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It was a month until the end of class 1A’s first year at UA when it happened.
“Attention students and staff,” Nezu’s voice said over the intercom. “We have just received word that the villain All For One has broken out of Tartarus prison. We have reason to believe there has been a traitor helping the League of Villains, and we are suspecting there are people at UA who may have relations with members of the League. Beginning immediately, we will be doing DNA testing on everyone in the building to see if any of you are a match for what the police have on file for the villains. Homeroom teachers, check your email to see what time you and your class will go to Recovery Girl’s office for the testing. That will be all.”
The room was dead silent for a moment, everyone trying to process the news about a hundreds-of-years-old supervillain breaking out of what was supposed to be the most secure prison in the country, if not the world.
“I’m afraid DNA testing will not help anything,” Aoyama said almost sadly after a moment. “After all, there are no guarantees the traitor is related to one of the villains. They might just be a random person who genuinely wants to be a hero and has no other choice.”
“If they really wanted to be a hero, they wouldn’t be passing information to the villains!” Mineta snapped. “The traitor should be locked up along with the rest of the League.”
“Not every situation is so black and white,” Aoyama insisted. “There are a lot of situations that are more complicated than un idiot dégoûtant like you could ever hope to comprehend.”
“I don’t know French, but it sounds like you just called me an idiot.” Mineta’s eyes narrowed. “You seem to be defending the traitor an awful lot. Is there something you want to tell us, Aoyama?”
“Are you seriously trying to accuse Aoyama of being the traitor?” Ashido demanded.
“Do you hear what he’s saying?” Mineta asked. “He’s acting like the traitor is some victim when they’re helping the villains! That sounds like something the traitor themself would say.”
“I’m just saying we should all have a little empathy for them, that’s all,” Aoyama said.
“That is a very noble intention, Aoyama!” Iida stood up. “Mineta, we should not be accusing each other of being the traitor with no proof. It will only make us distrust one another.”
“We should be distrusting him,” Mineta argued. “I mean, come on! The guy’s always staring at absolutely nothing, he’s defending the traitor, and didn’t he stalk Midoriya with cheese a few months ago?”
“Alright, that’s enough,” Aizawa said, climbing out of his sleeping bag. He had been napping and giving his class time to do homework. “Mineta, we are not accusing each other of being the traitor. Like Iida said, it won’t do any of you any good. Aoyama, while I appreciate you trying to be empathetic, there’s a good chance you’re wrong about the traitor. The DNA testing is just a precaution, and if it’s what Nezu wants, it’s what we’re going to do. That’s the end of discussion.”
“…fine,” Mineta muttered, sitting back down. He was already on Aizawa’s last nerve as it was, so he didn’t want to push it by arguing, even though he really thought he was right.
“Now then,” Aizawa said, pulling out his phone to check the email Nezu sent, “it looks like they’re doing this youngest to oldest, classes A to K. That means we’re the first ones to go. We head to Recovery Girl’s office in an hour. You can all work quietly on other things until then. I would recommend starting with the essay you have due for Present Mic in two days because I know most of you haven’t even started it.”
He climbed back into his sleeping bag to nap more until they had to go do the DNA testing.
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“The following students should report to my office immediately: Todoroki Shoto, Midoriya Izuku, and Monoma Neito,” Nezu said over the intercom a week later.
“This probably has to do with the DNA thing,” Todoroki said once he and Midoriya were in the hall. “Although I’m not sure why they’d call you. I thought you were All Might’s secret love child.”
“I am not All Might’s secret love child,” Midoriya sighed. “For the last time.”
“But you didn’t answer me properly when I first presented my theory,” Todoroki insisted. “You looked surprised, like I had figured something out.”
“Just because I looked surprised doesn’t mean I’m…” Midoriya took a deep breath and groaned. “Fuck it, I’m not doing this. You’ll probably find out the truth when we get in there anyway.”
“Since when do you say that word?” Todoroki asked.
