MHA - Ghostly Rise: Don’t Escape

"Ahem."

Slowly standing up, Izuku took a deep breath after his laughter stopped in the dark room. His body finally stopped trembling and the previous agonizing pain appeared like an illusion. 

Clenching and unclenching his fists, he tried to activate his new quirk—the foreign surge of power that was settling in his body. But he soon realized that he couldn't use it fully. 

A faint, dark purplish mist seeped through his fingers, and he could manipulate it to solidify whenever he wanted. It reminded him of some people's quirks that allowed them to control shadows. 

However, that wasn't everything. His quirk had another side but he didn't have the 'equipments' to use it yet. 

"All done, I see," All For One's voice jolted him from his concentration. Izuku glanced at him and nodded wordlessly. 

All For One gave a small smile. "It takes time to adjust and realize the full capabilities of your new quirk. Don't push yourself so hard at the start."

Izuku didn't reply but instead looked next to All For One. The potato-head villain suddenly had a decent table with a modest meal laid out alongside two seats. He took that as an invitation and sat down on the chair. 

"So," he opened his mouth after a while while poking at the meal with his fork, "how about you tell me about the League of Villains? Given how I will be a part of it, I need to know more about it."

All For One smiled faintly.

"The kids are just like you, scattered around Japan, until the time comes."

"And why is that? What are you waiting for?" The green-haired boy arched an eyebrow.

"My protege isn't ready yet," All For One admitted without embarrassment. "Leadership is not something that can be rushed, and my protege is still too much of a man-child."

With an enigmatic smile, Izuku interrupted him. 

"Your protege… when can I meet them?"

All For One's expression hardened as he firmly drew the line. "Not now, that's for sure. They also don't know about you or the others yet."

Izuku leaned back in his chair and relaxed. If he was proud of any of his capabilities, it was his brain. Figuring out the thoughts of this villain without any information would've been hard, but this potato-head was generous.

"Let me guess," he said, his tone laced with amusement. "You're planning to make your protege recruit us by himself to make him think he succeeded on his own. Aren't you such a caring father?"

All For One's head tilted slightly, but he didn't confirm or deny Izuku's assumption. Because before anything else, Izuku didn't have any reason to know. 

That reaction only made Izuku smirk wider before jumping out of his seat proudly. He then leaned closer to All For One, his hand resting lazily on the villain's shoulder. 

"Alright, if you'd be so kind, boss, throw me into an alleyway close to the school. Oh, and a gentle warning so you don't start questioning me—I'm joining UA, hero course."

"Isn't that surprising? You are now a villain, but you would join the heroes' side?"

Izuku nodded without explaining more, his smirk only widening further. 

All For One didn't ask anymore. Dark purple mist engulfed Izuku before teleporting him to a dark alleyway. 

꒷︶꒷꒥꒷‧₊˚꒷︶꒷꒥꒷‧₊˚꒷︶꒷꒥꒷‧₊˚꒷︶꒷꒥꒷‧₊˚

The streets were quiet as Izuku stood in the shadows, his eyes piercing to find the most concealed path toward his house. For some reason one of the streets was more crowded than usual. 

'What's happening?'

Izuku wondered. His eyebrows furrowed as he stealthily headed toward his house. 'Whatever, at least this gave me a safer path.'

He soon reached his house. It was nighttime and his mother was in the kitchen. According to her usual routine, she was preparing her and Izuku's dinner. 

But Izuku knew he wasn't going to join this meal.

'You were never bad, Mom.' he told her, but the words never left his mouth. He felt slight guilt toward her but he pushed these feelings to the back of his mind. 

Moving swiftly to the backdoor, Izuku crept up the stairs and looked through his room. He paused for a moment afterward. 

'What should I take with me? I can go 'missing' and never bring anything with me, but that would make people and the police search for me. That would be inconvenient.'

Thus, Izuku decided to be a runaway instead. 

He took a backpack and packed a few casual outfits, essentials, some cash, and his cards and other belongings. Despite not having the slightest plan to use any of that aside from the money, Izuku decided to take them. 

He then wrote a simple note and left it in his room before sliding down from the window. 

'This should be enough.'

Izuku crept away through the shadow. His destination was a dark part of their city, a place that everyone called the slums. 

The air was thick with the stench of decay, and the streets were littered with debris and broken glass. Some people were hiding around the corners and others were already in their fragile houses and asleep.

Izuku could only smirk at this place. What was the most perfect place to live without anyone annoying you and tracking you down? This place was the answer.

Looking around, he found a house with a broken door and the roof was half falling. He examined it, knocked on the wall and checked how sturdy it was. Despite the house being half-broken, the remaining parts had a strong foundation. 

'Enough to live here, I guess.'

He slipped inside and pulled a notebook from his backpack before scribbling on it. 

「Step one: Get into UA」

With a smile, Izuku paused and didn't write further. Instead he recorded his real plan inside his head instead.

「Step one: Get new identity」

「Step two: Get used to my new quirk and gather enough 'equipments'.」

「Step three: Get into UA High School.」

Izuku decided to be careful and not write his true plans on papers, he wanted to create a complete new identity that was as passionate as his past self about heroes so no one could suspect him. 

At the same time, he swore he'd make them all regret.