Chapter 114: Royal Silence.

[Sage, is everything ready for the tests?]

As he entered the locker room, Kai asked the beautiful fairy who flew beside him in [In] mode through their mental connection. She responded while showing him a holographic display containing all the data related to the next “experiment.”

[Everything is ready, Master. The “Royal Silence” project can move into the testing phase at any time.]

[Perfect, let’s hope things go well. Even though it won’t be the most powerful ability, it’ll be quite useful if it works as we expect.] Kai commented with a pleased tone, then sat down on the floor in a corner, taking a lotus position while Salem settled into his lap.

…

(Really… I’m such a damn coward…)

One of the strange things that happened to Kai when he tried to meditate was that, for some reason, he almost always ended up thinking about everything he had done. He would go over it several times until he finally let it go, allowing him to relax his mind. After a moment in the lotus position, he couldn’t help but mock himself for his recent actions.

Fear had consumed him, preventing him from thinking clearly and causing him to act almost erratically, making up all kinds of excuses to justify himself. Although he felt he couldn’t be judged too harshly for it—after all, it was a deep, primordial existential fear, one that didn’t even let him sleep at night and that he tried to ignore with all his might.

That profound fear came from knowing he was in a world he remembered as an anime, which inevitably made him wonder: Was he real? Was what he was experiencing real? Would he someday wake up in a hospital bed after a coma? But if those were the only questions, it would still be okay, since he had lived with them for years and could handle them. The real issue was that there was another question, just as or even more terrifying, that constantly crept into his mind, especially when he was in that classroom.

If this world were real, was it possible to change it, or was everything already decided and he could only be a spectator? Although there were reasons to believe things could indeed be changed and that he was the master of his own destiny—like the fact that he had healed All Might or saved Shino’s cousin, who he was sure would have only met death if he hadn’t arrived—there was one crucial event that shattered all his hopes: All Might had passed his Quirk on to the “protagonist”.

The moment he realized this—that even though he had healed All Might, the hero still passed on his Quirk—all the alarms went off in his brain, filling him with profound existential terror. It was the realization that everything was decided, and he could only change the circumstances, not the outcomes. The results were fixed. What had to happen would happen, one way or another, so those who had to die would die, no matter what he did.

This fear had been torturing him relentlessly and was almost winning the battle. That’s why he didn’t want to participate in the sports festival and came up with tons of excuses to justify himself—because he was terrified that no matter what he did, that damn blond would take first place. That was the only thing he remembered from that entire arc and the last thing he remembered from the series, or in other words, his last chance to see if things could change or not.

For that reason, he cowardly wanted to leave it all to Momo, to see if she could change things. After all, she should be stronger than the “character”. He had trained her for years, improved her Quirk, and given her weapons so powerful that no average student or hero could stop her. If she failed, he intended to reassure himself that he had changed something by killing All For One, when he would no longer be able to verify if he truly had or not.

But the moment the girls decided to push him to win, he invented a couple of excuses for himself and decided to play along, since that was the push he needed. The support of the women he loved was what he lacked to face his fear and see with his own eyes whether this so-called “destiny” was real or not. Besides, he was the strongest, not even All Might could stop him. It was now or never if he wanted to determine whether things would change.

(But it’s time to stop being one. Now I just have to check if the results can really change. But no matter what happens, I must stand firm. Even if the blond annoyance takes first place despite my participation, it’s because it’s ‘destiny’ and not because this is fake or unreal. So if it is ‘destiny’, I just have to find a way to break it…)

After coming to terms with himself, Kai felt much more relaxed, so he began to breathe deeply using a technique he himself had optimized from his original technique that enhanced his aura and combined it with yoga breathing techniques. At the same time, he focused entirely on his own “voice”, which quickly allowed him to “see” his mini-self once again.

Over time, and most likely thanks to his hard training along with his constant yoga practice, his mini-self had changed. Although it was still in the same lotus position, somehow it had become much more “large” and “alive”, to the point that he could now see it breathing in sync with his own breathing. Its aura was also much denser and stronger.

At the same time Kai focused completely on his breathing, his aura began to fluctuate rhythmically, expanding and contracting as if it were some kind of lung—something that shortly thereafter also began happening to the mini-self’s aura. This continued for a while, until the two auras synchronized, entering a sort of resonance, causing them to fluctuate violently for a time until they calmed down. Both ending in a serene and fluid state, as if they had automatically entered the [Ten] state.

After a while, Kai opened his eyes, which shone briefly with a dark, electric light that quickly disappeared. He then stood up as Salem jumped onto his drowsy shoulder. At that moment, he left the locker room and quickly reached the hallway connecting to the stadium entrance, just as Present Mic’s voice announced with excitement.

“Give a big round of applause to the invincible Demon King of the Hero Course, Saito Kai!!!!”

Hearing Present Mic’s introduction, Kai couldn’t help but smile wryly, even in his state of complete concentration. Deciding to play along a bit, he activated his Conqueror’s Haki at low power and walked toward the exit, instilling fear in everyone who looked at him, which for some strange reason greatly increased the audience’s excitement.

“Uwaa, he’s really scary, I’m getting goosebumps just looking at him!” Present Mic commented with an excited tone, to which Aizawa added in a voice that, although it sounded tired, also felt much more focused and serious.

