Twice didn't split, he was just a fake. A completely messed up man. He didn't split, so why was he in front of him? Why was an army of Jin and Twice chasing him, shouting death threats? Death approaches. Your time has come.
"No, I'm whole, I'm whole, I'm whole!" He shouted. The voice was still in his head, it didn't escape, he was still himself. You're nothing, there's nothing to you.
"Heh, I never….saw you…make you before…weird." Toga slowly slurred out as she struggled to hold on to him. "So…many…new…friends…"
"They're not friends, they're mean things. They're not me, they're not me." He can't panic, Toga is in danger. Please don't act up voices, please don't. He just needed to hide behind a corner- they're in the corner. In a house. They're in every house.
"Yeah, they don't…have your cool costume…so lame…" Toga fell off his back and the copies immediately grabbed her body. You're going to kill her, you're going to kill her.
"If you're really me, you can't kill Toga!" She was so kind to him! She's a bloodthirsty bitch you don't deserve! "Kill me, don't kill her!" The copies grabbed his arms as more took hold of his friend's neck. You're going to snap her neck like a pencil!
The clones ripped off his mask. Nononono Yesyesyesyes. It's your fault we're like this. You're the reason Toga is going to die. SHUT UP! No he wasn't, no he wasn't. You're killing her now. He watched as he clones grabbed her, ripping the girl up.
Please no. Your fault. Your fault. Your fault. Cause you're, not, rea- He was punched in the face, blood coming off of … his nose … he was bleeding. He was bleeding! We're perfectly fi- Shut the fuck up, you're not there. I'm real, I'm me! I'm me! "I'M ME!!" He shouted, laughing maniacally as he touched himself, doubling. And that double doubled, and that double doubled. Endlessly, eternally. For he was him.
"SAD MAN'S PARADE!" Twice, Jin Bubaigawara, shouted at the top of his lungs, laughing. "I'm going to save Toga, I'm going to protect all my friends!"
"Isn't that what a hero is?" One of his copies asked.
"Don't you remember what Tomura said?! You don't need to be a hero to help people!" He'd gladly wipe every last soul off of this planet if it meant keeping his family safe. "Now let's kill an army with a dance of tears!"
"YEAH!" His army shouted out, breaking these puppets.
==
The boy had shifted, laughing gleefully, this was not surprising given his insanity. Neither was his chatterbox insanity. The two things that currently had him concerned? The first was this … philosophy. "Do you think you'll have it? Freedom of quirks with you in charge? You'll make yourself a tyrant and die trying."
"Of course! With Destro's will, I can lead the new society where it needs to go!" He swung his might arms towards the bastard.
"A dead man is only good for his teachings. His will does not pass on from the grave." The man disintegrated his arm some more, even as he was launched back with damage. "Your will is what matters, your determination, your ambition. And you're letting it fall to your parents. I grew up, unlike you. I learned from All For One, but I evolved." Shigaraki stood, even with damage.
Memories surfaced from his childhood, never knowing anything other than a life within the Meta Liberation Army. Constant praise for his lineage, for achievements, for existing and nothing more. "I have my power, and my talent, that's all that matters!" He shouted to the delusional man.
"You're a child that's trying to live up to everyone else's expectations, RE-Destro." Shigiraki said his name like it was a bad joke. "You preach freedom for all, but you're the one with the most chains holding him down. You're no more free than the average All Might fanboy, you just look up to a different 'hero'."
"Hero, such a fucked up word." He piled stress together into a ball of energy beyond his own body. "The idea you should use your quirk for others is absurd, it's your power! You should be free to do what you want with it! Survival of the fittest, the strongest survive!" Re-Destro shot off the blast at Shigaraki. "Stress Output: Burden!"
In response the villain simply raised his hand, pushed back from the sheer force from trying to stop energy like it was something that could-... He was … disintegrating it. He was breaking energy into pieces.
