My Highschool Boyfriend Is Japan's Most Wanted

Chapter Nine: Vestge World

Chapter Nine
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Izuku, unbeknownst to even himself, had forgotten to eat. For the past two weeks he had been inside of his own mind visiting the vestige world and talking to Nana Shimura about everything that happened and reliving her moments as a hero including her death at the hands of All For One. He felt the way she died, the way it felt to fall to a villain while the ones you love are helpless to watch as you die. It was an experience that severely curbed the appetite of the observer.

Izuku had seen the entire fight, felt the battle against All For One as it raged and fought, the way he fought was so familiar to Izuku that he felt he had befriended the Villian king. No it wasn't friendship but just some understanding of the lengths that creature would go to tarnish the world and its people. The desperation to be more evil, more sick for the sake of being evil, All For One may have been born a man but inside of his soul was that of a demon.

The death of All For One at Tartarus was a gift from the heavens. Despite all the loss of life, and the way it paved the path for Aka's grand rise to power it ended in the death of the insidious man.

"You should have been afraid." Izuku said as Nana Shimura stood atop a cliff overlooking her final battle. While it was just a recreation, a trick of the mind created by the power of One For All, she didn't flinch when All For One took her life. Even as she trained Izuku in the vestige world, it was often with the scene of her death in the background.

"Why would I be afraid of a man like All For One." Nana asked her ring finger, moving to her forehead as she smiled. "Because he is a villain, because he got his small victory by killing me?." She asked, her words becoming a riddle in Izuku’s mind.

He understood that this was the past and that All For One wouldn't kill her again, but the way she acted seemed to be like she didn't care about her death.

Nana looked at Izuku, and by his face alone, she understood what he was thinking as the seen behind them changed to a dark room. "Do you know why I didn't fear death, or rather why my death doesn't mean much to me." Nana said carefreely as Izuku slowly walked into the dark room and the computer monitor at the center.

"No I don't." Izuku answered honestly. His finger hit the space bar, activating the computer behind the monitor. The screen had a video and as a play button appeared, he heard a voice that he recognized as the sixith user of One For All, the former pro hero Smoke Eater, also known as En Tayutai. He had trained under him as well but not nearly as long as he had with Nana Shimura. He could feel En's trench coat cover his face, covering his body inside red as he realized he was feeling the experiences of the former One For All user.

The video seemed to be a security recording of a city in northern Japan, people were screaming as half of the population began to tear itself apart. Chaos filled the screen as a figure watching from above, it was a figure Izuku recognized as All For One. The way he floated and the look on his face caused Izuku to tense his fingers. He knew that All For One had been killed but after seeing him kill Shimura so many times, he grew a hatred for the man.

"He unleashed a virus upon the people, and he just watched." En mumbled the words exiting from Izuku’s mouth as he felt himself faller deeper into the scene. His attention focused into the video as in the distance, he saw a light glow and envolp all of the people, the infected and the non infected. The light was instant, and yet what followed was a frost that covered the town it turned those who were enveloped into human popsicles.

"Karia Yuki." En said as he saw All For One float into the cloud, escaping a figure that stood in the distance as the camera stopped rolling. "The Yuki family truly are warring with All For One of all people." He added as he looked through the data and turned to face a young boy who stood tall despite his young age. He couldn't have been older then six, but he looked as if he was seventeen in height and body mass.

"If you are serious, we can fight him together." En said, holding out his hand, which the boy took. Izuku could feel the satisfaction as he understood that En was planning to use the boy and his power not as an apprentice or successor but a weapon against All For One. As this realization crossed Izuku's mind, the vision came to an end.

"That is but one example of many Izuku, the legacy of One For All is racked with many inconsistencies and deeds that are unjust, at the end of the day we are just one half of a grudge." Nana said, her voice growing less hopeful and unlike her usual personality.

Izuku couldn't believe what he was hearing, and while he knew no one was perfect, he saw the previous users as people who would never sacrifice anyone else for their cause. "You can't truly believe that everything you and the other users worked for was just for a petty grudge." Izuku said, trying to get Nana to admit she was wrong.

Nana could feel his desperation, the desperation to somehow rewrite the pot to keep an idealized version of All For One. "It's true the reason I started the Villian Acts was to put an end to Reo Yuki's reign, a reign propped up by my predecessor who was a pro hero, the acts were used to cover up a mistake and a failure." Nana said as the boys face appeared and morphed into the current age Reo Yuki. 

"Why show me this, why tell me any of this?" Izuku yelled, his fist clenched as tight as he could.

"Toshi is struggling or rather I cannot feel his light anymore, it is as if he is being suffocated and yet he is not dead or his spirit would be here." Nana explained. "He plans to finish Reo Yuki under the orders of Aka, that is all I can read from what embers remain inside of him." Nana admitted as she looked away as chair where upon his death All Might would sit.

"I knew he was listening to Aka, but he is the Symbol Of Peace." Izuku tried to say before Nana shook her head.

"The Era Of Peace cannot come while Toshi is alive, the man who I once believed could defeat darkness is gone, or rather his fall is inevitable." Nana explained as a tear fell down her cheek.

Izuku understood what she meant, it clicked and it made sense yet he didn't want to belive it. He gave the title back for a reason and if this was true it meant he abandoned Japan for nothing. "No you can't be serious, All For One is." The words couldn't leave his mouth as he thought about the years of his childhood as he idolized All Might. To Izuku, it was everything it was all he had of those better and more hopeful days.

"Toshi sacrificed a great deal to bring back the age of peace, and if he keeps using that quirk, he will soon fall to the influence of All For One." Nana said as Izuku didn't hesitate to hit her, but his fist just phased through her. She seemed saddened by his attempt as if she wished he could hit her and make her pay for the path Toshi was now undergoing.

"Why didn't you tell me, why keep it a secret?" Izuku asked. His voice cracking under the stress of knowing what was happening to All Might, the weight of All Might's suffering falling onto Izuku like weights. He assumed all the responsibility he returned would be held by All Might, to Izuku he was the incorruptible Symbol Of Peace, the world and all that Izuku was supposed to keep safe would remain safe under the supervision and watch of All Might even with Aka becoming the Prime Minister.

Nana changed the room to that of Izuku's kitchen images of Eri and Ochako, smiling at dinner flashed about. These were the memories from Izuku that had been dipped into the baths of One For All. "Your love for Ochako and Eri wouldn't have allowed you to make a choice you wanted, but during your absence, they left."

Izuku’s eyes widened as he vanished from the vestige world as he awakened on his bed. His body moved to sit up as he tossed the sheets aside and ran to the living room to find Shoto had vanished. "No no no no." Izuku repeated as he looked around the house frantically. "They didn't leave they couldn't." He stammered as he reached the kitchen and saw a note on the table.

Izuku didn't need to read it to understand, the three other people had left to put an end to Aka, and in doing so, they would look into the man who had brought Shoto there. "Dammit." Izuku yelled as he slammed his fist onto the table, shattering into splinters. The memories that were made at the table caused him to regret his actions, but he had no time to fix the table.

Looking at the metallic smart refrigerator, he realized that he had been in the trance for over two weeks, he had been so wrapped up in hiding from Shoto's condition that Ochako had left. He had made a promise that he wouldn't let Ochako and Eri get into danger, and he was going to keep his promise.

"I won't let either of you die." The words were a vow not only to himself but the vestiges inside of him. Perhaps One For All users deserved to die, but Izuku wouldn't let himself die until he knew that Eri and Ochako could live in a true Era of Peace.