Work Text:
“Next, lay the wide end over the narrow end. Then, wrap the wide end around the narrow end, but don’t pull tight quite yet. Instead to create a loop in front of the knot. Now take the wide end off yo-”
All For One smashes the pause button and takes in a deep breath. “WHY IS THIS SO TOUGH?!” He’s supposed to meet the leader of some gangs running around in Tokyo today to get their allegiance. Or their quirks, depending on how bad it goes. But he can’t manage to deal with this stupid tie!
He sighs. Alright, calm down. You’ve dealt with worse.
It has been a busy few years for All For One. The rise of quirks, war and destruction throughout the world, his own quirk have all just been a recipe for chaos. But it was still chaos suited for him, using his quirks and his underlings to quickly rise to a position of power. However, throw in his younger brother to the mix, and…
It’s still all a huge mess, even with his brother finally dead at his hands. He isn’t quite sure what happened that fateful day when he decided to bestow upon Yoichi that simple stockpiling quirk. All For One had predicted Yoichi would revolt against him, but to that degree? To suddenly become so organized and determined, joining forces with the prisoners that would take his and his brother’s lives without hesitation, to have such a staggering amount of success against his best forces? There was certainly something going on behind the scenes that even All For One isn’t sure about. Yet. There are still quite a few members of the ‘resistance’ on the run. It won’t be long before they’re surely caught by his forces, and then he’ll have all the pieces to the puzzle! Not that it matters much anyway! His brother is dead, and it’s not like Yoichi had some latent quirk that would allow him to haunt his dear brother from beyond the grave or perhaps even prolong the silly conflict keeping him from his rightful place as the ruler. Yes, yes, these are just wild thoughts, his imagination running amok. He’s just having stupid dreams where his brother stares at him menacingly in a void of darkness.
Well, he can’t worry too much about stuff like that. The past is the past. He has to look forward to the future! It won’t be long before Japan falls under his control. And of course, all the quirks. More and more quirked people are being born everyday. And they’re all…well, most are fascinating quirks. Air Cannon, Kinetic Booster, Longevity - all are wonderful quirks that are a part of him! Sure, he isn’t sure what to do with the potato dehumidifier quirk or the notebook summoning quirk, but that’s what All For One is for! Maybe others will be attracted to his quirks, and fall under his grasp! Hopefully, with the majority of the fighting being ended with the death of his brother, the de facto leader, he won’t have to worry about collecting specifically fighting quirks for a while. It would be bad if a new threat popped up all of a sudden destined to end him.
All For One looked at the mirror. Yeah, he’s not gonna be able to tie this tie.
Okay, okay.
Everything was not okay.
Hm, where to start? It’s been almost a year since Garaki showed up wearing a lab coat and an absolutely horrendous moustache. Does he want to look anymore like a crazy scientist? He even did a little dance and tried to call All For One by ‘Christina’ but he shut up after the first threat to his life. A true S;G fan would have faked the phone calls too. Don’t get him wrong, he can always appreciate more members to work for his shadow organization, but the more or less public advocacy of human experimentation was a bit too much even for All For One. This man was a menace; and the worst part was that he was achieving results. His works on Quirk Theory and the Singularity were attractive, but the ones that were focused specifically on his quirk, on the multifaceted All For One were genius. With the two working together, the applications of All For One could be limitless.
But the damned quirk for the life of him still could not explain what exactly dear brother Yoichi has spawned on this dear earth. All For One wishes he could blame it on a wrong assumption, but he got a few quirks to help him remember people better once his organization started growing rapidly; and sure enough, two of the prisoners that Yoichi freed stared back at him. He’d heard reports of a base of his being attacked. Which, while being within expectations due to the rampant amount of vigilantes still, did not mash well with the fact that the blond haired prisoner attacked him with a quirk that was most definitely not his the last time they met. It was unmistakably his brother’s quirk radiating from the quiet man who introduced himself as the Second holder of One For All.
First off, real creative naming. Secondly, what the hell? What is this One For All and why was he the second holder? Would there be more holders? Would they all have superstrength? Was it just him or did the Second look a bit stronger than Yoichi? Perhaps, it was because of the Second having a quirk to begin with. But, no, that still doesn’t explain how exactly Yoichi’s quirk was given to this Second holder. The Second holder didn’t have any quirk remotely similar to All For One, so maybe it was a third party. A quirk like that could indeed prove threatening to him, and-
“If I may, I believe I might have a hypothesis to soothe your mind,” said Dr. Garaki, breaking him from his thoughts. All For One frowned. Was he muttering again? He’d have to fix that soon, lest he should want his followers to learn about his embarrassing little quirk. Quite literally, since Motormouth, albeit acquired to help him process his thoughts faster, had that annoying side effect.
He and the doctor were holed up in a base in eastern Shinjuku. They were in a room resembling a hospital, no, a cheap clinic. The doctor did his best considering the situation, he supposes. He was currently treating his wounds, or what was left of his wounds after his regenerating quirks took care of the brunt of the damage. Although the situation wasn’t at its worst, he still opted to hide out in the doctor’s temporary base. The surprisingly successful attack from the vigilante duo had put his forces in disarray. Much more than they already were, that is. He was only managing to bring everything to a sense of order after the end of the war when they showed up and ruined everything. A planned attack, and an unforeseen quirk at its helm. Knowledge was lacking, and All For One sought to fix it.
“What is it?” he asked the doctor. As unnerving as the doctor might be at times, his propensity for Quirk Theory was unparalleled.
The doctor shifted around, holding a paper that he’d probably written in while All For One was off on his tangent. “Well, I wouldn’t be quite sure that your brother was quirkless, for starters.”
Ah, his injuries must be more serious than he thought. All For One misheard what the doctor said just now.
“Could y-Could you repeat that again?”
“Well, we’ve been on the lookout for any quirk that might have any resemblance to yours for quite some time and it’s safe to say that no quirk like yours have appeared in anyone in any form. We’ve already acknowledged the Second’s original quirk, and you even saw him use it in battle, so we can conclude that his quirk did not mutate, but instead he now has two separate quirks,” the doctor said.
“Yes,” All For One said through gritted teeth. “He has his own quirk, and my brother’s quirk, Stockpile, that I definitely did not transfer from my dead brother to an escapee.” He raised an eyebrow, wanting to know just what it is that the doctor would say now with that annoying smug face.
“You had a quirk called Stockpile that you passed to your brother. Your brother then somehow passed that quirk to this person. Now, we could not find anyone with any resemblance to your quirk, but we didn’t exactly include all possible suspects while we were scouring for any possibilities.”
“Wh-What do you mean?”
The doctor shrugged, moving his arms around. “Well, you know, you have a quirk that gives and takes quirks, and your brother is indeed related to you. The chances that he had a quirk that could let him pass Stockpile to someone of his own will are pretty high.”
Okay, okay, what? His brother wasn’t quirkless? How did Yoichi not know? Or did he know and lie to him? Did his brother lie to him to convince him to give him a quirk that he could pass down an- Wait, no, Yoichi most definitely was not thrilled to receive Stockpile from him. He tried to punch him as soon as he let him free. He needs to think this through with a rational mind. Maybe not his mind, then, considering his current state. “How?” he asks the doctor.
Garaki was measuring something in a syringe and went in deep thought for just a moment before answering. “It might be a latent quirk, one with very specific activation requirements. Perhaps the requirement was an external quirk?” He paused his work and looked up to him in glee. “That is wildly fascinating, his quirk could only unlock its potential with the help of his brother’s quirk, used to pass to him a quirk of his own.”
“Fascinating as it might be, Dr. Garaki, how much of a threat could it be?” asked All For One with a glare that made the doctor almost drop his syringe.
