Dr. Garaki POV:
The year was 2256. My master and I were in Russia following through with his investigation into a very pre quirk era story. His fascination all started back with his younger brothers obsession with comic books, in this case a very old one from the 1990's the 2000's, Hellboy.
See my master had a friend in the US who came across some documents that seemed to suggest the character and his adventures were more than fiction. Albeit not exactly how the comics showed them. Were were here looking into the validity of the evidence provided and the mention of some, immortal man.
This peeked my interest when he told me because my own quirk allows me to live for a very long time under the right circumstances. Yet supposedly one of the henchmen for a villain this Hellboy fought was genuinely immortal. We were currently in a very old cemetery on the outskirts of Moscow.
We were looking for the mausoleum of Rasputin, a master of the dark arts that Hellboy fought on a few occasions. It wasn't hard to find as it turns out it is the only one left standing in the cemetery, its kind of eerie like something dark was keeping it safe from the test of time.
"Lets go, Garaki." My master said calmly as he began to descend into the mausoleum.
We walked down the stairs and came upon an odd sight the room was segmented off at a right angle. "The room was probably circular and maybe some kind of trap separated the room into four quadrants." I said looking at the wall. "We will need to find a way through or deactivate the trap to continue ..."
"Or we can use the hole right here," My master said before pulling me back and punching the angle of the wall allowing us passage to another section. In it we saw a door forward that was sealed shut, "One more time then."
BOOM. All we could see was dust I made my way forward to continue but my master stopped me by grabbing my shoulder. The dust settled and I saw I was about to walk off a very short platform to a long fall. "Thank you sir." I said stepping back.
"Can you see across to the other side?" he asked me.
"Yes, there appears to be three large hammers," I said calmly analyzing the situation. "They look like the once were pendulums and they destroyed a bridge. On the far end of the room is another sealed door and small platform."
"Okay we will have to go across there," my master said. "Get on my back, I'll take us across."
"Right," I said climbing onto his back. He used one of the quirks he stole long ago, I believe it was called air walk. With it he walked us across the room to the small platform and then he busted down the door.
We entered a small chamber on the other side, there was but one hallway that was covered in sharp rusty metal. I went ahead of my master as the hallway only allowed for single file use. On the other end was a hexagonal room with a similarly shaped pit in its center frozen gear all around the room visible through very dusty windows.
"This is it if I recall," My master said coming up behind me. "The room where the immortal man was left to rot, it matches the reports."
I looked into the pit and saw a harrowing site. A man wearing a beaten metal mask impaled on many spikes in a sort of punji pit held there by a giant gear weighing him down. "Well for an immortal man he certainly doesn't look very alive," I chuckled.
"Perhaps he just stopped moving because his position was fruitless without outside help." My master said before using a telekinesis quirk to lift the gear up and then lift up the body. "Come Garaki we have what we came for. Oh and grab his blades from over there"
"Right sir," I said.
Time skip: My laboratory back in Japan
I grabbed my digital recorder, "Autopsy of unknown subject." I spoke into the mic. "Birth place unknown. Subject appears to have suffered from a masochistic compulsion commonly known as surgical addiction. Both eyelids surgically removed along with his upper and lower lips." I came around and pulled out a wind up key of sorts looking at its intricacies. "The blood in his veins dried up long ago, only dust remains. What marvelous will to keep this creature alive." I walked back over to the table where I had placed what he was wearing in the pit. "Subject lost his left hand at some point and replaced it with a mechanical wonder." I studied it slowly in my hands. I heard a soft rustle behind me but paid it no mind.
3rd POV:
Garaki did not know that that rustle was the sign of the being behind him stirring from his very long rest. The man behind him on the table sat bolt upright with no sound made and got up off the table. The barely human walked up to Garaki and reached with his hand and grabbed his mechanical one from him, resetting it in his matching mechanical wrist. He tested the fingers out before his body began to cease up, he reached to where his wind up key should be and tried winding himself up but it was gone.
He spun the Garaki in his chair around grabbing his lab coat by the collar, "Aufziehen!" he shouted to the best of his ability. with no lips it came out awkwardly and barely legible.
"What?"
"Aufziehen!" he shouted again as his body fell to the ground and ceased completely.
Garaki POV:
I wasn't sure of what I had just laid witness to. The man I was preforming an autopsy on was in fact somehow still alive. After placing his body back on the table I went to review the audio to try and figure out what he had said. "Aufziehen!" the recording said then again a moment later.
"Is that German?" I asked my self, "Aufziehen, Key?" I stood up and walked back to the table picking up the still ticking wind up key thing. "Could it really be this simple?" I plunged it back into the hole I pulled it from and turned it a few times.
The ticking noise increased in volume and I could feel what felt like a pulse on his 'normal' wrist. His body twitched and sat bolt up right, turned his head to me and studied my face, "Danke meister," he said then stood up and walked over to the table with his stuff and began putting it all on.
"What?" I asked. "Do I look like someone you know?"
"Sind sie nacht Grigori Rasputin?" he said turning to me.
"I am not Grigori Rasputin he is long dead." I said.
He looked me dead in the eye and wound his key a few times then with speed he had not displayed he came up to me. "Wer bist du dann?" he asked closely observing my face.
"My name is Garaki Kyudai?" I said firmly. "My master and I went and found you in Russia."
"Bring mich zu ihm!" he said pointing one of his blades at my throat.
"Right. Why should I?" I asked.
"I wish to speak to the man who would like to take Rasputin's place." he said now speaking Japanese as he walked over and putting on the rest of his things. Finally grabbing one of the other masks we grabbed from his tomb.
"What should I introduce you as?" I asked slightly scared.
"I had many names long ago," he said walking up to me. "If your master does take his place then you may address me as The Puppet."
"if that's the case," I said. "I have a great idea if this all goes well, we can call you Deku."
"Ha ha ha," he laughed rather mechanically. "I like it."