-Rain of Sins-
-Arc Start: Shifting Winds-
-Shifting Winds: Ch 1-
Bakugo sat down in his chair and took in his work. The back wall of his room, which had once been covered in some workout and Hero posters, was now home to a massive cork board that he had bought from a hardware store.
Newspaper articles, photos, social media posts, and Viewtube thumbnails had been carefully printed, cut out, and pinned on top of a map of Japan.
The Gentle Knights. For a group that craved media exposure so badly they swung back and forth from Thieving Criminals to Vigilanties on a whim, they were remarkably good at covering their tracks.
They seemed to pop up anywhere there was trouble, following the nation’s metaphorical line of sight, like a dog chasing a treat. But most of their activity seemed to be fixated in the area around and between the Shizuoka Prefecture (where Musutafu city, and UA, sat at the very Eastern edge), and Tokyo itself, which was only a short train ride away.
Stealing from massive companies, then showing off all the evidence of fraud they could find online. Exposing political scandals and corruption. Making jokes out of all the Heroes and police that try to catch them.
It was hard to call the group “evil” or even really “Villains”, but it was undoubtable that they had helped contribute to the instability that had consumed Japan- especially with the stuff they had revealed about the Safety Commission. Bakugo’s skin still crawled at the memory of that interrogation.
And then there was that recent video of them helping evacuate civilians during the mess that was the coronation. With all the political tension, and conflict happening everywhere, the knights were a small cheerful bright spot, and the public loved them for it.
Bakugo’s eyes traced along the string he used to connect the various pins, waiting for some brilliant solution to pop out of nowhere like it always seemed to in the movies.
Where would these guys hit next?
But no random moment of plot convenience happened for him, because he had unknowingly used up all his plot armor in a parallel universe known as “canon”.
…
Bakugo sighed and dropped his head backwards onto his mattress. If finding the knights had been easy enough for him to pull it off in just one day, they would have already been caught by the police, Heroes, and Safety Commission by now.
But if the Knights were a dead end (for now), he might as well get started on some of the other leads that Izuku had given him.
Already annoyed at what he was doing, he opened his phone and looked for a resale store nearby where he could buy a cheap red scarf.
-Rain of Sins-
Once upon a time, a naive Izuku had thought about using the Creation quirk he’d acquired from Miss Yaoyorozu to solve his monetary issues, but he had quickly realized that such a thing was a lot more difficult than you would think.
He could give it to a small army of nomu, feed instructions and atomic structures directly into their brain via computer, and use it to mass produce anything he wanted, but there was a problem.
To the world at large, he was a scientist working for a hospital. Why would anyone buy mass produced parts, or valuable ore from him? And even if they did, people would inevitably start asking where he was getting it from. That was a question he wasn’t keen on answering, because there was only one quirk on record that could produce things in so much variety, and people would question just how he’d gotten ahold of it.
The black market was another option, more anonymity, less questions, but the things sold there were almost all illegal, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to single handedly fund the rise of the next League of Villains.
He could mass print money, but he knew nothing about economics, or how to do that safely, and that sounded like a great way to accidentally cause some sort of inflation crisis. Also if a bunch of bank notes with duplicate serial numbers started getting traced back to him, he would have even more of the attention that he wanted to avoid right now.
No. Creation was better used as he was planning to use it now. As a way to produce rare materials and expensive products for in house use. It wouldn’t make money, but it would cut expenses and save plenty of money they would otherwise spend on acquisition.
…Also as a coffee maker. The coffee nomu with a copy of Create, and a computer plugged into its head with every coffee recipe his AI could scrape from the web, could make any brew of coffee available to mankind, and was his single greatest creation to date.
Needless to say, there was a lot of nuance that went into the use of Creation, but one thing that couldn’t be denied, was that it functioned as a decent lightshow.
Izuku’s band of abducted Villains gawked as he led them across a metal walkway that overlooked an entire floor dedicated to nothing but rows and rows of tanks. Each contained a strange creature that had been specially engineered to best use the Creation quirk. Strange rotund balls of fat that had no limbs, precious few organs, and a brain so primitive its only purpose was to visualize the atomic information the computer fed into it.
Nutrient and carbohydrate paste was pumped in through tubes at the top. Factory parts, machine pieces, and various raw materials rolled out on conveyor belts at the bottom.
But unlike the quirk’s original owner, who produced dazzling rainbow lights when she used her quirk, the Nomu only let out a consistent dim white glow. It illuminated the green sludge of the vats, and reflected off the glass in ways that painted the walls and ceiling in a nauseating tapestry of slowly moving sickly green.
