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Hisashi Shigaraki wasn’t even particularly interested in sex, which made him an unlikely teenage father. A girl in his high school biology class had a crush on him. She’d been aggressive in her offer. He’d been curious and wanted to see what all the fuss was about. His classmates acted like sex was the single most important thing in the world, whether talking about how much of it they’d had (largely lies) or bemoaning not getting it. Media was full of sex, sex, and more sex. His parents acted like sex was the very worst sin in the entire world, except maybe Hisashi’s white hair and red eyes that they hid with hair dye and sunglasses. Anything they hated must be interesting. Spiting them, more than anything, had made Hisashi curious enough to give it a try.
It had been a dull experience. Hisashi had come away completely unable to understand why his peers could be arsed to spend the time of dating, must less the money, for this. It seemed his performance hadn’t impressed the girl, who’d expected a whole lot more touching than he wanted to do. They had barely any further contact until the girl had turned up pregnant.
The stupid, stupid girl had come to tell him when his parents were home, so he couldn’t stop them from finding out. Hisashi was quite confident he could have handled the situation better on his own. Even as a teenager, he’d already started trading favors and working to build up a private money stash so he could escape when he turned eighteen.
His parents had been dreadful about it, of course, as they were about anything. First his father had hit him so hard that he’d smashed his head against the fireplace and been in the hospital for six months. Then his father had demanded a paternity test. Later Hisashi thought it rather unfair he’d been punished before anyone even established if he was guilty or not, but no one had asked him, he’d been in a coma. By the time he woke up, the baby had been born. His parents had established the baby was genetically his and arranged to adopt him as their own in order to cover up the scandal of a teen father in the family. Once again, they had not asked Hisashi’s opinion. Knowing them, they had probably not asked the girl’s opinion either. They had a lot of money and political connections. What they’d wanted, they’d made happen. The girl vanished after naming her baby “Yoichi,” meaning “First Son.” Hisashi would always wonder if that had been a private gesture of defiance.
Initially, Hisashi’s reaction had been fury. The baby was a nuisance, an unplanned variable, but still his. How dare anyone take what belonged to him? They’d simply erased him from existence like how his mother had once tried to rub out the holes in his hands until she’d removed most of the skin on his palms. Still, Hisashi did not know how to look after a baby so he didn’t stage a loud protest, just seethed.
The Shigaraki couple probably wanted a new son to start over fresh, one who didn’t have metahuman features and freaky holes in his hands. The joke had been on them. Yoichi’s hair had quickly come in white, and then they’d lost all interest in him. Overnight, they switched from keeping Hisashi away from the baby’s room for fear he might infect the infant with his “freakiness” to insisting that Hisashi take over all the childrearing because “it was his responsibility.” Why it was his responsibility went unspoken, because they still wanted the respectableness of pretending Yoichi was their son, even though they’d lost interest in the baby.
At first, Hisashi disliked the screaming at night and the poopy diapers and the spittle. But there was something intoxicating about how Yoichi looked at Hisashi with eyes full of unconditional love. Yoichi needed Hisashi. It was different from his parents, who looked at him with cold eyes as if he never should have been born. That needy adoration was addictive. Hisashi started to rush home from school, even abandoning many of his money-making plans, in order to look after Yoichi’s every need.
When Hisashi graduated high school, he’d originally planned to go to a college far away, but now he had to stick around to look after Yoichi. It was burdensome, but it was a sacrifice he would make for his son. Every time he returned home from school, Yoichi would run over and smile and hug him. It was always the highlight of his day. No perfect score on a test or new power acquired could compare.
Hisashi had vowed to never be as shitty as his own parents. He wanted to be the perfect father. At the moment, he could give Yoichi love but not money. His son deserved nothing but the finest food and blankets. So Hisashi had to play nice with his parents and live under their roof, until he could graduate college and get a job to support Yoichi on his own. He’d assumed his parents wouldn’t even care when they left, given how little attention they paid to Yoichi.
As Yoichi grew older, and still showed no signs of a metapower, his parents started to take an interest again. Perhaps they’d decided a white-haired son with no power was as close to normal as they were going to get. His mother suggested dying Yoichi’s hair black. Hisashi resisted—how dare they reject Yoichi’s adorable fluffy locks? His mother also briefly tried to take over more of Yoichi’s care but lost interest after the first time he smeared chocolate on her shirt. Hisashi had foolishly assumed they were safe.
On the day of Yoichi’s fifth birthday, Hisashi drove an hour out of town to purchase a strawberry shortcake at a prestigious bakery. Yoichi loved strawberries. When Hisashi returned, his parents had changed their locks and put all of his belongings outside. From the window, they explained to him that they couldn’t have his freakiness infecting his little brother.
Hisashi went a little nuts. He broke a window. The police were called.
