Chapter 218: Chapter 215 - The Next One for All Bearer
All Might's bored eyes turned slowly to Shirai.
Half bent above the table, a crumpled paper in his hand, left eyebrow twitching uncontrollably, he looked as if he were on the verge of losing it.
"I already gave him my Quirk", All Might repeated slowly
Shirai's steely eyes turned to pure cold.
"And under what pretense did you take this decision alone ?"
All Might scoffed.
He pitied Katsuki : the kid really would have his head full with these people.
"It is my Quirk", he said "I believe it is enough reason for me to do whatever I want with it"
Pantu's head turned so fast toward Nezu that it looked as if her neck had snapped from the motion.
"Did you know about it ?"
Her tone was accusatory.
Nezu shook his head, looking utterly surprised.
"I had no idea about it"
All Might's eyebrows rose in disbelief : he smiled while shaking his head, arms crossed.
Liar.
Nezu had been the one to tell him to choose whoever he wanted and not to give any of the people they'd bring up credit : this meeting had another purpose that evaded him.
"We're talking about the next Peace Symbol", Shirai insisted "You shouldn't have-"
"If I may say", Nezu interjected "It is indeed All Might's Quirk. No one here has any right over it"
Pantu bit the inside of her cheek.
All Might couldn't help but feel some twisted amusement.
"We should have been informed", she insisted "We should have..."
It wasn't about All Might choosing someone without asking for their opinion : it was about All Might choosing someone they disapproved of.
Nezu had created the 'Peace Symbol' title, but it had garnered power – social and political - as well as prestige over the years.
Having a Peace Symbol – someone virtually unbeatable – frightened villains, reassured civilians, and contributed to the soft power of a country.
A Peace Symbol was an advertisement at an international level, it was a way of screaming 'Our country is stable, Quirks users are well regulated'.
Many foreign countries, seeing how well it had worked in Japan, had replicated the idea, giving birth to their own "Peace Symbol".
Shirai and Pantu had both wanted to put someone who would've been loyal to them as a Peace Symbol.
It would have helped them garner more power and leverage in Japan as well as internationally.
They did not understand the profound reason for being behind the One for All.
Even if Nezu had created the title, the One for All truly had been born by the will of someone who wanted to protect others, to be the 'Peace Symbol' of everybody else.
That's why All Might would've never left any of them to get it.
"If it can reassure you", All Might said "I choose the next bearer while considering future threats"
Nezu moved awkwardly in his seat.
Pantu's eyebrow rose.
"Which means ?"
"Maybe we shouldn't-"
Nezu was cut off by Shirai :
"What kind of threat ?"
"The one we've all considered", said All Might
Nezu tried to shut the discussion down.
"I don't think-"
"Endeavor's son", finished All Might
Shirai sank back in his chair, hands crossed.
"I see"
Both Shirai had considerably calmed down.
Pantu seemed pensive.
"Are they close ?"
"Close enough for young Bakugo to talk him down if the need arises", All Might said. "And the One for All will only make him more… compelling"
Nezu looked conflicted.
Shirai turned to him.
"What do you think about it ?"
The way he mulled on his words before speaking aroused All Might's curiosity.
"It is All Might's choice", he finally said heavily through gritted teeth
Shirai nodded.
"I believe everything has been said"
He gathered the papers he'd brought out and then stood up.
Pantu did the same.
"Congratulations on choosing the next bearer", Shirai said
His gaze turned to steel.
"Let's hope none of us will come to regret your decision"
He nodded politely at them both then left.
Pantu lingered at the door, one hand on the doorknob.
"If you had already chosen the next bearer..."
Her eyes slid over to Nezu.
"I wonder what this meeting was for"
She looked around the room for a bit, as if trying to catch onto something that would give her a clue about the situation.
She left a second later, closing the door shut.
Nezu's gaze automatically shifted to All Might who, still sprawled out, looked oblivious.
His face turned to Nezu.
"Is there something on my face ?"
Nezu looked as if he wanted to say something but decided to hold up at the last moment.
"You can come in"
He pressed a button under the table and a panel of the wall in the corner of the room – carefully hidden behind a paint and a vase – opened.
From there got out Shoto.
All Might's face was blank.
He did not even bother asking Nezu to explain himself.
