Chapter 228 - 227: Confirmation

Location: Shizuoka - Saki Residence

Time: 8:45 PM

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Kaito sat at the wooden dining table. He stared at his laptop screen.

A highly detailed 3D blueprint spun slowly in the center of the monitor. It was a futuristic car chassis wired directly into a scaled-down arc reactor.

"Eve," Kaito said, leaning closer to the screen. "Adjust the thermal shielding around the exhaust ports. I really don't want the bumper melting into a puddle when the repulsors kick in."

A small blue hologram flickered to life on the table next to the keyboard.

[Done, Boss,] Eve replied. A small text box appeared over her holographic head as she spoke. [I also tightened the suspension ratio. By the way, Baymax is staring at a blank wall again. I think his processor is stuck in sleep mode.]

Baymax stood perfectly still in the corner of the living room.

[I am cooling currently deep diagnostic fans, internal my on running] Baymax's calm, goofy voice echoed across the room. [My capacity... functioning is peak processor.]

[Peak capacity for a toaster, maybe,] Eve teased, crossing her tiny blue arms. [I rendered three thousand flight simulations while you were thinking about a single fan.]

Kaito laughed. He took a sip of his tea.

"Leave him alone, Eve," Kaito said, typing a few commands on the keyboard. "Baymax is doing his job perfectly."

The sliding glass door in the kitchen clicked open.

Makoto walked inside holding a woven basket filled with fresh tomatoes and cucumbers.

Grandma Saki walked right behind her, wiping dirt off her hands with a small towel.

"The greenhouse temperature is perfect," Makoto smiled, setting the basket on the kitchen counter. "The new irrigation system we installed is still working, Kaito."

Grandma Saki walked over to the dining table and pinched Kaito's cheek gently.

Kaito smiled back. "Of course... Our DIY is working too well."

Then, it happened.

Kaito froze.

Thump. Thump.

His hands stopped typing.

A deep, heavy vibration started right in the center of his chest. It felt like someone struck a massive bell inside his ribs.

"Hmm..." Kaito felt elevated.

"Kaito?" Makoto asked, turning around from the sink. She noticed his situation immediately. "Are you okay?"

"I..." Kaito whispered.

He sat the on the chair feeling relaxed. It wasn't pain.

It was a sudden, massive feeling of fullness. He felt his entire being is expanding instantly.

Makoto dropped her towel on the counter and walked over. "Kaito?"

"I am fine," Kaito said quickly, holding up his hand. "I feel incredible actually."

Makoto stopped walking. She looked completely confused.

Kaito reached over and picked up a fresh green apple from Makoto's basket.

He just held the fruit in his palm and focused his thoughts.

He felt a new dimension open up in his mind.

Then.

SSSSS.

He watched the skin of the apple wrinkle. The bright green color faded into a dull, rotten brown.

The fruit shrank and dried up completely in a matter of seconds.

"Wow... Another tricks?"

Makoto looked at what Kaito had done.

Kaito didn't blink.

"Watch this..."

He just stared at the rotten husk.

SSSSS.

The apple stopped rotting.

The dry brown skin smoothed out. The green color bled right back into the fruit. It looked perfectly fresh again.

Then, it kept going backward. The apple shrank rapidly, folding in on itself until nothing sat in Kaito's palm except a single, tiny brown seed.

Grandma Saki just smiled proudly, completely unfazed. "I won't be surprised if you can now resurrect the dead."

Kaito closed his fingers over the seed.

Kaito joked, looking at Makoto and Grandma Saki. "Guess..."

Makoto stared at him. "So what really happened?"

"Let me show you.." Kaito said.

He stood up from the chair. He snapped his fingers.

SNAP.

The pristine white suit and shock-white hair of Hero X instantly replaced his casual clothes.

He snapped his fingers a second time.

SNAP.

The entire living room shattered like a glass mirror.

"Woaah..."

Makoto screamed. She grabbed Grandma Saki's arm.

The broken shards of the living room floated away into a massive, dark void.

They were suddenly standing on a completely transparent glass floor.

Above them, a massive black hole swirled silently in the sky.

