Chapter 60 - A Will Ablazed

The next day.

Doctor Kyudai stood in front of a screen, his goggled eyes brimming with excitement and nervousness. He said with an unsure tone to the masked man behind the screen, "Are you really sure about this?"

The masked man was silent for a moment before he then spoke with a warped voice, "Yes."

"But, his life would be at risk. You know how special that boy is, especially with how he adapted to Navel Laser even without our help," Doctor Kyudai asked. He was the right-hand man of All for One, a person who can be said to be one of his most loyal followers and servant.

He didn't fear voicing out his own opinions as All for One needed the viewpoint of others on matters as important as this. Normally speaking, his Nomu, Doctor Kyudai's most beloved creations, were created with disposable humans that held no actual worth, but Yuga was different.

His talent was high, his potential was vast, and his charisma and natural disposition as a leader were valuable. He was in no way shape or form a disposable lab rat.

Still, All for One was resolute in his decision and said, "Tell me, where do you think Quirks derive their power from?"

"This…" Kyudai was surprised by this question and was stumped for a bit. There were multiple theories to answer this question, ranging from dark matter to the power held within the cells of life or a gift from God.

"I don't know," Doctor Kyudai answered frankly without a hint of shame.

"Heh, I myself don't know fully about the mysteries of Quirks, but there is one theory that has started to take root in my mind," All for One muttered with a warped voice.

"Do you believe in the concept of souls?" All for One once again asked a new question.

"Souls?" Doctor Kyudai rubbed his chin and shook his head. "While I don't believe they exist, I haven't completely rejected the idea that they can exist."

"Well, let me tell you, they do exist." All for One chuckled which shocked Doctor Kyudai.

Before he could ask, All for One added, "Long ago, there used to be a villain named Ghost Trainer that had the Quirk that can summon ghosts, similar to the ones you can see from fictional content. To be more specific, he could see spiritual creatures that roam this world and can enslave them."

"And when I stole his Quirk, something surprising happened." All for One leaned forward and his tone turned curious and intrigued, "That Quirk actually held a strong will of its previous owner, and before I knew it, it managed to resist and… destroyed itself."

"A Quirk…" Doctor Kyudai widened his eyes. "Destroyed itself?"

"But, how can that be? A Quirk doesn't have-" He paused as he seemed to have realized something.

"Indeed, Quirks have wills, the wills of their holder's souls. Quirks seem to draw out their power from the souls of their holders, or something related to it, and fuse with our bodies and DNA. Because of his Quirk being related to souls, his will inside his Quirk must have been stronger compared to all of the other Quirks I have gathered and actually destroyed itself."

"Wills and Souls…" Doctor Kyudai's eyes shone with brilliance. His breathing turned rough and erratic.

"Is this why you want to give Yuga a second Quirk? To see if his body is able to grow more, and make him a new vessel of All for One?" Doctor Kyudai immediately realized the root of this mystery.

"With the existence of wills, you can transfer the essence of All for One into a new body, and with you're stronger will, you can most likely take over Yuga's body and start anew, like a phoenix reborn from its ashes!" Doctor Kyudai shouted with a hoarse voice.

"That's right…" All for One said with a warped voice coated with malicious intent. "This body is too weak and old, it's riddled with problems from my previous fight with All Might. If Yuga can continue to grow and his body can adapt to more and more Quirks, then one day, his body can undergo one final modification and become the new vessel of All for One."

"I see…" Doctor Kyudai's body shook. "So, what Quirk are you going to give him?"

"To create a suitable vessel…" All for One paused for a second before finishing his sentence, "Then it would need to have the capability to host a weaker version of my Quirk."

"Gasp!" Doctor Kyudai gasped loudly and nearly tumbled down his chair. "You want to test if he's compatible with your Quirk Factor by putting him under Project Nine?!"

All for One remained silent, his lack of an answer being his answer in itself.

Doctor Kyudai sighed, it seems like he'll have to do a lot of testing on Yuga's body, and if it looks bleak, then Yuga would have to dangle on a thin line between life and death once more, leaving his life completely up to the arrangements of Fate.

As he sighed, a pair of golden eyes watched from the shadows in the corner of the room. Ryuji remained silent and observant, his thoughts churning like an endless stream. 'Fuck, this is out of my calculations!'

'I didn't think All for One actually knew the existence of souls and wills that reside in Quirks, this caused my plans to be put in disarray. Even Doctor Kyudai wasn't aware of this fact.'

'There's nothing I can do now. Yuga's life now depends on whether or not he's compatible with All for One's Quirk Factor. I already have plans on making him the second possessor of All for One, but that's only when I had done more research. Shit, I seriously fucked up right now.'

The pair of golden eyes receded back into the shadows, with Ryuji now in a dilemma with no solution to this problem.

…

Yuga slowly walked up to a strange pod, his eyes staring at Doctor Kyudai with anxiety. "Would this hurt?"

"No, we're just testing whether or not your body would be able to handle this Quirk we're planning on giving you." Doctor Kyudai answered with a smile. He went on to press buttons on a nearby screen as the pod whirred to life, with green light dimly glowing from the inside.

"What Quirk would it be, anyways?" Yuga asked with a curious voice and sat down on the pod's retractable bed. Then, he lied down on his back and took a deep breath.

"Heh, you don't have to know that, or else you'll be too excited." Doctor Kyudai chuckled and calmly used the machine to slowly scan Yuga's body.

'Project Nine…' Doctor Kyudai inwardly sighed. 'Yuga, I really hope your body is suited to house a weaker copy of All for One, or else, you'll most likely die once this is all over.'

The green light covered Yuga's body from head to toe. A tingly feeling erupted from every inch of his skin as if tiny ants were crawling all throughout his body. His calm mind shook from the feeling, but he gritted his teeth and powered through.

