Work Text:
“Hm…”
Nedzu stood on his desk in order to see the bald head of the person in front of him more clearly. All of the hair had been shaved off for easier access, with a fist-sized hole cut into the skull to reveal the pink, squishy brain beneath. The ends of two long, steel needles protruded out from it
“Was it here…?”
He hummed in thought as he grabbed one of the needles, twisting and nudging it deeper. The human in front of him spasmed helplessly as though electrocuted.
“Oh, whoops, I think I missed it by half an inch. Dear me, I have always found such precise work a little difficult,” Nedzu frowned. It was rather difficult to manipulate small things with his paw pads.
Worryingly, the subject had ceased to make any noise. Even though this subject had previously grunted the most… Nedzu was fond enough of this one to even grant him a nickname.
He patted the man’s cheek with his paw and encouraged him, “Hang in there, would you, Grunter? I would have to bring in a new subject if you died now.”
Grunter shuddered. At least he was still responsive to the right stimulus.
He glanced at the anatomical diagram next to him. After making sure of the correct position, Nedzu tried once more, reaching out for a needle.
The phone rang with a bright, cartoonish ringtone, breaking the silence. Nedzu’s hand slipped, twisting the needle the wrong way. Grunter sagged to the side, drool falling from his open mouth.
Oops. How careless of him. That was irreparable damage. Sure, the neurons affected might be able to be stimulated into reconnecting with enough effort, but this was just one of many disposable subjects. He wasn’t invested enough to go through all that effort. Still, he had made slight progress with this one and now he had to begin anew.
How annoying.
Sighing, he picked up the phone after looking at the caller ID. “Nedzu speaking.”
“It’s Aizawa. We’ll be moving out soon.”
The pro-hero spoke quickly and to the point, voice tense. Nedzu liked dealing with Aizawa— the man was always so blunt and straightforward… so honest and easy to understand.
“Please protect the students, Aizawa-kun, and make sure to come back alive,” he said in a concerned tone he had long since perfected. “It’ll be a hard battle, but I have faith in all of you.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Nedzu hung up after receiving Aizawa’s solemn promise. His shoulders shook with his efforts to hold back his laughter.
Wasn’t it just funny? How gullible human beings were. For years, they lied to themselves, believing they were at the very top of the food chain. Yet, here they were, behaving like mere insects, rushing at each other like disturbed ants protecting their queen. They were dancing in his very palm, the fools. How satisfying it was to watch them kill each other, saving him all of the mess. Yes, he hoped they drove themselves to extinction.
He wanted them to hurt each other.
He wanted them to suffer.
He wanted them to despair.
Nedzu wanted them all to feel what he had felt when he had been subjected to the whims of humans’ cruel experimentations. He was the type of creature to return tenfold the pain he had received.
“AHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Nedzu laughed maniacally as he drank from his teacup. It was so satisfying to see the plans he had for years finally begin to bear fruit. Oh, and how sweet it would be to reap the fruits of his labour. Hot tea spilt down the front of his blazer, but he paid it no mind. He had long since lost the ability to feel temperature. He dabbed at his wet fur delicately with an embroidered handkerchief, coughing slightly.
He couldn’t help but remember the days when he was much younger. When he appeared very different compared to how he looked now.
Screams. Creatures screamed incessantly throughout the day. The smell of rot, piss, and excrement emanated from the warehouse. It was filled with rows upon rows of tiny cages stacked upon each other. Nedzu’s fur was matted and dirty, covered in fleas that bit him and drew his blood. He was unable to scratch at them— his paws were locked together behind his back ever since his foiled escape attempt.
They had left him here, hoping to break his spirit, to remind him of what would happen if he refused to behave. He could be turned back into one of these nameless animals, just one of many experimental subjects. He was one of them before the experiments to enhance his intelligence succeeded. Now, he had gained his own consciousness, his identity, his thoughts, his deep, deep anger.
All he felt was intense hatred towards human beings.
Nedzu hadn’t lost his memories of his experiences before that experiment, contrary to what he had the researchers believe. He remembered. He remembered it all.
They killed his parents. Killed his siblings. He had been forced to watch them die in cages next to his. He was the only one to survive the intensive experiments where he was strapped down and given injection after injection.
Nedzu remembered each and every careless thing they mentioned in his presence.
They were testing if quirks could be induced, copied, or transferred. If the experiment succeeded, they could give quirks to quirkless children. They could give every useful quirk they got their hands on to heroes, to make them stronger than the villains.
Heroes.
Heroes were the ones doing this to him.
That fateful day, the last one he ever spent in their clutches was one Nedzu could never forget.
The blaring red alarms that signalled the presence of intruders, gunshots, the shutters of the warehouse opening… The way the light had framed the man who Japan called the most villainous man alive… All for One had resembled a God at that moment when his cage door opened. It might have been a whim, the way All for One set all the animals free, but Nedzu never forgot his debts.
Nedzu broke out of his reminiscence. He looked down at the unresponsive human beneath him and hummed thoughtfully. He would be of no use any longer.
“Cleaner, come clear the garbage.”
