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All For One loved his child. In fact, he loved him so much, he wanted to do everything in his power to keep him safe and happy. So, when he got the chance to spend a day with his son alone, he didn’t object.
Izuku’s elementary school had called and said that the school would be closed that day and the coming week because of a leak in the pipes. He assured his wife that everything would be fine and that she could trust him to take care of their son.
It was around an hour after Inko left for work that his child came up to him. He looked at him and bent down to hear his sweet son out.
“Dad, can we play hide & seek?” An innocent 6-year-old child asked with big, green, pleading, puppy dog eyes.
Oh, he could never say no to those cute, bright shimmering eyes of his adorable son. “Of course, Izuku.” He said with a smile on his lips as he watched his son become more excited at the prospect of playing with his dad.
“Yay! Can you seek, dad? Oh, oh, and can we do it big? Like, like, in the entire city!” Izuku said, bouncing in place with excitement, smiling brightly. He wanted to win this game, and he had a plan.
All For One was shocked and horrified at the prospect of letting his young, innocent, naïve 5-year-old child alone in the street, but didn’t have the heart to say no to his child’s excitement. So, with some reluctance, he agreed to the game of his son.
He should’ve set more rules.
Izuku was a child, but he was a smart child. He understood that his dad wasn’t exactly on the legal side. He didn’t know what his dad did, but he knew it wasn’t that good since his dad always seem to avoid contact with heroes and disliked them. He also knew that his dad always found him in hide & seek, which he found very unfair. He wanted to win a game of hide & seek for once! So, he put a plan together and knew what to do to win this game.
The moment his dad covered his eyes and started to count to 600 seconds, because that was 10 minutes, he ran with his tiny legs out of the apartment and ran towards the train station.
The train station was in the city, it wasn’t his fault that hiding on a train would make him travel to a new city, so he technically wasn’t breaking the rules.
He may or may not have planned this for a little while, but he was going to win, so he wasn’t worried.
The train arrived a minute after he got to the station. He only had 4 minutes left until his dad started to search for him, so he hopped on the train.
When he had 2 and a half minutes left the train started and he was off to his destination.
He was excited and a little nervous. He hoped his plan worked. He can’t wait to see UA!
All For One wasn’t too worried, he had everything under control. He just let his son go hide somewhere in the city and he would find soon with a quirk he had acquired not too long ago which makes him see footprints of someone if he was holding some DNA of the person he wanted to trail. It came in handy for moments like these with his son.
“… 596, 597, 598, 599, and 600! I’ll find you, Izuku.” He said with confidence in his abilities. He uncovered his eyes and grabbed a plushie that he knew his son loved and wasn’t All Might for the DNA side of the quirk. He stretched his hands out in front of him and activated the quirk, making him see small footprints that his sweet little son left behind. He grinned and followed the footsteps.
This was too easy.
This was not easy.
All For One had followed the footsteps only for it to stop at the train station on the border of where one would step into a train. He internally panicked while he continued to hold a plushie of his son.
What does he do now? How does he find him if he can’t use this quirk? Okay, he had to stay calm. He has to know what train his son has stepped on to know which direction he had gone to. He pulled out his phone and started to look up the station and all the trains that have recently passed.
He finally after a few minutes of frantic searching found the train his son stepped on. He also may or may not have used a technological quirk to view the security cameras to make sure he had the right train, but no one could prove that.
He now knew which train his son took and saw that in 20 minutes another train to that direction was planned. All For One knew that he couldn’t just fly to each station to check if his son had stepped out there. He had to keep a low profile with all the heroes around. Inko would murder him if she found out he was a villain or if he lost their son. Which wouldn’t happen, of course. He will find Izuku, whatever it takes.
Nedzu was just in his office working on some final details on his work. He was the principal now, after all, and just managed to get some staff for his school.
He got an alert that someone was approaching the gates. Curiosity took over and he quickly looked at the camera of the front gate only to find a… child?
