My Mangekyo Sharingan Can't Save My Hero Academia

Chapter 190 187 All For One's Plans 2

Multiple Nomu tanks were smashed with a single swipe.

"MASTER!!!" The creature wailed, voice tinged with sorrow and rage. The old man watched all this, his startled heart returning to calm.

'He's taking the news better than I thought.' Garaki thought as his gaze flicked to the destroyed Nomu tanks. 'Luckily this is a properly soundproofed secondary facility.'

As the genius he was, there was no way he would bring Gigantomachia to his main lab under Jaku hospital. Doing this over there, next to his collection of high end Nomu still in incubation would have been an atrocity of the ages.

As for the ones here? Most of these Nomu were complete failures that were of no use whatsoever. Ultimately, better here than the main laboratory. "Calm yourself, Machia."

"DO NOT COMMAND ME TO CALM DOWN!"

Another fist slammed downward. BOOM!!!

This time the entire left side of the chamber cracked apart. Garaki did not move. Years serving All For One had long since taught him one thing above all else. Fear was acceptable. Showing fear was not.

The dust from the shattered concrete hung heavy in the air, illuminated by the harsh, flickering emergency lights of the laboratory. Alarms wailed in a piercing, casting red flashes across the devastation. Sloshing chemical fluid from the ruptured Nomu tanks pooled around the giant's massive, trembling feet, mixing with the dark, unresponsive flesh of the ruined test subjects.

Garaki remained perfectly still in his pneumatic chair, his fingers gripping the armrests tightly.

The giant was breathing in ragged, thunderous gasps, his massive shoulders heaving as his white, cataleptic eyes stared down at his own trembling hands.

"I left him..." Machia whispered, a sound like grinding tectonic plates. "Master was taken... and I turned my back on the slaughterer."

"Control yourself Machia!" Garaki said calmly over the blaring klaxons.

"If you collapse this facility, you bury the master's legacy with it! Is that how you honor his memory? Through mindless, short-sighted ruin?" That was obviously a lie. Of course, the doctor didn't expect the giant to catch on. He didn't. The word legacy reverberated through Machia's primitive, loyalty-driven mind. His towering frame stiffened before calming down.

Garaki smoothly adjusted his spectacles, seizing the moment of forced calm. "Before we discuss the path forward, I must have absolute clarity on what transpired in those mountains. Machia, look at the monitor. Are you entirely certain that the human who delayed you and pierced your skin is the exact same boy displayed on this screen?"

Machia's heavy, cataract-white eyes dragged away from his trembling hands, locking back onto the paused image of Yuta Akutami standing amidst the ruins of Tokyo.

"It is him," Machia confirmed, his teeth grinding together with enough force to echo through the chamber.

"Incredible," Garaki murmured, his thumb stroking his chin as his scientific curiosity temporarily eclipsed his caution. "Tell me, Machia. How exactly was he capable of injuring you? Your hide is designed to withstand structural collapsing force."

For several seconds, the giant remained silent.

The alarms had been turned off by this point.

Then— "A skeleton."

Garaki blinked. "...A what?"

"A glowing skeleton."

".."

Garaki's brows furrowed.

"A transformation quirk?"

"No."

Machia shook his head.

"The human remained inside."

His massive hand slowly lifted, tracing a shape through the air.

"It was larger than him."

Larger.

Garaki listened carefully.

The giant wasn't particularly intelligent, but his memory was excellent. When Machia described something, it was usually exactly as he remembered it.

Hence, listening to his description, Garaki made a mental image in his head. A giant skeletal construct. Energy projection.

Enough penetration power to breach Gigantomachia's defenses. The old doctor's mind sprinted through every recorded database of the previous One For All users. 'It doesn't seem like the traditional stockpiling or kinetic release of One For All. All Might never displayed anything remotely structural...'

At least not from everything All For One had gathered over the decades. Superhuman strength. Speed. Power accumulation. Not giant energy skeletons.

'Could it be a volatile mutation between the succession factor and his original quirk?'

The possibility wasn't impossible. Quirks evolved. One For All itself was originally a combination of two different quirks.

Sometimes they manifested in unexpected ways.

Especially in younger generations.

Or perhaps. 'Or is this power simply not One For All at all?' Garaki's eyes narrowed further. Perhaps it wasn't One For All at all. After all, it had been one way for many generations.

To have it suddenly mutated at this time was unlikely and ultimately just speculation. Brilliant Quirks could occur, especially with each generation. It was his entire theory after all.

