Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Alright, ‘Zuku, I want you to tell my friend what Mommy told you when you told her about your... friend Kacchan,” Hisashi smiles down at the little boy in his arms, the light of his life, and if the smile is strained, that’s his business and no one else’s.

His lawyer looks deeply uncomfortable. Perhaps because he knows this is the smile Hisashi gets before he commits murder.

Hisashi is contemplating murder, so it’s a valid concern, but he would never do such a thing in front of sweet little Izuku. Izuku looks up at Hisashi then over to the oily-looking lawyer. He doesn’t seem to sense any of the tension in the room.

“Can I get the new All Might figure if I do?” Izuku asks. It’s such an obvious attempt at manipulation, but Hisashi is so proud. Only five years old and he’s already taking after his old man. It’s almost enough to bring a tear to his eye.

“If you do a good job, I’ll get you two, so you can unbox one to play with and keep one boxed for your collection,” Hisashi responds, as though he wasn’t already planning on getting the very expensive figure as a bribe to get Izuku to favor him over Inko to begin with.

Hisashi’s lawyer is looking back and forth between the two of them with barely concealed horror — he seems to realize that Izuku does, in fact, take after his father in many ways, however subtle it may be for a five-year-old. That, or he may be afraid of anyone that can convince Hisashi to spend thousands of US dollars on All Might merchandise willingly.

As he should be. Izuku is going to be very powerful one day, with or without a quirk. Hisashi will give him the power to bring the world to its knees if he wants.

Izuku perks up at the offer, grinning toothily.

“Mama told me to not bother Kacchan so much when I told her Kacchan hurt me at the park today. I tried to tell her we were playing heroes and villains and I was the sidekick, and then she just started crying on me! She always hugs me too tight when she does that...” Izuku trails off, rubbing at his arm.

“Do you have pictures of the injuries?” The lawyer asks Hisashi.

Hisashi just shoots him a look that screams, ‘do you think I’m an idiot?’ and reaches into his suit pocket to pull out a few photos. The burns are minor little things, first degree patches on Izuku’s arms. Inko had wailed and cried and not done anything — typical of her. Hisashi was tempted to punt Mitsuki’s little brat into the sun, and only Izuku’s begging (not that he knew he was actually begging for the brat’s life) had convinced him to spare the brat, but he had stormed over to the Bakugou residence and tore into the parents, throwing pictures of the injuries and telling them to expect to hear from his lawyer, something which set Mitsuki off, unsurprisingly.

He came home to Inko crying about how her best friend was upset with her, and that was really one of the last straws. She was more concerned about saving a friendship with a woman whose brat would purposely burn their precious little boy than making sure Izuku was safe and happy.

Ridiculous.

The only reason she was alive instead of having a tragic accident was because with the way things were going, she was well on her way to making their son hate her, which Hisashi thought was beautiful, perfect justice.

Hisashi places down a flash drive. “Here’s a recording of Inko crying and yelling at me because I told off the brat’s parents for letting their brat leave scars on my kid. Speaking of which, you’ll be suing the Bakugou family as well; I want to at least be compensated for the medical bills, and my poor Izuku suffered at that brat’s hands and needs therapy.”

“Kacchan’s just like that, Papa,” Izuku mumbles, starting to squirm a little in his arms.

Hisashi relents, and sets him down, snapping at his lawyer to get Izuku some paper and something to write with. He knows that will keep Izuku’s ever busy mind from wandering too much, and thus, keep his smart boy out of trouble. The boy is all too happy to take a pen, very expensive looking, and some of the stationary off the lawyer’s desk and starts to draw.

“No one is allowed to hurt you, Izuku,” Hisashi snaps, “That’s not okay. Your Kacchan is wrong.”

Izuku keeps his gaze fixed firmly on his paper, focusing on his drawing instead of giving Hisashi a response. He’s a terribly petty child when he wants to be — again, just like his father. Hisashi ruffles his hair, and Izuku forgets to sulk, and leans into the touch.

“Right... I’ll, um, I’ll get started on filing the divorce papers and the lawsuit against the Bakugous.” The lawyer mumbles.