"Impossible! That's not…that's not humanly possible!" Re-Destro charged at the villain with a raised fist, hoping to crush this insect into the ground.
Just like before, Shigiriaki held out a single hand and let the first come in contact…only this time, Re-Destro felt all the energy and strength suddenly vanish, and the growing rotting flesh slowly consuming his fingers. "In the end, the only advantage you have is being big. If I can decay the punch before you finish throwing it, it's useless."
"Claustro, Launch!" Metal flew out of the ground, wrapping him tightly in a confined space, putting pressure on his body. "Stress output: One Hundred and Fifty Percent!" His ultimate power, all of it for this one dangerous villain.
"See, you're just stressing yourself up, chaining yourself down." He acted as if it was nothing. "You power yourself with chains, that's no way to be free … that's just the government in a nutshell. Working for a paycheck."
"Every resource I have is made for the benefit of strengthening all members of my army! Everyone will be capable of using their meta ability to the fullest!"
"That sounds exactly like Plus Ultra." Shigiraki rolled his eyes with a crazed, feral smile. "You know, if everyone is so hyped on the idea of going beyond their limits, maybe I should give it a go. Except I'm going to take it further beyond… into entropy." As the man-no, the demon placed his hand to the ground, Rikiya's very instinct was screaming to run … and to worship.
==
Aizawa listened to the clock tick as Nedzu and Yagi sat in front of him. "I just wanted to talk about Suzuki's quirk … why does the principal know something about a student I'm unaware of?" He demanded.
"Aizawa, before we say anything, I just..." The former number one pro hero struggled to keep his words straight. "This isn't something we can talk about lightly. The fact nobody else has connected the dots is a miracle in itself."
"The kid punches through walls, stockpiles punches, generates air pressure, has a sixth sense, and black limbs coming out of his body. The entire staff is a bunch of morons for not putting it together the boy is lying about his quirk." He deadpanned.
"No, he never lied, he just went along with what I…pleaded with him to say." Would anyone care if All Might suddenly was found dead on the side of the street? Because that's where he was going to dump Yagi after he strangled his neck.
"And you just let this slide?" He asked the principal. "And if you even think about lying to me, I'll bring in Suzuki for this discussion."
After reveling in the rat shivering in terror, Nedzu sighed. "I agreed with Toshinori's decision about secrecy, although this was long before we realized the boy was brainwashed to go along with everything."
"You told a boy to keep quiet about a quirk that breaks his bones on the first couple of uses and let everyone else in the dark on it?" Aizawa asked, his tone as flat as hard stone. "I'm his teacher, I deserve to know if my students have health problems beforehand. I already let Kaminari order ADHD medication online for the dorms." And other special needs, such as the strobe lights for Tokoyami, or the special cream Asui needs to not dry out.
"It needed to stay secret because the true nature of his quirk has been kept under wraps since nearly the beginning of Quirks themselves." He raised his eyebrow at Yagi. "I trained Young Suzuki ten months before the entrance in order to prepare his body to handle the quirk I gave to him."
"… So the love child rumors aren't that far-fetched, are they?" Usually he'd just have Yamada make the joke to relieve sudden tension, but he needed something after THAT got stated to him.
"I mean it in the literal sense." The retired pro just sighed. "My quirk, One For All, is a transferable stockpiler that can be given away if the current user wishes to. Currently, Iruma Suzuki is the ninth holder of this power."
"So you trusted the equivalent of the nuclear war head of quirks to an unstable and untrained fourteen year old with signs of psychological damage obviously present, and body untrained along with his quirk because you're a terrible teacher in general." He needed fifteen drinks. "Am I missing anything?"
"Young Suzuki was quirkless before receiving One For All, just like Toshinori was." The rat idly added in.
"Quirkless doesn't mean useless, that boy put it to words more than anyone else." He glared at them. "I'm not denying the good Iruma has done, or the good that's happened to him because he's here, I'm saying that for supposedly the greatest hero in the world and the smartest creature on the planet, you acted like a bunch of dumbasses."
