Ina was being thrown all over the place at speed she had no control over. Inside a prison made of thick trunks of trees and random steel beam, she was a toy for the one on the outside.
" Your limit is not just this much! Show me your strength, your speed, your everything!"
As the man outside said that, spikes sprouted from the wood and metal before twisting along their axis and shot toward her. To not turn herself into Swiss cheese, she used the few earliest spikes as footholds before running and weaving between them to dodge the remaining aiming at her vital organs.
How did thing turn out like this? She reminisced about what had happened.
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"It's not proper etiquette to leave someone at your doorstep, my friend. "
"... Please enter."
It was the business man back then who had arrived at Ina's adobe. His mouth and eyes were not matching: one was smiling while the other was not. Somehow she felt the danger from the man cutting into her muscles and paralyzing her but she soon snapped out of it and dragged herself back to her room. She had just began having her snack in the dining room but it was for the better to hide for now.
Hearing his daughter leaving for her room, Kenji finally relaxed and brought the man in front of him into the guest room. Kenji brewed two cups of decaf coffee and placed one before each person inside the room. The man picked up the cup and gave a taste.
"You start drinking decaf?"
"I'm getting older so a bit of heath consciousness is better. You should try this sometime, All For One. So why does someone like you want to meet your previous enemy?"
"We are never enemies. In the business of crimes and violence, benefits drive the market. We are just competitors, nothing more, nothing less. We have not burn completely the proverbial bridge between our organizations. But to see you partially retired from your work is a welcoming sight since that ... Fog War."
"Because you have no more opposition?"
"One reason, among many I have."
"You are here to seek what?"
Kenji finally got to the main point of this conversation. The man in front of him was someone called the "Baba Yaga" of the criminal world, a mastermind with his hands touching the majority of criminal activity across Japan and some all over the world years ago. But he was defeated by All Might and was most likely to have just recovered.
"I know what you fear and I am here to say that ... my time is coming."
"Really? No soul or consciousness transference, no enhance serum to maintain peak body performance, no anything? Don't you have that mad scientist?"
"I did leave an apprentice but his goal is killing me so nothing is a correct response. The limit I'm reaching is not physical so the scientist is not doing any good. My due is coming and I want to do one last thing."
"... What?"
"A final fight from a dying soul."
All For One remembered back to the time when quirks had first appeared. He remembered ... his brother showing him a comic book. He had seen how eager this little brother of his had been, how he had exclaimed in the dark alley the two was sleeping in that he would become a hero. But both of them ... No, All For One was the one to take the initiative, the one to really stand up and do something impactful. No, his brother had done something impactful too: laying down the foundation for One For All.
In the
The silence continued as All For One remembered more about the past. Some would say the rising of these memories in his 250 years of existence was a moment of clarity before dying. But to All For One, the memories only strengthen his resolution to end his legacy in a fiery war. That was something he had agreed upon with something above.
"Kenji, because we used to be rivals so I will give you a warning. Leave the country for the next few months. I want someone to remember for who I am beneath the evils. And please give your family these in my stead."
A ruby necklace, a treasure from an old person he had stolen a quirk of improved eyesight. A car key he had gotten into his hand just minutes before and the car was levitated along him outside. And finally, a wooden block. All were put onto the table in the mention order.
"The first gift is to your wife. Lovely and filled with warmth compared to her past. The second can be for your son, a vehicle. The last one is for your daughter. Give her the box together with this."
All For One put into Kenji's hand a piece of paper. The father, worried for his family, was prepared to throw all of the items into the trash. But All For One had already read his mind. He used one of the many quirks he had to influence Kenji's decision.
"Stop."
"Your implant still working full-time huh? No wonder you try to be health conscious."
"Fine. I will accept the gifts. Now, please leave."
"Very well, thank you for the coffee. I shall take my leave now."
Sending off the retreating All For One, Kenji took a look at the cup. Nothing had been drunk.
"So the prideful bastard really change..."
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While Ina was playing on her phone in her bedroom, she experienced something akin to a heart attack. The pain made her limbs weak and her breathing became difficult. But soon after, her heart returned to normal and began to intensify its beating. This was not a sensation but the heart was literally hitting the ribcage.
Enduring the pain in her chest, she made her way downstair. Leaning against the wall, her body moved forward with leaden steps. Her father and that weird man had left and on the living room table were ... a necklace, a car key, and a wooden block with a piece of paper beneath?
Observing the three items, Ina was about to look away when her senses warned her against such action. She would get closer and picked up the block, it demanded. It begged for her to make contact with the thing but she restrained herself and turned away. Without her looking, the wooden block cracked and from the seams came eerie red light. It began to float and rotate in space, the silent motion sped up and so did the transformation. It changed shape from cube to sphere to a plethora of different shapes, all flowed smoothly into one another. And it ... aimed at Ina's head and flew toward her.
Her sense signaled her to the incoming attack. Ina turned back and barely caught it with her bare hand. The wood splintered and the content inside covered her arm and shoulder. A mixture of black and red liquids seeped into her skin and she was soon knocked out cold on the floor. Because of that, Ina did not see the wood pieces stopped mid air and changed their physical properties into that of the liquid. They fired into the unconscious person with any care for her safety.