“Just because I don’t usually like to say ‘fuck’ doesn’t mean I can’t say it, you know.” Midoriya glared at Todoroki. “I grew up with Kacchan, and every other word that comes out of his mouth is ‘fuck.’ It’s not that I can’t swear, it’s just that I don’t do it a lot.”
“I know you can swear,” Todoroki assured him. “It’s surprising when you do, though. Like you said, you don’t say some of the worst ones a lot. That’s all.”
“Alright, I guess that’s fair,” Midoriya sighed again. He realized they were standing in front of Nezu’s door. “Should we wait for Monoma or just go in?”
“I’m right here, you know,” Monoma said from the corner by the door. “Glad to see you’re so self-absorbed you don’t realize there’s another person around.”
“We were having a conversation,” Todoroki said by way of an explanation. Monoma rolled his eyes.
“Whatever. Let’s just go see what this is about.” He pushed the door open. Todoroki and Midoriya followed him in.
“Have a seat, boys.” Nezu gestured to the three chairs in front of him. There was nobody else in the room, which was terrifying. It meant that if he really did think one of them was the traitor, he could subdue them with whatever was in his office, no outside assistance necessary.
“Are we in trouble, sir?” Monoma asked, for once not making snarky comments.
“That will depend on what you say next.” Nezu was suddenly all business. “I don’t believe any of you three are the traitor. I figured out who they are sometime during the week. I’ve already spoken with this person, along with Detective Tsukauchi. Midoriya and Todoroki, your classmate, Aoyama? Well, in favor of keeping my conversation with the traitor between the three of us who were present, we’ll just say he was right about them having no other choice. The traitor situation is currently being handled. However, the DNA results came back today, and I feel I need to address them.”
“So we aren’t in trouble?” Todoroki asked.
“Like I said, that depends on what you say next,” Nezu said. “Todoroki, let’s begin with you. The police have DNA from the villain Dabi on file that matches closely enough with yours for you two to be related. Do you know anything about this?”
“He’s my older brother,” Todoroki said. Monoma’s eyes widened, and he gave the heterochromatic boy an almost scared look. “He faked his death ten years ago, and the only one in my family who might have had contact with him since then is my other brother, Natsuo. Those two were always close. Dabi never got along with me even when we were children.”
“The current number one pro hero’s son is a villain?” Nezu’s tone was the same neutral one he always used, although a hint of mischief could be detected, like he already knew the answer.
“There’s a lot about Endeavor and my family that most people don’t know,” Todoroki responded through gritted teeth.
“I assume there is,” Nezu said. “Now, the next one is very interesting, Midoriya, your DNA is a match with the villain All For One.”
“The guy who just broke out of Tartarus?” Monoma asked. If he looked scared when Nezu said Todoroki’s results, he looked downright terrified now.
“Yes,” Nezu said. “Midoriya, do you know anything about this?”
“All For One… is my father,” Midoriya said slowly. “But that doesn’t mean I’m a villain! I would swear it to Detective Tsukauchi’s face that being a villain is the last thing I want to do!”
“Oh, I believe you,” Nezu assured him. “Someone who does not truly want to be a hero would not repeatedly break their bones saving others, as you’ve done so many times. However, this gets more interesting. Monoma, your DNA test showed you share an amount of DNA with Midoriya. Normally, this would be dismissed as a coincidence. A lot of people share DNA, and it doesn’t mean they are related. However, once we actually compared the results with the on-file information from the villains, we found that you also share DNA with All For One.”
“What?” Midoriya and Monoma said at the same time.
“What do you actually know about your father, Monoma?” Nezu asked.
“Well… nothing except that he left Mom while she was pregnant,” Monoma admitted. “But there’s no way my father could be All For One!”
“Yeah,” Midoriya agreed, “there’s no way he’s All For One’s son. He might be a villain, and he might be horrible, but he loves my mother. He would never cheat on her.”
“Ah, but maybe he didn’t have to,” Nezu said. “Monoma, remind me again what your mother’s quirk is?”
“She… she can copy DNA from people she touches,” Monoma said slowly, realization settling over his face.
“So that means…” Midoriya didn’t finish his sentence, so Nezu did it for him.
