Chapter 37: Realization

~Third POV~

*BOOM**BOOM**BOOM*

*PEW**PEW**PEW*

In an unknown desert where chaos and piles of sand were thrown over all over the area were two people fighting each other. One in the iron armored fighting to kill the older but controlled puppet. The other wants to force his will on the iron man forcing him to give up his power.

*SHING*

Then the armored man created his arm energy blade intending to slash off the arm from Nine body but that was still stopped. Nine merely mocked at Jason as he spoke out, "Boy have you forgotten already? I have <Energy Absorption> all energy-based attacks are pointless."

*Shing*

*Vroom*

Continuing the attack on hoping that the puppet would overuse his body in failing he kept on attacking making sure that the puppet doesn't come into contact with him. But that was also becoming more futile as Nine mockingly enlightens Jason, "Trying to make me overuse my <Energy Absorption> in this body? Neat idea but my <Adapt> quirk allows the Nine's body to change, shift, and adapt to any conditions around the user. So, trying to keep up overusing my energy in my body won't work."

Jason hearing this clicked his tongue hearing that and the preparations that AFO went for just to try to capture him.

Backing away to get some distance from AFO he tried to think of another plan of attack. Nine seeing the Iron Man backed away merely chuckled as the purple mist began to form around his neck.

AFO controlling Nine's through his will spoke through him as he mocks his opponent, "Boy you're only avoiding the inevitable here. Be a good victim and allow me to steal your power."

Jason seeing this widens his eyes as a portal appears out of nowhere as Nine places his hand to the side as a bright light coming out from a portal from another side now at Jason's face.

*Boom*

A large ball of light from Nine's <Blast> quirk managed to come into contact with Jason as he managed to come out of the explosion of the blast unharmed on the surface. But that blast was enough to make his body shake on the inside.

Jason having felt that his body was shaking from the attack despite having thought to himself in an analyzing tone, 'Shit. AFO prepared Nines with quirks specifically made to deal with me with the current quirks I obtained. And it's not all too hard for him to have noticed as well with him having his connections in the world obtaining such information should be easy for a guy like him.'

Moving away to get some distance from Nine's body Jason had to go about this differently as he observes what to do next. Nine's on the other hand simply snapped his fingers as he used his <Weather Manipulation> quirk to change the weather drastically.

Noticing the changes of the atmosphere then the weather changing dark as Jason avoided what was about to happen next.

*BZZT*

A large lightning strike came down from the sky and almost hit Jason but managed to avoid it but then was left to deal with a tornado that was created from the strike.

Trying to outrun the tornado he used his <Overclock> to get away from the incoming danger but Nine's noticing this spoke to himself as he shakes his head, "Sigh… so this is a battle is like facing multiple quirks is like. I have to admit this is certainly something I haven't experienced before but my power and experience are more than enough for the job. <Kinetic Booster>, <X10 Multiplier>, <Endurance>, <Energy Saver>, and <Heavy Payload> yes this should be more than enough."

Saying those quirks names all of that power was focused on Nine's arms as it began to bulge out of his body at ridiculous propositions making his body misshaped. But the power behind it was more than enough to easily destroy a mountain.

<Endurance> provides the user the ability to convert their morale into physical energy and stamina.

<Energy Saver> allows the user's body to function on very small amounts of nutrition and hydration, as well as allow them to process without much sleep.

<x10 Multiplier> allows the user to increase their base physical strength, speed, size, or anything about them to the amount of x 10.

<Kinetic Booster> is a Quirk that allows the user to increase the amount of kinetic energy the user can create and can release the kinetic energy into their actions by releasing a large shockwave once used up in their body.

<Heavy Payload> allows the user to increase the damage output of the user's attacks.

All of these quirks are combined into one attack as Jason managed to avoid the tornado Nine's used <Air Walk> to quickly get into Jason's position as he rushed towards him.

Jason seeing that Nine's is continuously coming closer to him has finally arrived felt the dangers of his arm. With both users' having <Overclock> it came down to who was faster at the end of who deals the first blow.