“Oh, during the proceedings, do get my name changed back to Shigaraki, I think I’ll let Inko keep her family name as her own legacy.”

“Right, I’ll get on that.”

The lawyer looks like he wants to die, but Hisashi’s having a great time.

It’s unfortunate that he’ll have to buy two ridiculously overpriced All Might figurines, though. Truly, the man is disgusting — it’s clear that he’s focused on the money when he makes merchandise that sells brand new for more than many people spend on rent. Why people love that buffoon so much he’ll never understand. Once the divorce is settled and Izuku is in his custody, he’ll have to work on that hero worship — at a minimum, there are at least better heroes for him to obsess over, ones that actually do good work.

“Alright, Izuku, why don’t we go get some lunch, then we can go get you those figures and maybe a nice figure of some other heroes to fight alongside All Might. How’s that sound?”

If it were possible, Hisashi would think Izuku’s eyes were glowing.

“Wow, really? Okay, let’s go!” Izuku jumps up. He holds out the drawing to the lawyer. “Here, I drew All Might for you. You look like you need a hero.”

The poor lawyer lets out a squeak of terror as Hisashi glares at him from behind Izuku. ‘Don’t you dare get rid of that,’ he mouths to the man. The lawyer stammers frantic thanks. Izuku remains oblivious, turning to Hisashi with a smile.

Hisashi smiles down at his son and takes Izuku’s hand in his. “You’ve been such a good boy today, Izuku! Let’s go get you some katsudon; how does that sound?”

Izuku happily agrees, babbling about a hero who’s just broken into the Top 100 on the Hero Charts, a Present Mic, and off they go, leaving behind a traumatized, sleazy lawyer with a lot of work to do. If it weren’t for the threat to his life and the killer paycheck, he’d consider a career change.

Too bad his Quirk make him look too lawyer-ish for any other career. He regrets his life choices every time All For One walks into his office, and the knowledge that he has a child that’s the spitting image of him but green?

His life is awful and bad.

He’s still going to hang up this terrible drawing of All Might on his fridge. (Both because he values his life and because it’s the nicest thing anyone has done for him in years.)

Chapter Text

Izuku was at school today — and let Hisashi be the first to say that as soon as he had custody, he’d be pulling his son out of that hellhole without hesitation, and they’d be dropping a massive lawsuit on the Bakugous for all the times they failed to reign in their brat. Oh, Hisashi couldn’t wait to financially destroy them. He wanted to see if it was possible for Bakugou Mitsuki to cry — obviously, Masaru would cry, like the weak-willed idiot he was.

In any case, Hisashi may not be happy about Izuku being at that awful school — he’d never wanted to send him there; they had the money to send him to the best of the best, but Inko insisted they shouldn’t ‘spoil’ him — but it was the perfect time for serving Inko with the divorce papers.

Normally, Hisashi would never do this himself; he has plenty of errand boys to run errands for him. But he both wanted to see Inko’s reaction and knew she’d react poorly and wanted to record it for the case.

She was so stupid; she really thought he was inviting her to lunch to make up for ‘threatening’ to sue her friends — Hisashi didn’t make idle threats. He was going to sue the fuck out of those pretentious idiots with their stupid, spiky hair, and the only reason he hadn’t is because he was waiting for Izuku to be out of the line of fire because he actually cared about his son’s safety.

(It really was too bad Izuku would cry if he just punted the little exploding brat into the sun, it would be much faster and more efficient than suing. Courts were so messy and took so much time.)

No, this was not an apology date. He wanted to see her throw a fit in public. Inko always was free with her emotions.

He hit play on the recording device in his pocket and pulled her seat out for her, and she smiled brightly at him. He had to resist the urge to laugh. She really didn’t know what was coming for her, even with Hisashi having not smiled once at her since the night they’d argued.

Why did he marry such a dense woman?

He had no regrets — he’d gotten the most perfect son out of it, of course, but what he saw in Inko seven years ago when they met he had no idea. Where all her intelligence went was perhaps one of the greatest mysteries of the world.

A server came and took their order. Hisashi ordered a glass of very expensive wine, but no food.

Inko looked at him, face scrunched up in confusion. “Why didn’t you order anything to eat?”

