Giran knew he was a greedy man. His greed was so great that even with the wealth he already had, he was still unsatisfied.
It was this greed that led him to the path of crime.
He had once started as any other ordinary, aspiring business man. His wits and greed, drove him to be the best at his field as he could be which led to his success. Giran was known as a rising star in the business world in his youth as he had acquired and successfully led several chains, but...
It wasn't enough.
His greed demanded more.
He demanded more.
More gold, more wealth, more jewels, more diamonds, more reds, more blues, more greens, more yellows, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more!
He felt like he was going insane!
His greed knew no bounds. The more he obtained to feed his greed, the more his greed demanded leading to a spiral that he could not escape from.
He tried to acquire more businesses. He tried to lead them better; to get more profits...
It wasn't enough.
Giran wasn't satisfied with how much he began to make with his business chains. He felt as if they were not coming in fast enough. He felt as if those he owned were not enough. It was this feeling that led him to the Criminal Underbelly of Society.
It were simple requests at first like the acquisition of certain materials that his clients could not get without raising a lot of questions. Then came the demand for information on certain people, places, events; anything and everything that he could get his hands on. After that were requests for the acquisition of rarer materials; some of them legal, some of them very illegal.
Giran couldn't believe his eyes with the amount of money that kept coming in.
Crime doesn't pay, my ass, he once thought.
With the amount of money that came in both from his legal businesses and underworld contracts he felt that for once, maybe his greed could be satisfied. It was with this thought that he completed his contracts and earned his way to infamy.
As his illegal business empire grew, rumours of him began to spread. They said that if one had enough money, Giran was the man who could get you anything.
He loved those rumours. It gave him a big reputation among the other denizens of the shadows of society and it brought him more clientele to do business with. He reveled in those rumours as they granted him more wealth.
... It was also these rumours that led these monsters to him.
... Dust floated slowly-gently-on to the ground as wide, crazed eyes stared into his own pair...
... "Party with me, or this is what will happen to your Avatar."...
"Ne~, what's the update on our side-quest?"
Pale blue, shoulder length hair shifted as he leaned back on the couch.
Giran lightly tugged at his white collar as a sweat slightly built up on his skin.
"It, is going well,"
He mentally cursed at the hitch in his voice when he spoke. He could already feel the amused smirk directed at him and that did not fill him with anything other than trepidation.
"The acquisition of the sample has been done. As we speak, it is being delivered to the extraction point to move it to one of our labs."
Giran's face was carefully schooled into a mask of an arrogant smirk and half-lidded eyes. He did his best to hide the fear that was in his heart. Projecting a confident front, he looked into the eyes of his recent employer trying-and most likely failing, if the increased amusement is any evidence-to show that he was not afraid as he gave his response.
A childish giggle echoed within the walls of the location he was brought to.
"Oh~! That's good, that's good! We only have to finish the next part of the chain side quest to finish!"
Maddened eyes lit up with childish joy as his legs folded beneath him. Jumping up and down with a rocking motion, the crazed man-child clapped his hands as he laughed wildly.
For the first time that night, Giran felt his tense shoulders relax knowing that his employer was in a good enough mood if the level of immaturity he was displaying was anything to go by.
Lightly fiddling with the light brown scarf wrapped around his neck, he began to observe the room he was sent into.
He was in his office earlier located in downtown Hosu when a misty, black portal opened in front of him. Knowing what it was and what it meant, he entered immediately and was sent to this room in front of his employer.
It looked like a private room in a bar he had visited to meet with a client once. It was spacious but not overly big with walls covered in reddish brown bricks giving it a retro atmosphere. There were no doors that he could see meaning there would be no exit he could use. The floor were shiny, waxed, wood panels smoothly placed against the other that there was no space in between each plank. An air-conditioner was placed at the top of the wall to his right; it was the only wall that was not covered in bricks but instead was made of cement and painted in dark green. On the ceiling was a modest chandelier with electric light bulbs that provided sufficient illumination. Two black leather couches were placed facing each other at the center with a small coffee table in between them.
That is where he was currently seated.
"Can you tell me the play-by-play?"