This, he felt, was a good place to wrap up the beginners tour.
Abruptly he stopped walking and turned to face the three behind him- seven if you count the Crows acting as escorts, and Kuin who was acting as the rear guard to make sure no one got the itch to touch the machinery while he wasn’t looking.
“You’ve heard my reasons for why I do what I do, you’ve listened to me explain my views on quirks and why I believe they’re the root from which so many problems in our society sprout from, you’ve seen my lab and what the forces that I can bring to bear to further my aims. Surely, you must understand what I can offer.”
His eyes drifted over the three Villains he had brought here.
“Your quirks do not fit you. Not only are they fundamentally flawed, they work in ways that actively hinder you. In some ways they’re closer to curses than blessings.
“A quirk that is incapable of being used without putting its user in the middle of a cloud of toxic gas that they themselves are not immune to, and endangers any nearby allies at the same time.” He said as he looked at Mustard.
“A heat quirk that doesn’t come with the heat resistance to match, making any usage very painful, and any use of its full output incredibly dangerous to its user.” He said as he looked at Dabi.
“A quirk that gives urges so strong it actively rewires the brain, and gives a twisted need for connection that forces a change in the owner's view of social reality, and what they view as morally correct.” He said as he looked at Toga.
Izuku stood up straight and looked down on the three with glowing green eyes.
“I can fix you. I can put you back together. I can make you whole. All I need in return is your loyalty.”
Mustard seemed very excited, looking at Izuku like he was a savior of some sort, which was the opposite of Toga who couldn’t even hide how unnerved she was at the idea. She already was normal! Did she even want to be “fixed”? And Dabi…
“Nice speech, but none of that matters to me.” Dabi said as he stepped forward, ignoring how the Crows tensed behind him. “Where’s Endeavor? What did you do to him? That’s the only thing that will determine how many of us walk away alive.”
Izuku looked at him with a curious expression, and waved at Kuin to stand down.
“Kuin, could you take Mustard and Toga to the waiting room and get them something to eat? I’ll be with them shortly. Dabi, you’re Endeavor’s son, correct? Follow me.”
-Rain of Sins-
In one of UA’s numerous reinforced training gyms, two of the world’s top Heroes were running their student of choice through a gauntlet that would have had the majority of certified professional Heroes calling it quits after only a few hours, but Mirio had been going all day and showed no signs of tapping out anytime soon.
Toshinori envied the boy’s energy, and felt a swell of pride at how he kept pushing himself up to keep going.
He watched Star and Stripe methodically break apart Mirio’s defensive stance, throw him into the mat, and then pull him back to his feet to explain what he’d done wrong.
Toshinori smiled wryly at the stubborn and determined look on Mirio’s face, it reminded him of Nana.
Nana…
His eyes fell to his scrawny left hand of his deflated form.
A few days ago, he’d felt the intensity of One For All begin to drain, like water from the bottom of a cracked bucket. He’d panicked, but it quickly slowed, then stopped all together, and hadn’t happened again since.
He hadn’t lost much, maybe only a twentieth of his maximum output, but it was still concerning. Was this because of how broken his body was? Had he held onto it for too long? Was the power starting to “spill out” because he couldn’t hold it all?
Nezu seemed to think so, and continued to urge him to pick a successor ASAP. Japan needed the next symbol of peace, and it needed it now.
If anything, this might have been a blessing in disguise, just as much as it was a warning. A small drain in One for All’s power would make it easier for a new holder to adapt to without breaking their body- and they would be prepared to handle it as the quirk built up that power again over time.
Toshinori sighed, hesitation hooking into his mind. If Nighteye’s suspicions were right, and he felt in his heart that they were, All for One was still out there somewhere. Could he really curse a bright innocent soul to a fight he failed to finish?
What would Nana say in this situation?
He closed his eyes and put his hand over his heart, thinking back to his treasured memories of the brightest time in his life. To the woman who was the closest thing he’d ever had to a mother.
“Go on you big clutz, it’s not like you haven't already made up your mind. You just like being dramatic!”
Toshinori smiled weakly. Yeah, she would say something like that, wouldn’t she? It was almost like he could hear her inside his heart at times.
A small but dramatic explosion of steam interrupted the spar, and both Mirio and Star looked over in surprise as All Might waved over at them with a blinding smile.
“MIRIO, COME HERE MY BOY!”
Mirio glanced at Star who just shrugged and gave him a shove on the back towards All Might.
