Chapter Text
Nine individuals dressed in odd-looking gear walked silently into a control room, their feet clacked on the presumably marble floors as they glanced around. The walls were a pristine, clean, white; various computer screens surrounded them. Each screen held a different location located in Mementos—the train tracks in the floor, empty treasure rooms that were long since raided, and much more. The central focus of the room was a large glass tube, within it held several cylindrical objects that glowed a luminous, eerie, teal as they stretched both upwards and outwards to various locations within Mementos.
“The hell is this place? There’s a ton o’ computery stuff all over.” The male blonde of the group spoke. A black mask shaped in the form of a skull obscured his facial features, but the shock in his eyes was very noticeable. He fiddled slightly with a red scarf draped, and tied, around his neck.
A woman spoke, the shortest in the group of nine, “This is the central data hub,” she adjusted the goggles covering her eyes. It’s red glass looking akin to that of a bug’s eye, “This room’s most likely where the data sent over from the palace goes.” She continued.
“Hey, what’s that in the screen?” The only other blonde spoke up. Following the pattern, she wore a red panther mask to obscure her features. She pointed towards one screen in particular, a familiar purple hue of train tracks made of bones could be seen.
“Various locations within Mementos..” Another party member murmured. He sported a black mask, the most covered out of all nine members surrounding him. Its shaped, a vague mimicry of a crow as he glared at the screen, “I presume this is less about surveillance and more looking for targets, though.”
“Targets?” Asked the man in the white mask, which starred prominent black details around the eyes, his hands resting comfortably in the pockets of his signature black trench coat.
The man in the black mask glanced at him, “Think about it,” he placed his left hand on his hip, “While all sorts of unnatural events may be taking place in Maruki’s reality…that doesn’t mean every human’s wish has already been granted.”
A brown haired woman, her mask being a a rather simple, dark gray covering compared to her peers, hummed slightly as she placed her hand on her chin, “That’s a good point. If everyone’s wishes were already made into reality, there wouldn’t be any requests on the Phan-site.”
The black masked individual nodded, “Exactly. Therefore, Maruki is likely choosing certain targets with this system, then affecting each one individually. Probably using the same method as when he made Violet’s Persona go berserk that one time.”
The only red-head of the group seemed to startle at that. Wearing a similar black mask, though she had one less covering, along with silver details, she brought her hands close to her chest, “Wha.. Me?!”
Clearing her throat, Violet regained her composure, “From what I remember, Dr. Maruki summoned these things that look like tendrils, and they grabbed me..” She trailed off slightly, memories flashing in her eyes. Her eyes widened at a sudden realization dawning upon her, “Wait, don’t tell me, are these..?”
Picking up from where she trailed off, the man wearing the white mask chimed in, “They’re the same thing.”
A new individual spoke up; fluffy, hazel-nut hair was barely concealed under her large, dark magenta-hat. Her shocked eyes ended up being her most noticeable feature under her black mask, “You mean to say, these cables all across Maruki’s Palace and Mementos, they’re part of his… methods?”
The man wearing the black mask nodded, “Yes, that hypothesis explains much of what we’ve seen if it were found to be true. Maruki is extending these cables from his own Palace, tunneling into the depths of Mementos… and spreading his influence from the same place the Holy Grail once occupied. That allows him to grant the “wishes” of any people he may discover once they’ve fallen under his influence.”
The blonde male kicked at the floor with his feet, “Psh, screw that.” Which was followed by a nod from the hazel-nut haired woman:
“Mmhm! This won’t last much longer now that we’re here!”
“‘Kay, but I’m the one who has to do the actual hacking, though.” The shortest of the group spoke once again before she turned on her heels and started to head towards the central data hub’s control panel. The rest of the group followed.
“..ACCESS BY CONSULTATION SUBJECT CONFIRMED.” A mechanical voice rang out from the control panel, “TEMPORARILY SUSPEND RESEARCH DATA STREAM?”