“W-Well, it depends on what your brother’s quirk even was in the first place. Even if we assume it to be a quirk that allowed your brother to transfer a quirk to another person, we don’t know its exact applications. Maybe your brother could transfer the quirk to different people, maybe that vigilante could pass the quirk to others, or maybe it’s just the vigilante. Although I doubt the last case is happening here,” the doctor said. He tapped on the syringe a few times and came towards All For One. “Alri-”
“Wait, why do you think it’s not the last case?” asked All For One. He was sc- no, not scared! He’s the leader of the Underworld! Just…concerned.
The doctor deadpanned, “Well, he said he was the Second Holder, right? Makes sense there might be more. Okay, enough of that, give me your arm, you need this anesthetic.”
All For One could only pale as the doctor quickly injected a frighteningly unknown liquid to his body. “What? Why? What was that?”
Garaki could only sigh. “Sir, you are aware that you have a bunch of broken bones, broken ribs, multiple fractures and fissures, and quite possibly internal bleeding? I’ll have to do surgery to stabilize the damage. It’ll be fine, you’ll just have to wait before someone else with a healing quirk gets here.”
Right, that happened. Hey, in his defense, he was caught off guard seeing Yoichi’s quirk! Maybe so much so that he just stood there taking a bunch of hits the entire time without being able to do anything. Disappointing but cut him some slack!
Wait, surgery?
“Who cares, there are just 9 broken bones. Not a big deal.”
The doctor shook his head. “Well, whatever quirk you have for fixing broken bones is clearly not working, and you can’t move-”
“What quirk?” All For One asked, squinting his eyes. The doctor looked at him and his eyes widened slowly. His look only got more defeated and defeated as he approached with some medical tools. Hm, he couldn’t hear his footsteps anymore. Did the doctor steal his Muffled Steps somehow? Wait, no, that’s still the-
“As worrying as your nonchalant behaviour towards broken bones is, I’ll just leave the matter alone,” the doctor said. “And since the drug is kicking in, we can’t continue this conversation now at any rate. Just…sleep. I’ve contacted a few people and we might get some people with healing quirks come here in a day, tops.”
The doctor’s forehead was getting larger and larger- wait no, that’s just the bald. Heh, this was one good drug. “Hmmm, can I take their quirks?” All For One drawled.
The doctor looked at him before going to say something, then shaking his head and saying clearly, “Actually, no. I’d like some people with healing quirks around if your self-preservation instincts are as messed up as they’re looking to be.”
Huh, the doctor actually knows medical stuff besides trying to turn people into puppets. Heh, he is actually sorta competent. Maybe he should hire more competent people. It’d be so easy to take over Japan if he had competent people at his side.
“Boy, do I feel pity for them,” said Garaki at a low enough volume to be almost inconspicuous. Almost.
All For One frowned. He really needs to fix his muttering habit. Well, that’s what he gets for trying to start up a crime organization with people born in the 2000s. Seriously, how were they the ones to make the cut for quirks?
Hm, he can’t open his eyes anymore. The doc sure has some interesting concoctions. Man, he has a bad feeling about everything that happened tonight. That quirk, One For All. It was going to be a huge pain in the ass for a long, long time, wasn’t it? He wanted to get his hands on the quirk.
All For One could only try to sigh as he fell asleep. He wishes he didn’t put his brother in a vault.
All For One had gotten major upgrades to his living conditions. Running the underworld had its benefits, after all. He even had a throne of his own! There were a lot of minions to order around. Even Dr. Garaki found himself often resting while doing research, and the man keeps giving himself more work every minute!
The world had calmed down, now out of the ‘Dark Ages’. No more vigilantes busting in on random bases, no more turf wars with pest-like gangs that let the tiniest amount of power get to their heads. It would mean that All For One could play the long game, silently force his way into the government, become a shadow ruler of the dying yakuza and small gangs.
But nope. The world just hates him - well, it probably ought to, considering what he’s done - but still! Heroes? That poisonous concept Yoichi would always go on and on about. To do good with his power, to be a hero - hah, look where that led Yoichi and his pitiful successor to!
Right, there were also others to worry about. Say what you will about ‘heroes’, they sure love to monologue a lot. Yes, the comic books got that slightly wrong. All For One isn’t the only one boasting about his powers in the battlefield, that vigilante practically told him the entire ins and outs of One For All, unprompted! Knowing the information doesn’t help All For One with the fact that the Holders are passing down the blasted quirk - his quirk, which he gave to his brother in the first place - to try to use against him.
Ok, so, heroes i.e. glorified policemen with flashy quirks, and a cursed line of wannabe Avengers hunting him down. He’s brought two holders down but they’ll only get stronger if Stockpile works as it should. The Third Holder is poking his nose around, and he thinks he has a solid lead on the Fourth too, although he hasn’t been able to figure out their quirk yet. So, he needs to be gathering more power for himself on top of expanding his criminal empire. That brings him to the current situation he is in.
“So, your quirk is tentacles?” He asked the woman in front of him.
“Nah!” she cried. She shrugged knowing that was a full lie. “I mean, it’s called Modified Sea Water Limbs. Really handy in certain situations if you know what I mean.” She finished with a wink.
Dr. Garaki sighed, “Sir, I’ll send her back-”
“I’ll take it,” All For One said, however.
“What?”
“What?”
“What?”
This was going to be a long process.
.
“Kinetic Booster.”
“Sounds nice, I’ll take it.”
“Sir, it’s an interview for a bodyguard.”
“I’ll take it, Doc.”
.
“MY LORD! IT WOULD BE MY GREATEST PLEASURE TO SERVE YOU BY ALLOWING YOU TO USE MY QUIRK! YOU ARE THE ONE WORTHY ENOUGH TO COMMAND ME!”
“Right…your quirk is turning into a giant man?”
“Sir, I suggest you eliminate him. We have no idea how he even found the base. No one asked him to come here.”
“IF THAT WOULD PLEASE MY LORD, THEN THAT IS WHAT I SHALL DO! PLEASE WATCH AS I END MY LIFE FOR YOUR SAKE, MY LORD!”
“Wait, wait, wait. Uuugh. Just stop. Don’t kill yourself. You can be my bodyguard.”
“But sir-” “THANK YOU, LORD.”
“...Shut up, please.”
.
“So, your limbs turn into springs?”
“Yeah, they become all coiled and, hold on, lemme just show you-”
“Nope, that’s disgusting, just give me your quirk and get out of here.”
.
“Okay, okay, hands up! Yep, just like that!”
“O-okay. I’m doing it.”
“Uh-huh, fingers separate?”
“Ye-yeah. I-I’m doing it.”
“Now, how much stuff exactly can you disintegrate?”
.
“Fire breathing?”
“Yeah, I breathe fire, man. Look, how much can you give me, man? I need weed to buy and I need to make sure I don’t burn up all my joints.”
“Okay, but actual fire? Coming out of your mouth? Like-like a dragon?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Holy shit, dude, that’s so cool. Where does the fire come from? Oh I bet your lungs are modified because of your quirk. Or maybe it’s not your lungs but your airway. Wait, that doesn’t make sense your lungs wouldn’t otherwise be equipped to handle the heat but that still doesn’texplainhowexactlythefireisbeingproducedmaybeyouhavesomesortofextraorganormutationthatletsyouturnexhaledairintoflamesorevensimplyraisethetemperature-”
“Sir, please calm down, you’re scaring the client away.”
.
“Oh.”
The man in front of All For One was there for one reason and one reason only: to solve his diarrhea problem. It was…unsettling, to say the least.
Dr. Garaki coughed. “We’ve seen quirks that aren’t suitable for the person, but this is, well, how to put it-”
“Hilarious?” All For One said with widened eyes, not even able to bring himself to laugh.
Quirks act as an extension of the person. They are a part of you. Hell, All For One knows that with the hundreds of quirks he’s amassed. He’s killed so many with his quirks, taken so many other quirks. It is perhaps an intrinsic natural advantage of his quirk that all quirks bow down to it(with one exception, his mind unwantedly adds). But still, All For One doesn’t quite think he’d be able to tame this particular quirk.