The human waiting in the corner of the room walked over in jerky motions. He was a person converted into a cleaning robot who could obey orders, rather than a robot that was like a human being. It was one of Nedzu’s best works, given how useful he was.
He watched as Cleaner sawed Grunter into smaller pieces of meat for easier handling. He would be recycled as feed to Nedzu’s other experiments. It was a slow process, however, Nedzu preferred this method over a chainsaw. Chainsaws were more efficient but blood splatters often got onto his fur— it was ridiculously hard to get it off.
The sharp copper scent of blood filled the room as it dropped into buckets set up around the chair. Not a single part of the failed experiment would be wasted—blood could serve as a nutritious source of food with its high iron content. The bloody smell became nauseating as it permeated the room. Well, it was time to leave so he could watch a good show.
“Take your time dear,” Nedzu said, as he hopped off his desk.
He walked to his bookshelf and pulled out a few books, swapping their locations one by one. Before long, a ‘click’ was heard. The bookshelf started to shift, opening outwards to reveal a dark corridor. Nedzu grabbed the torchlight hanging on the wall as the bookshelf started closing behind him. When he was engulfed in darkness, he switched it on.
With steady steps, he walked deeper and deeper into the maze. He was familiar with each and every path. However, an intruder would no doubt get lost, doomed to a fate of starvation. Or, they might trigger one of the hundreds of traps Nedzu had spent his free time designing.
It was almost a shame no one had tried intruding into his secret base— He’d love to see those traps in action.
Soon, he reached his personal lab. Rows upon rows of large containers lined the walls, each filled with a bright green fluid surrounding a Noumu or human being housed inside. Nedzu peered at his original works of creation with a pleased smile. Each was an effort of his experimentation and hard work.
He could understand why all those humans delighted in their “research” of chimaeras. It was like fitting the pieces of random jigsaw puzzles together to form an utterly incomprehensible final product. One that fit together and yet did not— much like a beautiful patchwork quilt… a beautiful, dissonant work of art that was grotesque as it was fantastic. However, human beings would never get as far as he did.
With a paw, he touched one of the giant test tubes. It was so exciting to mix and match various types of components to form new, evolved beings. He was the parent, the master, and the creator of all the Noumus before him. He could create creatures with combinations of quirks that no one could’ve imagined before.
It would’ve taken centuries for human beings to advance to such complex combinations of quirk use. In that sense, shouldn’t they thank him for his hard work?
He cackled to himself, patting the container.
Nedzu continued to walk, going past the containers until he reached the monitoring room. Screens flashed in front of him, showing the battle in real-time. Nedzu took a seat in the plush leather chair and pressed a button for the Cleaner to fetch him a new cup of tea.
He looked at the rows of screens in front of him with sparkling eyes. Each showed the current, ongoing fight between hundreds of heroes and villains. Nedzu pressed his paws together as he watched the exciting battle in front of him. Action movies could simply not compare to real-life fights to the death! He cheered and clapped his hands as it all played out, enjoying it like he would a movie.
Nedzu had taken extra care to balance the scales, providing Shigaraki Tomura everything All for One asked of him and more —a debt fully repaid.
It should be a delightfully difficult battle with casualties on both sides— casualties he could harvest the corpses of in order to extract their DNA and quirks. It was such a waste to just discard the corpses of pro heroes. After all, there was much to be learned from dissecting their bodies.
Shigaraki Tomura had even gifted him the corpse of Best Jeanist, which was such a lovely gesture.
Nedzu had seen the man pick fur off his jacket, eyebrows scrunched, flicking each strand far away as though it was dirty. He must’ve thought Nedzu wasn’t watching— Best Jeanist was a relatively polite man who would never behave in such ways to his superiors. But Nedzu was always, always watching.
Nedzu knew the pro heroes who treated him kindly, he knew of those who found him adorable and treated him like a lovable mascot character. He knew the others that looked down upon him for not being ‘human’, those who looked upon him with contempt and disgust.
The same went for villains. Nedzu liked All for One’s young protege. Shigaraki Tomura enjoyed patting him (with a pinky raised, of course), and always bought him cheese as well as other gifts. Like Overhaul.
Overhaul was one of his new, favourite pets that Shigaraki had given him, after removing his arms of course. It was so, so lovely to have Overhaul as part of his experimental collection. It was the funniest thing to watch his hives rise from a single step closer. Perhaps he could give the man more attention this evening. He was grinning just thinking about it.
As limbs got torn apart on screen, Nedzu sipped his tea and laughed. Oh, he was about to get so much new material…
Tapping rapidly on the screen before him, Nedzu looked through the quirk registry, cherry-picking what he wanted to experiment with next. He could then match them with the casualties from this all-out-war. With the finest ingredients across Japan’s population to pick from, he would undoubtedly acquire seeds to grow and harvest. He couldn’t help but laugh again, excited by all the work that was before him.
“AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Was he a rat? A dog? A bear? He was the U.A. principal, the sponsor behind League of Villains, the spider who had everyone writhing in his web.
The Traitor.