured him to speak.

"Excuse me, but you have only stated 3 opponents, there are clearly 4 displayed on the screen, is it a mistake?" Contestant #122, a recommended student from Somei Academy, Present mic remembered.

"Ah yes, the zero pointer. This bad boy is mostly just used as an obstacle, I doubt you'd even see him." He shrugged off, the student gave a polite and rigid bow in acknowledgment.

"Thank you…" the contestant replied, his glasses glinting in irritation when his ears detected someone murmuring behind him. "Excuse me, but you've been muttering the entire program, if you are not serious, then please, leave this establishment."

Izuku winced, noticing the entire stadium and the people occupying it were looking at him now.

He swallowed a ball of nerves resting in his throat.

He was only reviewing his battle tactics.

Or, lack there of.

"Oi, that's enough. Get ready then head over to the busses by main building A" Present mic announced, making sure that the boy with glasses doesn't go into a full rant.

Izuku was sweating bullets.

His body shivering as the bus bumped up and down on the asphalt of the road.

He could barely keep his senses intact. He was surrounded.

His shoulder was touching with someone else since the bus was packed. He could feel them all.

All… all these quirks!

His eyes were in spirals, barely even managing to focus on the task at hand.

It was the U.A Entrance exam, specifically the practical portion.

He had already gone through the written portion with a few hiccups along the road.

Like almost tripping down the catwalk if it wasn't for a nice girl that managed to catch him with her quirk.

Or when he got told off by a blue-haired square man with glasses during the introduction for the practical portion of the test.

He wasn't being noisy, he was just trying to remember which quirk would be best to take down the numerous robots.

The bus stopped, Izuku and most of the passengers got pretty shaken up by the sudden stop.

There was a short walk, Izuku couldn't really focus with the buzz of noise that was all around him. He swallowed a large lump up spit and nervousness in his throat, he was absolutely intimidated when he saw the sheer scale of the test area.

It was large, larger than a football stadium if Izuku was being accurate. The gates could easily fit a small house within it.

He took his shaky steps while the arena buzzed with the noise of excited youngsters hoping to get into U.A

Izuku wasn't excited.

He was nervous, nervous like no other.

Sure, there were other hero schools like Somei Academy, Shiketsu High and others. But they don't come close to U.A in producing Heroes.

They don't go that extra mile to ensure everyone comes out of that school a certified and feared hero.

They don't go Plus Ultra.

"Start!" Present Mic, the Proctor and announcer yelled out unto the school's speakers.

There was a moment of silence… everyone just looked at the little window that Present Mic occupied with confused faces. They just got here.

"Well? There ain't no count down on a real fight. GO!" Present Mic added back to the confused teens.

Izuku blinked, and then looked around him. Everyone was gone!

He took on a sprint, taking in the fact that he was left to bite the dust while all the other examinees were already starting to rack up points for themselves.

Izuku ran, the dust trailing behind him as his desperate movements shot past the asphalt roads.

Izuku stopped, there was an ominous buzz around the corner.

A robot emerged, it's single red camera lese glowed a violent red as the large hunk of steel shot it's way towards Izuku.

The boy gasped, just taking in the fact that the robots looked extremely expensive. He didn't know if he was allowed to destroy them or not.

But he just assumed that those robots cost less than an entire mini-city replica.

Izuku grit his teeth, he decided that his most recent quirk should be appropriate for the situation.

His jumpsuit started to burn up, the tattoos on his arms and back glowed a hellish orange before he shot his hands forward.

'Steam Stream!' he screamed to himself, a reddish vortex of wind shot off his arms and slammed the robot against the wall of one of the buildings. Izuku wiped his brow free of sweat, he took another glance and noticed that the paint melted a bit after his attack. The red eye of the robot slowly died down, The boy gave a sigh of relief.

"Well… that's 3 points…" Izuku muttered to himself while he started to run off and find more robots. Izuku paused and stopped for a moment before continuing. He looked down and noticed that his shirt had been burnt along the back and his arms. Well… at least he still had some semblance of clothing.

Izuku shook his head and continued on.

Izuku wanted to become a hero.

More than anything.

He had to cleanse himself of his sins.

There was a room, several screens provided light for the dimly lit room.