“Monoma is All For One’s son, as well as your brother. Your reaction to this information was enough to prove you didn’t know, Monoma. This gave me all the information I needed to dismiss you all from questioning. You may all go back to class.” Nezu smiled at the group.
“I… I need to call my mother,” Monoma stuttered out once they were all in the hall.
“You call yours and get confirmation of what Nezu said and then I’ll call mine,” Midoriya said.
“And why do you need to know what my mother said or tell yours anything?” Monoma snapped.
“Because if it’s true, she should know her husband has another child!” Midoriya shot back. The two had a silent stare-down.
“I’m just going to go back to class…” Todoroki said awkwardly, playing with his fingers. “What do you want me to tell Aizawa-sensei?”
“Tell him I’m still dealing with what Nezu wanted to talk to us about.” Midoriya spoke while not breaking his eye contact with Monoma, both still trying to intimidate the other into giving up. “It’s not technically a lie.”
“Okay…” Todoroki went back to class, still playing with his fingers.
“If you were married to someone and they had another child the same age as your own kid, wouldn’t you want to know?” Midoriya asked. “Especially when they go to the same school as your kid?” Monoma was silent for a moment.
“… Fine, I’ll tell you what she said.” Monoma took a deep breath and dialed the number.
“Mother? … Yes, I am in school, but- … No, just listen. The school made us do a DNA test because- … Will you stop cutting me off and just let me talk?! … No. No, I wasn’t snapping at you. Look, the point is, I know the truth about my father. Did you use your quirk on him?” Monoma was quiet for another minute while he listened to what his mom said. He sighed, and turned to Midoriya.
“Did he always look like a potato?”
“What? No,” Midoriya said. “He was pretty tall and thin, and I remember him having curly, white hair and red eyes. He’s also 200 years old, but he didn’t look it.”
Monoma nodded, repeating the description to his mother, minus the “200 years old” thing.
“Did you or did you not use your quirk on someone like that?” More silence. If Midoriya tried to listen to what Monoma’s mother was saying through the phone, well, that was his business.
“Well, congratulations. That man was a 200 year old, quirk-stealing supervillain by the name of All For One,” Monoma snapped. “He also just broke out of Tartarus prison last week. That’s what caused this whole DNA test thing in the first place.”
More silence.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?! …My quirk does not make me a villain. …What…? No, no, you can’t just… Fine. Oh, and by the way, I hope you get hit by a fucking bus.”
Monoma hung up the phone, and there were tears in his eyes when he turned around.
“Are you okay?” Midoriya asked.
“I don’t need your goddamn pity,” Monoma snapped.
“I wasn’t pitying you, I was comforting you,” Midoriya said. “There’s a difference. And you’re clearly not okay, because people who are okay don’t tell their mothers to get hit by a bus.”
“She told me not to come home over break,” Monoma said. “She said she doesn’t want ‘a future villain’ as a son. But unless there’s some sort of cosmic coincidence, All For One is my father, so there’s that.”
“She… I’m sorry,” Midoriya said quietly. He reached a hand toward Monoma, going to try to rub his back comfortingly, but then he hesitated. Monoma probably wouldn’t appreciate it. There was no sense making him angry on purpose. “That’s horrible…”
“Just go call your mother and leave me alone.” Monoma’s words lacked their usual bite. “I’m going back to class.” He turned and walked away, wiping the tears from his face.
Midoriya sighed, pulling his own phone out and dialing the number.
“Izuku? What happened? Are you okay?” Inko’s voice was frantic, knowing her son never called her during school unless something was seriously wrong.
“I’m fine mom,” Izuku assured her. “But, um… there’s something you should probably know…”
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Inko didn’t take the news well, initially. Not until she heard about Monoma’s mother, anyway. She was still furious that her husband had another child, but at least her anger was no longer directed towards him.
“Love, calm down,” the villain said, genuinely afraid as he watched his wife pacing the floor. “I’ve never seen you look so… murderous.”