All Might’s smile softened into a smaller, more sincere one as Mirio sat next to him.
“Did you know that Nighteye used to talk about you constantly?” He spoke somberly, remembering his old friend. “He would tell me all about this upstart student he had. He would complain about how it was criminal that UA was squandering your potential, and said he had no doubts that one day you’d be great enough to replace both of us.”
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“Really? Sir said all that?”
“He did. And he told me very specifically never to tell you, or that ‘his incredibly thick skull could risk becoming as thick as yours, Toshinori’.”
“Ah, that does sound like Sir.” Mirio smiled weakly, and his fists clenched on the bench. “He was always looking out for everyone, even if it wasn’t in a way you would expect.”
“Yeah. Yeah he was, wasn’t he?”
All Might thought back to all the times Nighteye had tried to push for him to retire, to choose a successor, and how he held steadfast no matter how bad their arguments got. He breathed in a deep breath and let out a weight he’d been carrying for a long long time.
“Mirio Togata, no, Lemillion. Would you be willing to become my successor?”
-Rain of Sins-
Down and down the elevator went,taking Dabi ever deeper into the depths of the Origin Lab, all the way to one of the most bottom floors. Once he stepped out the Sovereign led him through a maze of twisting halls that were constantly patrolled by groups of Crows, Nomu, and other unnatural abominations.
It was freezing, with flakes of ice sporadically dotted along the walls, and even with his body’s natural heat, he found himself shivering for the first time in years. All of the doors they passed were tightly sealed airtight, and made of heavily reinforced black metal, but the few glances he got inside a few as they were opening or closing, really made him wish he hadn’t gotten the chance to see in the first place.
Eventually Izuku led him into a large room with a single tank hooked into the back wall.
Inside was Endeavor, Enji Todoroki, his father.
“You kept him alive!?” Dabi said through gritted teeth as waves of conflicting emotions swirled around inside him. Getting revenge on this man for everything he’d done to Dabi and his family, was what he’d dedicated his entire life to, it was all he had.
He was happy that someone else hadn’t had the chance to take his rightful kill! He was livid that despite everything this piece of shit was somehow still alive! Someone was going out of their way to keep him alive! He deserved to die!
“I didn’t do it out of the goodness of my heart, I can assure you of that.” Izuku said as he walked over towards the tank, his footsteps echoing ominously in the silent room. “I was so angry, so hateful, I wanted him to go through what he put me through. I wanted him to know what it was like to lose everything. I wanted him to wake up with no quirk, no legacy, and find that every piece of the career he spent his entire life dedicated to has been completely erased. I wanted him to die slowly, cold, and alone, with the knowledge that the name Endeavor will be buried in the history books to be hated and forgotten.”
Izuku looked up at Endeavor in silence for a few seconds before clicking his tongue and turning around with a flutter of his coat.
“I was emotional, and let that get the better of my logical judgment- it’s a problem that I’m working on. I have other things I cannot afford to ignore any longer. So do what you will with him.” The scientist said with a wave of his hand as he walked past Dabi and towards the door. “Kill him yourself, or release him from stasis and let the disease I’ve planted in his chest devour his heart over the next week, I don’t care anymore.”
He paused at the doorway and looked back over his shoulder spitefully. “I’ve spent so much time chasing him down like a dog, and it hasn’t done me any good. It hasn’t brought my mother back, and it’s only brought unwanted attention to me. I’ll give you ten minutes alone, I don’t care what you do anymore, just as long as he dies.”
The door slammed shut with a bang, leaving Dabi alone with his father.
He looked up at Endeavor’s floating defenseless body, and considered Izuku’s words.
-Rain of Sins-
Mustard looked down at the half empty (half full!) cup of coffee in his hands, with a pensive expression.
“Can you really fix my quirk?”
“Easily.” Izuku answered instantly without even having to consider it. “If I can fix Dabi’s quirk, and the things wrong with her in general-” he nodded over to where Toga was sitting in a corner, biting her lip, and thinking over Izuku’s offer. “-then I can fix yours easily. If you want, not only could I make you immune to your specific blend of gas, I could make you immune to the majority of airborne toxins and chemical weapons as well. All it would take is some tinkering with your lungs.”
It was a scene so mind boggling that Mustard almost couldn’t wrap his mind around it. The Sovereign of Sins, the spook, the top rated Villain in all of Japan, was casually lounging on the couch across from him and offering to fix all his life’s problems in exchange for accepting a job. A well paying job at that.
