Chapter Text
The sky was like a light show. Bullets flying through the air, lasers incinerating everything they touched, energy bouncing around. Even from miles away, people could see the impacts and lights. But even more than that, they could feel the power.
To anyone watching, the sky had become a battleground for the Gods.
“Kaisel, keep moving, give me different angles!” Momo said, pulling a rifle from her skin.
“The shields only appear from his arms, so whatever way his hand is pointing is the direction he can defend. I just need to reach an angle that’s awkward for his arms to move to. As long as Miruko can keep him busy, we can do this!”
Kaina danced through the clouds, just as Momo flew through them, each looking for the opportunity to fire.
Miruko, meanwhile, was growing faster and stronger with each kick, moving at such a speed that, even to Kaina’s Dragon God’s Eyes, was a blur. Momo came to the conclusion that only Izuku with Gravity Magic would be able to stop her. If she ever decided to go rogue, she’d be one of the greatest physical threats in the world.
All at once, everything seemed to come together. Miruko threw two kicks that forced Nine to put up two shields. At the same time, Kaina and Momo fired from different directions, their bullets disappearing into the clouds. But as they repositioned, they noticed something.
Though they hadn’t watched the bullets, they could still sense them using their superhuman abilities. Which meant they should have felt them impact at the very least. Even if he reacted to defend with the shields in time, they would have felt that. But it was like something stripped away everything from them. The bullets had no mass or speed. They just stopped and fell into the ocean beneath them.
“Kaina?!”
“Yep!”
The short exchange between the two girls told them everything they needed to know. Their shots hadn’t missed, they’d been stopped, like everything had been stolen from them. It was another Quirks.
“Okay so we’ve got to identify 8 Quirks to figure out his powerset. Storm, laser fingers, blue dragons, shields, and some sort of power that robs things of their motion.” Momo briefly considered that Nine’s flight was a different Quirk from the storm. He could’ve been controlling his position with the wind, similar to the pressure waves Miruko was creating to move. “That’s five… No wait… he also changed the properties of the lightning. Is that part of the storm Quirk or something else? Why isn’t the System telling me?”
Usually, when the System sensed Izuku or Momo’s intent to learn about a Skill, Magic, or Quirk the enemy was using, it displayed a basic definition. It did that for the Quirk Nine, but not for the rest.
“Is that another Quirk? Hiding information?” Momo gritted her teeth, annoyed by the uncertainty. “We’ll just have to keep pushing. He can’t hold up against us forever… and he might have some sort of sickness weakening him.” She remembered him coughing and clutching his chest. “Could that be his Soul? The Nine Quirk said he was exchanging part of his Soul…”
Momo was shaken out of her thoughts just in time to shoot one of the blue dragons out of the sky, only to notice the several dozen behind it. “Shit!”
Thankfully, like the hand of God tearing through the sky, Behemoth rose through the clouds, wrapping his fingers around their necks, just like baby Hercules choking out the two snakes. All of them were crushed into a shapeless blob. But whenever a dragon was destroyed, their wyrm bodies had to trace their way back to Nine’s back, occasionally tangling up.
Kaina, Momo, and the Shadows continued to blaze through the air, tackling the dragons, dodging lightning, lasers, and trying to launch their own attacks at Nine all at the same time. But no matter how quick they were, Nine always managed to put up a shield or rob the bullets of energy. That was with Miruko putting him on the backfoot. Even her stupid raw strength couldn’t touch him.
Momo needed more information, but the earpieces they were using to communicate earlier were useless. The storm was churning up too much Mana.
“Regroup!” Momo shouted, attempting to withdraw into the cloud cover and reach the other girls to talk it out.
“You think I can’t find you?” Nine’s voice covered an impossible distance, reaching Momo even with Kaisel’s speed.
Two dozen lightning bolts fell from the sky, arcing from every direction to strike Kaisel.
Momo jumped off her back at the last moment, caught on the Wyvern jet. “I’m just playing musical Shadows!” She realized, watching the lightning bolts impact.
Not only could Nine keep up in close combat, but he could manage long-range fighting at the same time.
