Chapter Text
20 years ago
The iron door squeaked on its hinges as his father slammed it open. Scrambling up Hisashi ran to stand in front of the massive, overbearing thing, desperately not wanting to anger his father. He had to be well presented and efficient.
It would not be efficient if he kept his father waiting for whatever he wanted to talk to him about. Not that he wanted to see him, or please him. But his mum had always taught him that sometimes it was simpler to do the simple things, so when you refused the big things, they would hurt less. He wasn’t sure that was accurate, the big things hurt just as much as the little things, and it’s not like it saved her.
As the door squeaked open he could see through the gap someone small, dainty, and definatly not his father, standing to the large bulk of his father.
But it would not be effective to ask before the door was open, he would know in good time. Even if the curiosity burned inside of him, with the loneliness and the unending chasm of sadness. Sometimes he mistook his sadness for his quirk, because it burned, burned, burned, and burned inside of him, from where his and his mother’s fire came from. Sometimes he wished his sadness would burn him away.
The door made a loud clang that announced it’s opening. It was something Hisashi was sure his father commissioned when he created these rooms, an announcement of his presence that wasn’t needed because no one misses it when the devil comes knocking. He stepped into the room, one large and deceptively gentle hand on the dainty little thing’s shoulder as he began to speak. It was a shock, Hisashi was entranced by how green her hair was.
He hadn’t seen a green that deep and bright since his mother took him to the park as a child. All the plants in the compound were life and soulless, as if there simply was too much grey in the walls for there ever to be any other colour.
That and Hisashi remembered his father acquiring a quirk that enhanced eyesight by bleaching something with lots of dye in it. He remembered his father telling him about the biology of the plants and the chlorophyll that turns plants green.
He also remembered one of the only times he has heard his father’s genuine, shocked laugh, when he asked if that was where the poison chloroform came from, the hair ruffle at the mistake a small child made, a child more familiar with poisons than plants.
The little girl, and he was sure she was a little girl, and that he was definatly older than her, shuffled on her feet as she was introduced.
“Hisashi. This is Inko Midoriya, she will be staying with us from now on. Make her comfortable, and make sure she is ready for training by the end of the week.”
The small girl by his father side was rather violently pushed forward, despite the deceptively gentle handling. Tripping over her own ankle, just as he noticed her lack of balance. It had been his 10th birthday years ago, yet the burning memory locked into his own mind. His mothers screaming, pleading that Hisashi help her. That his father help.
But it was his father, it was Hisashi who hurt her. He had never heard her make sounds like that before. No pleading, no begging. It was a deep kind of break that resulted in that, something even the years she spent before father found her that did not break in her.
Now this girl was here. Already shaking in his arms as if she knew exactly what that man was. Exactly what he was trying to make him into. His plans were moving too fast for Hisashi to keep up with them, plans that he had been planning for decades were laying out on something far greater than a boardgame map.
He straightened her just as the door to the living quarters of the base was kept. “So, your Inko Midoriya? Right?”
In a quiet voice, unsure and a bit timid but with strength behind. It was not the voice of a mouse, even if she appeared as one “that’s not my name.”
“It is now. He won’t allow you to be called anything else.”
“I am not Midoriya, I am Inko Shimura.” She had said it so quietly that he gave her the blessing of pretending not to have heard her. Shimura. One for All.
It always came down to One for All.
Sports festival
The day had been long, and unforgiving. It had started early; it had been hard and emotional and intense. The obstacle course had been gut wrenching in how quick it seemed to go; the Cavalry battles had been far too stressful. With only Kacchan there for support, which made it worse, and everyone else gunning for them.
The weird conversations he had had just topped it all off.
But standing there before All Might, his muscled-up face stretched over his stick thin form, as he dramatically gestured with a plucked piece of hair was not something in his Sport’s Festival bingo, it was not something on his UA bingo, nor as he thought about it, on any bingo he could have conceived to do about his life.
It was a strange, bingo-less moment. Blue, glowing eyes stared down at him. Seemingly ignorant of his inner thoughts.
“Eat that?” Izuku said after a few moments of spluttering for a reply, before pouring his nervous energy into the one defence mechanism that had stayed with him for his whole life. Sarcasm. “Eat that! Yum, hairspray flavoured hair. Exactly what I wanted to snack on.”
And then it hit him. One for All, All Might was giving him his quirk! This was amazing news! This was the best thing to ever, ever happen to him ever! And this was not sarcasm!
“Slow down, motor mouth. Take a deep breath, clench your butt cheeks, and say SMASH!”
He was nodding so quickly he felt like his head was going to fall off his neck. HA! He thought viciously, take that Kacchan I have something of All Might you never will!
“Now this will not meld with you and your body for the next three hours so don’t worry about it during your match. But when it does, please, please be careful. I don’t want to hear about a fire starting where you or Bakugou live.”
“Don’t worry! Our house is actually fire-proof completely!” He said with a small excited jumping motion, Izuku could barely keep his feet on the ground, and his thoughts in his head where they had to stay. He had One for All! He was All Might’s successor! He had to make sure that he didn’t burn the house down, at least it was fireproof!
He was the luckiest boy alive!
“No, young Midoriya that’s not what I-”
Izuku stopped listening as the overhead speaker.
“NEXT UP, ONCE OUR WONDERFULLY USEFUL CEMENTOSS CLEARS THE RUBBLE”
Oh god! He needed to prepare! He had to win.
“Thank you All Might! See you after I beat Kacchan into the ground!”
