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All For One leans back in his chair his fingers digging into his temples to ward off the headache that’s building thanks to the work he’s putting his newly reborn eyes through. It’s hard to tear himself away from the novelty of doing his own paperwork, of seeing and deciding for himself without any outside influence to sway him. Nonetheless he plucks the temporary prescription lenses from his nose with a groan placing them on the table so he can rub at the headache blooming behind his temples without pushing his glasses around on his face.
It’s hard to keep from marveling at every simple thing he used to take for granted. He can see, the world blurred and fuzzy, but there for him to view for the first time in years without the use of a quirk. He can hear clearly, words and sounds no longer distant or muddled, but sharp and pristine. His nose works again able to smell the age of the paper, the damp of the room, the richness of a hot meal cooking.
He sighs as he runs his fingers through his hair marveling at the feel of its silky texture. Despite it being much too short for his liking it’s there and he’s basking in how wonderful it is to have hair again. It’s like a drug far more potent than any of the one’s he’d used to ward off the pain of being torn apart and sewn back together again.
Almost everything that’s his has been returned to him and now all he needs is to plot the final stages of his revenge. All Might will die, his brother’s quirk will either stay with his wayward child or find its way back into his hands, and once the world learns that he is not just some monster lurking under the bed to threaten their kids with they’ll all bow before his throne or perish by his hand. He’s barely even started but already his victory feels assured. He stands stretching out the kinks that have gathered in his back and places his glasses back on. He’s done enough planning for today.
He turns to face the massive wall of glass and water that surrounds him his lips unconsciously stretching into a grin as he watches his collection of tropical fish dart to and fro. Blue tinted light bathes his skin in a gentle glow, a balm to his still healing overly sensitive eyes. It thickens the air with the tang of moisture reminding him that he’s breathing air that isn’t filtered to death and flooded with medication. The sight of his fish all so colorful and bright is the perfect antidote to his years spent without the use of his eyes.
Black and white stripped eels gape at him from their dens as hundreds of tropical fish dart around the coral inserts. Still growing young sharks cast shadows on him from where they circle overhead as stingrays slowly glide past. His lips curve upward in a grin as his eyes dart to and fro between the tanks colorful occupants.
Just being able to see the swirls of color for himself without the distortion his multitude of sight replacing quirks brought is intoxicating. The aquarium brings life into this dark dreary place, giving what would otherwise be a den of monsters something pure and untainted.
His aquarium isn’t without purpose however; he isn’t one to waste his funds on something this frivolous without having another use for it in mind.
He places a hand to the tank, the glass cold against his palm and lets out a short burst of electricity that startles away the closest of his fish. He squints his eyes trying to catch a glance of the thing he’s looking for. He raps his knuckles against the glass with a slow tap, tap, tap, scattering the fish from the noisy vibrations. His eyes jump eager to follow the darting colors, but his grin turns sour as the moment drags on and the fish slowly return.
He leans forward resting his head against the glass peering into the depths squinting to clear his vision. “Hiding yourself away again? You can’t stay mad at me forever, eventually you’re going to stop sulking and come out of your little hideaway to talk to me.”
He waits a few minutes occupying himself by seeking his quarry and enjoying the colorful display. His patience slowly but inevitably ticking away like the clock over his desk.
“You can either come to me or I can come to you the choice is yours.” His threat hangs heavy in the air and heavier in the water, looming like a larger toothier version of the sharks swimming overhead. For a second he believes he will have to make good on his threat and then he sees it.
A mound of sand near the back of the tank shifts something under it moving about sending up little clouds of sand as it starts to rise from the sandy bottom. Shades of dark green begin to appear as the sand falls away until the creature shakes off the rest of its bedding and floats before him. The sand forming a tan haze around it before settling down to the bottom of the tank.
Mermaid is the first word that comes to mind when the creature turns to look at him with big green eyes that glow with a light of their own. It’s a bit of a misnomer; merman would be more fitting as the boy is clearly just that, a boy. The merman is elegant in the way creatures of the ocean tend to be, an ethereal creature with long flowing fins and features that are both alien and familiar.
He has a button nose, big green eyes, cherubic cheeks covered in dark scales that pop against the pale skin like freckles, and thin lips in a shade of light green that’s only just dark enough to stand out from the pale light green of his skin. His ears are replaced by two jagged green fins that flutter in the current. His dark green hair floats around his head in a shadowy halo twisting and twining around itself with every motion he makes.
