I entered the Shie Hassaikai headquarters dressed as a janitor.
"This way. Put this on. Don’t take it off until I tell you to."
A huge man held out an eye mask and said it in a tone that made it sound like an order.
For a yakuza, he was obnoxiously strict.
I’d just have to endure it until I got inside.
Click. The door shut behind me.
I took off the uncomfortable eye mask.
"...What do you think you’re doing? I told you not to take it off."
The man’s voice dropped low.
The underlings around him glared at me threateningly.
"Silence. Seal."
I murmured the words briefly. Two white upper bodies rose behind me like mannequins.
One of them gestured, and all the noise from outside vanished.
The other whispered, and the door turned into a black wall.
The yakuza stared at the door and broke out in a cold sweat.
"What the hell are you doing... Why are you—!"
I cut off the panicking giant.
"First, whatever you scream now won’t be heard outside."
"Second, for the next hour, no one gets in or out."
"And finally... I’ve decided to kill all of you here."
I would eliminate every witness I could. And take their Quirks while I was at it.
"K-kill him! All of you!!"
At the giant’s shout, bullets and Quirks came raining down.
"Carapace."
Hard insect-like armor spread across my whole body from my clone.
The bullets and Quirks bounced off uselessly.
I needed to break their will fast.
Thud.
I deliberately dropped the carapace and took a stab from some thug’s sashimi knife.
"Hah! Feels like you’re gonna die, huh?"
"Gah!"
I kicked him away like a bug.
Then I showed them my wound regenerating right in front of their eyes.
The yakuza looked increasingly desperate as they stared at the black wall.
"Don’t panic! Fight!"
The giant swung a massive fist that matched his size.
I manifested a white upper-body clone on my shoulder.
The clone casually caught the fist with five fingers.
"Decay."
"Aaaagh—!"
The scream was cut off.
The man turned to dust and scattered, leaving only a dying cry behind.
"L-Rikiya hyung!"
"You monster! What did we even do to you?!"
The yakuza shouted while trembling.
One of them couldn’t even stand. Another had pissed himself.
Their disgusting flailing and nonsense made me sick to look at.
I shut off all sound with [Silence].
The yakuza could only mouth words as they tried to run.
I checked my status window. None of their Quirks were worth much.
I chased them down and killed them all. With [Decay], I cleaned away both the living and the dead without leaving a trace.
By the time I’d almost finished, the building itself started attacking me as if it were alive.
The structure began to twist into a maze.
I used [Decay] on the walls flying at me and the ones blocking my path.
They crumbled into dust. A route opened up.
"I don’t know exactly where Overhaul is, but if I keep smashing everything, he’ll show himself sooner or later."
I moved forward, reducing the building to rubble as I went.
*
I killed a lot of people.
The Quirks of those Shie Hassaikai bastards were actually pretty useful.
I checked the status window to see what I’d gained so far.
Stealing, [Eat], and Truth Extraction.
Especially [Eat] and Truth Extraction were huge finds.
Now I could consume any Quirk.
Lies wouldn’t work on me anymore.
Right then, someone rushed me at impossible speed and hammered away with a flurry of punches.
Even though my carapace blocked it, cracks spread across it and it started to fall apart.
"Hey, Rappa! He’s a killer! Don’t just charge in!"
It was strange being treated like a murderer by yakuza.
The hotheaded one ignored that completely.
"Shut up! I don’t care if I kill or get killed, I have to fight someone strong!! Come on!!"
I checked his status. [Strong Arms] and [Barrier].
Too good to kill outright.
[Barrier] was easy to break with [Decay], but that striking power couldn’t be ignored.
If I couldn’t kill him immediately, I’d break his stance first.
Blocking his attacks with [Carapace], I unleashed [Decay] on the floor and punched a hole in it.
The ground collapsed. The two of them scrambled to avoid falling.
The one who used his Quirk had to touch his forehead with a finger first.
My target wasn’t the hothead. It was [Barrier].
He must not have expected me to attack him, because his posture broke.
I drew my pistol in a flash. The gunshot rang out.
The squinting man’s eyes went wide.
The bullet buried itself cleanly in his left hand. He screamed and couldn’t raise it anymore.
"Tengai! If you don’t want to die, get out of the way! This is a real one-on-one now!!"
The hothead only got more worked up even though his partner had been shot.
[Carapace] kept shattering as fragments bounced off it.
I used the recoil from the broken fragments and my regeneration against him.
The shattered pieces were repelled by the growing armor and fired out like buckshot.
Fragments sank into his shoulder. A red hole opened up.
Even then, he charged at me like a mad dog.
He was moving too wildly, so I shot his legs too.
Blood sprayed from his leg.
He crashed face-first into the floor, but his laughter only grew louder.
"Hah! That hurts like hell!!"
For all his words, he looked thrilled.