Giran acquiesced and began to apprise his employer of his mercenaries' report. While doing this, he took the time to observe his employer.
Shigaraki Tomura was a tall, lanky man. His body was thin, belying his strength and speed. Clad in only a black shirt and pants, he was not someone one would think as menacing. Untamed, medium length pale blue hair covered most of his face; those that were not hidden by the severed hand he insists to put on his face, anyway. Uncovered hands showed wrinkled and dry skin.
Shigaraki looked to be a young man in his late teens based on the details that Giran could see. If his employer were to walk around the city in disguise he was sure that nobody would be able to recognize the dangerous villain in their midst.
... That is, if nobody would be able to see his eyes.
If there was one thing that Giran could recognize about this man-child currently spellbound by the overly-detailed report submitted by the mercenaries he had hired, it was that Shigaraki is absolutely insane.
There was something inherently wrong with Shigaraki Tomura.
Insanity was a common occurrence with those whose quirks required special needs. If those needs were not met, it usually led to the degradation of the mind or mental pollution. Most cases like these, however, were luckily easy enough to identify and if treated early can reduce the effects of the mental pollution.
This was not the case for Shigaraki Tomura.
Giran could tell that Shigaraki's insanity was different. The madness swimming in his gaze, it was something that did not belong to a human being. There was something inherently wrong with it.
It was something twisted.
Something that differed from what could be perceived as the natural order.
Something... distorted.
The multiple severed hands that he knew Shigaraki had personally hunted down and liberated from their previous owners that laid themselves on his body only served to prove this point.
"Then," it was an abrupt change in tone. The laughing man-child was gone and in his place was the murderous psychopath that had dragged Giran into his organisation with a noose tied around his neck.
"What about the other quest I gave you?"
It was a whiplash of emotions and moods for any other person, but for Giran who had been exposed to this for an extended period of time, he was able to ignore it; though with great difficulty. There was a neutral-if not jovial-air before but now, killing intent suffused the atmosphere of the room.
Images of various ways he could be disintegrated ran through his mind, filling Giran with fear. Sweat broke out on his skin, and shivers wracked his body. Once more, he could only wonder how could he get out of this without dying.
But that would be pointless, he thought, how do you predict the actions of the insane?
"Everything is going according to plan. Pressure has been steadily building and we should be ready for the next phase."
Really, he felt that he should be given an award for this. To be able to maintain his composure-fake as it is-in this type of charged atmosphere, surely not everyone can do so.
Five months ago, he had been given a mission by the man in front of him:
Steal the secrets of Vibranium.
It was an insane mission with a high chance of failure, Giran knew. For sure, he didn't want to do it but when one is confronted with the threat of a painful death, he had no choice but to do as he was commanded to do.
Vibranium was a valuable resource that was known as the rarest substance in the world. It was a synthetic material developed by the Yaoyorozu patriarch in the hopes of creating one of the most versatile fictional metals in history.
Its rarity was such that even with extensive effort and research, its production could only be available to the world in two tons per month.
Vibranium, like its fictional counterpart, was capable of absorbing ambient sound and oscillations and even kinetic energy; making it one of the best metals that could store, direct and conduct energy. This unique property of the metal also had the capability of making it stronger and announced its existence as the strongest metal on Earth. The unique radiation Vibranium emits is also a highly researched subject with its results producing great advancements to medicine, agriculture and many more branches of science.
A single gram of Vibranium is worth $11,000+ in the world market making it one of the most expensive metals in the world with a chance of getting more expensive depending on its grade and purity.
With its inherent value, the countries that could afford the metal guarded their supply like a dragon would guard its hoard. The limited amounts of the material had produced many research projects into creating something that could rival and, perhaps, replace the versatile metal.
Many have tried and many have failed.
The only one that could claim partial success was the Center of Natural Sciences based in Zurich, Switzerland and their creation: Tyrium (They wanted to call it Adamantium but they thought that it was too on the nose when the Yaoyorozu patriarch named his creation after the original fictional material. They decided to name it after the Norse God of Justice, Tyr, instead.).
Even then, Tyrium could only be truly comparable to one aspect of Vibranium: its sheer durability.