Nedzu nodded. "While I made plenty of decisions after the fact, and I will take full responsibility for any repercussions they may cause, the choice of successor was ultimately Toshinori's decision. One For All can only be passed on willingly, nothing we could have suggested would have changed that."
"You make it sound like the quirk has a mind of its own." Yagi gave a hiss. "… Explain before I bring in someone who will do more damage than me."
"The…previous users…exist as vestiges within the core of the Quirk itself." The skeleton man went on. "As such, Suzuki is capable of accessing the memories and quirks of the past holders. So far, Fa Jin, Danger Sense, and Blackwhip have been unlocked. We never noticed until blackwhip because of how passive the first two were."
His face palmed at the current situation he was in, he wanted to scream. "And he is okay with multiple quirks, considering the Nomu that run around rampant are brain dead monsters?"
"Oh, more than okay. The boy sees quirks as nothing more than tools." Nedzu sipped his tea. "A rather refreshing perspective for someone so young to have."
A thought occurs. "Did any of the previous users have an area of enhancement quirk?" He asked.
"From what we can tell, only the second or third user, one of them being the source of Fa Jin."
"Would explain all the Quirk Awakenings around him." He muttered. "Speaking of multiple quirks, All For One is an inversion of One For All … a connection?"
"He accidentally created it trying to gain control of his sickly brother." Yagi answered, his eyes further darkened. "It's the one power he can't outright take because every user has had a strong enough will to resist him."
The fact Suzuki resisted when captured was a miracle. "I'll keep this a secret, but I'm still reserving my right to be furious at you two."
"I don't blame you. Young Todoroki still resents me." What? "Aside from you and Nedzu, Recovery Girl, Tsukauchi, Gran Torino, and Nighteye are the allies in my inner circle. Those in Iruma's are Todoroki, Hagakure, Bakugo, and Miruko."
He nodded. "I'm going to get a drink." He muttered. "Have a substitute ready." Hopefully the world could go one day without anarchy.
==
"So … do we still need to do stuff?" He asked the makeshift group. "I know Tomura told me to do this or die, but …" Kirio glanced at the Twice army to his left, and the Gigantomachia train to his right. "What else can we do that's not already being done?"
"Aside from enjoying the show? Nothing really." Compress answered, watching bodies getting stomped into paste by Gigantomachia. "You know Magne, you were right. It is the nice ones you gotta look out for." With every Twice clone that fell, about twelve more would take their place.
"You're not going to see me complaining." Dabi snorted, laughing as that overcoat villain got swatted away like a fly by Gigantomachia. "I kinda want to see the look on his face knowing he's fucked." Oh, maybe he had a fellow despair lover in this group after all.
"I mean I'm tempted to fight, but only if they give up being morons." Spinner looked at Trumpet, who shouted rallies to his men to try and fight on the giant and his clone army. "It's not really worth it to fight morons, right?"
He shrugged. "Sometimes it's the small things in life that give you joy, how else would I have met my lovely little Deku."
"How has a quirkless kid survived living in hell for this long anyway?" Magne asked in disbelief. "I mean, I know you said it's not too bad, but it's still hell."
"Magic ring, doting grandfather, and spite." He explained. "The last one can really get you to places."
"I can see it." Dabi agreed. "So does anyone wanna check on the boss, wherever he is?"
"And get between Tomura and the giant of death?" Compress asked. "The latter simultaneously being an unstoppable force and immovable object wrapped in one?"
"It's Tomura." Spinner shrugged. "He's probably fighting to the bitter end, slowly disintegrating the boss as we-" DEATH! "What the …"
Everyone stood quiet, even Gigantomachia, as the storm that was seen from the distance. Air and ground decaying and breaking into nothing as light itself seemed to abandon the area where death reigned as a god.
"Did anyone else just feel like….everything died around you?" Magne questioned out loud, outright shook as the wave of decay was spreading to the nearby buildings, crumbling them, almost like an explosion of pure entropy developed the residential area.
