"Finally complete!" the deep voice resonated, followed by a laugh that echoed perfectly throughout an enormous room filled with multiple development capsules containing mutated and deformed human bodies.
In the center of the room stood a massive development tube. Inside was a young-looking boy. His skin was white, almost pale; his hair was a silver color with light lilac tones, creating a striking contrast. His face was youthful and beautiful, as if taken from a fashion magazine.
His body was connected to numerous cables and machinery monitoring his life support. A cardiac monitor displayed the heartbeat of that body with closed eyes, at a slow but steady rhythm.
Again, the voice was heard.
"I spent 50 years of my life on this research, but it's finally complete!" the scientist shouted euphorically, spreading his arms as if embracing his achievement. "I can't wait to see those Federation idiots begging me to give them all my research. I'll be rich... no, I'm going to control the world. And you, my creation, will be the one to do it. Daruma Zenin, that will be your name from now on."
The scientist laughed more cheerfully, a cackle that bounced off the metallic walls of the laboratory. However, his laughter was cut short when, out of nowhere, a massive explosion shook the entire place, opening a huge hole in the main wall. Smoke and dust invaded the room as alarms began to sound.
Furious, the scientist turned before paling upon encountering a man in a formal suit wearing an industrial mask covering his face. The man was tall, easily exceeding 190 centimeters, and despite the mask, one could feel the mocking smile in his words.
"Knock, knock... Doctor Genai," the man said in a tone clearly full of mockery.
"All for One... What the hell do you want from me?" the scientist asked, his voice trembling with suppressed fury.
"Come now, Doctor Genai, isn't it obvious? I came for your latest project. Successful, by the way. Did you think I wouldn't notice the information your colleague, Doctor Garaki, took?"
The scientist trembled. Not from fear, but from a deep, burning resentment.
"That wasn't his research. That idiot only cared about genetic modification instead of artificial creation," the scientist said as his body began to enlarge, his muscles swelling beneath the white coat, his skin turning grayish.
"Oh, Doctor. You had so much potential. You were one of my best researchers. It's a shame things have to end this way."
"Yes, it is a shame."
The scientist pressed a button on his wrist. With a pneumatic hiss, the capsules of the mutated bodies opened. The clones, both female and male, with identical features and empty gazes, opened their eyes in unison. Their pupils, an ash-gray tone, fixed on All for One with absolute coldness.
In an instant, they lunged.
But All for One didn't move.
An enormous amount of energy burst from his body, a shockwave of pure pressure that shattered the clones into a thousand pieces. Flesh, bones, and blood splattered the walls as the entire laboratory shook. Machines exploded, cables snapped, and the ceiling cracked.
When the dust began to settle, the scientist was seen bleeding profusely, his fingers crossed in front of him. A translucent energy barrier, his Quirk, had activated in the last instant, but now it was fracturing like a broken mirror.
Scientist Genai fell to his knees as the protective barrier shattered. He observed, with eyes full of hatred and resignation, how All for One emerged from the dust without any visible sign of damage. Not a scratch. Not a stain on his suit.
All for One spoke with a voice full of mockery and macabre amusement.
"Surrender, Doctor. You're not so young anymore. Overexerting yourself will only damage your fragile body."
"Fuck you, Zen," the scientist said with a bloody smile.
The atmosphere froze.
Without warning, a long black protrusion emerged from the scientist's stomach. Genai looked down, seeing how his chest had been pierced from side to side. Then he looked up at All for One, who clicked his tongue in clear disgust.
"Never use that name again in your life," the villain said, his voice losing all amusement and turning icy.
The scientist smiled, blood streaming between his teeth.
"Oh... cof—" a scarlet gush escaped his lips. "Does it bother you to remember who you were in the past? The man behind the mask?"
"The past is just old history. The only thing I care about is the future," said All for One, creating more protrusions from his thumb, ring, and index finger. The black tendrils pierced the scientist in rapid succession: shoulder, side, lung. Genai convulsed, but his smile didn't disappear.
Knowing he had only seconds left to live, the scientist brought a trembling hand to his white jacket. With a final effort, he pulled out a small emergency button and pressed it.
Behind him, the main capsule opened with a violent expulsion of steam. The amniotic fluid inside spilled out like a waterfall, and the young man's body fell forward.
But it didn't crash to the ground.
It took a step.
It maintained its balance with superhuman naturalness. The cables connected to its body detached one by one with electric sparks, while the fluid slid down its pale skin. The cardiac monitor went crazy before stabilizing at a firm and powerful rhythm.
All for One watched, fascinated for an instant, at the result of the scientist's creation. Genai lay at his feet, pierced and bleeding out, but with eyes shining with pride.
The young teenager opened his lilac eyes.
His gaze swept over the destroyed laboratory, the corpses of the clones, the blood on the walls... and finally settled on All for One.