As he turned the corner, he thought he could hear All Might mutter something, but he had long since stopped listening completely. He had to prepare, and he had to win!
As he rounded the corner, he nearly ran into a wondering Aoyama, who had his head turned towards his phone. Sulkily staring down at it, deep in contemplation. He hid it very well once he realised that Izuku had nearly ran into him, but Izuku noticed the shifty look in his eye and the very unsubtle way he moves his phone into his pocket.
“Oh, sorry I did not realise anyone was down here, Mon Cheri! Good luck! Keep it between you and me, but I hope you come out as the shining star you are!”
Shifting from one foot to the other impatient energy flowing through him, he nodded and spoke his thanks, running off again. Aoyama seemed stressed about something, when this was all over Izuku would definatly have to ask him when he saw him next. He looked incredibly sad.
He wasn’t quite sure what he had seen.
Scratch that, he knew exactly what he had seen. Knew exactly what kind of thing he had been looking for. He just never truly believed it could happen, no matter who was ordering him around. What he wanted him to look for.
Keep an eye on All Might, young one. Relay to me and mine any information you would find critical to his condition. Any person he favours above others. Any person he talks to in dark hallways, away from prying eyes.
And this was exactly that. A conversation in a dark hallway. He would even call it a stretch to call it a conversation.
He could hear their voices from the turn in the corridor, far enough that he thought that Izuku’s enhanced hearing would not stretch to, and casually leaned against the wall. Flicking his phone out, appearing to the world like a teenager sulking over his loss. Which he wasn’t, he was not. Ashido deserved it, she won fair and square.
It was just annoying because he could have totally beaten lots of the other people who passed him by. C’est la vie, it is how it is. And now he could live a little easier, and breathe a little deeper whenever he went home, by giving him this small piece of information.
“EAT THIS!”
Izuku spluttered in an endearingly charming way that was very him. Peeking out from behind the hallway corner Izuku’s face scrunching into a living puzzle, and the small strand of hair All Might was holding out was information enough for him. Even without telling him, he always seemed to hold a vested interest in Izuku. He liked hearing about him, in a detached, malicious way. And maybe that should be something that made him think against reporting this.
But he knew it would be worse for him in the long run if he didn’t. Probably would be worse for Izuku as well.
He had been waiting for All Might to do something like this. It had been a tenant of his service that he had to look for this kind of thing.
A thread of dread wove its way around his heart, a tapestry of regret. Nothing about this was going to come out well. He could just feel it, watching Izuku choke down the piece of hair, he could feel a scratch in his throat, as if his own piece of hair caught.
This was not anything good.
There wasn’t anything he could do. He wasn’t Network.
He took out his phone, and he started typing a message.
AFO, it seems AM has made a play of the newest OFA holder. He has always had a vested interest in Izuku Midoriya, now it seems more than just a vested interest.
Pressing send he considered the words he had not put in, something that he would most likely read in it anyway.
Just like you.
“NEXT UP, ONCE OUR WONDERFULLY USEFUL CEMENTOSS CLEARS THE RUBBLE”
He rubbed his face and moved away. Away from the conversation of mentor, mentee he had intruded on for far too long, as Midnight’s voice crackled over the Tanoy.
“IS THE POWERHOUSE EXPLOSIVE EXPERT BAKUGOU KATSUKI,”
His phone beeped at him, the affirmative text to his message. He didn’t take it out, let him pretend, just for another few hours that he really was Izuku’s classmate, and friend. Let him pretend that he could be a hero, even for the next few hours. His soul was destined for hell, but this reality was a paradise. So just a few more hours.
“AGAINST THE UNBEATEN, UNSHAKEN, UNSTOPPABLE MIDORIYA IZUKU.”
Just a few more hours. He had done his job. It was his family, or it was them. He had to choose, and he wasn’t a strong boy.
“FIRE FIGHTERS AND WATER HEROES WILL BE SINGLEHANDEDLY KEEP IN BUSINESS FROM THESE TWO EXPLOSIVE, FIRERY AND HOT FIGHTS! KEEP WATCHING,”
Inko and Hisashi Akatani or Midoriya or whatever to whoever they were speaking to, watched the sports festival with more than enough fear and trepidation. They watch Izuku blow himself up to push himself to the front of the obstacle course, watched him dominate with Bakugou in the second task. Now they watched him face down opponent after opponent. Getting closer and closer to the gold medal.
He had lagged at the beginning, nearly taken out by the large swathes of ice from Todoroki’s first ice attack, watched him almost get crushed by the robots as the desperate rush of students hid him from them, watched him totter over the large chasm arms full of sheets of metal.
Then he launched himself on the minefield, shooting into view from the back just as Katsuki and Todoroki were about to physically fight each other for spot 1.
They had no doubt that Katsuki had been pissed off, Mitsuki’s phone call during the break between the two events had made that certain, but it was no surprise to either parental groups that Izuku and Katsuki were working together as one horse and one rider. As the smallest group with the largest points by a long, long shot, they were very much put upon immediately.
Inko had counted that they had lost the headband three times and had got it back time and time again. Even while bickering and with Katsuki smacking Izuku on the head every time he did something the older boy did not like, they worked like an incredibly well oiled, albeit grumpy, machine. The scream Katsuki let out when Todoroki managed to snag their headbands wasn’t human. The blast of fire from Izuku had Todoroki freezing, for some reason, as the fire bent around him carefully, blasting the quirk shadow monster away. Froze him for long enough for Katsuki to blast over and blast him in the face for daring to steal the headband.