A mix of confusion and curiosity bubbled up within him as a small looking boy walked up to the UA gates.
How intriguing…
UA was a little more walking than Izuku had expected but he got there. He did receive a few odd looks. It was probably because they didn’t expect a small boy traveling by himself, but he wasn’t there to care about their opinions, he was there to win a game.
He got off the train in the city of where UA was located. He ran up to the gate but tired out quickly since it was uphill.
Once he arrived in front of the gates, he marvelled at the sight. UA was so big!
He stepped closer and looked for a device to contact someone on the inside. He knew he couldn’t just waltz in. This was the top hero school not for nothing.
He quickly found the gate intercom and pressed the button on it. He hoped that the principal would let him hide here from his dad. He really wanted to win this game.
It didn’t ring long before a click sound came, indicating that the line was picked up.
“Am I a mouse? A dog? A bear? But more importantly I’m the principal of UA. How may I help a young lad such as you?” A chipper voice on the other end of the gate intercom started. And Izuku was thrilled! He really was talking to Nedzu! The real Nedzu!
“H- Hi… Oh my gosh, I’m really talking to Nedzu…” Izuku suddenly started to get a bit shy, mumbling that last part under his breath. He was still 6 and a hero fanboy after all. “I’m here because… uhm… I want to h- hide from my dad. We’re playing a g- game, and I know I’ll win if I can hide in here. Can I hide in your school, p- please?” He asked while looking at the camera with his big green pleading eyes. He really wanted to win this game. He couldn’t lose now!
It was silent for a minute before the intercom crackled alive again.
“Of course! I’m willing to help you win this game of yours!” The chipper voice said. “You can walk through now!”
Izuku smiled widely and brightly. “Thank you so much!” He said cheerfully before he entered UA.
Shouta Aizawa had just finished dealing with his morning class of hellions. He felt like he needed a cup of coffee each time he had to deal with such children.
He was walking towards the teacher’s lounge since he didn’t have another class for the next three hours. He was planning to use this as a much-needed naptime. He still, after around a year of starting at this school, haven’t gotten used to the lack of sleep he got with his patrols at night and his teaching job at day. He should’ve never let Zashi and Nem bully him into taking this job.
Him. A teacher? Who would’ve thought. Certainly, not him.
Before he could regret his choice of job any further, he felt like he was being stared at and followed. He whirled around and faced whoever was there, expecting to find an intruder, who somehow managed to get through the security, but instead, he was met with a child. A small green-haired and green-eyed child, who was staring at him and looked like a deer caught in headlights.
He really wanted that nap or coffee.
Izuku couldn’t believe it! He was walking through the halls of UA! The school where so many heroes graduate from! Even All Might! Now, where could he hide the best in a big school like this?
He was skipping through the halls awing at all the huge doors where most likely the future heroes were studying in that moment.
He continued to skip before noticing someone dishevelled looking stepping out from around a corner and walking in a direction, he had no idea where it led to. He concluded that it must have been a teacher, which meant they were a pro-hero. Although, at first glance, he couldn’t seem to figure out who it was. They had long black hair, a grey scarf thing, and were completely decked out in black. They were most likely underground. So cool!
He followed the person for a short moment before they suddenly stopped and faced him, pinning him down with their gaze. He couldn’t help but freeze. He was caught. What does he do now?
The silence stretched between the adult and the child, until it clicked in Izuku’s mind on who this person was.
A small gasp escaped the small child in front of him. “You’re Eraserhead!”
The excited exclamation of the kid in front of him was enough to snap Aizawa out of his stewer before he landed into an even deeper confusion. Who was this child? How did he get here? How did he know his hero name? How did he recognize him?
“… You recognize me?” He muttered in surprise. His own students didn’t even know who he was.
The green-haired kid nodded excitedly. “Mhm, I saw a video of you once. You were so cool! I’m sad that it was taken down so quickly, but you were amazing in it! You fight completely quirkless and your capture weapon is also so cool!” The child excitedly rambles while bouncing a bit closer.