“Oh, I don’t plan on staying for the meal. I don’t think you’ll want me to once you read this.” Hisashi smiles as he pulls the folder out of his briefcase and slides it across the table to her.

The server comes back with his wine and her water — she’s never been one to drink, thank heavens for small mercies — and Hisashi swirls it around before taking a sip as she reads over the packet.

“These — these are divorce papers?” She sounds awfully confused.

“Yes, Inko, those are divorce papers.” God, he’s starting to be surprised she can read at this rate. “I’m divorcing you.”

“And... they say you’re petitioning for full custody of Izuku due to... negligence?!” Her voice rises at the last word, and in the quiet, high-end restaurant, it turns heads, as Hisashi knew it would. “I am not — not negligent! How dare you accuse me of such a thing!”

“Inko, you’re making a scene,” Hisashi’s voice is even, but he can’t quite keep the smirk off his face. Not that it matters, the recording is audio only.

Inko actually shrieks at that. “A scene? Of course I’m making a scene! You’re accusing me of abusing my child!”

The server rushes over. “Miss, please, you’re disturbing other patrons... if you can’t control your volume, we’ll have to ask you to leave.”

“Ask me to leave?” Inko snarls, but her volume is lower than it was. “What about him?”

She gestures at Hisashi.

The server looks deeply uncomfortable. “He hasn’t raised his voice once, Miss; I’m not sure what we would remove him for.”

Hisashi smirks at her and takes another sip of his wine. She makes an angry noise in the back of her throat, but doesn’t push further.

“Fine, fine, I’ll be quieter. Get me a glass of whatever he’s drinking.” She snaps.

Hisashi laughs softly. He’s finally pushed her to drinking then, has he?

“You’ll also find in those papers, a temporary court order, Inko, granting me full custody of Izuku. As of this moment, you’re only permitted supervised visitation.” Hisashi reaches over the table to flip a few pages to the paper in question. “There’s plenty of evidence proving you’re not protecting him from kids who hurt him; that you’d rather have friends than defend him from that abusive little Bakugou brat. I don’t think you’re acting in ‘Zuku’s best interest, and the courts agree.”

Inko bursts into tears at that. “So you’re taking him from me because I want to have friends?”

“Your friendships shouldn’t come at his expense. The fact that you think that’s okay is the reason I’m leaving you. When Izuku was born, we both agreed nothing mattered more in the world, but you seem to have forgotten.”

“He’s my son! You can’t take him from me! He’s mine!” Inko wails.

Hisashi takes another sip of the wine. “I can, and I will. You aren’t protecting him. You had one job, but you’d rather be friends with Bakugou Mitsuki than take care of Izuku, so you can keep Mitsuki. Pack your bags while Izuku’s in school; I want you out before the end of the day.”

Inko sobs into her hands and Hisashi revels in her tears like the King of the Underworld he is. Cry more, bitch. He waves over the server, and because he’s so giving, he tells the man to put anything Inko orders on his tab. If this were an American restaurant, he’d leave an excessively large tip — anyone who puts up with Inko these days deserves one, but since it’s not, and the man would be obligated to return the money, (societal obligations are so annoying, aren’t they?) he just uses one of his many, many quirks to sneak several 10,000 yen bills into the poor man’s apron as an apology.

He’s looking forward to giving this recording to his lawyer. Evidence that Inko has a temper and poor emotional control? Check. And the server coming in in the middle of the recording and threatening to remove her made it even more damning! Even better!

He slips the server another few bills as a bonus for that.

Chapter Text

Little snot-nosed brats were streaming out of the school, Izuku among the first of them. His little angel looked awfully eager to get out of there. The Bakugou brat was, unsurprisingly, right on Izuku’s tail, little explosions popping out of his hands and expletives popping out of his mouth.

Charming.

Hisashi swoops in, scowl on his face and curls a hand around the brat’s wrist just as he reaches for Izuku. He squeezes tight — not so tight as to leave marks, he’s not a fool — but tight enough to warn.

“You would do well to remember — Quirk use in public is illegal and quirk use on another is assault.” Hisashi hisses, letting smoke and embers from his fire-breathing quirk escape his mouth.

