Work Text:
All for One was having a great day. It wasn’t every day he got the blond oaf on his knees, not quite begging for mercy, but considering he was a bloody, broken mess, it was practically the same thing, as far as he was concerned.
The blond boy with the spiky hair that Tomura was so interested in was behind him as well, held tightly in place with one of his quirks. Personally, All for One couldn’t stand spiky haired people, especially ones who looked like the Brother Thief, but Tomura had insisted upon the brat.
Every single one of their plans were hitting fruition and All for One couldn’t be happier.
Grabbing Yagi by the neck, he hoisted him into the air. Looking at him like this, blood running down the side of his face as he hung there in his grip, limp like a ragdoll, All for One had trouble remembering why he had ever had any trouble against him.
All Might. Even his hero name was a joke now.
The only thing that was a pity was that the last embers of One for All had nearly faded for him. It meant his suspicions were correct after all.
This idiotic blond menace had given away the quirk, meaning his precious little brother was once again just out of reach. It was a good thing All for One already had his suspicions on who the new vessel was. With any luck, (of which he seemed to have plenty of at the moment) getting One for All from him would be a simple matter.
Especially now that he had Ragdoll’s quirk. If he still had a face, a smirk worthy of the Demon King would be crossing it.
As it was, the lack of a face reminded him of his rage towards Yagi, and he had the perfect outlet for it: the blond fool’s windpipe that he was in the middle of crushing. Yagi was letting out a strangled garble of words, his body growing limp with every passing second, All for One noticed with glee.
“Hey!”
Startled, All for One dropped Yagi (who curled into his side, so silent he had to be near death) and turned to find a very green child staring back at him.
The green child he was almost certain was the next One for All holder, in fact. While he was glad to see he wouldn’t have to go through much effort to track him down, All for One was also irritated to see the flash of defiance in his eyes.
Well, no need to worry because by coming here Midoriya Izuku had made a terrible mistake—one there would be no coming back from.
All for One searched his quirk arsenal, trying to decide which quirk he wanted to use for his initial attack. (He ignored the blond boy Tomura wanted yelling obscenities at both him and Midoriya, trying to get the younger boy to leave. As if All for One would let that happen. Midoriya seemed to be ignoring him as well, only giving All for One a challenging look.)
He got ready to unleash his attack when Midoriya opened his mouth and said the strangest thing possible.
“I can’t believe you used to try giving quirks to rats. You bawling like a little kid when it didn’t work sounds about right though.”
What. A jolt of lightning went through All for One, fear and mortification overtaking him in equal measure. How did he…? He couldn’t!...did he?
All for One shook his head, trying to deny the accusation but Midoriya kept talking.
“No wonder you turned to villainy. Even when you tried to be a good samaritan, even if it was for rats, you failed miserably, huh?”
He hadn’t failed! The rats had been very kind to him, so he’d attempted to repay them, is all! It was a business transaction that…yes, hadn’t worked, but he’d found a new way to help them! And if he’d cried when the last little rat had breathed its last because not even an immortality quirk worked on them? Well, even if he had, which he didn’t, because he wasn’t a loser who cared about rats, that was nobody’s business but his own! Who the hell was Midoriya to drag those old memories up?
Too speechless to actually say anything, All for One roared, releasing Rivet Stab. His quirks could do all the talking for him, he decided.
The long black shards racing towards Midoriya and would have most certainly stabbed him in the heart, had he not casually fired up his quirk and jumped upwards. And stayed there.
Floating in mid air, looking down on him.
For a moment, he let himself be in awe. What reflexes the boy had. It was almost a pity All for One was going to kill him. He mentally reviewed that statement. No, the pity was that his reflexes weren’t part of his quirk. All for One would have loved to have them for himself.
Then as their eyes met, All for One grit his teeth, recalling why he had been so angered to begin with. “What sort of hero uses rumors in a fight? Fake rumors, at that.”
