Work Text:
It had taken some time for All for One to track down the ninth user of One for All, Izuku Midoriya. He had planned to use the boy's mother or All Might as bait only to find the three of them, and Rewind a quirk he wanted ever since he heard of it. On a one way trip to America under heavy disguise and fake names meaning that barring some black swan event they were firmly out of his reach.
But All for One was flexible and so he redoubled his efforts on Midoriya's classmates and teacher and faced nothing but failure there too.
The first ones he found were the boy with a mutant adhesive quirk (an odd combination), the youngest son of Endeavor, the current number one, and a girl with a frog mutant quirk. He had sent in the vanguard action squad after them only for the mission to go worse than All for One originally calculated.
It started simple enough he didn't think that the three would pose a threat and so he sent out Dabi, Spinner and Toga. Which under normal circumstances would've been overkill but here it had gone wrong in every possible way and then some.
Thinking back on it, All for One could pinpoint the exact moment when his plan failed was when Dabi revealed he was Touya Todoroki too early, burning himself and the mutants to a crisp. This caused Endeavors' son to go berserk killing Spinner and necessitated that Toga's arms be amputated only for him to die from the several extreme changes in temperature hours later.
All for One was not pleased and took Toga's quirk before killing her as punishment for her group. He had no use for failures, or maniacs and he only kept her alive so far was to maintain the illusion of Shigaraki's control.
The next chance to capture Midoriya's friends came three weeks later and went just as badly. This time it was the teacher who had an erasure quirk (and was perhaps the biggest threat to him apart from Midoriya), a girl with an acid quirk, a boy with a mind control quirk, and his little traitor boy with the lazer quirk that was the thirty-fifth he ever added to his collection.
This time he wanted no chance of failure, and so he sent Kurogiri and two high-end nomu (one based on a prediction quirk nicknamed 'Pride' the other based on a quirk that let it extend its nails nicknamed 'Lust') under specific orders to keep them alive.
The 'fight' (if one could even call it that) was short and sweet. Sure without its hyper regeneration quirk Lust was quickly eliminated, and traitor boy was accidentally killed in the scuffle but the others were captured and safely put into containment.
Unfortunately his victories were short lived as in the five minutes between their capture and his arrival at the facility they managed to escape their bonds, incapacitate the guard immediately outside their cell and die fighting the remainder of the guard forces. All for One took the quirks of the remaining leadership of that facility and gave them to Dr. Garaki to use as parts.
It took another month to track down his next targets, a boy with a strength enhancer quirk based on ingestion, a girl with an invisibility quirk, the Yaoyorozu heir who he had his eye on for awhile, another boy with a mutant adhesive quirk who fancied himself to be Spider Man, and a boy with an octopus mutant quirk.
This time he went himself not trusting any of his subordinates to do it after the last two times. But in his haste he forgot to factor in that a cornered rat will bite the cat. And while he left the encounter with two new quirks (Sugar Rush and Creation made great additions to his collection) he left with zero hostages.
Later that night All for One killed and took the quirks of several of his minions just because.
He was quite pleased that the next sightings of Midoriya's friends, (the younger brother of Ingenium, a boy with a a hardening quirk, and the third being Hawks' protege,) was a mere seventy-two hours after the completion of his next high-ends (one made with the quirk of the Sludge-Villain called 'Sloth' the other having been a mix of Creation and several other quirks he called 'Wrath'.)
He however made another mistake. Wrath and Sloth struck at night on a new moon. Against any other person this is an inconsequential detail maybe even even a tactical advantage but in his rage he forgot that Hawks' protege had a quirk that got stronger in the darkness and while sloth got away with the hardening quirk user. Wrath (and more importantly Engine, and Dark Shadow) did not. Removing another two chances for All for One to lure out Midoriya.
Even worse while Harden didn't escape, he didn't provide any useful information either, even with All for One's most brutal physical and mental torture techniques, even after All for One took his quirk, he said nothing. And while All for One was certain he could've broken him eventually, he accidentally killed him in a fit of rage and didn't realize until an unlucky minion (who he later killed and took his quirk) told him he'd been dead for about an hour.
