Today was a good day. The sun was shining, the flowers were blooming, and on days like these, Nezu would've been ecstatic about the upcoming internships for his students. However, recent news that the villains might be byproducts of another villain's Quirk — at least according to the leading theory that he already knew courtesy of his position — had just been leaked to the public. And thanks to that preventable, idiotic breach, the revelation now weighed heavily on his mind.
The public wouldn't take that well — not with everything else already going on. Bad enough that the 'villains' all looked the same — wielding demented weapons and sharing the same twisted temperament — they were spreading across Musutafu and into other districts like a plague. Already, dozens of deaths had been documented, with some survivors left traumatized by the creatures.
His beady eyes locked onto the laptop screen as he hummed, reading the article posted just half an hour earlier. It detailed another 'villain' attack, this time in a warehouse storing everyday goods. Luckily, no civilians were harmed — a local hero had been nearby and managed to apprehend the creatures, though not without injury. One of them had bitten off his finger.
Nezu had to suppress a wince. It wasn't easy losing a finger — or a paw, in his case and having it regrown by one of his captors in the past. With advancements from I-Island, regrowing lost limbs was no longer a pipe dream.
It would still cost a pretty penny, though.
He dismissed the so-called 'selfless' hero with a click of his tongue and set down his teacup, the warm liquid still trailing down his throat. The 'villains' taken into custody were placed in a maximum-security prison within the district. Not on the level of Tartarus, but secure enough to lock them up and throw away the key. If it were up to him, he'd have had them euthanized like rabid dogs — cruel, perhaps, but necessary. They were sentient, possibly even sapient, but their barbaric acts made reason seem beyond them.
Also, they ate humans. That's a major turn-off for most people.
Already, the public was torn between trying to understand them and demanding retribution. Some said they were just born, with no concept beyond what their creator had given them. Others believed they were controlled, never given a choice.
Truly, society and its endless clashing viewpoints grated his nerves. These creatures were clearly dangerous and had already left a body count nearing triple digits across the country. They needed to be put down, one way or another, to ensure the safeguarding of human life.
As he continued on his plans to nudge the government toward seeing things his way — guided, of course, by his unmatched intellect — a knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. Shelving the matter for now, Nezu turned toward the sound and opened his snout.
"Come in." His even tone echoed throughout the room, and a moment later, the doorknob turned and clicked. In came a haggard man dressed in black with a giant white scarf draped around his neck holding a stack of papers in his arms. "Ah, Aizawa, I assume those are the details I have requested."
"Yes." Aizawa's one note answers never failed to amuse Nezu, the bedraggled man carelessly dropping the stack of papers onto his desk. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a class to be."
"Ah, kindly put a hold on that." Nezu's words stopped Aizawa from grabbing the doorknob and twisting it open. "Come, sit. Have some tea, I have something I want to discuss with you."
"... What about my students?" Aizawa's eyes narrowed, causing Nezu to chuckle. Ah, as cold his exterior may be, he deeply cares for his students, a quality he never would've thought would be hidden deep underneath the man. Pressing a button under his desk that connected to the PA system, more specifically, one that led directly into class 1-A's classroom, he leaned in closer to the mic hidden within his desk.
"Ah, good morning class 1-A. I would like to inform you that Professor Aizawa is indisposed at the moment." As Nezu said this, Aizawa gave him the stink-eye which caused him to chortle inside. "So, expect no homeroom for the day. However, please keep noise at a minimum while waiting for your next professor. Thank you."
Letting go of the button, it clicked once as Nezu hopped off his seat and waddled over to one of the tables full of his own jars of tea. Aizawa, seeing that the principal wasn't taking no for an answer, sighed and took a seat in front of the couch Nezu always fancied.
A minute of quiet humming from Nezu and silent observation from Aizawa passed as the rat readied the tea. Once he was done, his humming stopped as he grabbed a tray and brought it to the table, setting it down lightly with nary a sound.
Taking his cup, Nezu sat on his couch and faced Aizawa. His paw delicately brought the cup to his snout, taking a sip as he noted the sweetness just right, as always. Aizawa silently looked at the cup for a second, before sighing and taking it, rapidly gulping the tea down, making the rat twitch a brow.
He really knew what to do to harmlessly grate on Nezu's nerves, and he does so love their interactions all the more because of it. Humans and their silly behavioral patterns.
The time passed by as Nezu made small talk, Aizawa clearly not liking the act but persevering nonetheless. No doubt, the black-clad man was about to blow a gasket because he viewed time as special and wasted nothing when it came to his daily routine.
"Now then." Suddenly, Nezu's eyes sharpened, garnering the full attention of Aizawa. "What do you think of the various 'villains' roaming about the country?"
"... Is this a rhetorical question?" Aizawa blinked at the rat and all he got was a slight chuckle.
"Humor me."
"... Fine." Aizawa sighed once more and looked at his empty cup. "I think they need to be put down. Like the Nomu in the USJ. It's already outlived it's usefulness, and I doubt there is any meaningful thought going through that monster's head after being experimented on so heavily."
"Indeed." Nezu agreed, his thoughts steering towards that of the Nomu held in captivity in Tartarus after having its DNA scanned. Quite a conundrum, that one. There were multiple DNA strands mixed together with the giant abomination. The less said about the Quirk factors floating around inside its body, the better.
