Encounter

"The one day that I'm actually doing my job and something like this happens."

Flying above the park that Mahoro and Katsuma usually visited, Aiden looked down on the smoking docks and torn up ships.

---

*Huff* *Huff*

"Where are we going onee-chan!?" Katsuma asked holding onto his sister's hand as they ran.

"We already called Aiden and told him about the villain attack, we should go home for now and hide."

"But what if the villains have already made it this far?"

"Impossible, look!" She pointed forward. "Our house is right there, as long as we get inside we'll be saf-

*BOOM!!*

Before she managed to finish her sentence, the house suddenly turned into a ball of fire as it exploded sending chunks of the building everywhere.

Stopping in their tracks, the two siblings looked at their burning house.

"O-Our house..." Mahoro fell to her knees watching as the house collapsed.

"Sis!" Katsuma yelled seeing his sister fall.

"I've finally found you." A voice erupted from behind the burning house.

Turning their attention to the house, a man dressed in a white haired man dressed in a grey suit stepped through the fire like it didn't exist.

"I've searched for you for so long." The man's eyes locked onto Katsuma's figure. "Type O cellular activation, it'll finally be mine."

"W-Who are you." Mahoro and Katsuma shuffled backwards.

"..."

Staying quiet, the white haired man approached the two.

"I won't kill you, all I need is your quirk."

Pushing Katsuma behind her, Mahoro stood between him and Nine.

"S-Stay back!"

"..."

"STAY BACK!!" Screaming her lungs out, Mahoro created a giant dragon illusion and had it charge Nine.

Not even blinking at the illusion, Nine's steps didn't slow as the dragon passed right through his body.

Seeing his shadow cover them, the Shimano siblings hugged each other.

"Onee-chan."

Reaching out with his hand, Nine was on the brink of grabbing Katsuma until he suddenly jumped back.

*BANG!!*

"I was going for that arm, guess I'll have to take it next time." A voice sounded out from above.

"AIDEN!!" The siblings cheered when they saw him.

"Yo." He smiled descending from the sky. "I got your message."

"I-I..." Unable to hold themselves back, the siblings threw themselves into his arms as the wailed about the loss of their house.

"Your house?" Looking at the smoking rubble in the distance, flashbacks of DarkStar's base flashed through his mind. The smell of smoke as filled his nostrils as the memories of that night flooded back.

"You two needed to run."

"What! No! We want to stay with you!" Katsuma cried.

Kneeling down, Aiden reassured him with a smile and patted him on the head.

"It'll be fine, I promise I'll find you."

"But-

"You want to be a hero right?" Aiden interrupted. "Well heroes protect people, and right now its your job to protect your sister."

"I... okay." He nodded.

Smiling at him, he put Mahoro's hand in his and told them to go.

Watching the two of them leave, Nine frowned and raised his hand.

"You don't want to do that." Aiden said standing in front of the retreating children.

"Move." Nine said in a cold voice.

"Make me."

Materializing two swords in his hands, Aiden held them above his head in a diagonal position before slashing down.

"Slash."

*SWOOSH!!*

*SWOOSH!!*

*BANG!*

"Oh?"

Holding his arm out, Nine created a pressurized wall of air the somehow managed to stop Aiden's slashes.

"You managed to block me?"

Looking at Aiden's figure, Nine frowned. Having just seen him fly and now creating weapons and firing off energy slashes, he wondered what his quirk was.

"Your quirk... what is it?"

"None of your business." Calming his mind, the emotions on his face seemed to vanish as his eyes shone with a cold light.

"I see... You've killed before haven't you."

*BOOM!!*

Shooting forward with the Light step burst technique, Aiden appeared above Nine in the blink of an eye.

"Slash."

Pumping astral energy into his swords, Aiden slashed both swords down hard.

*BANG!!*

Strong enough to cause the dust around them to scatter, the impact of the attack caused a loud ringing noise as both Mahoro and Katsuma who were running away heard it.