"Look at that one, look at him grind through the dummies like they're nothing." a feminine voice spoke out, she pointed towards a screen which showed a blond boy with an explosion quirk blast himself through everyone else and down all the robots.

"He's too Violent…" another voice added, his bored tone evident through his voice. "Too excited to run into battle…"

"Ahh… we can probably fix that… right?" a chipper and cheerful voice interjected.

"I wouldn't bet on that…" the other bored voice responded.

"Enough you two, there are other contestants that require our attention" another voice, a bit more higher pitched intervened on the two arguing adults.

"Oh! Look at that one!" The female voice said. Their attentions were caught when one of the screens light a glorious shade of orange. It depicted a boy with messy green hair and red pupil filled eyes with burning tattoos around his arms and back. He had tears in his eyes while he gripped onto the arm that just shot off a stream of heated air against a 2-pointer Robot. His shirt was burnt into a black and gray crisp, it hanged off of his waist as his torso was left bare. Participant #132, some of the teachers remembered.

Strange boy.

He was registered as a quirkless kid.

"Wow… you'd think he'd take extra measures when using his quirk…" the Chipper and energetic voice commented. He noticed that the boy always had tears in his eyes whenever he used his quirk, possibly from the burning tattoos that covered his being.

"Another reckless child, like you, Hizashi…" the bored voice replied dryly.

"Aww… don't be like that Shouta. Look at him go, and hey! I'm not that reckless…" Hizashi pouted, the only female in the room snickering. "Oi, what the hell are you laughing about, Nemuri-chan?"

It was a raven-haired woman, dressed in a rather revealing outfit that resembled lingerie. "Nothing… It's nothing…" She replied out, still having a small snicker in her voice.

"Okay… listen here you shotacon…" Hizashi started.

Before the two adults could go at each others teeth, another person intervened before they could start mauling each other.

"Hey! Look, you two should stop before I give you a salary deduction…" indeed like lightning, the two heroes stopped their bickering in a split second.

"Isn't that a bit cruel, Nedzu?" Shouta asked, his eyebrow raised in mild surprise.

"It's necessary, because all of you need to notice that almost all of the Robots are down." Nedzu stated, the teachers shifting their attentions to the little screen on their right side swiftly dropping down the numbers.

50

.

42

.

30

.

24

"Perhaps we need to make things more interesting?" Nedzu asked the teachers, they took on several surprised and concerned looks on their faces. Nedzu had a sadistic glint to his eye as he produced a small remote with a single red button in it's center.

"Oh dear…" Nemuri chided, looking concerned at the test takers while the other teachers protested.

"But Nedzu, that robot is only reserved for especially violent participants" Yagi Toshinori, a blond skeleton of a man warned from across the corner of the room.

"This generation feels strong Yagi-san, can you feel it? I'm just testing whether my gut is correct." Nedzu

The other teachers just stood there silent, not wanting to delve deeper into debate with this little bear-dog-man-thing that just happened to be the principal of this school.

Nedzu smiled his creepy smile, he flipped the glass covering the button. He gave a short breath before pressing it. The button glowed a murderous red as the ground started to shake, even the teachers were struggling to keep their footing while the mini-tremor went by.

Nedzu smiled. "Now the real fun begins"

Izuku was running as fast as he could, his head was going rampant in trying to find Robots to break.

He only had 5 points.

Izuku broke 2 Robots, a single 3 pointer and another 2 pointer. Everywhere he looked there were other examinees that had taken their chance to down the robots there.

He couldn't find any robots left.

Izuku stumbled, a tremor suddenly ripping through the ground before he fell flat on his ass.

"Ouch…" Izuku muttered, debris and stone on his landing point made him extremely uncomfortable.

Izuku rubbed his nape, confused that there was a sudden earthquake in the middle of the test. Izuku tried standing up, thinking that this day couldn't get anymore stressful.

Then the explosion happened.

Izuku shielded his eyes with his arms, the tattoos burning any wooden or paper-based debris that flew past him. He squinted, a huge plume of smoke covered the center of the city-scape.

"Wh-what the…" there were screams around him, Izuku shifted his head to see other contestants scrambling to get out of whatever was in that huge smoke plume.

