MHA Incubus: Chapter 19 (Patreon)

I looked around before sitting down. “Your adopted son isn’t here?” He stood in the silence, waiting for me to flinch back in fear like so many other subordinates of his, but I wouldn’t. If he were truly upset, he’d have stopped me when I saved her. The patch of skin where his face used to be was looking better than ever; hundreds of years of lifeforce were sunk into him to undo the gigantic scars, making him almost resemble a human.

I poured myself a drink as he still remained silent, as much as he might have wanted to, my father wouldn’t allow me to deal with him unless there were contingencies in place. If he tried to steal my quirk, the contract I had written would cause my quirk to destroy itself as every contract Zen Shigaraki ever made with my father would activate, most likely killing him in the process, if not heavily reducing his power. Even the healing I provided to him would be undone.

He may still do it, that’s just the way he thought. Evil men like him very rarely acted as they should, and he might have a half dozen contingencies in place in case he ever did need to steal my quirk. As much as I wanted to be a hero, I knew it would be impossible for me to become rank one, even if I was the best, just because I didn’t fit the true hero aesthetic. Playing both sides suited me better.

“Tomura is currently trying to convince the explosion hero he abducted to join him.” I poured him a drink and slid it over the counter to where he sat. “Fat chance of that happening. Bakugo may be an ass most of the time, but he only cares about one thing. Being a hero, even if you threaten to kill him, he will never agree to become a villain.” 

He sat down before picking up the glass. “You know… The best thing about having my nose recovered is that I can smell whiskey again. I hate the taste, can get by without eyesight, but missed the smell so much it would drive me crazy.” He drank the entire shot in one go before he continued. “You really shouldn’t have done that. I need her quirk for my future plans.” 

“No. You can get by with someone else's radar quirk. She’s one of my women now, so she’s off the table for you to take.” He chuckled. “Is that what this is about? You're trying to thwart my plans by having sex with the entire female roster of heroes? No, this… Emotional attachment isn’t much like  you.”

I finished my shot, which I had been sipping at as I retorted. “Well, playing a role comes with some blowback on how I really feel. If I pretended to be All Might for a decade, I’d bet I’d actually feel like saving sheep going to get themselves into more trouble later wasn’t a means to an end. You know they’re all going to turn on him the second that strong facade is broken… Why not just go meet him in combat right now and prove how weak their justice is?”

“My plans are too important to tell someone not fully on board. Your loyalty isn’t to anybody but yourself, just like your father. That’s fine for a mutual partnership, but terrible for everything else.” He magnetically pulled the metal top of the whiskey bottle, which brought the entire bottle to his hand as he poured himself another glass. “You do something like this again, we’re going to look over these contracts again, because there’s nothing stopping me from having my subordinates kill these girls you love so much.”

I left after that. I knew getting in the way of his plan was risky, but I had a good enough reason to risk it. Who knew what would happen if he stole the quirk of a woman I had sex with? Would I lose the power boost they gave me? Would it weaken me as well? I wasn’t sure, I just knew I didn’t want it to happen. 

I made my way home, tired and wanting to go to bed, but I had another meeting to go to in my basement. Making my way down, pulling the light switch, Principal Nezu sat in the dark. “You’re just sitting in my basement with the lights turned off, smoking a cigarette? I thought you quit.” I was tired, so I just wanted to get this over with. “You spoke of a villain attack that would happen, but we were thoroughly underprepared for it… I didn’t think All for One would show up.”

I ran my hand through my hair as I told him. “Yeah, that’s where I just came from. Stopping him from taking Ragdoll was important enough for him to threaten me. You still haven’t found the other mole yet?” Nezu sipped a cup of tea before answering my question. “No, even with your forewarning, none of your classmates made any indication of sneaking away to give out information. They knew only that the Wild Wild Pussycats were the only heroes on sight. By the time the attack was over, the heroes on standby barely missed them. It was a precise, perfectly timed attack.”

I sighed again. Katsuki was my friend, but I couldn’t tell them the likely locations he’d be because it would give away that they had an informant on our side. The villains would have a completely different reaction to finding that out than the heroes; they’d start dropping bodies, and mine would most likely be one of the first. “I’m sorry I don’t have more information, but if I tell you where some of their bases our without you doing the diligence of finding him, then I’ll be made as a spy, if they already didn’t figure it out by now.”

All for One was many things, but an idiot wasn’t one of them. If he didn’t already know I was leaking information, he at the very least might have thought I was a spy. If their attack at the school didn’t go so smoothly, if this attack in the training camp failed, which it was very close to. Then he might have just splattered my brains, screw the consequences, when I arrived in front of him. Much more likely, though, he’d have captured me and tortured all the information he could before killing me openly for the publicity it would bring against the school.

If only All Might hadn’t pulled his punches. He could have ended him, but the need to be the perfect hero stopped him just short, one more punch, and he’d have killed the biggest threat to all of Japan, but his heroic nature wouldn’t let him. That’s why he survived, because All Might stopped punching him when he stopped moving. He may have thought he was dead when his head was destroyed, but if it were me, there wouldn’t have been much left, as I would have also crushed his heart and burned his body.

I didn’t think his survival of the fittest, the powerful should rule everything idea could work, even if he defeated All Might, unless he could recover his body to peak, he was only setting up a successor who wouldn’t have the conviction he did to do what needed to be done to stay on top. All I knew was that I hated this. I was a pawn for both sides, and one mistake, one misplay, would have me dead or worse.

“I think I shouldn’t tell you the next few plans they have, if I were them. I’d give me misinformation that could prove I was the spy. Only after this situation calmed down, and it’s something big enough to warrant your attention, do I think I should tell you.” Nezu sat there, sipping his tea before taking another puff of his cigarette and ashing it out. “I believe that’s the best choice at the moment. If Zen finds out you’re a spy, he’ll kill you publicly just to have blowback against the school. We’ll call it here for the day. I hope to see you in school tomorrow, even with all that’s happened recently.”

He crawled back through a pipe in my basement that would lead to the entrance he came from. The principal couldn’t be seen coming and going from my mansion after all.