“I figured it out!” Kaina shouted, jumping to Momo. The two had to move as they talked, shouting and flying to dodge the lightning. “Every time my bullets hit, I was watching them! When I don’t keep my eye on the bullet, it doesn’t make contact!”
“So the only way he can stop our bullets is if we don’t keep our eyes on them? What sorta power is that?”
“It’s not just that! When I looked at him with my Dragon God’s Eyes, I saw his Soul! And the second I looked at it, he got weaker fighting Miruko! And when I was watching Miruko, the lightning wasn’t hitting her as hard or fast!”
“So he’s changing things that we’re not observing…” Momo trailed off as the word ‘observe’ got stuck in her head. “Come on! Think! Why is that word popping out to me! There’s gotta be a reason!” Momo’s exhaustion and minimal sleep the past couple of days was catching up with her, slowing her brain down. She was doing all she could to just stay afloat in this battle. “It’s something I already know, so it’s gotta be a natural phenomenon! Observation of lightning doesn’t change it, same with bullets… and we don’t know enough about the Soul to even say if it changes when we observe it, like quantum…”
“Quantum!” Momo shouted back to Kaina. “He’s changing things into a quantum state! And in that state, their variables are undetermined, so he can change the physics of things!”
The word ‘quantum’ was often used for technobabble in movies or television, attached to something just to sound cool. In reality, quantum mechanics was pretty simple. It was the effect of a particle having multiple characteristics, with those characteristics not having a defined variable. So when observing a photon, all of the variables were determined, but with a particle in a quantum state, you had to observe it to figure out even one of the variables, during which the other variable would change.
In essence, you could never really directly observe a particle in a quantum state. It was like a spinning wheel on one of those game shows. By the time it was spinning, it would be impossible to determine how many sections it has, or what it would land on. Only when it is stopped and observed could you tell.
What was happening with Nine was similar. Whenever Kaina or Momo fired a bullet and looked away from it, Nine was given the chance to change the bullet into a quantum state, edit its variables, and return it to its normal form, thus reducing its speed to zero and effectively neutralizing the attack. It was a powerful ability, as it allowed the user to essentially alter reality and physics, but only when no one was looking. And it wasn’t a conclusion, but Momo was pretty sure that it could only be used on inanimate objects. Otherwise, Nine would’ve already tried altering their physical properties. Of course, that was assuming that a living thing could even become quantum in the first place. By having sentience, perhaps that was enough for Momo to ‘observe’ herself and prevent Nine from changing her into a quantum state.
It wasn’t exactly the same as quantum mechanics, not in terms of physical science, the Quirk was obviously changing some things for the user. However, it was more than enough for Momo to work from.
“That’s five Quirks for sure!” Momo shouted. Confirming the theory by watching her own bullet as it hit Nine’s shields. Thankfully, their senses were pushed to Godly levels, allowing them to watch the trajectory of their bullets. “Let’s see how much you can edit at a time,” She said, discarding her rifle and pulling out a minigun. With 4,000 rounds fired per minute, there would be a lot of individual objects in the air, giving Momo data on how much Nine could actually do.
“Kaina! Keep an eye on his Soul! Keep him weakened!” Momo wasn’t sure exactly what he was doing with his Soul, but it was related to the quantum Quirk. “He spent his Soul to get more Quirks, but those Quirks can’t heal or recover the Soul… so he must be putting his Soul into a quantum state to keep it from hindering him, almost like stasis.”
The minigun began spitting out hordes of bullets, the BRRRRR! overpowering the sound of even the thunder. But even still, most of them dropped to the ocean. Only the ones Momo was watching managed to stay alive and hit, only the tracers.
“He can handle a stupid amount of objects, so the quantity won’t matter. We need quality… or…” Momo quickly changed all of the bullets to tracer rounds, they would allow her to observe them more easily. The gleaming streaks of light were impossible to miss. “If I can just create a constant attack that he can’t nullify, I’ll have taken the full attention of one of his shields!”
Momo could tell that some bullets were still falling short, but with the tracers, Nine was forced to dedicate a shield towards Momo, otherwise he risked being torn to shreds.