“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean?” The skull mask wearing blonde questioned.
The woman in the panther mask scratched at her head, “Well, the displays are showing parts of Mementos, right? I guess we can suspend something there?”
That brought an agreeing nod from the man in the white mask, “Let’s see what it does.”
“You got it—I like the way you think!” The shortest member’s long orange hair fell over her shoulder’s slightly as she leaned to type confirm. However, she before could finish typing a loud rumbling surrounded the nine just as the floor began to shake.
Sounds of confused shouts could be heard before a mist slowly began to appear just before their eyes. It seemed purple at first until it grew and a deep black color could be seen within the center of it.
“A shadow?!” Violet exclaimed as she looked at her teammates wearily, “appearing here..?” She then questioned.
Before another could reply, a force akin to the oppressive nature of a black hole seemed to manifest. Thinking fast on his feet, the man wearing the skull mask quickly jumped away from the mist—grabbing onto one, of the vast columns located in the room. Many followed his example, however, two seemed a second too slow. One was the girl who was closest to the panel, she had been almost instantaneously sucked into it. The other—
“Joker!” Violet called out as she saw the man in the white mask be quickly pulled into, and swallowed, by the mist. She instinctively reached out for him, a grave mistake. The oppressive force immediately swept her off of her feet to follow the other two members.
The man in the black mask quickly let go of his column with a shout similar to a line of insults towards his ‘idiotic team members’ before he was swallowed as well.
The remaining, now five, members tried to follow—knowing without their leader and main navigator they were at less than half power and severely disadvantaged to face Muraki now—yet, were too late.
“Guys!” As the man wearing the skull mask reached his hand out towards the mist, drawing oh so near—it closed.
The rumbling dissipated, the shaking ending, leaving only silence as the remaining five could only hope their four teammates were not dead.
The cat of the group could only whimper as he stared at the now empty space in front of them.
“Joker..!”
In Musutafu, Japan, a few minutes earlier..
“So, you were made to fight me, big guy?” The top hero of japan, wearing a simple white collared shirt and khaki brown pants started, gearing up for another punch against a grotesque creature—it’s brain could be seen protruding from it’s head, stretching to make up almost the entirely of its entire head, “If you can really withstand me firing at 100% of my power…” he trailed off
Another villain, covered from head to toe in severed, gray hands, standing beside the mist one, gasped in shock. A single eye could only be seen through his messy, grayish blue hair and the hand covering almost the entirety of his face.
“..then I’ll have to go beyond that and force you to surrender!” The hero laid out punch after punch, an indescribable rhythm of sheer force that overwhelmed the creature—beating him to a bloodied pulp.
Several hero students watched in a terrified awe at the sheer output of power their idol was displaying in front of them.
With one, last, defining, punch the hero sent the creature flying with a yell. One that caused the villain covered in hands to growl in anger-laced irritation.
The hero jumped into the air after the creature, “A real hero..” he latched onto the being, gripping at the skin on its chest as he flung him further—notably away from the students, “… will always find a way for justice to be served!” He blocked an incoming punch from the creature and reflected it back into the air. Raising his leg, he landing onto the floor with outstanding force, causing the ground beneath him to shatter like porcelain.
As the grotesque creature flow through the air to try and punch the top hero once more, he swiftly grabbed it by its arm and flung it down onto the ground. He swiftly followed after it, landing on the ground with a definitive thud, “Now for a lesson..”
“You may have heard these words before, but I’ll teach you what they really mean!” He raised his hand in the air, a gust of wind picked up as he drew in a crushing power with his quirk.
“Go behond!” He clenched his fist, “Plus..!” As he drew his hand back, he could feel the power of hope, of peace, flowing through him, “ULTRAA!” With the final punch making contact, the creature flew once more. This time, up into the air and through the roof of the Unforeseen Simulation Joint. As it flew away, clouds seem to part through the sky as the creature became nothing more than a black spec in bright, blue sky.
