The Emperor's Dragon

Creative Selection Criteria

It said quite a lot about All For One's career that he had more than a passing familiarity with warehouses. Those people who knew him as Hisashi Riji, the exceedingly well dressed owner of JBQC would probably be surprised but despite what they thought, they were not the people Hisashi Riji had built his career around.

His career had been built around the type of people who worked in warehouses. Some would find it odd that a supervillain knew so much about the working man. Those sorts of people generally despised the working man but All For One was quite fond of them.

They were usually good, hard-working people, who saw the world as it was. They didn't have the illusions those with money held. They couldn't afford them. Instead, they knew power, and they knew to respect power. And there were always a lot of them looking for some miraculous way out of their position that didn't involve hard work. That's how he'd managed to recruit so many volunteers to the Nomu program.

The people standing in the warehouse now were not the usual low class bum that Garaki recruited. These men knew the value of hard work, as evidenced by the muscles on display and the hard look in their eyes. These were the candidates for the special Nomu. There were five men and they were standing together under the one light that was turned on.

All For One was standing in the shadows at one end of the warehouse. Gigantomachia was with him and they were both critically assessing the men.

The way they were twitching was interesting. It wasn't because they sensed they were being watched. Not yet, anyway. Both All For One and Gigantomachia were skilled at hiding their presence when they wanted. Instead, the men were twitching in the presence of each other. Even if his eyesight was undamaged, All For One knew he wouldn't recognise any of the men but he knew their type. The muscles told him enough. These were fighters. They probably enjoyed a reasonable amount of success in the underground fighting circles, which meant, if they kept their mind, then the resulting Nomu would have at least some knowledge of fighting techniques.

He was here to test what the limit of those skills were. In the gloom, All For One tilted his head upwards, giving Gigantomachia a nod. The large man saw the movement and after a moment All For One could feel his bodyguard. Not that he didn't feel him previously but Gigantomachia was no longer hiding his presence. He focused on the men standing under the light. This was a question of how sensitive they were.

None of them reacted instantly. That wasn't surprising. Gigantomachia was just letting it be known he was watching them and it would take a little while for someone to realise that. As he watched, All For One was pleased to see two of the men start to shift slightly. He couldn't see the exact movement but he could see enough. They were trying to look around, trying to determine if the feeling was just the others or something else.

The group had been instructed to stand in the light. Failure to do so would mean they wouldn't get paid. They might not live as close to the edge as some, but they wanted the money. The payment was generous. Even if standing together it was obvious they didn't like each other. They were standing as far apart as they could.

He gave Gigantomachia another signal and felt his bodyguard increase the pressure of his regard.

Three of the men, including the two who had noticed earlier, immediately twitched, which brought the attention of the others. One tried to brush off the feeling, the other did nothing and one... He couldn't be completely sure but they seemed confused.

So three were astute enough to feel when they were being watched and two were completely unaware of their surroundings. Gigantomachia went back to hiding his presence.

They continued waiting. All For One had gotten used to waiting years ago. It was something of a necessity in his chosen field. Most so-called villains acted on impulse, they acted at the earliest opportunity, which is why they were so easily captured. True villains knew the benefits of waiting, of striking at the most opportune moment.