He had believed Nezu had mentioned Shoto at the beginning of the discussion to make whoever All Might proposed next look as a reasonable choice ; yet now he truly understood why he had mentioned him – and why he'd looked so agitated when All Might had mentioned the way they could use his friend against him.
The kid was red in the face – at least the part of his face that they could see – and there was no denying the anger brewing in his eyes.
Nezu truly was always two steps ahead of everybody else.
"I believe it has been a rather insightful conversation", Nezu said, smiling
All Might kept on watching the kid.
Shoto nodded curtly, eyes still locked on the closed door.
Silence stretched.
"Can I leave ?", he asked after a while
Nezu checked a small device that looked like a miniature computer.
"Don't forget your urn in my car"
Shoto left.
The door shut so hard it shook the wall.
All Might looked at a picture hanging next to it, wondering if it would fall.
"Was it necessary ?", he asked
"He needs to understand that they're not his friends-"
Nezu's gaze turned pointedly at All Might.
"- that no one truly is, anyway'
"I see"
All Might wasn't an expert when it came to Shoto's psyche, but he wasn't sure if playing mind games with him was the wisest thing to do.
*
"Overhaul killed her"
The wind was cold, biting.
I'd left the urn at our penthouse after taking it back from Nezu's car.
"Who ?"
"Kai Chisaki. Neito's uncle"
Katsuki was stunned ; his jaw moved, clenching and unclenching as if he were trying to taste the name of the guy, making it roll off his tongue.
"Why ?"
I snapped.
"Does it matter ?"
Confusion flashed through his eyes.
I exhaled slowly, nostrils flaring, trying to reign back in my temperament.
"He killed her", I repeated through gritted teeth. "There's nothing else we should worry about"
If I were Katsuki, I wouldn't care about the how or whys – I'd just make him pay a hundredfold.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Katsuki nodding, jaw set, before he looked away.
The sun was setting far above the clouds, golden rays piercing here and there. It looked like mist.
"What are you going to do ?", I asked, tone quieter
He seemed to search for his words then, finally, said :
"I don't know"
He sounded exhausted, as if the whole situation was not something he could handle.
I waited some more, trying to gauge the situation, yet I couldn't help but grow more and more irritated.
Shouldn't it be easy ? Shouldn't he know exactly what he'll do to him ?
Shirai's words were playing on repeat in my head.
"What do you mean, 'you don't know' ?"
Katsuki's shoulders sagged.
"I just don't know"
He sounded so weak it disgusted me.
"You should know", I said harshly "You asked me to help you find her murderer, and I did. You should have already planned what you'll do to him. You should know"
Katsuki snorted.
"And obviously you know what I should do to him"
"I do"
"Killing isn't always the easiest way to deal with your problems"
The remark unnerved me.
"You don't kill because it's easy", I explained "You kill because you don't have any other option"
There is nothing more frightening than to realize that your life is fading away at the hands of someone who won't back down, nothing scarier than bored eyes looking at you in a way that says 'You won't get saved this time'.
I really want to piss on Touya's ashes.
"Same thing"
Katsuki confused me.
"Aren't you supposed to care about her ?", I ask, frowning
He mirrored my expression.
"I do"
"Then why are you hesitating ?"
"Because we're talking about murdering someone"
"And ?"
Katsuki looked as if he wanted to speak ; then, frustrated, he threw his hands up.
"We can't kill someone because we want to"
"We can"
Katsuki snorted.
He was a few feet on my right, half leaning over the railing of a rooftop.
I nodded, looked away, then silently shunshined behind him.
The wind picked up.
"I could kill you right here and right now, and no one would be the wiser"
Goosebumps ran over his body : the hair on the back of his neck stood up.
He gripped the railing and then shot me a perturbed glance over his shoulder.
I was standing right behind him, close enough to slit his throat with a flicker of my wrist.
"It would be easy. I'd get it done quickly, and then I'd go eat dinner with my father like I always do. No one would be the wiser"
"But you'd know you'd have killed me. You couldn't possibly live with it"
I cocked my head to the side.
"Couldn't I ?"
Katsuki relaxed then smiled, turning around to face me, leaning, arms crossed, over the railing.
He looked at me as if he didn't believe me, as if I was bluffing.
I could push him and he'd end up plastered on the street like an art project gone wrong.
I was perplexed.