“Hah? Fuck off, old man! This is between me and Deku!” The Bakugou brat screams. He truly takes after his mother, and that’s not a compliment.

“Papa!” Izuku squeals in delight, throwing himself at Hisashi. Hisashi is quick to let go of the horrid brat to catch his angel in his arms. “You came to get me? Is Mama busy today?”

“Mama won’t be picking you up from school anymore, my sweet boy,” Hisashi coos as he gathers Izuku into his arms.

“Huh? Why not?”

“Deku! You can’t ignore me!” The Brat continues to throw his fit.

He still has excess smoke in his mouth. Hisashi blows it in the Brat’s face and walks away, Izuku cradled in his arms.

“Bye, Kacchan! See you Monday!” Izuku crows cheerfully, like the angel he is, waving as Hisashi carries over to the limo (which he had for a ride today simply to rub it in the Bakugou brat’s face once again that Izuku’s family is the one with a ridiculous amount of money and he’s fucking up by choosing to be a shitty friend).

How someone is this patient, Hisashi doesn’t know. If he hadn’t checked personally for the lack of quirk, Hisashi would sincerely think it was Izuku’s quirk.

“Why don’t we go get ice cream and I’ll explain what’s going on, okay?”

“Can we go to the All Might ice cream place? It’s my favorite!”

Hisashi knows the place will assault his eyes, but somehow he can never seem to tell his child no despite being called the Boogeyman. It was a little bit sad, honestly, but really, could anyone tell those big green eyes no? Hisashi thought anyone who could was the real criminal, honestly, and that’s how he ends up at a table in the back of an All Might themed ice-cream parlor watching Izuku eat a red, blue and yellow monstrosity of a sundae while he himself has a cup of coffee.

“So what’s happening, Papa?” Izuku asks, garish ice cream dripping down his chin.

Hisashi reaches over the table with a napkin and wipes Izuku’s chin. “Well, ‘Zuku, have you heard of divorce before?”

Izuku shakes his head, fluffy little curls bouncing everywhere. Hisashi is not surprised. Divorce is not as common is Japan as it is in some western countries. Inko and Hisashi are most likely the first parents in Izuku’s class to get divorced.

“Alright, well, you know how Mommy and Daddy are married, and marriage is a ceremony grownups do to celebrate how much they love each other, right? Married grownups live together, and sometimes they have babies, like Mommy and I did with you.” Hisashi waits for Izuku to nod his understanding before continuing. “Divorce is something that grownups do when they don’t love each other anymore, so they don’t have to live together anymore. Mommy and Daddy have been fighting a lot, and even though we both love you very much, we don’t love each other anymore, and it’s not healthy to fight all the time, so we are having a divorce.”

Izuku is quiet for several moments, staring at the top of his melting sundae. “Is that why Mama isn’t coming to pick me up from school anymore?”

“Yes, Mama will visit you once a week, but you’re going to live with me,” Hisashi explains.

He’s not surprised when Izuku starts to cry. He inherited Inko’s tear ducts, unfortunately. At least he has the excuse of being five when he starts to bawl in public, and he’s much cuter, too. Inko just looks pathetic. She’s lucky she produced such a perfect child, or Hisashi would not be so inclined to spare her life.

“But who will make katsudon when Kacchan’s mean and play All Might videos for me after dinner?”

Hisashi will not be making katsudon. That’s a good way to burn down the apartment. That’s what Kurogiri is for. Izuku can’t meet Kurogiri until they finalized the divorce, though, so it is time to do what he does best, and lie.

“I’ll learn to make katsudon, okay, buddy?” Hisashi smiles his best smile at Izuku as he types a quick text under the table to have Kurogiri prepare and deliver katsudon tonight. “In fact, we’ll have katsudon tonight, then I’ll turn on All Might’s debut video after dinner; that’s your favorite, isn’t it?”

Izuku’s tears dry up almost immediately. He wipes at his eyes with his fists until Hisashi hands him another napkin. “Really?”

