9 Chapter 9 - I AM HERE!

While looking through the timeline in my dorm room, I noticed I made one MASSIVE mistake. At the current time, Midnight would only be 18, meaning she would only be in her third year of UA, so she shouldn't have appeared at the end of [Chapter 4 - Capture]. I am surprised that none of you noticed

It is a mistake I am not proud of. Therefore, before this book got popular and it came to bite me in my ass, I returned and changed it. Hypnotic would take the place of Midnight, debuting two chapters earlier, and you would see a bit of his real personality and his quirk.

I reviewed each chapter to see any timeline mistakes I made and changed them. Of course, these changes aren't enough to change the plot, so it continues the same way. I am glad I noticed this before I brought in weakened All Might. At this point in time, he hasn't fought All for One, so he is in his prime.

Now, you know Lady Night isn't Midnight. Did you really think I would make it so easy?

Please. If you notice any mistakes, do tell me. I would fix it, or at least try.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter Start

Naomasa walked through the psychiatric ward in his casual wear, a white polo shirt, dark pants, and shoes. He had been released three days ago after he proved that he was now better and even had the chief of police, Kenji, to vouch for him. Although his appearance was still ragged, he plans to fix it soon.

He entered the common area of the psychiatric ward. Multiple patients sat, either drawing, playing with puzzles, or talking to each other. The area was only available to those who had almost recovered, allowing them to help one another and learn communication between pairs.

Scanning the room, he spotted the person he was looking for, Hypnotic. He was at the far side of the common area, playing with a child who looked about 12, picking him up and throwing him into the air.

He was bald once more, with a full beard, and wore the patient outfit for those on the road to recovery. This consisted of a blue short sleeve shirt that highlighted his muscular torso and back, blue slacks, and sneakers.

Naomasa walked to the man, Garrick, waving. "It's been a while, Hypnotic." He spoke, drawing the hero's attention. "Last time we met, we parted on sour terms."

"I forgive you for that. You did save my life back in the building. Though I wasn't in my right mind, I still remember that day." Garrick replied, dropping the child to the ground, who ran away to play with some toys. " I heard you were now sane. Congratulations."

"Haha," Naomasa let out a weak laugh. "Yeah. I thought it was time to stop sulking."

"Right~. I could hear the All Might voice from all the way down the hall." Garrick sighed, sitting on a couch, with Naomasa sitting across from him, a table between them filled with drawing papers and pencils. "He came to visit you, who is a complete stranger, but not me, his dear old friend."

"Haha." He chuckled weakly, smiling. "Thanks to him and another guy, I am back to normal."

"Do you know how much better I have become at drawing these months?" Garrick asked, changing the subject, picking up a pencil on the table, turning to a blank sheet of drawing paper, and his hands moving as a blur.

After a few seconds, he picked it up, showing an amazing sketch of Naomasa sitting on the stool. "That's...quite amazing." He complimented, taking the paper and staring at the drawing. "How did you get so skilled so quickly?" He asked, staring wide-eyed at the drawing.

"Talent?" Garrick replied, causing Naomasa to look up at him.

"You've changed." Naomasa said, dropping the paper. "I guess the negative ghost really did a number on you."

"It sure did." Garrick shrugged, sighing. "I can't even boast without feeling like vomiting. And even thinking of going back to being a hero or even using my quirk makes me shiver."

"So, what are you planning on doing now?" Naomasa asked.

"Returning to America. I will reunite with my wife, who I sent away to protect her, and my daughter I haven't yet seen since her birth one year ago." Garrick replied as he started sketching another picture, "All the money I saved up from doing hero work should allow me and my family to live the rest of your life in peace while I continue drawing."

"Tha...that's an interesting goal." Naomasa mumbled, still not comfortable with the change in Garrick. "It is a shame. I thought you were a magnificent hero. Although your reason wasn't particularly heroic, you did save a lot of lives." Garrick looked up from his drawing, surprised by the word coming out of Naomasa's mouth. They'd known each other for a while, and Naomasa constantly criticized him for every silly thing he did.

"You also changed." Garrick chuckled, "I guess seeing your family die can really change a man...." He paused, noticing the frown on Naomasa's face. "Too soon?"