Inko kept on laughing at him whenever he and Monoma started to verbally attack one another. They could both see Izuku’s face whenever they started another bout and knew it was bad.
They won. Against all the odds, and skills of the other heroic students. And that one Gen Ed student who they hadn’t noticed until he made the person, he was first fighting against walked out of the arena.
They would have to wait for the Izuku vs Bakugou fight. Having been on the same team for the second event, and as they won, they had been placed on the opposite ends of the fight tree. Izuku fighting first, Katsuki fighting last.
The fights had been good, well and fair. The people who had gotten through had clearly trained and were focused, even if they were blind sighted by the Gen Ed student or Todoroki’s ice age move. The tension in the room was tighter and tighter as Izuku gained more and more attention.
Theirs wasn’t the same fear and trepidation of normal parents.
Oh god my child has a scraped knee.
Oh dear my child is up against someone who has a sentient quirk shadow monster attached to them, literally by the hip.
Oh, shit cakes my child got taken out by the Gen Ed kid and is going to be the laughing stock of the student heroics world for a little bit.
No, it was more.
Fuck, I hope my supervillain father is not alive, to see this and know my child is at the top heroics school. I do hope when he gets on the podium, and we are invited and chauffeured to the stands we don’t get recognised as 1 an ex-villain and 2 an ex-vigilante. Oh, we do so hope that the man that possibly killed the strongest man we knew, who also was a controlling evil bastard doesn’t recognise us and our child as his family.
Inko thinks she should be the only one going to the Sports Festival to represent them. But Hisashi was stubborn. Hisashi thinks he should be the only one going to the Sports Festival. But Inko was stubborn.
They didn’t have just one child on the line. As Izuku walked on the stage, Hisashi slid his hand over Inko’s stomach protectively. They would both go, damn the consequences. Even if there were none, they had to be there for their son.
They would tell Izuku, as a treat. They had been waiting to tell him, one to make sure the baby was ok, and two because the Sports Festival was coming up, and the news would either be a congratulations, or a pick up. They had it all planned, the Bakugou’s were invited too. Big congratulations dinner, big teary desert, big early bed time because the boys would be tired. Hisashi had to blow up the balloons, not that they had a gender yet, but they still wanted to go all out, and sort out more decorations. Inko would start cooking when they got home, they were lucky that they knew Izuku would immediately want to watch the other two festivals.
“KEEP WATCHING, IT WILL BEGIN IN 10 MINUTES SO DON’T GO ANYWHERE!”
Oboro stepped away from the arena floor as Cementoss cleared the floor. Starting his job of refilling the holes and helping the bots in clearing the floor of rubble. Bakugou certainly didn’t know how to hold back, and Hitoshi certainly had gotten better at dodging.
It was what he expected to happen, doesn’t mean he was happy about it.
And he had seen Bakugou turn his hearing aids off before his match, it was a miracle – his dad voice in him was shouting that his baby should have won, but his hero and judge voice were winning out – that he lasted as much as he had.
Oboro was very proud of his son. He just needed his son to know that.
He found him crouched against the wall in an abandoned preparation room. Just where he expected him to be. God, he was so like Shouta, it almost hurt him a little bit.
“Hey kid. How’s things.” Hmm, not a great start.
“Things be things.” Hitoshi replied with less heat than he was expecting, what Oboro thought could be a meme was a good sign, maybe it was a good start.
“Things are good as things I think.” Ok now he was getting confused, come on Oboro dad mood. “How are you feeling about your fight.” Ok maybe a bit too dad mode, soften, soften. “I am really proud how far you got, Bakugou is one tough cookie.” Meh, could be better.
Hitoshi turned to him, a small smirk on his face that only felt half forced. Maybe he wasn’t taking it as badly as Oboro thought he might. “How long had that been cooking up in your air head.”
Ok, he was deflecting from his feelings about the fight.
Hitoshi -1 Oboro – 0 on the insult count.
“I’ll have you know; I have a lot of air in my head because it fits more things in it.” Ok now serious talk time. “Ok serious talk time. No deflecting, any deflection I encounter is an hour on your sleep schedule.”
Hitoshi’s hand flew to his chest in mock horror, “Oh god not the sleep schedule!” He paused, his hand dropping, with his façade of cool teen who is not fazed by anything™. “A little pissed. Not going to lie. Can’t believe he turned his hearing aid off, that threw a spanner in my whole plan.”
“What did I tell you about reliance on quirk?” The scowl on Hitoshi’s face screamed, far too much dad mode. “I know you were working on your throws and things. I do have to say, Bakugou would have been hard to capture even with his hearing. You did very well against him even, I take it you took a page out of Ochako’s book?”
He hummed unconvincingly, rubbing his hand up and down his arm. Something else was bothering him, and Oboro was not quite sure what it could be. Ochako was a very good and tenacious fighter for how little she had been training for it. Maybe he didn’t want to be compared to a girl?
Oboro was very aware of the dwindling time he had before he had to get back to the field. He jostled Hitoshi’s shoulder with his own. “Come on bud, what is it? Don’t mope on me.”
He shrugged again, knocking his head against Oboro’s shoulder.
“Eraserhead won his first Sports festival. I wanted to honour him, but I just couldn’t hack it.”
Ah, the veritable dark cloud that was constantly hanging over his head.
“Aizawa had an harder to avoid quirk, and people much stupider than who was out there. He set a precedence about not underestimating Gen-Ed kids. You have done so, so well to get where you are now. He would like you, and be proud of you because you did learn basic combat. Because you learnt all you could about your opponents. It was never about the win for him, it was how you won.”