A slow, deeply unsettling smile stretched across the old doctor's face beneath his thick mustache.

"Hehe... this is truly interesting," The old man muttered aloud, tapping into his keyboard to archive Machia's physical telemetry from the fight. "A truly fascinating anomaly. It is rare to see a child grow to such extents ... Truly rare. However... it is ultimately not our concern." He turned his gaze entirely away from the screens, dismissing the image of the U.A. student as he refocused on his primary computers.

"Questions regarding that boy's abilities should be left to our master's successor to figure out."

Machia, who was still staring fixedly at the screen with an aura of suffocating malice, slowly turned his massive head toward the doctor.

"...Successor?"

"Indeed. Our master is not truly gone." The giant froze as the laboratory fell silent. For the first time since entering the facility, hope flickered within those pale eyes. Garaki saw it. And crushed it immediately.

"He is dead."

This couldn't be helped. Machia was a creature of absolute devotion. Revealing the specifics of All For One's plan, there was always a risk of it getting revealed.

Plus, if it did work, his previous master wouldn't be the same master but a fusion of two personalities. Hence, it was no stretch to say All For One was truly dead.

The hope vanished.

"But his will survives." Another screen activated, revealing a face that was unfamiliar to the giant.

Pale blue hair.

Red eyes. The cracked hand resting across his face.

Tomura Shigaraki.

Machia stared. "...Him?" The giant fell silent again. Unlike All For One, the name carried no reverence.

"Yes. Him."

Garaki nodded. "Our master anticipated countless possibilities."

"Capture."

"Defeat."

"Even death."

His gaze softened slightly. "While this outcome was certainly not preferred, preparations existed nonetheless."

Another file opened.

Then another.

Then another.

Hundreds. Instructions. Research notes. Safehouses. Funding channels. Sleeper assets. Emergency contingencies. Overseas contacts ..

The hidden skeleton of an empire. "Among those instructions," Garaki continued, "was the continued cultivation of his chosen heir."

The image of Shigaraki expanded across the central monitor. "Tomura Shigaraki."

Gigantomachia remained silent. Garaki could already see the skepticism.

Good.

That reaction had been expected. Especially from the image alone showing Tomura's scrawny and messy image, it would be a surprise if the giant suddenly respected the chosen successor.

If anything, his disgust of him would grow the moment they meet due to the massive disparity. The worst case scenario was killing Shigaraki at first sight. To Gigantomachia, there had only ever been one master. Of course, he couldn't possibly let that happen.

"Master selected him personally." Garaki's voice hardened. "He entrusted him with everything. His future. His ambition. His hatred."

The doctor adjusted his spectacles. "And now, with events accelerating beyond expectation, we must accelerate as well."

Machia's eyes narrowed.

"...We."

"Yes."

Garaki nodded. "You. Myself. And every remaining asset left behind by All For One." He certainly didn't bring Machia here just to reveal All For One's death. That could have been done over the radio. The Nomu were all prototypes, based on the Giant.

His blood and tissue were all important research materials used in their creation. The doctor's previous batch had run out not long ago.

For several moments Gigantomachia said nothing.

Then ...

"What is required of me?"

Garaki smiled. For the first time since revealing All For One's death, genuine relief washed through him.

"Excellent." The doctor pressed a button. "Then allow me to explain the next phase of the master's will."

The monitor displaying Tomura Shigaraki's file remained active as Garaki turned back to his primary console, his fingers moving across the keyboard with practiced efficiency.

The laboratory around him was significantly less intact than it had been an hour ago. Smashed containment units. Deformed flooring. The chemical residue of failed experiments coating the lower walls.

"The primary directive is straightforward," the doctor continued, pulling up the operational framework he had been developing for the past six days. "You will locate Tomura Shigaraki. His last confirmed position was in the Kanagawa region, though given the current state of the country, he will have moved."

He tabbed through several files. "Once located, you will make contact. You will not engage him. You will not evaluate him. You will simply deliver a message and bring him to a location I designate for extraction."

"And if he is unworthy."

"That determination is not yours to make." Garaki replied without looking up.

He understood Machia's personality. Without clear instructions, there was every possibility that he would stomp Shigaraki to meat paste at first sight.

"I have not seen this person. I do not know this person." The giant's voice was low. "Master's judgment was always sound. But master is gone. And you are asking me to follow someone I have never met based on a file and your word."

Garaki set down his stylus.

Then turned around.