Aizawa had no idea what to do. He never had to deal with fans. That was Hizashi’s thing, not his.
“And your quirk! It’s so cool! Your hair starts floating and your eyes turn red, but it was hard to see with the quality of the video and your goggles. A- And then the villain’s quirk stopped working! And you knocked him out so quickly! It was so cool! You’re so amazing!” The green-haired kid continued, barely even wavering as he fanboyed, and Aizawa was becoming overwhelmed.
It was then that, bless the heavens, Yamada, or otherwise known as Present Mic, rounded the corner and saw Aizawa in the predicament he was in. The kid didn’t even seem to notice until Yamada spoke.
“Who’s the little listener?” He asked as he also was incredibly confused as to why a small child was roaming the halls of UA in the middle of a school day and overwhelming Aizawa.
The child turned around and saw who spoke. You could just watch as this child turned into an even bigger ball of excitement.
Before the green-haired boy could go on another fanboy-rant, Aizawa wrapped the kid up in his capture weapon, covering the child’s mouth as well. He then looked at Yamada and sighed. “I have no idea, but I feel like the rat is somehow involved in this.”
The kid started to flail a bit in the capture weapon but stopped after a bit of time, seeming to realize that he wasn’t getting out of it unless Aizawa wanted him to.
“Shou, you can’t just wrap any child up in your capture weapon.” Yamada said while giving the raven-haired male with a pointed look.
“Let’s just go to the rat.” Aizawa said before starting to make his way to the principal’s office.
Yamada just sighed before following along with his partner.
It didn’t take them long to arrive at Nedzu’s office. The door swung open before they had the chance to knock as per usual.
“Ah, I see you have found him.” Nedzu’s chipper voice commented as he sat behind his desk in his large chair.
The two, while carrying the third, walked in, Yamada closing the door behind them.
“Nedzu, don’t play games. Why is a 5-year-old running around the school?” Aizawa cut the principal off as he let the capture weapon loosen and let go of the child now that they were in an enclosed space where the child couldn’t run off to who knows where.
“I’m 6!” The green-haired kid protested once he could speak again, his cheeks puffing up a bit in a pout while crossing his tiny arms over his chest. Which Aizawa could admit was adorable, not that he would admit that.
“Well, I couldn’t just leave a young kid like that outside of the school with no adults around, Aizawa-kun. What if something bad happened?” Nedzu answered while watching the three arrivals in his office.
“You could’ve at least warned us.” Aizawa grumbled as he looked towards the child while his blond partner went to crouch in front of the kid.
“Hey little listener, what is your name?” Yamada asked the green-haired boy who was looking at him with stars in his bright green eyes.
“I’m Izuku, Present Mic-san.” The kid, Izuku, said politely.
“That’s such a pretty name, little listener. Can I ask why you are here? Aren’t you a little young to study here?” The blond hero asked with a gentle smile on his face.
“Oh, my dad and I are playing hide & seek! I thought to hide here to win because I know that he did stuff that was i- illigal… ill… you know stuff you are not allowed to do.” Izuku said with some struggle on the word ‘illegal’ while he returned the smile to Yamada.
Well, if that wasn’t concerning.
The three adults in the room shared a glance with one another because they weren’t aware of that.
“You mean ‘illegal’? Why do you think he did something bad?” Yamada asked with a bit of concern edging in his voice while trying to coax an answer out of the young one.
“Well, he doesn’t like heroes and avoids them, and he has a lot of secrets.” Izuku explained simply while starting to fidget with his sleeves a little since he was a hyperactive 6-year-old.
The blond hero shot another glance at his boss and partner before looking back at the child in front of him.
“Could you tell one of those secrets?” He asked while hoping to bring a bit more clarity on this.
“But they’re secrets.” Izuku said while looking at the heroes. “I can’t tell secrets.”