“That woman is horrible, Hisashi!” She shouted. “First of all, how dare she use her quirk like that? Just who does she think she is that something like that is even remotely okay? Well, newsflash, bitch, it isn’t! But then to kick the kid out for what she did, besides? You know, internal organs count as small objects. Maybe if I can pull hard enough, they’ll break skin…”
“Dear, please,” All For One begged, “you can’t commit murder on some random woman.”
“If I ever see her, it is on sight,” Inko promised.
“Or you could let me deal with her,” Hisashi suggested, “considering I already have such a long criminal record and as of right now, you are still innocent.”
“… Make it painful.” Inko smiled sweetly. All For One was reminded, not even for the first time since he’d gotten home a week ago, why he loved her. Inko might seem sweet and innocent, but she could really be terrifying when she wanted to.
“Now,” Inko said, back to her normal, not-bloodthirsty self, “what are we going to do about the kid? The final decision is up to you, but I personally would like to meet this child.”
“I think that would be alright,” the villain mused, “just as long as we can be sure he won’t try to attack us or put me back in Tartarus.”
“What about next Sunday for dinner? I’ll text Izuku and tell him to convince… oh, what was the kid’s name again?” Inko thought for a moment. “Oh, I can’t remember. He only said it once. We’ll just say your son for now. I’ll have him convince your son to show up and not attack anyone.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” All For One agreed. Inko pulled him down so she could peck him on the cheek before hurrying into the kitchen to figure out what she would need to get for next Sunday.
Now if only he could find someone who could fix his face by then…
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“No way in hell.” Monoma crossed his arms. “Will you let me go to the dorms now?” He tried to step to one side.
“Not until you agree to come to dinner.” Midoriya blocked his path. “Look, no matter how bad I feel for your situation or whatever, I don’t really like you either, but my mother insisted. You don’t just tell my mother ‘no.’”
“I don’t owe your mother anything.” Monoma moved to the other side. Midoriya followed him and blocked him again.
“I never said you owed her anything,” Midoriya said. “But between her and Dad, she’s the one to be scared of. You don’t just spend 17 years married to the number one villain without being absolutely terrifying.”
“So what, I’m just supposed to go and let her yell at me for something that’s not my fault? I’m just supposed to listen to her while she tells me to stay away from her family, and to leave your father alone, even though he’s technically my father too and I was planning on leaving him alone in the first place?” Monoma huffed.
“What? No, she’s not going to do that—” Midoriya pulled out his phone and showed Monoma the text. “She specifically said to make sure you know that nobody is mad at you, and the only one responsible for any of this is your ‘entitled, petty, bitch of a birth-giver because she can’t even call herself a mother anymore .’ That’s a direct quote from her, I didn’t say it.”
“… Fine,” Monoma relented. “I will go. Don’t think this makes us friends or anything, though.”
“Great! Oh, and by the way, when Dad finds out what your quirk, is because one of them is definitely going to ask, be prepared for him to talk about quirks either for the next hour or until my mom stops him, whichever comes first.” Midoriya sighed. “He really likes quirks. There’s a reason I’m able to be so detailed in my evaluations of other people’s quirks.”
“Okay?” He said it like a question. “Whatever. Can I go to the dorms now please? I’m going to hang out with Kendou and Tetsutetsu in an hour and I need to shower and change.”
Midoriya stepped aside to let him through.
“Oh.” Monoma stopped and looked back. “If your mother is anything like how you described her… maybe this won’t be so bad after all.”
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“Mom, we’re here!” Izuku kicked off his shoes as the door of the apartment closed.
“Oh, I’m in the kitchen!” Inko called. “Both of you, come in here!”
The first thing Izuku did when he got into the kitchen was hug his mother. Monoma stood awkwardly to the side, watching the two almost sadly and fiddling with his fingers.
“And you must be Monoma?” Inko asked, releasing her son from her grasp.
“Just… just Neito is fine,” Monoma said, “considering that I guess technically you’re my stepmother?”
“You don’t have to be so afraid of me, you know,” Inko smiled.
“I’m not,” Monoma protested.