Once out of jail, Hisashi dropped out of college and spent his all savings on a lawyer. His case looked bad. His parents had legally adopted Yoichi. His signature had been forged on the documents while he’d been in a coma, but he couldn’t prove it, and his lawyer explained he’d waited too long for his challenge to seem legitimate. Since he was an adult, the Shigarakis had no obligation to allow him into their home. They also had far more money than him and could outspend him in the endless court battle.
Hisashi went into a panic. How was Yoichi faring without the only parent who’d ever loved him? Without a protector, how long before the Shigarakis got violent? In the brief glimpse he’d gotten in court, Yoichi’s hair had been dyed black. He’d cried and ran to Hisashi. They only got one hug before being pulled apart.
If Hisashi hadn’t known he would be the prime suspect, he would have murdered his parents. He did not have the power to escape consequences yet. Instead, he redoubled his crimes and built up his empire to obtain money to fuel the ongoing court battle.
Half a year later, just when it looked like Hisashi might be making progress in proving the forged signature, his parents took Yoichi and fled abroad. They changed their identities and vanished.
That would be the last time Hisashi ever hesitated to kill anyone. Who cared if he became a monster? If it took a villain to bring his son home, then a villain he would become. He named himself All for One, because everything he did was to get Yoichi back. He needed more—more money, more power, more abilities, all for his son’s sake.
Over the next six and a half years, Hisashi became the most feared crime lord in Japan. He finally obtained the foreign contacts to track down his parents. Someone who owed him a favor (but had no connection to him on paper) discretely murdered them. Then Hisashi started the legal process of extraditing Yoichi and bringing him home.
At twelve years old, Yoichi was a gangly kid with big eyes. He dragged a suitcase stuffed full of comic books instead of clothing. Immediately, Yoichi greeted Hisashi with a teary hug. Hisashi held his son and thought all was right in the world.
Problems cropped up the very next day. Yoichi barely remembered Hisashi. When asked to address him as Dad, Yoichi got confused and said Hisashi was his big brother. Yoichi seemed upset Hisashi had never visited him. But when Hisashi tried to explain how Yoichi had been kidnapped, Yoichi screamed not to call Mom and Dad such vile names, then ran upstairs and locked the door. Yoichi’s hair had been dyed black, but he turned down offers to bleach it back to its adorable, rightful white color. He wore contact lenses to hide his eyes. Several times, he said things about metahumans that made Hisashi bristle. Yoichi was bilingual but preferred to speak English, a language Hisashi had mostly forgotten since dropping out of school. Sometimes he even suspected his son spoke English to insult him behind his back. Where had his loving baby gone?
There was a cold war for a couple weeks. Hisashi tried forcing hugs on his son, but Yoichi went limp and sour-faced instead of smiling like he used to. In a cycle, Hisashi offered expensive gifts then took them away for sullenness. Yoichi stopped talking.
After a week of silence, the counselor at Yoichi’s private school asked to speak to both brothers together for a family session. Hisashi was reluctant. He’d never believed in letting anyone mess with his head. But Yoichi had begged, and Hisashi was weak to his son’s pleading eyes.
In the counseling session, Yoichi revealed a lot. Apparently the Shigaraki couple had alternated between ignoring Yoichi and browbeating him with insanely high standards in grades and extracurriculars. Hisashi was not at all surprised to learn his parents continued to be crappy at raising children. However, it did hit Hisashi in the gut to learn his parents used to blame Yoichi for never getting as good grades as Hisashi himself. This had led to Yoichi developing a resentment of his absent big brother. The Shigarakis had filled Yoichi’s ears with poison about metahumans, insisting Yoichi would become a villain from a comic book if he didn’t keep his hair black and act according to their definition of normal.
Yoichi admitted to having some complicated feelings toward the Shigarakis, missing them while realizing they hadn’t treated him very well. He said the word “dad” had a lot of negative connotations for him, and he’d prefer to call Hisashi “big brother.” He wanted to work slowly to rebuild their relationship.
Hisashi wasn’t happy about being robbed of his rightful title. But once again, he’d never been able to deny Yoichi anything. He agreed.
And for the next few years, everything was perfect again. Yoichi once again trusted Hisashi. It felt wonderful to see those adoring green eyes hang on his every word. As if to completely shed his past, Yoichi grew out his white hair and became loudly involved in metahuman rights activism. The two of them read comics together, played video games, and went to cons. They even made a joint Captain Hero cosplay—Yoichi as the hero and Hisashi as the demon king.
Once again, Yoichi showered Hisashi with hugs every day when he returned home from work. In return, Hisashi made sure Yoichi had his own personal library full of comic books. Anything Yoichi desired, Hisashi would get, even if it meant threatening a few manga editors to ensure their favorite series continued or kidnapping an author to appear at his brother’s birthday party.
