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All for One stared out the window. Lightning flashed. Thunder followed.
He took a deep breath. Today was a momentous day. For him. For his young son. But he was still nervous. What if it didn’t work? What if it went wrong? What if-
No. He wouldn’t think like that. He and the doctor had checked and rechecked everything. It was all accounted for. This wouldwork. Even if Izuku wasn’t his son, it would work.
All for One turned and walked away just as another bolt of lightning flashed, the thunder following behind him. He walked down the empty hospital hallway toward the Doctor’s lab. He passed a calendar with the date. Friday, October 13. The time for delay was not now. Today he would give his son what he deserved.
All for One received the call. The Doctor confirmed what All for One had known since Izuku’s birth. His son was quirkless. On the one hand, it should kill that ridiculous hero dream of his, but on the other it made his son so unhappy. He’d seen the crushed look in his eyes. He’d heard the whispers of the other children treating him differently.
As much as All for One disliked that, he couldn’t force his son to cheer up (quirk-induce euphoria was rather artificial and came with a host of side effects), and forcing children to treat him the same as everyone else was similarly difficult (it would be easy for All for One to “take care of” a few bullies, but his son simply not belonging? Much harder without the results being obviously fake).
So, he decided to fix the problem at its source. Even if Izuku had a quirk, All for One was confident he could smother that hero dream with minimal drama over the course of raising him. He had a decade after all.
He could just give his son a quirk and say the doctor was wrong...
But he didn’t want to give his son any quirk. He only wanted him to have the best quirk. Fortunately, there may be a way to do that. He called the Doctor.
“Doctor, how has that “special project” we’ve been working on been going? The one with my quirk?”
“It has progressed well ahead of schedule my lord! We should be able to transplant a full version into a living being very soon! But I still haven’t figured out how to send all of the quirks you’ve accumulated over even with heavy body modifica-“
“Never mind that. What about the empty version of my quirk?”
“Theoretically we could do it now. But it has some problems my lord. The adult body rejects it, while the binding process is too strenuous for a younger less developed body. It’s doable, but it has a significant risk of damaging or killing the subject. I was going to put the experiments on hold to do more research bu-“
“What would it take to find a way to safely bind it to a child? A small one who’s quirk should be coming in any day, or should have come in several months ago?”
“I don’t know yet my lord. I was going to do more research, but if you’d like I could try an actual attempt. Those do yield better data, but to solve the problems would either take a few years or dozens of tes-“
“I want you to perfect it within a year. I will provide you with as many test subjects as you need.”
“Yes, my lord. That should be possible.” A pause. “Does this by any chance involve your son?”
“Does it matter?” All for One asked, the edge in his tone threatening the doctor if he dared to cut corners based on the answer.
“No my lord. I suppose not.”
“Good. Begin your work as soon as possible. I will be in touch.”
All for One hung up. He looked out on the rainy skies and smiled. Soon, he would have the perfect gift for his son…
All for One entered the lab. A massive form moved in the shadows. In the dim light, All for One could make out the shape of a massive, musclebound human draped a long cloak. Light reflected off of two eyes that focused on All for One. He did not look unlike a monster from a horror movie.
“My lord,” Gigantomachia said, dipping his head.
“Gigantomachia,” All for One answered in a nod.
He walked further into the laboratory, passing tanks filled with the Doctor’s work. Some of them were in various stages of dissection, some had already been fully altered into Nomu. Others may shudder at the sight of these twisted human weapons, but All for One thought nothing of it. They wouldn’t hurt him, he’d programmed them not to.
As he walked All for One noted the twisting architecture and dark foreboding lighting with approval. Most mad scientists tried to cover their ethical bankruptcy under a veneer of respectability, performing their horrors in sterile rooms not unlike a regular laboratory. All for One appreciated that the Doctor was so willing to embrace the “mad scientist” aesthetic for his lab (at All for One’s request, it was his funding after all). It gave the lab such a wonderful atmosphere.
All for One walked past the Doctor’s various experiments, towards the most important one of all.
The Doctor was looking at a screen attached to a large scanning device, examining a small boy lying on a hospital bed. All for One walked over to the sleeping boy and took a long look at him.
His face looked so peaceful, just like it had when he rested in his crib, in what to All for One seemed like yesterday. All for One resisted the urge to brush his hands through the messy green curls, or to place a kiss on the freckled cheek. He couldn’t disrupt the Doctor’s work. He couldn’t risk any errors. This was his son, Izuku Midoriya. And he would not let harm come to him because of a momentary lapse in self-control.
All of the work over the last few months, all of his time reaching through the cracks of society, plucking up those who had fallen through so the Doctor could thoroughly investigate what they were about to do, all of the efforts to hide his operations (and its “waste products”) from the authorities, all of the projects delayed, it would all be worth it if this worked.
He would have other chances to enact his plans for society. He’d already been doing this for two hundred years. He could wait a few more. But Izuku? He couldn’t wait. A day to him was what a year was to All for One. Him needing to be kept in blissful ignorance of his quirk’s true source further shrank their window of opportunity. The longer they waited, the more questions that might be asked.
Fortunately, the extra sacrifices he and the Doctor made got them to the point where they were confident it would work. The only cost was that they would need to slow down everything else for a time to allow the authorities to lose any interest they might have gained.
In the meantime, this bonding would work, like it had several times before.
All for One walked into the room where the three test subjects were playing with their new quirks. They had apparently invented a game where they used an arm stretching quirk and passed it from subject to subject, like a game of catch and tag combined. He’d wondered why they’d asked about that particular quirk. He’d have to play that with Izuku sometime...
“I see you’ve developed a game for your new quirk. Such creativity,” he said.
