In a worn down orphanage, an old man worked carefully on a extremely realistic looking wooden puppet of a certain orange clothed hyperactive ninja kid. On work table before him were various other finished puppets, such as a white haired male with ninja clothing, a dark haired kid with red eyes, dressed in full sleeves and loose shorts, and finally a certain ink haired fan-girl.
"Haha, the kids will love this" he said while attaching the puppets to a complex wooden machinery which had dozens of flexible metal threads. This was a puppetry machine he had created after years of hard work, though in today's world this art was long forgotten and undervalued.
After attaching the puppets to these threads, he would be able to control all the puppets simultaneously just with press of a few keys. It was as if he was creating music with a keyboard, except his music was his art of puppetry.
That wasn't to say that he was a useless old man with no other skills. He was a world famous physician of ancient medicine arts, who was also well versed with modern anatomical advancements. Many experts from world famous medical institute would consult him if they were not able to solve an issue.
But at other times, he would watch and read kids comics and watch anime, before recreating its scenes using puppets for an orphanage he ran using a pseudo name. Though the orphanage looked run down, if someone examined it closely, they would find all its kids had clean and comfortable clothes with three meals a day and proper hygiene facilities.
As they grew up, he would contact his various acquaintances and find suitable families who were not able to conceive children of their own and allow the child to choose whether to join the said family. People often asked why he didn't just find families for the kids when they were little. But he always told them that both the child and parents should have the right to choose, and if god didn't give them the right then he would instead.
But the real story behind this was that he was traumatized when he was little. His parents weren't good people, they were outright assassins. Once his parents had to go undercover for years to pretend as if they were a married couple, but his mother didn't want to get pregnant. So his mother had convinced his father to find a fresh orphan from a hospital, and that was how they got him.
Though initial years were pretty good for the family, the longer his parents stayed undercover, more they grew dysfunctional. Their so called love was only a combination of physical amorous activities and their addiction to their missions. They had no knowledge of how to adapt to living together for years while pretending to be normal.
Finally the inevitable had happened and they snapped, when he was barely seven years old. Every day would be a combination of abuses and fights among the couple, which would eventually culminate with a series of physical and mental abuse on him before the couple ended their day with carnal activities.
After nearly 3 years of this, both his parents found out that the other had been keeping secret lovers for themselves. This resulted in the worst fight ever to date and his mother ended up killing his father and his lover. She came to her senses soon and left him locked in a small room in the attic, before fleeing with her lover.
Three days later he was freed from his prison when the police found him in the attic and asked him questions about the corpses of his father and his lover. Around three weeks later, he was named the sole inheritor of his parents wealth, as his parents had not made a will. His mother didn't make a claim to a single penny, as she knew she would immediately be charged with her ex-husband's murder. He never saw or heard of her again.
Being an emotionally broken and traumatized child, he used all his wealth to educate himself to a very high standard within a decade. He had a vast amount of knowledge over various arts and medicinal techniques. He had taken up comics, novels and anime as a hobby to get him past his trauma, which brought his attention to ancient medicinal arts, spiritual techniques and physical mastery techniques.
He decided to dedicate his life to master it, and he succeeded after two decades of hard work. Once he had achieved his goals, he found that despite his knowledge, he felt empty inside. It was only when he saved a child from a severe injury that he found his new purpose. He dedicated his services to improve the life of the innocent children.
He was no delusional hero, he didn't think he would clean all the filth from the world single-handedly. But he wanted to leave a few rays of sunshine in the dark world of his. If he managed to do so, then he would be satisfied.
That night he lay in his bed happily, thinking about the puppet show he had put up for the little kids, and the rapt attention they displayed while watching him manipulate the puppets and tell the story of the kid who wanted to become the best in his world so that people would respect him.
Despite his many talents that the world knew him for, it was when he saw these kids watching his puppet show and cheering, that he felt the most satisfied. He had no romantic interest in the eleven decades of his life, despite innumerable amorous offers thanks to his impressive body cultivated through spiritual and physical mastery. But he loved each kid he took care of as if they were his own flesh and blood.
Thanks to his physical and spiritual mastery, he knew that tonight was his last night on this earth, but he was not worried. He had already arranged for some of his trustworthy friends to come tomorrow to take care of his children and his funeral rites. He could now pass on from this world satisfied, with no desires or regret.