"Its no use." Nine said in a monotone voice blocking the slashes with another pressurized air wall.

Feeling his eyes go wide, Nine's danger sense's sky rocketed as he realized that Aiden was no longer above him.

'What!!'

Feeling a tingling sensation from his back, he realized that Aiden had somehow managed to get behind him.

"Burst."

Coated in astral energy, thrusting his fist forward Aiden aimed to break Nine's back.

But before he could, a giant blue sea snake burst out from Nine's back.

'What the!!'

*CRASH!!*

Shifting away before the snake could swallow him, Aiden found himself jumping away as Nine suddenly unleashed a barrage of purple colored lasers from his finger tips.

*BANG!!*

*BANG!!*

*BANG!!*

Rapidly shifting in and out of sight, Aiden managed to put some distance between the two of them before counter attacking with multiple pierce attacks.

*BANG!!*

*BANG!!*

*BANG!!*

*BANG!!*

'WHAT!!'

[A/n: Okay, at this point their both just trying to flex on the other.]

Taken aback by Aiden's new ability, Nine was stunned and activated his scanning quirk to measure Aiden's strength.

Seeing Nine's eyes glow a bright yellow color, Aiden's eyes started glowing purple as he used his Astral sight to zoom in on Nine's figure.

'Who is this guy?'

Looking at him with his astral sight, he saw the glow around Nine's figure weakening slightly.

Frowning, he slowed down his attack.

Seeing this, Nine did the same.

"You're dying aren't you?" Aiden asked.

Hearing that, a malicious light flashed through Nine's eyes.

"Who are you?" He asked feeling uneasy about his condition being found out.

"Me? I'm no one special. But the real question is, who are you and what is your relation to All For One?"

'All For One!!'

"Shooting lasers, Air wall, that weird back snake and those glowing eyes. They're all independent quirks aren't they? I only know one person who possessed that power."

Caught off guard by the sudden revelation that Aiden knew about All For One, it took a moment for Nine to calm himself.

Seeing him twitch when he mentioned All For One, Aiden knew that there was some relation between the two of them.

"Are you his son?"

'No twitch...'

"His relative?"

'No twitch again.'

"Or maybe you're like the Nomu's." Aiden said remembering the first Nomu he fought. Super regeneration and shock absorption.

Hearing the name Nomu, Nine twitched again.

"I see, you're an experiment like them." Aiden deduced.

"You only have one quirk?" Nine suddenly asked ignoring his comment.

"Yeah."

"I'll take it."

"You'll take it? You really think you're All For One don't you?"

Ignoring him, two huge blue sea snakes burst out from behind him and charged Aiden.

'I guess we're back to fighting.'

Raising both hands up, Nine unleashed another barrage of lasers.

'Looks like we're taking it up a notch.'

Responding in kind, 4 purple hands each wielding astral swords manifested out from behind Aiden's back. Constructing two swords in his own hands, Aiden let out a flurry of pierce and slash attacks.

*BOOM!!*

*BOOM!!*

*BOOM!!*

*BOOM!!*

Unlike the previous attacks, the strength of their current strikes caused the air to tremble as Aiden increased the power of his pierces and slashes in order to defend against the blue sea snakes.

'THERE!!'

Spotting a chance, Aiden dashed forward evading the lasers and the hydra.

Frowning at his actions, another hydra head burst out of Nine's back and struck at the approaching Aiden.

*BOOM!*

Shifting above it moments before it could bite him, Aiden found himself running down its long neck while its head collided with the ground.

"Stop moving!"

Since he could no longer push him back with his pierce and slash attacks due to his position, Nine had the other two hydra heads attack him.

Feeling the incoming danger, Aiden ran along the hyrda's neck and performed a series of intricate shifts and dodging maneuvers.

*BANG!!*

*BANG!!*

*BANG!!*

'Huh? Who knew Burst style (Aiden's version of Bakugo's movements) would actually become useful.'

