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Rating:
✩ Not Rated

✩ Archive Warning:
✩ Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Category:
✩ Gen

Fandom:
✩ 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My
Hero Academia

Relationships:
✩ Midoriya Izuku & Sensei | All For One, ✩ Midoriya Izuku &
Todoroki Shouto

Characters:
✩ Midoriya Izuku, ✩ Sensei | All For One, ✩ Midoriya
Hisashi, ✩ Yagi Toshinori | All Might, ✩ Todoroki Shouto,
✩ Kurogiri (My Hero Academia), ✩ Nagisa (OC), ✩ Dabi
(My Hero Academia), ✩ Hawks (My Hero Academia),
✩ everyone in bnha

Additional Tags:
✩ Sensei | All For One is Midoriya Hisashi, ✩ Midoriya Izuku
Has One for All Quirk, ✩ Izuku doesn't know AFO is his
father, ✩ Crack Treated Seriously, ✩ Villain Midoriya Izuku,
✩ The first chapter is somewhat serious, ✩ Hilarity will
ensue, ✩ Some violence will also ensue, ✩ do not copy to
another site, ✩ Minor Dabi | Todoroki Touya/Takami Keigo |
Hawks

Language:
English
Series:
Part 1 of ✩ ANYONE ● ✩ Next Work →
Collections:
✩ The Witch's Woods, ✩ Storycatchers' pile of heroic hero
stuff, ✩ Deku Has A Brain, ✩ The Last Rec List, ✩ Genius
bnha fanfics, ✩ Brilliant Recs - Reread at any time, ✩ Best Fics
Ever, ✩ Creative Chaos Discord Recs, ✩ Shady BNHA Faves
(Including Crossovers), ✩ Bnha Bookclub Discord Recs, ✩ Got
99 problems but these ain't one, ✩ The Collection From the
Clouds, ✩ Best of BNHA, ✩ why I only sleep an hour a night,
✩ Katya’s Korner Fic Recs, ✩ Fav MHA long fic recs,
✩ Catlady5001’s Favorite Fanfics, ✩ Mha heart mah soul,
✩ Little Red's BNHA Library , ✩ You haven’t lived if
you haven’t read this, ✩ Top 10%, ✩ My Personal Favorite
AO3 Fanfics, ✩ My Personal Favorite Deku Fanfics, ✩ There
are no words for this beauty, ✩ Stories That Deserve More,
✩ Rhynes MHA favs, ✩ Quality Fics, ✩ Read Top Repeat,
✩ EscapingMyProblemsEveryDay, ✩ One For All For All,
✩ Best fics to binge while fighting off an existential crisis,
✩ Why I’m up all night, ✩ Big_brain_BNHA_fics, ✩ If I ever
had a will to write it would be because of these fics,
✩ Supreme Bnha, ✩ bnha fics i dream about , ✩ MHA Fics
I Get A Rush to See Update, ✩ To_read_non_rom,
✩ nonsense station's discord recs!, ✩ call 911 for I have died
at the sheer perfection that are these fics, ✩ Void's BNHA
Favorites :D, ✩ Lady's collection of PERFECT fics., ✩ I’ve
given my heart and soul for this fic, ✩ My Hero Stories
Worth Your Time , ✩ Deku’s Dads, ✩ the pickiest and
pettiest, ✩ We'll meet again Don't know where Don't know
when, ✩ Hella cool fics, ✩ great reads, ✩ My Escapism List,
✩ super_fics, ✩ Road to Nowhere Discord Recs, ✩ In-
Progress I Want To Read, ✩ Best fanfics_, ✩ Extraordinary My
Hero Academia FanFics , ✩ Favorites BNHA , ✩ plz plz
plz read these masterpieces so we can rant and be friends,
✩ Nix’s Faves *chef’s kiss*, ✩ My Hero Academia Stories,
✩ fuckin' mint, ✩ fics to sink your teeth into,
✩ FreakingAmazingFics, ✩ Wan Shi Tong's Library
, ✩ The Best of Bnha, ✩ gothelixar recs, ✩ soul healing
comes from fanfiction, ✩ Fics that quench my thirst and
breathe life into my soul, ✩ Worth It BNHA Fanfics Reading
List - Ongoing, ✩ BNHA Fics *chef’s kiss* ,
✩ BaNHAmmer, ✩ craftyreader_favs, ✩ Why must you torture
me with these good fics?, ✩ Vaguely Organized Crime Fics,
✩ These are Bundles of Emotions (and I Love them af),
✩ Myra_Approved_Version_of_Midoriya_Izuku, ✩ The
Fairest of Them All, ✩ Fics That Make Me Go Feral,
✩ Favorite MHA Stores, ✩ Banco Fic, ✩ Fanfic_Recs__MHA,
✩ Works Worth Rereading
Stats:
PUBLISHED: 2019-04-26 Updated: 2023-04-30 Words:
244,883 Chapters: 40/?
COMMENTS: 13,817 Kudos: 25,617 Bookmarks:
✩ 7,707 Hits: 1,020,577

ANYONE
Gentrychild
Summary:
Imagine a world where your quirk
determines your path and your
worth. A world that has no place
for a quirkless boy.