“You are. I saw you at the Sports Festival at the start of the school year, and unless you’ve completely changed your personality since then, there’s no other reason for you to be acting so nervous.”
“I’m not nervous. I’m… I don’t want to make a bad first impression, considering the situation and the fact that I’ve been told my personality is off-putting,” Monoma muttered.
“Oh, please,” Inko huffed, “my best friend since middle school is Bakugo Katsuki’s mother, Mitsuki. I watched that demon child grow up. That’s ‘off-putting.’”
“So, where’s Dad?” Izuku asked, trying to break up the staring match that had broken out between Inko and Monoma.
“He’s in our room getting dressed,” Inko said, not breaking eye contact with the blonde in front of her. “I had to tell him that he cannot wear that old t-shirt with the bananas on it to meet Neito, here.”
“Oh, relax about the shirt, will you, love? I’ve changed.”
The two boys turned around to see All For One stroll into the kitchen. Only… he no longer looked like the faceless man from the news.
“When did you fix your face?” Izuku asked. “How did you fix your face?”
“Well, do you remember that little girl with the horn? The one who can rewind people?” The villain asked.
“Dad… please tell me you didn’t go bug a six year old about fixing your face.” Izuku’s face was horrified, and he looked about two seconds away from jumping on the man and punching him with 100% of his power.
“Of course not!” All For One said, sounding like the very idea had offended him. “I found out her mother had an older half brother who was placed for adoption when he was born. He had a quirk that was basically the same as… oh, what was the child’s name again?” He shrugged. “Well, no matter. The point is that her uncle’s quirk was the same as hers, and I… convinced him… to fix my face.”
“You… hunted down Eri’s uncle to force him to fix your face?” Izuku was stunned. “Eri has an uncle? No, you know what? I’m not going there.” He took a deep breath. “Hello, Dad. It’s good to see you again. I hope Mom beat your ass for disappearing for so long.” He smiled innocently.
“Don’t worry, I did,” Inko smirked.
“Inkooo.” Monoma watched in shock as the most terrifying villain in the past two centuries whined, literally whined, at his wife. “You know I had my reasons, dear.”
“Looking like a potato is not a reason to completely disappear from your wife and child’s life for nine years without a word,” Inko reminded him. “We aren’t having this conversation right now. Your other son is here. Say hello to him, will you?”
“Huh?” All For One looked at Monoma. “You the kid?”
“Yes…”
“Well, apparently I’m your father then. You have terrible luck and all that. Hello, my spawn.” He stuck his hand out. Monoma shook it, shaking his head. Was this really the same man who had ended All Might that day in Kamino?
The two stood there, giving each other a silent once-over. Neither was quite sure what to make of the other.
“Well,” Inko said, breaking the silence, “you boys got here just in time. Why don’t we eat?”
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Dinner was quiet for about the first half, with Inko asking Monoma questions about himself every now and again. He looked like he wanted to melt into a puddle on the floor, a fact Izuku internally smirked at. It wasn’t that he wanted Monoma to be uncomfortable, per se, but it seemed like a nice bit of karma for how much of a dick Monoma could be at times.
“So,” Inko said, swallowing her bite of food,” “Neito, what is your quirk, exactly?” All For One perked up beside his wife at the mention of quirks. “I saw a little bit at the sports festival, but that was months ago, and I couldn’t really tell then, either.”
“When I touch someone, I can copy their quirk for five minutes,” Monoma said, chewing his own food.
“Interesting,” All For One mused. “Now, tell me, do you feel the quirk inside the person? What pulls it out of them? Can you tell what it does before you’ve copied it, or do you just have to figure it out on your own?”
“Uh…” Monoma swallowed. “I guess I can kind of feel it? But only when I’m touching someone. I kind of have to… pull the quirk out of a person, I guess? But then I’m stuck trying to figure out what it does and how it works, so it’s easier to wait until I’ve seen a person use their quirk before I try to copy it.”