Many wanted to be the next Suzuki Yaoyorozu, who had cemented his name into history, by replicating and then surpassing the most revolutionary substance in the past millenium and many more will surely fall short.
Nobody knows how Vibranium was made; not even the workers who work in Yaoyorozu's factories knew how make them. The secret lies solely in the head of the Yaoyorozu patriarch.
... And Shigaraki wants him to get that secret. The man-child had also ordered him to steal a sample of the miracle metal.
See?
Crazy.
It was with much difficulty but Giran had been able to steal a sample of Vibranium from China through a lot of bribes, blackmail and plain old luck.
10 grams.
That was the total amount of Vibranium that he was able to acquire even with the extensive measures that he had used. Though small in quantity with just this amount, it was enough and phase one was done.
Phase two...
Giran grimaced at the amount of effort he had to place to even get a chance to take a step forward towards completing his objective.
HeavyArms Industries, Inc. was one of the front companies created by his employers-one that he was now the head of. It was known as a reputable and reliable parts manufacturer for Enhanced Ability Devices also known as EADs; the people who bought their products not knowing that it was a front to cover the illegal actions and to provide the fundings for their underground organization: The League of Villains.
Once more, Giran could only grimace at the cheesy name. Though it was just a throw-away name, couldn't they have chosen something better, he thought.
For three months, he led a shadow war with one of the biggest companies in the world and engaged in corporate sabotage. He did all he could to securely cover his tracks but even then, he was almost caught a couple dozen times.
And now, he just needed to secure one more piece and those three months of effort would be worth it.
A glint shined in his eyes-one that Shigaraki mirrored; malice and satifaction heavy in his expression.
"As we speak, I have sent the people who can get us what we need to fulfill the mission you gave me," Giran leaned into his own couch as he crossed his legs and laid an arm at the back of his seat.
"The key to our objective is at hand! Soon, Momo Yaoyorozu will be ours... "
"Hoh~?"
Shigaraki expressed an impressed voice as Giran grinned with full confidence.
"You seem so sure... Giran~"
"Of course I am."
Shigaraki got up from his seat as Giran immediately replied. A familiar misty, black portal spiralled into existence at the wall to their left. Giran merely watched as Shigaraki approached the void between spaces.
He stopped.
"By the way,"
Giran was familiar with the way Shigaraki spoke. He was a child who grew into a man but never had the chance to let his mind grow too. He spoke with a flighty tone befitting a child and yet carefully hid a great cruelty that he could whimsically unleash to the unwary.
He had never heard him speak so seriously.
Standing in front of a misty void, one that looked like it had cut a hole through existence, he stood with a slouch as though he were just a bored teen, but the way his profile stood out against the void made him all the more menacing.
"You do know that if this fails, our plans will be pushed back by quite the margin?"
Giran nodded unable to find his voice to reply.
"If that happens... I'll erase you from existence."
Shigaraki turned away from his subordinate and passed through the space between worlds and vanished into their dark embrace.
Giran sat frozen in seat as he contemplated the words that he heard.
Shigaraki had not left him a promise.
He had left a statement.
There were no if's or but's whether he would go through his words. For the first time in so long... as he sat on his seat, ignoring the portal that awaited his departure, Giran prayed for his continuous good health and for the success of his mercenaries' mission.
()
"-And more news regarding the kidnapping of the various distinguished guests of the Musutafu Annual Charity Ball will be reported by our on-site correspondent..."
Hijiri listened listlessly as she sat on a couch in front of the television. Her eyes were blank as she watched the reporter buzz around the garden villa they had just been in together with the police who were investigating.
After the surprising attack by an unknown group of people, Izuku had taken her and Momo towards a hidden residence bought under his name completely equipped for both safety and comfort. Momo had asked why they were not going back to the Yaoyorozu mansion and her attendant had replied, It was not safe, he said.
Izuku had gone as far as to contact the rest of the staff in the mansion and told them to evacuate using the routes he had prepared. Though most of the attention would surely be on them, he wanted to keep the staff safe.
Hijiri had asked why he had thought that in a somewhat panicked tone and Izuku had explained to them his reasons.
