Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Everything was chaos. That was Izuku’s impression of the world around him.

The week had started as follows; All for One had escaped Tartarus. The impossible had been accomplished by every hero’s worst nightmare. The legendary quirk thief had escaped his vault, and much like the story of Pandora’s Box, there was at least a minute silver lining, He was weakened during the escape, when one of the guards shot him…..

The guard hadn’t woken up yet, and if he did, the life he would lead was beyond depressing to think about.

AFO was weakened, and thankfully didn’t stop to do a little quirk shopping amongst the most dangerous people the government of japan had ever prosecuted. He just picked up his machines with a quirk, got shot in the shoulder, mutilated a person, and flew off.

The search was difficult, and not helped by the lack of movement from the League of Villains, which had grown silent after AFO escaped, and as the hero’s scrambled to find answers, Izuku felt himself fading into the background, as the staff of UA rushed around for any leads. All Might had been distracted almost always on the phone or on the run.

Izuku was certain Nezu had Recovery Girl put him to sleep, and Aizawa wasn’t too far from such a desperate measure being implemented on him. Between dealing with a nightmare class, raising Eri, and constantly being ready in case AFO was spotted, as he was the only one who had a chance of neutralizing him until he could be taken into custody.

Present Mic came to several 1-A students to ask for help. Aizawa needed a break, or at the very least a chance to slow down, so several 1-A students agreed to watch Eri.

Hagakure had been watching her when it happened.

Eri had fallen asleep on the couch, all the other students were at the cafeteria for lunch, and would probably return in ten minutes. Hagakure had been playing hide and seek with Eri, and capitalized on a gift from the support course. She now had clothes that made her completely invisible, and so she snuck into her room, changed, and was ready to play before Eri had finished counting down.

She hadn’t changed out of her costume after the game, just sitting next to Eri watching old cartoons, and waiting for the others to get back. And then the lights went out. The whole roo was dark, and Hagakure was about to pick up her phone when she heard it. A strange viscous gurgling, coming from somewhere to her right, near Eri but not on the couch. Then a light, small, but bright was illuminated from the man standing there. The man from Kamino.

He was smaller than he was at Kamino, but it was him, no one else had such a face, scar tissue completely covering his eyes, and marring his skull, and partially hiding by a ventilator. It was hideous and Hagakurewas terrified, this man ended All Might, stole countless quirks, ruined who knows how many lives. So she sat there, as quiet and still as she could, as he man bent down to jostle Eri awake.

“Eri,” the man said in a hoarse whisper, “I need you to wake up little one.”

As Eri blinked awake, she looked up and froze, no doubt entranced by the disfigurement before her. As she started to tremble in either revulsion or fear, the man spoke again.

“Little Eri, I need you to help me. I won’t last long and you're the only one that can.”

Eri, still trembling, stuttered out “ H-how can I help?”

The mans face either smiled or grimaced, the mask and scars made it hard to tell and said, “I need you to use your quirk on me, and I know it can go wrong, but if you’ll let me I can control how fast it works, amd when it stops.”

Eri still trembling shook her head and Hagakure felt a cold shiver crawl all over her body, wanting desperately to get out and get help, but knowing that any move could spell her death.

Instead of getting angry like Hagakure thought he would, he disfigured villain sighed and bent closer.

“ Eri, I need your help. I’m dying, and I haven’t seen my family in years. I just want to see them, but I can’t like this. You could fix that for me, and I could see my wife. I could see my child again! Please.”

Eri considered, then shook her head and whispered, “I’m not supposed to use it, people could get h-hurt.”

The villain said nothing just leaned back ever so slowly and sighed, “So noble, just like my little one. But I’m afraid I can’t take no for an answer.”

Before anyone could do anything the emaciated villains hands glowed and extended, his fingers stretched out and touched Eri’s hands, and Eri’s horn glowed and the man flickered. He started to change. He started to scream! After about thirty seconds, the man let go of Eri, and the little girl fainted, and the man slumped to the floor heaving until he leaned back smiling madly.

In the chaos the orb of light he had used had flickered and nearly snuffed out, and now was only a tenth as bright as it was. Hagakure could see white hair, eyebrows, and that his face was no longer a twisted wreck.

The villain started laughing and touching his face, “Finally!” he yelled “I’m me again.”

And then the villain turned to her, and said “Make sure she sees Recovery Girl soon, She’s going to be very tired for a while.”

Hagakure was too shocked to do anything, and just sat their until the man extinguished the light, the gurgling sound appeared again and in less than thirty seconds the light’s came back on, and the young hero student ran out to find the nearest teacher.

With her story the silver lining of Pandora’s box burned away, as the greatest villain japan had ever known became restored to his full power, and that somewhere he had a wife. Somewhere he had a child. Somewhere the symbol of evil had a son.

Chapter Text

As he stepped into his office the first thing he turned to was the bookcase next to the door. On the bottom shelf beneath his binders on quirks, and his and the doctor’s research, lay a dust covered book, small compared to the binders, untouched for years, but the wear and tear showed it had once been leafed through constantly. With cracks in the spine, and slightly bent corners.