Unfortunately…

*BAM*

*BOOM*

*SHING*

The Nine's puppet managed to connect first with his superior multipliers in his body connecting the damage to Jason on the chest center of his body damaging the armor in the process. The body of Jason was twirling all over the ground as a stone was flipping over water.

The punched managed to not only get past his <Flight> quirk barrier but also his magnetic barrier from the armor landing him some serious damage of crushed ribs entirely causing some of the fractured bones to stab into vital organs in his body causing blood to seep out to cause internal bleeding.

From such a force a shockwave was produced from the initial impact from Nine's attack as the shockwave knocked away all the sand in the area leaving a big crater in its wake. All the dust in the area was spread around the area touching the two fighters.

But the one left in shock was Nine's puppet as he noticed blood trickling down his mouth as a clear shock was seen on his expression, "You managed to damage me with that little power. No that isn't right… you used that Cultist Quirk <Reflect> to receive less damage from the impact while I take damage in return. Quick thinking on your part but even then, you still took a large amount of damage."

*Cough**Cough*

The mask slightly open Jason's face below started to cough out large amounts of blood from the impact he lessened. AFO was correct on his assumption of lessening the attack while using the <Reflect> quirk to cause damage to him in the process knowing that avoiding the attack from Nine was impossible with his multiple enhancer-type quirks in his body.

Feeling his bones piercing his organs and vitals in his body Jason began to use the recovery function of his OFA quirk as he spoke out while Nine was listening in, "Cough, cough… <One for All: Return Life>."

The <One for All: Return Life> was something that Jason developed when he was training his body to follow his commands all to the cellular level of his body. As the OFA quirk factor relies upon the DNA and cells in the body he developed this technique to issue a body a command was to return the body damage to its peak state while restoring his body in the process.

Once he said those words sparks of blue soon appeared around him as his body brighten as he soon started coughing out more blood from his body. But in this case, each cough of his blood was filled with the bone fractures that managed to cause the internal bleeding of the body as the cells in the body began to fix the damages done.

AFO controlling Nines was honestly a bit shocked seeing OFA being used to recover the body. It wasn't his fault to assume that since each user only used it to increase their body strength and speed but never, he saw it used as healing.

But that made him even greedier seeing that if OFA can simply heal the body like this even damaged with internal bleeding and removing the bones damaging the body it could recover his own body as well learning how Jason did it of course.

While recovering AFO controlling Nine's came down observing the healing effects of OFA as he asked honestly quite curious about the scene in front of him, "I was right to assume that you do have the <One for All> quirk. But I have never once seen any user other than you use it to heal their body and might I add to a cellular level at that. Tell me boy how have you achieved such a goal?"

Using the <Landmine> quirk on his bones that left his body and the blood that came from exploded leaving genetic DNA behind he began to stand up. Glancing at Nine's body looking at him curiously he responded to the question while thinking of buying more time, "Sigh… It's quite simple really. I simply controlled the quirk factor of OFA as it gave the user complete control of its power that in return controlled the user's bodily functions. It's just the rest of the users were complete muscle brain idiots to have not seen the true ability of this quirk giving them total control of their body along with limitless growth."

AFO controlling Nine's on his part laughed at Jason's comment about the previous users as he clapped with joy at least agreeing with him, "Bahahaha…! Now that is something, we can agree on that the past users were complete fools. But that makes me want your quirk even more learning about that fact of the healing cells and the limitless growth…"

However, that was when AFO lost his smile on Nine's face as he simply frowned at Jason for finding out one of the actual reasons wanting the OFA quirk, "But at the same time now that you know that key fact about the limitless growth of that quirk, I can't exactly leave you alive. OFA did have that ability to grow beyond what it was meant to be after all I'm the reason it grew to this point. So, how could I not want that limitless growth while the healing part is a bonus, I won't let you share this info about this to the current users."