'Maybe just one desire to take my puppetry art even further, but I am incapable of it in this world.' the old man though as he took his last breath.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
My eyes opened with a jerk and I gasped for air greedily, as if I was breathing after a very long time. I found myself inside a big glass capsule filled with a gel-like substance, with my limbs strapped to a translucent surface. There was a plastic mask on my face, which was how I was breathing inside this place.
I searched my memory for any hint as to how I wound up here, but all I remembered about myself was my name, Kyoya Jin. Kyoya was my family name, while Jin was my given name. But I had no other information about myself. All the memories I had was instead about some unnamed old man, his vast amount of ancient medical arts knowledge and his obsessive hobby of Puppetry.
Before I could dive further into my inherited memories of the old man, the gel surrounding me drained at a rapid pace and the glass capsule surrounding me slid apart into various pieces, before opening like a door. I squinted at the bright light that suddenly hit my eyes, while a cacophony of excited voices hit my ears.
"Quick, inform the next of his kin that we managed to save at least one member of the Kyoya family" someone shouted
"He has no immediate next of kin" someone replied "those villain terrorists knew exactly how to attack to create the maximum damage. Young master Jin is now last of the Kyoya line."
"Hold on, was there not a woman called Inko, the daughter of the third Elder, who married some random low class hero. She had married out of love and refused to inherit the family heritage."
"Yes, but the Third Elder and the Head made a joint decision to strike her out of the family line. They were so angry that they even included it in the Familial Will. There is no one other than young master Kyoya now, who can inherit the family properties."
"Well its not as if much is left, other than the bank accounts and some safe boxes managed by a few family friends. All the valuables were kept in the Kyoya Manor, which was destroyed in the blast, along with rest of the Kyoya line."
"Honestly, it is surprising that young master was intact as he was. We barely got the upper body of Master Kyoya Hiruko and Mistress Kyoya Shina, parents of Young master Kyoya."
"Well, maybe they were the ones who protected him" one of them said "We did find traces of their quirks going beyond their limits to fight the blast."
"Oh ya, the infamous 'Spirit Hydra' and the 'Hecatoncheires'. You know I was at their engagement party, where they gave their demonstrative quirk spar. What a treat that was, such beautiful yet insane quirks."
"Yes. But this is not a time to reminisce. We are but nameless shadows. We have only one purpose, find a new home for the young master and make sure they treat him nicely."
"So do we agree that Midoriya Inko will be given custody of Young master and that we will only watch from shadows after that?"
"Agreed!!" the rest shouted in agreement.
All this time, I was barely able to see blurry dark figures moving rapidly around the hazy room. The bright light only made it more difficult to see. But soon one of those figures came near and said ��Sleep!" along with poking my head. Immediately I felt my world darkening and I fell into a dreamless sleep.
Next time I awoke, I found myself on a cozy bed in a small room filled with various books and miscellaneous items. I slowly got up, my entire body felt stiff and sore. I tried to call up someone to help and get to know where I was. But in its place I got the shock of my life, I was dumb. Not dumb as in a brainless idiot, but dumb as in unable to speak. No matter what I did, the loudest sound I could make was the slight hum of a throaty vibration.
Just as I was panicking with no idea as to what I should do, the door of my room opened and revealed a beautiful and well-toned woman with green hair and an attractive face. She had a tray with a bowl and a towel on it, but upon seeing me she gave a shocked gasp and let them fall. As they struck the floor with a clang, the woman came to her senses and rushed to me with tears in her eyes.
"Oh my poor child, I am your aunt Inko" she said while sniffling and hugging him tightly "You have suffered much more than you deserved little Jin. Don't worry, I will take care of you, just like I do for my little Izuku. No harm will come to you child."
Seeing her sniffling and blubbering like a little kid, I really wanted to point out the irony in her statement. I was behaving like an adult here, holding her calmly as she cried, while she was blubbering like a three year old. Thank god I didn't have my voice currently and I could not express my opinion.
Just as I was wondering what to do, I saw a small green haired kid peek from the edge of the door timidly. I tapped Inko at the arm to get her attention before pointing at the door. Inko looked back and she put on a smile for the child, before gesturing him to come in.
"Here Izuku," she said while gently pulling the child next to me "This is your cousin brother Kyoya Jin. Due to an unfortunate accident he has no one else but us to take care of him. Won't you be his friend?" the green haired kid nodded excitedly and grabbed my hand with both of his and shook it excitedly.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
It has been three years since the day I joined the Midoriya household. A lot has happened during that time and I have learnt a lot too. Inko told me that I was part of a fairly rich and prestigious household, called the Kyoya household. Inko was formerly from this household too.