“I can’t break these damn things!” Miruko shouted, parting the clouds like a Moses of the skies. Her impacts were so strong that, even if they wanted to get close, neither Momo or Kaina could. However, Beru and Igris rose to the challenge.
Realizing that he’d have 3 National-Rank or stronger enemies attacking him physically, he knew he had to find a way to break off from Momo and Kaina’s range. The man had been standing still in the center of his storm, not perturbed enough to even move. But now, he was getting serious.
The wind picked up, powerful winds throwing Momo’s bullets off-course. Nine couldn’t affect the power of Kaina’s bullets with just the wind, but that was acceptable, as her firing speed was far slower than Momo’s minigun.
Nine condensed the winds and the storm further and further, until Momo couldn’t see three feet in front of her. Without the eyepiece, she wouldn’t have been able to observe Nine. The same could be said of Kaina with her own special eyes. Without them, they would’ve been completely nullified by the combination of the Quantum Quirk and the lowered visibility of the storm.
“He really did pick his Quirks carefully. These combos would make him virtually invincible to any other National-Ranks in the world!” Physically immune with his shields, and fast enough to react. Capable of completely invalidating any long-range strategy. He could even keep multiple opponents busy at once with his dragons. But something wasn’t adding up. “He doesn’t have much Mana…”
Compared to Izuku or someone like Stars and Stripes, Nine had very little Mana. It was enough to match up to your higher quality S-Ranks, but his speed, his reaction times, everything physical that was being kept up by Mana was far beyond a National-Rank. He was keeping up with Rumi, who had enough physical prowess to outspeed basically anything, despite his Mana not being enough to reach that power. Mana was used to reinforce the body, so unless he was expending all of his Mana at once, he would be stuck at an S-Rank, but it was clear that his Mana was barely being used, while at the same time being enough to maintain all these different attacks.
“So one of his Quirks should be something to do with making his Mana efficient and one should be making his physical state enough to keep up with us. That’s seven Quirks… Maybe the eighth is a movement-based Quirk?” Momo was astonished by his speed. Beru, Miruko, and Igris could fly alongside him, and Kaina could estimate his path enough to shoot at him, but Momo was completely lost. “Okay… so assuming I have all eight Quirks, what can we use to break through that?”
Igris’s swords bounced harmlessly off the shields, and not even Beru flying at full speed could break them.
“Not even Izuku could fully stop Beru with Gravity Magic! And the Nine Quirk said nothing impossible could be created, so this defensive power has to be coming from somewhere! There’s a source to all of this we need to expend!” Momo knew very well how Quirks worked, they were boosts of power in exchange for Mana or some other physical cost. Even Quirks from the System that said they had no cost, like the Stat growth Quirks, required time and energy be poured into them for them to be useful, they were stockpile Quirks, so they did have a cost, it just wasn’t apparent.
The shields were taking so much damage and Nine’s Mana was decreasing so subtly that it couldn’t have been Mana. Even if he was decreasing his Mana usage to near-zero, he had an S-Rank sized Mana pool, being spent on National-Rank threats. It would be decreasing more. “It can’t be his Soul, because that’s already weakened. And the cost can’t be some sort of physical one exerted on his body because that’s way too much for him to handle! I’m not sure if the Quantum Quirk works on the shields, but we’re observing those so it can’t be that!”
With Nine focusing all of his energy on fighting Igris, Beru, Kaina, and Miruko, Momo finally had the chance to breathe and observe. Sure the dragons and lightning were still coming after her, but without Nine using the Quantum Quirk or focusing her down, they were easy to handle.
The shields and Nine’s reaction times were, surprisingly, the one part Momo couldn’t figure out. They had godlike resistance that broke every single rule of fighting. No cost, no clear impact, and they wouldn’t break. And no matter how fast they attacked, Nine managed to move his hands to defend from every angle. They hadn’t landed a single hit on him.
“If we attack at the same time he shouldn’t be able to defend from all angles, and yet he’s already defending from four sources just fine.” The Shadows and Miruko weren’t stupid, they realized very quickly that timing their attacks would result in a greater chance of success.