Navel Laser, as it has been so graciously named, does involve the stomach very much. The beam coming out of the man’s navel isn’t so much of a beam past the distance of one meter though, and instead just looks like very sad shiny droplets. As if the weak quirk wasn’t repulsive enough, the side effects were a whole another story on their own. Because the fact that a quirk would evolve through the generations to eventually give its user diarrhea every time he used it, while not unexpected, is still pretty baffling.
“Sir, please help me, I’ll do anything for you, just take this fucking quirk away from me!” the half-naked man shouts out, clenching his stomach.
All For One attempts to maintain some professionality. He puts on a smile. Not a laugh. Just a professional smile. Because what is happening in front of him is a tragic matter. Not a laughable one at all.
“Sir, as fascinating as um, your Navel Las…well Navel Light really, looks, I’m going to have to decline,” he tells the man.
He looks absolutely distressed at the rejection. “What, no! C’mon, man, I know you have like a gajillion quirks. You’ll be fine with just this one!” He rushes towards All For One, before getting intercepted by a minion. Good, because if any of the enlightened goo coming out of the guy’s belly touched him, there was going to be hell to pay for everyone in the room, including Garaki.
The doctor approached him warily, putting on that stupid smile on his face, getting ready to talk. Oh god, he’s about to pitch a completely stupid idea, isn’t he? He isn’t paid enough for this crap, and he’s arguably the richest man in all of Asia right now.
“Sir, if I may-”
All For One puts up his hand. “You may not. I am going to rest.”
Garaki sighs. “The man is right, you can take in that quirk and suppress it. You do it with the mutant quirks and a lot of others. Maybe you can even figure out how to tweak the side effects, sir. You do love a good puzzle.” He ends with a wink.
What an obnoxious dumbass. He likes to solve puzzles, not digestive ailments. Truth be told, All For One doesn’t even know why he’s talking with the laser man. He started this quirk gathering business when the Third Holder was out and about, with One For All as an unknown variant in the chess game he set up in a ruined Japan. Though, it looked like there was enough time before One For All actually proved to be a threat. It’d probably be 9 or 10 Holders in before they’d actually rival the raw power of All For One and the stored quirks within, and even then All For One had backup plans in mind. Soon, the Seventh Holder, Shimura would be barging in, looking to avenge her husband(and perhaps her child too if he had decided so on that day - but he opted otherwise in favour of more interesting plans in the future should the future turn out okay). She’ll die. He’s confident enough in his strength for that. The Doctor should be aware of that too, so why is he asking him to take on such an irrelevant quirk?
“What’s your play here, Kyudai? You and I both know there’s nothing to that quirk,” All For One asks him menacingly.
The Doctor rubs his moustache in a failed attempt to look suave and comes closer to All For One, out of the laser man’s earshot. He whispers, “Well, you see, he did agree he’d be willing to do anything if you take that quirk out of his hands.”
Okay, what does Garaki have in his mind?
“The man doesn’t have any family either, and not many acquaintances.”
Uh-huh, a bit unsettling, but perhaps still the Doctor is trying to make a valid point.
“I need another test subject for continuing the Noumu project.”
All For One grunts. Not this bullshit again. He shakes his head. “I said no the first time, Garaki, I’ll say no again. You can’t just put multiple quirks into a dead body, a body that already had a quirk, and then revive it and make it a controllable puppet. That makes no sense. Not to mention, you’ve already failed.”
“Okay, but the possibilities-” Yes, go with the old ‘possibilities’ excuse, not a mad scientist at all. He’s probably going on some bullshit about how taking away the subject’s quirk would be helpful and blah blah blah. All For One is about to tune him out with a silencing quirk when the Doctor says a bit loudly, “If the Noumu project goes well, we could theoretically develop a Noumu that’d act as a butler/bartender.”
Okay, that? Very cool. The Doctor knew exactly what to say to persuade All For One. The very reason the Doctor has been with him for the past century. The fact that the Doctor probably heard him mumble about how cool it’d be to have a villain lair in a bar headed by a bartender underling a month ago? He probably has no hope to fix that habit anymore, he’s tried for more than a 150 years, he is a bit attached to Motormouth too, and kind of creepy of the Doctor to hear all that and note it for later use. But he’ll humor the Doctor.
“Do I need to take the quirk?” He asks, not trying to act all excited at the thought of a bartender Noumu. Oh, maybe, he can give them that spare teleporting quirk he has lying around.
“Well, it’d be better to progress if the man didn’t throw a fit because of his quirk. It’d jeopardize the test results if he has constant loose motion too.” The Doctor says. “You don’t have to use the quirk at all, just keep it there until you can give it away.”
And isn’t that the problem? The thing is, what the Doctor said is completely rational. He can just keep the quirk and never use it. But he knows he’d never be able to do that. He knows the ins and outs of every single one of his quirk. Even the weirdest ones. Turns out the potato dehumidifier quirk can suck all the nutrients from anything underground. Potato is just overly common and he nor the original user noticed that they felt just a little bit full after using the quirk. It’s a good quirk if one wasn’t in the mood to eat regularly.
But in contrast to even that, Navel Laser is just repulsive. He does not want to use it. Nobody wants to use a quirk that’s more shitting their pants than doing actual quirk stuff. But, at the same time, a quirk belonging to All For One, never to be used? Preposterous.
He looks up at Garaki’s face, concluding his thoughts. He is reminded of the promise of his precious loyal butler.
All For One sighs. Sacrifices must be made.
“Fine, come over here,” he beckons the man. He shines up, quite literally, which is a bit disgusting. Just get this over with quickly, you’ll figure out what to do with the diarrhea quirk later.
The transfer is quick. All For One immediately uses the suppressing quirk on the newly obtained quirk, which gave him stomach cramps as soon as he got the quirk. No wonder the man was crying so much. The man in question smiles like he’s just been handed the moon. The poor guy has no idea what Garaki’s going to do to him, and that’s just while he’s still alive. All For One can’t help but feel a little bad for the man. Hey, even the world’s greatest supervillain has his cheat days. Oh well.
“Doctor, he’s all yours.”
“It’s certainly…interesting, Doctor,” All For One said. The Noumu project worked. Sort of.
In front of him was undoubtedly a monster of Garaki’s making. He didn’t know if he could call it a villainous one though. They were, for some reason, shrunk down to hell and beyond.
“Are you sure this is the same man with the laser quirk?” All For One asked, squinting his eyes at his doctor.
“Am I su- of course I’m sure! I did all the experimenting myself! This is Johnny-chan!” Johnny-chan? There’s more issues other than the glaringly obvious one in front of him, but he can get to those later. Or never. Preferably never.
The Noumu looked disgusting. He didn’t think it was possible for a man leaking semi-solid light through his stomach to have even more of a downgrade, but lo and behold. It was the size of a baby with none of the charm. And…none of anything, to be honest. The head was the majority part of the Noumu, and it had two hands…legs…wearing a pair of sneakers. A tail was extended through some mechanical contraption. There were test tubes coming out of an, oh god, an exposed brain. And of course, the beak. Why the hell did it have a beak?
“Say, Garaki,” All For One said. “How in the everliving fuck does a person turn into…this?”
The bastard gave a little laugh like they were two friends musing over dinner. “The body didn’t properly accept most of the external DNA as well as the quirks. But! While that resulted in a 100% mortality rate for our other test subjects, it would appear that due to Johnny’s base originally having a specialized quirk in his digestive tract and there being something happening because of taking away his quirk that I can’t figure out yet, well, I should really get to that. Perhaps-” He interrupted himself and looked at All For One, resuming his explanation. “Ahem, as you see, the subject managed to survive. But with a lot of side-effects. Anyway that’s not the important part here!”