The reason I had been orphaned was that Kyoya family had unearthed a rumored powerful energy crystal, that was said to have a purification and bolstering type energy that evolved quirks. There must have been some truth to the rumors, as both my parents had suddenly developed miraculous quirks. My father's evolved quirk was called 'Spirit Hydra' while my mother's was 'Hecatoncheires'.
Five years after they revealed their evolved quirks, a large group of super-villain terrorists attacked our household on the event of my fifth birthday. They had managed to wipe out all the others of Kyoya line, except me and aunt Inko. The supposed crystal had gone missing too, presumed to be destroyed in the massive explosion.
Aunt Inko told me that I was barely saved, thanks to the sacrifice of my parents and the efforts of some hidden family allies. So now, all I had in name for a Kyoya was a large bank account and some hidden safe boxes, which were in possession of some family friends currently. I would gain those safety boxes only when I become an adult or a full fledged Hero.
Due to my injury in the accident, I had somehow lost my memories of the first five years of my life, except my name and some general instincts. I had also lost my voice, leaving me only able to communicate in written form or some gestures.
One thing I never told anyone, was that though I lost my memories, I had gained a different set of it. The old man's memory and knowledge was vast. Thanks to it, I was ready for high school while I was mere eight years old currently. My cousin Izuku was also smart, but I was something leagues beyond.
Thanks to the memories, I also knew not to show off excessively and keep my peculiarities hidden until I have enough power to come forth into the light. I had also gained knowledge about Quirks.
Our world had peculiar inborn abilities called Quirks. Though they were rare in the beginning, currently a significant population of the world were quirk wielders. Sadly, my cousin was not one of them, a sore spot that hurt him and Aunt Inko constantly. Between Izuku being quirk-less and Uncle Midoriya abandoning us within the first few months of me joining the family, she had nearly gone into depression.
I became a source of their comfort and their shield at this point. I had awakened a quirk at the age of six, a weird energy type quirk, a mutation of the quirks of my mom and dad. It was formless and colorless, only I could barely see it. The old man's memory had knowledge something similar, but it was only a theory.
Since I could feel that this energy was somehow originating from the very essence of my being, I decided to name it Aura. So far, I could sense no weakness to my quirk, not even a small one. Even its limitation was only that it had to be cultivated. I could not grow strong overnight with it, unlike some other quirks. But thanks to the old man's memories and my guesses, I could sense that it was unmatched and extremely versatile.
For the next two years, I dedicated every scrap of my free time to experiment and develop my quirk. Initially the amount of energy in my body was like a candle flame, but now it was like a 100 watt bulb. The first application of my energy quirk was a skill I developed from the old man's memories. It was based on his Puppetry hobby, and I decided to name it Aura Puppet Arts.
Aura puppets arts involved creation of thin strings of aura. Though they were thin, they didn't exactly have a material presence. The Aura Strings were more like an immaterial conduit, connecting my target and me. I would then be able to manipulate the target with the power of my will alone. I would even be able to connect to sentient beings and communicate with them by sending my intentions and emotions to them directly.
Unlike usual puppetry, Aura puppet arts were not reliant on my hands. Using hands did make the visualization easier and immensely fast, but I could also release them out of any of the thousands of aura points that existed all over my body. This was a trump card that I was hiding, making everyone believe that I needed my hands to use it.
Initially the control of my strings were weak, despite the fact that they were technically only acting as a link and I was basically manipulating targets with my mind. But over time they grew stronger and were able to transmit more amount of energy, which in turn made my ability stronger and made my aura capacity grow.
When I had first communicated with aunt Inko, nearly half a year ago, she had cried a river and devoured three tubs of ice-cream. I had noticed that she had started to put on a lot of weight due to stress eating. Because of that I guilt-tripped her to stop this habit and exercise everyday alongside me.
We were both worried initially that my awakening of such a versatile quirk might have an effect on Izuku. However, he just seemed more motivated to develop into a hero, despite being quirkless. He too joined my daily workouts, I had developed an efficient routine and diet for him from the old man's memories.
By the time we were finally 14 and ready to apply in about ten months later for U.A. High, the school for heroes, Midoriya had grown into a short, yet well muscled teen. I was more of a slender and lean guy myself. My muscles were like a cheetah's, lean and compact, made for quick burst of power.
