Chapter Text
It was with great self-restraint, and no small amount of worry over Inko’s reaction, that All For One refrained from sending Kurogiri to collect Izuku.
He had not had a similar reason to keep himself from going after the villain who had hurt his precious child, however, and what little remained in the aftermath had been given to a delighted Dr. Tsubasa for further study.
It never hurt to find things to keep the good doctor entertained. The man was brilliant, of course, but too prone to pursuing his own interests when bored.
The last thing they needed was a repeat of the self-replicating Nomu incident; as intriguing as the concept seemed on paper, the end result had been too similar to the titular species from the Gremlins series he had seen in his youth.
And they’d had the attitude to match.
Even with his considerable powers (and Tomura’s homicidal rage after finding the mutilated remains of his new PlayStation scattered throughout their base), elimination of those pests had taken the better part of two days.
Burning the last one to a crisp had been incredibly satisfying, but not worth being worn down to his last nerve beforehand.
That would not be allowed to happen again. Ever.
No Nomu would be created without a specific purpose, and he would be kept informed of any changes that were being made before those changes were put into place.
‘Inspiration struck’ was not a valid excuse. Tsubasa was good, but even the best was replaceable under the right circumstances.
Still, the failed Nomus had nothing on the latest challenge in his life.
Izuku, and that irritating Quirk of his.
Legacy.
Even the name seemed to mock Hisashi, reminding him of how easily Izuku was erasing his legacy, defiling the very blood in his veins and replacing it with another’s.
Multiple others, if the information he had so far been sent could be trusted.
Hisashi wanted to be proud that Izuku had such a useful ability. In a way, he was. Legacy wasn’t so dissimilar to All For One; both involved taking the powers of another and giving them to the user, to be kept and used as desired.
Legacy was just as much a continuation of All For One as Izuku was of Hisashi.
It was an exceptional power, and no one was more deserving of the gift, late as it was, than his son.
But, despite all that...
With a click, Hisashi pulled up the latest email from his inbox for the third time that day.
While it was true that his eyes had been irreparably damaged during his fight with All Might, a minor astral projection Quirk allowed him to ‘see’ as well as ever, and as his consciousness pushed past his skin, Hisashi’s phantom gaze swept past the words, locking onto the pictures below.
There were only two included in the attachment, both of his son.
Hisashi didn’t want to look at them.
All For One burned in the back of his mind.
He kept looking.
The first was of his Izuku...or rather, a strange mimicry of Izuku made from what looked like emerald green slime. It was a thick material, but slightly see-through in the right light. He could see the boy’s features, but less clearly defined in their current form, hair in their standard curls, but as solid pieces, with no strands visible.
Eyes, nose, and mouth were all there, though no sign of his usual freckles, and the rest of his body was the same, from the ‘clothes’ that faded into his skin at the edges and feet that spread out on the floor like melting ice cream.
The Quirk he had copied from the sludge villain. Idly, he wondered about how Izuku looked more like the slime kits sold to children than the thicker, more viscous appearance of the original.
It was the villain’s Quirk, but not quite.
What one could expect from a Quirk passed down from parent to child.
Not that that was the case here, because Izuku only had the two parents.
Inko thought Izuku made a cute slime, messy as he was.
Hisashi rather thought he’d look better with skin, hair, and eyes he couldn’t look through, but he supposed his wife had always had a different sense of aesthetics.
Izuku didn’t seem...entirely real as a slime, and perhaps that was why this was the easier of the two photos to view. He could imagine what he was looking at to be more an artistic rendering of his son than the boy himself as the child of the villain who had nearly killed him.
He did not have that option with the second.
Izuku was meant to be green, not blonde.
Bright yellow hair stuck up at odd angles, less curled than his original locks. He retained his usual skin tone and his freckles, but the green irises that matched his wife’s were set in more angular eyes.
Facial features were sharper, though just a bit, and his body...