There was a buzz, an ominous hum of engines and turbines starting. A single red eye glowed underneath the smoke.

"O-oh…" Izuku's jaw dropped, a huge robot swung its arm aside and cleared the smoke to reveal its gargantuan size.

"Th-The Zero pointer…" Izuku muttered in awe and fear, his body seizing up shivering at the sheer scale of the beast. Izuku was slowly crawling his way backwards, thinking that his life was much more valuable than getting points for a Hero school.

His hearing was buzzed, his scarlet Irises moving around, uncontrollable from the ball of nerves in his heart.

He couldn't hear anything else, Izuku swallowed a lump of nervous spit as the boy slowly got up and began to run along with the crowd.

His hearing was blocked off by static, his adrenaline pumping up to full blast while he slowly but surely picked up pace.

He was a coward.

Izuku felt horrible. All that effort for naught. All those people's lives ruined for nothing.

"H-Help…" Izuku paused, his thoughts were stopped. His breath went ragged and his body reluctantly swung its way to the source of the little whimper.

Izuku's eyes widened, his heart dropped with what he saw.

A girl, with short purple asymmetric bangs lied struggling. There was a large hunk of scrap metal toppled over her figure. She was dirty and ragged from all the dirt and dust that the Robot kicked up. And that wasn't the most alarming part of this situation.

The large robot was moving closer and closer, it's every footstep left a tremor through the ground.

The Robot loomed closer and closer, Izuku's body seizing up once more while every reasonable person fleeing the scene.

"Pl-Please… anyone… Help me…" The words coming from the girl were heart-wrenching. Izuku was in shambles, he couldn't think straight.

"Huh?…" Izuku muttered to himself, his body was picking up speed towards the girl despite his own protest. He didn't know what was going on!

His body was moving on its own!

"Make way!" Izuku screamed, shoving other participants aside while he ran towards the robot. He shoved and pushed others away while he ran… his body running despite his own protest.

Izuku didn't know what was happening, or what he was even doing anymore.

But he wanted to become a hero.

No.

He needed to become a hero.

More than anything.

Izuku ran, the dust trailing behind him. The sweat dripping off of him and the tattoos on his arms and back were glowing fiercer and fiercer.

"H-here, L-Let me help!" Izuku spoke out pleadingly while attempting to remove the hunk of metal on top of her.

Izuku gave a huff, nerves popping out of the side of his head while trying to lift the damn thing.

Holy shit it was heavy.

Izuku let out a gasp of breath, only managing to lift the thing a few centimeters off.

Izuku looked above, seeing the Robot getting closer and closer. Like a few meters closer.

"S-Stay here… I-I'll see if I can do anything…" The All For One User spoke out. He stood up, not really knowing what to do next. His head was in shambles and his body went rigid.

The Robot's fist reeled back, it's single eye glowed red and was locked on the boy.

Time slowed down for the quirk thief. His heart dropped and his sweat ran cold.

He stared up to see the giant fist hurdling it's way towards him and the girl.

The Teachers were watching with a bated breath. Hanging on to the edge of their seats.

They knew that the robot would automatically stop its attack when its fist would stop 10 meters from it's target.

U.A would never let any of their students get harmed by their own hand.

"All of them are running away…" Nemuri commented, slightly disappointed that almost all the contestants ran away with their tail between their legs.

"Make way!" the teachers got their attention taken from them, they quickly turned to look at another screen that depicted the same green-haired boy from before.

Yagi's eyebrows shot up, he looked at the screen with a smirk. "I wouldn't really say that…" he said, All Might was surprised. It was that kid from the tunnel, the one with the fire quirk if he recalled.

The teachers watched as Izuku stopped suddenly, and started to slowly but surely make his way towards the girl trapped under rubble. His slow movements started to swiften into a sprint, and then into a full on run.

"He's got balls, I'll give him that…" Hizashi shrugged off, praising the boy for his tight and strong conviction.

"That's called recklessness" Aizawa chided back, Hizashi just sighed and continued on.