“Could you give me more control over it somehow? Like, the ability to choose who’s affected by it? I feel like I’m never able to run at full percent, and always wind up dragging my friends down, because if I ever use my quirk, they get caught in it as well.”
“That’s… not how chemicals work.” Izuku said slowly. “But I can see your issue. You’re a fan of guns, correct? That’s how you’ve been subsidizing your combat ability even when you can’t use your quirk?”
“Yeah, but like-” Mustard winced and pulled a rinky dink revolver from his belt. It was the very last of the stockpile that he’d stolen, with everything else either destroyed or out of ammo. “Everything nowadays is scaled up to fit in with Heroes and Villains who can take out whole buildings in one punch, so everyone worth their salt is either too big or too tough for anything but heavy rounds to do jack shit.”
Izuku drummed his fingers on the couch for a few seconds while staring at Mustard.
“Follow me.”
-Rain of Sins-
Mei usually hummed a lively tune to herself as she worked, but the mood of her workshop that was usually full of music blaring in the background, barely audible over the clanking of dozens of machines, was much more… melancholy than usual. It had been for almost a week now.
That massive lizard she’d seen on the news, that wasn’t natural, there was no way that could have happened in nature, it had to have been manmade. And she’d built something capable of growing something that size, and with that complexity.
There was also the first ever footage of the Sovereign, plastered over every single news channel. It was grainy, and the helicopter had taken it from a far distance, but she would recognize her babies anywhere.
Why hadn’t she asked why he wanted gauntlets that could shoot syringes and pump gas into the air around him? Those weren’t normal requests!
Mei yelped in surprise as the door to her workshop opened, dropping her wrench to the floor with a clang.
Speak of the devil. In walked Izuku, not even bothering to hide his Villain outfit from her anymore. He gave her a nod of genuine appreciation, and motioned for her to come over.
“Mei, it’s good to see you! I know I haven’t been around a lot recently, but I want to say that you’ve been doing phenomenal work. Would you mind giving my friend and I a brief rundown of Project Atlas, which you’ve been working on?”
There was someone behind him, a short boy she hadn’t even noticed since she was so distracted with her boss. He was short, with sandy hair, and was cradling a broken gas mask helmet in his hands.
“O-Of course!” Mei shot up with a smile, trying to not let any of her thoughts show on her face, and led them over to the far corner of her workshop.
Suspended to a large steep support frame by heavy wires, was a massive robot. It was bulky and imposing, giving it an intimidating presence. The design was industrial and functional, built to do its job not to be pretty, with visible mechanical joints and hydraulic systems, and armor made of dull reinforced metal plates that covered the whole thing from head to toe.
“This is the All-Terrain Loadbearing Augmentation Suit, or just Atlas, like the guy who held up the world in ancient Greek mythos.”
Mei spared a glance at Izuku. Do you know what was also a Greek myth? The sea monster Charbydis. What a coincidence.
“You might be able to tell from the bulky part around the mouth, but the helmet includes an integrated rebreather as well as a chemical filter. The torso section is heavily armored, and the heaviest part of the entire device. This is important because the back is where the exhaust vents and cooling units are, which are crucial for the suit’s operation- and to keep the user from being cooked alive.
“The arms are covered in segmented armor plates which protect the hydraulic pistons and servo motors that assist with movement, lift strength, grip strength, and punching power.
“The legs are similarly armored, with large, plated thigh guards, knee pads, and shin guards. The boots are heavy and reinforced, designed to protect against landmines, explosions, spikes, or anything shooting up from the ground. The suit’s weight is frankly ridiculous, and only someone like All Might could walk around with it if the power shuts off and the built-in servos stop working. But when it’s at 100% this baby can let you lift a whole cargo container without breaking a sweat!”
Yeah. Cargo containers. Because when she was asked to design and build this, she was told it was supposed to be used on construction sites. Why did a construction suit need to be protected from land mines!?!??
“Waoh.” Mustard whistled in appreciation as he approached the massive suit and looked up at its dull dark green visor, which reflected his own weak body back at him. It was kind of like MJOLNIR armor, but even Bigger and more steampunk-y!
“Impressive, isn’t it?” Izuku chuckled. “I myself wear a downscaled version of it, without any of the armor, under my coat. It connects my gauntlets to my spine, to my legs, and I can attest to its ability. Increased speed, increased strength, it’s very useful.”
“Can I try it on?”
“NO!” Mei shrieked. “It’s not finished! The servos are too powerful, I haven't figured out a way to soften their pull on the person inside, if you try it on now, it’ll tear your limbs off if you throw a punch!”