"Too soon." Naomasa agreed, sighing. "Though those times you refuse to respond to a villain attack because they wouldn't bring you fame was really villainous."

"It was." Garrick agreed. Now that he is looking back at his old self, he really wasn't fit to be a hero. If he had discovered his talent in art sooner, he might have become a famous artist like Leonardo da Vinci by now.

Returning to his drawing, Garrick asked, "I assume you didn't come here to talk to me about this."

"All Might will be raiding Ankoku mansion alone this evening while a group of heroes and police will be raiding Blush Technology skyscraper, taking out all their underworld workers and bringing Ankoku to justice." Naomasa said, "The chief Kenji informed me of this, and I decided to ask you to help them take care of the kid. With your power, you should be able to put the child to sleep, rendering all its power useless."

Garrick shook his head. "I don't want to use my power. Besides, even though I did help, how are you certain that the ghosts would disappear when the child falls asleep." He asked, continuing his drawing. "What if the negative ghost remained and chased after other people? There will be multiple death by suicide."

"That's why they are planning on attacking when he is home." Naomasa explained. "He lives in a Mansion on top of a hill, and it takes three miles to get to the nearest house. There is no way he can escape or beat All Might."

"That might work." Garrick looked down and started drawing on a blank paper. "Ankoku and the child have a 0% chance of escaping All Might, but the Negative ghosts could. Remember, they are immune to physical attack and can pass through walls."

"...Right..." Naomasa quickly understood what Garrick was getting at. Those negative ghosts don't seem to have a limit on how far they can get from Kirugari. They know next to nothing about them and how to counter them.

If Ankoku has control of the ghosts as he does with the black phantom, he will use the civilians as leverage to survive and send them into the city to make those weak-minded ones commit suicide. He could wipe out the city from all human life TONIGHT if he wanted to! With the ghosts making everyone die from suicide.

How will All Might be able to kill something he can't hit? "Wow." Naomasa mumbled, noticing they hadn't thought things through before deciding to go after Ankoku, as they did one year ago when they didn't take them to Tartarus, causing the death of more than 1 thousand people.

Remembering that, he swore to get to the bottom of what caused Kuragari to be able to escape that day with the public safety commission president.

Pushing back the thought, Naomasa knew they had to do something before Ankoku decided he was bored with this normal lifestyle. They needed to strike while the iron was still hot, and they needed to attack well.

"Freezing them?" Naomasa mumbled, but his mind immediately found a flaw in that thought. They could phase through walls, so they must be able to phase through ice like any other wall. "What of Endeavor flames? They might work."

"It is a possibility, but it isn't certain." Garrick retorted, to which Naomasa agreed.

Naomasa sank into deep thought, silence coming between them. "We need to find Richthofen."

In Tokyo, Japan, Reiji parked his car in the parking lot of a shopping mall, bringing out a brand-new phone from his pocket. Quickly fixing it up, he called a secret number, waiting for it to answer.

Not long later, a voice came from the other side. "Finally called back, Richthofen."

"It surprises me how you can tell when I am the one calling, doctor." Reiji chuckled, sitting back in his seat.

"You're the only one who calls directly to me, Richthofen." The man replied, "So, what made you suddenly call after all this time? I gave you that hospital so you could find useful recovery quirks, and you disappeared for a year." Though he spoke calmly, his anger was apparent in his tone. "I didn't save for no reason. Have you found any interesting quirk as I asked you to?"

"I found something." Reiji said, trying to de-escalate the situation. Although he felt no sense of camaraderie with the man on the other side of the phone, all he could do was give him what he wanted. After all, he was the one to take him out of prison and bring him to Japan for a new life.

The man calmed down. "What is it?"

"You know the kid that was in the news a lot like ten months ago?" He asked, turning off his car and removing the key from the ignition. "You know, the kid Kuragari with the quirk Horror Vessel?"

"Get to the point." The man insisted, sounding impatient.

"Well..." Reiji quickly explained all he knew about Kuragari's quirk, not getting into any detail regarding Ankoku since that wasn't part of his mission.

There was a long silence as the man on the other side seemed to disappear before Reiji spoke, "Is that enough to pay off my debt? Can I live in peace now without fearing you are coming to kill me?"