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"Where am I now?"
Ina thought after she had waken up and was now looking at the ceiling above. It tried so much to be a realistic sky but with careful observation, one could see the cracks where prismatic shards fell down. And with her memory, she was sure that the block was the problem.
"You are quite strong, both physically and mentally."
The man she had met on the street before returning home. It was his voice behind her but when she turned back to catch him by his throat, she found nothing. The sound was indeed coming from this direction and the source was at this distance, yet her hand reached no one but the warm air in the environment.
"A normal person would have enter here with their mind overwhelmed."
' I am being listened to and observed... why?'
Ina thought while her mouth began to blabber on and on with generic questions like "Why did you kidnap me?" and pleas like " Please release me!" but ...
" Let's stop that ridiculous act. Now, beneath you."
" !?"
" Gah!"
Two black hands sprouted from the ground and held her ankles tightly. Their owner pushed himself off the plane and brought Ina higher. She had crouched down to try to pry the hold off but to no avail. Sensing what was about to come, she covered her upper torso with her arms and just then, the thing slammed her down the ground.
The periodical and explosive impacts reverberated throughout her body to the core. The aching muscles from the impact served no better purpose than annoying her. After hundred of swings, the thing stopped to take a look at its target. So did Ina.
Quickly identifying the weakness of the thing before her, the exposed pink brain, she took her chance. Her speed exceeded the monster's expectation and it failed to dodge her grab. Tightly securing her grasp after making contact with the brain, she tried her hardest to yank it off.
The monster released its hold and Ina knee struck the face of her enemy horizontally. The added torque from the rotation aided in her endeavor of ripping the brain off.
And by trying to pull her off its head, the monster inadvertently quicken its demise. The brain tore off along with its eye balls and the shells of the ears. Despite being a brainless monster it was, it still stayed alive for a few more minutes scrambling around with its muscular, pitch-black arms to find its target before succumbing to the injuries.
Ina just stood near there, watching as the corpse dissolved into a pile of dust. Her guard still high to prepare for any of the monster's kind to get up.
"You are quite something. Despite the Nomu being a failed attempt of stalling All Might, you still managed to defeat it with ease and grace. Wonderful fight, something I have not been able to see until recently."
Clap, clap, clap. The sound of a hollow applause rang out in front of her. Ten meters from her location, space began to ripple and soon ripped itself apart, leaving a hole enough for the business man to walk through.
"It's still a bit lacking in strength. And a blatant weakness, an exposed brain, can help it how?"
"Same opinion. I see no purpose for such weakness yet the doctor keeps being so obsessed over a being with such flaw. Maybe they are just so deep in their research to see any flaw."
"Or maybe they just realize that most hero, especially All Might, rely on brute strength to do the heavy lift, fighting villains. Fighting you... Hey, what's your name? I can not just refer to you as that business man."
"If it were me, your head would have been beneath my soles."
"So that means you are not like that now. Just tell me your name."
"AFO, all letters are capitalized."
"AFO... An abbreviation?"
"You are not worthy yet to know my identity. But let's get to something related to you. Your strength is not related to your parents' quirks. So show me then. Show me the other you."
'What does he mean "other you" here? Is it about my acting? But he has already seen through that...So that leaves only that. Let's fake it first.'
"What other me are you looking for? I'm not sure what you mean with your phrasing."
"Still playing this again? Maybe you need an incentive to answer honestly."
Click!
With a snap of a finger, the environment transformed liquidly into an intelligent and hostile one. Jumping away from a spear making its way toward her head, she reorientated herself before making a landing and using the momentum to roll back, missing a spike where she had just been moments ago.
The dodging game continued while she tried to find the limit of this place: its height, span and durability. Also in that time frame, the alteration speed of the terrain sped up to catch up with her. From thin air manifested solid blades and from the ground grew countless pillars, all aiming to capture her dead or alive.
"Fuck!"
Ina had just sensed something flying along the rocky surface of the pillars. Not a thing but things weaving in between the ever changing terrain. She discarded any attempt of escaping without any harm and dived down. The purple mist that only she could sense seeped into her muscles and boosted their integrity, durability and flexibility. Her entire body tensed up in anticipation. Then it flung itself forward, propelling off the closest surface her feet could touch.
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"So stubborn. Maybe that's what she got from them."
All For One was toying around with another wooden block in his possession which was connected to the one back then. The wood was something unique that came from a tree that could psychically connect its roots to its trunk and survived despite being fell. The man was back in his base, his expression tinged with anticipation for the possibility the girl could become.
"Master, I have finished conditioning the specimen you gave me before. He was already half-broken by his own fear."
"Wonderful, Doctor. Let me extract it. Have you prepare a hospitable vessel for our guest?"
"I have modified a hero's body. Changing his calcium bones to that made of metal that we can enhance later. The increased volume was enough to house the various upgrades you have asked for, Master. Look at these muscles! Look at how intricate the nerves network is, how it has shortened and look these organs! Compactly placed, orderly connected and amazing functional. Also ..."
All For One just let his mad scientist geeked out everything. Sometime, dealing with people meant letting them freely express themselves to build favorability, even if it was technically your underling and you had control for him. Encouragement boosted productivity after all.