“Well, if he’s really bad, maybe we could help set him on the right path if you could tell one of those secrets.” Aizawa chimed in with his blunt voice that was a little softer than usual as he crouched down next to his partner in front of the kid.
“Hmm, okay, but you can’t tell him I told you.” Izuku said while trying to look very serious but ended up looking adorable instead.
“Thank you, I promise we won’t tell him.” Yamada said with a warm smile.
The kid looked around for a second to supposedly ensure that no one else was listening except for the three adults in the room before looking back at the two in front of him.
“Well, I once saw him use more than one quirk.” Izuku whispered to convey the seriousness of keeping it a secret.
Nedzu froze when he heard the child’s answer. A person who was supposedly on the bad side of the law with more than one quirk? That was exactly who All Might was looking for. Should he call him and tell him that the child of his arch nemesis is here or not? It might be the chance to catch All For One, but he can’t allow them to fight here. His school might get destroyed in the process and he couldn’t allow that.
He wouldn’t call All Might, for now.
Yamada and Aizawa were both very surprised at that answer of the kid.
“Are you sure you saw him use more than one quirk, little listener?” The blond hero asked while looking at the child.
They both could understand that a villain with more than one quirk on their disposal was just asking for a disaster.
“Yeah, I’m sure. I saw him fly once and he was levitating objects, but he has a fire-breathing quirk, so he has more than one quirk, which is so cool.” Izuku said with an innocent smile.
“I’m sure it is cool, and uhm, we’ll try to help him as much as we can.” Yamada said while trying not to show his concern by smiling and keeping a calm facade.
“How about this. We’ll let you stay here, and I’ll let you meet my other faculty until your dad arrives, so you could go back to him, and we could talk to him and help him.” Nedzu chimed in while looking at the youngest in the room.
The kid, Izuku, lit up at the prospect of meeting other heroes. He beamed and excitedly nodded, which was absolutely adorable to the other three occupants of the room. It almost made them doubt that his dad was an actual villain.
Letting Izuku meet the other heroes was the right idea. It was breaktime too for the students, so most of the teachers were in the teacher’s lounge, except for Majima, also known as Powerloader, since he was always busy in the labs with his students, making sure that they wouldn’t accidentally blow up the school. That man deserves a raise.
Kayama, otherwise known as Midnight, was the first to notice the kid when Yamada and Aizawa walked into the lounge. “Who’s the kid?” She asked excited while quickly running up to them. “Is he yours? Since when did you adopt? You have to tell me something like that!” She said while looking at the two who were now sputtering and embarrassed beyond belief.
Aizawa cleared his throat and got his bearings quickly together. “He’s not ours, Nem.” He answered while trying to hide the blush that had formed on his face in his capture weapon.
“Yeah, the little listener will just be here for a bit. We’re waiting for his dad to pick him up.” Yamada added to make sure that there weren’t any misunderstandings.
“I’m Izuku, and you’re the R-rated pro hero: Midnight! You’re so cool! And your quirk is so useful!” The kid, Izuku, said while looking up at Kayama with stars in his green eyes.
“You’re so cute!” Kayama squealed as she crouched down and gently pinched his freckled cheeks.
The kid looked a bit embarrassed, but smiled, nonetheless. “Thank you.” He said modestly while fidgeting with the end of his sleeves.
Kayama’s heart melted at the adorableness from this kid as she let go of his face.
At this point, the other teachers realized that something was going on and looked over the four.
“Who’s the kid?” Kan, also known as Vlad King, asked while looking confused and a little intrigued.
“His name is Izuku, and he’ll be staying here for a bit until his guardian arrives.” Aizawa said, loud enough for the entire lounge to hear so he won’t have to explain multiple times.
“Why is he staying here?” Kan asked as he watched the group from his chair behind his desk.
Aizawa shared a glance with Yamada before giving Kan a look that said ‘later’ and said out loud: “It’s just for a little bit, I’m sure it would be better for the kid to stay safe here than out on the street.”
