The next day, Dante woke up early with a lot of energy, he felt as if the weight he put on himself had finally disappeared. Right now, Dante was full of anticipation for the future, after all, he now had a real goal, plus, he already had some ideas on how he could reach it, now he just needed to discuss it with his friends and hear their opinions.
"Yoshaaaa!! Ren! Kioko!! Wake up!! Time to work!!"
Startled by Dante's outburst, the boy and the girl woke up in a panic.
"W-What is it?! Are we under attack?!"
Seeing his friends' reactions, Dante could only laugh heartily.
"Hahahaha! All right guys, get yourselves together, I have big news for you!"
Seeing the previously gloomy Dante now full of life greatly surprised the duo, he looked just like a different person to them. Not knowing how to react, they both kept looking dumbly at their friend who was smiling from ear to ear.
"What are you two doing? Come, we need to talk about something important hahaha!!"
Seeing him like this, Ren could not hold himself back anymore.
"Um... Dante, are you okay?"
This time it was Dante who sported a weird look.
"What do you mean 'are you okay'? Can't you see? Alright stop wasting any more time, Hayato's between life and death, we need to move fast!"
Hearing that it was about Hayato, the duo jumped out of their bed and quickly gathered around Dante.
"Yosh! Now follow me, let's find Hayato! But before that..."
SHINE!! SHINE!! SHINE!!
Before his friends could react, the three children body's suddenly started to emit a golden light.
"Mm? What did you do Dante-kun."
"Of course, I made us invisible hehe. Alright, let's go, Hayato should be in one of the intensive care units."
Soon, a new invisible trio of children started to explore the hospital in search of their wounded friend, along the way, they saw a lot of the hospital staff, but none of them seemed to have noticed them. Other than that, they also saw a lot of wounded and sick people, showing them that tragedy was something common.
Dante and his friends were finally able to find Dante after searching for twenty minutes, when they found him, Dante's expression changed and he became solemn. In front of him, Hayato lay there asleep, the poor kid was in such a horrible condition that even with the doctors giving it their all, Hayato's chances of survival were zero, for him to be still alive was truly a miracle.
"Hayato..."
Seeing Dante turn gloomy, Kioko didn't want him to feel guilty.
"Don't feel bad... We would have done the same... you too would have done the same."
"She is right Dante, we are family, you are the one who said it remember!"
Hearing his friends cheer him up, Dante did not wait anymore and approached Hayato who was currently in a coma, and placed his right hand on him.
SHINE!!
After that, Hayato's body started to shine brightly, and soon, weird sounds started to come from it.
CRACK!!
CRUNCH!!
PSHTT!!
These gruesome sounds were the sounds of Hayato's body healing, it was the sound of his bones, organs, and muscles reforming and reattaching themselves, such a sight greatly shocked Ren and Kioko.
"Mm, it cost me less than I thought..."
Contrary to his expectations, healing Hayato cost Dante less dream energy than he initially thought, the cost of healing someone was proportional to the patient's strength, the stronger the patient the more expensive the healing.
Hayato's healing process lasted only five minutes, after that, his body looked no different than it was before the incident, his body looked even a bit stronger than before.
"Wow, he is completely healed! Damn Dante, your quirk is simply a cheat hahaha!"
Seeing that Hayato was now safe, all the trio's worries finally left them and they were finally able to smile freely again.
As if reacting to Ren's outburst, Hayato's eyes started to tremble and ten seconds later, the kid was finally able to open his eyes again.
"Mm... please... no more... Yujiro sensei... I will die..."
When they heard their silly friend, Dante and his friends were glad to see that he was still the same jokester, soon they could not hold themselves back and started to laugh heartily... Their friend was back.
"""Hahahahahaha..."""
"Mn..."
"""Hahahahahaha..."""
"Mnn..."
"""Hahahahahaha..."""
"Mnnn..."
"""Hahahahahaha..."""
"Oi!! Shut up!! I'm trying to sleep here!!"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thirty minutes later, Date and the rest were all back in their room, of course before leaving, Dante had used his powers to modify the memories and the files the hospital and its staff had about Hayato, now they all only remembered a kid that managed to survive to his serious injuries. Since the number of targets and the modifications to their memories were little, this dream still cost Dante a lot of energy, but nothing outrageous, plus, energy wasn't that much of a concern for Dante anymore since he would earn a lot of it continuously in the future.
Right now, the four children were sitting on Dante's bed in a square formation, and they were discussing something that would have a huge impact on the world, Dante was informing them of the great plan he thought of yesterday.
"The "Fuck All For One project"? What's that?"
"Who is All For One?"