He leaned closer, resting his head against Hitoshi’s letting the clouds wet his hair a little. “Between you and me, he would call people like Bakugou and Midoriya something like goblin children, or problem people or something. It would be you he would go for. You are so very much like him, just less logical. But he was a bit of a robot with that sometimes.”
Hitoshi huffed a laugh, “like Iida?”
“Oh god no.” He tried to imagine Shouta doing the hand movements but couldn’t. “He was like a tired, always sleeping flip phone from the millennium. Iida’s a new model touch screen, AI robot, this is how you can streamline your life. Shouta was efficient but low maintenance, and would, whenever he could fold into a sleeping bag.”
A beeper beeped at him. Nemuri, the pitch was probably clearing up enough to start hyping the crowd. A small snore broke him from his thoughts. He took his aviator, wrapped it around Hitoshi and stepped onto the crowd. Time to see who had the biggest fire power.
Bakugou vs Midoriya was bound to be a very exciting and dangerous match.
But first hydration!
Izuku faced Katsuki. Katsuki faced Izuku.
It had been far too long since the boys had been able to have a fully wild fight. Been far too long since they saw who was better. They were grinning wide bloody smiles at the other, tension linking them together as dedications to their fight, ready for Loud Cloud to finally let them at the other. He had run on, looking like he had sprinted to the stage.
Midnight had sounded a little impatient over the speakers, he definatly was a little late.
The final. The final of the first-year sports festival. Shown across the world, the blazing hopes for the newest heroes blooming into the power of their quirks, blooming into the power of their bodies, into the power of their determinations. Izuku would not forget how close he had been to walking out of the competition before he was fully able to show himself. He was lucky his quirk started to work up. Even he didn’t know it worked like that, his breath catching in his throat, the scent of ozone all around him.
They were there, they had made it. Despite everything.
There was no doubt, Izuku will win. He opened his mouth, a blazing inferno sprung from deep within, he roared his determination for victory, flying straight at Kacchan’s face.
“Izuku, can you go get the door.” A voice called from deep within the house, upstairs most likely. In the large study that overlooked the back garden. It was where Hisashi normally worked. All for One liked to see that his habits never faded it had good visibility and was easy to defend.
“Izuku! The door! I’m cooking!” Said another, closer to where the door was, obviously having not heard her husband. A loud groan was heard, not one of average teenage angst, All for One could imagen Izuku was in quite a lot of pain having competed in the sports festival today.
“Ok, ok I’m going. Don’t have to tell me twice. No rest for the wicked, not like I got yeeted across a stadium for your amusement or anything.” Said a young voice from the other side of the frame, these words were not ones which All for One recognised. The youth of today coming up with words like ‘yeeted’ was exactly why he needed to regain control.
The door opened, and the first thing All for One noted was how green the boy was. If All for one was the god of death, pale drawn and with red fixing eyes, the child in front of him was verdant life. Green grass hair, leaf green eyes. Scales like emeralds lining his cheeks like freckles.
The gold medal was striking against Izuku’s green dyed hair. Gold and green worked well with each other, like the silver and blond did as well.
The child, so called Izuku’s, hair that matched his father’s black dyed hair. All for One could see the white roots from the shade of the bar, no amount of whisky drinking could force him to miss that. The boy’s shade looked like the perfect combination of his mother and father’s hair.
Boys they were all children in front of his might. They would never run far enough, hide well enough. He would always get what he would deserve. After Yoichi he would have nothing less. They would be his. He had let them run and hide like prey, keeping the façade of a normal life. It was all wrong, it was all false. A careful lie they created around their child. He had let them live after Inko Shimura’s betrayal of him.
He let her live despite her mother, despite her betrayal, despite her stealing his son away from him. Now, now they would have to come to him. Thanks to his little bird in UA, he knew. The quirk was back in the family again, and it would need to stay in the family. They would need to be brought back to have a family. Inko would have to be disposed of, once and for all. Then the family would be whole, and well. Even if there were a few months of integration and growing pains.
All for one straightened, sipping his neat whisky on the rocks, he leaned backwards into the back of his chair. The soft padding soothing the aches and pains, age and injury has caused. The many eyed servant he always kept close padded forward on cat like silent feet. The glass wasn’t in need of refilling but All for One always liked the show of loyalty from someone who had had lots of problems when he was first acquired. Now he was the perfect butler, and babysitter.
The cat like nomu settled back beside Tomura. Claws away. All for One was not the happiest with the nomu, the vision he had had when he first had heard of the man’s base quirk was far from what he had been able to complete. The secondary levitation filled in the secondary slot for emitter quirks if he wanted a brain dead nomu he would have shoved as much as he could. But that was not what he needed at the time, and even if he was able to prove that he was able to create a Nomu capable of thought, it was better than nothing.
Alas the man had skills that had made him quick, quiet and light on his feet – so All for One boosted these abilities with a black cat mutation. Which supplied a nice little luck boosting aspect to the quirk.
Afterall cats always landed on their feet.
“Kuroneko, you would be able to look after another child right. Just until I could get his father under control?” All for One asked in a way that told Kuroneko he would have to look after another child whether he was able to or not.
“Of course Sensei, it is one of my purposes you gave me.”
All for One nodded, pleased, “yes I did hope for more, maybe I should have aimed for both you and that cloud boy. The foundations for that warp quirk would have meant a much sleeker warp nomu, we still haven’t perfected a high functioning nomu capable to speech like you yet. Never mind that now, we have a show to watch.”