Despite that, Izuku is determined

to become a hero. Until he realizes
no one will let him.

So he accidentally creates a
helpful (criminal) organization.

And he (not so) accidentally steals

One for All.

May contain Izuku technically

becoming a villain but still helping
people, All Might running around
like a headless chicken to find his
stolen quirk, and All for One
refusing to just go away.

Now has a TVTropes page HERE.

Notes:
Translation into Italiano available: Anyone by
Bluefranci
Translation into Português brasileiro
available: Anyone by PanelinhaDePressao
Translation into Español available:
Cualquiera by googletraductor

(See the end of the work for notes and other

works inspired by this one.)

CHAPTER 1

One day, fantasy became reality, and the

world devolved into chaos.

Until the government stepped in, bringing

order and control over the new laws of reality.
Heroes of justice, determined to protect the
innocents and to fight the villains.

Only heroes had the right to use their quirks.

Only the strictly innocents would be

protected.

And the villains would be shown no mercy.

People are not born equal.

On the morning of the last days of Izuku's exam

week, the fourteen-year-old teenage boy woke
up before his alarm rang, groggy because of the
lack of sleep but unable to go back to the sweet
slumber. He stretched. Yawned. And he looked at
his phone and at the Clamor server he was
moderating.

One in many on the web, but this one was slightly

different. It had started as a support group, a
virtual place where people could vent, talk about
their problems or their success, and share advices
or at least some support. For a year now, it had
become something else.

Izuku quickly skimmed through the activity, then

gave more attention to the request he had
received. The user, Harker222 was in the middle
of a divorce and their wife was supposed to have
the kids because their quirks were similar. In
consequence, the Quirked Minor Law applied
and they would go with the adult who was
supposed to help them nurture their quirk.

It was the third time someone asked help

because of this law. There wasn't much he could
do if the parent in question wasn't unfit to be a
parent, but if not, he would have to contact
Gwen and Defendersofthebrave, the first to
make an intensive background check on
Harker22, the other because she was the lawyer
who had helped with the previous cases.

Izuku sent a message to Gwen. She was perfectly

able to find Harker222's identity and to make
sure they were legit. He had never been keen on
taking risks.

Then, with a willpower bordering on heroic, he

dragged himself out of bed, not used to wake up
this early. That was the advantage with being
home schooled : he had his own schedule.

As always, the house was quiet and devoid of any

activity, so he walked to the living room, put the
TV on to have some sound, and started preparing
himself.

Izuku's mom was a Chef, and a damn good one

at that, currently in New York. She had to travel all
around the world for her job, which was great and
exciting -and it payed well, which was something
they desperately needed at some point- but most
of the time, she was far away from home. Izuku
missed her but he knew this was necessary and
when he would finish high school, nothing
prevented him to follow her.

It wasn't even that lonely anyway.

Izuku put on a white shirt and black pants, but

then change because he became self-conscious
about the scar on his back, a Lichtenberg figure
starting from his right shoulder and covering a
little more than quarter of his back, which could
be seen if one had keen eyes and if he was
wearing anything white.

Usually, it wouldn't be a problem. But usually,

Izuku avoided his former middle school like the
plague, and he didn't want anyone to be
reminded of why he had left. Not that things
would be great anyway.

Despite having been home schooled for two

years, Izuku still had to go to his old middle
school to take the exams, and that was his least
favorite activity, because everyone in there knew
he was quirkless.

The teasing was endless.

Izuku was twelve the first time he had lied about

his quirk. He had stopped going to school for two
months, had stopped hiding in his apartment for
one, and he had started to frequent a sport
center, the kind which provided all kind of
physical activities and quirk training.

He had needed the activity. At first, it had been

dreadful. He had kept going before it was a
necessary training to be a hero. And little by little,
he had learned to enjoy the activity.

But more than anything else, he needed the

social contact. Being alone was eating him alive.

And of course, his new friends had asked about

his quirk.

He hadn't manage to tell them the truth. The ''I

have an analysis quirk.'' had passed his lips
before he had the time to think about it. No one
had been surprised.