Several hero students who had already made their way outside stared in awe at the sight.
“Um, did a villain just fly by? Or am I going crazy?” One questioned
“It was that brain dude..” Another chimed in
“Ah.. That’s All Mighth for you!” The smallest of the students spoke as sparkles glimmered and tears began to build in his eyes, “That’s why he’s the mosth amazing hero in the entire world!”
Back in the simulation join, a red-head student spoke with awe as sweat dripped rown his face, “That was like the finishing move in a video game! He beat the shock absorption right out of him! I’ve never seen that kind of brute strength!”
“Imagine having power like that..” The blonde student next to him grumbled out, yet awe could be heard in his tone as well, “He must’ve been punching that monster so fats, it couldn’t regenerate.”
Yet one green-haired student amongst the crowd who were all looking at the hole in the ceiling, brought his attention back to All Might, who was still posing in the finishing punch as a cloud of dust obscured most of his figure.
“I really have gotten weaker.. Back un my heyday, five hits woulda been enough to knock that guy out,” His voice was strained. As the dust cleared the green-haired boy saw the red patch on his shirt was growing by the second, “But today,” All Might stood firmly as he clenched his fists, “it took more than three-hundred mighty blows.” Blood dripped from his mouth but he did not allow for his smile to waver.
The green-haired boy whimpered as tears began to build in his eyes, a shaking smile appearing on his face as he stared at his hero in front of him.
A steam began to extrude from the hero as he turned his heel to face the two villains who were simply watching from the sidelines. The one covered from head to toe in hands looked to be shaking in pure rage alone, “You’ve been bested villains! Surrender.”
The hero shifted his stance to one that showed pure, well earned confidence, “We all want to get this over with quickly.”
“He..cheated..” The grayish blue haired male grumbled as he began to scratch at his neck. However, he made to move of retaliation.
“What’s wrong?” Allmight’s voice called out, “Not attacking me? Didn’t you say you were going to clear this level earlier?” While his face still smiled, he held a firm glare towards the villain, “Well come and get me, if you dare.”
The villain stumbled backwards with a gasp as several hero students nearby looked with a face of fear and awe of their own.
“Man this is.. intense” The blonde one spoke, his usual cocky smile replaced with a look of astonishment.
“As expected. There’s no reason for us to fight now. He’ll handle this.” Another student beside them with split half red, half white hair spoke.
“Come on, Midoriya!” The red-head called out to the green-haired boy, “We should regroup with the other guys, the last thing we wanna do us get taken hostage, or get in his way.”
Yet Midoriya didn’t even glance at him, his full attention was on All Might, a look of pure worry on his face.
Allmight took a step forward, “What? Are you scared?”
One of the villains took a step back as the one made of mist narrowed its glowing, yellow eyes. The other villain began to scratch tremendously at his neck, his nails ripping through the first few layers of flesh and leaving bleeding red marks, “If only Nomu was here.. he’d rush you right now.. pound you into the ground without giving it a second thought..!” he murmured out.
“Tomura Shigaraki! Please, do not fret.” The mist villain attempted to calm the scratching one down, “Look at him. He has definitely weakened. Nomu’s attacks were successful.” With that, Tomura Shigaraki finally ceased his scratching.
“He’s on his own.” The mist villain gazed towards the hero students on the sidelines, “The children appear to be frozen in fear. And look! Our underlings are recovering. We likely still have a few minutes before their reinforcements arrive. If you and I work together we can do this! We haven’t missed our chance to kill All Might!”
Shigaraki slowly brought his hands away from his neck, “Yeah.. Yeah, you’re right. This is it. We have no choice. We have to do it now.. I mean, the big end-boss is right here..”
In the distance, several other villains appeared to be walking towards the hero students. The students immediately found themselves squaring up for a fight, “I think All Might can hold his own against those two main guys. Lets make sure these dudes don’t hurt anybody else!”