“Then what is?” All For One asked. He had a criminal empire to manage, he certainly couldn’t waste time on an ugly creature that makes Gollum look like a prince.
The doctor smiled. “It not only follows every order I give him, but also it has a quirk.” All For One’s interest was piqued. Not a complete waste of time, then. He gestured at Garaki to demonstrate. The doctor nodded and said, “The latest recruit, he’s on a mission right now, isn’t he?”
All For One nodded. “He’s somewhere in China. I told him to chase down one of the escapees from that villain group a month ago.”
“Well, you might need to put a hold on that for a while.” What? “Johnny, bring him here.”
All For One heard a man’s struggling sound right behind him. He turned around, and there was his recruit, currently puking out some grey sludge. Cool. There’s the teleporting/summoning quirk that’s still very much with him. When did Garaki make a copy? The recruit started to speak.
“Sensei, I, uh-” All For One raised his hand. He couldn’t handle two idiots today. “Nice work, Doctor. You can continue the project. Next time, though, tell me before you put in rare warp quirks into dead bodies for fun. In the meantime,” he pointed to the recruit, “send him back.”
“Ah, heh, that might be a bit of trouble,” Garaki said, smiling like an idiot, but this time he was aware of it. All For One looked at the Noumu, who had passed out. He grunted. Just leave me alone already.
He walked out of the room before Garaki or the recruit managed to say something. It was no one’s business if he used one or three of his speed quirks.
Shimura’s dead, finally. He really didn’t think he’d managed to piss her off so much that he’d had to level a couple of city blocks just to take her down. That woman was stronger than he’d imagined. The government was passing it off as an extremely focused earthquake. They were probably more focused on how a virtually unknown hero managed to put up that much of a fight against the rumored Quirk Thief. At least both he and the One For All holders agreed that the Commission was a bunch of snakes.
Well, he has time to kill, and no Holder to kill. The Yagi kid went off to America right after graduating. He won’t be so much of a nuisance anyway. That brings him here. Back to good old testing. What exactly is All For One doing in a quirk training facility he bought off 17 years ago just for the sake of it? Ding ding ding, it’s the diarrhea quirk!
Yeah, it got to him eventually. He just hated having a quirk and not figuring anything out about it. Hell, he goes off on tangents about random stranger’s quirks when he goes outside(He doesn’t steal them off the streets, at least, not anymore.). He finally decided to put his foot down and try it out. If he does throw away the quirk, it’d at least help him sell it to whatever poor soul comes to him to make a deal.
Quirks usually come with failsafes. A person with a fire quirk would have some fire resistance. Flight quirks also give the person a more enhanced sense of balance and more resistance to motion sickness than others(All For One knows. He almost died that one time he decided to go on a joyride with all his mobility quirks. When he finally crash landed onto someone’s farm somewhere in the north of Hokkaido, he wasn’t even able to put up much of a menacing aura! The farmer even offered him food! Truly one of his greatest failures. The food was startlingly delicious, however.). Even his own quirk has failsafes, not just anyone can handle having multiple quirks. It’s a tiresome process, hence the Doctor’s vested interest in the Noumu project; to find some way to give multiple quirks to a person instead of having to resort to make another him, another copy of All For One. All For One still thinks having another him would be pretty cool, so he isn’t stopping on that end just yet. He’ll need to find some gullible dumbass soon.
Navel Laser didn’t come with that for the original user though. The ‘laser’ comes from the stomach and permeates through the belly. But his stomach didn’t have any natural mutation to adapt to that. It’s not that rare, but generally, the more powerful the quirk, the more chances of the body building failsafes for its protection. Also, there is no off-switch to the quirk, the man was leaking laser all the time he was talking to All For One. Disgusting, but now that quirk belongs to All For One, and he must remedy this situation! He’s already fixed the constant emission of the quirk by combining it with a few minor quirks fit for the purpose.
There’s a bunch of dummies in the room he’s in. He knows it’s a pretty stupid idea to just shoot a laser through all the dummies but there’s no one to stop him. His goal is to figure out if the quirk is actually worth it, and then to find out what the limitations will be, in addition to all the protection quirks that should (hopefully) curb the side-effects of the blasted quirk.
He lines up with a target. Okay, Symbol of Evil, time to shine. You can do it. All For One takes a deep breath. He lets out all the contents of his stomach.
The next moment, he realizes he prefers vomiting to what happened.
"Owwwwyaaa!" He screams in a very manly manner as he somehow slips and falls backwards. He felt the laser exit through his navel, which had immediately solidified its position as the worst thing he's ever felt, and he has been punched by seven One For All users to date. He groggily gets up.
Well, the laser worked. The dummy has a hole starting in its chest...and it travels up all the way towards the head, getting less prominent, eventually ending on the ceiling. Some glittery light substance is left behind as some sort of entrail. That is so gross.
Okay, he can still work around it. No reason for the quirk to be forgotten in the vast expanse of All For One. He just needs some practice. Maybe he should stick with the basics. Almost every quirk that he'd acquired using All For One used to have the same activation requirements to use at the start. With his gathering experience and skill, he surpassed that need. Buuuut this is sort of a special situation so he'll just suck it up and go back to his old ways just for once.
All For One faced another dummy. This time, it'll work. He took a deep breath. He clenched his buttocks and yelled from the top of his lungs, "YEEEEEEEET!!!"
Granted, the only thing he might be yeeting is probably himself if he messes up. But. It's working. The laser is penetrating through the dummy, and has gone through the other side. He can still keep going. All For One grins and turns his focus to the other dummies.
"Woooooo!!!!" He's decimating all the dummies. This quirk might just be powerful if used properly. Standing half-naked in the battlefield with a laser beam coming out of his belly might not be his forte, though.
He’s so caught up that he almost fails to notice the rumbling sound. He immediately stops using the quirk and looks down. Okay, now there were small bits of glittery laser stuck to his body and- oh god, was it dripping down to the ground? That is so disgusting, he should have killed the guy in the first place and-
“Oooo ow owowowwwwww…”
His stomach shouldn’t be hurting this much, right? He put up a bunch of quirks to heal any damage from the side effects. There is absolutely no way this sad excuse of a quirk actually managed to injure him faster than all of his healing quirks combined could contain the damage. He coughed up blood. What the f-
Just when he thought it couldn’t get any worse, someone barged in through the entrance. It was a young woman. He vaguely recognized her as one of the nurses from Garaki’s hospitals..well one of them.
“Hello, Dr. Garaki sent me! He told me to help bring a patient in!” She paused and gasped loudly. “Y-you’re bleeding! From the mouth!” Oh, how great. Now, he is to face a nurse in this state. As a patient. At least none of Garaki’s employers knew who he was. Well, he had the memory altering quirk anyway. Wait, how did the Doctor even know he’d be here? All For One looked up at her and asked, “How did the doctor know where I was?”
She opened her mouth but paused. All For One activated an intimidation quirk. She looked like she was going to faint. All For One deactivated the intimidation quirk.
The woman closed her eyes and started rattling off. “Uhmm…he said that he had been getting ‘bad vibes’ from someone for a while and that this would be a good time for them to ‘do something dumb and finally get killed’ which he can’t afford since ‘I need that bastard’s quirk to finish all my research’ and so he sent me a bunch of places to go to and bring in the patient and it was you and umm, oh, I didn’t mean to call you a bastard, oh no, I said it again-” Damn, she was crying . Wait, why are there so many tears- and did she come prepared with tissues? Are the tears some kind of quirk or what?
“Shut up and take me to him already,” he says. Ouch ouch ouch owwwww - his stomach was cramping up now. “Please,” he wheezed out pathetically. The woman smiled brightly and helped him up. “I have an ambulance ready! You’ll get help in a jiffy!”