"You are smiling weirdly again Dante-kun..."
Seeing that his friends did not understand him and his great naming sense, Dante took pity on them and finally decided to tell them why he wanted to talk to them with such urgency.
"All right guys!! Listen carefully!!..."
Dante then went on and explained to them for an entire ten minutes who AFO was, with whom he worked, what he did, and what he wanted to accomplish... of course he did not forget to mention that he was the one behind the incident three days ago.
When the trio heard the last part, the surprised look they had at the start quickly changed to one of boundless anger.
"So he is the one behind it..."
"I will kill that bastard."
"Let's throw him into a black hole!"
One of the advantages of Dante's quirk was that it was so outrageous that Dante could attribute anything he knew to it.
How do I know that a villain organization will attack us? My quirk told me!
How do I know that he is a traitor? My quirk told me!
How do I know that her panties are white?! My quirk told me!!
*Cough**Cough*... excuse me.
Although he knew that such a thing would not work every time, it sure was a good way to reveal the knowledge he had of this world history, and he sure was going to use it as much as he could in the future.
"Hahaha, don't worry guys, we will have our revenge, and in the most glorious way I assure you!"
That's right, Dante wasn't the type of person to swallow his pride and just endure such an attack, he wanted to get back at AFO and its goons, and he wanted it to be as painful as possible for them!
The question was: What the hell was the 'Fuck All For One Project'?
"Alright guys, calm down and let me explain.
As I said, AFO is a bastard who wants to conquer the world, the funniest thing in all that is that this dude thinks that All Might is the only person in the world capable of stopping him, so he wants to kill him so that nobody can get in his way. The nomus we saw three days ago are part of an experiment, its end goal being the creation of a being as strong as All Might.
BUT!!!!
Unfortunately for this cockroach that refuses to die, he laid his hands on us... and he will pay for it.
And so, as I was thinking of what to do to make him pay, an idea popped up into my head!
Tell me guys, what would be the most painful thing that could ever happen to this bastard?"
At that moment, Dante stopped talking, clearly waiting for his friends to answer.
"Burn him."
"Give him to Yujiro."
"Throw him into a black hole."
...
...
...
'Damn, these kids are scary...'
After he calmed down, he continued.
"WRONG!! It's not that I don't like those ideas, but that would not make him despair!"
"""Tsk!"""
"Hahahaha, alright hear me out!
My idea is that since his dream is to conquer the world and he thinks All Might is the only true obstacle in front of him, then...
What if we make his dream an impossibility? Hehehehehe!"
This time, Ren, Kioko, and Hayato were intrigued.
"What do you mean to make his dream an impossibility Dante-kun?"
"Isn't it easier to just kill him?"
"Yeah! Why complicate things so much?"
Hearing the question, Dante couldn't stop his creepy giggle.
"FOOLS!!!
Although AFO is completely selfish, he is the type of guy willing to die for his ideals, he will not spare any effort to ensure that his idea of a Symbol of Evil will continue even after his death, he does not mind dying as long as he continues his legacy.
You see, AFO is a subtle, sadistic, and malevolent bastard who likes to rule from the shadows and enjoys himself at the expense of people, before discarding them. This idiot is a megalomaniac with a god complex, the dude even calls himself a Demon Lord... what a chuunibyou! Hell, he is a certified kleptomaniac, he can't resist stealing others people's quirks."
After hearing this, the trio also started to find AFO annoying, they were pissed that they almost died because of someone like that.
"Mm, looks like you are right, death won't stop him, he will probably have a backup plan to ensure that his plans come to fruition even after his death."
Seeing that they finally understood who they were dealing with, Dante finally started to talk about his plan.
"EXACTLY!!! Killing him won't do shit, so last night I thought hard and finally found the solution hehe.
You see, All For One despises those who persistently defy him, he loathes All Might in particular, so how would he react if more people were stopping him from realizing his dream?
He would be pissed don't you think? Hahahahaha!!"
When they finally got to hear his plan, the trio wasn't sure if they understood.
"So... you want us to team up with All Might? Well, that would be nice, I love All Might."
"I don't understand."
"..."
Seeing that they didn't get it, Dante then went on and explained in detail his plan.
"Since AFO wants to dominate the world, then we will stop him, but we won't do it the classic way, we will do it the plus ultra way!
I thought about it yesterday, and here is my conclusion, to destroy AFO in the worst way possible for him, we will need multiple things.
The first is strength. Although he is a clown, AFO is still quite the tough nut to crack, All Might isn't the only one able to stop him for nothing, he is strong and we need to be even stronger.