Watching the hydra heads slam into each other, Aiden's face produced a dark smile as he shot down from the air and at Nine's immobile figure.

"Burst!"

*BANG!!*

Creating a spherical air wall around his person Nine managed to block Aiden's fist.

"Give it up, you won't be able to touch me." Nine sighed.

"Watch me."

'What?'

Shifting through the barrier, Aiden appeared in front of a surprised Nine.

"Gotcha."

"Wha-

*BANG!!*

Hitting him with a burst enhanced right hook, Aiden proceeded to get into a boxing stance and brutalize him with a flurry of one-two punches.

*BOOM!!*

*BOOM!!*

Each punch that landed caused the air to explode as Aiden showed no mercy.

'I'm losing.'

*BANG!!*

'I can't even react.'

*BANG!*

'He's not letting up.'

*BANG!!*

'At this rate I'll have to use that.'

*BANG!!*

'If I use it, the rate my body is breaking down at will increase.'

*BANG!!*

Hit with an upper cut, Nine was sent flying backwards.

"URGH!!"

Feeling his back slam into the side of a tree, a feeling of anger swept through his body. This was supposed to be a simple mission. Get to the island, get the boy's cellular activation quirk to rejuvenate his dying cells and then leave. If there were any heroes on the island then his henchmen would take care of it. But within all his planning, all his hypotheses, not one of them included a freak like Aiden.

Looking at his downed figure, the short interaction between the two had told Aiden a lot about him.

While this guy had many quirks he sucked at close quarter combat. Not to mention how bad his endurance was. He didn't know if it was because his body was in a bad condition or what, but he felt like the longer he used his quirks the weaker he became. Unlike the Nomu whose bodies had been tampered with to a significant level in order to accommodate their quirks, this Nine guy still had a human form which seemed to be unable to bear the strain of his quirks.

Pushing himself up from the ground, Nine had two funny looking black eyes and was bleeding at the mouth.

His body was trembling and seemed on the verge of collapse.

"To think you'd actually push me this far *cough* *cough* be proud that you will be the first true sacrifice on the road to the creation of a better world."

"A better world?"

"A world without heroes or villains, a world where only the strong survive, a world where weakness has been cast out, a world that I will create."

"...You talk a lot." Aiden said gathering astral energy on his finger and pointing it at him.

Ignoring him, Nine continued.

"I admit it, you're strong, strong enough to force me to use this."

Seeing that Aiden was about to shoot him, Nine slashed his hand down.

*RUMBLE*

"What the-

Before he could say anything, a bolt of lightning dropped down from the sky and struck him.

"ARRRGHHHHH!!!!" Screaming at the top of his lungs, Aiden managed to use a full body burst to offset some of the lightning's power. Unfortunately, enough voltage managed to pass through and strike his body and causing him to lose control of his legs and dropping to the ground.

*COUGH!!* *COUGH!!*

Feeling the effects of changing the weather had done on his body, Nine dropped to a knee. Coughing up several mouthfuls of blood, the veins on Nine's face started glowing purple indicating more cellular death.

'Dammit!'

Looking at the fallen Aiden, hatred flashed through his eyes.

"Urgh." Aiden groaned.

'He survived!'

Seeing that Aiden was starting to move, panic overcame Nine as he knew that the longer he fought him the worse it would become for him.

'I need to find that kid.'

Looking at Aiden who was on the verge of standing up, pain surged through his body as he decided to retreat. As annoying as Aiden was, his goal was to find Katsuma and fix his body. Fighting any longer than he already had would be detrimental. Not to mention that if he struck now, it might push Aiden into a fight or flight state.

Besides, now that he had fought him he knew what to expect if he encountered him again.

Struggling to his feet, the two stared at each other. One unable to move due to the paralyzing effects of lightning, the other on the verge of passing out due to the over use of his quirk.

Glaring at him one more time, Nine turned away and limped off into the distance.

Watching him leave, Aiden cursed in his mind as he tried to use his marionette ability to force his body up.