Since the assailants had attacked the party, there may be a chance that they recognize the people who had attended the event; they may have the list of attendees. Though Izuku did not know what their objective was, if they were so certain of their success as to initiate such a brazen attack, they would have investigated each person thoroughly.
Though it was merely a conjecture-a cautious guess at most-that Izuku had made, unknown to him, he had not been wrong. The mercenary unit of the Russian PMC Equilibrium had not been careless. They had investigated who would be surrounding their target to efficiently finish the mission.
Their plan to kidnap Momo would have been successful had they not forgotten to investigate who would be accompanying her. Their investigation into Izuku had been lacking at best and arrogant at the worst. As soon as they saw that he was merely her personal servant and his relative age, they had skipped over him entirely after skimming through the surface of his records-records that were created by the Yaoyorozu.
This was their mistake.
Since they had not researched his information thoroughly, they wouldn't have known that aside from being her personal servant, Izuku was also the Yaoyorozu daughter's trusted Guardian.
He had then continued that when they notice that she and Momo are not with the other guests they had kidnapped, they will know that they had escaped and one of the places they would surely go to would be the Yaoyorozu mansion.
Based on the speed of their attack, he thought that they would also be thorough in making sure that no one would be able to escape them.
Momo had agreed with Izuku seeing that even with all the security measures that the mansion had installed, they were not meant to last under a concentrated assault of what seemed to be a military unit.
Hijiri sighed as she leaned back into the comfortable leather couch of the rather luxurious residence that Izuku called a hideout.
When Hijiri had heard that Izuku was taking her and her friend to a safe house that he had prepared for situations such as these, she had expected an abandoned warehouse or a plain house. She did not expect a two-story house furnished with exquisite decor in the upper district of Musutafu.
This, is not what I was expecting, she thought.
... "Nothing less will be good enough for milady." The serious glint in his eyes told them that he believed what he had said as the truth. The sun rose from the east, humans need to breathe, and his mistress deserves only the best!...
Hijiri groaned into her hands as she tried to process the events of the night.
She saw movement from the corner of her eye and lifted her head back up.
Clink
The sound of porcelain laid down upon the coffee table reached her ears just as the pleasant aroma of warm tea reached her nose.
Hijiri breathed in the aroma letting it calm her thoughts. She saw Momo sit beside her and offer a small apologetic smile; a reassuring one on her own lips.
"How are you?"
Momo asked as she took a sip of her own Chamomile tea.
"I'm fine," she replied.
No, she was not. Momo could tell that she was lying if the slightly accusing eyes directed at her were anything to go by.
Hijiri's thoughts were a mess and her heart had not calmed down yet at the least. Her bubbling panic may have gone down now that they were not in danger, but it hadn't disappeared.
They were in danger.
They had almost been kidnapped.
Before she had gained her fame and fortune, before she had befriended the master and servant duo, Hijiri had been an ordinary girl you could see walking down the streets. Unlike Momo, she had not been trained to expect these situations and what to do during these times.
She only ever expected to experience danger like this through the television showing Villain attacks and such.
Poke
"Eep!"
A small squeel escaped her lips as she felt a finger poke her ribs. Scooting away from her touchy friend, Hijiri glared at Momo.
Still in a position with a finger extended, Momo returned Hijiri's glare before returning to her tea.
"Do not lie to me," she said. "You know I dislike liars."
Hijiri lost her glare and apologized at the small reminder. Seeing Hijiri slightly wilt, Momo, too, lost her glare as her features softened into an apologetic mien.
"I'm sorry if I was being a bit harsh, Hijiri-chan. I'm just worried about you."
Any last bits of resistance that was in her heart disappeared as Hijiri looked at Momo's worried face.
Momo had always been the most maternal between the two of them. Her friend's strong maternal instincts had lead her to being the worrywart and the most mature one among their group rivaled only in maturity by Izuku.
"You don't need to apologize, Momo-chan."
Hijiri shook her head as she knew that her friend would continue to apologize if she had said nothing.
"I guess, it's just that, ... this would be a first for me."
"A first?"
Momo tilted her head at the odd choice of words Hijiri used.
"Mm," Hijiri nodded. "We've been through a lot of misadventures, the three of us. But, I think that this would be the first time we got involved in a hostage and kidnapping attempt as the victims, right?"