“Very interesting.” All For One nodded. “What about mutation quirks? Could you copy those? What if a person’s quirk requires specific bodily conditions? Say, for instance, the body puts protections in place for that quirk so it doesn’t damage the person? Would your body copy those protections as well, or would you be hurt? Or maybe you don’t have it for long enough to cause any damage?”
“Told you he’d only want to talk about quirks once yours was brought up,” Izuku whispered, chewing a piece of meat that had somehow gotten stuck on the edge of his chopstick. “He doesn’t bring it up himself around strangers, but once someone else does, good luck getting him to change the subject.”
“… or would you get blood-borne illnesses?” All For One had not stopped talking once since he had started. “I know someone like Toga has an immunity to those kinds of things, but what if you copied her quirk and tried to use it? Or, take someone like Dabi. His quirk isn’t really made for his body, so what if you tried to copy it? Would you burn yourself? Or-”
“Hisashi, I think that’s enough.” Inko put her hand over her husband’s, cutting him off. She smiled at him, but her eyes were glaring. “You aren’t just going to talk about quirks all night.”
“I’m just curious!” All For One protested. “I might finally have a son I can talk about quirks with!”
“Excuse me, am I just not here or something?” Izuku slammed his hands on the table and stood up. Monoma flinched, preparing for an argument. It always turned into a screaming match whenever his mother slammed her hands on the table.
“No, that’s not what I meant! Of course your quirk analyses are good,” All For One said, trying to backpedal, “but you don’t understand what it’s like to have a quirk specifically designed to feel other quirks. It doesn’t matter how much I tell you your mother’s quirk is spherical and shiny, or what shade of teal it is. You’ll never understand something like that without a quirk made specifically for taking other quirks.”
“I still don’t know how her quirk is teal or shiny,” Izuku huffed, sitting back down and crossing his arms. “You can’t even see it!”
“You can’t see it,” All For One corrected. “I can.”
“I see things like shape and color and texture when I touch people,” Monoma said around a mouthful of food.
“See, you are my son!” All For One smiled proudly.
“Alright, now I don’t want to hear you boys talk about quirks anymore for the rest of the evening,” Inko said. “Neito, dear, I know this is going to bring down the mood, but I have to ask. Do you have somewhere to go during break?”
The smile that was previously on Monoma’s face (he was, he felt, irrationally happy he had something in common with the villain in front of him that Izuku didn’t) fell.
“Mom blocked my number, so I’d say no.”
“Would you maybe want to stay here, then?” Inko asked kindly.
“Why?” Monoma asked blankly.
“Well, you just told me you don’t have anywhere else to go,” Inko explained, “and it’s got to be better than staying in the school dorms by yourself, even if it is just for ten days. It gives you that much more time to get to know your biological father, if you want to. Plus, if this goes well, then you’ve got somewhere to go for the longer summer break. Consider it a trial run, if you want.”
“Would… would you really be okay with that?” Monoma met Inko’s eyes, trying to discern whether she was lying or not.
“She wouldn’t have asked if she wasn’t okay with it,” All For One said.
“I… I guess I’ll stay for break, then,” Monoma said slowly. He was still convinced Inko was going to turn out like he had originally thought and regret letting him stay, but she was right about one thing: it was better than staying in the dorms alone.
Plus, he could tell from only one meal that her cooking was really good, and who wouldn’t want to take advantage of that while they could?
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The first night of break, Monoma and Izuku were in the green-haired boy’s bedroom. They had both agreed to make an effort to get along, at least for their father’s and Inko’s sake.
“Hey, was someone missing from your class?” Monoma asked. “I don’t know who, but I could swear someone wasn’t at the ceremony today.”
“I wasn’t aware you paid that much attention to my class to notice one person missing. Are you really that obsessed with us?” Izuku laughed. Monoma shoved him.
“Who wasn’t there, then?” Monoma asked. “I mean, it was the last day of the school year, why would you go home early?”
“I don’t know,” Izuku admitted. “Satou’s been gone for a couple weeks now. He’s still texting everyone, but he won’t tell us where he is or why he just left school.” Izuku sighed. “I hope he’s okay.”