“What sort of villain goes straight to murder? And I don’t think it’s a rumor at all,” he replied blithely.
“Murder’s efficient. The best way to solve things and know the problem will never come back.”
“And it’s boring. There’s a reason the writers killed off the Demon King in season 3 episode 47 of the original anime.”
All for One had personally scrubbed the existence of that episode from the archives. There wasn’t a single living copy anywhere in the world…was there? Had he missed one?
Besides, more importantly, “That episode was a filler! It wasn’t canon, you heathen!”
From behind him, Yagi was wheezing but All for One ignored him, hateful stare fixed onto Midoriya. First, the brat brings up a memory of his past, and then he tries to find fault in the Demon King?
Midoriya was going down. It didn’t occur to All for One to question how Midoriya knew these things, his need to torture Midoriya for his audacity so great.
With a snarl, All for One launched his attack.
He threw a barrage of air cannons, dark balls, and black lightning in Midoriya’s direction, but he dodged every last blow without a scratch on his body.
Floating in the air, it was as if Midoriya didn’t have a care in the world, no matter how he attacked him.
All for One was stunned. Was this really the same kid? He’d watched what had happened at the USJ, (Kurogiri had given him the footage in which Midoriya had partially featured), he’d watched the sports festival, he’d even gotten a copy of UA’s final exams!
The kid had always had a presence, but when had this bone breaker become somebody formidable?
He threw an incensed look in Yagi’s direction. Had it all been a trick? Make it seem as if his new successor was a weakling when, in fact, he was more than capable of going head to head with All for One himself?
Tomura wasn’t ready for something like this! This threw a massive wrench in all of his plans.
He took a deep breath, his respirator making a groaning sound in response, the raspy sound he was so used to by this point intensifying.
There was only one thing to do.
He’d have to kill Midoriya himself. Somehow. Either way, letting Midoriya get stronger wasn’t an option. He didn’t have another forty years to wait for the next One for All user to come around and the last thing he needed was a second All Might.
The only problem was that no matter what attack he threw at Midoriya, not one of them landed! Infuriatingly, Midoriya didn’t bother attacking him back, simply dodging blow after blow.
Was he going for a battle of stamina? All for One had been around for centuries! It would take far more than that for some upstart to be able to defeat him.
Alright, if quantity wasn’t working, perhaps quality would. He stopped for a moment, taking his time to concentrate all of his power into one massive attack; the energy swirled in his hands ready to escape and wreak havoc.
The best part? Midoriya was supposed to be a hero, right? Dodging would mean the death of hundreds. He had no choice but to face it head on. And that would be the end of him.
All for One chuckled to himself. He was so lost in his fantasy of standing over Midoriya’s broken body, lording his victory, that he completely missed the moment in which All Might had stood back up.
What’s worse is that volleying all of those attacks and then concentrating his power truly had sapped him of his strength. All it took was a single smash to the head and All for One was lying in a crumpled heap. The attack he’d been so carefully preparing, dissipated into thin air, due to All for One being unable to launch the trigger point.
In an exact opposite of his reverie, the blond menace stood over him, fist raised in the air.
What All for One would do to be able to wipe that grin off his face. He let out an audible groan, only for another smash to hit him in the stomach. He stayed silent after that, splayed out on the ground.
One day, he would get his revenge. Or at the very least, he’d make Tomura take it for him. With that last thought, he passed out.
Confirming All for One would remain on the ground, Toshinori rushed towards his boy. Fortunately, the other heroes had arrived in time to make sure All for One would be locked up in Tartarus.
“Young Midoriya! Are you alright?!”
“All Might!” Midoriya gave him a toothy grin as if he hadn’t spent the better half of an hour fighting against All for One, all by himself. “I’m fine—oomph!” Toshinori pulled him into a fierce hug.
“What were you thinking?!”
“That I’m really glad that it worked this time!” There was a distinct note of relieved joy in Midoriya’s voice—the kind Toshinori had last heard from him when he’d told his boy he could be a hero.
