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They had finally caught the little bastard— All Might’s son was in their grasp.
Albeit he was a few inches shorter, many inches.
The teenage hero was now a smiley toddler, eyes wild with wonder, which quickly filled with tears upon the realisation that the people he was walking with were not people he should ever interact with.
Stranger Danger kicked in a little late. Can’t believe he wasn’t wary after looking at us villains and our eerie looks.
“Listen, kid, just sit still here,” Dabi kneeled down to him as Mr Compress had finally sat the boy down onto a chair.
Toga couldn’t help but squeal at the sobbing boy, “He’s so cute!”
“Should we get the kid some snacks, or a drink or something?” Spinner spoke, feeling clearly unnerved at the sight of Stain’s beloved hero weeping tears at the sight of them all.
“The poor kid’s crying, man, it doesn’t feel right, what with him being like four versus a teenager.” Compress was clearly sympathetic to the hero-ling even though he’d be their future enemy.
“Fine!” Shigaraki turned to Kurogiri as the kid began to look up, anxiously waiting to see if he could get a snack, “Give him one of the fruit juice cartons— not my special apple–flavoured ones! And get the hero-ling some crisps with this, Kurogiri.”
“Of course, Master Tomura,” Kurogiri agreed, leaving to gather the aforementioned items and calm down the weeping brat.
Shigaraki’s eczema-ridden face cracked open an eerie smile, beginning to let out a few creepy high-pitched screeching laughs, “Oh, this is good! We have All Might’s own successor finally in our hold— I can’t wait to see how that bastard responds!”
“A-All Might?” The brat was soft-spoken, staring up in confusion with his widening green eyes, looking more like a foal than a heroic brat complacent in the horrible society that was modern-day Japan. “I don’t know All Might— I’m quirkless.”
Oh. That changed things. Did the brat get his quirk from the big boss? Or did All Might make his son hide his quirk as to hide their clearly obvious connection. The man could be worse than Enji.
“Oh, I already know all about that, and that’s why Sensei will be so happy to have One For All back in his grasp as it should’ve been!” Shigaraki screeched, clearly having researched all about the brat that he had fixated on.
The kid wept in response, clearly scared out of his mind.
But luckily for the brat, Kurogiri had entered with the items requested by Shigaraki.
“Master Tomura, the snacks are here— and All For One said he would like to see the gift you have mentioned preparing for him.”
“Oh, this is good! Sensei’s going to love this!” Shigaraki’s eyes were filled with glee, the happiest ever seen on his creepy face, “With Sensei’s restored body and One For All in his hold, society will be easily overtaken by us all and heroes decimated from existence!”
Shigaraki’s cackling was on another level of disturbing, freaking the kid out even more, with the brat leaking an ungodly amount of tears.
“So why do you need to show All For One the kid?” Dabi queried, wanting to figure out what Shigaraki’s true goal was.
“He has something special that Sensei desires,” Shigaraki replied, being vague regarding Dabi’s question and deigning to elaborate further.
He then turned towards Kurogiri, who was watching the brat sip his juice-box in fear. “Kurogiri, what’s the status in Sensei? I want to show him the Mini Boss before the heroes can fuck up everything.”
“I will teleport to All For One right now, he’s currently making notes — in his seventeenth notebook — on how to destroy All Might, but he said he was eager to see your progress, All For One is very proud of your improvement, I have to say, Master Tomura, and so am I.”
“Kurogiri, don’t baby me like this in front of my allies!” Shigaraki whined, acting more befitting of the brat before them, “Just go and get Sensei— leave me now!”
“Come on, Shiggy, you don’t have to be so mean to Kurogiri, he’s just being nice,” Toga replied with a teasingly sweet voice.
He waved off her cajoling, instead deciding to screech at Kurogiri once more, “Kurogiri, hurry up!”
“Of course, Master Tomura.” He bowed before quickly leaving speckles of mist as he teleported away.
Shigarki crept over to the little brat, eyes gleaming a menacing scarlet hue as he leaned over to examine him as though he was one of the Doctor’s inhuman creations.