"He has the heart and conviction, but does he have the strength to back it up?" Nedzu asked, his smile never leaving his mousey face. "Last I checked, he still only had 5 Villain points"

Yagi smirked, looking at the boy try to pry the metal off of the girl. "Then it's a good thing there are Rescue points then…"

Nedzu nodded in acknowledgment. "If he saves her, that is…" he added, the teachers switched their attention from him back to the screen. "I wouldn't bet on it, Yagi-san" Nedzu gave his creepy smile, a little sadistic glint in his eye made all of the teachers worried about the participants. The green-haired boy in particular.

"Nedzu-san… I know what you're thinking… and I don't like it…" Hizashi stated, a nervous bead of sweat dripping down from his forehead while the little mouse-thing merely chuckled at his statement.

"Oh dear… these kids won't stand a chance…" Nemuri commented, she gave out a sigh while watching the other screens depicting running children.

Izuku's mind was blank.

His body was moving for some reason.

His mind was in shambles, his breath was ragged, and his heart was beating faster than a rocket engine.

His sweat was running cold as his pace started to pick up.

He was actually doing this?

He didn't know anything else! He was just winging the whole damn thing!

It's not like he has much time to think and plan.

His body was moving on its own.

Izuku's pulse quickened, a huge lump on his throat formed when he saw the massive robot's fist reel back.

He fired his quirk up, not really thinking about what he was going to do next. The boy was just moving on instinct and pure instinct alone.

He gave out a muffled whimper, the tattoos burning at the seams of his skin, smoke emerged from the marks. A tear slid down his eye, he didn't have time for this!

Izuku jumped, he used the hot winds from his quirk to boost him up a few meters.

He didn't know what he was doing!

Izuku was practically flying up to the robot's head. But alas, he could only reach the lower torso.

He stopped boosting himself up and reeled both his hands mid-air. Izuku was starting to fall, but he didn't care or notice.

He needed to do this.

It's the least he can do.

He'll become a hero.

MORE THAN ANYTHING.

The boy winced, the tattoos on his arms and back were blazing hotter than what he had initially experienced. Tears leaked from his eyes, his fingers and wrists writing in pain while he readied himself for the (possibly) dumbest thing he'll ever do. The air around him swirled violently, the view around it getting distorted from all the heat it exuded. He could feel the skin around the markings getting burnt off and peeling.

Izuku clapped his hands together, a huge and hot gale shot out of his hands as it hit the robot square on the pelvis. His hands were starting to bleed, the black markings had stretching fissures and burnt flesh around them.

The huge robot toppled over, it lost its footing from the enormous shove that it have received. Dust and debris scattered throughout the whole cityscape, the crash left a roaring boom throughout the entire testing arena.

Izuku let out a breath, his whole upper torso numb from all the pain.

He closed his eyes, the static ringing in his ears were getting louder and louder.

There was this feeling again, he couldn't quite make it out…

Oh… right…

Izuku was unconscious at this point, giving in to relieving himself of all his senses.

But he knew one thing.

This was the feeling of death.

He was falling.

Descending form the hundreds of meters that he managed to fly himself up to.

He was hurtling down, his back and arms left lacerated and wounded. The blood and sweat that he shed descended with him, falling like drops of rain.

He was falling headfirst, the little pieces of cloth that surrounded his torso were shed. Izuku didn't care.

He had already done what he intended.

Now, he just let go.

However.

The boy was sent off course, a sonic wave hit him by his side. Hurdling him over to another building, the boy managed to crash into a window and landed in the small shards of glass that accompanied his graceful landing.

Izuku woke up with a groan, his bloodshot eyes slowly opening from all the pain he was in. Shards of glass were lodged within his already burnt back and lower legs. Nicks, cuts, and bruises were present on his freckled face.

He had not expected this much pain.

If he wasn't on the brink of unconsciousness, then he would probably be screaming.

His breath was heavy, eyes struggling to stay open. The veins on his eyeballs were blood red while his own scarlet eyes were slowly crossing and uncrossing to see what and where he landed in.

He could not focus in this much fatigue and pain.

His eyes struggled to stay open, slowly shuttering and shaking, the last thing that he saw was a blurry image with a lot of pink and white.

A loud buzzer rang throughout the entire city-scape.

No one could say anything, no words, no sounds, and no murmurs.

They were speechless.

All of them.

They just saw a kid almost get sent into the deathbed if it wasn't the last clutch moment that the girl managed to get in.