His tail blends into the light green flesh of his stomach but darkens quickly to a green so dark it looks obsidian in the water. The fins of his tail are a bright green so thin they’re nearly translucent. Dark freckle like scales dot his chest and stripes in various shades of green trace down from his neck to the base of his tail. With those alone he would be eye-catching but his most striking feature is the red pattern across his entire body letting out a poisonous red glow studded with bright white points that glitter like stars. It forms an x on his face that crosses over the bridge of his nose.
The boy stares at him nose scrunched up and eyes narrowed in annoyance at the interruption in his nap bottom lip jutting out in a pout. Green lightning arches off of him as he stretches out fins flaring around him in a display that shows off the white streaks running through them. He swims toward the glass and stops just in front of him, hovering at eye level with a wary look in his eyes that reminds him too much of his brother.
Given how feral he’d been when he’d first been gifted his quirk it’s a relief to see such a human expression on the boy’s face. No longer is his son the snide snarling beast he’d been when the quirk had first settled into his flesh and restored his half dead child to life. The quirk had taken some time to settle as first it drove him wild with the tide of new instincts and urges flooding his brain. For a while he’d begun to fear that the boys mind would never recover and he would be nothing more than another fish in his tank. It’s something of a relief to know that the most adverse effects of the transfer had only been temporary.
He’d had hope then that the boy would give up on the lofty ambitions of his childhood and he would have a willing heir, but time has revealed the truth. The boy is as soft hearted as his mother and as stubborn as his brother. As enamored with heroes as any child of his generation, as starstruck and blind as any child who hasn’t seen reality for what it truly is. Eventually he might sway the boy, but for now he knows he can’t risk pushing him too far.
“Hello Izuku.” He says softly.
Izuku doesn’t return his greeting, someday he will, but he’s patient enough to wait for it to happen naturally. He could only remain so stubborn, eventually he would give in.
His eyes narrow as his eyes are finally able to pick up on the smaller details that distance and his own bad eyesight hid. The boy is too pale, too thin, his skin and scales once healthy shades of light green having taken on a sickly grey sheen. His gills once almost unnoticeable features almost look swollen, the healthy pink lines having turned an angry red. Dark circles sit under his heavily lidded eyes, the bioluminescent quality of them almost completely faded into shadow.
Stubborn and senseless just like his brother.
Sensei forces a genial look onto his face, burying the simmering of his anger under a thick layer of civility. No matter how angry he is he can’t take it out on the boy, he can’t let fear for his health set back his progress.
He smiles his voice as calm and placid as he can make it. “There you are isn’t this much better than hiding away? I made this place for you to enjoy, created so many hidden things for you to discover, given you countless games to play, I ensure you have plenty to eat, but all for naught. You haven’t even taken care of yourself. You’re letting yourself waste away into nothing Izuku and I can’t allow that. I lost my brother to his own stubborn pride and I won’t let my son suffer the same fate. I’ve let this go on for long enough, but I won’t tolerate this any longer.”
He places his hand over the glass reaching out to the boy, trying to close some of the distance between them. “I won’t waste my time trying to convince you that I’m right Izuku. You’re too noble for your own good just like my brother was. You don’t have to stand by my side and I’m not asking you to, I’m not even asking you to like me, the only thing I ask is for you to take care of yourself. Eat, stretch your fins, explore, play games, mock me behind my back for all I care, but don’t try my patience in this. I didn’t save your life just to watch you wither away. I won’t let you, have I made myself clear?”
“Yes father.” The boy hisses through his teeth.
He lowers his hand feeling a frown mar the skin of his mouth. “It doesn’t have to be like this my son. If you wouldn’t run away I would give you your legs back.”
“You stole someone’s quirk to trap me.” The boy says his voice dark with the undercurrents of his fury. The quirk making it sound exactly as it would have if there was air in his lungs instead of water.
“Oh you poor sweet child always looking for the worst in your miserable father, but I’m happy to say I didn’t steal it, that quirk was given to me.” Sensei says voice saccharine sweet with an undercurrent of steel, not in the mood to argue his point any longer. “For some people their quirks just aren’t worth the trouble of having.”
Izuku freezes his head tilting to the side as he looks down at him from where he’d unconsciously floated upwards. He sinks in place until they’re back on the same level his eyes asking the question his mouth won’t. ‘Why would anyone willingly give you their quirk?’
“Do you think just anyone could afford to give someone with a quirk like yours a place like this? Could you imagine the horror of having that quirk and being confined in something so small that you can’t even move let alone stretch out your fins?” He gestures to the tank with dark fanfare smirking as Izuku’s already pale face turns even paler as the realization sets in.
