His eyes snapped open in great shock.
He was sat upright in his bed and done his best to ignore the slipping sensation that came with his sleek and silk pajamas.
Sir Nighteye had just received another vision.
It was clearer now. The edges of his vision were foggy but he could still make out something, or rather someone he did not want to see again, someone he thought had died out after his last battle with All Might.
"All For One!"
The blood drained from his face. He was sure of it. In his future sight, he had seen the man drenched in blood and standing straight while looking up at the dark sky and laughing comically. A laugh that seemed like he had won. That he had finally won a bought of a lifetime.
Stress an fear were all that Nighteye had felt.
In his vision he couldn't see where the blood had come from, he could only see that there was plenty on the mans tattered clothing, and the noise and other voices were drowned out by the mans maniacal laughter.
He reached for his phone, it was 4 am, December 19th. He swiped across the screen opening up his contacts.
He had to scroll all the way down to find a familiar number of a colleague he knew hadn't changed his private contact.
Even though Nighteye couldn't see where the pool of blood was coming from, the laugh made it clear that it could only be great rival of the king of the underworld for him to be giving off such a wicked laugh of victory.
Ignoring their now soured past, this was definitely something Nighteye should not be keeping to himself. All his efforts in searching for Soryu, and now his attention is being swayed back to his old mentor. All Might.
Nighteye is scared. He's only human. But his mentor, the strongest man to ever exist for the side of light, he's going to die soon.
"What would happen if I told him what I saw?"
Nighteye was still of the belief that the future cannot be changed. The entire reason he had abandoned All Might all those years ago was because of his initial vision telling him that his mentor was always going to die a gruesome death if he carried on the way he did. Nighteye was never able to get him to be more careful or even just lighten his load. And so he left, he didn't want to continue watching.
But if All Might dies, then what?
The villains win. Tartarus is bare with only a handful of villains captured and that is mainly because they turned themselves in after the Hosu incident believing that they had done wrong and want to finish their time and get out without looking over their shoulder at every turn.
What would change if I warned him?
The vision replayed behind his eyes like a cursed film reel. All For One's laughter, the blood smeared sky, the victory in his posture. And beneath it, an unshakable truth, the future doesn't bend.
A flicker.
His quirk activated without warning. Another vision, this one fractured, overlapping like shattered glass.
It was... Soryu. Him again
Soryu was violent in his fights. Blood sprayed and splattered. Limbs broken and shattered, and screams and twisted laughter were all directed at him.
And he... he just looked on with cold disinterest with his glossy light brown eyes.
People were behind him, hands outstretched as though they were pushing their champion forward in victory. Like he was some sort of God.
And beneath him were bodies trapped and disfigured in rubble.
Nighteye gasped, clawing at his temples. The images burned, searing into his psyche.
"No... no, not him too..."
His breath came in ragged bursts. Soryu wasn't some beta level threat. He was like a convergence point. The underworld whispered about him like they once did All For One, they look at him as a power they want to have, and follow. The rest looked at him in reverie and slight fear, those were the heroes and civilians.
Once they both cross on that fateful day, Soryu will show them all who he really is, on what side he is really on. And the cogs in the system will shatter and reform, spinning in a completely different cycle.
Nighteye shivered as he saw the parallels between the boy and All For One.
All For One had built an empire in the shadows. Soryu was already deep in with the Meta Liberation army, probably has plans to take over.
All For One only viewed people as quirks to be used like toys. Soryu had manipulated heroes, villains and the public while barely having to say a thing, instead just appearing in the right places to look like a good martyr.
All For One broke All Might's body. "And Soryu will destroy his legacy. Soryu will plunder All Might's peaceful society."
Nighteye's hands fisted in his hair. He's worse. All For One is a force of nature, but Soryu? Soryu has a strange way of understanding the world. A way Nighteye can't yet see.
But what the hero is truly fearful of, is if the people will eventually let him.
***
"Ready for the big day?" The first thing I see when he speaks is his big nose twitching about.
"Ready as I'll ever be boss."