"...Yes..." There was a long silence, "You did well." With that call cut.

Sighing, Reiji took out the sim card before throwing the brand-new phone out of the window. Putting the SIM card in his pocket, the phone suddenly flew back through the window and landed on his lap. Confused, he picked up the phone from his lap and looked outside.

"LITTERING IS WRONG, YOUNG RICHTHOFIN!" All Might said, beaming a smile at him.

"What the..." Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly felt his whole world shaking as his car was lifted off the ground. "No, what are you doing!"

"Up you GO!" All Might threw his car into the air, causing Reiji to scream in horror as he noticed the sky getting closer. Soon, his view changed to the busy street, seeing he was quickly losing aptitude.

He almost wet himself, but All Might quickly catch the car and threw it some more. This continued four more times before it finally landed as Reiji opened the door and stumbled out, vomiting on the ground.

Cleaning his mouth, he looked around to find himself at the top of a skyscraper. The strong wind blew against his face, howling in his ears, with All Might standing beside him, the big smile still on his face.

"Is that how you transport people?" He asked, standing up a bit dizzy. "Why did you bring me here, All Might?"

"We want to ask you a few questions!" All Might said, his voice becoming low.

"We?" Reiji questioned just as the door to the roof opened with Naomasa and Garrick, still in his hospital wear, walking in. "Oh, fuck. Am I about to get jumped?" He mumbled, stepping back.

"HAHAHA! NO!" All Might replied with a laugh. "It is simple. Just answer our questions, then we will send you STRAIGHT TO JAIL!!!"

"...What kind of threat is that?" Reiji couldn't help but ask, looking up at the symbol of peace, who was staring down at him with the smile still on his face. "Ri-right. What do you want to know? I assume it's about Ankoku?"

"Just tell us all you know about Kuragari's quirk." Naomasa said, closing the door to the roof and moving closer so they could hear.

"The first part of his quirk is his immortality," Reiji said with a sigh. When the child dies, it will resurrect later. Probably between 1 to 3 seconds, depending on the number of injuries it sustained before dying." He paused, "But I have never seen it take longer than three seconds to revive."

At his words, he could have sworn All Might's smile flickered. "Is dying a common occurrence for the child?"

"Hahaha." Reiji chuckled at the question, "No, not these days. But in the past, it was."

Garrick wanted to ask if he knew any weakness of the child's immortality, but that would imply they were trying to kill it, so he just asked, "What of the black phantom?"

"The black phantom is now known as the general term, black ghosts." Reiji began, "Kuragari can now absorb the lifeforce and quirk of those who look into its eyes for a long time, turning them into black ghosts that hold the same quirk as the now dead person." I assume the black phantom was a quirk user, but I don't have any proof."

"So, they could have an army of black ghosts with multiple unique quirks and appearances..." Naomasa asked, to which he nodded. "Things have gotten more complicated than we initially thought. The child has already become an S-Rank Villain at such a young age."

"What a monstrous quirk." Garrick agreed, "And to think he isn't training it and simply discovering new abilities of the quirk."

All Might proclaimed in a loud tone, "DON'T WORRY! I CAN HANDLE THEM ALL!" He was right. With one punch, he will take care of all the black ghosts that came his way.'

"Yeah, no need to bother." Reiji agreed, raising up two fingers, "Kuragari can only hold two black ghosts right now, or else it would pop like a balloon with too much air. With its revival, it would enter a death and rebirth circle, which is something even Ankoku don't want to test out."

The roof was silent before All Might spoke, "The negative ghosts. Those are the problems."

"Right." Naomasa agreed, asking. "What is their weakness?"

"They don't have any, at least to my knowledge." Reiji replied, folding his arm. "We have tested how far they can go from Kuragari, and they traveled as far as 100 miles apart before we called them back. Their top speed I have documented is 80 mph, slower than the two black ghosts, but their ability to move through the ground and sneak up on their target makes them more dangerous."

"Not to mention their mental attack." Garrick muttered, causing the others to nod.

