[BnHA] Coursing Evil: The Origins of the Super Villain Known as Riven

Chapter One: The King, the Seer, and the Witch-Boy


~New Orleans, Louisiana, Year XXXX, Fifteen years before the battle between All For One and All Might at the battle of Kamino Ward~

Music and laughter fill the city streets as yet another bustling and festive Mardi Gras celebration continues in the French Quarter of beautiful New Orleans, the jewel of the American Deep South. As locals and tourists alike join together in celebration, a single Japanese man could be seen wading through the ocean of dancing, lights, beads, and drinking. He was rather unassuming in appearance, with short black hair and a crisp, black suit. However, the aura the man gave off was one of sheer power and dominance, so much so that many who got too close would shrink a way slightly, as if just being around him was enough to intimidate them in to acting proper for that instant. As the man casually strode through the bustling city streets, he keeps his eye on the various street signs, his target supposedly close by. Reaching into his pocket, he withdraws a simple cell phone and presses the speed dial. As soon as it picks up, he speaks, his voice carrying the same unassuming tone but incredible weight that his presence commanded.

"Darwin, I believe I should be nearing the location you told me to check out...but, I must admit, I'm a bit leery of this. Your scouts down in the swamp, they truly believe this 'Witch-Boy' of New Orleans has a Quirk that would be of use to us?"

The voice that answers is a calm, light voice belonging to an older gentleman, speaking in fluent Japanese. "Indeed, Shigaraki-sama. Apparently, the Witch-Boy is some sort of wild child who has been seen attacking and robbing tourists as well as local businesses. Anybody who tries to fight him or follow him back into the swamps he calls his home have either vanished, or have been turned into nothing more than a cloud of red mist by a single swipe of his hand, hence why the people call him the Witch-Boy."

Shigaraki can't help but smirk slightly. "He spirits them away to a grisly end...He could have a Disintegration Quirk. If so, I will need it for Tomura. I can combine it with his own Quirk to strengthen it, making him capable of even further destruction."

The voice of Darwin chimes in happily. "An excellent plan, sir. According to our spies, there should be an old Hatian Seer woman who occasionally goes into the swamps and leaves food for the boy. She should know more about him, or at least where you can find the little swamp rat. Hopefully, he won't give you too much grief, sir."

Shigaraki lets out a slightly amused chuckle. "Don't forget who you're talking to, Doctor...I am who I am, and my dominance can never be denied." He finally sees a sign, reading 'Madame DuBois Readings', his tongue clicking as his smile grows slightly. "I've found the place. I'll call you back when I have more information. Have a pleasant evening, Doctor Darwin."

"And you as well, sir. Oh, and before I forget....Happy Mardi Gras.~ Fufufufufufu!~"

With an amused hum, he hangs up the phone and places it back in his pants pocket. Fixing his tie beforehand, he calmly opens the doors to the building before him. It was an old, run down town house common to the French Quarter, the inside filled with old furniture and various shelves cluttered with books and strange objects in various jars and beakers, with more curious oddities hanging from the ceiling, like talismans. As Shigaraki looks around, footsteps echo out from the floor above him as a small, grey-haired, old Hatian woman in a long blue dress with a swamp tree patterned shawl around her shoulders hobbles down the winding staircase in the corner. In one hand, she had a cane with a skull on the pommel, in the other a pair of old knuckle bones that look like they could have belonged to a human at one point. On the top of her grey haired head was an old, beat-up top hat with a purple and black interchanging triangle pattern wrapping around the base. When the old woman finally reaches the bottom, she speaks in English with a hoarse but kindly tone, filled with a heavy Hatian accent.

"Good evening, monsieur.~ What can Madame Cleo DuBois do for you on the fine and festive Mardi Gras evening? Perhaps you wish to have you fortune told? I can offer a palm reading, chicken feet, or a Tarot reading if it please you."