With a reverence one wouldn’t associate with a man of his infamy, the supervillain bent down, picked it up, and placed it on the desk in front of his chair. He turned to the wall to the left of the door, where a small kitchen set up stood, reached into a cabinet and selected an appropriate beverage. Something celebratory, and nostalgic.

The champagne from his wedding.

Looking at the bottle brought up the memories of that day, but also of the first time he met her. Inko, the single most stunning woman he had ever had the pleasure of meeting, and the displeasure of angering mere moments before.

The wedding was a small affair, simple, and not to his taste. Attending was the price he paid for making this transaction. He needed information on the latest holder of his late brothers power, and the sooner the better. He had thought he had won after that Shimura womans death, but the itch was still there. That sixth sense telling him the power lived on.

He first noticed it after the first time his brothers power was passed on, and after several weeks of medical speculation, and the use of modern medicine, he used a rather powerful self diagnostic quirk, courtesy of a young woman from New Guinea who couldn’t sleep with the intimate knowledge of her own body constantly flowing through her thoughts. Like most abilities of the time, it was barely noticed, until she fell into a coma, and its knowledge became her only sensation. Her ability changed at that point, incessant, loud, intrusive.

She had begged for his help after a friend told her of him, and he all too happily obliged. His own quirk allowed him to turn quirks off, meaning that the quirks incessant bombardment of information could be turned off. So he took the quirk, gave her 5 grand, and sent her on her way.

The first use of the quirk was jarring to say the least. The flood of knowledge took some time to adjust to, and even then, finding one thing in the constant babbling he heard was nearly impossible. After several weeks of testing, trial and error, and three ‘volunteers’ he learned two things.sleep seemed to calm the babbling as the bodily functions slowed, and some ceased temporarily. The second thing he learned was that quirks were too erratic for the diagnostic quirk to fully make sense of, and it focused on them first. The more a person had, the more voices he heard.

Ever since he’d started his empire he had several useful abilities constantly active, such as the physical enhancers, and the thought enhancers. After turning those off, he learned the truth. A piece of his quirk rubbed off onto the stockpiler he gave his brother. And then his brother gave that piece, along with the stockpile to someone else. This caused a unique imbalance, as his quirk remained biologically incompatible to non-relatives.

The logic, while convoluted, seemed to be the only thing that made sense. The itching, while tolerable, was not the reason he wanted the quirk returned or destroyed. He couldn’t stand that a piece of both him and his late brother lay out there, trying to kill him. Hence his presence at the wedding of his informant's daughter.

And why he was bored to tears as the music played at the reception, and he lounged at the bar, waiting for the father of the bride to speak with him. He could be patient, but he loathed boredom.

“At least the food is good,” he mused under his breath, waving at a nearby server. She was pretty, with long green hair in a ponytail, and a sharp uniform, that resembled a suit, but stood out from the suits on the dance floor. She walked over, and as he grabbed a small bowl of soup, the dance ended, and the informant left the dance floor, and headed for the bar. As he passed the server, he did something the supervillain would remember till his death.

The idiot swayed, clearly drunk, and bumped into her. The food flew through the air, toppling backwards into the server spilling the near scalding contents all over the neat suit. It didn’t hit her skin, but the discomfort and shock was evident as the people nearby turned to look at her, gaping.

His informant stammered and apologised, and then ran off to get towels, still swaying as he staggered to the bathroom. Things returned to normal, and as the server stood there, hisashi thought he heard laughter. He thought the whole affair was amusing, but wouldn’t have laughed, as he was just a wedding guest right now.

Then the server’s gaze snapped to him, and melted into a fierce glare. He realized too late that he had been laughing. He thought he’d gotten better at hiding his emotions and thoughts. As he clamped his jaw shut, and prepared an apology, the server stalked over, reached out with her hand and pulled.his tie pulled his body from his chair, and the unexpected shift caused him to fall to his knees.

As he tried to stand, she reached out again, and he felt his breath leave his body, as an excruciating pain came from his lower body. He couldn’t move, and could only look into the glare, as she leaned over and practically snarled “what’s so funny?”

As he looked up at her face, filled with a quiet rage, the truth slipped out ”I thought it was funny, so i laughed,” the look on her face froze, then slipped into a blank stare. Then she dropped her hand, and the pressure from before left, she stepped back, walked to the bar, and sat down. Hisashi felt strange, thrilled, and unafraid, yes, but a touch nervous his informant wa snowher to be seen, and she had been the most exciting part of the evening. Mind made up, the 200 year old supervillain stood up, walked over and said “I’ll buy you a drink for your number.”

She looked at him, took in his simple suit, his tall stature, and cocky grin. She looked at the selection of alcohol before her,and said “I’m inko. Give me some champagne, and its all yours.

Two years later, Hisashi bent down on one knee, and said “if i buy you a drink will you marry me?” Inko looked at him. Took in his suit, his shy smile, his faint freckles that came out in too much sun, or when he was nervous. and how the situation reminded her of their first encounter. She smiled and said “ for a glass of champagne? Of course!” a year later, thay had been married for 9 months, aand welcomed a small green haired bundle into there lives.

Hisashi opened the champagne, poured a glass, and opened the book to the first photo; a beautiful outdoor wedding, with her friends, his associates, and a stunning sunset wrapping the couple in its glow.
Hisashi took a sip, smiled and turned the page.