DEATH
Momo leaned back just in time to avoid getting decapitated by a burst of energy. It was the Laser Quirk that came from Nine’s fingers, more potent than before. Momo could tell, just from the power of it, that if she hadn’t dodged, she would’ve died instantly.
“The output was different from before! He must’ve used his Quantum Quirk on it!”
Momo was correct. While everyone had been occupied with Nine’s physical abilities and shields, he had been building up power in the tip of his pinkie finger. Keeping the finger curled, no one could see it, allowing him to convert the energy into a quantum state, enhance it, and then turn it back to normal, releasing it in a hyper-focused blast.
“It’s not just that he has a lot of Quirks, he knows how to use them in concert with each other.” Alone, the finger laser wasn’t all that impressive, the same could even be said of his Quantum Quirk or Storm Quirk. But mixing them all together, he was creating the single most impressive performance of any human on Earth. If he had been the one to fight Kamish all those years ago, humanity’s greatest disaster would’ve looked like a mutt. Nine would’ve put him down all by his lonesome.
But nothing was without cost or means. His eight acquired Quirks were nothing short of brilliant in parallel use, but the original was still weighing on him. The longer Kaina stared at him, the more his Soul continued to weaken. That was why the next finger laser aimed for her own neck.
“He didn’t know which one of us could see Souls! He was just guessing based on his Soul and the effect of his Quantum Quirk!”
The second Kaina was forced to dodge, losing sight of Nine in the process, his power resurfaced. Using the shields as a springboard, he launched away Beru, Igris, and Miruko all at once, sweeping his fingers through the air and creating a shredder.
Beru and Igris didn’t mind. Even as they were cut into small cubes, they pulled themselves back together. Miruko couldn’t regenerate quite as fast, so she had to actually exert some effort. Using blasts of pressurized air, she truly looked like a gymnast, weaving her way between the gaps in the beams. Even as lightning struck and dragons bellowed at her. Nine seemed to realize this too, focusing all of his effort on her.
Clapping his hands together, the beams of energy converged around one point, sealing Miruko inside of the lasers like a cage, closing in on her like a bear trap.
“Phew… that was close…” Miruko was suddenly right next to Momo, who was shocked by her movement speed. “He still got me though…” She wiped away some blood from her thigh, where she got cut by one of the lasers, most of the wound already sealed by cauterization. “I figured out why his shields won’t break,” She said nonchalantly, reminding Momo not to underestimate her. “Whenever I hit ‘em, I can feel the impact going into his arms, but then the impact gets cycled back into the shields and it gets weaker each time.”
What Miruko was saying, in a nutshell, was that the shields did have a cost, one that should’ve been taken out on Nine’s body. But instead of taking that hit, he just cycled it back through the shields, weakening the impact with each cycle. He was relocating kinetic energy that would’ve hit his own body into the shields and just keeping that energy on a loop until the shields could absorb it all. It was an endless loop, one that couldn’t be broken.
“But then… I thought he just had eight Quirks?” Momo grit her teeth as the situation continued to develop. “Maybe it’s a Skill? No… I wasn’t sensing anything differently, he’s still just using Quirks. So then I’ve mislabeled something as a Quirk…” Nine still only had the eight Quirks, plus the original, it was just that the use of them was keeping everyone confused on what was what.
“You didn’t sense anything else from him?” Momo asked.
“Nope, it’s just what we’ve seen and talked about. The Quantum thing-y, the storm, the finger lasers, the shields, whatever he’s using to cycle energy through the shields, the dragons, his movement, and his eyes.”
“His eyes?”
“You didn’t catch that?” Miruko asked as Nine gathered himself again. He already knew Miruko had escaped his clutches, but he didn’t want to rush anything. He was still very clearly outnumbered.
“No,” Momo responded, “I haven’t been up close in combat with him yet.”
“Right. Well, I don’t know exactly what it is, but his eyes are different. Like they see more than ours. Even more than Kaina can see.”