“This time?” Toshinori checked, pulling back to study Midoriya’s face.
Midoriya wringed his hands together. “Would you believe me if I told you I’ve been caught in a time loop?”
A time loop? Well…that did explain how Midoriya had seemed to know every move All for One was about to make. Not to mention, the worrying things he’d somewhat heard them talking about….along the lines of rats, Demon Kings, and murder? It was all rather fuzzy.
And besides, it wasn’t as if Toshinori hadn’t heard of time loops activating before… but how on earth did Midoriya get caught in one?
“Deku!” Bakugou had been freed and was stomping his way over to them, much to the other heroes’ protest.
“Midoriya!” On the other side of them, Toshinori could see Todoroki, Iida, Kirishima, and Yaoyorozu making their way towards them.
“What was that?!”
“Midobro, that was crazy!”
“Of all the reckless things—”
“How did you dodge all those attacks, Midoriya-san?”
Midoriya looked a little overwhelmed by all the scolding he was receiving from his friends. His eyes caught Toshinori’s, a silent question there about whether or not he should tell them about the time loop.
“That’s enough. Let’s get you all back home,” Toshinori cut in. “Young Midoriya, you and I will talk more about your situation later.”
Later, Midoriya would tell Toshinori that the loop activated every time All for One had managed to kill him. Faced with a second chance, Midoriya did everything he could to save him.
No, more than a second chance. Midoriya had gone through the loop over thirty times, and in the process had somehow managed to make contact with the vestiges inside One for All.
(A fact that had stunned Toshinori even more than the idea of the time loop)
The vestiges had told him many things about All for One, first the story of two brothers that lead to the creation of One for All, and then apparently, they’d been unable to keep themselves from spilling All for One’s many embarrassing secrets. Midoriya had also made contact with Toshinori’s old teacher, Nana Shimura, and had unlocked the ability to use her quirk.
A combination of using the vestiges’ information, Float, and his own acquired knowledge of how All for One would be attacking, Midoriya was able to finally tire him out long enough for Toshinori to deal the final blow.
Toshinori would be touched that Midoriya had gone through so much trouble on his behalf and sweep him up into another hug. It was more than him having to go through a time loop; if Nighteye’s vision had been about this incident, young Midoriya will have single-handedly changed his fate.
And that was something both excited and terrified him.
But for now, Toshinori’s only concern was making sure his boy and the other students of 1-A got home safely.
“We wanted to help but you were moving too fast,” Todoroki was saying, hand clenched into a fist.
“Midoriya,” Iida looked pensive. “You didn’t use your quirk to do anything but dodge. Was that on purpose?”
“Ah, yeah. I mean, we’re not licensed, so if I’d used my quirk, we would’ve gotten into a lot of trouble.”
Todoroki and Iida nodded solemnly. Bakugou seemed to be twitching almost but managed to restrain himself, while Kirishima and Yaoyorozu appeared confused by the statement.
Toshinori remembered hearing about the events of Hosu from Gran Torino. It seemed as if it had had lasting impacts on these three.
As if thinking of him had summoned him, his old teacher had just landed and now stood in front of them.
Giving the kids all a stern look, Toshinori lectured, “You all should never have come here. It’s a hero’s job to help people, but you four aren’t heroes yet.”
They hung their heads, Bakugou watching with arms crossed against his chest.
“That being said, I cannot deny that I’m thankful you were here.”
Heads snapped back up, awe gleaming in their eyes. Toshinori couldn’t help but smile.
“Come on, I’ll be taking you all home,” Gran Torino grumbled. Toshinori nodded at him gratefully. Giving Midoriya’s shoulder one last squeeze, he turned himself around.
He may have failed last time but this was his second chance to put All for One away for good. He wasn’t going to mess it up. This was the last time he’d ever be a threat.
And that was a bet Toshinori would gladly stake his life on.