Floating around them were glowing, shifting, tesseract-like geometric shapes filled with fragmented images.

"Are we..." Makoto stammered, looking around in pure terror. "Is this the 2D dimension? The one Endeavor talked about in his interview?"

"No," Kaito answered, his voice echoing with crystalline clarity. "This is the fourth dimension. A space entirely outside the normal flow of the universe."

Kaito looked at the floating glass shards around him. He saw the ripples. He saw the new branch timelines forming in the void.

His glowing white eyes narrowed.

"Is this even possible for this world?" Kaito muttered.

...

Location: Unknown Underground Laboratory

Time: Two Hours Ago

Dr. Garaki stood behind the metal control console.

He stared at the massive circular time machine in the center of the room.

"Five... four... three..." Garaki counted down, his voice tense. "Two... one."

He slammed his hand onto the main activation lever.

VWOOSH.

The machine erupted with a blinding blue light.

The portal tore open, buzzing loudly against the metal walls.

Clone All For One stumbled out of the vortex. He didn't even try to stand up. He dropped heavily onto the metal platform.

His chest heaved up and down for a second before his eyes rolled back. He went totally limp.

The main All For One stood a few feet away from the platform.

He didn't walk over to check on the clone. The moment the body crossed into the present timeline, the ten percent consciousness fragment automatically synced with his main brain.

"Hmm." All For One closed his eyes.

The feedback hit him instantly. He felt the cold air of the dark alleyway.

He felt the sheer, suffocating pressure of Hero X locking into a T-pose. He felt the blind panic of his own escape.

He opened his eyes. He let out a long, frustrated breath.

"Did you do it?" Garaki asked, running around the console. "Master, did you kill X?"

"No," All For One answered, rubbing his temples. "I had to escape. The kid was a monster."

Garaki frowned, adjusting his round goggles. "I don't understand."

"Turn on the main monitors, Doctor," All For One ordered.

He walked over to the back of the laboratory. Six supercomputer clones sat in a row, wired directly into the base's mainframe.

All For One placed his hands on the central console.

He used a neural uplink quirk, pushing the fresh memories directly from his brain into the network.

BEEP.

The massive screens hanging from the ceiling flickered to life.

"..."

Garaki looked up.

He watched the memory playback. He saw the burning Ashita district.

He watched the soot-covered kid flick his wrist. He watched the entire 3D world flatten into a vibrant 2D ink canvas.

Then, the screen flashed to the final piece of data. It was an ID photo pulled from the civilian database in the past.

Garaki dropped his metal clipboard.

CLATTER.

"Kaito Arisaka?!" Garaki yelled, his eyes wide behind his goggles. "The Golden Manager? Master, that makes no sense. He is a manager. The HPSC registry says his quirk is weak and gives him negative physical rejections."

All For One looked at the screen.

"The registry is a lie," All For One said firmly. "He is using his reality quirk on the pro heroes. He should change biology during those agency contracts. That is why All Might and Star and Stripes suddenly became strong."

"..."

Garaki stared at the teenager's face on the screen. He scratched his bald head aggressively.

"Okay, fine," Garaki muttered, pacing back and forth. "He is Hero X. But we have a much bigger problem here."

All For One crossed his arms. "Hmm."

"You engaged him," Garaki pointed at the screen. "Hero X awakened his god-like power a full decade in the past. He must have used it in public. But our memories, Master."

Garaki gestured to the laboratory walls.

"Nothing changed," Garaki continued, his voice rising in frustration. "Our memories are exactly the same. The news feeds outside are exactly the same. If we messed with the past, why didn't the present shift?"

All For One narrowed his eyes. "That is what bothers me. The kid was exhausted. Then, in the span of a single second, his power spiked by thousands. It was a completely illogical."

"Maybe..." Garaki mumbled, tapping his chin. "Maybe time isn't a straight line. Maybe changing the past doesn't rewrite our present. Maybe we just created a branch timeline."

Garaki grabbed his clipboard off the floor.

"And maybe the timeline interference itself triggered the X's unique power," Garaki guessed quickly. "Like a defense mechanism. But I don't know for sure. It's just a theory. We are missing too many pieces."