"You are correct," he said. "That is precisely what I am asking." The laboratory was quiet except for the hum of equipment.

"And I am asking it," Garaki continued, "because that is what All For One asked of me. Just like you, I am skeptical of Shigaraki's capabilities and would let you test him to your heart's content at normal times. However, the situation is different now. All For One is gone and Shigaraki is the only path left for his legacy. We cannot afford to make mistakes with him now."

He turned back to his work. "He built this contingency and selected Shigaraki. I am simply executing his instructions as faithfully as I am able." He adjusted his spectacles. "If you believe All For One's judgment was sound, then you believe his choice of successor was sound. The two positions cannot be held separately."

Gigantomachia stared at him. Then looked back at the monitor. "I will find him," Ultimately, his loyalty to his master won out the discomfort.

"Good." Garaki turned back to his console and resumed typing.

The next several minutes passed in productive silence. Garaki archived the Machia telemetry from the mountain encounter, cross-referenced it against existing data on One For All's recorded manifestations in previous users, and found no meaningful match. He filed that under anomalous and moved on.

There would be time to pursue it properly later. He had just the perfect test subject to determine it.

He was halfway through a secondary personnel file when the alert sounded.

"Hmm?" The doctor looked up only to discover it was a standard news flag instead of a security alarm. His system was configured to pull breaking broadcasts from all major national see automatically. He had set it up in the days after Tokyo when the information environment had become sufficiently unstable that missing an important announcement carried high risk.

"What are they up to this time?" He tapped the alert.

The central monitor shifted. A woman sat behind a polished podium bearing the insignia of the Hero Public Safety Commission. The HPSC president. One arm and a pinned sleeve.

"Good evening." The woman folded her hands together. Or would have if she had two. "Over the past week our nation has experienced an unprecedented series of criminal incidents."

Images flashed behind her. Prison escapes. Destroyed city blocks. Captured villains. Emergency response teams.

"The Hero Public Safety Commission would like to assure all citizens that the situation remains under control."

'Politicians.' Garaki snorted. Neither statement was remotely true. The ability of these people to lie without so much as a sweat never ceased to amaze him. The woman continued flawlessly.

"In response to recent events, the Commission has authorized several emergency measures intended to strengthen public security and increase operational flexibility among active heroes." More images appeared. Hero agencies. Training facilities. Students. Schools. Garaki's fingers paused above the keyboard.

"Hm?"

The president continued. "Effective immediately, all accredited hero institutions within Japan will participate in an expanded practical education initiative."

".."

"The initiative will allow qualified hero students to receive accelerated field experience under the direct supervision of licensed professionals."

Images of U.A., Shiketsu and Ketsubutsu flashed across the screen.

"Through increased cooperation between educational institutions and professional agencies, we will ensure that the next generation of heroes receives the practical training necessary to serve society during these challenging times."

"Hehe... ahahaha!" Garaki burst into a reedy, ecstatic fit of laughter, slapping his knee. "Brilliant! Truly brilliant, you bureaucratic hag! 'Expanded practical education initiative!' What a marvelous string of words!"

The wording was bureaucratically perfect but Garaki immediately understood what it actually meant.

The heroes were short on manpower. Very short.

Of course, this kind of thing couldn't possibly be said as it was. No government would admit their loss of control to the general public. The Commission on TV was doing the exact same thing.

Gigantomachia stared blankly. Garaki, however, was already reading between every line. Interesting. Very interesting. The rest of the speech was mainly tuned out. The broadcast ended several minutes later.

Silence filled the laboratory. The old doctor adjusted his glasses. "What an amusing development." The blood extraction machines continued working around Gigantomachia.

The giant himself paid the broadcast no attention whatsoever. His focus remained entirely fixed upon thoughts of his dead master.

Garaki meanwhile was already several steps ahead.

Hero students. Accelerated deployment. Agency assignments. Mandatory field placement. The more he thought about it, the more opportunities appeared. The old doctor opened several files simultaneously that held several names All For One had compiled before his death.

The Header of the files were as clear as day. "PRIME TARGETS." The smile on his face widened.

"Hehehe..." He had been considering whether to take advantage of the country's current chaos, but had previously dismissed it due to the trouble and his lack of investment in Tomura beyond what was required of him. Now it seemed the HPSC could read his thoughts and went to all the trouble to make his choices easier.

"Machia." The old man looked up toward Gigantomachia.

The giant slowly turned his head. "Doctor."

Garaki's smile sharpened.

"Change of plans."

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