His eyes focused back onto the television, onto the loving mother of Inko. A cat like grumbled spoke of the Nomu’s agreement.
Even though she was in hiding like the other two the whole family was on the run – even if Mikumo’s (that was what his name should be, it was the name they agreed on, he had promised) participation in the sports festival announced how they believed him dead, her hair was stubborn and it was a very easy locator. Would not lighten in colour nor change in shade. It was in the mutation in her hair, unfortunately for her.
Her grandfather on her mother’s side had a vegetation camouflage quirk, passing down the seemingly biological need to be able to hide in the green. It missed her mother but was passed down to her. It missed everyone else in the family too. No one in her brother’s family had the plant mutation in their hair. There was one distance cousin, who also got the mental quirk in that side of the family, but they weren’t in contact, and All for One knew they would never be. She had been perfectly isolated from anyone who could save her, and he had made sure to isolate her from anyone else who would. Inko would have been too scared to ever reach out to him. He was too close to the heroes, too close to All Might.
Ah, he was rambling now, his thoughts chasing each other across his mind. He had to concentrate if he wanted to see and watch. He couldn’t keep his attention off the screen for a moment or he would lose the clear image in his mind.
Mikumo was the back up plan it seems, as he watched the tv. The façade of the perfect family, the heroic son. Shady parents, without any history that’s in any police background checks. No one would suspect a hero family. He had seen this too many times in his life, integration, assimilation. Normally the child would have a strong quirk too, so another crime family lost to the shining stars of heroics.
All for one stared at the television screen his sight quirks compensating for what he could not see, Tomura for once was also staring hard at the screen. There was no hint of recognition in his eyes, nor any type of longing. He didn’t recognise Inko, nor did he want a family like that. Good, that was exactly what he had wanted.
All for One liked that all he felt was rage.
Tomura’s fists clenched hard when All Might came on screen and All for One could feel the rage building by the minute. A small smirk twitched onto his face, this pitiful boy was so reliant on him. So loyal to his guiding hand.
When his family came back to him he might not have to keep Tomura. Mikumo was exactly what he needs to damage All Might. Mikumo was his grandson, and All Might successor and neither of them knew. All Might has ruined that quirk in giving it to Mikumo.
A huff of rage, and a resigned sigh from Kuroneko told All for One enough about Tomura’s impulse control with All Might on screen. His smile ticked up once more and he had to think what it would have been like if Tomura hadn’t been brought up by him, if he was taken by All Might as the only link to Nana left.
Or, he turned back his concentration back to the screen. There the three stood. Arms wrapped around each other, Hisashi on the left on Mikumo – who looked exactly like him down to the scale like freckles on his face and the curls on his head, and Inko to his right. All Might just behind her shoulder, over her own shoulder. Away from her husband. All to plan.
His head ached suddenly. A pulse of pain and anger, just where the injuries All Might had given him. His non-existent eyes burning in the night. All Might’s injuries just wasn’t enough, barely on the scale of injuries that he had. He could still walk around unimpeded, could go out without hundreds of needles, and machines constantly floating around him. All for One was exceedingly lucky that that punched missed completely removing his brain.
He hated that word, lucky. It was not luck that brought All Might to his house. It was not All Might who destroyed his business and dragged the whole of the heroic society onto his head. All Might was a particularly blunt weapon wielded by many other people.
It was not luck that he had the two last surviving directly connected family members to that Shimura bitch. It was not luck that killed Tomura’s family.
Luck had nothing to do with it. He hated that he had to rely on it, hated how it was the reason why he was alive.
It was not luck that they had finally let their guard down. He was rather surprised about the little fire breather and his startling resemblance. It was nice to see Akatani Izuku, and his law-abiding citizen business man father.
Although UA was exactly where he expected them to send him. The boy was certainly capable to get in, no matter what. It was in his blood to succeed.
It did explain a few things, however. All for One had known Inko was pregnant and had found out about Hisashi courting her before they had fled, taking with them all that information, taking it to All Might. It was a fast turn around.
His injuries had forced him to keep his distance, and then he had been intrigued to see how they would act. Pretending to be normal people, pretending to raise their son as law abiding citizens.
He let them play, it wasn’t as if he knew he couldn’t take them back whenever he wanted. Mikumo didn’t have his quirk or anything like his quirk, which while disappointing, was expected. He had been interested in how Inko and Hisashi’s quirks and hereditary quirk genes would interact, but there seemed to be very little difference in Mikumo’s and Hisashi’s quirk.
Luck was no on his side with that, and he didn’t want to keep on this experiment now that Mikumo had something much more precious to him.
Luck, for now, was with him. One for All would soon be in his grasp.
The happy family left the stage, and the camera lingered on the retreating figure of Hisashi as the presenter spoke his fair wells. He was grinning a sharp, sharp grin, echoing the look on his son’s face. Such a sharp look.
So draconic looking.
A dragon over its golden hoard.
All for One knew the villain enforcer Dragon when he saw him.
Viewing the scene through someone else’s eyes was a rather invasive technique he used to see, and not one he used often. It was messy in the way that Nomu often were, in how quirk manufacturing often was, but it was the only one he could use that restored his sight to what it had been. So, he liked to bring it out for special occasions, and this was a rather special occasion.
Even if Mikumo had not been given One for All, and he hadn’t given the quirk to Kuroneko at that point, his hearing of the boy was nice enough.