Kyouka Jirou, a purple-haired girl struggled against a piece of debris. She had a pretty simple mutation quirk that added headphone-jacks by her earlobes. They were much more useful that one can think of at first sight.

She couldn't take seeing the only person trying to help her; die.

She only managed to get a leg out of the metallic trap.

She plugged in her earlobe to her leg-speakers and shot the strongest sonic wave that she could manage.

She toppled over under the scrap-metal and huffed out exhaustedly, her breath ragged and the sweat starting to pool up under her shirt.

The image of that green-headed boys' figure dropping from the sky like a shot bird got burnt into her mind.

Literally and figuratively, since the flash of orange that surrounded him managed to glare it into her eyes.

She heard a grunt, and suddenly the weight on her was free.

"Are you alright deary? That was quite the weight that fell on you…" a short- old woman asked, she had a pink visor and a large syringe in place of a walking stick. She waved her hand and the man assisting her took off with the scrap metal in hand.

The old woman rubbed her chin while circling around Jirou, the teen was too exhausted to question or even care about what was going to happen.

Then the old ha- Womans' lips extended and gave Jirou a peck on the forehead. She widened her eyes, but before she could even get a word in; the wounds, the bruises, and the broken bones were healed in mere moments.

Though, this made her even more on the brink of unconsciousness.

"Oi, take this one to the infirmary too…" the medic called out to her staff. Jirous' eyes were heavy, she didn't really care anymore. So she just let it happened and decided to get some sleep in.

But before she could get in a single wink of sleep, she heard something before succumbing to unconsciousness.

"Now, where's that other one… the reckless one with a fire quirk. I swear, Nedzu is trying to kill these students. I wouldn't be surprised if the sports festival would become a student purge" Jirou didn't hear everything, but she could make the sentence out. She felt a splash of relief hit herself.

At least he wasn't dead.

The aged medic, or more notably; Recovery Girl, was absolutely livid.

Her aged body slowly creaked their way up the stairs of the building. She huffed and puffed while struggling to climb up the stairs.

Damn that Nedzu!

Not only was this the most dangerous stunt that he had pulled of, but it also was the single U.A exam where a student managed to crash into the fourth floor of a skyscraper replica.

And of course there wasn't any power to the makeshift elevator.

"It would just be a waste of money to spend on electronics on a replica city" was his exact words, though they lacked the lick of sarcasm that Recovery girl added when she thought about it.

Three flights of stairs.

THREE FLIGHTS OF STAIRS!

A person of her age and status should not subject themselves to this kind of torture.

A couple of steps and minutes later, she was there.

She looked at the boy in question.

Third degree burns on the back, arms, and hands. Metal and glass shards lodged into his skin, no doubt she needed to test him for tetanus. Three broken ribs, a broken leg, cuts everywhere, and a possible concussion.

Recovery girl bit her nail, a simple use of her quirk could not heal all of this. The glass and cuts were pretty easy, but his exhaustion was worrisome. And not to mention the third-degree burns splattered across his upper torso.

She gave a loud click of her tongue, only now noticing the small pool of blood that the boy was passed out on. More complications to this reckless little shit that had no idea about self-limitation and the dangers of their own quirk.

"Boys! Get the stretcher, this one's serious!" she called out to her medic team, she grit her teeth.

Damn that Nedzu!

She was going to chew him up and spit him out for this one!

She grunted, following back down the 3 flights of stairs that she dreaded.

Why did she even join the U.A faculty?

The U.A teaching faculty were breath-taken.

Not only from the very bold, very risky, and very stupid move that one of the participants

But the sheer damage the boy retained.

For a lack of a better term, the teachers panicked when they saw the boy hurdle down the sky.

All Might was about to burst out the door in his muscle form, then they saw him getting shot into a building by one of the participants.

They exhaled a breath of slight relief, but it was a short one due to the damage that they knew the boy was in.

"I rang Recovery Girl, she'll be on the scene shortly…" Shouta spoke out, slightly glaring at the mousy principal.

"I-I think we're going to be subjected to a lawsuit after this…" Nemuri added her own two cents, this was the most destructive and dangerous test she's seen.

"What were you thinking!? That boy could've died there!" Hizashi berated the principal. Said mouse just waved his hand with a smile, the teachers getting worried about the boy in question who almost died.