That would be true.
She and Momo could still remember the various incidents that their odd luck led them to. They could remember their bizzare adventures ranging from randomly helping a cat stuck in a tree to somehow rapidly escalating to assisting a child escape her captors/tormentors and other adventures.
"Somehow, I can now understand how it must have felt like for those people we occasionally helped."
Curling into herself on the couch, Hijiri hid her face in her arms. She could feel her heart hammer into her chest as if it was trying to escape. The emotions she felt as they ran away in Izuku's arms coursed through her veins once more and a shiver ran through her spine.
"The terror of not knowing what was going to happen, the knowledge that you were about to see something bad, the shock at knowing that out of millions, this event was happening to you, the confusion and questions on why it had to be yourself..."
Momo listened to her words with an understanding expression; her tea left forgotten and cold on the surface of the coffee table for quite some time. She showed no disdain at the weakness displayed before her nor did she give her friend pity knowing that the headstrong Hijiri would not appreciate it.
It was something Hijiri appreciated if the slight smile she had flashed Momo be any evidence.
"Though-thankfully-we were not put in danger due to Izuku's swift response, those emotions that I felt were certainly real."
She knew that she was rambling at this point and Hijiri could only be thankful of her friend's patience.
Airing out her thought, her feelings like this, she felt as if a weight that had settled unnoticed on her shoulders had gotten lighter and that the jumbled mess of emotions she currently was going through was finally calming down.
"I guess what I'm trying to say is that, I think I can understand what those people are going through right now-even if my understanding is incomparable to the terror and uncertainty that they are still going through."
Hijiri grimaced at the thought of other people experiencing those same emotions for an even longer period.
Momo nodded in understanding as she was not unfamiliar with the particular sentiment. She herself had been the victim of numerous kidnappings.
In fact, she thought with a slight smile on her face, wasn't that how we first met?
... The sound of screeching wheels...
... Shards of glass flying frozen in the air...
... Black, as dark as the night sky and as bright as the stars that adorn it, matched still and brilliant emeralds...
Hijiri saw the small smile and the distracted stare of her friend and figured that she must be remembering something again; something that must be related to her precious attendant. Hijiri could only fondly roll her eyes at this and was briefly distracted from the feelings that were churning in her chest.
Momo shook her head to chase away her thoughts and looked back at Hijiri who had an amused smile on her face.
While she was glad that her friend was no longer depressed, she couldn't help but feel embarrassed at the face of that smile as she could tell that there was something about it that made her flustered-she just didn't know what.
"I can understand what you mean, Hijiri-chan. You can even say that I've been around the block!"
Hijiri gave a small laugh at Momo's exaggerated wink. Her friend's small joke, doing a great deal in softening the lingering tension in the living room.
Momo grasped her friend's hands and cupped them in her own in a comforting gesture. Her eyes softened and shone with care for a friend in distress.
"I know how it feels too, Hijiri-chan. The feelings that you feel, I have felt them too-for too many times in my opinion.
"I can understand your distress and I can sympathize with the helplessness that you are feeling. I've been where you are now."
Hijiri turned her head aside, unwilling to show Momo the true depths of her emotions even as she spoke the truth.
Her friend paid her action no mind and continued to comfort her.
"But there is no need to worry you know?
"Distress will fade away, and resolve will replace it. The helplessness you feel will then be replaced with the desire to get stronger; to never feel such ever again."
Her eyes burned with flames that Hijiri had often seen in her friend but were usually hidden beneath her pleasant demeanor. These were flames that never seemed to dim even in the face of overwhelming odds and unexpected situations.
Hijiri sometimes wondered where these flames came from, but it was not something that she would ask as she already knew what they were.
Desire.
Determination.
Ambition.
It was a hope to be stronger, to be better.
It was a dream for the her of tomorrow to surpass the one of today.
As Momo had said, she had been dipped into the pool of despair and drowned in helplessness, but she was pulled out of that pit. She was given something that made her desire a future where she could stand strong.
Even if that future was not something that she could easily see nor easily reach, she dreamt of that future where she could stand side by side with the one who had pulled her out of her despair and loneliness.