All For One would be relieved, except, “I thought it was just you. Don’t tell me any more people are going to see me like this.”
The woman quickly shook her head. “Oh, no, it’s just me!”
“I thought you were a nurse. How’d you get an ambulance so quickly?”
“It was parked somewhere. I…kind of rushed a bit when I heard there might have been a patient in danger?” She laughed lightly.
What the fuck.
The nurse called out loudly, “We’re here, Dr. Ujiko! Should we prepare an operating room?”
‘Ujiko?’ He mouthed to the doctor, who gave him a deadpan look in return. “No need for that, Akatani-kun. I’m sure he can manage. He’s tougher than he looks.”
That did make All For One smile. Even the absolute swine of the doctor knew some respect for him despite his current predicament.
“Although it would appear he is less intelligent than he looks sometimes.”
And he remembered why he called him a swine in the first place.
“Are you sure he doesn’t need any help?” The nurse - Akatani, a wonderful name for her - said in a panicked tone. “He is looking really bad.”
“Well, I’ll make sure to take a look at him,” Garaki/Ujiko/Swine Doctor said to the nurse with a wide smile. “You can go now, Akatani-kun.”
“Okay,” she said. She looked at All For One. “Good luck, mister!”
All For One held his breath and smiled like a dumbass. “Bye-bye!” he said in a dumbass tone. She left the room. “Soooo, Nurse Akatani looks like an excellent nurse.”
The bastard groaned. “You and I both know you’re going to remove all her memories of what happened anyway. Don’t bother.”
“Hey, I’ll have you know I can live with people knowing some of my weaker moments since I am absolutely not an insecure person!” All For One sighed. “That being said, are you going to actually diagnose me or not? My healing quirks only managed to catch up to whatever the hell is up with that laser quirk while we were in the ambulance.”
The doctor shrugged. “The healing quirks you have are mostly generalized for external injuries and some specific illnesses. Navel Laser is a pretty rare quirk with an ever rarer set of side-effects.” The doctor got an ultrasonogram machine- or at least the 23rd century equivalent of it since it seemed to be getting to work immediately. He motioned him to lie down.
All For One asked the doctor, “So, you knew all along I was going to try out Navel Laser and hilariously fail in the process?” The doctor tilted his head. “You don’t exactly have much of a social life outside of trying to retrieve your brother’s long-lost quirk and pursuing knowledge on as many quirks as possible. It was sort of obvious.” Ouch. The doctor looked at the screen. “Hm, looks like your stomach wall ruptured. How long did you use the quirk anyway?”
“Around 30 seconds the second try.”
“Yeah, that’s a no-go. A normal person can’t handle more than 5 seconds of continuous usage of the quirk. Maybe 10 seconds for you with your healing quirks. If someone has an unsuitable body, I doubt they’d last even a whole second of it.”
“So what?”
The doctor frowned. “So stop experimenting with the damn quirk and forget about it like I told you to. You don’t need to unlock every secret of a quirk like this and I don’t need to deal with you dying to something other than a One For All holder.”
All For One sat up. Hm, his stomach still hurts. At least he isn’t coughing up blood anymore. He wouldn’t wish that on his worst enemy. Probably. “Telling me to take it easy?”
“Hmm, maybe you can find someone and finally settle down while you’re at it,” said the doctor. Before All For One got to retort, Garaki snorted loudly. “Yeah, right, like that’d happen. Alright, get the hell out of here. Don’t terrify Akatani too much.”
All For One rolled his eyes. Him settling down? Hah. Fat chance of that happening. He got out of the room before the Doctor sicced a Noumu on him. He found the nurse from earlier quite quickly. She was writing something down on a clipboard. She looked up at him and smiled. “All better already? That was quick. Do you need anything else?”
He brought up his hand, readying the quirk to remove all memories of him. He looked at those green eyes. They looked like emeralds, ones that looked like they were found in the ocean. Were emeralds even found in oceans?
Instead of touching her head as required, he just scratched his head and smiled like a dumbass again. “Hehe, I think I got lost. I was looking for the restroom.”
Akatani still kept her smile. “Oh, just take two rights down the corridor, um, mister..”
“Uh…” All For One blanked. He looked at her green, curled hair. “Midori…ya.”
“Midori Ya?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Midoriya,” he said quickly. “Midoriya Hisashi.” That’s not good. He lopped in a smile.
She gave a cute laugh. “I’m Akatani Inko. See you then.”
“Yep.” He walked away towards the restroom.
It’s just because of the stupid laser quirk that he has to go to the bathroom now, nothing else. He’ll remove all memories of him from her soon enough. Absolutely nothing else.
He’s having a nice family dinner at home. Little Izuku turned 7 this year. Granted, it wasn’t an extravagant birthday party as other 7 year olds normally have, but with Izuku’s quirkless diagnosis…All For One, no, Midoriya Hisashi sighs. He would have given his son a quirk if he’d noticed, but that entire year, he was busy staying under the radar from All Might and his little annoying team. Nighteye was proving to be a thorn in his path that he would have removed already had he not noticed the little figurine 3 year old Izuku kept in his room. Ah, the sacrifices one makes.
(Still, when he came back after Izuku turned 5, he slipped in Motormouth and Notebook Summoning. They were subtle enough to help his son out. Listening to the kid blabbering about heroes getting more and more nonsensical as he sped up had the added effect of being cute too, if he weren’t such an All Might fanatic. He nevertheless vowed to visit this doctor who dared to break Izuku’s heart. Seriously, who tells a 4 year old kid to give up on his dreams?
Imagine his surprise when he finds Garaki introduce himself as “Dr. Tsubasa”. What is with these names? Well, he shouldn’t be surprised really. It had been his own idea to send the Doctor to network at various hospitals after the Noumu project took off. Garaki tried to spin some lame excuse about how he thought Izuku might follow his father’s steps if he didn’t become a hero. He doubts it; Garaki’s definitely pissed he actually married his most competent nurse and had her work in a different hospital than one with a nutjob doctor. Well, it would be good if Izuku did become a villain. He’s smart, and he’s been getting pretty good at quirk analysis since he subtly made him focus on it. He still punched Garaki in the face. Hisashi supports his son’s dreams. Traumatizing the kid is out of the question for any of his underlings. He still couldn’t afford to kill the doctor. Yet. He did give him Kurogiri, who in turn has been taking care of Tomura. That kid was a whole package on his own. He wishes he had just given him the Navel Laser quirk and then laugh at All Might about his mentor’s grandson having uncontrollable diarrhea, but no, he just had to go with the adopted son/successor(traumatized successor, really) route and gave him Decay. Now he has a video game addicted teenager ruining his beautiful bar. Why did the kid not have a cute phase?)
Maybe he should have given Izuku a flashier quirk though. He’s been having a hard time at school if Inko’s words were anything to go by. And Inko. Oh, she’s still an angel. He feels bad that he had to make her just a little bit suggestible with a quirk to make her believe him, well, Hisashi, about his job abroad. And the fact that he just had a routine checkup with the doctor that day. And that the two doctors are two different people. And that he’s not some villain. They are living comfortably enough with the money he sends, though. And he tries to visit his family every few months. He’d rather not have Nedzu launch an investigation on his family if he can help it though.
He’s tucking Izuku in to bed. The little guy is sad his father has to go tomorrow. Well, he did stay a whole week this time. He’s still slurring out some stuff about the new heroine Miruko.
“-and she was so cool, Dad. She beat the villain before ‘ndeavor got there too. I don’ like End’vor.”
Well, neither does he. Maybe they can talk about bringing the Flame Hero down next time they get on a phone call. He tucks Izuku in and kisses him on the forehead.
“Alright, buddy, good night. I gotta go. I love you, okay?”
Izuku is half-asleep. He’s so cute. He’s glad he got Inko’s face. “Mmm, g’night Dad. Love yu’too.”