Kan sent a suspicious frown his way before masking his expression to a calmer facade. The other teachers noticed as well but decided not to comment on the exchange.
Izuku was having a great time.
He gets to meet with all the teachers of UA who are all by extension pro heroes! Which was amazing!
And they even let him ask his questions! And they were even answering them! They were really kind!
Although he was a bit confused with all of these adults glancing at one another whenever his stay was brought up.
Oh well, he wasn’t going to question the adults that actually showed him kindness. The teachers at his elementary school were always looking at him with pity and he didn’t really like that.
But here they were good. So, he was going to make the best out of this.
All For One was stressing out. The train had finally arrived, and he hadn’t wasted a single second before he was on it. The realization of where his son was headed was dreadful for him.
When he looked on the train app to see where all the stations this train would stop at, he realized with daunting horror that one of the stations were near UA. The school that was filled with heroes and hero-hopefuls. And his son loved heroes.
His fears only came through when he used that searching quirk again around each station only to find his child’s footprints in that station that was the closest to UA.
What does he do now? What if the heroes had his child? What if they realized that he was his son? Would they use him as leverage? Would they bring All Might? Would they torture his son to get personal information on him?
‘I apologize Inko, I know we agreed on not locking our son up, but if they hurt Izuku, there would be hell to pay, and he wouldn’t be allowed to go wherever whenever anymore.’ He thought in his head. He would make sure that this time he would keep his family away from those pesky heroes.
Him and Inko didn’t necessarily have a conversation about that. She doesn’t even know that it was his original plan when Izuku was born. But when she brought up that her best friend had a child as well a couple months earlier, and that their children would become great friends, he didn’t want to ruin his wife’s image by explaining the vault. So, he kept the vault and those urges hidden, like the good husband he is.
He followed his son’s footprints, and sure enough, it went through the UA gate. He put his head in his hands as he freaked out.
Okay, he needed to stay calm. Focus.
UA has his child, so that means that he is in the hands of heroes. What a mess. How was he going to deal with this? What if a hero here recognises him?
Okay. He could always call his wife to pick Izuku up from here but having to explain why he couldn’t and why Izuku was here in the first place seemed like a lot he didn’t want to deal with.
He steeled himself. Was he nervous? Ew. He pushed his confident aura forward and went towards the gate’s intercom, pressing the button and waiting for the other line to answer.
Nedzu had been entertained watching the alleged All For One calm himself once he realized his son was here. Nedzu guessed that he knew with one of his quirks, which would further solicit proof that he was indeed the All For One or that this was a father who put a tracker on his child. Which was a bit far-fetched, but he couldn’t rule that possibility just yet.
He sipped his cup of tea that he always seemed to have and answered the intercom with his usual intro: “Hello! Am I a mouse? A dog? A bear? But more importantly I’m the principal of UA. How can I help you?” His chipper voice came through. He watched on the camera feed as All For One tried not to show his internal panic and tried to keep a calm and confident front.
“I’m here to pick up my son, I know he is here.” All For One said without a waver in his voice.
The principal debated whether or not he should try and play dumb but eventually decided against it. He wasn’t entirely certain if this was really the man that killed All Might’s master, but he wouldn’t risk the safety of his school for a bit of internal fun.
“He is indeed here, All For One. We’ve been expecting you.” The white creature spoke as he intently watched the feed for any signs that proved he was right.
The small twitch of the others eye was enough for Nedzu to conclude that he was correct.
“I have no idea who you’re talking about, I’m just here for my son. Bring him here.” Nedzu could hear the smallest of danger in the tone. If he didn’t have good hearing, he would’ve missed it. It was obvious that All For One hated the fact that his child was here at UA, and Nedzu wasn’t going to upset the man even further.