All For One hated guessing. He hated not knowing the rules of the board.

"Theories are useless without confirmation," All For One stated coldly.

He looked at the six supercomputer clones.

"We need hard data," All For One said. "If changing the past doesn't affect our present, then we need more test runs."

Garaki stopped pacing. "What are you suggesting?"

"Prepare new clones, Doctor," All For One ordered. "I will divide my quirk factor and consciousness evenly among them."

Garaki replied. "Ok, Master."

"Do it," All For One commanded. "We are going to send them to different points in the past. We are going to execute massive, undeniable historical disruptions."

Garaki swallowed hard. "Like what?"

"We kill famous pro heroes," All For One answered, a dark smirk forming behind his mask. "We destroy governments. We alter major historical events. If the present changes even slightly, we know we can fix our timeline. If nothing changes..."

"Then the branch theory is correct," Garaki finished the thought, his eyes lighting up with scientific curiosity.

"Yes," All For One said. "Get the vats ready. We are going to break time."

...

Location: Underground Laboratory

Time: 8:45 PM

The three identical clones stood in a line on the metal platform.

They all wore black tactical suits. Heavy mechanical belts wrapped securely around their waists.

They stared straight ahead, completely silent.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Dr. Garaki stood at the main computer console.

His fingers flew across the keyboard, locking in five different sets of temporal coordinates.

Garaki stopped typing. He looked over his shoulder at All For One.

"Master," Garaki said, his voice serious. "I need to make one thing absolutely clear before we launch."

All For One crossed his arms. "Hmm?"

"We must ignore Hero X or Kaito Arisaka..." Garaki warned. "Do not go near him. If his massive power spike was a defense mechanism triggered by our timeline interference, we need to keep him out of the equation completely."

Garaki pointed at the clones on the platform.

"We need clean data," Garaki continued. "We need to know if the timeline itself can be changed without triggering Hero X."

All For One nodded slowly.

"Agreed," All For One said. He looked at the five clones. And divided his quirk and consciousness.

Garaki grabbed the main lever while the cloned All For Ones press their belt simultaneously.

"Coordinates locked," Garaki announced. "Deploying the clones."

VWOOSH.

The machine flashed violently. The entire room shook.

The five clones vanished into the portal, sent to completely different points in the past.

...

[Clone 1]

The street was crowded. Afternoon traffic honked loudly.

Clone 1 stepped out of a dark alleyway. He looked across the intersection.

A much younger Enji Todoroki stood near a police barricade. He was directing a group of rookie sidekicks.

Endeavor's fire beard burned brightly.

Clone 1 didn't hesitate. He activated three kinetic boosters in his legs.

FWOOSH.

He crossed the street in a blur. He grabbed Endeavor by the throat and slammed him backward.

CRUNCH.

The pro hero crashed through the brick wall of a nearby bank. Endeavor didn't even have time to activate his flames or raise his hands.

Clone 1 unleashed a massive, point-blank shockwave directly into Endeavor's chest.

The blast shattered the building's foundation. The Number Two hero was killed instantly in broad daylight.

Civilians screamed. Cars swerved and crashed into the sidewalks. Clone 1 looked at the body, twisted his belt dial, and vanished.

[Clone 2]

The gates of U.A. High stood tall.

Clone 2 walked right through the front entrance. He ignored the security alarms blaring across the campus.

He walked down the main hallway and kicked the doors of the faculty building open.

A young, muscular student with blonde hair stepped into the hallway.

Toshinori Yagi narrowed his eyes. He sensed the danger immediately.

Nana Shimura stood a few feet behind him.

"Toshinori, get back! Run away..."

Clone 2 raised his hand.

He didn't say a word and completely ignored Nana Shimura who mistakenly thought she was the target.

He unleashed a devastating barrage of air cannons mixed with decay waves.

Nana Shimura tried to block the attack.

She crossed his arms, but All For One bypassed her directly.

The blast tore right through Toshinori guard. It ripped through the hallway, killing the young student instantly.