This special occasion gave him a reason to bring out the quirk. It wasn’t offensive enough to most intelligent un-Nomufied people that it sat in one of the eyes of his personal Nomu easily. Despite the bleeding afterwards it was incredible. It only meant a trip to the Doctor for his Nomu, and meant he could see for a few hours, could see his brother quirk manifest. Not that he had expected to see it manifest, but the idea that it was there, in reach in his grandson was too tempting not to watch.
It was still tempting to see that his son was still the villain he used to be, how he was still just about lurking underneath the façade of happy father. What lucky parents they were.
A B-class villain, who was only B-class because the government didn’t know he was a murderer, also because they did not know how long his family had been in villainy, how entrenched it was in his blood. He is the bloody fist of the family. Or was. All for One had not found a single hint of him having done anything illegal since Mikumo’s birth.
It was annoying, and would require him to break him in again into crime, but it would be worth it.
With Inko being the A-class vigilante-informant who had unfortunately gone missing and had given all her information to the police and associated heroes. She was the true brains behind the operation. Behind many operations. While working with him he allowed her to roam at night, causing chaos and beating up men who she felt wronged her. All for One never really cared to listen to her reasoning.
He had hoped her casual night-time violence would turn into casual violence in nature, but it never emerged, she just grew more ruthless and cunning.
Whatever it meant for him, and it meant a lot of things that he had to now live with, it did mean he had the practice to twist Tomura into the violent sociopath he was today.
All for One had to think that it was possible Mikumo didn’t even know about the truth about his parents.
It led All Might to him, in the end.
How lucky for them.
Well, now looked who had all the information.
18 years ago
Inko had been out for too long. Hisashi would be worried and All for One would be annoyed.
But the men who followed girls like her, who had actually followed her for a few blocks, with a jaunty taunt and an innuendo to follow, she did not feel safe to leave just out in the street.
She just had to quickly deal with them and then she could be back on her way. No one any wiser of her long time disappearance. She would just give the hero’s who she knew were following this case and ones like it closely the little bit of insider information.
Afterall they had followed her while she was trying to do her day job, and that was hard enough with All for One breathing down her back, that she didn’t need sex traffickers lurking around near where she and Hisashi lived. All for One would get her back from them, she was an investment of some sorts to him – not that she could figure out why, and it wasn’t like Hisashi was going to tell her. He would get her back, eventually.
Wait long enough that she would be desperate and long enough to have learnt her lesson. But not too quick that it seemed like she was his priority, like he cared for her well being. He would wait long enough that he would be grateful that he did come.
They were an old hat trafficking ring. Focusing on poaching and relocating local girls to exotic locations. They were small but effective, and with the burning weight of their quirks, descriptions and account details in a little file tucked under her arm she felt like she was finally doing something good. Finally doing her mother (her mother Nana Shimura, her little brother Kotaro Shimura, her niece and nephew Hana and Tenko Shimura – they were her family it doesn’t matter that they left her with a monster, she could still keep an eye on them) proud.
18 years ago.
The fast snap of the whip cracked the air. Little flecks of blood kept on spraying his cheek, and he knew he would have spotted bloodied hair.
He knew focusing on these details was the only thing stopping him from ripping the whip out of his fathers hands and dying in the attempt of strangling him with it.
He had to breathe, deeper, deeper. There would be nothing but more pain and more misery if he tried to stop this. It would be better for Inko if he stayed as still as possible and was able to look after he afterwards.
“It was stupid.” His fathers angered tones broke through his thoughts, and all efforts to stop him from lunging forward were paper thin.
“You were not only seen by heroes, but you gave them information about men I work with.” All for One knew she would be doing something about the traffickers, he had organised the meeting with Inko and Hisashi there to prompt one of them into doing something about them. They had fallen out, so he let his little tests run them into their little burrows.
This was not the outcome he had wanted. The old man craved violence like a spoilt child demanded candy. He would either get it, or he would kick up a fuss and get it anyway.
Hisashi hoped he ate his fill quickly. This was not conductive to anyone’s work ethic. Nor his temper.
“Hisashi!” Shit, he had zoned out again. This was no place for complacency, not with Inko hurt. “Are you paying attention to me?”
“Yes father.”
The red eyes in front of him narrowed.
“What did I just say?” Insatiable, violent child. It was safer to not answer, rather than risk his wrath about lying to him. “Or can you not answer.”
That was one of several answers he normally would give in this situation and as the pit in Hisashi’s stomach which had steadily sunk deeper and deeper into his stomach, sunk to a new low, he recognised the reaction that placed his father on the moody end of the spectrum. Now this could go two ways from here, a demand of a sacrifice – from the situation Hisashi wouldn’t be getting out of this room without more then just flecks of blood on him (either his or Inko’s wouldn’t matter) or his father would be so overwhelmed and overstimulated he would send them both away.
“Get her out of my sight.” He shot forward with just too much speed for it to be casual, but the shade of white Inko had gone had left him just a little bit shaken. When spending nearly two years of time only socialising with a madman who was also your father and a person his age who was spectacularly well adjusted for her situation, he knew co-dependency would be an issue. “and Hisashi, don’t lie to me again.”
“Yes father.” He nodded demurely, in a way Inko would always make fun of harshly in the privacy of their private accommodations, but in a way that often saved them from further punishment. He picked Inko up, bracketing her body against his own and moved quickly deeper into the subterranean levels.
“I did it.” She whispered deliriously as they passed doorway after doorway, they were nearing their apartments, and they had barely ran into any other members of All for One’s gang. It was a notoriously bad secret amongst the workers that no one who got in the way of All for One’s temper made it out alive. “I saved them.”