The look on his son’s face and the current of rage bubbling up in his chest spurs him on. He’s close to a breakthrough he can feel it. “The family of the girl who had that quirk spent ages searching for me based on a rumor they’d overheard about a man who could take quirks, making enough noise that eventually I made my way to them. They could barely afford to pay the rent let alone build an environment where their daughter could be healthy. They couldn’t afford anything else so she was confined to a kiddie pool with a cheap aquarium filter unable to do much more than just lay there because if she sat up for too long she’d begin to suffocate. They begged me to take her quirk and now because I did as they asked that child will be able to live a normal life.”
“And I’ll never be able to run away from you.” Izuku says voice shaky but slightly stronger eyes hardened in defiance. It’s the most expression his son has shown in days. “You didn’t help them out of the goodness of your heart and you’re not winning me over that easily.”
Sensei laughs, the sound strangely pleasant to be coming from a super villain. “Nothing gets past you does it my boy? You’re right of course if it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have even bothered with such a useless quirk. Just by existing you’ve saved that girl from a very short and painful life, isn’t that something to be proud of Izuku.”
The boy flinches as though he’s been struck his fins flaring instinctively as he drifts back from the glass.
“Let’s get you something hot to eat.” Sensei says suddenly.
Izuku jolts like he’s been struck as black miasma gathers in his throat. He thrashes as he claws at his throat in a pitiful attempt to escape as the darkness spews from his mouth, but even if this quirk could be fought off with a show of strength he’s too weak and too slow to squirm out of his grip. The miasma floods over him coating his entire body until he’s entirely engulfed in the foul substance and it collapses in on itself, vanishing into the water like it had never existed.
He holds open his arms and the miasma starts to form between them growing larger and larger until it fades leaving his son’s body in his grasp. He tightens his fingers around the boy ignoring the sliminess of his scaly skin and pulls him back dragging him against his chest. His boy flails in his arms as water pours from his mouth chest heaving in a futile attempt to breathe the dry air he’s no longer designed to process.
“I’m sorry Izuku, I know it hurts.” He says as he rubs his sons back as gently as he could manage with his son struggling to breathe in his arms.
He tightens his arm around his son and frees one hand. He brings it up to rest it on Izuku’s forehead letting his power sink in and weaken the bond between the boy and his newest quirk. The bond between the two strains and after a moment snaps like an overstretched rubber band. The quirk sinks into his own body settling into his power like the fish it resembles takes to water.
Izuku shudders as his body changes too quickly for a normal person to track, his tail splitting in to two legs. The scales sinking down into his body as they shift into the fleshy tones of skin as his fins wither away. And in the time it takes to blink his son is practically quirkless again. Only One For All remains.
All For One pulls a collar out of thin air and affixes it to Izuku’s neck and the lightning just beginning to dance across his son’s skin fizzles out.
The boy gasps for air like a drowning man and shivers as his body starts to register the cold as a bad thing. His small arms wrapping around his chest as his lips take on a blue pallor. He carefully lowers the boy to the ground and peels off his jacket settling the warm fabric over Izuku’s shoulders like a blanket to keep off the cold and preserve his dignity. He smiles as the boy pulls it close snuggling into the fabric despite the glare in his eyes that does more to make him look cute than threatening.
“Now let’s get you dried off and dressed in something warm. Then we’ll see about getting some food in you before you pass out.” He says almost gently as he hefts the boy back into his arms.
Izuku doesn’t respond too engrossed in looking down at his legs like they might fade back into a useless tail at any moment. He wiggles his toes, tears gathering at the corner of his eyes finally able to be seen outside the confines of the water.
“I wouldn’t get too attached to them I still don’t trust you not to run away from me. You’ll be going back in after dinner, but I might be convinced to give you a little longer if you can manage to behave yourself. I expect you to speak when you’re spoken to. I expect you to eat your dinner. And I expect you to use your manners at the dinner table. I think those are reasonable requests, don’t you think so Izuku?”
It’s more of a demand that he agree than a question, they both know that; still Izuku looks up at him eyes hard with determination as he answers. “Yes.”
“It’s heartening to know you can be reasonable if the situation calls for it.” His voice is light almost teasing as he resists the urge to ruffle his son’s hair, wet as it is it wouldn’t be pleasant for either of them.
He grins as the boy sinks further into his arms resigned to his treatment. It won’t be long now. Soon he’ll have everything he’s ever wanted.