Destro had been overly excited. It was freakish how giddy he was about the soon to be death of a potential great number of people. For someone who says he is fighting for the freedom of people it really didn't seem that way.
There was no one else in the room with us. Just me and him. This was quite normal though, he would call me in to have some deep discussions mainly based on things like philosophy and morality and the advancement of the human race and whatnot.
"That's good to hear Kobe," I have been getting used to him using my name a lot more formally too, instead of him just calling me Soryu. "Just a couple more days and we can really start to advance and push our narrative."
Oh, if only he knew that I never actually did kill the minister of justice, there'd be a completely different discussion to be had right now wouldn't there big nose.
"Anyway in this little talk of ours I just wanted to speak on something else, quirk related but also related to your last job with Overhaul." This guy has an obsession with quirks, although how could he not when his future plans relied on them and their use so heavily. "I want to speak about the drugs he was creating: Trigger and the quirk erasing bullet."
A sour topic very much so. Destro rummaged around in his desk drawer and brought out a vial, it wasn't the quirk erasing bullet, Overhaul never got to finish it because of me, but the plans of it did get out there.
"Overhaul was remarkable," Destro mused. "He didn't just study quirks, he reverse-engineered them. Cracked the genetic code like a safe." His eyes gleamed with something between admiration and disgust. "Trigger forces the body to overproduce the quirk factor, like flooding an engine with nitrous. The power surge is incredible, but most minds can't handle the voltage."
He set the vial down with a sharp click. "The bullets were more elegant. Surgical. They target the specific protein bonds that allow quirk factors to function, sever those molecular connections, and the quirk might as well not exist." His lip curled. "A brilliant perversion of nature."
"Could've been our generations Einstein," I offered, watching his jaw tighten.
"Hardly a fair comparison," Destro scoffed. "Einstein worked with pure theory. Overhaul had centuries of genetic research and a powerful quirk to aid him in all this at his fingertips." He leaned forward, fingers steepled. "Still... to manipulate life at that level? To rewrite what makes us human? That's power even I must respect. Some would say the best kind of genius."
"Some would be wrong." I fired back.
Desro gave a little giggle. It was obvious he didn't like Overhaul, they were complete opposites. Overhaul wanted society to abandon quirks while Destro wanted the continual advancement of them. There was no world where either of them would work together.
"You're right Kobe, some would be wrong. Some couldn't look at him as a genius but instead a demon, a monster. Like that little girl you saved, Eri."
Hearing her name come from his mouth and watching the smugness on his face was disgusting, I didn't like it. I wanted to be surprised at the fact that he knew of her, but I just couldn't fake it. But there was nothing really connecting me to him knowing other than maybe his relationship with that man All For One which could have been how he knew of her.
Destro leaned back in his chair, his gaze dissecting me once again. "That calls to mind a question I've been pondering." he scratched his chin, the sound grating in the quiet. "Why did you save that child?"
A beat. Then, with the precision of a surgeon.
"Or perhaps, I should rephrase. Eri's quirk could have rewritten society. Accelerated evolution. Cured diseases. And yet, you chose to deny humanity that progress. Why?"
I kept my voice flat. "Overhaul was a problem."
A deflection. Destro's lips twitched.
"Then you could have walked away. Let him continue his work. Your interference wasn't hatred, it was sacrifice. You traded the potential of millions for one life." His fingers tapped the armrest. "Common decency is too simple. Why risk death for platitudes."
My mind flashed to Eri, in rags and bandages covering her arms. They flashed to her eyes, and then my own reflection within them.
"She was a child," I said quieter. "Not some resource."
Destro exhaled, he sounded disappointed. "Then let me reframe the dilemma." He leaned forward, the lamplight carving shadows under his eyes. "Imagine a boy. Ten years old. His quirk generates infinite electricity, enough to power cities. But it's unstable. One night, it surges. A neighborhood burns. Hundreds die." A pause. "Now, do you cage him, harness that power for the greater good? Or do you let him roam free, knowing the next surge could kill thousands."
I didn't blink. "You're asking if I'd torture a child for 'progress'."
"I'm asking if you'd prioritize life over actual life." Destro's voice was chillingly calm. "Sedate him. Sustain him. Use him. One life weighed against millions, is that not moral algebra?"