Doctor Kyudai observed the series of data flashing on his screen, his eyes glimmering underneath his goggles as the truth slowly revealed itself.

"This!" He gasped in shock. He widened his eyes and rubbed his goggles to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.

"Fifty… Sixty… Seventy…" The number on the screen kept flashing in a dim green light, and on Kyudai's goggles, a series of data were analyzed in a matter of seconds.

"Eighty… Ninety…" He inadvertently stopped breathing as he sat on the edge of his seat. His words rang in the silent room, with the only other sound being the humming sound coming from the pod that contained Yuga's body.

A pair of eyes calmly opened from a corner of the room, and they glowed dimly with a golden light. Ryuji took a step forward and stood right beside Doctor Kyudai like an invisible ghost that didn't exist. Even All for One and Kurogiri who were monitoring the room couldn't sense him at all.

'Strange…' Ryuji rubbed his chin and felt something was amiss, but also not.

"Ninety-nine percent…" Doctor Kyudai's entire body shook as he looked back at the pod with glowing eyes. "That's practically one hundred percent already!"

"What kind of dogshit luck is this?!" Doctor Kyudai lets out a hysterical laugh and shook his head in dismay. Strange, it was definitely strange.

How in the fuck did this random ass bozo have 99% compatibility with All for One's Quirk Factor?! It's too bizarre and improbable. The chances of it happening were so low it can be considered zero, but as if Fate decided to play a trick, it happened.

Ryuji furrowed his brows and walked up to the pod beside Doctor Kyudai. His eyes shone lightly and stared at Yuga with a strange gaze. 'Are you perhaps the god-given opportunity like those fortuitous encounters protagonists have in their cultivation journey?'

'To think I have someone who has such high compatibility with All for One's Quirk Factor. If I analyzed you well enough, then it would be only a matter of time before I can alter my body to be just like yours!' His eyes gleamed with malicious intent, but he didn't make a move.

He calmly walked back and continued to observe from the sidelines.

Doctor Kyudai hurriedly transferred the data over to another application and tabulated the results. "Normally speaking, it would take weeks and months for my children to be created, but with the quirk given is All for One, and his innately high compatibility…"

"It would only take less than a week to do!" Doctor Kyudai said with a grin. "Albeit, it would be painful. Still, if he can't handle this much pain, then he's not worthy to become All for One's successor."

The pod slowly turned off, and the humming sound disappeared. Yuga felt the ants crawling on his body fade away into ethereal phantoms, and he opened his eyes with a sigh of relief.

He was then pulled out of the pod as the table below him rolled on its own. He was greeted by the bright white light above the ceiling, squinting his eyes and he shook his head in a daze.

He ruffled his hair and pushed himself up from the bed. Then, he took an unstable step and walked toward Doctor Kyudai.

"So?" He inquired and stared at the dizzying graphs and numbers on the screen.

"Kukuku…" Doctor Kyudai chuckled and slowly stood up from his chair. He stared Yuga in the eyes, his breathing a bit rough and erratic. "Come, we must not waste a single second."

He moved his gaze and met eyes with Kurogiri. The shadowy man nodded his head and opened a portal in front of them in the next moment.

Yuga felt something was amiss, but the questions in his mind were soon answered by a voice in his head, "Don't worry, your life is not in danger, especially with how high your value just became to All for One."

"Heh, even I can't believe how ridiculous this is."

'What? Is it related to the Quirk they're going to give me?' Yuga hurriedly asked while acting apprehensive and excited on the outside.

"Yes, you're spot on." The voice chuckled and added, "They're going to give you a weaker copy of All for One."

'WHAT?!' Yuga paused for a moment outside before he quickly resumed his steps. No one else was able to notice that split-second of surprise as his acting prowess was greatly refined through the help of Hidden Order.

"They call it Project Nine and would allow you to gather up to eight other Quirks other than your Navel Laser. Heh, you're especially lucky now that you're part of Hidden Order because we already have copies of numerous Quirks on our hands, and we're even starting our research on removing Quirks from others."

"Soon, you'll finally get the revenge you desire by becoming All for One's successor, isn't that nice?" The voice said in a malevolent voice like a devil's whisper.

But, Yuga's eyes shone brightly and he resisted the urge to clench his fist. He took a deep breath and felt his mind return to a tranquil lake.

'Hmph, this is just the start. I won't stop until All for One is finally dead!' Yuga declared with a resolute voice.

"Mmm, that's the spirit. Well, you better prepare yourself because you're gonna enter a world of pain." The voice gave its final warning before it then disappeared.

Yuga felt his heart lit ablaze. All for One, he'll finally have it. Even if it was a weaker copy, with the resource Hidden Order has, he was sure that his power would drastically rise, and his chances of deceiving All for One completely would drastically rise.

His chance was here, and to overturn Fate, he'll have to grab at any opportunity his hands could grab onto.

AN: This chapter has 2186 words.

Brains just keeps getting bigger bro. I already plotted out the entirety of Arc 3 and mostly done with Arc 4, and let me tell you, you don't understand just how fucking big brain their schemes are gonna get. Fuck my wanna-be Reverend Insanity ambitions, I'm too depressed for this shit. Everyone is scheming, everyone is plotting, and it would take a miracle for me to execute this well enough to be good.

Then fucking Volume 2! Fuck that Scribe of Destiny bullcrap bro. Author of Fate, Scribe of Destiny, what's next?! Some goofy ass Wheel of Fortune or Advent of Inevitability?! Fuck these gods man. I'm definitely gonna write a super duper lucky protagonist on my next original novel once I drop this shit dude.

(June 16, 2023 - 568th day of writing)