The Many Lives of One For All - An MHA Short Story

Chapter 6: Rethinking

"Did I hear that correctly? We're all from different universes brought together by these weird...low budget machines?" The pink-haired man asked the others in the room. His robotic tentacles poked at the sides of the laser cannon.

"I just saw a young Deku run off with a young Uravity, Ingenium, and a still-alive Stars n Stripes." Shigaraki replied. "It's like stepping into the past...out of order."

"How do you know those heroes?" The light-blue-haired man with the hands on his body asked as he stepped up to Shigaraki. As he got a closer look, his eyes grew big through the fingers of the hand covering his face.

"So we are from different universes." Shigaraki scoffed. "What a joke."

"Joke?!" The younger villain hissed with a raspier voice.

"Yes. You're a joke." Shigaraki stated.

"I am Tomura Shigaraki!" He declared.

"Yes, you are..." Shigaraki agreed. "Take that thing off your face."

The younger Shigaraki grew closer to his older counterpart. "What did you say?"

Shigaraki leaned in. Suddenly the entire mood in the room shifted. Everyone felt a sense of dread as Shigaraki stared down the younger clone. "I said take it off. You don't need it."

Instinctively, the younger Shigaraki began scratching at his own neck. "If only master was here... He'd destroy you!"

"Why can't you do it yourself? After all, it was you that destroyed 'master'." Shigaraki hissed.

The younger growled. "You killed All For One?!"

Shigaraki rolled his eyes and backed out. "Where is that doctor? I'd like to fix this machine." He looked down at the still unconscious hostages.

"Fix this machine?" The pink-haired technological villain questioned.

"Can you fix it?" The evil version of Izuku asked.

"Fix it? Pfft. Yeah. But I won't." He answered.

Shigaraki took a step toward him. "And why is that?"

He smiled. "Sure, I was about to destroy my enemy Deku and take over. But I was also about to inject myself with Trigger."

Each of them cringed at the thought.

"I was basically going to take him down with me. Overload my systems. But here? Now?" He took a step closer to the group. "Gentlemen, we have here a second chance. A new world to conquer."

"Easy for you to say! I was about to execute my master's plan on those UA students and kill All Might!" The younger Shigaraki spoke up. "We even have a secret weapon to defeat him."

"It won't work." The older Shigaraki sighed.

"All Might?" The pink-haired villain scoffed. "How old are you?"

"How old are you?" He replied.

"AGH! You're all so talkative and annoying!" The muscular blonde villain roared. "I need to punch something!"

"Here, big guy. Let's go punch those heroes." Evil Deku suggested as he walked to the exit tunnel.

The insanely fit villain smirked. "I like that guy. I'm with him."

Shigaraki looked from the others back to the tech villain. "These idiots are all a lost cause."

"Well, don't expect me to help you fix your machine. You're the only one that wants to go back to whatever miserable life you came from. Something about a jail cell?" He snickered.

The white-haired man groaned.

"Name's Maeko Hatsume, AKA Savage. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some idiots to recruit to my cause. They just need a little...motivation."

The tentacles on his body were sucked back in, and the machinery on him contorted, forming a large hovering glider under his feet.

He flew off ahead of the other villains down the tunnel.

"Perhaps these characters can be useful..." Younger Shigaraki thought aloud. "Unlike you, old fool." He ran ahead to join them.

Older Shigaraki sighed and looked at the hostages one more time. He specifically kept his eye on the little boy.

Meanwhile, Star drove the group of heroes, plus Mirio and Doctor Souter, toward her agency.

"Wait." Mirio told her as she drove. "We can't go to your agency. That's exactly where they'll be looking."

"What are you talking about? They're just five stupid villains. We can take them." She said. "I'm only taking us back to rethink our strategy."

"We can't leave those hostages there!" Izuku interrupted. "That is not what heroes do!"

Star stopped the vehicle and pulled over. "I refuse to die before those people are all safe in their homes with their families! But we were just bombarded with some of your worst villains!"

"And mine." Mirio added. Suddenly, he clutched his chest as steam began to form off of his body. "Crap!" He gasped.

The others watched as his body shrunk down a size or two. He was now much skinnier than before. Almost all the muscle on his body seemed to get sucked inward. "My meds are back in my world!"

"Y-Your meds?" Izuku asked.

"They just keep me from turning into this..." He explained. "And it's painful..."

Izuku watched him struggling. His mind wandered for a moment. It seemed like Mirio's Quirk with One For All could be causing the strain his body. Would it happen to him too eventually? He was Quirkless so it's uncertain. But All Might said he was born Quirkless too and yet he's...like that. But that's a result of taking a life threatening injury and still going strong.

He muttered this all under his breath without realizing it.

"Oh my gosh, you're just like him..." Mirio spoke out.

"Oh?" Izuku blushed.

"Yeah. That creep Deku. But for some reason he looks younger... Like your age."

"My machine takes versions from all time and space. While it took you, your enemy could be from years prior." Doctor Souter explained.

"You have said enough, doc." Star insisted. "Well, if the machine brought you here, Mirio, then maybe there are others like you that could help."

"I don't know..." Mirio admitted. "Until today, I thought I was alone..."

"Mirio, sir?" Izuku asked. "What's your story?"

Iida and Uraraka stayed silent for most of these interactions. They were dumbfounded to know that their friend had other versions of himself across the multiverse...or even that there was a multiverse at all!

Mirio sat back and sighed. "In my world, All Might never chose you. I don't know. Something about you being unworthy and taking it too hard."

"That doesn't sound like anything Deku would do." Uraraka piped in. Even though she had known Izuku for a short while, she knew he was one to never give up. Even if All Might never told him he could be a hero. But what did he mean about being unworthy? Unworthy of what?

Mirio cleared his throat. "All Might chose me to carry on his power. His responsibilities as the Symbol of Peace."

Star turned to listen intently while Popper kept his grip on the doctor silently.

"The League of Villains came and went. Deku rose through the ranks of the criminal underground. First acting through vigilantism but his work quickly became harmful. Deadly. All For One almost considered him a worthy heir to his empire... until Deku killed both him and Shigaraki. I've spent years trying to bring him down. What's funny is that all this time, he denied power and Quirks, while I'm dying from it..."