Chapter Text
If people could describe the League Of Villains, they would call them monsters, living being without any sense of morality and respect, filled with rage and hatred for everything that isn't them.
But if you would ask that same question to a certain someone, maybe multiple particular people, they would tell a whole new story, a new vision that only them saw, that only them for some reason manage to enter the hearts of the hatred and with their own will and determination, found something that was worth fighting for.
"Make sure... you do your damn best."
Izuku Midoria remembers those words, not only he does but he thought about them a lot after the war, they stuck to him like a curse but for some reason it helped him choose what he really wanted and also what he didn't. The last thing he wants is for a war like this one to ever happen again, for people like Shigaraki and everyone in the league to never appear again and for that, Midoria will do is damn best, for a better world, a better society with better people, he and the heroes of the past, present and futur will make what made those villains this hatful and disguted by the world disappear, replacing it by something beautily and soft, what a good place expects.
As the days, weeks, months go, that most heroes and students who bled and sweat during the war finally healed or were in the middle of it, Midoria, even without a quirk now, kept in touch with his classmates in trainings. It was like everything was back to normal, before the war without the fear of the threat that was the League Of Villains, they finally act like teenagers in their heroes studies, lessons and work and fun after classes, slumber parties stopped by a not so happy Aizawa probably because it's 1 am and they had practice in the morning. But that's what made them forget what have been put on their shoulders months ago, a normal life after the chaos for people who were too young to even drink were like a well deserved break. Three students didn't forget, not that the other did but those ones kept something much more personnal about what happen and the people concerned.
Todoroki Shouto.
Uraraka Ochako.
And of course, Midoria Izuku.
A certain thought stayed in Midoria's mind, something he wanted to say but isn't sure if people would feel the same, maybe they'll hate it? Or maybe, just maybe they'll be curious enough to listen to what he had to say, long enough for them to change their mind and approve but the idea of it being disliked made Midioria unsure about his own thought, not because of shyness, but of the false hope that would bring to him and the two other people that surely share that thought.
"Make sure... you do your damn best."
He will, he promised.
"Make sure... you do your damn best."
He knows that already, he keeps hearing it.
"Make sure..."
yes yes but... there's something, something he can't quite put that makes it less... less what?
"... you do your damn best."
Something that makes it less... rewarding? enjoyable? but what could make him feel that way about a happy ending?
"Make sure... you do your damn best."
Because he won't know, Shigaraki- Shimura won't know if he did his damn best, he won't know the world is a better place for him and his comrades because he's locked behind bars, surely forever.
The thought came in Midoria's mind again, this time he formed it into words.
If I do my damn best, if I do change this world and make it a better one then... I want you to see it.
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If there's one person Midoria knows he can say anything without shame and judgment it's his mom... but he won't tell her or she'll freak out so he'll go for the second option and it's All Might. After the war, the retired hero insisted to stay in UA as a teacher even tho he's not the best at the job but his determination keeps him close to the students and school he loves and that care and hope is what Midoria needs now.
So it's after class that he meets with his idol, in the teachers lounge after a very excited Present Mic opened the door.
"All Miiiiiiiiight, you got a little listener for you!"
The ridiculously tall man stands up to see who it was, a warm smile getting on his face after realization.
"Young Midoria! If it's something important I can maybe help you quickly. I have a lot of work to grades right now..."
All Might says the last part in a whisper that hid nothing about his fear since those are meant for Aizawa and god's know how strict and direct the man can be when you don't finish a job you instisted to help with and ended up being bad at.
"Actuallly it was to ask if are you free after work, to eat somewhere."
"Well... with everything I need to fini-"
Before All Might could end that sentence, a very pink and smiling Midnight half jumped on the desk, grabbing the paperwork out of it.
"GO!!! Look how sweet and polite he is, after all those time he's still a little fanboy of you, isn't it adorable, so much youth!!!"
All Might was practically thrown towards the door by the woman, giggling and yapping about how cute and excited she found this simple situation.
"And my work? I needed to finish it before tomorrow."
Midnight's giggles and excitement calmed in a second, grabbing the pile of paperwork and without any shame and mercy, set it on another's desk.
"Yamada will take care of it"
"WHAAAAT!?"
Present Mic screams dramatically, even tho his emotion towards the betrayal was everything but fake.
"You can't do this to me! I already have a tones of thing to do!!!"
"Maybe it'll show if you'd actually work for real and stop fooling around."