"You also don't need to worry about the other guest who were taken."
Hijiri scrunched her brows in confusion.
Why did she need to say that?, she thought. She knew that Momo knew that she was worried about the other people in the gala, but why did she need to reassure her of their safety? She already knew that the police and heroes were on the case and that this should be resolved soon.
Hijiri opened her mouth to question why Momo needed to mention the other guests when a thought came to her. Immediately, she began to look for the other person who was supposed to be there with them.
She tried to listen for a sound-a hint-that they were there, but all she could hear was her own breathing and that of Momo's.
(Not that she would be able to hear him anyway had he decided that he wanted no one to be aware of him.)
Hijiri turned to her companion and saw that she had already changed their cold tea for a warmer one.
"Momo-chan..."
"Yes?"
There was an amused lilt to Momo's words that was not there earlier. She was very aware of what was going through her friend's thoughts.
"Where is Izuku-kun?"
Hijiri watched as her friend poured her and herself tea.
She watched as Momo picked up her cup and saucer.
She watched as Momo took a sip of hot tea and graced her with a stare that seemed to smile.
"Who knows?"
()
Light twisted and churned in a hypnotic dance; his eyes trained towards their direction but could not look away even if he wanted to; as if he were held still by invisible hands.
He couldn't move.
His body was frozen as if time stood still and he could only continue to watch as dancing lights grew brighter and bigger.
He could see the lights grow bigger, but then he realized he was the one getting closer. His body was dragged towards those mysterious lights and fear crept into his heart.
He did not know how or why he was here.
All he could remember were flashes of a disgusting memory.
... Chains...
... Cages...
... The smell of waste and human excrement...
... The heat of multiple bodies and the slick of sweat...
... The face of greed, lust and excessive, fragile pride...
It was all he could remember.
As he drew closer, he could hear it; a song of echoes and dreams. He heard the song of eternity echo in the Not-Real Space giving him glimpses of the future and the past. He could hear the thousand voices of cheering madness and whispers of joy as he finally understood what the lights in front of him were.
They were no simple lights.
His young eyes, pure and innocent-yet tainted with the knowledge of human cruelty and the truth of their nature-widened at the marvel he witnessed.
They burned with a power indescribable. Words would do their strength no justice as they sang the song of victory. Within their torrid cores, light ignited in a display too alien to describe as his mind tried to find a worthy description from his meager vocabulary.
Five stars, so enormous they could engulf whole galaxies, situated on top of equally gigantic pillars with ornate scrollwork and carvings of creatures horrifyingly beautiful and beautifully horrifying, greeted him with delirious cheers as their brilliant displays of power shook the space-which-should-not-exist.
Emotions of deep joy and love bombarded him as the stars felt his attention fall on them. Their master had finally noticed them, their loyalty and patience had been rewarded with his presence, this he could understand.
He knew them, but did not.
He recognized them, but they were strangers.
He loved them, but did he really?
What are you, he asked them.
Then they sang in a chorus that drove men mad with the knowledge of truths unknown and unheard. They sang to him of their nature and destiny. They serenaded him with their affection and devotion as they told him of their nature. They chanted to him of their purpose and begged of him their desire.
It was a song that reveled in the primal instincts of man when everything in creation was young and he understood its message.
His vision still locked towards the bright light of the stars, even as their light burned his eyes to a white haze. He listened to the song as he too, tried to convey his own message through a tune; he failed as he forgot he could not move nor command his body.
They were potential.
They were possibilities.
They were his Charges.
Whether he used them or not, they were satisfied merely by being by his side. He understood, should the need come, they would protect him. They would grant him his every wishes and dreams.
They would bend reality if needed for his every whim.
He knew.
He understood.
He accepted their alien nature and embraced them as his own. After all, they were his own as they resided in his body.
They were his quirk.
His acknowledgement granted them with uncontainable joy as their emotions flooded the infinite cosmos of the space which he now knew as his soul. They bellowed wordless, maddening sounds of pure emotion and he reveled in them.
Control was once more his, and he danced to the alien tunes that snagged his soul and shook him to his very core. And then...