"You’re about to die, and you still have a mouth on you."
He answered without the slightest hesitation.
"I came here to fight someone stronger than me.
If I lose and that guy kills me, then I die."
Crazy bastard. Completely, genuinely crazy.
Someone like that might be easy to use.
After neutralizing the two of them, I cut a lock of hair and swallowed it.
I gained the Quirk and used Truth Extraction.
A white female figure with covered eyes appeared from my chest.
"Answer only yes or no. I’m planning to kill your boss.
If you help me, I might let you live. If not, I’ll kill you."
I was going to decide whether to kill him or spare him based on his answer.
The hothead asked without a trace of hesitation.
"Are you stronger than Overhaul? If I side with you, can I fight strong guys?"
At least he was consistent. Did he not even know what a lie was?
"Yes. If you follow me, when you fight a villain who can start a war all by himself, I’ll put you on the front line as a meat shield."
I meant it as sarcasm, but his voice cracked with excitement.
"That’s awesome!!"
The [Barrier] user, still clutching his hand, shouted at the excited Rappa.
"Rappa!! Do you have no sense of duty? You beast, driven only by violence!"
I let out a dry laugh. Now that I had his Quirk and a guide, he was useless.
"Then die."
I shot straight through his forehead without hesitation.
He tried to say something until the very end, then collapsed with his mouth still open.
I turned the gun on Rappa.
"What can you do?"
"Fight, obviously! If you let me fight, I’ll spill everything I know!!"
"Good. Then guide me. To where your former boss is.
I don’t have time for treatment, so I’ll do the bare minimum."
*
I headed where Rappa led me.
From the walls came a roar, almost like a scream.
So the one making the maze was the loud one.
His Quirk seemed useful, but he was too annoying.
"This should be enough."
I unleashed [Decay] against the wall.
It began collapsing at once.
Crack.
With a crunching sound, the annoying voice and the maze both stopped.
Rappa marveled at [Decay] a few times, then limped ahead to guide me.
"This way! Overhaul is always doing something in here. He’s been holed up here constantly lately."
The place Rappa pointed to looked like a laboratory.
"Rappa. Stay back. You’re in the way."
Rappa nodded and quickly fell behind.
I went inside.
There was Overhaul, my target, and a man with a clock-hand-like head.
I used my status window to check the clock-hand man’s Quirk.
His clock hands were actually transformed hair.
If they hit, both the user and the target had to stop moving.
I turned my gaze to confirm the ambush and identify the Quirk.
A horned little girl was bound there, looking utterly vacant.
Her arms were covered in scars.
"...Disgusting."
I checked her Quirk with the status window.
[Rewind]
She emits energy from her horn that rewinds the time of living things.
It looked like they’d been experimenting on her with her own Quirk.
I had no intention of pretending to be a good person now.
But seeing the kind of people who did this and still talked about loyalty and ideals made me think they deserved to die even more.
Overhaul seemed to have intended to kill me from the start, his voice turning hysterical.
"...Disgusting. You’re a disease. Not just a disease, but a plague that must be eradicated."
I was almost impressed by the audacity.
"A yakuza with no medical license is diagnosing me as a lunatic from the perspective of a former doctor who thinks he’s a doctor."
A vein bulged on his forehead at my words.
He even broke out in hives.
"...Shut up."
"Chrono."
As expected, the clock-hand guy attacked first.
The clock hands flew toward my face.
I used [Carapace] to form a mask and armor and block them.
It pierced through. I hadn’t intended to block it.
"Die."
Seeing me slow down, Overhaul started walking toward me as if he’d already won.
He reached out his hand.
Now.
The clock hand pierced Overhaul’s shoulder, spraying blood.
His hand froze before it could touch me.
"What happened! Chrono!"
Overhaul shouted in panic at Chrono.
"I didn’t do it!"
"Of course not. I did."
I opened the [Carapace] mask.
I showed them the white maw-like clone around my mouth, and the clock-hand-like clone around my head.
[Eat].
With the Quirk that could consume anything, I chewed up the clock hand, meaning his hair, and swallowed it.
I swallowed it and took the Quirk.
"I’m good at using my subordinates’ Quirks, Overhaul."
Chrono, Overhaul, and I were all immobilized by the clock hand.
I was the one with the biggest advantage, since I had a gun.
"So what now? Will you wait here until you die, or will you fight dirty and ugly? Choose."
I deliberately taunted him to shatter his composure.
"You bastard...!!"
At the words dirty and ugly, Overhaul reacted even more violently.
Then, as he trembled, he suddenly went calm.
"Release Chrono’s Quirk and knock away his clock hand."
"What? Yes. Understood."
Chrono detached the clock hand from me and fired it again.
I moved my body and dodged easily.
Overhaul grabbed Chrono by the shoulder.