"Actually...I'm not here for my fortune. I need a different fortune told. I'm looking for someone." Shigaraki replies in perfect English. The old woman gestures to a table with two chairs in the far corner. As she hobbles over, Shigaraki passes her and pulls the chair out for her, offering a hand to help her to her seat. With a grateful smile, she takes it and hops up into her seat.

"Merci.~ It is not often that I meet a tourist with such fine manners! Tell me, what could a courteous Japanese gentilhomme such as yourself seek in New Orleans?"

Shigaraki takes his seat across from her, his face darkening when he finally asks his question. "What can you tell me about the so-called 'Witch-Boy of New Orleans'?"

Madame Cleo's pleased look quickly vanishes as she hears a slight whisper in her ear. "I see...So you are the one I saw...The hurricane, bound in human form by an unending darkness...Come to take the child from the swamps and bring him to his destiny. Nothing good will come from you taking him, monsieur. It will bring much suffering, much death."

Shigaraki can't help but raise an eyebrow. "Oh? You know my intentions already, yet this is the first time we've met...Either you are a very, very good liar, or there is more to you than meets the eye, Madame. Either way, I need to know more about the boy..." He then reaches into his suit coat's inside pocket and draws out a wallet, taking out several hundred dollar bills and placing them on the table. "And I am willing to pay for that information. After all, a fortune teller's only true loyalties are to the almighty dollar, are they not?~"

Madame Cleo then laughs out loud. "You think I can be bought with mere money? THIS IS A HATIAN HOUSE! I, my friend, am Madame Cleo DuBois, priestess and servant of Papa Gede! You are trifling with powers you have no comprehension of!"

Shigaraki appears to find little amusement in the old woman's theatrics. "I know a Quirk when I see one, Madame...Save the Hoodoo Voodoo for actual tourists. I'm not here for kicks...I'm here for the boy."

The old Haitian woman looks at the money that the man named Shigaraki left on her table, clicking her teeth before speaking.

"The payment is fair. I will tell you all that Gede has shown me of the Witch Child..."

She takes a deep breathe before rubbing her hands together, the knucklebones she was using beginning to smoke eerily as she starts chanting in Hatian French. Finally, her head slumps forward and she speaks in a much deeper voice.

"Born was he, from an unholy union within the swamp. Blood upon blood, eight attempts made seven abominations, but not he. The Witch Child, born without deformity or insanity...through envy towards his beauty, did his family brand him cursed, and so did they treat him as such. However, unlike his corrupted family, the boy was born with the power to turn their own wrath against them. With this, he did bring the accursed ones who gave him life to a misted, blood-red ruin. For three and one half years, this boy has lived as not but a feral beast within the bayou, harsh and cruel as the very beasts who share his dismal home. Deep within, within the shack hidden beneath a great hollow, will you find the child you seek. Around him hangs the stench of destiny...the same stench as you, O One Who Rules the Underworld...This child will bring great calamity upon the earth, and at his back, a Society of curses and twisted nightmares. So sayeth Gede!"

The woman draws a deep breathe as the trance breaks, leaving her panting. "There...you have your information..."

Shigaraki only chuckles. "How interesting...thank you, Madame. Now....I'll take the other thing I came here for."

The woman seems shaken, moving back slightly. "W-what do you mean?"

Suddenly, she is answered by Shigaraki grabbing her face from across the table, a smile on his twisted face. "Why, your Future Sight quirk, of course. After all...I can't let such a power escape my grasp. Otherwise...my name would mean nothing. That's what the true fate of all Quirks are...they are...All...For....One.~"

He releases the struggling woman as soon as she goes limp, the shock from having her Quirk stolen having sent her into cardiac arrest. All For One then rises, fixing his cuff links on his suit as he leaves.