... Izuku Midoriya woke up.
()
The world was wrapped in blessed silence and darkness. The only sound was of the waves and the only light were from the stars. The noises of the city could not reach them as they were quite far from its center.
His steps were silent; a ghost in the wind. Even as he stepped over scattered litter-common as they were on the docks-not a crinkle was heard and not a mite of dust disturbed.
Izuku walked the shadows and night as if he were its lord. His presence was non-existent on this plane of creation.
... Five glorious suns-his charges-stood before him. Their songs of joy bombarded his soul as greetings, not of words, but of pure concepts, threatened to break him even as it strengthened him. They were his companions, the constants that he could trust that would never disappear. They will stay with him even after time ends and death closes the doors of existence...
... Chains of deepest black wrapped and restrained the stars of his soul. They were not merely the color black, for a color could not be as deep nor could be as ethereal yet solid. They were a gap in existence; a break in the reality created by his soul. They devoured the light of his stars to fuel their existence. His stars let out heartbreaking wails, pain evident as maleficent chains devoured their potential. Their cries would drive man to the deepest despair even as unreality bled unto reality. He was the one who had shackled them with these infernal restraints and yet, they sang no anger, they yelled no resentment as they only cried for the joy his mere presence grants them...
... A hand was raised and his suns' melody pitched in a climax of joy. His soul shook as a charge died and energy, enough to end entire universes and create more escaped from its corpse. Even then it continued to celebrate in bliss as it had become of use to its creator; fulfilling its purpose under the joyous yet envious presence of its siblings for they could not act as they were in a torturous restraint with the might of their origin...
... Stars turned to dust and planets emerged as he directed his charge's energy to creation. Divine knowledge granted by his stars guided his motions as he shaped energy into his desired form. Unknown was the time he spent in his soul but he knew it wouldn't even be a second in reality. Energy gained form, kaleidoscopic color drained into a singular shade. Knowledge filtered into his mind as he knew all that he would about his new creation. A planetary giant of ghostly blue, it was his creation, his ability; to walk the planes of infinite creation. His was the power to control space-to twist, to turn, to severe, to replace, to create-and time was no less different. The boundary of all creation, past, present, future of those within and without was now in his eyes. Their ever-changing seas, his to plot, to chart, to traverse. His charges sang that same maddening song that mortals were never meant to hear. Their power was his to command yet those chains that he bound them with devoured the light of his creation. His charges wailed with rage at his chains' ravenous hunger and their impudence to devour power that was his. His creation's light still reached him but its power was a pale imitation-no, not even a shadow of his original intent. So reduced had it become that what was once the absolute control of Space-Time, had become the simple ability to shift his existence into a single higher or lower mirror dimension...
... But that was fine. It was enough...
... It was more than enough...
Planeswalker.
This was the name of the ability that was spawned by the stars of his soul. A reduced result of the true ability his quirk had created, yet was purposefully restrained; another name for the reduced ability to separate it from its original, superior form.
Izuku, now dressed in his swallowtail tuxedo, had a small smirk on his lip. Though reduced to a shadow of a shadow of a shadow, this ability was still too powerful for most people to handle.
His existence had been thrown into a higher dimension thus, to all who could not perceive different dimensions, he would be akin to the wind on their skin, the shadow beneath their feet; for those who exist in a higher state of being can never be understood by those lower than it.
Existing in creation with certainty, but unnoticed, unknown to all.
Musutafu was situated near Tokyo Bay, so a few of the city's most profitable businesses, are shipping and fishing. In order to take full advantage of their location, the city had long built docks to house their ships and to store the goods that these ships bring.
And so, if one wanted to house multiple hostages and provide a quick escape route, then one should look no further than the Musutafu Docks.
Plentiful space.
Ample covers to hide in or behind.
A direct access to the sea and ships.
To the people he was hunting, those who had intended to harm his mistress, this was the best place to hold their hostages. Even if the heroes or police would be able to find out that they were in the docks, due to the amount of warehouses and storage rooms that were in the area, both arms of the law would not be able to determine where the hostages were kept and where those mercenaries-and they were most definitely mercenaries!-are hiding in. They would be long alerted to any commotion caused by others. Both authorities would be unable to use their quirks or equipment easily as there was a chance that they could cause unnecessary collateral damage and accidentally hurt the hostages.