Without blinking, he said, "Chrono. I only have you."
"What? What do you mean—"
"You’re the only one I can use. Die for me."
Before Chrono could answer, his body was torn apart in an instant.
The flesh adhered to Overhaul’s body and transformed.
Overhaul’s body changed into one with four arms.
Three clock hands of different sizes were now attached to both shoulders.
"I’ll kill you with my own hands."
The moment he transformed, the clock hands and chunks of flesh on his shoulders tore loose together and shot at me like spears.
I put [Decay] in front of me like a meat shield and caught the incoming spears with my fingers, then decayed them.
Only five fingers were allowed to make contact.
He touched his own body and replenished the torn-away parts with other flesh.
Still, it only made his body stronger.
"Don’t you ever look in a mirror? You’re the one who looks like he’s carrying a plague."
He didn’t answer.
Judging by how his movements had grown rougher, the provocation was still working.
The fight was at a standstill.
Whenever Overhaul hurled clock hands and sharp stone pillars at me, I decayed them.
I needed to keep provoking him and push him over the edge.
"Stop shooting from a distance like a coward and let’s finish this."
I held up the fingers of [Decay] as I spoke.
"Let’s make this a fight where the one who makes contact wins cleanly."
Overhaul’s brow furrowed as he charged too.
"I’ll clear you out quickly."
I rushed him with [Carapace] and [Decay] as well.
Just before we collided, Overhaul touched his own body and split Chrono apart again, using him as a flesh projectile.
"Idiot. You actually believed that?"
My vision was blocked.
The instant I decayed Chrono, Overhaul’s hand came flying at me.
I quickly drew a pistol with my left hand. Overhaul snorted.
His hand touched me.
Starting from my stomach, flesh tore and began to reassemble with unbearable pain.
Instant death.
Overhaul—no, I never trusted this bastard in the first place.
I had no intention of fighting fair, either.
Click-click.
My hand was not the only one.
The clones hiding pistols all over my body quickly drew and loaded them.
"What the—!"
Overhaul went pale, breaking out in a cold sweat as he stopped his attack.
He transformed his legs with the stone from the floor.
Turning them into rabbit-like legs, he leapt far away.
"You’re slower than a gun after all."
Eight bursts and gunshots rang out in the air.
One in the heart, two in the hand, one in the forehead,
one in the leg, and three in the neck.
He flew back, vomiting dark red blood that stank horribly, and crashed far away.
Overhaul died instantly.
"You got riddled with bullets from guns your own organization smuggled.
You really are filthy to the very end."
I had won, but my body was still twisting.
Because it was reassembly, not [Decay], even regeneration couldn’t fully stop it.
I’d already accounted for that and moved anyway.
Even though Overhaul had gotten some distance, it didn’t matter.
I ran to the horned girl.
I sharpened the hand of [Carapace] so I could cut the restraints without hesitation.
Sshk.
"......Mister?"
The dazed girl looked up after I cut a little of her hair.
I swallowed it and said calmly, "That man is gone now. Whatever happens, it’ll be better than your situation now.
Try not to look back."
Overhaul’s corpse was behind her.
With that, I recreated [Rewind].
A horned clone appeared and wrapped my body in golden light.
With the light, the twisting faded away. My field of vision also lowered.
When the light died down, I took out my phone and looked at my reflection.
I’d gotten younger.
Probably about how I looked in middle school.
Maybe eleven or ten years younger.
Was this because I was still clumsy with the Quirk? The side effects were bigger than I expected.
The girl stared at me, trembling with wide eyes.
She looked like some bad memory had surfaced.
"It’s nothing."
I could always revert my appearance with Overhaul’s Quirk anyway.
I used [Carapace] to cut the restraints binding the girl.
Even after being freed, she couldn’t move.
Maybe she’d been locked away her whole life.
Looking more closely, she seemed about the same age as my daughter, Yuri, before she died.
For a moment, the thought of Yuri meeting All For One made my teeth grind.
If she’d been experimented on like this child...
No. Don’t fool yourself.
This child wasn’t Yuri.
Yuri was dead.
Still, I had to take her with me. It was too dangerous to let someone else use her Quirk.
If anyone used it, it would be me. For my revenge.
First, I went to get some hair from Overhaul’s corpse.
Then I heard footsteps.
I pointed my gun toward the sound first.
Red wings and goggles came into view.
"...Hawks?"
To think the No. 3 Hero had followed me here.
"Kid. Close your eyes and cover your ears."
The girl obeyed immediately.
"Now, now. Calm down. I’m not here to fight."
Hearing Hawks say that, I drew my guns with my clones.
Preparing to use my Quirks as well, I said in a low voice, "You weren’t tailing me? Get to the point."
Even in that situation, Hawks raised both hands in a playful gesture and said, "All right, then."
"How would you like to go to middle school?"
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