Even more damning evidence was that the Nomu was, for all intents and purposes, brain dead. It didn't react to any external stimuli at all, ranging from pain, to sheer boredom. The 'villains' weren't, and even after being captured, they stayed rowdy and willfully unhinged like a bunch of caged animals.
It caused unrest within the villain population of the prison – from what he saw with his latest comandeering of their surveillance system – which was dangerous in case they staged a riot when one of them inevitably dies from the barbaric creatures.
"Do the other teachers share your view?" Nezu asked, even though he already knew most of their answers.
"... Do you even need to ask that?" Aizawa scoffed and Nezu chortled.
"Never change, Aizawa. Never change." Nezu set down his tea cup and leaned into his couch. "Leaving the conversation behind, what about class 1-A? How are they holding up with one of theirs missing?"
"Are you seriously asking me that?" Aizawa scowled, no doubt wishing him bodily harm for even approving Izuku's temporary job here, which was the main reason why Bakugo went missing all those weeks ago. Already, he could remember the time the mother – and the father who lost all his timidness – of the kid yelled insults at him and threatened to sue because of what happened.
The media was one thing, but the sheer hurt and rage in the parents' eyes had made Nezu wince. The cover-up story of him being subject to a villain's warp quirk – which he stated was different from the villains that attacked during the USJ – sucking him, as well as their temporary combat teacher was one they ran through daily.
Only he and the majority of UA staff were the ones privy to the real reason as to why it happened. At least the general public could understand why it happened, but a majority of them still believed that they should be held responsible. After all, they were supposed to protect them until they graduated on to be pro heroes.
Nezu sighed inwardly, he blamed the HPSC for this, making the hero business turn into a glorified dream job that one should have ever since kindergarten.
Putting that thought in the backburner for now, Nezu focused on asking Aizawa one more question.
"Setting that aside, what about their growth? Did Midoriya's… excessive mentorship propel them further than expected?"
"... As much as I would like to admit otherwise, yes." Aizawa sighed, clearly not liking the progress his students had made thanks to Midoriya. "They're pretty much third years already when it comes to pure combat, albeit . I think even some of them could manage to challenge Togata for a bit."
"That fast?" Nezu's eyebrows quirked. If that were true, then this batch was certainly going to go far once they're done with their education. "That sounds wonderful, actually, what with the League of Villains having it out for us because of All Might."
Nezu then sighed as he refilled his cup. He let the liquid slosh around for a bit before he brought it to his lips, the warm liquid trailing down his throat causing him to perk up a bit.
"At least there's a silver lining to all of this." Nezu looked like he had aged a decade, clearly not liking the current state of events.
"Hmph." Aizawa only shrugged at the phrase, clearly not agreeing with the rat. Chuckling inwardly, Nezu tidied up the table and bid Aizawa farewell as the black clad hero exited his room and off to his other students since homeroom had already finished.
As for him, he went back to his laptop to browse more of the latest news to see if any piqued his interest. Who knows, he might find a lead as to where the LOV is situated. One can never know what they might get from the mass media, no matter how vague or pointless they were.
()()()
Deep below the earth, underneath a place of healing, the sound rhythmic beeps echoed throughout a chamber filled with vats that could fit a larger-sized human. One figure stalked through the grounds, his rotund belly causing his already tight robes to tighten even further.
In his hands folder a laid, light humming thrumming from his throat as he inspected the contents of one of the vats. A snout, with a row of sharp teeth, useful for tearing flesh from bones. Spindly arms dangled from its malnourished body, a piece of ratty cloth covering its dignity as it floated inside the green liquid meant to sustain its life without succumbing to its wounds.
He had to thank his master's protege, even if his personality and mannerisms left much to be desired. How was he supposed to get his subjects if they always came back ashes?
Sighing at the thought of countless missed test subjects, the good doctor went along with ovserving some of the other… Creatures that suddenly graced this land. Thanks to the somewhat lengthy response times of some heroes, they were able to recover some of them without alerting the authorities. Of course, the deaths of some innocent life wasn't that much of a problem, after all, they already have great distractions in the form of said creatures just ravaging anything living they see.
Only problem was the heightened security across the towns, but that is easy enough to subvert thanks to his master's influence.
Another one caught his eye, and this one he was most excited about integrating a Quirk into one that never had a gene to begin with. Countless studies had it wrong. As a Quirkless person himself, he did have a Quirk factor, only it was muted because of the presence of a gene that was incompatible with the factor itself. But with each coming generation, evolution took hold within humanity and slowly, but surely, scrubbed the defective gene out of the human race.
He was old enough to know what it was like in the past, where about 50% of humanity was still powerless compared to the other superpowered half. His obsession threw him off the deep end, to quantify and study the phenomena that was Quirks.
It was only thanks to his master that he was able to live for this long. And much further testing revealed that introducing a new Quirk Factor into one with an already existing one resulted in a significantly shorter lifespan.
It meant that All Might was a Quirkless man before his rise to stardom. All For One already knew it, what with him being the progenitor of Quirk giving and taking. And it was already hard enough to find a Quirkless person and have them delivered to him. He had his eyes on one Midoriya kid, but sadly, he died during one villain attack. Oh, how he wanted to evaporate every single cell of that Slime Villain.
At least now, there were viable subjects for him to test, and if he could, turn them into the perfect Nomus… Maybe even a being that could pass as human. But first, he needs them to rest and heal. After what his master's protege had done while recovering them, they needed it. After which, it was time to start his experiments.
Oh, he couldn't wait.