He nodded, because he was too scared to speak, and pressed a kiss into her hairline, because he was too scared to do nothing. Her whispered speech tapering off into an unconscious breath, and she dropped, completely limp in his grip.
He wished she wouldn’t do it again. That she wouldn’t save them. That she would try and save herself more pain. That she would save him more pain.
Wish it so he could fall back out of love with her, and not wish desperately for her sake, that they were anywhere else. It was her spirit, the one thing All for One hadn’t taken from her while she had been living there. Living there, as if she weren’t a prisoner, with no where to go.
Sports festival
“Hello there, may I come in?” The question was rhetorical he was coming in, and he took his answer as a stride into the house, his own large hand wrapping around the throat of the small teenager. Between one breath out and one breath in he walked into the house, lifting the teen into the air clearing his feet off the ground halfway through a step.
The quickly aborted shocked cry lodged in Izuku’s throat.
Closing the door behind him deceptively quietly. Certainly louder than the gasping child thrashing in his grasp.
A small flame burst from Izuku’s lips, an admirable effort for someone who was being lifted in the air by his throat – and who had only had a couple of weeks for training. The small burst of fire landed on his suit, it didn’t even smoulder. The small heat flickered in what had to be counted as his vision and as quickly as it occurred it flickered out. Lucky it was fire-proof. He knew who he was dealing with. He could feel the wild pulse pounding under his fingers, the subtle fluttering of his throat.
He was trying to activate his quirk again. It was very admirable, but a stupid affair.
“No, no don’t do that, little hatchling. Fire can burn you know. Let’s go see if your father is around, we need a little chat. Oh, your mother too.”
“Izuku! Who is it?” Inko shouted from the kitchen, the loud mixing pausing as All for One imagined she was leaning towards the door.
“Izuku did you get the door!” Hisashi shouted from the back of the house, his footsteps getting louder. “Inko, did Izuku get the door?”
All for One stepped further into the house, the scent of Katsudon cooking wafting into his nose. It had been far too long since he had smelled good food. Izuku was scratching now, letting out little aborted gasping noised, smoke wafting out of his nostrils. All for One squeezed a little tighter watching as it brought the boy closer. There was a slamming in the kitchen, Inko was coming.
“Izuku who was - A-all for One.” She faltered, eyes widening at the scrabbling child in his grasp. He could feel a tentative, instinctive use of her quirk to pull on Izuku. His less tentative, instinctive use of force was to lift Izuku up a bit more. “Please put him down.” The child was fading now, his struggling growing weaker, the lack of oxygen was getting to him. “The living room is this way, please, please put him down.”
“Of course, get your husband. I’ll meet you in there.” He places Izuku back onto the floor, steadying when he swayed sucking in large breaths and weakly coughing, he let his arms rest at his side as the boy continued to cough. He could feel rather than see one large green eye peaked up through Mikumo’s bangs, accessing him. When he moved his head a fraction, something that was small and innocuous, but enough for his lack of his eyes to acknowledge the eye contact Mikumo’s eye wandered away from his.
His weak coughing spluttering as All for One laid a smooth hand on the back of his neck. He turned Izuku, pushing him forward and rubbing his back lightly to ease the coughing. The boy was so small and fragile.
Still hunched over he allowed himself to be maneuverer, small puffs of smoke leaking whenever he coughed weakly.
He could feel the scales under the boy’s clothes. The great shining golden medal still hung on top of his clothes. The other hand that wasn’t carefully stroking his back, reached out and pulled it towards him carefully. It was well wrought, but felt cheap in his hand. Too light to be proper gold. His composition quirk confirmed it moments later. The institution of UA could not afford a pure gold medal. He hopes their education isn’t as cheap as their medals. Pulling it off when he heard a smash from above, taking a moment to inspect it closely. Running his fingers over the fine groves of gold, he could feel the tension from Izuku. It would not do to keep something as cheap and nasty as this. He let it drop to the floor, stepping on it and pushing the door to the living room back open.
Moving Mikumo into the living room hand still clamped on the back of his neck, he claimed the large sofa that stood in front of the television.
The boy was very obviously holding back tears, All for One could hear the aborted sobs building in his throat. He studied the child for longer, looking at all the little things about him he could gather without eyes. All the little looks he got from his parents. The curls and the obvious mutation, the large round eyes. Large eyes focused fearfully onto his own face.
As if he couldn’t see it. He allowed it, he didn’t think the antiquated thoughts that forced children too look at the floor when in his presence was useful nor helpful. Especially in this position when the staring was increasing said child’s fear in large quantities.
Children were fascinating creatures, a nomu in their own right. The amalgamation of different people all tucked into a small, small form.
And Izuku was rather small. Small like Hisashi was at that age. Like Yoichi.
He activated more quirks to try and get a closer look at him, it would only be a few minutes at most he wouldn’t have to worry about quirk exhaustion. Nor would he have to worry about a fight breaking out. He had Izuku in his grasp, and in his grasp would be where he would stay, keeping trigger happy parents, in their place. It was lucky for him that Izuku opened the door.
There was smoke trailing out his nostrils, a rumbling purring sound from the internal furnace, clicking away in stress. As footsteps kept on coming closer.
The child was very stiff, All for One noticed as they sat. Stiffening even further when All for One’s hand settled on his head, dragging his hand over the back of his hair. Revelling in the soft coils. A half-developed noise of fear escaping his throat through the ravaged bruises mottled on the skin, maybe his grip had been a touch too firm. His fingers graced over them gently moving from the soft curls downwards, his mouth tugging into a frown, he did not like hurting children if he could help it. But they were very useful in making parents behave.
