Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Hush, Hush, Hush, Here Comes the Boogeyman
The crackling of electricity shuts off and the lights in the room slowly turn back on as one Kyudai Garaki grumbles. Slowly, he approached the machine where his latest subject was strapped, eyes rolled to the back of his head as he drooled. The doctor then placed a hand on the side of the subject’s neck and sighed. Yet another failure. Shame. And he seemed oh so promising too. At least they managed to make a copy of his quirk.
The doctor then took a seat and sighed as he took off his goggles and cleaned them. Ever since Number 6’s death, they haven’t been able to replicate their success with him, the closest they got being Kurogiri who they'd managed to implant an extra two Quirks onto but considering his special circumstance, he probably didn't count. They could certainly try to give Kurogiri more Quirks but considering his role, they’d rather not risk further harming him. Besides, the Master already said that Kurogiri’s current state was perfect.
Speaking of the Master, Garaki watched as the man himself entered the laboratory with his usual confident stride. Garaki immediately stood up and hastily put his goggles back on.
“Master!”, the doctor said as he hobbled over to All for One’s side. The larger man was currently inspecting the body of the newest failure with interest. “I was just about to make a report on this one”, the doctor said as he watched his master who simply sighed.
All for One then went over to a nearby control panel, input a command and watched as the corpse was taken to the furnace to be disposed of.
“So”, the larger man began. “Brain dead. Again.” The doctor nodded and cleared his throat. “I have at least managed to procure some findings from all of these failures”, he said, making his master turn to him with interest.
“It seems like without something to bind these Quirks together, the subject’s body would slowly break down from the pressure of having too many Quirk Factors which is what results in brain death. For the Quirks to come together successfully, they need to have some sort of cohesion with each other.”
The doctor watched as All for One nodded before humming. “So, the reason that Number 6 and Kurogiri were successful was because their Quirks synergized. But if we were to create a weapon that could defeat the blonde oaf, we’d need something that can have any number of Quirks that are not related to each other to overpower him. But to do that we’d need a subject who was already quirkless to begin with.”
The doctor nodded and was about to say something but froze. Someone who was born quirkless?
A smile spread across the Doctor’s lips, and he chuckled, making All for One turn to him with a raised eyebrow. Without turning to face his master, the doctor spoke. “I believe…I have a candidate, my lord.”
It was quite dark when one Izuku Midoriya woke up and rubbed his eyes. Blearily, he looked at his All Might themed alarm clock to see that the current time was 11:22 in the evening. Yawning, the six-year-old child left his room to get a glass of water before going back to bed. After emptying his cup, Izuku placed the cup in the dishwasher and headed back to his room.
Closing the door, the boy turned around only to see what seemed like a large cloud manifesting in his room. Izuku’s eyes widened as he watched a strange smoky figure exit from the cloud, dressed in something like a bartending outfit he once saw in an All Might movie with a strange metallic brace on their neck. Paralyzed by fear, Izuku could do nothing more than watch the figure as it left the misty portal and turned to him with its bright yellow eyes.
“Please pardon my intrusion. Are you perhaps Izuku Midoriya?”, the figure asked and Izuku nodded dumbly in response. The figure hummed and clasped his hands behind his back. “Do you want to become a hero, child?”, he asked once more and Izuku’s eyes widened.
“M-More than a-anything”, the boy answered in a whisper, finally feeling as though he can act freely. Nevertheless, the mist man seemed to have heard it as he responded with another question, “You know it will be nigh impossible without a Quirk, yes?”
Izuku’s heart sank as he heard the question. Of course he knew it, everyone else said it. The doctor said it, the children at school said it, Kacchan said it. Even his mother believed so, even though she’s never outright told him. Tears gathered in Izuku’s eyes and he whimpered softly, the sudden silence almost deafening.
“What if I told you I knew someone who could give you a Quirk?”
Izuku’s head shot up to look at the mist man through teary eyes. He opened his mouth to argue against the notion, but the mist man beat him to it. “I know what you are about to say. It is impossible, correct? But why should it be? Quirks have allowed mankind to do the impossible so why should someone who could give people Quirks be impossible? So, what do you say child? All you have to do is come with me.”
Izuku looked at the man and inched closer to the door, his hand wrapping around the handle. The mist man saw this and chuckled. “You need not worry, child. We’ll be back in the morning, before your mother even notices you’re gone.”
Izuku hesitated. He didn’t know this strange man and for all he knew, he could be planning something nefarious. But at the same time…this was Izuku’s chance to finally be a hero! Once the morning came, he could simply pretend that his Quirk came in late!
Slowly, Izuku let go of the door handle and approached the mist man who nodded and opened a portal next to himself. “Good choice”, he said. “Worry not, child. You won’t have to worry anymore after this.”
On the evening of July 16, 2182, Izuku Midoriya was never seen again.
However, he was not the only one as that night, a total of 24 children disappeared without a trace all over the Musutafu District. This night would live on in infamy with the event later being called the Rapture Incident.