All Might couldn't help but feel sorry and bad for his colleague but his worries changed objectif when he felt something serious emanating from Midoria.
The student walks beside his idol in the empty hallways of UA, the silence between them didn't feel out of place, they had shared secrets, important ones that held the world together and this atmosphere wasn't new. But having it after the war, after everything that happen and that now everything was peaceful, it felt wrong. But the older man said nothing, he trusts Midoria and knows he will talk when he's ready, whatever it was he will listen and hopefully helps him with his worries. It wasn't that late, around 6pm, the air of the early evening fell on them as they reached the outside, the wind somehow cool during this summer day. Midoria remembers how weird it fell to come back to class after everthing that happen, it felt right yet wrong, like everything was back to normal but with a filter on it. Both of them didn't say much, the silence that was once accepting now had a bitterness to it but not about the same reason, which got confirmed by All Might.
"So, Young Midoria, where are we going to eat?"
The question was simple, normal, anyone could ask that but it awaked something in Midoria, the reason is that... he had no idea. The student's face redder as he pulls out his phone in haste, typing stuff on it with fast movement, surely searching for a restaurant or a cafe not far from UA that could please both of them but also give them enough intimacy to speaks about the main topic of this meeting.
"I didn't expect you to be free this soon so I was about to search while waiting for you to finish!"
All Might smiles softly at the panic, this felt sweet and charming, something he was use to now after all those time spent together, he knew the boy, a boy he learned to love more than a simple kid under his protection, even tho at the end he was the one who felt more safe next to him.
"Don't worry about that, everywhere would be fine, I'm not picky."
After they managed to make a decision, they found themselves in a small cafe, it was too early for people to eat and too late for a simple snack so the place was half empty. They ordered drinks, mostly sweet surprisingly, who knew the ex Symbol of Peace had such a sweet tooth.
Midoria was sure about what he wanted, but what makes it difficult are the possibilities, wanting something and having it happen are two different things. He will speak tho, he will explain, because the silence made it worst inside Midoria more than he expected and if the reject is direct he will deal with it. Even as a young teen, when the world felt too aggressive and hard on him, he stayed hopetimist because that's what he is, that's all he had, hope. And this hope he will keep it, close to him, so close he can feel it, so big other will hear it, so with every single ounce of his body and mind, he spokes.
"I brought you here to talk about something. It's about Shigaraki."
The atmosphere, even tho All Might knew the discussion will be somewhat important, crushed on him like a bucket of cold water, stopping himself from taking a sip of his rainbow colored drink in case he might choke on it if Midoria let out another bomb like that.
"Shigaraki... I'm surprised and not surprised at all this is the topic we'll talk about. But why now?"
The ex hero knew it was a serious subjet, not just because it was about Shigaraki, the known Symbol Of Fear, the one who've been the most dangerous villain in Japan, everywhere maybe, but because of who he was to them both. The fact he was Nana Shimura's grandson stayed in All Might's mind the second he learned about it, not leaving him and when he found out about what All For One did to the man he couldn't stop the immense guilt from creeping in his body, he felt like the title of Number 1 hero had been insulted in every languages. For Midoria, he was a known enemy, the one he fought with but also the one he saved, he entered Shigaraki's mind and found things no one has seen about the villain before and he promised him a better world, that's the topic of this meeting.
"After I beat Shigaraki, he told me to do my best, for me and the futur heroes to change what made society an horrible place for them into something everyone could feel safe in, I promised it to him."
All Might knew that, he had that talk with Midoria after the war, he felt like those words were too much of a responsiblity for such a young man, a teenager. But again, he knows the boy enough to be sure he won't mess it, not only for him but for everyone around him, his family, friends, teachers and people he promised to save. All Might held the glasses in his ridiculously big hands, his long fingers wrapped around the sugary drink softly yet strong enough to keep it in place. "I will do it, for them and for me and everyone but as I think of this world, the one I promised to him I kept thinking about something..." He paused, pretending to search his words even tho they were already scripted in his mind for months now.
"The idea of wining without it reaching the right person kept me awake at night more than I needed... I want him, Shigaraki... Shimura and his comrades, his friends... I want them to see this world, to live in it."
He looks up, meeting his idol's eyes, his own were filled with worries about the rejection but determination and hope about an acceptance. All Might stays silence yet he listenned, he kept the eye contact, almost saying without any words how much he would like to help the boy, how much he tried to understand.