He’s halfway out the door when Izuku blabs out. “Dad, can I be a hero?” He stops. Before he gets to say anything, Izuku continues. “No one else thinks I can be one.”
Hisashi sits next to his son, ruffles his hair and says, “Yeah, you can.” Damn it, he’s supposed to be the Symbol of Evil, not….Eh, maybe he does have some parental instincts.
“Really?” Izuku’s face brightens up, but still doubtful.
“Yeah. All the heroes you see on TV are dumb - trust me, your dad knows. You’re plenty smart.”
Izuku looks down for a moment in deep thought. “E-Even without a quirk, Dad?”
Hisashi, for a brief moment, considers giving Izuku his fire-breathing quirk. Or navel las- Wait, that’s no good. Besides, that’s not really answering Izuku’s question at all, is it? He has to answer the question as his father Hisashi, not the mother-henning supervillain All For One.
“Yeah, kiddo. And one day, someone’s gonna see how much of a hero you are, too. Then you’ll finally feel like one. Got it?”
“Mm-hmm.” A pause. Did he fall asle-“Do you think Kacchan will think I’m a hero too?”
Oh god, that Bakugou kid. Or the reason why he had to subtly heal the light burns in Izuku’s stomach when he got here. He was going to have a talk with him before going out of town again.
“Don’t you worry about that brat. You can be a hero, got it?”
“‘Kay, dad. Than’s.” Oh, the kid’s asleep now.
He kisses his wife goodbye and leaves the home. He calls Kurogiri for a warp gate, who loyally responds with a “Of course, sir.” So. Fucking. Cool.
As he steps through the warp, Hisashi can’t help but feel everything might just turn out to be fine.
Everything was not fine.
“SURRENDER ALREADY, ALL FOR ONE! YOUR CRIMINAL EMPIRE WILL END TODAY!”
“Over my dead body,” spat out All For One with vitriol. Poor choice of words, considering the situation, he knows, but he’ll take what he can get. Muscle Augmentation has been running low for a while but he can still work with it. He sidesteps All Might’s punch and sends a Kinetic Booster times 20 punch of his own(that damage multiplier quirk was working miracles in combination with All For One). Alright, that sent him into an annoying office building with the flashing lightboard sign that’s been bothering him for the past two minutes. He’ll get up soon, but there’s enough time for Hisashi to mentally rant at his misfortune.
Nighteye & Nezu caught onto his activities the past few days. Past few months, more like. Everything came crashing down with All Might’s stark threat against the criminal underworld getting glaringly obvious day by day, All For One trying to manage what’s left of his retainers, the Doctor screaming at his ears to release the incomplete Noumus to kill as many people as possible, his regretful choice of a successor who still needs his room to be cleaned by someone else everyday(Kurogiri was supposed to be his, not a dumb teenager who he traumatized into wearing his dead family’s hands. How preposterous!), the Commission deciding to try and gain ground thanks to his falling back, and taking care of his own little family. Speaking of which, it was-
“IT’LL TAKE MORE THAN THAT TO TAKE ME DOWN, VILLAIN! TEXAS SMASH!!!” Oh great, All Might was back up. Hisashi takes a few punches, instructing all healing quirks on top of Super Regeneration to get to work, stat. He barely has time to send a counter attack using Rivet Stab while focusing on the healing and tanking All Might’s next punch coming near his throat. The rivets miss their target but it gets All Might off track for just a little bit. Springlike Limbs. Air Cannon. He punches the bare air forcing All Might to guard.
Oh right, where was he? Yes, it’s Izuku’s birthday today! His boy is turning nine! They grow up so fast. He’d normally be all happy and gushing about him to random strangers before erasing their memories and returning them from where he kidnapped on a whim, but he has never missed a single birthday of Izuku’s before. He’ll need to think of a pretty great gift to make up for today. Maybe he could even get All Might merchandise for him after ending this battle. He guesses it’s alright to put the hatred to rest after killing the man. If he kills the man. Wait, if All Might does die, then all the merch price is going to go way up. Shit, he better-
No time to think. “DETROIT-DELAWARE SMASH!” Okay, what is it with the names? He can’t tell one punch apart from another, especially when they’re all just ramming him in the head anyway. He tries to dodge using some more of his reflex quirks but he’s already air-borne from All Might’s jump towards him, slowing him down too much. He takes the punch in its entirety, deciding to send out Rivet Stab towards All Might.
Well, his nose is gone. Super Regeneration is going to have a field day, if it ever gets to the nose from all the other injuries. His eyes follow All Might..who’s coughing up blood. His rivets managed to hit him in the chest, probably the lungs. Pity he wasn’t strong enough to rip out the bastard’s heart. How the hell is this guy still smiling? Was that his origina- Wait no, Yagi was quirkless. He really needs to stop thinking about quirk stuff right about…now.
“TAKE THIS, ALL FOR ONE!” All Might lifted up a two-storied building with his hands and it was now crashing down on him. This wasn’t going to be pretty.
.
It feels like an eternity has passed since the start of the battle. There’s nothing but two titans fighting to the death spanning all the way for miles and miles. Everyone was already evacuated in preparation for this ambush, of course.
All For One is down one eye and one arm. It’s a miracle that he’s standing right now, and that miracle is definitely his quirk. All Might is running on fumes too, as it seems. Both sides have taken immeasurable damage already. All For One still wishes he could have ripped an arm or two from that blond oaf.
He hisses, “So eager to kill me, Yagi? Not very hero-like of you, Mr. Symbol of Peace.” He’s probably not gonna win this fight but he might as well piss off the bastard while he can.
The Eighth holder of his brother’s quirk only repositions his battle stance. “There’s no other way to stop a pure evil such as yours, All For One!” He says it proudly, but his tone is shaky. Both of theirs are. Still, All For One won’t lose in the battle of words.
“Even Shimura wouldn’t have thought of that after I killed her husband.” All Might twitched. Good. “You shouldn’t be disappointing her like this, Yagi.” He tries to grin with what’s left of his face.
All Might is shaking with rage. “DON’T YOU DARE MENTION HER NAME, ALL FOR ONE!” He rushes at Hisashi with all his strength. Oh well, no more having fun, it seems. All For One meets All Might in the middle with an attack of his own.
“UNITED STATES OF SMASH!!”
“AIR CANNON!”
The blow is devastating. He’s sure All Might received a hefty amount of damage, but that attack…heh, he had to hand it to the oaf. He didn’t think he could have landed an attack that big with injuries like that. All For One falls down.
Ahhhhhh, he’s so going to die here, isn’t he?
Garaki hasn’t made it with the Noumus here yet. That must mean his regular forces are still being held up by the other heroes led by Nighteye and Nezu. Hm, they really brought out all the stops for this, didn’t they?
It’s not really a bad way to go, he thinks. Such a shame, he would have liked to get his hands on Yoichi’s quirk at least once. And rule Japan, but he did get pretty damn close. And Inko and Izuku…
And that damn diarrhea quirk. He wonders if he could force it onto All Might before he gets finished off. It’s still annoying he didn’t really get to master the quirk properly. Then again, that quirk wasn’t supposed to be mastered. He should have killed that man and put him out of his misery instead of letting Garaki start up a whole new chapter in his stupidly long life as the Mad Doctor. At least, that got him Kurogiri. He feels bad for leaving the poor guy with Tomura.
There’s a lot of things still left, isn’t there? He could still stand up. But so can All Might, and unless All For One manages to damage All Might in one move without getting close…
A crazy idea hits him. It’s crazy. Exactly the type of crazy that would piss off the Doctor. If nothing else, that’s still a reason to do it. He’ll have no regrets if he dies too! All For One stands up. Yagi’s there, a good distance away. He’s about to keel over, but at least he doesn’t have blood coming out of his eyes and nose and, well, everywhere. Probably. All For One isn’t sure how good his remaining eye even is.