"Now then...lets have a nice long chat...'Witch-Boy'.~"



~Several hours later, the Louisiana Bayou, somewhere on the outskirts of New Orleans ~

Shigaraki can't help but twist his face in disgust as he trudges through the bogs of the Louisiana bayou. All he could think of, was that this had better have been worth all the effort that was put into finding this child. For hours now, he had searched the swamp from top to bottom in hopes of finding this 'Shack beneath a great hollow', but to no avail. Growling, he punches a nearby tree, utilizing two Strength Enhancement Quirks he had in reserve to smash the tree to pulp in one shot. He was getting annoyed. As he continued to trudge, his patience wearing thin, he notices a light deep in the dark swamp. Squinting, he uses a Vision Enhancement quirk to zoom in and see what could be there. The light was coming from what looked like a rotted-out wall of wood at the bottom of a massive tree. All around the tree, all other foliage had been cleared out for nearly an acre in all directions, the land covered by giant stacks of junk and garbage. It was a makeshift junkyard-home beneath an old hollow, just as the old woman had described. With a smirk, Shigaraki begins making his way towards the small hovel. Moments later, he is standing among the refuse and discarded scrap that make up the wall-like structures around the front of the small hole in the ground that was the shack. It looked like the place hadn't been properly maintained by anyone in several years, and an awful stench was radiating from behind the rotting wooden wall that served as a door into the hollow. He knew the smell all too well...human remains. There were dead bodies somewhere behind that door, or at least the remains of dead bodies.

He walks forward, holding his breathe as he opens the door. The inside of the hovel was dark, lit only by a dim oil lantern that was burning. Using a night vision Quirk, he gets a much better look at the inside of the hovel. He nearly wretched. The walls were coated in black, rotting ooze that looked like human pulp, as if several people had simply exploded inside the place and nobody bothered to clean it up. He quickly pulled away from the hovel, choking down his urge to vomit. When he comes outside, he takes a moment to calm himself. Perhaps he should put the new Quirk he acquired to use? Searching his massive mental library of Quirks, he finds the Seer's Vision quirk and activates it, the events of the Witch-Boy's life at the hovel slowly playing out before him. As he watches in awe, he doesn't notice the small, bestial shape behind him slowly approaching. As the vision ends, it is then that Shigaraki senses the massive blood lust behind him!

Wheeling around, he activates 5 Durability Enhancement Quirks, 3 Regeneration Quirks, and 2 Strength Enhancements in order to take the feral, unrefined punch that the small figure threw at him. When impact is made, All For One's eyes widen as he's suddenly forced back, sliding along the wet ground beneath him and staggering to stop himself. "What the hell was that?!"

Panting in front of Shigaraki was a small boy, appearing about 7 or 8 years old, with long, matted hair coated in mud and filth. His whole body was filthy, covered in combinations of mud, dirt, and what must be the refuse from inside the hovel. The white's of the boy's eyes were a deep, pitch black and his irises were a bright, neon blue that seemed to glow in the dim light of the swamp. The boy lets out a feral screech at All For One, red lightning coursing through his body as his muscles seem to bulge slightly.

"I see..." Shigaraki says to himself. "Its not a disintegration Quirk at all...what an interesting power you have, child."

The boy does not seem to care about Shigaraki's words as he suddenly dashes forward at horrifying speeds. The boy swipes his hand like he's raking with a claw, the red lightning coursing through his arm. Shigaraki sidesteps, the swipe creating a massive gash in the earth and destroying the junk wall behind him. His eyes stay wide, but a smile forms on his face.

"SUCH STRENGTH! Show me where you get it from!?" He steps forward and punches at the boy, using a single Strength Enhancement Quirk to imbue his strike. However, the boy makes no effort to dodge. If anything, he seems to brace for the impact. When his fist meets the boy's arm, All For One is surprised further by the result; The boy didn't budge, the strike leaving a steaming mark on his arm as more lightning suddenly begins surging through the child's small form. "I see....Shock Absorption, and the ability to convert the stored force into physical power and might!? Such a rare and powerful quirk!"