"I … I think I just had a mid-life crisis. My entire life flashed before my eyes." Compress looked around at everything. The wave of chaos and mayhem that enveloped into a single spot, reaching the heavens and hell as they intertwined like matter and antimatter, obliterating each other completely.
"The grand commander is in trouble! We must assist him!" Trumpet orders his lackeys to move towards the epicenter. Even with the decay dying down, quite a few found themselves turned into bloody piles of ash.
"This is …" Kirio was at a loss for words. He knew it should have been impossible when they met. Magic doesn't decay because it doesn't age … but then again quirks were never labeled right were they … the power to break down and destroy anything the user could touch.
The pure spite, Tomura's sheer hatred for everything around him, the animosity that inspired him to watch the world crumble into nothing…he was literally going beyond…into entropy. "I never thought it was possible." He muttered.
"What, that Tomura's power could expand this far?" Spinner raised his brow.
"That a human … would be more worthy of the title of Demon King than any demon I've ever met." Even Baal and the Six Fingers paled in comparison to the man before him. The man he would pledge his fealty to, as they destroyed the world.
Destroy the human world, and return the netherworld to its origins. Only then would there be nothing left for Deku-kun to strive towards … he never thought the best way to take the boy on was to act like Azz. Guess that was life for you.
==
Tomura couldn't feel anything at the moment. His body was numb, his emotions were drained, and his spite had bottomed out. Now he watched the man who looked at him in horror. "I warned you, didn't I? That I would be rough in teaching you."
"I don't understand…I…" The man weakly answered, a significant portion of the bottom half of his body gone now.
"Ah, you cut your legs off to escape the decay. That takes a lot of guts." He nodded. "So why are we here again?" He asked with mock curiosity. "Right, because you chose to pick a fight with people who would've been more than fine to just let you walk away." He leaned down. "How many of them had died? On your side that is? For a pathetic cause that isn't even yours, and a half baked goal at that too."
"It…it's what I was taught all my life." Re-Destro responded with his head down in shame. "To bring Destro's ideals into reality."
"That's the thing, Destro didn't understand what he was preaching." He stated. "Destro realized he was being chained, but he only saw the small cage. He thought quirks were the problem in solution." He smiled. "You can do so much more with all that power you hold."
"What more is there to do?" Re-Destro asked, looking at him, almost desperate searching for the answers of his existential purpose.
"Laws, morality, past, limits, future, blood, family, none of it matters. You can't be chained to any moment of time." Tomura grinned at the sky. "I'm free to destroy society, because I don't fear what tomorrow will bring."
His father, who taught him to hate heroes. His master, who taught him to hold on to that hate and use it to get rid of what he didn't like. They taught him well, but in the end, he would cut the chains off. He would be free from everything, from everyone, and grow into something BETTER than them.
He watched the man's eyes gain a glint of understanding. Was this what it was like for Iruma? To help someone be so simple in their purpose? "Grand Commander!" He idly glanced at a small gathering. "Men, prepare to fire!" More pointless deaths.
"No!" The so-called 'commander' shouted at his men. "... We are completely and utterly lost … none of us will ever reach the Liberation the one in front of us has achieved." And now he was bowing? "I, Re-Destro humbly offer to you, control of the Meta Liberation Army." What? "My life is forfeit, if you so wish to take it."
He thought about it for a good five seconds. "That same boy I mentioned also told me Death is stupid." Re-Destro looked confused. "Don't taint the lives lost by adding another pointless death. Grow and move on."
"Then I will serve you as you please. Anything you ask is yours." He wanted to point out that it went against his own 'freedom code', but something else came first.
"Get me a bed, and my men whatever they please." He stated. Tomura really needed a power nap after that last attack.
"Master…" When did Gigantomachia get here? And was he…bowing? "I've seen your power. I will serve you until the day you die." Why did everyone want to make him a king all of a sudden?