[1st POV]
Kurohara.
A country that lingered on the edges of maps, a stain upon the world's conscience - a country no longer recognized by its former name, its past buried beneath the weight of what it had become.
A country of villains.
Once, Kurohara was an ordinary nation. Mid-sized, tucked away in a corner of Southeast Asia, it was the kind of place the world barely noticed. It struggled, like many others - a weak economy, rampant corruption, a government more concerned with appearances than progress. It was just like any other country, it had its flaws but millions called it their home.
But all of that was gone now.
The Kurohara that exists today was something else entirely. It was a nation with order carved from its bones, but not the kind recognized by the rest of the world. It was a kingdom ruled not by laws, but by control. It was a haven for the world's most dangerous criminals, not in rebellion, but in unity under a single ruler.
Indeed, an extraordinary person emerged from this ordinary country. A human with one of the strongest quirks in history was born in this unassuming nation, changing her forever.
The Sovereign, that was what she called herself. One of the strongest Supervillains in the world and someone who, more often than not, was put above All Might in the top ten World's strongest beings.
She was an evil worse than me, even from the world's perspective. And that was why she was perfect.
Defeating her would be the first step to my redemption and revealing the truth. Until now, All for One had been very thorough with dragging my reputation into the mud. Killing the villains I left alive in my attacks to pit the deaths on me was only one of the few things he did.
But if I were to defeat Sovereign and bring peace to the country of Kurohara, achieving what no intentional hero could do, that would get people to raise their eyebrows in question.
That was the best thing I could come up with. I had no connections, I was truly alone in my journey. I had zero idea how to go on about digging through politics and media to save my reputation and make people believe in me. The experience of a ten-year-old locked in bed and an ancient curse was not so useful.
What I did have was overwhelming strength. So if I beat this supervillain and save everyone, wouldn't that help?
And so I did.
My last journey was in Kurohara and the plan was as easy as beating the Sovereign. The nation of villains believed in the system of might makes it right. Your strength determines your status.
They didn't even help when Sovereign and I went into battle. They knew they would risk their lives by stepping into my domain so no one did. Why would they? They did not have what decent people called loyalty or honour.
They simply watched, making two plans ahead. It did not matter who came out the victor, they would do what benefits them.
The battle raged for nearly a day as we nearly decimated the entire country in our battle. The battle was more intense than my fight with All Might and All for One, and she was also stronger than either of them.
Her qurik, Void Command allowed her to manipulate space itself. She warped us into different regions, throwing me through dimensions so that I could never get used to the environment.
Her qurik was more destructive than my own abilities as she destroyed her own nation in the wake of our fight with no care in the world. But in the end, through planning and with the help of World Cutting Slash, I was able to defeat her.
It was not an easy fight, it just went to show how dangerous the world of MHA is. The world was not limited to Japan, there were people out there who were just as strong as All Might.
....
"Finally, I am not alone," she said while she lay on her back, looking at the sky. Her pale skin was covered in her own blood as she lay there, limbless and naked.
I regenerated my arms which she blew off at the last exchange of our battle and I grabbed her by the throat and held her in the air.
"I have killed every version of you in the last 24 hours, that's your limit, right? You can't reverse yourself past that," I said while I held her above me. It might looked brutal but I was actually keeping her alive with RCT.
My other hands made a sign below, ready to slice her again if she pulled out that bullshit move of reversing time for her body.
There were 86400 seconds in one day and I have killed her 86399 times.
"You are right, you win," she said, her white hair was unblemished and seemed to compete with the glowing sunset.
Her sky-blue eyes were not as beautiful as when I first saw them. Now they were red from the bursting of her optic veins. But they still looked mesmerizing.
The binding vow we set up before the fight seemed to hum inside me, accepting me as the victor. It was just a failsafe in case she attacked me again after I won the fight.
"Are you not going to kill me?" she asked in a weird voice after I loosened my grip and cradled her limbless body in my arms.
"That would be horrible for what I am trying to do. You are going to surrender peacefully to the UN or something, just like we promised before the fight," I said and then walked away from the deformed landmass we were standing on.
"You really should kill me, otherwise I wouldn't stop coming after you," she said, more coherent this time.
I narrowed my eyes, "That was not part of the deal,"
"Who said I'm coming after you for a fight? No, I am coming for something else," she said and I blinked owlishly at what she was insinuating.
"Not interested in a granny, what are you, a century years old? You will spend the rest of your time behind bars," I said and she hummed, smiling at a joke only she knew.
"You can't get rid of me now," she said.
.....
But I did, I threw the crazy bitch in jail and just like I wanted, my feat got the attention of everyone. With the defeat of Sovereign, the international heroes finally had the ability to push through the crises in Kurohara and everything was dealt with.