"Hey, Zen," coughing blood, the scientist let out one last weak laugh. "Let me introduce you to my perfect creation. Daruma Zenin. The one... who's going to take you to hell."
All for One clenched his hand. The black tendrils contracted and tore the scientist's body apart in an instant. Then, like tamed serpents, they returned to his fingers, resuming their normal form.
The villain prepared to take down the biological creation. The information he would obtain from that body would be of great help for his future.
But while still processing the situation, All for One had to raise his arms to block.
A kick.
He didn't see it coming. He only felt the impact.
His body went flying like a bullet, tearing through hundreds of meters of trees in its path. Ancient trunks exploded into splinters, the earth ripped apart, and an enormous line of destruction carved its way through the forest. Finally, All for One crashed into a hill, stopping in a smoking crater.
He stood up slowly, shaking off the remnants of dirt and wood from his now torn and dirty suit.
In front of him, walking at a calm pace as if taking a stroll in the park, was the young man. His expression was serene, almost bored. The amniotic fluid still dripped from his silver hair, but his lilac eyes shone with cold, calculating intelligence.
"He's strong," All for One thought, feeling how his right forearm throbbed with a dull pain. "I felt his kick crush the bone. The Quirk Genai must have given him... is gravity manipulation."
The villain smiled beneath his mask. Not from fear. From excitement.
Quickly, he activated several of his Quirks. He wasn't going to underestimate that creation.
His right arm grew alarmingly, deforming. Muscles swelled, skin stretched until it nearly broke, and multiple bony protrusions pierced his flesh like twisted spines. Black veins ran along his limb, throbbing violently, as if his own body couldn't withstand the pressure of the accumulated powers. The air around him distorted from the sheer energy released.
The young man stopped.
He looked at his own hand. He closed it slowly into a fist. A lilac-colored aura began to envelop him, first faint, then more intense. The space around him began to visibly curve, stones on the ground levitated, and broken branches from nearby trees were drawn toward him before being repelled.
With an impassive gaze, Daruma Zenin launched himself.
He didn't run. He simply... moved. One instant he was thirty meters away; the next, his fist was already colliding with All for One's deformed mass.
The impact was cataclysmic.
A shockwave of lilac and black energy expanded in all directions, shattering everything within a radius of hundreds of meters. Trees were uprooted, rocks pulverized, and the ground sank several meters. A hurricane-force wind swept the area, carrying away the remains of the laboratory that still stood.
The resulting earthquake shook the earth for several seconds, opening enormous fissures in the ground that spread like spiderwebs.
When the dust and debris finally cleared, the scene was revealed.
All for One was standing... barely.
His right arm had completely disappeared, torn off from the shoulder. A portion of his torso was also missing, revealing a smoking hollow from which thick blood dripped. His industrial mask was split in two, revealing part of his disfigured face: a prominent jaw, dry lips, and a bloodshot eye that stared with a mix of madness and tension.
His body released blood like a fountain, but he didn't move. He didn't fall. His gaze didn't look away from the front.
There stood Daruma Zenin.
The young man had minor injuries: scratches on his arms, a cut on his cheek. But his breathing was calm, his posture firm. The lilac aura continued to dance around him, like a hungry flame.
Without a word, Daruma brought his hands together in front of his chest.
Time distorted.
Space twisted.
Gravity concentrated into a single point between his palms, so dense that light itself seemed to bend around it. The air became heavy, unbreathable. Stones on the ground began to levitate before being drawn toward that nonexistent point. A deep hum filled the environment, as if reality itself were groaning.
All for One felt all his danger-detection Quirks activate in unison, screaming in his mind: run, run, RUN.
He frowned.
Behind him, a portal made of dark mist materialized, spinning slowly. The silhouette of a gloved hand peeked through for an instant from the other side.
All for One didn't hesitate.
Daruma, seeing what his opponent planned, released the attack.
A sphere of lilac energy the size of a baseball shot from his hands. But its size was deceptive. In its wake, space tore, time stopped, and gravity became infinite.
All for One crossed through the portal just as the sphere reached him.
An instant later, the portal closed.
And the sphere continued.
The ground disappeared. The trees evaporated. The mountain that stood in the distance... simply ceased to exist. It didn't explode. It didn't collapse. It was reduced to nothing, disintegrated atom by atom.
When the light faded, all that remained was a trail of absolute destruction: a perfectly straight trench of crystallized earth, and in the center, a massive three-meter-diameter hole that pierced through what was once a mountain, revealing the sky on the other side.
Daruma Zenin slowly lowered his hands.
The silence was absolute.
The young man looked at the hole, then at the place where All for One had been, then at the smoking remains of the laboratory.
He blinked.
"...So that's the most powerful villain in the world," he murmured, his voice serene but with a hint of curiosity. "Weak."
He turned around and began to walk among the rubble, his bare feet stepping on scorched earth. His silver hair waved in the warm breeze blowing from the crater.