“Certainly, and something like that can be quite effective in a fight, as it distracts the enemy and makes them more prone to making mistakes, if they don’t surrender without fighting.”

“And facing the Demon King is the hero-in-training with colossal strength, Midoriya Izuku!!!” Shortly after, Present Mic announced excitedly, and Midoriya entered the stadium wearing a serious but determined expression.

“I’ll do my best, Saito-kun!” Midoriya said firmly as he took his guard. Kai responded casually, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“Let’s see what you’re capable of.”

“Ready?!!... Start!!!”

With Present Mic’s announcement, Midoriya tried to run toward Kai, but at that very moment, a monstrous pressure fell upon him like a mountain, threatening to snatch away his consciousness. However, following the advice All Might had given him, he quickly bit his lip and increased the power of One For All coating his body as much as he could, which allowed him to remain conscious.

Quickly, Midoriya jumped at Kai at high speed, throwing a powerful punch that caused a small shockwave, stirring the air around them. Kai dodged it by the narrowest margin, moving casually to the side.

“I guess a certain good-natured guy with antennas told you how to stand your ground, heh heh.” Kai commented in a slightly pleased tone, as he had expected something like that. He quickly contacted Sage through their mental connection.

[All set?]

[All set, Master.] Sage responded as she placed her hand on the back of Midoriya’s neck. Kai replied with satisfaction, while simultaneously evading another punch from the green-haired boy.

[Then let’s begin.]

Kai concentrated completely on Midoriya’s “voice”, then isolated what he interpreted as different voices, directing all the power of his Conqueror’s Haki toward those voices in an attempt to “intimidate” them. The effect was immediate, as Midoriya’s next punch was much weaker than all his previous attempts.

Seeing the look of absolute disbelief on Midoriya’s face, Kai couldn’t help but smile, satisfied. After all, his experiment had been successful, and that only proved the hypothesis they had been working on for a while was correct: There was more than just a physical and genetic component to Quirks—there was something “spiritual”.

This hypothesis arose as one possible explanation for why All Might lost his abilities after passing on his Quirk. If what was actually passed down was the spiritual aspect of the Quirk, it would make sense that he could no longer use his abilities. But it had been set aside because it sounded too absurd, even though Kai himself had a mini-self that was the source of his Haki.

But once All Might lost his Quirk, the data from his body and Midoriya’s showed that. Although he was correct in thinking One For All duplicated itself to be transmitted to the next host, he was mistaken in assuming that the Quirk undid the changes in its former wielder’s body. Although the number one hero grew weaker in real time, his body remained exactly the same.

Additionally, there was the fact that Midoriya now had the “voices” that All Might once had in his own “voice”, along with an extra one that was incredibly similar to that of the Symbol of Peace. This was more than enough evidence to verify Kai and Sage's theory. They only needed to conduct an experiment to be sure, so they decided to use Haki since it was the most practical option.

Project [Royal Silence] was actually the idea of using Conqueror’s Haki to affect the spiritual part of Quirks and thus deactivate them in a manner similar to Aizawa’s ability. They used the data collected from the homeroom teacher and several hypotheses to form an idea of how to do it, deciding that the first guinea pig would be Midoriya Izuku.

The choice of the green-haired boy hadn’t been random; he was, until now, the only one in whom they could detect something separate to attack. In everyone else, their Quirks were part of themselves, so Observational Haki detected them as a single entity, making things difficult. No matter what they tried, the best they could achieve was to make the test subject faint.

…

Meanwhile, Midoriya was beginning to have a panic attack as he felt One For All slipping out of his control, to the point where he could barely activate it slightly. That made him look at the smiling young man who stared at him with those eerie blue eyes and a malevolent smile on his face. But at that very moment, his mind drifted to a conversation he had with All Might some time ago.

+++

In the UA’s counseling room, All Might sat on one of the sofas wearing an elegant business suit that looked a bit large on his slimmer physique, which, unlike when Kai saw him, was now more muscular and solid—very similar to that of a seasoned boxer, though still smaller than his hero form.

“Midoriya-shonen, what do you think of Kai-shonen?” All Might asked seriously to a nervous Midoriya dressed in the UA uniform, who quickly answered nervously.

“H-he’s really scary and very strong.”

“I see… Midoriya-shonen, do you remember why I wanted to pass One For All on to you?” All Might nodded and asked again seriously, to which Midoriya responded more firmly.

“To become the next Symbol of Peace.”

“Exactly, but there’s something else in the reason I decided to entrust you with One For All, and that is Kai-shonen. Because he, despite his age, wields a power capable of competing with me at my prime, and as you’ve seen, he’s not exactly heroic. Depending on the circumstances, he could even fall onto the path of evil.” All Might spoke seriously while looking straight into Midoriya’s eyes, who wore a stupefied expression, but the Symbol of Peace continued speaking.

“So, Midoriya-shonen, your greatest rival is none other than Kai-shonen, and you must face him with the goal of surpassing him because if he really ends up falling into the hands of evil, you will be the only one capable of stopping him!”

+++

(I can’t lose, I can’t give up, I promised All Might!!!!)