One day I saw the news about Midoriya saving his so-called friend Bakugo from a sludge villain. I showed the news to Inko and we both waited for the idiot to come home. The idiot had run into a fire to fight a sludge power villain, who had been trying to takeover the Bakugo kid. Thankfully All-Might had come in time and saved him. I knew he had an obsession to be like All-Might, but this was going to the levels of reckless.
When Izuku came back, he was greeted with a series of scoldings from Aunt Inko and me. Aunt Inko even went and gave him the ultimate punishment, confiscating all his All-Might goodies. Izuku nearly spewed out his soul at that, and started groveling to aunt Inko. She finally gave in and reduced his sentence from life long to one week.
That night, Izuku called me to go to the roof with him. When I reached there, I saw something that shocked me. All might was waiting for us on the roof, with his huge trademark smile.
"I am here as promised, Young Midoriya !" All might said "I assume this is him?" he asked while pointing at me.
Izuku nodded "Yes All-Might, he is my closest friend and also my teacher in a way. He is the reason I am so strong currently despite being quirk-less. His name is Kyoya Jin and I truly believe him to be more suitable to what you have in mind than me."
"Young Kyoya, you must be confused about what we are talking about," All-Might said "It is about a secret I have been carrying. A secret about how the man known as All Might came to be." he said and suddenly was surrounded by mist like steam. When it cleared, all that was left was a skeletal looking man with long hair and scary looking eyes with black sclera.
He explained that his quirk was called One For All and that it was a hereditary/inheritance type quirk. All Might then explained to me that he was a normal quirkless person when he was young, until he met his sensei, Nana Shimura. She was the holder of One for All when he was young. She trained him to become worthy to inherit the quirk and fight as a symbol of peace to the people.
One For All had a gruesome history. It was a tale of two brothers, of the love an elder brother had for his quirk-less sibling, until it was twisted into something fearsome. The Elder brother was blessed with a quirk called All for One, and he could literally steal quirks from other quirk users. On the other hand, his younger brother was appeared to be an average quirk less.
The Elder brother became famous overtime, but would always worry about his younger sibling, who would get bullied when he was not there. The Elder brother then one day went berserk as he saw a guy with a power stockpiling type quirk, Stockpile, bullying his brother. He stole the guy's quirk and killed him mercilessly.
Suddenly, the Elder brother realized a new use for his powers, he was able to grant the quirk he stole to others. This way his younger sibling would also have a quirk and would not be bullied. Unknown to him, the younger sibling had already figured out that he was not quirk-less, he had a quirk called Inheritance.
But all his quirk did was pass on his quirk to the person he chose, and as it was useless to pass on a quirk that gave no power the younger sibling chose to keep quiet about it. Hence, when the Elder brother made him accepted a quirk called Stockpile, it merged with his already present quirk and mutated into a terrifying new power, One For All.
One For All let the younger brother display feat of astounding nature, all through pure enhancement of physical body. The Elder Brother was both impressed and jealous of this, he had to use a combination of multiple quirks to displays the feats that his younger brother did with just one quirk.
However, elder brother found that he could not steal One For All, his brother's quirk, Inheritance, had made One for All immune to All for One. Over time, both brothers found their own goals to follow. The Elder one wanted to find the perfect combination of quirks and become the strongest person of all time.
Younger one decided to explore the possibilities of his new quirk and become the symbol of peace for those weaker than him. One for All had no upper limit, it could stockpile power without limit as long as it existed within a wielder. Thanks to its ability to be inherited, it could exist forever too, as long as the current owner finds a replacement before dying.
As time passed, the Elder and the younger brother came to an inevitable clash as a villain and hero. The younger one was defeated and killed, but he had already passed on One for All to his successor, letting him become the Symbol of Peace. Over generations, All for One hunted the One For All Wielders, who all passed down their quirk to suitable successors.
All-Might was the Eighth-generation One for All Wielder. He wanted to pass on the quirk, because in his previous clash with All For One, though All-Might was victorious, he was given a near fatal injury. It had destroyed a lot of his internal organs, making him unable to be treated even with the world's best healers. He was also losing his ability of wielding One For All the longer he continued to be All-Might in his current state.
Hence All-might had decided that it was the quirk itself asking to be passed on, as that was the intent of the First Holder. Thus he had been searching for a successor the past few months, which was also the reason he came to the land of his Alma mater. His close associates had been helping him search for a successor, but today he had seen Izuku selflessly trying to save Bakugo.