Two and a half months later he found some of the last survivors of class 1-A. A boy with an electricity quirk, another with a hearing based mutant quirk, one with a tail, and the last having an animal speaking quirk.
Sending in the last four high-ends he would have for a while. One with Toga's Transform, the second with the hardening quirk from earlier, and the last from one he took from a minion he killed which gave it a bottomless stomach called 'Envy' 'Greed' and 'Gluttony' respectively. He expected to win in a decisive battle and finally draw Midoriya out hiding.
The truth was a bit more complicated as while he sent in more nomu they were all rushed with Gluttony being single-mindedly focused on food, Envy having no shock-absorbing quirk, and Greed, well Greed was the reason All for One was standing over the now decapitated body of Dr. Garaki.
It had started off poorly for the hero students. Sure, Earphone Jack and Ani-Voice had sent a large group of insects and rodents to which managed to kill Sloth, but Gluttony ate the vermin and their controllers and soon 1-A was down to four members.
Envy and Greed we're having better luck. Tail had not stood a chance and had his head crushed by Greed minutes into the fight. But the shock of killing one of its friends (even with its memory erased,) must've brought some memories back to the surface as when Envy tried to kill the Electricity Quirk boy Greed stepped in and Killed Envy.
Worse for All for One while Greed was preoccupied Gluttony had moved in and swallowed the last boy whole leaving him without any captives once again. Even worse Greed managed to escape leaving All for One with no high-end nomu, (after he killed Gluttony for malfunctioning) and no way to get more, (after he killed Dr. Garaki for creating three malfunctioning nomu).
After all he had gone through he was that to Greed and the last two members of 1-A, (a girl with a gravity quirk, and a boy with an explosion quirk.) Were found only a week after Greed disappeared, and so All for One gathered all his remaining minions he would trust with such a job, (which at this point was just Shigaraki, Kurogiri, and Mustard) to capture the students or die trying.
It turns out they died trying. Even with Kurogiri's powerful quirk and skill in using it he was still no match for Greed as he was killed early in the fight. Putting the villains at a numerical and tactical disadvantage.
Mustard and Explosion were the next casualties after Shigaraki used his quirk on the ground. Gravity used her quirk to save Greed and herself but Explosion was too far away and the action took her out of the fight.
This however did not matter as Greed used one of the quirks it had to maneuver over to Shigaraki and knock his head clean off.
All for One later arrived and killed Greed, Gravity, and anyone friend, foe, or neutral party. Who was in the surrounding kilometer.
Within the past year All for One had fallen from grace. He had lost most of his control over the criminal underworld, and what little he had was tenuous at best. All of his best minions were all dead meaning he had to rely on normal cannon fodder. And he still had no idea where Midoriya, or Rewind were.
As he was about to cut his losses and rebuild his empire from the ground up, not the first time he had done something like this. He had received word that Midoriya and Rewind were on I Island, wasting no time. All for One made his departure for I Island using one of his many flight quirks.
When All for One arrived he found an interesting sight. The entire island was almost abandoned. Residential buildings and businesses were intact but unoccupied. Buildings pertaining to the Island's flight systems and other essential buildings were again intact but running on what All for One assumed was a skeleton crew. And any laboratory whether it was for robotics, medical research, or even manufacturing of common household goods were abandoned and every computer either missing or destroyed.
However this didn't matter to All for One as Midoriya was finally back in Searches' range.
Locating Midoriya was as simple as using Search. Overpowering him using a combination of quirks All for One had planned on using sense Midoriya had gone into hiding (Overkill+Fa Jin+Danger Sense+Blackwhip+Smokescreen+Float) was even easier as while Midoriya tried to put up a fight he didn't have the strength or technique to match two hundred years of fighting experience and several quirks he stole specifically for this fight.