Now it was Jason's turn to laugh at that question towards AFO puppet Nine as he replied honestly to him, "Hahaha…! Now that right there is funny. Now tell me Demon Lord Puppet why would I tell my possible enemy something like that to them? Why would I want them to get stronger than I?"

AFO for his part understood that part quite clearly as when would he let one of his men obtain more power than him around. It would cause a power struggle between the two to see who was fitter to lead.

Nine's for his part shakes his head as he slightly apologizes to Iron Man as he has forgotten the person who he was dealing with, "Apologizes there I keep forgetting that you're not like most people I faced. If you were truly good then you would want the heroes like All Might too…"

That was when AFO realized something once hearing the conversation of this and the reasons for the person in front of him his actions…

Once he thought of that he couldn't help but speak out something that made him surprised by the answer and the actions of the person in front of him made sense, "You… you already knew of this but didn't act. The same as what happened all those months ago discovering my doctor's lab with the Nomu's… The same with targeting specific people to obtain your quirks in Japan that you already knew but not the other states heroes…."

Once he hears himself talk like that, he finally came to one conclusion or few that made possible sense to him after thinking things through what was impossible to the possible with actual surprise in his voice, "You needed to have them a secret for all your knowledge to work. You already know how this will go if you hadn't interfered haven't you? You wanted to stop specific events from happening as well as do certain events that were irrelevant at the current time but important in the future. You made sure to keep certain subjects or rather events from releasing to the public…"

Narrowing his eyes at the person in front of him for the brief encounter with such a person made AFO wonder what exactly this person is he was dealing with was. The person standing in front of AFO was using his pure wits to obtain all the power he has acuminated but yet nobody has discovered this person snooping around which was impossible in his eyes except…

Narrowing his eyes now expressed on Nine's face AFO spoke through him with a serious expression as he found the answer that eluded him about the person in front of him, "You already knew what would happen in the future outside our views don't you? It would make the only lick of sense to me if you already knew everything that is happening or bound to happen in this world."

Taking in full shock at how AFO quickly figured Jason out he still spoke through the speakers to walk it off as crazy to him, "What? What the hell do you mean the world?"

AFO wasn't in the mood to be playing around so he just simply called Jason out on his bluff as he spoke confidently on his answer, "By world, I meant not our own. That is the only answer that would make sense to me if someone from outside our view of things would make more sense despite how unbelievable it sounds. That person outside our views would clearly understand more than anyone else I could have simply believed it was a quirk."

Hearing Jason heart began to beat faster but forced himself to be calm all but assured AFO in his correct course of thoughts as he spoke more serious of his answer, "The only logical conclusion that left for me was you viewed this world from an outside point of view to make sense of everything you did. By doing specific actions as well as hiding your trails leaving copies of quirks you wanted to keep certain topics from going into public ears..."

AFO controlling Nines shakes his head as he corrects himself as he responded in a more surprised tone now viewing Iron Man in disbelief, "No... you just don't want certain people to learn of this... more specifically key people that are important shortly as in me or possibly certain heroes or yet to be... That's why you kept everything as you did. You didn't want to lose your edge in your current knowledge than the different one in front of you. But from your earlier shock only confirms what I said to be true you never wanted me to find out this fact..."

Jason for his part was honestly quite shocked by how AFO came close to figuring him out in just this brief encounter of their fight but he already came close to the real answer. Hearing his reasoning he thought to himself, 'Fuck… AFO here, in reality, is just as much scary as his counterpart but here is that intelligent with just a few key movements and words to guess the answer… People like him are someone I shouldn't show myself that often or else they would figure me out just as simple as AFO did.'

Jason stopped completely hearing that but that was more than enough telltale sign for AFO to continue his correct answer with evidence from his experience and wit, "No matter boy you can keep your precious knowledge but trust me boy I have lived FAR longer than anyone alive should be and this is all from experience and wisdom that comes with it. You are just a novice at fighting. You never truly experience someone more above your level only power through. But that power and wits of yours alone won't be enough to get through the power I have in store in this body just for you."