The boy screams again, this time swiping sideways to try and blast the man in front of him in half. However, with the aid of several Enhancement and Durability Quirks, stopping such a blow was mere child's play for Shigaraki. He catches the blow, grabbing the boy by the wrist. When the boy attempt the same thing with his other hand, the same result occurs.

Now that the boy was in his grasp, Shigaraki stopped. The boy struggled wildly, flailing and struggling and kicking with all his might. However, the grip of All For One was like an iron vice, and would not yield to the boy's wild attempts to break free. But, to the boy's surprise, the man kneels down and speaks softly to him. "I know all of it." These words, for some reason, stop the boy's struggling. He ceases, panting, looking to the man with wide eyes.

"W...W-whaaa?"

Shigaraki smiles gently. "There...I knew you were intelligent. That's it, son...I'm not going to hurt you. I saw all of it, with one of my powers. Your life, here...Your family were bayou outcasts, who practiced incest in the name of racial purity for generations. The result was your seven siblings, all deformed and insane due to their twisted genes. But...not you. You were born without deformity or mental instability...you escaped their curse, but that led to a different curse. They hated you, envied you...you were beautiful, intelligent for one so young...and they didn't know it, but unlike them, who's physical makeup could not support having a Quirk due to too many generations of inbreeding, you were born with a Quirk...one that embodied several aspects of the Quirks that ran in your original family's bloodline before they began their disgusting practice. Then...one day...you had enough of the abuse. They hit you too many times..." He gestures to the hollow, and the filthy remains within. "So you hit them back, the force of all their beatings returning to them with such fury it turned their very bones to jelly."

The boy was starting to pant more wildly, clearly afraid out of his wits. This man knew what he did. Was he going to die? Was this man going to kill him for what he did to his family?

To the boy's shock, the man pulls him into a warm, tender embrace. "You don't need to run anymore....you don't need to live in this squalor anymore. I see something in you, child...the potential for greatness that I see in another promising youth back in my home country. I adopted that boy...and I will do the same with you. However, I had to change his name in order to protect him. You, on the other hand have no records of even existing." He pulls the boy out of the embrace, keeping his hands on his shoulders. The boy was calm now, and looking at him with wide, listless eyes. "There, now. That's much better." Using his thumb, he wipes the boy's face so he can get a better look at him from under all the filth and grime. "My my, you are a handsome young lad. I can see why those fools were so envious! Tell me, child...what is your name?"

The boy is quiet for several moments before finally, slowly, opening his mouth.

"R-R-Remy...Remy Rivers...."

All For One smiles tenderly, rising up and rubbing Remy's tangle's matted hair with his hand. "Remy? Cajun French, how interesting. However, Remy, I will warn you now...the life I lead is not one of ease. I am not a good man by any means. In my home country, I am hailed as the most evil villain on earth. Can you live with being saved by someone like that?" He asked with no hesitation. This boy, despite being feral, was much more intelligent than he appeared, Shigaraki could tell.

Remy looks up at him before cocking his head. "If I become a villain...can I be like you?"

Shigaraki seems surprised by the boy's response, but nods, smiling again. "Yes...I will help you build an Empire, right here in America. Then, one day, you can meet your brother and together, from America and Japan, you two will user in a new age for this world. But, in order to be a villain, you can't use your real name. Your brother uses my surname, as well as an alias I created for him. Would you like to use my name?"

Remy thinks for a moment, before looking up and shaking his head. "No...I want to use my name. I'm me...I'm not you."

All For One can't help but crack a wider grin. This boy was truly interesting! "Very well. If I may, then, I have a perfect name for you. You, who's can redirect force with the strength to crack and split even the earth itself. From now on, your villain name will mean 'to split, or to sunder violently'. How does that sound.....Riven?"

The boy looks up at his newly adopted father, remembering a word that the old lady who used to bring him food used when she first met him. Bowing in a similar way that she did, he speaks in perfect French.

"Enchanté..."