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Bright light produces the thickest of shadows, a turn of phrase that used to be passed around during the peacetime under All Might. For a man whose triple digit life span allowed him see the shadow and the light eras, the light often caused more trouble than what was worth. Nothing demonstrated this more when the radio faded out a song that was being happily hummed too, into an emergency announcement about the dangers of the heatwave. Frustrated at being scammed out of a rare song from an era only he and another person remembered, the radio was smacked off. Perhaps it was only him and the other person that remembered what a radio truly was and enjoyed that era to the point that the Government saw them as dried up old men. Proving otherwise, the man swung his legs off the head of the dole-sole looking creature and stood up straight, barely reaching the height of his desk.
This heatwave had been destructive both above and below ground with several bodies prepared for tanks becoming too stale to use and a constant need of hand disinfecting being tiring. Pumping any more electricity or air conditioning down here would set off enough flags that the sniffers would come calling. People staying much longer in the streets at night with heat had meant that his pets couldn't go for extended walks and the copious amounts of sweat under a doctor's garb made his body feel like atrophy incarnate. He wondered if it would be worth checking on the third radio user, but hovering over the key, decided against it. Buried in soil is probably both cooler and more comfortable than trying to exist up there.
“You probably don’t even remember the last heatwave, do you Machia?”
No response from anyone, at best he could take the Nomu back scratching itself against his leg as a sign of life. Tartarus was miles away and even though his companion had a forever piece of him inside of All For One, he would never have the same spiritual connection. There was no radio for the Doctor. There was no Kurogiri for the Doctor. Johnny was no vocal and while he did care for the tiny Nomu, and care for him deeply, that was the best he was gonna get until he could make another pet-Nomu. Only one goal remained, while everyone else flew the nest and in weather like this. That fact showed how hollow longevity really was.
There is nothing, nothing beyond this underworld for a man like him anymore. Jakku had become almost completely autonomous. He lived for only that ratbag and gasbag who were probably destroying All For One’s legacy as they speak...There was an irony in this situation. Just as Machia slept underground soothed by the tones of All For One’s voice, the doctor was almost becoming the same. As the radio broadcast of adverts, hero numbers and general safety warnings finally finished, the doctor sulked back into his chair, fanning himself with the cloned documents of Quirk registration that he didn’t have the energy to file away and threw his legs back onto the Nomu’s head.
And gently, his strength lost out to the heat of the underground lab.
,,,and the files hit his lap.
...and finally both his glasses lenses dimmed the lights.
-------The sun was so much more tolerable in an era branded as the “shadow era”-------
The snore of a man almost the same size of stolen prize topiary water features roared over the top of a sea of colours. This spring and summer had heralded a bountiful array of flowers and temperatures, and not even the rising star of ‘All Might’ could quite reach the brightness currently.
At the top of the garden, the bag of Quirks was allowed to tan freely out in the open letting the water from the topiary’s hand trickle over his feet. Wiggling his toes under the fresh cold water, and nuzzling underneath the flowers. Instinctual, almost animal like. The radio that hung around his chest couldn’t be heard over the rumbles of his snoring but the recordings and replying of the same speeches or white noise keep him still enough that one could mistake him for a very ornate rock sculpture that someone put clothes onto. Pure peace and bliss that those observing from the ground, were observing with a smile.
“I did not believe Machia had it in him to sleep.”
All the way at the other end of the garden where the water from the topiary reached the pond the owners of the giant that sat tempting their own feet with the clear blue. Pulling down his headphones, the smaller man tweaked his moustache and answered through rampant in the prototype hand costume on the bridge behind them turning birds and bees into dust, which for anything bar Destro’s vision would’ve been priority number one for hero or parent alike. Any concerns Kyudai ever had were always handwaved in the same way.
“It’s part of the plan doctor…”
What a powerful hand that was, that now sat as a fast shape holding up it’s head with a smug smile, wearing clothes vastly unfit for this weather below the waistline. If All for One handed mangled the last remaining suit jackets toying with Kyudai’s children, then they’d both be matching top wise. Worrying not about the state of the child, or the world, or Kyudai’s immense amount of hospital work, the man who still stole comic books from the hospital waiting room would simply ask what All Might was up to every half an hour. Not that Kyudai would moan out loud, the fruits of his research and the symbol of the Quirk singularity had exhausted himself from falling asleep on his shoulder, managing to worm himself onto the doctor’s sun lounger.
Now the little prodigy of quirks that would be eventually crafted into Kyudai’s magnum opus, was away with the fairies. ‘Training’ is what All For One had called it, and ‘practice’ is what was the instructions he gave to his handler who sat with a book also away with the beady black sunglasses;
“Hibernation, more so. He does not need to sleep but can turn himself down to minimal activity. Not unlike yourself soon, All For One.”