At the sound of his voice the three all rushed over to him, eager to tell him about all of the new things they’d learned with their quirk. Most of it he’d already done himself when he was young, but a few of their ideas sounded like something he and Izuku could try.
“I’m so proud of all of you,” he said with a warm smile. And he was. They had all played their parts perfectly in his experiment. They helped to show he and the Doctor that they were indeed ready, and taught them a few final touches to add.
He pulled the three into a tight embrace.
Let it never be said he could not be a merciful man. They’d been enjoying a happy moment. None of them felt a thing.
But he could not take their quirks away, and there was only room for three All for One users in his vision. One was himself, the other a pawn he was still molding, like a potter with a lump of clay, and the last was Izuku, who was his.
All for One turned to the Doctor, who nodded at the screen one last time before turning to All for One.
“Doctor, is he ready?” All for One asked.
“All of his vitals are strong, I have a full scan of his body and medical data. Everything is ready and calibrated my lord,” said the Doctor.
“He won’t remember any of it?”
“No. He is completely sedated. He may move, twitch, and tense up as if he’s in pain, but he won’t remember a thing.”
All for One nodded and gently lifted his son. He took off Izuku’s clothes and left him in only a special pair of underwear. He placed a breathing mask over Izuku’s face, and placed him in the cylindrical vat used for the procedure.
Through the glass, he watched his son floating in the sickly green fluid (not like the forest green of Inko and Izuku’s hair and eyes). He took a deep breath and resolved himself. Not taking his eyes off his son, he told the Doctor, “Do it.”
“Yes my lord,” said the Doctor. He heard the Doctor walk over to the control button and begin activating the device. Lights began to blink along the walls and ceiling. The machinery around the room began humming to life. Gears and pistons let out a loud whine as they finally began to move.
All for One walked over to the control panel and looked at the screen. It still had a red light. All for One placed his hand around a large switch.
The light turned green.
All for One pulled the switch.
The room went into chaos. Electrodes crackled with electricity, lights flashed frantically around the room. But they were but flickers next to the light pulsating from the tank, which now glowed, illuminating the entire room.
Izuku writhed inside the tank, curling in on himself as if in agony. It took nearly all of All for One’s willpower to not leap in there and rescue his boy.
The machinery began to scream. Sparks began flying out.
“Oh my,” said the Doctor.
All for One’s head whirled around, “What do you mean? Has something gone wrong?! Shut it off!”
“No my lord,” the Doctor said shaking his head, “nothing’s gone wrong, it’s going right.” The Doctor vibrated with excitement. “As I suspected, your son is adapting to the quirk and taking on its power exponentially better than any of the previous subjects! He’ll be able to use it more proficiently than them in but a fraction of the time! He may not have inherited your quirk, but he did inherit some of your biology! Your son is incredible!”
All for One’s eyes widened and he looked back at his son. Are you really doing that well Izuku? He felt pride welling up in his chest. Nothing less than greatness from you, my flesh and blood.
The vat began to crack.
“Doctor?”
“It’s finishing now! Just a few more-“
The vat exploded into a rain of glass and green liquid. It flowed harmlessly past the Doctor and All for One’s feet. All for One leapt up onto the platform that had been the vat to see to his son.
Izuku lay motionless in the center. All for One took off his breathing mask and felt for a pulse. If Izuku was dead, All for One would make sure the Doctor was-
He felt it. A pulse. A strong one. Izuku’s chest rose and fell rhythmically. All for One cradled his son in his arms and carried him to the scanning table, hooking him up as fast as he could. The Doctor activated the scanner and looked at the screen.
“His vitals are…perfect! Your son has gone through the procedure with no damage! Congratulations my lord! Your plan was a complete success!” the Doctor said.
All for One looked at Izuku. He could see the light of a quirk inside of him. Not powerful, but not like any other in the world. He touched Izuku’s hand and brushed his thumb over the small hole now adorning Izuku’s palm, matching the one on All for One’s own. He couldn’t take the quirk. There were only two quirks in the world that functioned like that, All for One, and One for All. He’d done it! He’d given his son his quirk! All for One hugged Izuku.
“Well done Doctor!” he said with a broad smile, “Your brilliance has outdone itself yet again!” Positive reinforcement was a powerful tool for those who pleased you.
The Doctor nodded, beaming, “Thank you my lord!”
Gigantomachia lumbered into the room. “Are you all right my lord?”
“Yes Gigantomachia. We were doing something to help my son here, and it worked.” All for One gestured to Izuku.
Gigantomachia’s sniffed Izuku and gasped, “A little lord! I WILL GIVE MY LIFE TO PROTECT HIM AS I DO YOU!” Gigantomachia said in that rather amusing tone he used for all of his dramatic declarations.
All for One nodded. “As I expected, but for now I need to be discreet. So I won’t be having you guard him for now.”
“Of course, my lord,” Gigantomachia said, his tone slightly disappointed.
All for One cleaned his son, dried him, and dressed him again. Then he carried Izuku toward the exit. Izuku would believe he’d fallen asleep on the way to the doctor’s for his “special appointment”. Inko would believe that, as the Doctor had suggested to her, her son may have had a hidden quirk all along that bloomed late in a freak of nature.
All for One already had plans in place to introduce Izuku to his new quirk: Some “patients” (plants) in the hospital whose lives would be helped by losing their quirks, a cover story where All for One had obtained his quirks from people like them (Izuku was rather sentimental, like All for One’s brother had been), and a manufactured reason for why Izuku could not tell anyone, even his mother, the true nature of his quirk.
But all of that was for later. For now, All for One placed his boy on a bed and smiled at him. He’d have so much fun with his new quirk. It had taken a lot of effort to give this to Izuku, but it was all worth it.
For his son, he’d give nothing less than the best.