Well, if Izuku went to school like that, he wouldn’t be considered one of the shortest boys in his class anymore. Tall, though still thin, and waving at the camera, a big, oddly familiar grin on his face.
He looks like a sunflower.
Hisashi might not like Izuku in his slime form, tying him to the pathetic sewer trash who had so nearly killed him, but he could deal with seeing it again.
The sludge villain was gone and would never return. At most, his remains would go towards the creation of a new Nomu, which would almost be a fitting payment for the slight against Hisashi’s family.
But that second form...the one he’d gotten from a Mr. Yagi...
Mr. Yagi who worked at a REAL hero agency.
Mr. Yagi who thought Izuku’s Quirk would help him become a great hero one day.
Mr. Yagi who was giving his son tips on how to use his newfound abilities, like he had any idea how a Quirk like that worked.
And, let’s not forget, Mr. Yagi, who now had a standing invitation to dinner in his home, because Inko had taken to Izuku’s trainer immediately and wanted to encourage the relationship that was ‘so good for him, Hisashi. O-our Izuku is so much happier kno-knowing s-someone believes in him!’
Inko promptly burst into tears after that and Hisashi was halfway to following her example, though for very different reasons.
No, as much as is pleased him to know that Izuku was in a better place emotionally now that he had a visible Quirk, and one impressive enough to get his classmates off his back, Hisashi had no intention of attributing the changes to Mr. Yagi.
The Mr. Yagi who was all his wife and son were talking about these days.
It was infuriating.
Even All Might in his prime, the man who had ruined his body beyond recognition and unwittingly forced him away from his family and life outside of All For One, had never vexed him the way every mention of Yagi did.
All Might had never mattered to him on a personal level. He was no different from Shimura before him, and the ones before her.
They were self-righteous fools keeping him from his brother’s Quirk, true, but that was all they were. Bumps in the road. One For All became stronger with each generation, so it was only a matter of time until it became too much for anyone other than him to handle.
He wanted it back now, but he could wait if he had to.
What was happening with his son now couldn’t wait.
And even the strategic mind of All For One didn’t know how to fix it.
In the end, his first step to getting a better look into his son’s life came not from himself, but days later from Tomura.
Taking a break from a negotiation with a local crime lord, All For One decided to check in on his protege.
The first surprise was that he was not in his room, playing one of his racing or shooting games, or off bothering Kurogiri or threatening the doctor with a full or partial dusting.
Instead, he was seated in the room Kurogiri had set up as a communal living space, tapping at a large, flat object in his hands.
Interesting.
His hand went to the intercom button.
“What are you doing, Tomura Shigaraki?”
The boy’s head snapped up, the pinky finder of his right hand coming perilously close to the thing he was holding.
”Ah! U-h, good morning, Sensei.“ A trace of red crept across pale cheeks, no doubt embarrassment at being caught ignoring the few assignments he’d been given for the day. Again. ”I’m just...” a finger swiped the top of the flat surface, ”reviewing those notes you added earlier!”
The object was raised towards the nearest camera, and he saw that it was a tablet. Tomura had been going over notes, or at least pretending to.
...notes made in a shared file...
...that anyone could read whenever they wanted, as long as they had a way to access them.
Oh.
Removing his finger from the intercom, Hisashi turned back to the computer, ignoring whatever his student was saying, the words no longer being picked up by the system.
He did tell Inko he would be sending Izuku something to celebrate.
And what better way for an active boy to take notes than on something as mobile and easy to use as a tablet? A nice, sturdy one with a good battery and lots of storage.
Yes, this would work well. Izuku would love it and he would have a much easier time keeping updated on his son’s activities.
As for Yagi...well, surely he would be out of his son’s life after middle school. It wouldn’t be ideal, but he could afford to be patient.
Once Izuku no longer felt the need to interact with the man on a regular basis, he could arrange for a little introduction.
Everything would work out if he waited for an opening. It was only a matter of time.