“What? But that’s an Apex Skill!” Momo directed the jet underneath her to maneuver. Though the girls were speaking calmly, they were still flying at a considerable pace in order to keep out of reach of the dragons and the lightning.
“Yeah I know, but this Quirk is something else. I’m telling ya, he’s seeing more than just the space around him,” Miruko insisted.
“I wasn’t doubting you, I was just shocked,” Momo added, just to make sure Miruko didn’t think she was being nasty in the middle of a battle. She looked through the storm with her own eyes, focusing on Nine. His purple eyes were glowing, but that was a common trait of Awakened Humans. Their Mana shone through their eyes. Momo didn’t get it, until Nine stared right at her. She winced, like someone had peeped at her while she was getting dressed. Those eyes saw through everything.
Momo understood what Miruko was talking about now. It was a perception beyond reality.
“Maybe he’s seeing through time,” Momo said. “That’s how he’s managing to hold up against us all.”
“If he could see into the future, then it wouldn’t matter what we could do, he’d be able to predict everything. We’d just be moving to a fixed point on his own game board.”
“Yeah…” Momo had to agree. If Nine could see into the future so easily, then he would’ve seen Momo bend backwards to avoid the laser. He would have just hit her in the chest instead. “Quirks and Souls… that’s what this battle is…”
“Huh?”
Momo shook her head. “I’m just trying to think… Kaina’s the only one here who can see Souls.”
“This is the first time since All Might that someone has pushed me so far!” Nine shouted, the clouds carrying his voice. “To think you could do it even with my complete set of Quirks!” Kaina came to a stop beside Momo and Miruko. “I’m impressed! If only we could’ve seen things the same way!” His shouts were more like screams, like he was going crazed. “I almost forgot how fun this was!”
“Yep, he’s definitely lost a few marbles,” Miruko deadpanned in the moment of calm.
“I can’t see his Soul anymore,” Kaina whispered, her eyes frantic.
“Oh? Were you looking for this?!” He pointed at his chest, where a Soul presumably would be visible. “I realized what a hassle it was, so I decided to give it to Lady Quaresha for safe keeping!”
“Quaresha?” Kaina looked at the other two girls, but they just shook their heads.
“No clue…”
“Is that your Mistress? The one you spoke of?” Momo asked. “Is she behind the brainwashed soldiers?”
“Bwahahaha! No!” Nine looked loopy, like he had just woken up from a deep slumber. “No, she's pretty stupid. I’m playing her, not the other way around. It was my idea to brainwash the soldiers, my idea to approach you first. No… she’s part of something bigger, a small part of something so far beyond human comprehension that we are but ants trying to understand quantum mechanics. Ants…” Nine shuddered. “Ants… ants ants ants…”
“Yep, he’s lost the plot…”
“I think he’s actually grasped it,” Kaina countered. “Whatever he knows, he knows far more than any human ever should. You can only know so much before it starts hurting…” Her shoulders were tensed up, her lips quivering. She only knew a fraction of the truth, Nine knew it all. That was what scared her.
“Well… If I am but an ant… then this battle will have to be my part in the hive…” Lightning crackled, his energy pouring out from his skin. “My Quirk is not a storm! My Quirk is the ability to create natural disasters! So if… if I wish to be more than an ant… I will have to earn my place amongst the Gods. I must burn this planet down!”
[Warning: Extinction Level Event!]
[Nine is creating a build-up of natural disasters that the planet has been holding onto with the rise of humanity and global warming. He intends to destroy the planet and become a Monarch. Stop him.]
Momo didn’t grasp all of that, but she got the important part. Nine’s noble intentions had vanished. Whatever he did by giving away his Soul, it had completely eradicated his genuine desire for a better future, and it gave him knowledge of whatever was to come. A force of destruction, a power that he would join in order to avoid eternal nothing.
“He’s going to destroy the planet.”
“Seriously?!” Miruko shouted. “But I live here!”
“Forgive me…” Nine’s voice was just barely a whisper now. “Forgive me Saori… and Kaito…”
“We have to kill him,” Kaina said, readying herself.
But Momo had something different in mind. All she saw was a boy crying out in anguish. “I'd rather save him.”