"You've heard about all of these things they said about me on TV", I said. "You know that I've killed, yet you don't believe that I could kill you"
It wasn't a question but rather a statement.
Katsuki didn't think that I could hurt him.
He had been startled because I'd crept up on him, not because I – as a person – scared him.
"It was in legitimate defense"
"And what about the villains at the Summer Camp? Was it in legitimate defense too ?"
He shrugged coolly.
"They were villains. That's different"
"I put my sword through one's mouth so hard I pierced his throat and made mash out of his brain"
Katsuki shook his head.
"They were villains"
"And isn't the one who killed Uraraka a villain too ?"
Katsuki said nothing.
I kept on scrutinizing him, trying to understand his thought process.
It wasn't about killing Chisaki – not really.
I didn't give two shits about killing him or not.
But for the principle of the thing, I believed Katsuki had to.
When someone was wronged, they had to wrong others ten times: it was how life worked.
Yet Katsuki didn't seem to have any of it.
"All Might choose you as his successor"
Katsuki did not react, rather looking blankly at me.
"I said I'd consider"
A small smile lifted the corner of my lip.
I would pay to see what expression All Might made.
"Do you know why he chose you ?"
"Because I'm the best"
My smile widened.
I nodded in acknowledgment.
"Maybe, yes. But more importantly, he chose you because of me"
His brows furrowed.
"What do you mean ?"
"He expects me to become a threat to Japan one day"
Seeing how everyone had reacted when Nezu had merely mentioned my name as One for All's possible next bearer, I knew they – Shirai, Pantu, and all these higher-ups fuckers - still considered me as a possible threat too.
It had hurt surprisingly much.
Was I so bad that they could only expect the worst out of me even when I'd saved a full city ?
Was I such a horrible person ?
Did I already have what it took to become such a monster ?
Katsuki snorted.
"Yeah, as if"
"He thinks I'll become the next All for One, and he believes that if you're the one with the One for All, then you could stop me"
His smile wavered, his amused expression faltering.
"Does he ?"
He looked so flabbergasted I felt pity for both of us.
"Do you remember how surprised you were when All Might didn't take me in his little group ? If we'd ranked students out of strength, you know I'd have been there with you"
Katsuki nodded.
"He didn't because he doesn't want me with the One for All. He's scared of what I could do with it. They're all scared of how untouchable such power would make me"
And in hindsight, they were right.
If I were them, I wouldn't even give myself the One for All.
Too paranoid, too distrustful, too prone to violence.
Yet I'd saved Tokyo. Shouldn't have someone – at the very least - talked a bit positively about me ?
"You'll get the One for All whether you want it or not. And if the need arises, they'll make you kill me"
Katsuki looked utterly confused.
I steeled myself, pretending that the situation didn't bother me, that them trying to use my friend against me wasn't so utterly hurtful that it made me want to prove them right by killing them all.
"I wouldn't kill you"
And he sounded so sincere, too.
It warmed my heart.
"Would you not, if I killed all of your friends ? If I hurt your family ? If I threatened to destroy Japan ?"
Katsuki looked at me as if the idea of me hurting people – people who were not villains - was utter foolishness.
"You won't do that"
And his gaze was so trustful, so pure of faith in me, it stunned me for a moment.
I only managed to say :
"All Might would kill me"
"All Might didn't-"
"Every hero has killed someone at a moment or another. Don't look at me like that, that's the truth. You could be the greatest hero this world has ever seen, even you will someday make a mistake – and a mistake with Quirks like ours cost people their lives"
Katsuki still shook his head.
"I told you I wouldn't kill you-"
"I would. I'd kill you"
He looked at me intently.
"If you stood on my path, I'd kill you. And I'd kill everyone else who'd try to stop me"
I meant it.
Katsuki looked at me for a moment, then he shook his head as if I were messing with him.
"I won't kill him because you want me to"
"You won't kill him because I told you so but because you have to"
I took another step forward.
"You're at a threshold, Katsuki. If you get the One for All you'll have to prove yourself worthy of it. If someone worse than All for One ever comes-"
He shot me a glance heavy with significance.
"-you'll have to kill him. That's what they expect of our Peace Symbol. That's what's expected of Heroes. If we need to kill someone to save thousands of lives, we have to"
"We don't have to. I can forge my destiny"
I was confused by his reaction,and his rebuttal.