“I am sorry about the bruises Mikumo. I do normally not like hurting children. I just need everyone to behave today.” His hand rested gently on Mikumo’s shoulder, and he turned his head away as a tear slipped out of Mikumo’s eye, he didn’t need nor want to see children crying, no matter how much he thought they should be protected.
He waited for what might be a proper response. Mikumo was still crying, he was tense and had almost curled over himself. But All for One could feel the resolve building in the child. He was a heroics student after all, and the curling muscles, tightening in response to a threat was inherent in many of the plague that called themselves heroes.
“Mikumo I am talking to you, its polite to respond when an adult is gracing you with conversation.”
“My name is Izuku. I’m not called Mikumo, so you weren’t talking to me.” While All for One wasn’t looking at the child, the child was most certainly looking at him. There were loud thumping footsteps coming towards them as All for One drew Mikumo closer to him as he relaxed on the sofa, the child’s eyes were much harder than the large shape gave credit for. Although admiral, respect was needed.
His thumb settled into the soft bit of his throat. “Yes, you are. Your father always said if he had a son, he would be called Mikumo. So that is your name. Izuku was just a falsehood.” The thumb pressed in, “I don’t enjoy being questioned, Mikumo. Let’s not make it a habit.”
The child dropped his eyes away from his scarred head, his bottom lip between his teeth as his eyes darted to the door, to the sound of panicked thumping feet. The tempo matching the beat under his thumb as he loosened.
Turning on a relaxation quirk, he sunk into the sofa. His limbs heavy, and out of his control. All for One copied him, quirk not needed. It was a very comfortable settee, he approved. It would stop Mikumo from acting up for a few minutes, and as the clock ticked on their meeting, might stop a very violent quirk activation. Once One for All fully settled in the child.
The running stopped outside the door, two figures stilling in front of it reaching out carefully and twisting the knob carefully. There was a deep, fearful breath released when the man fully came and stood in the room.
He looked older, more settled from what All for One could see. From what he could remember, but traumatic brain injuries often resulted in memory loss. But that same aura settled over the two of them, it twists over Mikumo, was something he remembered fondly.
All for One stood, watching as Hisashi and Inko tensed. Eyes darting toward Mikumo, whose face was twisted as he desperately tried to move. Darker and darker smoke trailing out his mouth. Inko’s eyes stayed on her child, and his on hers. She tried to smile at him reassuringly, but it fell flat. All for One could see the fear in her eyes.
He turned fully toward Hisashi. Relaxed.
“Hello Hisashi, nice to see you again, it has been far too long. Congratulations on the marriage and the child. Lovely wedding photos. Shame I wasn’t invited, I would have been able to help. Or maybe not, since All Might caved my head in.”
He turned from Hisashi; his mouth carved into a sharp snarl. Why would no one in this family ever respect him. He stood protectively, looming over Inko. His arm outstretched to stop her from coming around him. To stop her from coming closer.
It was strange enough that she was allowing it.
“It’s a shame he found me, isn’t it Inko. How lucky he was that he could find where everything was stored.”
Izuku’s hair was nice and soft, All for One wanted to rub at his strands again, it was soothing. Maybe this was why people got pets. Maybe it would help distract him from his rage.
His gaze turned from the photos he had no chance at seeing properly to the two adults in the room, nodding to the armchairs to the side of the room. Without turning they moved as one, like the good little minions All for One used to know them as. Hisashi still tried to twist his body over Inko’s as if seeing anymore or less of her would increase or decrease her chance of death.
There was very little that would stop that. All for One was sure of that.
Even while they sat on their armchair, together Hisashi’s arm was still curled around her. It was nauseating.
All for One was glad he had got to Tomura at an earlier age to when he acquired Inko. He did have to give it to Shimura’s son, though he had made it so much easier to manipulate Tomura. The irony was lovely, a father who was son of a great hero forcing his own child into villainy due to his own limitations.
His hand was still gently curling through Izuku’s hair, it was soft, fluffy. So like Hisashi’s, so like his own. The successor of the greatest hero was the grandson of his greatest enemy. All for One loved irony almost as much as he hated luck.
A crackling broke him from his musings.
A small crack in the atmosphere as All for One opened his mouth to continue, he was enjoying watching Hisashi and Inko’s fear. Could taste their desperation, they knew they weren’t leaving this house. Allowing the quirk on Mikumo to fade, he was getting bored of the regular house, the simplicity of the living just didn’t appeal to him. Hopefully Johnny will be properly operational for one trip. The poor Nomu was hardly functioning, which he hoped would soon change.
The moment the quirk fully cleared, fading through his strands and back into All for One, he felt a crackling, a small feeling of lightening under his fingers. Turning his gaze from the boy’s parents, All for One looked down at Mikumo. Small crackling of green lightening was fizzing around his fingers.
Mikumo’s face had gone pale white, his eyes glaze out as if he weren’t there. As if a quirk had just manifested itself within a new host.
“Oh,” All for one said looking down at his grandson, who was manifesting One for All, “now that’s interesting.”
Inko shot up from her seat, her face paling even faster than her son’s and Hisashi was not quite quick enough to block her from All for One’s sharp, quirked gaze. A forced kind of silence filled the room.
Tension, unlike before bracketed and echoed around the room.
“It just gets more and more interesting. Doesn’t it.”
Plans changed often enough; this was a welcomed change. This was a very welcomed change.