"As far as I know, there is no way to attack them." Reiji continued, "The only two ways they would either go away is by Ankoku's order or the child's death." He turned to All Might, "So if you want to capture them with the least amount of casualties, you need to kill Kuragari. Then you keep killing it whenever it revives, never letting it live long enough to summon a new negative ghost---"

The air around him became heavy as Reiji almost fell on his knee. All Might was no longer smiling. "We won't be doing that." He said crossly.

"Right." Reiji breathed, struggling to stand. "There is another way!" He shouted as the pressure disappeared. "Brainwashing! You could brainwash the child, erasing all of its memory of Ankoku! That should be easy for Hypnotic over there!" He really wanted to get away from All Might's presence. Right now, he would rather be in jail than standing here.

"I despise any form of manipulation, especially brainwashing." All Might rejected, remembering a particular man.

"Then I don't know what else to say." Reiji replied, shrugging. "Ankoku will never leave Kuragari's side, and the same holds true for Kuragari. They even sleep in the same bed. It would be impossible to go after him without having to fight Kuragari and its negative ghosts."

"We could lure him to a secluded place and bring him down?" Garrick wondered as they all turned to Reiji.

He stared at them for some time before sighing. "This won't work." Either way, he brought out his real phone, put it on speaker, and called Ankoku in his contacts.

Not long after, Ankoku picked up. "What?" He asked in an annoyed tone.

"Why do you sound mad?" Reiji asked, trying to sound as normal as possible.

"I just found out that officer Naomasa left the hospital." He sighed, "Heard that All Might visited him or some shit."

Reiji turned to Naomasa, noticing his contorted face. "So? What are you planning to do?"

"Right now, I am in Tokyo, heading to one of the underworld meetings." He sighed from the other side, "I wasn't planning on attending, but they needed all high rankers and I am one of the top dogs, so I had no choice."

"Hmmm? If it required all top rankers, it must be something serious," Reiji said, rubbing the back of his neck. He didn't feel right leading Ankoku on like this, but he had no choice.

"Yeah. I think it had to do with an Underground Masquerade. Something along those lines---" He suddenly stopped talking. There was some silence before Ankoku spoke, "I see you, Richthofen."

"Huh? What?" Reiji looked around, confused. "From where?"

"So, you fucking betrayed me?" He chuckled before bursting out in a fit of laughter. "Meeting up with All Might, Hypnotic, and that bastard Naomasa!?" He continued laughing, confusing everyone.

All Might heighten his senses as he looks around. "You fucking shit!" Ankoku roared from the other side of the phone. "You think you could fucking betrayal me, and I wouldn't find out? Just like Lady Night. YOU FUCKING SNAKE!!"

"Shit---" Reiji shouted, just as a Negative ghost came out from the roof he was standing on, shooting towards him.

All Might was quick to react, grabbing Reiji and moving him out of the way of the ghost, causing him to drop his phone. The Negative ghost looked at him, blowing raspberries at him before moving back into the building through the ground of the roof.

"Guess what, ALL MIGHT!" Ankoku's crazed voice came from the phone on the ground as an explosion echoed in his background. Screams could also be heard, with a screech belonging to the black phantom coming soon after.

All Might quickly looked to the city, noticing the crashes and screams in the background of Ankoku's voice were from the Tokyo Expressway close by to the skyscraper he was standing on. He could see smoke rising from the highway as multiple crashes happened right after the other, with a gas tank exploding.

He was about to go to the site of the incident, but someone suddenly ran into the skyscraper's roof. There was a woman with tears covering her face, ruining her make-up.

She didn't even notice All Might as she ran to the edge of the building, wanting to jump off, but he quickly appeared behind her, holding her. "Let me go!" She screamed as she cried, wharling her arm and elbowing All Might, "Let me fucking go!"

The negative ghost appeared after Reiji entered the skyscraper they were in. At this realization, All Might's face was veiled with a dark shadow as he kept holding the woman, crying like a child.

"Everyone will die!" Ankoku's voice came from the phone. "Why, you ask? BECAUSE I AM HERE!"

Chapter End~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Word Count: 3453

When you saw the chapter title, you thought it was All Might, but it was me! Ankoku!

But seriously. What are you going to do if you was in All Might position? How will you take down Ankoku without doing anything immoral? How will you defeat a ghost you can't hit or know its weakness?