"If I get everything right, you would like Shigaraki and his subordonates out of Tartarus?"
All Might started, with the silence from Midoria became too heavy the older man sighs, letting go of his drink to interwinned his fingers together, resting his chin against them, thinking.
"You know I already tried to get them to a less dramatic place, especially Shigaraki and Dabi who have some mental issues but even with everything I did they insisted on keeping them locked in Tartarus." There were a pause, Midoria thought about talking but All Might continued. "I visited him, Shigaraki..."
The student's attention picked up, not that he wasn't already full in this conversation but it was about something he never heard about. Now he felt unsure, why didn't All Might told him about this?
"I only did it once actually, a few weeks after the war, I wanted to speak to him but... He was like a corpse, he answered to the questions I asked him but they felt scripted, short and liveless."
He looks down at his hands as he speaks, not facing Midoria for some reaosn, maybe because he knows he lied about him months ago about not being able to visit the villain. But lying again even for the boy safety is not what he wants to do now.
"I never really liked Tartarus, the criminal inside are real villains, they did bad things and there's a reason why they are here but seeing them locked in small places, attached to a chair and not being able to move unless needed is... nightmarish, even for someone who lived a war and especially for someone who have sympathie for the person behind bars. I'm saying this for you."
"But Toga had been put in a less tragic place, somewhere for people who needs mental help, why can't we at least put them there?"
All Might took a sip of his drink, not from thirst but because he needed to keep his hands busy, the agitation filling. He managed to hide it after the years but he was as sensitive as Midoria about this topic, his empathy for people was so strong and that's the reason he became a hero but sympathy even tho it was needed in this job, also required realism.
"The reason why Toga was put in a different place than them is because she's a minor and that her urge for blood came from her quirk. But we can't ignore that she did as much as bad things as them and her actions have concequences, when she'll be old enough she'll join them..."
Midoria knew that from Uraraka, the other student did her best to visit Toga in the facility she was put in, unfortunately she didn't always succeed, even if she was a minor and escaped Tartarus for a few more years, she was still a known dangerous criminal, he even bets she's treated differently from the other patients.
But that's not the response Midoria wants, nor the one he needed, because even if it seems impossible now he desperately wanted a chance, just a little one.
"Genlte and La Brava got redeemed after they helped us during the war, same for Lady Nagant who even was in All For One team at first. They got their chance because they proved they could be good people, why not the League?"
The words came out raw and unfiltred, he thought about this for months, during multiple nights while staring at the ceiling and the possibilities of the choices he wanted to have about this situation.
"This is completely different-"
"No it's not!"
Midoria didn't want to raise his voice, especially not at All Might but it's been so long since he spoke his mind about this and the lack of power made him even more frustrated.
"We know why most of them turned this way, why they became villians and Shigaraki never had a choice, he was groomed into it, I went in his mind All Might, I saw everything!"
He half stands up his chair, hands on the table and luckily for them there were not a lot of people in the cafe to witness this.
"Spinner lived years of discrimations because of his mutant quirk, Kurogiri was a slave and never had a choice like Shigaraki and you know what happened to Dabi since everyone know! I don't ask for their full liberty and rewards or anything, I just want to give them a chance! They're the reason why some people are finally acting for the injustice and why some heroes actually started to do their job ,not just for money and fame. If they helped bulding this better world then they deserve to at least live in it!"
Midoria pants, he let out what he desperately wanted to say and it felt good, very good but the fact he half yelled at his teacher, mentor, one of the figure he held the most respect, kind of made him panic. When he was about to apologize about what he did, he saw All Might with a hand on his own face, his thumb and index rubbing his eyes. Midoria was stunned and also terrified, did he make All Might cry? That would be extremely surprising but when the older man looked up, he held a warm smile.
"That's the reason why I choose you as my successor, you're filled with justice and hope and that is what we need as heroes... I can promise you will succeed but you should know that I will do my best to help."
All Might brought his hands to Midoria's, holding them softly but tightly enough to make it feel safe, warm and for a moment he believed it, like everything he wanted to create could actually appear at the second. He felt like a kid again, when he saw All Might for the first time on screen, the warm of protection and excitement of justice made him feel invulnerable, even after learning he was quirkless, just watching All Might saving people made him feel like maybe, just maybe, he could succeed anything. It wasn't All Might who cried but Midoria, bringing one hand to wipes away the few tears who managed to escape, it's been a while since he last cried, he thought he was above that but old habits die hard.