"ALL FOR ONE!!!!"

Nana Shimura screamed. She dropped to her knees, staring at the ruins of the hallway.

"..." Clone 2 looked at her.

He intentionally spared her.

He wanted to see how history changed without the Symbol of Peace. He twisted his belt dial and warped away.

[Clone 3]

A massive military facility burned in the distance.

Clone 3 stood on a cliff overlooking the American base.

RIIIIIING.

WEE-WOO-WEE-WOO-WEE-WOO.

Sirens wailed across the valley. Smoke poured into the sky.

Clone All For One just leveled the entire complex.

He wiped out the top military officials and government contractors in the country.

He watched the chaos for a moment, waiting to see if the global political structure would collapse instantly.

He tapped his belt and warped away.

...

Location: Present Day - Underground Laboratory

FLASH. FLASH. FLASH.

The machine lit up in rapid succession.

The clones dropped onto the platform one by one.

All For One directly recieve all the memories of all of the clones.

He felt the impact of Endeavor's body hitting the bricks.

He saw Toshinori Yagi die in the U.A. hallway.

He absorbed all the memories.

He opened his eyes. He turned to the doctor.

"...As expected Doctor." All For One muttered.

Garaki was already typing frantically. "My memories was also the same master."

Tap. Tap. Tap.

He pulled up global news feeds, hero registries, and historical databases.

"Endeavor is alive," Garaki read from the screen, his voice shaking slightly. "He is currently patrolling Hosu City. The news just posted a picture of him five minutes ago."

Garaki switched tabs.

"All Might is alive," Garaki continued. "Nana Shimura died exactly when history recorded her death. She didn't live any longer. The American government is completely stable. There was no attack on that base."

Garaki took his hands off the keyboard. He looked up at the monitors.

"The timeline is absolutely not changed even the slightest, Master," Garaki confirmed, letting out a heavy breath. "Killing them in the past did nothing to our present. Our theory was right. We didn't change history. We might just have created fractured, parallel branch timelines."

"..."

Step. Step. Step.

All For One paced across the metal floor.

If changing the past didn't affect his present, then his present was completely safe. The past was a sandbox. It was a testing ground with zero consequences.

"So all of our plan was useless... We can't even harm or kill Kaito Arisaka." All For One stated.

Step. Step.

"..."

"No... There is still one thing I need to confirm."

He stopped walking.

All For One walked over to a workbench in the corner of the lab. He grabbed another temporal belt.

He strapped it around his waist. He checked the mechanical dial.

"Doctor," All For One commanded. "Set the coordinates. I will personally go to the past and confirm something. Years before Kaito was born."

"Yes, Master" Garaki replied.

All For One looked at the doctor.

"...I'm just going to kill myself" All For One said, stepping onto the metal platform. "Maybe this is the only path I can take."

"..." Dr. Garaki was bewildered and didn't know what his Master was thinking. "What do you mean maste--"

CLICK.

FWOOSH.

...

Location: Tokyo - Unknown Era

Time: Night | 50 Years Ago

VWOOSH.

All For One stepped out of the portal.

The blue light faded, leaving him in a dark, empty warehouse.

He looked around.

The machinery gathering dust in the corners was completely outdated. He was decades in the past.

He didn't wait.

He closed his eyes and activated his search quirks. He scanned the entire city, looking for one specific energy signature.

All For One looked for himself.

He found him.

FWOOSH.

All For One directly warped from the base.

He raised his hand and blew the heavy steel doors clean off their hinges.

SMASH.

His past self stood in the center of the room. The variant looked much younger.

The variant stared at the doorway, completely shocked. "Who—"

All For One didn't let him finish the sentence.

"Die..."

He crossed the room in a blur. He grabbed his past self by the throat.

CRACK.

He twisted his wrist hard. The variant's neck snapped instantly. The body dropped dead to the concrete floor.

The exact millisecond the body hit the ground, the surge hit All For One.

"AGHH!" All For One roared, dropping to his knees.

It was a violent, physical rush.

He felt the life force of the variant pull directly into his own body.

"TH... THIS IS IT!"