The second thing we need is to make the heroes stronger. Although it won't be hard for us to become stronger than AFO, I don't see myself dealing with all the villains' bullshit all the time, so we need regular heroes to be stronger.
In the third position, we need to get rid of all of these bastard allies! This guy has people everywhere, even in the orphanage. Although he sees people as disposable tools, I'm ready to bet my quirk that losing his spies and close collaborators will greatly piss him off.
Finally, the big plan won't have any meaning if All For One is still breathing, so the fourth part of the plan is simply to kill this fucker! But remember, we only want him dead when he has lost everything, we only want him dead after he has seen everything he builds throughout the years crumble before him!
That is the best way I found to get back at this asshole!"
...
...
After he was done, Dante stopped and looked at his friends, he was curious to see how they would react.
"Oooh, that's a nice plan! I'm in!"
"Well since the plan means saving a ton of people, then for sure you can count on me!"
"I will... make him pay."
It looked like his friends were on board with his plan, but they still had some questions.
"Dante-kun... I understand that you want to make his life difficult, but is it truly the best way to do it? If we look at your plan, we will need a lot of resources to strengthen the heroes to the point where they can be useful. If we just take into account this man's strength and the army of nomus he is trying to build, we would need every hero to be much stronger. There is also the issue of trust, can we trust other heroes like we trust each other? What if one of them becomes a bigger problem than AFO? If we take this possibility into account, then we can't make the heroes too strong or else..."
As the smart girl she was, Kioko then went on and explained the different problems of Dante's plan, and the latter was quite happy to see that.
"Aaaah Kioko-chan, thank god you are here! Ren and Hayato are idiots, I can only count on you!"
""OI!!!""
After he was done teasing his friends, Dante answered Kioko's doubts.
"You are right Kioko-chan, if we try to bring every hero to a level where they can make an impact individually in our fight against AFO, the resources we would need would be simply too much, and that's not all.
If we go along with this plan, the first obstacle we will meet will be a lack of dream energy. Even though I have plans to greatly increase the quantity of energy I absorb every night, it still won't be enough to strengthen every freaking hero in Japan.
The second obstacle we will meet will be a lack of trust and credibility when dealing with other heroes and the government, I mean, why would they listen to a bunch of kids?
The third problem is AFO men. Since these bastard goons are everywhere, even in the HPSC, then we can be sure to meet heavy opposition the stronger we become. Heck, I'm sure they can turn us into criminals one way or another, honestly, I think that a war with them is quite a possibility.
The fourth problem will be the heroes themselves, probably not the important ones, but I'm sure we will find opposition in the bunch of weaker heroes, after all the weak are easy to manipulate.
The fifth one will simply be the villains. If we want to gain credibility, we will need to stand out, which is bound to attract some powerful villains' attention to us.
And finally, the last and honestly the most annoying obstacle will be the civilians, don't ask me how, I just know that they always find something to bitch about!"
After he was done, Ren, Hayato, and Kioko now knew that he was serious with his plan since he thought of all the pros and cons.
"I see... Then what do we do? It's not like we can do everything by ourselves, that would take too much time."
When Ren said this, Dante knew that it was finally time for him to talk about the most important part of his plan.
"That's a good question Ren, so let me answer you with another one.
Tell me, guys...
Why do you think villains are so tricky to deal with? Why are they so powerful?"
When they heard this, the trio started to think carefully, they knew that it was an important question that would lead to an important answer. The first one to answer was Hayato.
"Because they are stronger?"
"WRONG!!"
Then it was Ren's turn.
"They have fewer limitations?"
"True, but WRONG!!"
And finally came Kioko's turn.
"They have more powerful weapons?"
"There is some truth in what you said, but WRONG!!"
This time, the trio truly didn't know the answer, so Dante gave it to them.
"It's simple, there are multiple reasons for villains to be this tricky, but one of the biggest reasons is...
They are closer to a team than the heroes."
At first, the trio wasn't sure if they understood, and Dante saw it on their faces.
"If I were to describe heroes and villains, I would say that heroes are a group while villains are more like a team.
The difference between the two is that a group is a collection of individuals who coordinate their efforts, while a team is a group of people who share a common goal. At the end of the day, when you look at villains, you can find something solid that binds them all, something they are ready to die for. Heroes on the other hand aren't that connected, they are just a bunch of people that happen to work together on certain occasions. It's the same with hero agencies, at the end of the day, they are just a bunch of heroes that work together to increase their efficiency, and none of them pursue a common goal.
That's one, if not the biggest difference between the two in my opinion."
Kioko and the rest could only nod at this opinion, for people who knew the ins and outs of the hero industry, it was easy for them to see that heroes weren't all brought together by the idea of the selfless sacrifice to protect the weak, far from it.