But the kid was no nomu, just a weepy and confused boy who had no idea he’d ever have a quirk, never mind be a hero-in-training at UA of all places.
“Sensei, you made it!” Shigaraki screamed upon the arrival of purple smoke which then revealed the new-and-improved form of All For One – no longer a disfigured man with permanent scarring and bumps all across his profile – now a shockingly handsome man that Dabi would confess to looking back at twice if ever asked, with his tall figure not just menacing, but attractive— extremely so.
“Ah, yes, here I am as promised,” his husky voice responded, eyes focused only on his successor, “Now what is it that you have for me?”
“One For All!” Shigaraki cackled in a hearty yet macabre laugh, I’ve captured the green brat who’s All Might's heir!”
A smile rested upon All For One’s face, making Dabi realise that whatever One For All was, had high value to the villain. “Well done, Tomura, I’m very proud. But where is the boy?”
“He’s over there in the corner with Compress— oh, and he’s now a kid because Giran hooked us up with a villain with a de-aging quirk and it made getting the plain hero-ling way easier,” Shigaraki responded gleefully.
“I see,” All For One began to step forward; slowly beginning to reach the teary child, “Now One For—”
“—Daddy!”
All For One’s eyes were not the only ones that widened at the kid’s loud declaration, Dabi could see Spinner and Compress sharing each other’s gaze as their jaws opened in response to the startling revelation.
“I–Izuku?” All For One was clearly baffled, bewildered with the sight of the not-longer-crying brat running over to him to then grip onto his leg with his juice-ridden hands.
The brat’s eyes were shining with relief as he squeaked out a response to his alleged father, the most terrifying villain in all of history, “I–I was so scared, but now I know Daddy’s here so I’m safe!”
All For One gave a smile – something Dabi didn’t even think he was capable of – attempting to provide the kid some relief, “Izuku, it’s okay now, these were just some of Daddy’s friends wanting to prank you,” He then turned to Shigaraki, giving him a menacing stare “Right?”
“Um, yes! W-we just wanted to show you what your daddy’s business looks like!” Shigaraki was befuddled but it seemed that he decided to roll with the punches and heeded All For One’s clear warning to follow along to his lie.
“Izuku, why don’t you sit with my assistant Kurogiri, while I have a chat with Tomura over there?”
“Okay, Daddy!” He toddled over to Kurogiri, holding his leaking juice-carton in one hand..
All For One locked his eyes onto Shigaraki once more, eyes filled with fury, “Tomura, can you explain why my son is here in your villain headquarters?”
“S–son? He’s actually your kid?” Shigaraki stammered in response, still unwilling to accept the truth while also wanting to believe his beloved Sensei.
“Yes. But he shouldn’t be this young!” All For One responded, “And don’t evade the question, why is he here?”
“I told you, Sensei,” Shigaraki whined, “I got you All Might’s successor!”
“Izuku is that bastard’s successor?” He shouted— well as loud as he could without the brat hearing and being scared.
“Sensei, I’ve mentioned him so many times, how could you not tell me that’s he’s your son?” Shigaraki queried, and what he said was especially true; all the villains in the base would be forced to witness Shigarakis’ rambles about the green brat.
“You call All Might’s successor a plain green brat, my Izuku isn’t plain!” All For One retorted in a petty-sounding anger, “My Izuku is perfect, so how was I supposed to know that he was who you were talking about!”
“You–you could’ve researched him, I thought you’d already have notebooks upon notebooks about the Ninth User.”
“No,” All For One lamented, “I’ve been too busy fleshing out my plans for All Might.”
“You’ve already fought him twice, Sensei, and lost!” Shigaraki shrieked out, “He doesn’t even have his quirk so why didn’t you target his successor?”
“All Might may be quirkless now, but he’s still my rival,” All For One acknowledges, “And besides, the Demon King didn’t back down from Captain Hero even after the first two battles.”
It seemed that All For One was a comic nerd for the pre-quirk era media, which actually explained a lot, now that Dabi thought about it— he was just a chuunibyou at the end of the day.
“You’ve told me all about the Demon King for years, and I know that he loses on the third fight!”