Now as All for One stood over Midoriya, bragging. "Oh how the mighty have fallen." All for One chuckled as he continued. "The ninth user of One for All, a legacy unrivaled before and will never be rivaled by anything in the future, has no quirk, no friends, and no plan. I remember the second. His quirk is easily the most powerful I had in my collection. Or the third, whose Fa Jin powers each of my strikes. Or the fourth who's Danger Sense lets me see your attacks before you even plan them. Or the fifth, who's Blackwhip lets me channel the rage I built up finding you into my attacks. Or the Sixth, who's Smokescreen blocks your line of sight. Or even the seventh who's float lets me conquer the sky while you're earthbound.
Face it Midoriya Izuku. You are left alone with no quirk of your own, no friends left alive to help you, or even a plan other than sacrifice yourself to try and avenge your friends. You are nothing." Midoriya thought for a moment but only had one thing to say to him. "And doesn't that scare you to death?"
"I have nothing you can leverage against me." Midoriya said feeling slightly less sure of himself now that he was saying the words aloud.
"I have no quirk that you can steal, leaving you without your main weapon. No friends to hold hostage leaving you without a way to scare me into submission. And no plan for you to predict making me a threat you haven't faced since your showdown with All Might.
For all my life I was called useless, bullied because I lost the genetic lottery. And I make you shake in your boots because I see you for what you are. A bully who's so used to pushing people around he doesn't remember what it means to persevere."
All for One tried to open what was left of his mouth to protest when Midoriya continued.
"Now tell me," Midoriya said as he got back up into a fighting stance. "If you and I were in each other's shoes, what would you do? Surrender? Try to join my side and betray me later? Or would you fight because you know that if you don't win today hundreds, maybe thousands of people will die."
"That is the difference between you and I All for One. We were both beaten down by society, you for having a quirk and me for having none. And yet here we stand as enemies standing against each other because I know that I am the last line of defense against you. Now enough talk, let's end this feud once and for all." "Let us." All for One said reading Blackwhip.
The fight went like this for quite a while Midoriya trying to get a hit in only for All for One to avoid, or in the rare case where that was impossible, minimize the damage that was done. It went so much in All for One's favor that he didn't even notice he was being led somewhere. Specifically the boiler room.
All for One in his pride made one final mistake during his fight with Midoriya he only kept the quirks of the past users of One for All and those that were necessary to keep himself alive. That meant that search was inactive at the time and he didn't know that hiding in the room were several workers ready for the signal.
All for One approached Midoriya and said. "Any last words before I take back my quirk?" Midoriya only had one response. "Tell me All for One, did you ever feel what it was like to be quirkless?"
And at the signal the workers opened the valves releasing a fine red mist into the air. All for One slowly felt his quirks drain away. First the ones he had active, then the ones he used most often, then the ones he never used until he was quirkless.
"What happened?" All for One said in a raspy voice much weaker than before. Midoriya said. "You fell for my trap hook line and sinker. You see we originally left for America to hide from you, but when you killed my friends I started to plan. However I knew that I couldn't win without the quirk erasing drug but I knew Eri wouldn't go through with it and I started looking for ways around that. That changed when you attacked Aizawa sensei.
Aizawa sensei meant the world to Eri. After she was rescued from Overhaul he was the only person that could control her quirk. He was like a father to her so when you killed him she was willing to do anything to help us stop you.
We took her blood and synthesized the quirk erasing serum in large quantities. We had our weapon we just needed.
Next All Might used his connections to let us use this place for the trap. It was the only place remote enough to give us some time to prepare if you managed to survive.
About six months ago we started evacuating I Island. Anyone or anything that wasn't absolutely vital to the continued maintenance of the island was taken off or destroyed. And I stood as bait. When you finally arrived I led you here and nearly a dozen people sacrificed their quirks to defeat you once and for all.
And do you want to know what the best part is?" All for One took a few labored breaths and said in-between a few coughs. "Not particularly but I feel you're telling me anyway." "One for All isn't destroyed. I transferred to Melissa Shield last week. What was destroyed was the embers left in me."
Izuku then took a deep breath and said, "And the worst part is even after all the pain and suffering you caused, I still can't help but feel sorry for you. An old man dying on the floor of a boiler room. Seems kind of tragic." It was at this point Izuku realized he had been talking to a corpse.