Sovereign was someone who could rival whole armies by herself and without her protection, the villain nation had no protection.
It was the biggest crime bust in history. And the end of a dark era.
..
..
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[1st POV]
(Three Months Later)
Nothing mattered, in the end.
I failed spectacularly.
There was always a consequence to every good I was trying to do. When I thought I made progress, I was pushed back two more steps.
My battle in Kurohara only worked to feed fear to the people. You wouldn't believe how difficult it was to change the hate. People knew I could end them with a snap of my finger, and they found it easier to be afraid and hate me than to sympathize with me.
I realized then it didn't matter if I was good or not. There was no fair judgment. Society functions with their emotions and as a mass of negative emotion, I would never win them over.
I couldn't do anything if I presented the truth to them but they refused to believe it. I couldn't force them to believe it.
I gave up.
Everything that happened in the span of these months had crushed my resolve.
My second life was ruined, it was unsalvageable.
The only path for me was that of a villain. The people left me no choice but to be what they wanted me to be.
But I wouldn't do that.
I knew already from Sukuna's experience what kind of life that was and I did not want any part in that.
So there was only one thing that could save me now.
"Another chance, a third life," I said with a smile, feeling my own cursed technique inside my soul.
This was not the cursed technique of Ryomen Sukuna, this was something that was my own. It was more like an actual curse than an ability so I haven't used it till now.
Cursed Technique : Smasara. It was a cursed technique that allowed for rebirth as long as the user was facing his own death and his bloodline continued.
In the context of my technique, facing death implies you knew what killed you, why they killed you and how they killed you. You need to know your own death to face it.
If I was assassinated or if I missed one of those questions - what, why and how - the technique would not activate and I would die permanently.
I also needed someone related to my own blood to survive so that I could be reborn as their son, or daughter. In my case, I would be reborn in my uncle's line of my family.
It was a limited form of immortality. One could be reborn again and again, gaining more knowledge and power with each life until they became formidable. That was the nature of my technique.
And so I made up my mind to use that technique. To give myself another chance in life and finally regain what I lost.
But first, I made preparations.
I took inspiration from the ancient curse and split my fingers into twenty parts. I hid them all throughout Japan so that when I died, all my powers would transfer to these fingers. And in my new life, I could regain my power.
I was going to be born with all my powers regardless but I would need to grow into them. Therefore, storing my powers and collecting them again was much easier.
This way I could regain my full strength at the age of 10 and I wouldn't need to train to regain my prime strength.
I was tempted to hide all twenty fingers in one place so that I could regain everything instantly but I threw that idea out. In case someone found them, I would lose everything. There were no pieces of my soul in those fingers so they were not indestructible like they were in JJK.
I preferred being cautious instead of taking risks with high rewards.
After I was done with all the necessary preparation, I planned for my own death next. Luckily, I was in a situation where I could choose what, why and how I was going to die.
No one could kill me without my consent after all.
..
..
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(The final hour)
The Shinka Island.
It was an artificial island located in Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone. It was around 200 kilometres off the coast of Japan.
With the size of 800 square kilometres, it was to be the largest artificial island Japan had ever created. The project was almost done, the landmass having been created, it was only in need of finishing touches.
This island was made to deal with the growing population of Japan. In its completion, it would've been a place for industries, and energy creation, relieving the country of occupied space.
That was the idea until I took over the island.
There were only a few workers and a plethora of worker robots when I went there. It was easy enough to evacuate the human workers and I was left alone on the large island.
I sat on the sandy beach of the island, my phone was beside me. I used it to contact Rumi and my other friends nonstop in an attempt to explain myself. Basically, it was a beacon for the people to know my location.
I also made sure to show myself in Japan before I took over this island. I met All Might for the last time and although it didn't escalate into a fight, his sidekick Nighteye took a good look at me.
So that's the plan.
I was going to let them kill me here.
..
..
"Already? That is sooner than I expected," I said while looking at the blue sky above me.
My four eyes locked on the jets flying over the island at incredible speed, but not before dropping missiles.
Normally, no country was allowed to use nuclear weapons after the last nuclear war. But for the Supervillain Ryomen Sukuna who was strong enough to topple countries, they made an exception.
I just smiled a sad smile and waited as the weapon of mass destruction flew at me. The advanced technology of this world allowed for better weapons, so the small missiles were enough to erase this man-made island from the map.
There was no surviving this time.
..
..
And that was the end.
A story that started off happy, and became perfect in the middle, but by the end everything was lost. There was only regret and bitterness in the end.
It was the end of my story, the end of Daigo Arata and Ryomen Sukuna.
But the end of one story was just the start of another.
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..
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