Walking around unnoticed as he continued to look for clues, if Izuku were to be honest, were he the one to kidnap and take people as hostages, he wouldn't be caught dead using the docks as his base. He would rather hide in the city as it had more hiding places that he could use that were not known to the heroes and routes that he had already planned to use if he ever wanted to get out of the city undetected.
Though perhaps he should take into account that the assailants were most likely foreigners who do not know the city as good as he does and give them their due.
He kept to the shadows as even if he was undetectable by most means, it was still best to prepare for the worst and assume that his prey had a way to detect him and have the extra cover rather than be caught flatfooted.
Rounding a corner Izuku spotted something at corner of his eye.
It was a patch of cloth merely 5 centimeters in length. Fluttering lightly on the sea breeze he could see that it was stuck on a nail that was sticking out of the side of a wooden crate. Black and gray were its colors and he could identify the borders of a particular pattern that was used most often by one certain branch of any government.
It was a camouflage pattern-more specifically, it was an urban camouflage pattern.
Unbidden, Izuku's placid smile changed. It was a mere twitch of the corner of his lips but one would never mistake it for his earlier expression.
It was a smile filled with bestial savagery; an expression a predator would wear as it picked up on their prey's scent. He looked down, and he could see numerous footprints that looked like they were purposefully smudged-perhaps in an attempt to hide their tracks?, he thought.
He stood up from his kneeling position and looked towards the direction the smudged footprints had been pointing to. Immediately, he took to the shadows and swiftly went towards the path his mistress's would-be assailants took.
Though his speed had picked up now that he knew where his targets had gone too, he still took care to remain hidden even with the advantage granted to him by Planeswalker.
Izuku jumped and scaled a warehouse to his left and saw the end of the tracks he had followed.
His eyes narrowed as another chained star died and was reborn. Sight changed and sharpened as his view took in another reality. Colors bled into black, and green lines outlined all objects in his field of vision; even those hidden behind walls or containers.
Izuku saw through the walls of the warehouse and saw the prey he was hunting. He counted 30 soldiers and what seemed to be their leader and second in command.
He had seen 50 mercenaries storm the garden villa and 20 were missing from his vision. This may mean that others had been hiding or, they were doing something else. If it was the latter option, then they may be preparing their escape routes and options.
If that were the case, he would need to find them and eliminate them first.
No sense in allowing the enemies to have a method of retreat, he thought.
While satisfied that he had received his desired ability, he couldn't help but feel a stab of disappointment in his chest. It had been his decision, but his reduced state had really weakened the abilities that he could wield.
He was still getting used to it even after all these years.
Burying his disappointment to the back of his mind, Izuku jumped from the edge of the warehouse's roof and landed soundlessly on his feet. Leisurely, he walked towards the location that housed the targets of his ire; he did not even bother to stop as he faced the locked door as he had passed through the barrier as if it did not exist.
The burning, churning fire in his chest raged.
It flowed slowly, painfully through his veins.
... Her eyes widened, terrified, as multiple sinister canisters flew through the air...
Red tried to drown his vision but his steely will and control did not waver.
Anger flooded his being as Izuku remembered Momo's terrified face. His face set into an apathetic expression, none of his anger showed even as he took note of his targets' various positions.
... Those who had disturbed his mistress and friend were in front of him...
... They who had dared to try to touch what were his...
Flames burned behind his pupils as savage, primal howls filled his ears. Izuku knew that they were not real. He knew that they were merely a product of his mind, but, the chains that rattled, the roars that threatened to burst his ears-they represented much more than a hallucination could ever be.
Sadistic delight burned within as straining chains relaxed and an inhuman purr melded into his psyche.
A missing piece, finally in place.
A third chained celestial burst within the infinite boundaries of his soul as he could feel his body strengthen beyond human limits and grant him total, perfect control over his physique. His senses strengthened beyond their limits and his ears could hear the sirens of police cruisers and the movements of heroes as they hunted for his prey.
His preparations were complete.
"Tonight, I join the hunt."