“Very well, I’ll notify my staff of your arrival and let them bring your son out there to you.” The principal said before cutting the connection with the intercom off and giving Aizawa a text that Izuku’s dad had arrived. He was not going to go along to see All For One in person since he wanted to keep an eye on him from the cameras and have the possibility to call in backup if needed.
The teacher’s lounge was finally calmer after the nervous energy and excitement of a child meeting pro heroes died down a bit, when the ‘ding’ of a notification on Aizawa’s phone was heard.
The tired pro checked his phone and saw who he got a message from. He quickly read it and looked over towards Izuku and Yamada before making eye contact with his partner.
Yamada seemed to understand what he conveyed through eye contact and looked towards the kid as well before crouching down in front of him.
“Hey, Izuku, your dad has arrived.” He said to the kid who looked up at him with wide eyes and a bright smile.
“Really?” Izuku said as Yamada gave a nod.
“Oh, okay, bye-bye everyone! I really liked talking with you!” The kid said with a smile while turning to the other teachers as he waved to them.
Aizawa stood up and gestured for his blond colleague to come along with him bringing the kid to his guardian. If the dad truly was a villain, then it would be a death sentence going all alone.
“We’ll see you another time!” Kayama said with a wave as she and the other teachers watched the green haired kid walk out the door with two of their colleagues.
After a few seconds, Kan, or Vlad King, broke the silence.
“Anyone else found that odd?”
“I agree, but be honest, the kid is so cute!” Kayama exclaimed while putting her hands on her hips.
“Don’t forget smart too, those questions he asked were not something to scoff at, especially for such a small child.” Ishiyama, also known as Cementoss, added.
All For One was doing his outmost best to keep the calm facade up. He couldn’t show any weakness! But he was starting to get worried.
It was taking way too long!
– It only has been ten minutes. –
They must be planning something.
He had to be prepared.
He had enough quirks that could spring on in a matter of seconds-
“Dad!”
His thoughts got cut off at the beautiful sound of his son calling out to him while running up to him with his little 6-year-old feet.
“Izuku!” All For One exclaimed with relief and happiness as he picked his son up and spun him around, his child giggling in his arms.
He stopped when he noticed the other two adults. He held his son against his chest and looked at the two with a hint of suspicion.
“Who are you?” He asked
The blond and black-haired person shared a look before they looked back at him.
“I’m Shouta Aizawa, and this is my colleague, Hizashi Yamada. We looked after your son, Izuku, while he was here.” The black-haired man introduced.
All For One looked at them for a few seconds before looking at his son who was in his arms smiling brightly.
“They were really nice, dad! And their quirks are so cool!” Izuku said while looking up at his dad with stars in his eyes.
All For One looked at the two men again for a small number of seconds before an easy-going smile formed on his face, which if you were trained enough, you could spot the force behind it.
“Truly? Why thank you for taking care of my son. I’ll be sure to prevent something like this happening in the future.”
“It’s no problem, sir. He’s a good kid.” The blond, Yamada, said with a smile.
His son’s eyes sparkled at the compliment and All For One’s own eyes softened at that. Not at the compliment though. How dare a bunch of low lifes?-
“Dad, do you think mom would let me come back here?”
That made his thoughts come to a screeching halt.
Shit.
Inko.
“How about some ice cream if you promise you won’t tell your mother?” All For One said as he started to walk away, wanting to get away from those pests and hopefully get his son to stay silent about what happened today. Inko would slaughter him if she found out.
“Yay! I will!” Izuku said with a smile as he was carried away. He secretly waved at the two heroes who just watched.
After the dad and the son had left, Aizawa broke the silence.
“Well, one thing is certain, he’s protected.”
Yamada sighed and was about to respond but got cut off due to the bell ringing.
They both looked at each other.
“Shit, I thought the day was over.” Aizawa grumbled as they both made their way to their respective classes.
“You could say that again.” Yamada said with a sigh.
In the end, Izuku got his ice cream and didn’t tell his mom.
Though, his dad now doesn’t like playing hide & seek anymore.