Mustard gulped and took a pointed step away from the armor. “Yikes. Why even show it to me, then?”
“Because with it, you’d be able to use much larger equipment, without any hassle. And you’d be able to use ammunition calibers that traditional designers have eschewed from using, due to the physical limitations of the human body.”
Like how much recoil your arm could take before the bones shattered.
“But he’s not going to use it.” Mei stressed. “Because it would kill normal people.”
Izuku smirked at her knowingly, as he fished something out of his coat.
“Well it’s a good thing that no one under my employ is ever limited to just normal.”
He held up a vial full of light blue liquid- a perfected version of the serum he’d used on himself so long ago.
-Rain of Sins-
“We’re working with that man because our goals are roughly in the same direction, but with Endeavor taken care of, the time we stop being useful to each other is much closer than before. Still a ways off, but closer. But the Spook has taken an interest in you everytime you're around. No doubt what he’s taken an interest in is your quirk, and the strange ways it messes with your head. If he ever approaches you with an offer you are to accept it, and use the opportunity to get on his good side. He is a dangerous man, and when the time comes that we must part ways, we will need every ounce of inside information on him that we can get.”
Toga repeated Stain’s order over and over in her head. This was exactly the opportunity the Blood Guard needed to prepare for if the Sovereign ever became a threat. She’d been prepared to give it her all, she really had, but…
Did she really want him to mess with her head?
“I can fix you.”
Just remembering those words made her shiver. She didn’t need to be fixed, she wasn’t some toy to be taken apart and put back together, she was fine the way she was, she already was normal! Because if she wasn’t that meant that her mamma, and all those evil evil doctors that zapped her, had been right about her all along. That all those kids had been right to call her names.
Besides, what if he put her back together wrong? What if the person he put back together wasn’t her anymore!?
Toga bit her lip and pulled her legs closer to her chest, trying to conserve the little warmth her hoodie gave her down here. Why did her life have to be so complicated? Why couldn’t she just have friends that weren’t scared of her, and why couldn’t the police let her drink a little blood without chasing her down like she was a monster?
Why did she have to be the one to let the dark and brooding scientist mess with her head? She’d had plenty of doctors try to “fix” her when she was little, and it always hurt so much.
…
Toga took a deep breath and blew out a cloud of fog. Because she was doing this for Stain, for the Blood Guard, for the only real family she’d ever had. That was why.
She pushed herself to her feet and started walking towards that weird bee girl, to give her an answer.
-Rain of Sins-
In her tank at the bottom floor of the Origin Lab, Ev3 twisted and writhed around in suspended animation. Everything hurt, and the back of her neck burned like it was on fire.
The mechanical arms with dozens of sharp and pointy things retracted away from her, and she hoped she never had to see them again. Every time they came out there seemed to be more of them and they always seemed to hurt even worse than the last time,
“Only three survived? Damn, that’s… really not great.”
“The fact that three have survived this long is a massive improvement from the first four batches. If you remember, none of those even got past stage two.”
Ev3 could hear the men outside her tank clearly, and understood the words easily. Every time the sharp metal hands cut into her they would always give her something by the end of it. Better eyesight, better hearing, faster healing, even plugging some sort of device into her head that taught her all sorts of things she would need to know to best follow commands. Things like language.
“Hey, you know I’ve been wondering, what’s up with this one’s tank?”
“V3? That one’s been a massive headache the entire process.”
There was… something wrong with her tank?
“It’s been flexing its quirks the most out of every specimen by a large margin, its energy creation quirk especially. The system hits it with sedatives every time, before it gets out of control, but it always damages the tank a bit. We repair as we go, but at this point it needs to be completely replaced. And we can’t exactly try to swap V3 to a new tank without risking it blowing everything up in the brief transfer time where it’s not being pumped full of quirk suppressants.”
Wait, energy creation? That was her quirk? And it was being suppressed?
“Damn, even Entropy isn’t keeping it off? Must be a crazy powerful quirk. Now I’m glad we’re almost done here, and won’t have to deal with it anymore.”
“Yeah. It just gets rowdier every day, so it’s a good thing that’ll all stop after the next procedure. Either it dies, or the lobotomy keeps it from thinking ever again.”
The two shared a laugh, and Ev3 whimpered as the doctors walked away, tears pricked at the corners of her eyes only to mix into the fluid of the tank as if they didn’t even exist.
She didn’t want to stop thinking.
She didn’t want to die.
-Chapter End-