“Resilient as ever, All For One,” All Might huffed, out of breath. “But this will be over soon.” All For One laughs in response. Oh man, you have no idea. His laughter physically hurts him, but he can’t help it. All Might’s eyes widen. He mumbles quietly, though All For One’s hearing quirks pick it up. “Maybe he finally went crazy before dying.”
Yeah. Maybe he did.
All For One readies himself. He takes the best pose he can for the move. His body hurts all over. Ah fuck, it’s not gonna work.
“It’s useless, All For One,” All Might readies a punch.
All For One grits his teeth. He’ll be damned if this idiot is right about this move. He’ll make it work. He takes a deep breath, clenches his butt and yells from the top of his lungs, “TAKE THIS, ALL MIGHT!” He belly humps and activates the quirk.
What’s left of All For One’s suit evaporates in face of the Navel Laser. He sees Yagi’s face go pale before the laser hits him in his stomach full force. He gets thrown back. All For One laughs maniacally. “HAHAHAHAHAH, oh my god, hahahah!” He coughs out blood and oooooooh, the stomach cramps are already coming. “How’s that feel, you dumb ass? Hah!” He’s wheezing through his bleeding spray. And - ooooh, there’s the diarrhea kicking in.
He hears a shift to where All Might got thrown. Oh well. Guess I’ll die now. Still, when All Might jumps forward with a California Smash to his face, All For One can see the fear in the man’s eyes.
“...alive…warp us out…”
“what the…”
“Get…noumus…All Might…heroes”
“...Kyudai..heh…”
“...fake corpse…prepare for operation…moving underground…”
“Oye…doc…”
“...inject 5 grams of…”
“...and you won’t believe what happened next…hihihihihihi…”
“Sir…please don’t move…he’s flatlining!”
“I belly humped at All Might and sent a laser at him weeeheeeheeeeh”
“Tomura, please don’t touch my…mrghmghmm, not the mask, please, dear boy!” The brat stood there dejectedly. Probably sad that the dumbass doesn’t get to disintegrate my face. At least he hasn’t seen how I look yet. All For One sighs. Why couldn’t his successor be more like his Izuku? Probably because of all the childhood trauma you inflicted on him, supplies an obviously idiotic voice sounding suspiciously a lot like Yoichi. Hmpf, as if.
Weeeell, maybe. The hands of dead people that Tomura is wearing aren’t really compelling for his case.
If anything, at least that proves Izuku has had a happy childhood with a lot of friends. He’s sure that even the Katsuki brat is now good friends with him after the talk they had. He’d love to check up on Izuku and Inko but he doesn’t wanna show up all “Hey, honey, hey son! I’m home! Don’t mind the potato face, it'll go away after a few decades.” Sending money from a job abroad it is.
“Sensei, will you really be okay? Your healthpoints don’t look so good.” Tomura asks, pouting. He thinks it’s a pout. Hard to see through the hand on top of his face, especially since All For One doesn’t even have any eyes anymore. He appreciates the infrared vision quirk but he’d prefer an eyeball regenerating quirk any day of the week. Unfortunately people with such quirks are hard to come by since he’s probably already killed all their ancestors in the first 30 years of his life.
All For One waves his hand. “Hah, of course, my boy. All Might hardly scratched me.” Tomura raises an eyebrow. Is the brat doubting me? How insolent. All For One follows Tomura’s skeptical eyes to his 24/7 life support system, consisting of four oxygen tanks, two tanks of liquid nutrition constantly flowing through his body, the very suspicious and smelly container leading from the waist region of the wheelchair, ending with, of course, his mask, solely made to facilitate his breathing with the help of all the tubes. Not at all because his face got caved in by All Might and he’s developed an insecurity. Not that at all.
The brat opens his mouth. “Are you really su-” “KUROGIRI! WHERE ARE YOU?” The warper warps in. “Yes, Master?”
So fucking cool. “Now then, Kurogiri. What were my plans for the day?”
“Yes, Master. Talk with young Tomura while ensuring he does not find out your face has been turned into a potato-”
“Ahahahahah, oh you’re so funny, Kurogiri. I really am glad to have noted your progress in humor. Now then, moving on?” All For One tries to do a menacing glare but he unfortunately does not have eyes for that. Eh, hopefully Kurogiri’s smart enough to get the message.
Tomura seems to be keen on making his life hell, though. “Wait, what do you mean by that?”
Kurogiri looks back and forth between Tomura and All For One. Those yellow eyes narrow, as if intensely searching for something between the both of them. All For One narrows his non-existent eyes in response. Tomura flabs around like the helpless child he is.
“...You also had an appointment with the Doctor and a prospective customer, as well as changing how the room looks for the guest.” All For One smiles. Good Kurogiri. He’ll be sure to send some more pre-quirk alcohol along for the man’s bar. Who ever said that turning dead-ish hero students into bartenders/Noumus was a bad and morally reprehensible idea? His is working out great!
“Cancel the appointment with the Doctor, and warp in the clients please.” All For One hummed to himself. He doesn’t need to ruin the day with Garaki talking about useless stuff like the next generation of Noumus. After all, it’s his first quirk trade since, well, since All Might. He hated to admit it but the Symbol of Peace and his allies effectively stumped his entire empire to a halt. Almost all of his resources were wiped out. However, it appears being ‘killed’ was a lifeline of sorts. No more eyes on him. He can slowly build everything back up and strike back at All Might again. And preferably retrieve his brother’s quirk. It was some foreigner man that was asking for a quirk. He probably should have read the man’s email in more detail but his foolproof plan will go quite well. Nothing like a good old intimidation tactic to cement his return as the Symbol of Evil!
“Sensei!” Oh shit, his spare body parts are still here. He sighs. Right, what was the next step for interacting with children you’ve groomed into being the successor for the villain that killed his grandmother and gave him the quirk that killed his family? Oh right. “Tomura, we can talk again. You must keep training harder and harder. You aren’t ready yet. But you will become strong. However, right now, I brought you here to help me greet our client. It is…essential.” Tomura stared at him with an indescribable emotion. All For One gave him a thumbs up.
Tomura clenched his fist. The brat better not disintegrate anything in this room, half my expenses at this point are replacing dusted controllers. Not his fault the kid is so shit at Mar- “I understand, Sensei. All Might hurt you. Those…those so-called heroes hurt you! They only know how to hurt and hurt and hurt. I’ll make sure to do my job as your successor, Sensei. I will kill All Might. I will level up as much as it requires. Even if it means talking with some Level 1 NPCs.”
Huh. No temper tantrums? He must be further along the traumatizing process than he realized! Or is it backtracking since it is a sign of improvement? Is this what it is like to be a father? Wait, shit- Izuku is supposed to be his favourite! And…why is Tomura approaching so close to him?
Ah.
His successor/body replacement wraps him in a hug. “I’ll make you proud, Sensei.” Riiiiight. All For One awkwardly pats his back and sends a look towards Kurogiri. The warper mouths, “Shounen mangas.” That makes sense. He feels sad for the writers that Tomura took their stories to this level but he’ll take what he can get. Tomura shifts even more which makes All For One do a double take. He takes in a sharp breath.
“TOMURA DON’T TOUCH THE WHEELCHA-”
The man sat in a comfortable looking chair, pursing his hands together in nervousness. He opens his mouth briefly before shutting it back again. Not every day that one had to talk to the Symbol of Evil. Especially not with a rather eerie and soft pre-quirk era music playing in the background. Not that the man knew of it, however. (If he did, he wouldn’t have to suffer the next few minutes. But it would have ruined the scenery All For One worked to set up, so he would have paid with his life anyway.)
“N-Nice m-m-m-music, sir. M-May I ask wh-what it is?” he said, trembling.