Nedzu just smiled and brushed off all the flack that he was receiving.

Because he was right.

The small mouse-man took a glance at the scoreboard, very intrigued at the result.

*First Place*

*Midoriya Izuku, Participant #132*

*5 Villain Points, 60 Rescue points. 65 Total Points*

"Interesting…" he rubbed his chin in thought, that boy was very interesting. The fact that he ranked first almost exclusively on rescue points was very interesting. The green haired boy was the only one with rescue points in the entire exam.

The virtue of a true hero.

To put one's safety second in favor of other lives.

Nedzu would be keeping tabs on the boy.

Izuku gasped, his eyes shooting open with reluctant speed.

He groaned, he felt like he had just been hit by a truck.

He rubbed his head, or at least, he attempted to.

A throbbing pain hit his left inner elbow, he winced. Only now did he notice that he was back into a hospital bed with a medical drip attached to his arm.

"Ughh… what-what happened?" he groaned out, using his right hand to rub his head back into sanity.

"A very stupid decision is what happened, that's what" Izuku was alert, he swung his head to the side to see an old woman with crossed arms. She looked very tired and very annoyed at the young teen.

Izuku shot out of his bed in a sitting position, regretting it moments later when he felt his entire body ache with pain. He groaned and winced, he was sore.

"Don't move too much! You're still healing from the surgery!" Izuku paused, and then paled significantly…

"S-Surgery?" Izuku asked, his lip trembling from asking. "Wh-What happened!? A-After the robot?" His voice raising in concern.

Surgery?

What did he do!?

"Well, crashing into a building is one thing. Having glass lodged in you is another. Do you know how long it took us to get all of the glass shards out of you!? 4 hours, 4 HOURS. You careless little whelp, you should be thanking me. I couldn't use my quirk on you since that would just be instant death, thank god we had someone with a precision quirk or the time we took could be well over triple." She scolded the boy, smacking his head with her syringe-like cane. The boy winced at her tone, yes, what he did was indeed very stupid.

"Now hurry up and leave, all your vitals are in order and I loathe to see you stay here longer than you already have to. And don't even think of running or doing anything physically extensive! I will not redo those stitches of yours ,little boy. Now shoo…" She scolded and scolded and scolded. Izuku practically just tuned her voice out. Much more intrigued at the fact that he hadn't have to spend a dime was a very surprising fact. Izuku rubbed his eyes, bag of clothes getting tossed his way before he walked off while the old woman just shooed him off.

Izuku was walking off to the bathroom. He walked with a limp, not very comfortable with how sensitive he was. He winced every time he took a step, it's like his leg was dislocated or something.

But judging by what the nurse had said to him, that was probably what had happened. Or worse.

There was a simple white t-shirt, a pair of plain black sneakers, and jeans. Izuku blinked twice when he put them on. How did they know his size?

The boy just shook his head, not really caring about that matter.

Though, there was another topic that he absolutely dreaded.

He only had 5 villain points.

He walked out of the room he occupied and out of the U.A medical ward after a bit of scolding from the school nurse.

His mind was blank and his eyes were in spirals. Izuku's heart reached his chest and his perspiration started back up.

A lump formed itself in his throat.

He, only now, realized that he had only scored 5 points in the entirety of the practical exams.

A few tears slipped his desperate attempt at control.

All those people he had trampled, lacerated, left unconscious on a dirty alleyway.

Their sacrifices were for naught.

He gave a huff, wiping off the tears trailing down his face harsher than necessary.

No.

He refused to succumb to failure.

A steely conviction overcame his scarlet eyes.

He would become a hero.

No matter the cost.

A man hummed a chipper tune, despite all the tubes and needles piercing his skin, he was in a good mood.

All for One.

His hair was gone, his eyes were gone, even his nose was gone. All that was left was a slab of scar tissue left on his face.

Despite that.

Despite all that.

He was in a good mood.

Why?

Well, the answers laid before him.

A large tube, semi-translucent liquid filled the large tube. He smiled, pushing away the several needles and tubes infesting his head.

There was something inside.

Someone was a much more suitable term.

The first successful experiment he's had in a while.

An artificial human.