The variant's baseline strength, the accumulated energy, and the unique quirk adaptations funneled straight into his veins.

His muscles condensed. His aura spiked, doubling in density.

HUFF-PUFF.

HUFF-PUFF.

ALl For One stayed on his knees, breathing heavily. He looked at his hands.

He felt the permanent shift in his power. It wasn't a temporary boost.

All For One just absorbed the existence of his own variant.

"HAHAHA!!"

The deep, heavy sound echoed off the bunker walls.

The timeline branches were infinite. If he traveled to a thousand branches and killed a thousand variants, he would absorb all of their power into his single main body.

Quantity would transform into quality. He would evolve from a demon king into a true god.

Becoming The One.

He stood up.

"... That's it."

He felt the destiny this time on his favor.

"But before everything else.. I will kill X's lineage in this timeline completely."

...

He activated his search quirks again.

"Hmm.. where are they? They should still be younger."

He scanned the entire Japan.

"Grandpa and Grandma Arisaka..."

He found them living in a small, modest house in Musutafu.

FWOOSH.

All For One opened a portal and arrived instantly.

Step. Step.

He walked up to the wooden front door and kicked it open.

BANG.

Takumi and Saki Arisaka jumped up from their small dining table.

They were young newlyweds.

They looked terrified.

"Who are you?!" Takumi yelled. "A villain?"

[A/n: Takumi Arisaka was the grandpa of Kaito.]

He grabbed a kitchen knife from the counter and activated his quirk.

And stepped in front of Saki, holding the knife up with shaking hands.

"Please!" Saki screamed, grabbing her husband's arm. "Take whatever you want! Just leave us alone!"

All For One didn't reply, he just wanted the satisfaction of knowing he erased Kaito and Hero X in this timeline.

He raised his hand.

"Goodbye," All For One said simply.

He fired a point-blank kinetic blast.

BOOM.

BAAM. CRUMBLE.

The shockwave obliterated the house.

The walls, the roof, and the furniture exploded into splinters.

Takumi and Saki died instantly in the blast.

All For One lowered his hand.

"Hero X is gone" All For One felt a little happy.

Kaito's mother would never be born here. Hero X would never exist in this branch.

Step. Step.

He turned around to walk away from the smoking crater.

Then.

He stopped.

"Is something happening again?"

The air didn't feel right. The crickets in the yard stopped chirping.

A dead, heavy silence swallowed the entire neighborhood.

All For One looked down. A piece of broken wood from the front door lay near his boot.

Then wood started to glitch.

"Hmm?"

It didn't burn.

It didn't break.

It dissolved.

The solid wood turned into black, static pixels.

The pixels floated into the air and vanished into a void of pure nothingness.

"What is this?" All For One muttered. He took a step back.

He broke something that he shouldn't supposed to do.

He broke the canon event.

Kaito Arisaka was an absolute anchor in this specific universe.

The timeline required his existence to function.

By preventing his birth, the universe couldn't reconcile the massive paradox.

But this is the information that All For One will know in the future.

Right now.

CREAK. CREAK.

CRUMBLE.

The reality around All For One started to collapse.

The grass under his feet crumbled into black static.

SWOOOP.

The streetlights vanished, revealing a dark, empty void instead of the night sky.

CRUMBLEE.

The erasure spread rapidly across the yard, deleting the dirt, the pavement, and the neighboring houses.

FWOOSH.

All For One activated his kinetic boosters. He tried to fly away.

"Is this supposed to happen?"

The boosters sparked and died. All For One was bewildered.

The physical laws of gravity and momentum were being deleted from the world.

"Damn!!"

Pure, desperate panic hit him.

The black static crawled across the ground, moving directly toward his boots.

"No! I need to go back." All For One yelled.

He felt if that static touched him, his soul wouldn't snap back to the present. He wouldn't leave a corpse.

He would be completely erased here

He slammed his hand onto his heavy belt. He twisted the mechanical dial frantically.

The black static touched the toe of his boot.

FLASH.

The blinding white light of the temporal jump triggered a microsecond before the glitching void swallowed him completely.

...

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