All For One simply stayed leaning back on his chair, tapping a finger on the armrest and petting a cat. A desk separated the two, full of ancient machineries and some important looking documents. The room itself had an odd design, with old looking lamps and shabby designs that could have been a sign of wealth in the past. It still is, albeit in a much deformed manner. To their right were two other men - one a mindless puppet and the other a mindless teenager, against his will, and currently glaring at him and their guest. Jeez, no need to be so grouchy, brat. Granted, his plans for the meeting might have been met with a palm to the face by Tomura, but he’s always wearing a hand in his face anyway, so in the end, they cancel each other out, right?
All For One remained silent to the man’s question, who was moving on to…ugh, small talk. He shot Kurogiri a look. The mist man nodded in understanding.
“i-I-I’ve already t-told you what we are looking f-fo-for, so-”
“Sir, Master would like you to stick to the script, please.”
The guest got pretty close to shitting his pants - his x-ray quirks weren’t certainly lying - and tried to regain his composure. “U-um, heheh, wh-what script?”
Both All For One and Kurogiri looked towards Tomura at once. The brat was still frowning. All For One brought his eyes…eye sockets to the floor next to where Tomura was sitting, where a suspicious pile of dirt was lying. He looked back at the boy who’d be losing his successor privileges and be moving on to being the new body real soon. Tomura tried to stare back but even the greasy teenager knew it was a losing fight. He muttered a “Tch”, walked over to the desk, grabbed one of the documents and threw it to the client. Okay, his life wouldn’t be over quite yet. He’s grounded for a week though. All For One looked at Tomura sit down and tilted his head towards the guest to continue.
The man stuttered around and opened the script, eyes widening his confusion. He looked back at All For One, only to understand that he was completely serious about this. He started reading from the script. “A-ahem…I believe in Japan. Japan has made my fortune, and I raised my son in Japanese fashion. I…I g-gave him freedom, but I never taught him to d-dishonor his family…Sir, what is this script? My son has done nothing of the sort! We b-brought h-him here because he’s-”
“Stick to the script,” said Kurogiri. All For One kept tapping his finger. This was so fun!
“O-okay,” the man deflated. “Uhmmm, h-he…found a boyfriend? Sir, my son’s 10!” He quickly zoomed through the next few parts of the script. “O-oh, oh my god. Monsieur, this is, is simply preposterous. What kind of heinous actions…and oh no, to my son? There must be a grave misunderstanding!” He dropped the script to the floor in his shaking. All For One motioned to Kurogiri, who promptly gave the man a drink.
The man looked bewildered, but he quickly drank up. “Monsieur, I came here with my wife. I-I’ve heard of you. I knew you were the only one who could help us. Not any of those doctors, or, or, or quirk clinics! You! Please, sir, help us!”
“Why did you go to the police, why didn’t you come to me first?” asked All For One. The man spat out his drink. “W-what police?” He shook his head quickly. “I-I know you have some business affairs of yours going on, but I didn’t call anybody!”
Hm. Maybe he should have altered the script a bit. He thought on what to say next, but he was interrupted.
“You said you went to doctors before you came to Sensei,” Tomura said. “Why go to other NPCs before coming to Sensei?” Hm, why was he so keen on helping with the plan suddenly? Actually, knowing him, Tomura is probably pissed off at everyone in the room right now, so he’ll take a bite at anyone.
The man was absolutely flabbergasted. “I didn’t even know who he was before my last visit to a quirk clinic!” He’s completely stopped stuttering at this point, probably his confusion taking over.
“And what is that?” All For one asked. The man simply looked puzzled. Kurogiri warped the fallen script from the floor to the man’s hands. He simply sighed.
He came up right next to where All For One was sitting. He looked at the script, trying to see if the writings miraculously changed. They didn’t. He bit his lip and whispered to him. “Don Shigaraki, give me justice.”
“That I cannot do.”
The client was exasperated. He looked like he was about to protest but he took in a deep breath. “I don’t care about justice or whatever, monsieur. Can you please give my son a-”
All For One continued in his role unbothered. “We’ve known each other for many years, but this is the first time you’ve come to me for counsel, for help. I can’t remember the last time you invited to me your house for a cup of coffee.”
The man banged his hands on the desk. “I have literally known you for one week.”
“Even though my wife is godmother to your only child.”
“You have a- I didn’t even- Why would she be godmother to my son?”
Eh, she’d look after the kid in a heartbeat. She’d look after Tomura too. She’s such a good person! I’m so lucky.
“But now you come to me and you say, Don Shigaraki, give me justice. But you don’t ask with respect. You don’t offer friendship. You don’t even think to call me Godfather. Instead you come to my house, on the day my daughter is to be married,” the man was having trouble breathing, and opened up his tie, “and then you ask me to murder for money.”
All For One stands up and walks around a bit, before looking at the man. He was sweating a lot. Was his acting really that good? “Bonasera, Bonasera, what have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully?”
“M-my name’s not…”
“And if you had come to me in friendship, then the scum who ruined your son would be suffering this very day.”
“My son…he’s not…”
“And if by chance an honest man like yourself should make enemies, then they’d become my enemies.”
“I-I’m just a…”
He pointed his finger at the man. “And then they would fear you.”
The man clenched his chest. “M-my heart…” He huffed. “P-please…” He collapsed on the ground.
All For One smiled in delight. “I really knocked it out of the park, huh? I didn’t know my acting was so good?!”
Tomura groaned. Kurogiri leaned down to the man and checked for a pulse. “He’s still alive. He will be fine. Master, what about his son? The one you’ll give a quirk to?”
Oh right, he forgot about that. “Yeah, just..bring him in. You two, take this gentleman to the medical ward.”
The door opened to a woman and a child. The woman gasped while the child started yelling, “Papan? Papan? What happened?” Kurogiri warped the kid through. “Maman? Maman! Where are you taking Papan?”
The door closed. “Eh, he’ll be fine. He was simply marveled at my brilliant acting skills!”
The blond haired child was still scared, but spoke softly. “Y-You mean, Papan was enlightened by you?”
“Mm-hm.”
The kid’s face brightened up. “Like heroes?!” Okay, wait- “I want to be a hero too. They make the world brighter!” Nuh-uh, he’s literally blind right now because of a hero. What are they teaching kids at school these days?
“What is your name, boy?”
“I-It’s Yuga. Aoyama Yuga.”
“Well, Yuga. Heroes aren’t really all that great. Most of them are bad, you know?”
Yuga looked like he was thinking deeply for a moment. Then he smiled and said, “Then I’ll become a good hero and make everyone become good too!” Ugh, such blinding positivity. Almost as if-
“B-but…I don’t have a quirk so I can’t be a hero.”
For a moment, All For One’s mind stopped to wander. How similar they were…but Izuku never let a quirk stop him! His son would never be as miserable as this kid! He’s probably having fun at school with his classmates and teachers right now! Yeah!
“What kind of quirk do you want, Yuga?”
“W-well, monsieur, Papan and Maman always says I need a flashy quirk to become a hero…”
All For One grinned. “Flashy? Something really really bright?”
Yuga nodded eagerly. “Yeah!”
He chuckled. “Sure, we can do that.”
“I-It won’t hurt me? Th-the quirk?”
All For One just patted his head. “Look, what matters is that you’ll get to be a great hero. And that you’ll be able to help me out too, in exchange of your quirk?”
Yuga asked, “H-how can I help you?”
“You’ll know later, don’t worry. For now, though, a hero name for you…” Hm, something to piss All Might off. Nana? No, too on the nose. All For Laser Beam? Nope. Stomach Destro-
“I-I wanted my hero name to be ‘Can’t stop Twinkling’, though,” the kid said with a sad look.
All For One just looked at Yuga. “...What the hell, go for it.” Yuga grinned widely. Just don’t blame me when you get called Can’t Stop Sh-.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing, child.”
He really needed to stop muttering so much.