“Of course, anything for my precious boy!” Hisashi says, like a liar, because he will not learn to cook. “In fact, why don’t we go get you a new figurine? Weren’t you just telling me all about Mr. Present Mic yesterday? It sure seems a shame that you don’t have any figures of him!”

Izuku perks right up, forgetting all about his upset and his half melted sundae, just like Hisashi knew he would. Five-year-olds are so easy to manipulate.

Chapter Text

Hisashi sits down in an armchair in the living room of the apartment so that Inko doesn’t get any ideas about trying to sit near him. Disgusting. She’s already constantly calling and texting, trying to get him to call off the divorce. Imagine if she tried to sit next to him on the couch and cuddle up to him to him or something like that.

He vomits in his mouth a little at the very thought.

Quickly, to wash away the taste, he grabs the cup of iced tea (no hot drinks or dark drinks like wine in case his crazy ex-wife gets ideas about throwing the drink on him) he has set on the coffee table and takes a good sized gulp.

Izuku’s in his room so he doesn’t have to hear this, and he’s working on his hero analysis while listening to Present Mic’s new radio station, which is just the cutest thing! He really does take after his dear old dad! Maybe one day Hisashi can convince him to give up on his dream of heroics and come to the dark side.

Inko’s already crying and they haven’t even started the discussion, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief.

“Listen, my lawyer has drafted this up and sent it to your lawyer. You can take a look at it. You’ll get a sizable alimony; I’ll get full custody and you’ll maintain your rights to supervised visitation.” Hisashi offers.

“Why do you keep acting like I’m a bad mother?” Inko wails.

Hisashi quickly shushes her. “Do you want to upset Izuku and have him think we’re fighting? This kind of thing is the reason why I’m fighting for full custody — as well as the fact that you continuously ignore Izuku’s injuries and refuse to let me pull him from a school where he comes home with injuries daily.”

“Katsuki’s just playing with him, Hisashi. It’s not that big of a deal,” Inko waves a hand. “I promised Mitsuki our boys would grow up to be best friends.”

“It is a big deal! What is wrong with you? Our child comes home burned and bruised daily. He cries and says hit him and use their Quirks on him. That’s not normal. If I used my Quirk on someone, I’d go to jail for burning them.” Hisashi wants to grab Inko and shake her violently. “Do you really want Izuku to have a best friend that burns him?”

How can one person be so dense?

...Kurogiri could open a portal and drop her into the middle of the ocean. Perhaps Mariana’s Trench, or the Bermuda Triangle.

But he can’t make her disappear in the middle of a divorce. The timing would be too suspicious.

“Katsuki will grow out of it! You’re being ridiculous! This isn’t a good reason to take my baby away from me!”

Hisashi laughs. “The courts already disagree. You can fight me on this, and drag it out, and make us all miserable, if you want. Go ahead, be a bad mother. You won’t win. The courts already look on you unfavorably — and I’ll reduce your very generous alimony out of spite. I don’t have to offer this much, you know. And then, I’ll still take Izuku.”

The smell of katsudon starts to waft through the air. Kurogiri must have placed dinner in the kitchen.

“You’re awful,” Inko cries, weeping into her handkerchief.

“You’re the one that married me,” Hisashi points out. “You can leave now, by the way. Izuku’s probably ready for dinner.”

And as if summoned by his name, Izuku pops his head out of his bedroom. “Papa, I smell dinner. Can we eat— wait, Mama, why are you crying?”

“Mama doesn’t feel good, so she’s going home,” Hisashi answers.

Inko shoots him a glare, but nods her head. “Sorry, Izu, Mama needs to lay down, so I have to leave, okay?”

Izuku looks at her, then looks at Hisashi. If he’s particularly bothered by this, he doesn’t show it. “Okay, Mama, I’ll see you next week.”

The fact that Izuku doesn’t seem upset sets off more tears, and Inko rushes out the door.

Hisashi smiles. “Come on Izuku, why don’t you tell me about your latest analysis over dinner, then maybe afterwards we can order you a new hero plush since you have been so good lately?”

Izuku grins and skips over to the dinner table.

Hisashi wonders if he’s caught on to the fact that he gets merchandise every time he makes his mother cry. No, surely not. Izuku’s too sweet for that.