A "Noumu" if you will…

It had navy-blue skin, ripping muscles, blank-lifeless eyes. A beak adorned its mouth, its exposed brain was another interesting thing to factor in.

He wiped the dust off the tube, revealing the beast's unblinking eyes and toothed beak. Truly something to be feared.

He walked over to a small table, two test-tubes elegantly placed on a mahogany stand.

He had something special in mind.

Quirks… Quirks were a complicated thing.

On one hand, they brought power and might to those lucky enough to get a strong one.

And on the other hand, they brought bloodshed and violence to those unlucky enough to be on the receiving end of a strong quirk.

All for One winced internally, feeling the sensation of himself pulling out a quirk.

A murky liquid escaped his hand, it was colored bright gold with little black flakes of whatever it was.

He dumped the liquid in one of the test-tubes. He gave out a short breath, it was always a hassle to materialize a quirk and pull it out. But this was so worth it, considering his goal.

To topple the pillar of peace to a pile of smolder debris.

All Might, his arch-nemesis and the eighth One For All wielder.

He was holding everything up, and he was the fence that held all these sheep.

Unable to think for themselves, unable to defend themselves, unable to use their own powers for themselves.

Disgusting.

They were too dependent on the old fool, too scared to go against his vision and teachings, too complacent with their current standing.

Now, look at All for One.

Someone deemed to be immoral and "evil" for opposing All might.

They forget.

He too used to be the pillar of peace.

When quirks first emerged.

People were scared, about these demonic powers.

He was the cure.

Now look at what happened.

He's the villain now.

Inhuman experiments, quirk theft, and several accounts of murder.

Well, first off. It is in human nature to push boundaries, it would be calling the kettle black if they said that it was immoral to test people's limits.

Where were they when quirks were first discovered?

All for One shivered to himself, truly he has lived through the dark ages. If his acts were considered immoral, he doesn't know what they would brand those times.

And second, their sacrifice was necessary for his cause. Surely one persons' quirk could be forfeit for a greater cause?

That cause is to end the idolization of violence, and make people think for themselves.

And finally, his kills.

They were for a greater cause.

Their lives were a small price to pay for his progress.

Like this beauty right here.

All for one took a glance at the two test-tubes. One had a viscous gold liquid with black flakes, while the other one had a very runny green liquid.

Shock absorption and Hyper Regeneration respectively.

Two quirks to absolutely negate any single blow All Might can deal.

He would use these quirks for himself, but-

His student and apprentice needs them more.

Noumu, for a lack of a better term, was a tool.

A chisel, if you will.

There is that slight chance that it might not work, the small chance that the pillar won't be toppled down.

But like a chisel, it will carve the way to a better, more suitable future.

If they cannot crash him down with one fell swoop, then they will slowly chisel him down to size.

A soft chuckle escaped his lips.

His apprentice, the grandson of his previous nemesis.

But now, one of his strongest trump cards.

But…

His expression became neutral, rigid features adorned the scarred face.

He remembered who he was supposed to retrieve.

He did not take him early on, he didn't make him into a stone cold killer, he didn't make him his personal weapon.

Midoriya Izuku.

His son, and the only other person who has All for One.

He was surprised that the news discussed of random quirk thefts. He assumed that his little boy was starting to experiment with his quirk.

All for One poured the contents of the test-tubes into individual containers leading to the Noumu's body, effectively pouring in the quirks that his new weapon needed.

Weapon…

The main reason why he did not take Izuku in and raise him himself was because he simply cannot.

He needs a successor, not a weapon.

He needs someone to see his ideas and beliefs and make them blossom.

Not some mindless weapon that follows his orders without a question.

And by his appearance alone.

He cannot confront him directly.

Not now, not in this situation.

All for one frowned, biting on the tip of his fingernail.

He needed something to skew his son into his favor.

He has been raised and molded by heroes.

That alone was a worrying fact.

But he let that slide.

Heroes could give him the little boost that he needed.

All for One would be the final nail in the coffin.

All for One made a mistake, not intervening enough in Izuku's life.

It was all All Mights' fault! If he hadn't meddled with him then he would be already done at this point.

But, nevertheless, All for One will return.

And he will get his most important piece back into the board.

(A/N) Looking for a Beta reader with a discord account, PM me if you're interested