I studied him, the way his collar sat perfectly straight, the faint scar along his jawline. A man who'd built his life on absolutes.
"We've all done ugly things," I said. "But there's a difference between getting your hands dirty and building your entire house on a foundation of rot."
The lamp's glow caught the condensation on my untouched glass as I turned it slowly on the table. "You talk about sacrifice for progress like its some noble equation. But strip away the pretty rhetoric and you're just another dictator telling himself the ends justify the means." I met his gaze "Call it naive, but I think human advancement came about because of empathy."
Destro's fingers steepled, his smile never reaching those cold eyes. "Empathy is a luxury history can't always afford. The old Meta Liberation Army understood this. Do you know their original slogan?"
He didn't wait for an answer.
"One law: Be free. Simple. Pure." His thumb traced the rim of his glass. "But the movements mature. We learned that freedom without structure turns to anarchy. That's why we no longer chant mantras, we implement liberation through calculated action."
I snorted. "Like caging children if they have too great a power."
"Like recognizing hard truths." His voice sharpened. "That slogan still holds power, though. I use it when recruits need reminding of what we were, what we will be to win."
"Funny," I said, standing. "The only 'law' I see is yours. The only 'freedom', yours to define."
***
Even though it hasn't been long I've come to realize that I really don't like many members of the League.
Twice's split personality is probably a major cause of his suffering but it is annoying to be around, Toga is just some weird blood freak, Dabi's ego is insufferable, the lizard is much too stern.
I haven't met the rest of them. But then there was Daiki.
Since I knew him before I thought it would be easier to work with him, like with Saya. But Daiki, his ego was large too. There wasn't much reason for it not to be though. Daiki was strong, he was fast and he was just a natural talent.
But he was always looking for a way to satiate his bloodlust. And he brought up too much out in the open.
"Oi Kobe," I raised my head to him. "I hope you know you act like a dog right?" His tone was serious with little hints of the jokey tone that is his norm.
"Meaning?"
Daiki gained that grin on his face again, I hated how I had to look up at him. He picked at his ear and began explaining. "Well let's see. After Eden, you crawled back home, right? To your nice little family. Except, oh wait. Couldn't stay, could you? So you went looking for a new master. First Overhaul, now Destro."
"I don't belong to either of them." I said, Daiki was an annoying personality to deal with. He wasn't really like anyone I had run into in my past. From what I could assume he was a lot more like an annoying older brother figure.
Daiki laughed, "Sure." his tone was sarcastic. "That's why you're here, fighting their battles and happily prancing around in their uniforms." Silly expression. The MLA didn't have a uniform. "You're not free and you never have been. Eden made sure of that."
"And what about you?" I was genuinely curious as to what he thought he was.
"I don't need to be. I own what I am."
"I chose this." I said sternly.
"Bullshit," he refuted quickly. "You ran to it. Just like you ran from home. Just like you'll run from Destro when he's run our of uses." Daiki tilted his head. "When was the last time you did something because you wanted to? The last time you were in a position where you didn't feel like you had some duty to fulfill?"
I continued to walk with him, in silence. I trailed back a little. What he was saying didn't sound ground-breaking or anything. But I did feel... hurt, and I think there was some comfort in it as well.
Was I really moving through life like that?
What had I really done for myself other than leave my mother's home.
Everywhere I had been, and every decent relationship I had forged had been because I felt their was some objective to complete. Joining Overhaul was initially because I was interested in his drug development, I could have left there, but I then turned it into saving Eri.
The Hosu game and saving Kendo and later Yui, that just resulted in the latter dying cause of some villain with an insane bloodlust wanted me. My response was to kill him and drag a corpse along with me for the rest of the game.
And now I'm with the MLA. I truly could have found my way out long ago, but I'm still here and even worse. I'm fighting not just for them but against the League for them and against them for the heroes.
I'm like a beat down dog that's looking for something to fill its stomach.
But in the recesses of my mind, I felt like there was still something that was to be held. Something that I would do that would be fulfilling to me and only me.