“Will you be joining us?” The half red, half white-haired boy turned towards Midoriya who looked to be frozen in thought.
Shigaraki broke out into a sprint towards All Might, “Consider this revenge for what you did to Nomu!” He raised his hand—all five of his fingers spaced out in preparation to activate his quirk. The mist villain behind him surged as a black hole looked to form in the shape of a mouth.
Suddenly, Midoriya appeared, catching the two villains off guard.
“Woah Midoriya!” A voice could be heard in the distance.
Midoriya whimpered in pain as his now broken legs flailed in the air, however he did not let that falter him. He clenched his hand into a tight fight as he geared up for a punch and yelled, “Don’t you touch All Might, you STUPID VILLAIN!”
Yet he miscalculated.
The mist villain opened a small portal by Shigaraki’s hand, it was now almost directly in front of his face.
He couldn’t stop his momentum and could only watch helplessly as he drew closer and closer to the quirk that would disintegrate his face upon impact.
Shigaraki’s cackle filled his ears.
Pew
A gun shot rung out. Hitting Shigaraki’s hand as a bullet pierced clean through.
Throwing the angle off just enough to deter it from touching Midoriya as he fell to the floor.
More fun shots rung out, hitting various villains in the situation joint.
“Your class rep has returned, and I fulfilled my duty! I brought reinforcements!” A voice rung out.
Sounds of villains being defeated left and right could be both heard and seen as several heroes split up to protect their precious students.
“Aw, man.. The pros are here..” Shigaraki grumbled once more as he backstepped towards the mist villain behind him. It’s game over for real..” He turned his back, “Let’s go home and try this when we can—“
Pew
A gunshot went through his arm.
Pew
Another, his thigh.
Pew, Pew, Pew
Bullets rained upon the pair as the mist villain quickly covered Shigaraki—to protect him from any more injuries.
“Let’s go! This is—“ The mist villain was quickly cut off as his form was being broken apart and sucked away.
“Black Hole!” It grumbled out the hero’s name. It yelled, growled, as it exuded more and more force to ensure it and Shigaraki could escape.
“I may have failed to kill you this time, but your days are numbered..! All might.. symbol of peace.. I am going to kill you!” Was all Shigaraki said as he was fully swallowed by the Mist Villain’s quirk.
Yet, it did not end there.
Just as the mist villain was about to disappear, four unidentified individuals fell out of him and onto the group—unconscious. The four were dressed rather oddly compared to the other villains currently being apprehended and detained. Despite their masks, they looked to be no older than the hero students.
As the all hero students still located within the simulation join were lead to the front entrance, several heroes who weren’t dealing with any and all injured went towards the unconscious four on the ground.
“More villains?” A hero in rather suggestive gear inquired as she glanced down at the four.
“I’m not sure, if they are—it would make no sense to send them out to fight unconscious, and at the very end of the battle nonetheless.” Another hero chimed in, one who looked to be made of cement.
“We should detain them for questioning!” A voice suddenly spoke from behind them. A tiny hero who looked more like an overside mouse, or a very miniature polar bear appeared to be standing behind them.
“Ah, but Nedzu.. Shouldn’t we take them to a hospital first? Villains or not, it feels wrong to put unconscious, vulnerable individuals in a cell..” The suggestively dressed hero murmured.
“They don’t seemed to be visibly injured and show no signs of any sort of internal injury. They’ll be fine, and afterwards we’ll have them be examined by recovery girl once she finishes treating our injured dear students!” Despite Nedzu’s cheerful tone, there was a hint of anger beneath his words, “Afterall, if these four had anything to do with what happened here.. I want to make sure their punishment is swift and immediate.” He grinned.
The other heroes on the scene looked to shiver slightly before going to gran the four still passed out on the ground.
“And do not fret! I’m not so cruel as to place them with other villains. I’ll arrange to make sure they’re properly separated so nothing can happen to them before they can be questioned”