"Mm, it makes sense. Even if we try to make the heroes stronger, there is no guarantee that it will pay off, in the end, they will still be a bunch of people that happen to work together."
Seeing that they got the idea, Dante took a deep breath and finally revealed his true weapon that would bring AFO to the brink of insanity and despair.
"Now that you get it guys, let me ask you another question then, a question that I asked myself yesterday, a question that brought me to talk to you all today.
Tell me...
If the villains can be so strong by having a common goal, who said that we can't do the same?!
Who said that villains are the only ones who can gather under the same banner and share a common goal?!
Who said that...we can't create our own organization, our team?!
Who said we can't create our own Justice League?!"
RUMBLE!!!! RUMBLE!!!!! RUMBLE!!!!
That's right, Dante did not plan to follow the normal revenge path, he wanted to do it flashy way!
Be it, Marvel, with the Avengers or DC with the Justice League, or any fiction he knew that had superheroes in it, they all had a team of superheroes that worked together towards protecting either a city, a country, a planet or even an entire universe. When he thought about it yesterday, Dante did not manage to find a single reason why he should not form his own team.
"You... You want to create your own super organization?"
"You want to do like boss Batman and the others?"
"..."
To this, Dante finally answered.
"Yes, I want us to form our own team!
Just like Kioko-chan said, we can't invest in all the heroes, we don't have that many resources, we can only help them a little, and the probability of being betrayed is also high. We also can't do everything by ourselves, that would take us too much time, and before we know it AFO would have already achieved his stupid plan.
What we need to do, is to focus our resources on a small group of people, we need to create an elite team that is independent of any government or organization, and we need to build a team of super-strong fighters dedicated to stopping AFO!
That's the best way I found to make that bastard despair hahahaha!!!"
The more they listened to him, the more his friends started to see the potential of his idea, and the more they got... excited!
"Wow! That's actually a great idea!"
"A team specialized in dealing with dangerous criminal associations... That sounds great!"
"That's a good idea Dante-kun... Who do you want to take into your organization then?"
Hearing the last question, Dante answered quickly.
"Well, what I have in mind is pretty simple. The idea is to take a select few heroes like All Might, Endeavor, and other promising and interesting heroes into the team.
You see, I believe that opness should be shared hehehe, so the plan is to take some of them and make them even stronger, that way AFO will find himself dealing with a bunch of beings even stronger than All Might hahahaha!!!"
When they heard the names he wanted to bring into his team, the trio was shocked!
"All Might?! The All Might?! You want him on the team?! Will he even accept?!"
To that, Dante simply answered.
"Ha! I'm a hundred percent sure he will haha! All Might is a true hero, but fighting All For One by himself is not an easy task, I'm sure he will be glad to have some backup."
After he gave his answer, it was Kioko's turn to bring up an important point.
"Dante-kun... Creating such an organization won't be easy, the government and even the HPSC are sure to oppose such a thing."
Hearing this, Dante only smiled, he already knew that creating such a team would not be easy.
"Haha, I know Kioko-chan, but who cares?! Although it will be hard, it's not impossible.
Actually, AFO will probably be our greatest helper in all this."
"""Mm?""""
"What do you mean Dante-kun?"
"Well, it's simple actually. If AFO wants to dominate the world, he needs to get rid of heroes, the best way to do it is by making the public lose trust in the hero system, which will be a good thing for us.
If people start to lose trust in heroes, then the HPSC will lose influence, and if there are no heroes, then the government will have to worry about the villains, and I'm pretty sure they won't have big enough guns to handle them.
At that point, they would have to accept us whether they want it or not hahaha!"
After Dante finished talking, he only saw his friends looking at him weirdly.
"I'm starting to think that you are the real villain you know..."
"You sure are evil."
"Dante-kun... bad."
To that, Dante could only laugh heartily.
"Hahahahaha!!
...
...
Sigh.
Alright, guys, I told you everything. I know that it won't be an easy path, and I know that will have to work hard for this to work. Honestly, I'm not doing this for something as petty as revenge... I just don't want to see what happened to Mirai happen to anybody else... I want to make a change, a significant one.
So... guys... Will you help me?"
To this heartfelt message, the trio's reply was as simple as could be.
"""Of course!!!"""
The firmness in their answer caused Dante to smile, he was glad to have found such a family in this new life.
"Good, hahahahahahahaha!!!
Alright!! Now that we are all in the same boat, I guess it's finally time for you all to make a choice, so tell me...
What do you all want your new quirks to be?!"
RUMBLE!!!! RUMBLE!!!! RUMBLE!!!!