All-Might had been inspired by him and surpassed his limits through sheer will. Izuku made him realize why he wanted to be a hero in the first place. Hence, he was set on Izuku becoming the next Symbol of Peace.
I took some time to take it all in before nodding at him to continue. He then gave a tired and exasperated look at Midoriya "But Young Midoriya insists that you will be better than him. So what are your thoughts Young Kyoya?"
I gestured him to wait while taking out a text communication device. It was a custom order of mine, a flip phone like device, just a few sizes larger. It had screens both side of the flip display, hence I would be able to tell the people my thoughts through text, in case they were uncomfortable with me projecting my thoughts directly in their mind through my Aura Puppetry Arts.
When All-Might looked at Izuku questioningly, Izuku explained "Kyoya was involved in an accident when he was small. This led him to lose his ability to speak or even make a sound, along with losing his memories of his life before the accident. But he is really smart and designed this device to help him communicate and custom ordered it."
"I am sorry Young Kyoya, that was insensitive of me." all-might apologized with a sad face, while I gestured to him that it was fine. I typed my response to his earlier query.
[Midoriya may be probably right about me being able to use your quirk more effectively, but I don't want to. This is because I have a versatile quirk of my own, and also because One for All sounds like a very unstable quirk that is burning through its successors like an out of control nuclear reactor.]
[You told me it is in its essence a stockpile quirk, which has its limits removed and can grow stronger with each generation of One For All. In there lies its instability. If my guess is right, with the level you have reached with One for All, Midoriya will not be able to utilise more than 2% of its power in his current state. And that is after all the training I have given him. If he tries to surpass that in a pinch and blindly use more of it, then he will be risking his very life.]
[Moreover, I suspect One For All gets stronger exponentially every time it is merged with someone who already has a quirk. It is proved by the tale of the fourth, fifth and seventh holder. With how powerful my quirk already is, One For All might kill me.]
[And finally, even if Midoriya manages to master One for All, when the time comes for it to be passed down, there would be no natural successor for its power. This is because if Midoriya manages to live for over five decades, the One for All would have surpassed the limits of quirks and manage to become a force of nature or divine wrath. You would have to generate customized enhanced clones to wield One For All after that.]
My replies put both All-Might and Midoriya into a state of contemplation. They had to agree that the things I suggested were more than true, and the future One For All might truly turn out like that. But before they could come to any hasty decision, I decided to interrupt.
[That said, One for All is a necessary poison that a Symbol of Peace needs. The current society is too steeped in chaos, we still have not been able to make a proper civilization that would be able to incorporate the existence of Quirk users. The quirkless and those with weaker quirks fear the existence of those with strong ones.]
[This leads to them idolizing or despising the said Quirk holders, leading to actions steeped in fear or jealousy. The kids who have been made to grow up in such an environment might turn out to be unreasonable heroes with narcissistic personalities, or worse, villains with a terrifying grudge towards the society.]
[In world like this, we do need One for All, despite the terrifying prospects it holds for the future. It will be one of the pillars the current humanity can put their faith on to be able to overcome all evil and protect them. Maybe it might grow to be an unsustainable power in future, but we can think of that when the times comes.]
[But, if we talk about successors with a suitable mindset for wielding such powers, I would be hard pressed to find someone more worthy than Midoriya. It is because of the simple fact that Midoriya knows what it is like to be quirkless, yet struggle hard to become someone who is able to save others. He goes through my training everyday without fail, only to become more like his idol, though at a subconscious level he knew it was nearly impossible without a quirk.]
[Therefore, I think you are right in your choice, All-Might. Midoriya will be a much better successor than me, but I will only allow you to make him one under the condition that I train him. Because frankly, you don't look like someone who has a speck of idea on how to teach.]
My statement Made All-Might depressed enough that he crouched in a corner of the roof and started drawing circles on the ground "I do have a method to teach. I will have you know that I was invited to be a teacher at U.A. this time."
[That must be more out of respect for your hero career and pity that you will not be able to do anything else once you let Midoriya have One For All.]
All-Might got even more depressed and gloomy, making Midoriya intervene in a panicked state "Okay, I will train with both of you okay? No need to be depressed All-Might. You will still be my idol even if you are not able to teach properly."
Unknown to him, Midoriya's statement hurt All-Might more than anything Kyoya had said. All-might fainted with a spout of blood spewing from his mouth and Midoriya danced around him in a panicked state. I sighed and massaged my forehead to relieve the migraine I was getting from their antics. The next few months were not going to be easy.