He was categorically against this scenario – him killing someone – and I was categorically against letting him think he could get away with it.
"Do you believe yourself so much better than anyone else that you think you can solve all of the world's problems without violence ?"
"I don't-"
"Do you believe you're so important that once you get your hands on All Might's Quirk no one will want to stop you ? Do you believe you'll subdue thousands by the sheer force of your charisma ?"
"I've never said that-"
"Do you truly believe you're God's gift to this world ? That once you get the All for One, everyone will simply let you be ? That your sheer existence will bring peace to our world ?"
Katsuki jerked his head back.
"Hey, I never said I was some kind of chosen one or some dumb shit like that. Once I get the One for All I will be different from All Might, and-"
"How ?"
"What ?"
"How different will you be ?"
Katsuki looked taken aback.
"What will you do that he didn't do ? What will you try that he didn't ? How will you, a mere sixteen years old, succeed where he failed ?"
Katsuki's mouth closed, his lips pursed so hard it looked like it hurt.
His Adam's apple bobbed up while he was trying to find the correct words.
I cut him off before he could speak again :
"Newsflash : even if you get the One for All, you'll be no one"
The bitterness in my tone surprised me but not as much as I would've thought.
I'd once believed I'd buried all of my resentment long ago, but I guess no one could truly heal from realizing that despite being reborn, you were no one.
It was hard healing from a bruised ego.
"None of us are. In the end, whatever we do here doesn't matter"
"What the fuck are you trying to do by telling me all of that shit ?"
Katsuki was growing more and more confused and I was growing more and more agitated.
"I want you to fucking understand that we are not playing. This isn't high school grounds anymore, this isn't the kind of stuff that you can fuck over and be like 'My bad'. Your actions will have fucking consequences. If you are not up to the task, people will die because of you"
Despite everything that had happened, he was still so naive.
The passion I saw in his eyes when he talked wasn't that of a man but rather of a child with bright eyes who thought he was special and unique, and that Heroes were mythical, untouchable creatures.
I didn't want him to believe himself unique like I once did, thinking that it would shield him from the world.
I did not want him to hurt as much as I did when I realized that I could die and that it would not matter.
"If you're not enough", I said, tone lowering "You'll die too"
And the world would keep turning.
Katsuki looked at me intensely, red eyes narrowed.
And then, suddenly, the tension in his shoulders vanished.
His voice was low, deep.
"Is that what you think will happen to you ?", he asked. "That if you're not enough, everyone around you will die ?"
My left hand shook ; I hid it behind my thighs and frowned, spitting harshly :
"Don't fucking try to psychoanalyze me"
Katsuki shot me a shit-eating grin.
"Isn't that what you tried to do ?"
I didn't feel like joking.
"You know what ? I got enough of this. Kill him or don't, I don't give a shit. I didn't even give a shit about Uraraka"
Katsuki's smile dropped ; hurt flashed in his eyes.
I was too proud, too far gone to backtrack.
"Once you get the One for All, people will come after you – it won't be a matter of if but merely of when. And they won't just come after you, they'll come after your family and friends too. You'll have to make examples out of them. You'll have to show them that you are not a pushover and that you don't take slights directed at you lightly. One day, you'll kill someone – be it Chisaki or someone else. You won't enjoy it. You'll probably get PTSD because of it. You'll need to see a shrink. And then you'll have to kill someone else. And someone else. And someone else."
At this point, I was seething with anger.
"I haven't even said I'll get the One for All", he insisted. "I haven't even decided if-"
"You can choose to kill someone in a set environment, where the events are controlled. Or you can choose to kill randomly and get so frozen once you realize what you've done that the people around – the ones you'd said you'd protect - will die because you didn't manage to get your fucking head out of your ass"
At this point, Katsuki had shut up and was looking at me the way he would a wild animal, careful not to move to not set him off.
I saw my reflection in his eyes : panting, red-faced, as frightening as a rabid dog.
"No matter what option you choose, you won't ever know peace again"
I left.
*
A/N : If you like the story, want to support it/read ahead of schedule up to 27 chapters (and get to see for yourself the final chapter of part 2 that will be dropped soon) then go check the story's P@treon, Nar_cisseENG
And see you in the next update everyone !
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