“So,” All For One snarked back, making Dabi realise where Shigaraki got his brattiness from, “It’s not real, so maybe I’d win against All Might then. He can’t beat my notebooks of planning.”
“Anyway,” Shigaraki said, “What’d you want us to do now? Because the brat— I mean, Izuku, is All Might’s successor but your kid, so should we let him go and let him age up?”
“Tomura, let my boy go back to his mother and stay ignorant,” All For One’s eyes glimmered with looked like sadness— or regret, “Bring Giran and the villain with the quirk you used.”
“Okay, but what do you need Giran for? I already have the de-aging villain’s number.” Shigaraki said.
“The memory–erasing quirks I have hoarded aren’t suitable for a small feeble mind, so Giran must do the job of erasing the past few seconds from Izuku’s mind.”
“That’s not needed, the de-aging quirk only leaves faint impressions so Izuku won’t remember anything.”
“I need there to be NO chance of him remembering, so the quirks combined should do the trick.” All For One declared, “We cannot have All Might ever getting suspicious.”
“No! Izuku’s going to go?” Toga screamed in sadness, loving to stare at the wide-eyed younger version of her crush.
“–What? Daddy, I thought you missed me?” The kid clamoured over upon hearing Toga’s word, looking scared out of his mind.
“Don’t worry, Izuku,” All For One placated, “We are just going to send you back to Mommy, okay?”
“Okay, but can you get me an All Might figure because this was scary,” Izuku’s eyes opened portraying a false sense of innocence, “And Mommy wouldn’t like hearing what Daddy’s friends did.”
Hm, it seemed the brat was manipulative; like father like son.
“You got me there, Izuku,” All For One gave a hearty yet hoarse chuckle, “I’ll bring you the newest edition— just for you!”
“Yay!”
Izuku woke up in his room.
He felt drowsy, confused and just overall a mess. It felt alike to the drowsy state he’d be in after joining his predecessors in the void within his mind.
Regardless, Izuku got up with a yawn, seeing the light shine through his 7th Edition All Might curtains, before he stood up to greet his mother, standing beside the door with a grin. The door, which she knocked to awaken him from his stupor.
“Breakfast’s ready, Izuku!”
“I’m up, mom, just one second!”
“Okay, but remember, Toshinori-san is waiting for you.”
Thinking of All Might gave him a warm wave of emotions inside— he might not say it publicly, but he truly wished that All Might would be his dad as Shouto believed, rather than his near-nonexistent businessman father who permanently steered clear from Izuku’s sight not too long after he had been diagnosed quirkless.
The one benefit of his existence was the money he sent; specifically because with that Izuku could find joy in hoarding a ever-growing collection of hero memorabilia funded by that neglectful man, of whom he had no memories, except for a blurry faint impression of fluffy white hair— and perhaps a tall figure, but he was a child then, so his perception may be off.
Izuku turned to face the mirror in his room, wanting to see just how awful his insane case of bedhead would be this morning.
As he looked over, he couldn’t help but notice an All Might figure just an inch across from the mirror— and no, it wasn’t one of his, it wasn’t the Golden Age 2nd Edition figurine he kept beside his mirror on his desk, as a showcase of what he was aspiring to be, it was instead something new.
It was Toshinori-san. All Might in his small form, the biggest secret of his, only beaten by One For All.
It was him on that dreadful day, where he was forced to reveal his time-limit as he fought against the Scourge of Kamino— the enemy their shared quirk was built to destroy. The enemy who killed All Might’s mentor, and brought Izuku’s mentor to near–death.
Izuku knew for certain that he never bought it, in fact he had a tab open for the site selling that special figurine and was eagerly anticipating having enough pocket money to afford the hefty price.
Something in his mind was screaming at him that this was no mere coincidence.
But he couldn’t reach that part of his mind. It was as though there was something blocking it from his hold— and even with the might of One For All and its capabilities regarding the mind, Izuku could still not access it.
He didn’t know what was wrong, but he knew that whatever it was, had some level of great significance. Almost other–worldly.
Something utterly wrong.