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A long time ago, back when quirks started to emerge and peace began to slowly reborn, Dr. Garaki remembered those times with fondness, all that chaos, the fear and darkness colliding in people's hearts, back when his master danced openly in the shadows, spreading his reign as fast as fire.
Oh, those glorious days, the weak followed the strong, and everything went smoothly according to plan. Nowadays, what used to be an empire was just mere ruins of power, scraps of dreams and plans, damned One for All, Garaki groaned, that seventh holder of the power that his master accidentally created was by far, the most annoying of those bastards.
"Doctor" his master called, Garaki smiled at the man, the God that rescued him and without a second thought, kept him by his side meanwhile the rest of the man's subordinates fell like flies with time and age, the weakest disappeared and the strongest lived, that was the natural course of things.
"Yes, Master?" He called back, All for One looked at the multiple screens that surrounded nowadays his laboratory, years of efforts and research were Garaki's only meaning in life.
Efforts in the name of this man.
"I've been thinking and it is time to prove your theory," his Master announced, his voice sounded as young as if he had a quarter of years Garaki knew he had.
For a moment, the world seemed to slow down, God himself spoke to Garaki and he couldn't be more pleased, the light of the monitors and screens flashed for an instant, and Garaki couldn't help but fell on his knees, his dream was coming true and the inevitable happened.
All for One was ready to produce a successor.
Garaki broke all the blood samples he had in hand, letting out his frustration with a yell, the nurses behind him yelped.
"It's okay doctor, there's no need to-" Garaki interrupted his master.
"It is NOT okay! All these years all those children, all those failures! Why can't anyone be your genes?! They're not supposed to carry their mother's quirks! They're supposed to carry the strongest genes! They're supposed to be better! They're supposed to follow my theory! To evolve!" Garaki groaned, was this all his Master's quirk could evolve? What probability was that the quirk was at its strongest since the first generation?
No way! I refuse to believe that! It surely is another way, there has to be! He selected every female with weak quirks, good brains, and bodies, perfect mothers with little to no family left, no ties with heroes or police, he even researched his personalities! So why! Why?!
All those little bastards and failures ended up with their mother's or no quirk at all! What was he doing wrong?!
"Doctor, that's enough," his Master said, the blood samples of 30 of the failures vanished from the floor and the glass tubes that shattered took their original forms by one of All for One's quirks. "The eighth holder made his debut years ago, I have de feeling he's going to be a tricky one, having said that, I can't afford to lose more time with failures, the last woman was your head nurse".
" But.." Garaki tried to reason.
"The last, Doctor. Right now, we need to focus on the Nomu project, use the bodies of the failures, I've had enough of them"
And once again, Garaki was left alone with his failures and one pregnant head nurse.
"Go ahead, nurse Inko, we have a job to do" he called the petite green-haired woman, the Nomus we're waiting in their tubes.
Inko was an opportunist, and she had no regrets and didn't mind admitting it.
She was just a survivor in a world where the ones born as the strongest were the ones with all the opportunities and respect, Inko and her weak quirk were deemed useless, liability for everyone, she did everything she had to do to survive and everything.
She took every logical decision she could, she fought for every little thing she had and kept her head low, so it was just logical that when the opportunity to work in one of the most important hospitals in the country presented, she couldn't help but agree, her life as a nurse had only just begun and she had bills pay, and with no family or to relationships in Tokyo, it took her nearly no time to prepare all her few things and move to one of the nicest neighborhoods of that city.
Little did she knew, her childhood friend, Mitsuki was living literally on the other side of the street in one luxurious house with a wonderful husband and a bright future, Mitsuki was everything that she could never be, her meaning of happiness and stability.
Inko was an opportunist, a liar, and a nurse, but most importantly, she was determined to live the best life she could. So she worked as hard as she could, blood, tears, and sweat was her path, the part that leads her to her position as a head nurse with nearly 5 years of experience in the Musutafu General Hospital, her immediate boss, Dr. Garaki, a genius in all the word had a secret, a secret that kept Inko awake at night.
Musutafu General Hospital wasn't what it appeared to be, and Inko was a horrible, horrible person because she helped Dr. Garaki and The Man in their research and experimentation: human experimentation.
Then again, Inko was an opportunist, and if experimenting on humans helped her pay the bills and keeping her mouth shut paid her house in a good neighborhood, she was going to do it with gusto, in a world where your quirk wasn't flashy or strong means failure in your life, your only option is to take all the opportunities that you world decides to vice you once in a while, even if it means, give your body to the boss of your boss to create the perfect outcome of The Man's genes.
Having a live-lasting monthly pension with three times the salary of a surgeon apart from her stable job was a blessing, even though what was growing in her belly wasn't.
Not when the thing growing in her was the son of The Man, she still had nightmares of him terrorizing those experiments, the creation of Nomus, his laughter when life and intelligence disappeared from the eyes of the experiments, a monster trying to create other monsters, how ironic.
But everything wasn't bad. At least she had another thing to talk about with her friend, Mitsuki was expecting too and that made Inko's heart flutter, she couldn't wait to help her with her son!
And even though Mitsuki said the same about The Man's Thing, the diamond ring in Inko's finger made her hate The Thing a little more.
Months went by and her belly grew, the money kept coming but now, The Thing had a name: Izuku, The Man was at least aware that it was his and took responsibility, he even threatened her to treat his son well, the monster felt guilty his other things -failures- ended up dead without even becoming Nomus.
Inko liked the name Izuku, it was her way to say 'fuck you Thing' in a subtle way, she even researched the meaning of names that were spelled in less subtle ways.
Deku was a fitting name for the useless kid of a monster.
Meanwhile, Mitsuki gave birth, and her son, Katsuki was such a cutie! The baby had some great lungs and by the looks of it, a great quirk, he got everything she liked about Mitsuki!
But, nearly by the time, Katsuki was born, Dr. Garaki and The Man decided to stop the 'breed-and-wait-for-the-results' project, Izuku was the last kid of the monster, and Inko couldn't help but be grateful, she didn't wish another woman to carry something like Izuku in her belly, for a moment, she felt like a hero, after all, she was the one that took the samples, she had the exact measures, two drops of blood from the failure and 9ml of blood from the mother, she took blood and in exchange, they had freedom.
Garaki freed them from the monsters and Inko just made sure the production of Nomus decreased, he concluded it was because of The Man's blood in the veins of the failures, the Idea of a weak quirked pregnant woman sabotaging the investigation never crossed his mind, and Inko was glad it was like that.
She made sure to write everything she could, keeping as much money as she could, if she wanted to go away with Mitsuki and his family, they would need it.
Meanwhile, The Man seemed more and more interested in Inko, she feared she has been discovered, and just like that, in the middle of a gross laboratory, surrounded by failures of Nomus, the Thing inside her then, decided it had enough time in her belly, feeding on her, stealing from her energy.
Inko gave birth, Garaki told her it was a miracle, Izuku was the first to be born in the presence of The Man, he called him Sensei, All for One, the monster of her nightmares was the father of Izuku, the thing, the baby that she fed close to her chest.
Then, Inko understood, why Mitsuki was so afraid to leave the city and move from the country, why Masaru was so patient with Katsuki and his demands of food and attention, she looked into those green eyes and regretted nine months of swearing and waiting he was dead.
That simple moment, that single glance, Inko promised herself in the name of the baby in her arms: I'll protect you from him, no matter what.