The added bait had caught it’s fish. Perched on an upper long rock, another voice dangled white shirt and hair over him, attempting to puff his chest out while looming over the pint sized man.
“Come oo~on, Kyu~~dai no need to keep up the science act here!”
Hand waving him away, trying to get his moustache and face away from coming into contact with the bare open chest that had his own handiwork over it. Returning his headphones over his ears, the doctor returned to typing away on the laptop that was burning his lap more than the sun was burning his exposed bald noggin. A difficult task when the long legs the size of Kyudai kept impatiently wagging and hero-tongue-polished shoes catching the light. Even with Kyudai's brilliant blue flower patterned trunks, the jittering and poses to look cool of the taller man was far more childish. Kyudai had remarked this after slamming the enter key, but as expected all he got back was a chuckle and a smug smile.
"What can I say, doctor? You've given me a spring in my step."
A child. A man-child who still fawned over comic books and despite having the patience to wait out One for All, had no patience in the day to day. There was his own adopted child running fairies. This sort of freedom for the child wasn’t really allowed outside of Sensei’s direct watch or without a Nomu pet chipping at his heels, so the little dyke had taken to exploring the garden to its full extent. That extent being once the mass of the black mist eventually got up and warped the tyke back onto their section of the garden. Sometimes, he wouldn’t even be able to open the book before he was hanging over the bridge and scooping up the child in a miasma of black clouds with the child fighting every inch.
“Idiot! Stupid! Let me go! Kurrrr~oi…! I’ll tell Sensei!”
Swallowed in and reset underneath the pink tree and small stone column lantern, the child huffed and puffed but stayed in the same level of the garden. Kurogiri returned to his book, with one misplaced floating golden ‘eye’ pinned on their leader’s chosen offspring who was already back to to aggressively trying to poke down a pretty red bird. Turning his attention when the bird flew off, he noticed that the giant statue of a sleeping man on top of the giant topiary
“Ay! At! That statue moved! HEY HEY! IDIOT IDIOT GET SENSEI”
The yelling was loud enough to pierce through Kyudai’s headphones and pull them down, shoved the sleeping All For One off his shoulder and the sucking mouth from outright biting off the doctor’s ear.
“Your child is causing chaos.”
Deliriously, the man smiled proudly half listening and rattled his fuzz of white hair. Giving out a yawn loud enough to rumble the heavens, All For One clicked his fingers at the Doctor.
“It’s a friday night already? Doctor, I could’ve sworn I had a bout or three last night.”
Drenched in sweat to the point the free flowing unbutton shirt might as well be repurposed as a food bag the way it gave up holding the meat inside. Last night’s impact wounds now slowly behind covered up by All For One being a prime cooked lobster and any mutations or transferring the defensive Quirks gave almost completely gone. Kyudai slammed his laptop shut and resigned his fate, ever grateful that his current most fruitful endeavour meant he only had one child to be both doctor and parent too.
"Kurogiri coddles Tomura in the mist, and you should act out your role as the child's--"
Cut off by a sharp pain in his ear, All For One had pinched his teeth on the doctor's ear, the pain and shock almost made the Doctor lose his sunglasses and laptop.
"You chew my ear off worse than the granny herself."
And with that, All For One put the snooze button on Kyudai's nose and curled up into the doctor's roundness as if his Quirk made him a cushion. The doctor barely had time to shuffle out his phone to try to contact Kurogiri and tell him to let the child go and keep his energy up. His quirk needs to continue manifesting and him slowly destroying his playground will be a good lesson. The bundle of miss picked up his book once more, and sprawled his legs out, attempting to emulate the same level of comfort and relaxation as the other members of the unit. It was a failed attempt, however, as the little Tomura went speeding by and gained enough gravel in his face to last lifetime. Something deep inside of Kurogiri stirred, something that irked against the Doctor’s command...and he tended to the kids wounds with his own waistcoat.
“Are you sure---”
Kyudei did go to speak to All For One but after feeling numbness in his arm, observed that the former overlord went back to mimicking the man in the topiary; and much like the giant, whose rock maw made for tearing about the earth was, also now watering the earth with drool. Swiping it off, Kyudai wiped his hand off on the older man’s trousers.
“...you really don’t do well in the sunlight…”
Trapped between a rock and a near six-foot-five hard place, the Doctor replaced his headphones and went back to watching the gentle feed of his children in their tanks. Stumpy little toes wiggling in time with their little pulses and signs of life. The shouts from Kurogiri chasing down the rat bag drowned out with the gentle hum of machinery. The worries of Machia replaced by one simple auto play of the radio broadcast button. This heatwave, where hero equipment faulted, there was no All Might buzzing about for All For One to be smug at with Quips. There were no bodies dropped at his door with no say. This small fragment of their long term plan was what made it all worthwhile.
He’d even hesitantly call their unit.
...something resembling some sort of family.
