My Hero Automata

Summary: A tiny peek into what the villains are up to...

WARNING: Chapters 27 & 28 were posted back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss chapter 27!

Chapter 28: Villainous Intentions

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All for One replayed the final fight of the first year Heroics Tournament again, studying it carefully. While he had often used such Tournaments as a sort of Quirk shopping list in the past, this time he had more reasons than usual to study it carefully. That oaf that had reduced him to his current state, in constant pain and on life support, had taken a teaching role at UA. The fool's intentions were obvious, given how much he had visibly slowed down since his own injuries in their final confrontation. All Might was, without question, finally looking for a successor of his own. That conclusion had been easy to come to, so much so that he'd nudged Tomura into that foolish attack on the USJ in order to determine if All Might had passed on the Quirk already. It was possible, perhaps even likely given his relationship with Nedzu, that the oaf would use UA as a place to train his successor, rather than to find one in the first place. It had, after all, been the method his own mentor had used with him.

Unfortunately, the USJ fiasco had proven to be less useful than he'd originally hoped. Despite being a petulant, half-useless man child, it hadn't even been his pawn's fault. Not really. A student, any student, being able to not just go toe-to-toe with their Anti Symbol of Peace had been well outside his and the Doctor's calculations. That the same student had also so easily broken the rest of the plan by summoning aid had curtailed the data they'd been able to gather. Many of the students had remained near complete unknowns, with only their mole being able to provide basic information on them. Thus, All for One had been forced to wait for the Heroics Tournament to try identifying any possible successor. But that was all right. In the last few years, he had relearned the value of patience. Something Tomura didn't understand and likely never would.

As the clip of the final fight completed another loop, All for One leaned back, deactivating the Quirk which allowed him to directly interpret the signal in place of viewing it with eyes he currently lacked. One of the many grievances that All Might had inflicted upon him. That fight was…potentially interesting. None of the other students had shown the raw physical power that was characteristic of One for All. But both of the finalists had done so. Both were outliers, whose showings in the Tournament didn't match the official data in the Quirk Registry. Unfortunately, both listings were old, and he'd been as yet unable to acquire either UA's data, or the data from Nishimura & Croft where both had apparently gotten far more detailed Quirk analysis and training.

The Yaoyorozu heir, he finally decided, was the less likely candidate. Her Quirk, Creation, was a truly broken existence that could explain her strength. That Power Armor of hers would be too much to exist, even for I-Island, if not for her Quirk. If it worked the way he suspected it did, then it was entirely possible for the girl to make super materials that were otherwise impossible. Add in the resources of the Yaoyorozu Group and their recent, suspicious, foray into support technology…and there was a very plausible explanation for her power. Indeed, it was entirely possible that research for that daughter's Quirk ultimately resulted in their foray into a market they previously hadn't touched much. Discoveries made using her Quirk, or materials made possible by her Quirk, may have been what encouraged them to make that leap.

Midoryia Izumi, on the other hand, was much more likely. Not only had she managed to kill their Anti Symbol of Peace at the USJ, but she'd displayed quite a lot of physical power in that final fight of the Tournament. There was even a major jump in power between what her Quirk was listed as and what she'd actually achieved, and All for One was quite familiar with the boost One for All had given to the Quirks of previous holders. Indeed, part of his failure against All Might had been the unexpected need to deal with a pure physical fighter, who closed and stayed close for their entire fight. It wasn't the style of combat All for One preferred. Nor had any previous One for All user, aside from his brother, fought that way. Even Shimura had preferred a hit and run style that emphasized her flight abilities, giving All for One more than enough time to swap and combine Quirks to create perfect counters.

All for One drummed his fingers on the armrest of his life support chair as he mulled it over. The rhythmic action was one that he could still freely perform and an old habit as his own childhood. As the pattern soothed his thoughts, he settled on a decision. Yes, Midoryia was a likely candidate. But it wasn't certain. The amount of time between her official Quirk registry and now was great enough to potentially explain the power differential. The likelihood of a single Quirk, aside from One for All, that could match the Anti Symbol of Peace was low, but not nonexistent. Quirks were getting more powerful with each generation, after all. As evidenced by Endeavor's spawn, who completely outclassed his father for pure power. So, he had a likely candidate, but needed more data. Thankfully, that dovetailed nicely with his other plans. Reactivating his sensory Quirks, he activated his link to Garaki. The man appeared almost immediately, of course, his most loyal minion course knowing better than to keep All for One waiting.

"Doctor. What is the status of the Nomu?"

Garaki didn't even blink at the question, answering promptly.

"The high-ends need more time, of course, as you already know. But the pair originally meant as backup for the USJ, only to never be called, are ready. As are a 15 reject combinations who might be useful, but don't live up to the same standards."

That was good. Better than expected, actually. He'd expected the original pair and perhaps three or four others. He considered carefully, weighing the sighting report he recently had of the Midoryia girl. She was interning with the Dragon Hero. That was a complication, but the numbers added up.

"Very well. Pick out the eight rejects that will be hardest for the average hero to put down. We will give them, as well as the two more powerful backups, to Tomura. We didn't leave enough of an impression with the USJ, so convincing him to strike at the reason he failed, in such a way that it will sow chaos and get us some more information, will be the next move. We will leave what he does with the rejects to him, but I have some specific orders for the two more powerful units. Here is what you're going to program them to do…"

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Stain scowled as he watched yet another one of those odd purple warp portals disappear. It was obvious that someone was trying to grab him, but he wasn't sure if it was a hero, a villain, or someone else entirely. As much as he hated to admit it, whoever it was had gotten uncomfortably close more than once. Worse, his need to dodge whoever it was had caused him to miss the latest fake he was studying. Still, that particular fake was only a sidekick of the Idaten agency. Normally, the fool wouldn't be even remotely worth his time. It was only the fact that Stain was pretty sure the man was actually a plant for whatever group had been attempting to recruit Native that made him important.

For all that no one truly lived up to All Might's standards, the Idaten agency and the family that ran it came far closer than most. Enough so that Stain would have avoided the agency's members entirely without that hint of a sidekick's involvement in whatever conspiracy he'd stumbled across. The question was, was trying to unravel that mystery important enough to warrant the risk of sticking around? He was no longer Stendhal, the vigilante that pursued villains and criminals heroes wouldn't. He'd cast that aside in favor of dealing with the root cause, the corruption of the system of heroes that meant those heroes wouldn't, even if they could and should. Frowning, he made up his mind. One more day in Hosu, where he'd try to pin down that sidekick. After that, he'd move on…

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A/N: A short chapter, I know ;-). But I wanted to give a bit of a peek into the villain side of the equation, without spoiling anything...

A/N 2: Just another 'Hey, I have a Patreon Page,' reminder! Check out my Patreon Page for early access to new chapters of all of my works (including this one). Currently, as of first posting to Scribblehub, 42 chapters of My Hero Automata are public, with 7 more (about 16k worth) currently in Early Access. ALL of my fanfiction content is ultimately free, with nothing stuck permanently behind a paywall. So, while I deeply appreciate anyone willing to help support my writing time...if you don't want to support me, don't :-p. You'll get the content eventually, one way or another, Patrons simply get it sooner.