When Yoichi hit age sixteen, the teenage rebellion started. Suddenly Yoichi wanted to stay out late and attend metahuman rallies, of all the dangerous things! Whenever Hisashi laid down the rules, Yoichi would grumble and say that Hisashi was being just as strict as his last father. The accusation cut to the bone. Hisashi had never, ever wanted to turn into his parents. The first couple times, Hisashi gave in whenever Yoichi played that card. But he quickly realized he was being manipulated. A teenager with a get-out-of-jail free card was a dangerous thing. Yoichi would keep repeating, “I prefer you as a cool older brother, not a dad,” unaware of how each time this threw salt into Hisashi’s emotional wounds. He was Yoichi’s father, not his brother! He would have raised his son if only his son hadn’t been stolen from him! Was there no way he could repair the damage from the past? No way to turn back time and get back the relationship he should have had?
When Yoichi started addressing Hisashi by his first name, that was the final straw. If Hisashi couldn’t be Dad, then he would damn well be Big Brother. They were not strangers living under the same roof! Hisashi took away Yoichi’s comics, took away his hair care products, and took away his computer. Yoichi was not even allowed out of his room until he apologized.
For a while, Hisashi thought the punishment had worked, but behind Yoichi’s silence lurked further rebellion. Now that Yoichi no longer trusted Hisashi unconditionally, he got suspicious about the source of the family money and the people in business clothing who showed up at all hours of the night.
Once Hisashi had considered inviting his son into the family business, which he would rightfully inherit someday. But over the years, Yoichi had proven too frail and too idealistic. Yoichi had never developed a power, though Hisashi still suspected a hidden one might be lurking around in his genetics. Hisashi had found a metapower to extend his life and planned to pursue immortality, so he no longer needed an heir. Yoichi could be his cute baby forever.
Hisashi shifted his business meetings away from his home to keep Yoichi in the dark. But Yoichi was persistent. He refused to accept he’d be better off not knowing certain things. By the time Yoichi reached seventeen, he’d tried several times to peek at Hisashi’s phone. He’d also started talking about moving out when he turned eighteen.
That was completely unacceptable. Hisashi had been robbed of years of his son’s childhood. Yoichi had to stay by his side, to make it up to him. However, Yoichi refused to accept this perfectly logical point of view.
In the middle of an argument, Yoichi screamed, “Sorry I can’t be the perfect kid you think you would have had if you’d raised me! I’m tired of living in that kid’s shadow. We can’t change the past, big brother. You’ll never be my dad.”
For the first time, Hisashi slapped Yoichi across the face. He stared at his own hand, shocked at the violence. He’d never once laid a hand on his son before. He did not react as Yoichi fled to his bedroom sobbing.
It had all been too horrible to hear. What had Yoichi been talking about? Of course it would have been better if Hisashi had raised his own son instead of the kidnappers! And of course Hisashi was Yoichi’s father! It was a biological fact that no one and nothing could change. Yoichi had been acting completely unwell lately. His illness must be affecting his brain.
Yoichi ran away from home that very night.
It caught Hisashi off-guard. He’d known his son was sick, but not this badly. Never would he forget the pain in his chest when he found an empty bedroom and a note, then realized he’d lost his son again.
This would be the last time Hisashi would ever let himself suffer such a loss. Something dark unfurled inside his chest. He’d gone too easy on Yoichi. Fathers had to be strict as well as loving. When Hisashi found his runaway child, he would no longer tolerate being called brother instead of Dad. He would restore the rightful roles to their family. He would break Yoichi back down into the sweet and innocent child he’d once been. Then everything would be right. He’d force the world to give him a second chance to raise his son, even if he had to rewrite reality.
Metapowers existed that could help him. There were more crude means of breaking people, as well. Hisashi could not bear to use physical violence on his son. So he went out and purchased a bank vault.
OMAKE TIME!
Hisashi: I could never use violence against my son.
Yoichi: I have your handprint on my face.
Hisashi: I could never use violence on my son in a way that leaves a mark.
Yoichi: I can see the bruise!
Hisashi: You can’t see anything inside a bank vault.
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The Firsts Club: Why on Earth would you insist on calling ALL FOR ONE as big brother?
Yoichi: Being a son is even worse than being a little brother! Now he has the legal right to control me!
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Author: I have an idea for how to write a birthday gift for Second! First of all, I’ll use time-travel. Then I’ll make it so Yoichi is not related All for One so my ship can still sail.
All for One: Yoichi isn’t my brother?!
Second: I’m the chuunibyou’s son?!
Author: Hear me out: wouldn’t it be hilarious to have All for One doting over Second?
All for One: I propose a truce long enough to murder the Author.
Second: I never thought I’d see the day when I join your side, but I agree.
Author: How touching to see the two of them get along, it brings a tear to my eye. Time to make my escape…AHHHHHHHH! Bruce, what are you doing standing behind me?
Third: I really hope you aren’t thinking about writing a gift for me, too.
Author: Put the anti-tank rifle down, we can talk about this!
(Censored for violence.)
Author: Anyway, Hikage Shinomori will be next in this series because he doesn’t own any firearms.