It was stupid. It wasn't like he could change

anything on the quirk record, not unless he
proved it. And if his new friends had met anyone
from his past, the cat would have been out of the
bag.

But the change had been immediate. No one had

thought he was useless or weak. People had
asked him how to improve their quirks. Had been
listening to him despite his young age. And he
had helped them, starting his quirk counselling
work but that was a story for another day.

Heads were turning his way as Izuku was walking

down the hallways of the middle school, but since
he was the only one not in uniform, it wasn't
surprising, and Izuku ignored them.

Since Izuku had the time to get unused to them,

his eyes kept lingering on the colorful posters
hanging on the walls of the school.

The right path for the right quirk.

Strength, mind, quirk.

Join the Exemplars.

The last one, one of the only posters which didn't

have the word 'quirk' in it, was a little misleading
because you had to be invited by the Hero
Commission to enter the corps.

All those paths offered, depending on which

quirk you have.

Online, there were support groups for people

with villain-like quirks, or with plain ones, but
nothing for quirkless people. It was as if Izuku's
group didn't exist. When quirkless people were
mentioned, it was either in movies where they
died and the hero who failed to save them would
mourn about how powerless they had been, or -
his favorite- it was revealed the quirkless one had
an incredibly powerful quirk they didn't know
about all along. And it was a commonly admitted
fact that quirkless people were a dying specie.

In a world where quirks dictated your path, no

one knew what to do with the quirkless.

Which meant that since he didn't have a quirk

that could steer him on a predetermined road, he
could walk down any path with enough effort. He
had the choice.

And Izuku wanted to be a hero.

When he entered the classroom which was

assigned to him, his former class by the way,
everyone was already on their seats and his
former homeroom teacher was really concerned
about how he was almost late and how Izuku
needed to be more careful, and so on.

Kacchan was at the front row and when he glared

at Izuku, the latter immediately looked at his feet.
With his former childhood friend, the rule was to
be invisible but even that wouldn't save anyone
from his temper.

But his quirk was Explosion and everyone knew

he was destined to become a hero. Allowances
had to be made for special people like him.

The test started and Izuku went through it easily.

His notes had skyrocketed since he had
started studying on his own, and he had stopped
being nervous during exams.

And like always, he finished half an hour in

advance.

He gave his test to the teacher and went back to

his chair and to the little table in the back of the
class, his notebook in hand. He wasn't actually
allowed to leave class before the end of the
exams, but he didn't like to waste time here. He
absolutely didn't want to have time to think when
he was in a place where he had been... Well, a
place he had never really belonged to.

Izuku ignored how accurately aware he was of

the Lichtenberg scar on his back, and he started
working on the temperature change quirk he was
given details about. On his server, as
SmallMight1541, people came for him to ask
how to improve their quirks, and they were even
paying him for that, which was a nice bonus.

He managed to work for ten minutes when his

former teacher approached and paused in front
of Izuku's desk.

''Midoriya...'' he whispered, or at least that was

what he thought. ''I was wondering where you
were planning to go next year?''

Why ? Why are you talking to me right now and

right here? You're not my teacher anymore.
Forget about me. Please. Pretty please. With a
cherry on the top.

Sadly, he didn't get the message and he waited

for his answer. Oh, what Izuku would have given
for a telepathic quirk or for a mind-wiping one.

''I am going to attempt UA entrance exam,'' Izuku

said as he closed his notebook, not wanting to

A flash of surprise passed on the adult's face. UA

was a great school, but more known for one
course in particular. ''Oh, the Gen Ed or the
Management?''

''The hero course.''

He had whispered it but in a silence only

interrupted by the noise of pens writing on the
paper, he had no choice but to be heard and
several students turned their heads towards him,
but at least it was discreet despite the disbelief
on their faces. What wasn't discreet was Kacchan
turning his head towards him, like a demented
own, then he gave Izuku a scowl that upgraded
his neck-turning to something that should have
necessitated several exorcists to deal with.

The teacher just smiled awkwardly, embarrassed,

and left as if he hadn't just exposed Izuku to the
rest of the class.

As soon as the exam was over and that the

students started to give their forms, Izuku
grabbed his backpack and started to make a
break for it, but Kacchan and his friends
immediately rushed towards where he was and
they cornered him.

Kacchan smiled. The expression was unnatural

and vaguely terrifying, and to add insult to the
injury, their teacher chose this precise moment to
leave the room.

''Hey, Deku! Did I just hear you saying you were

going to UA?''

One day, Izuku would find out why his mere

presence unnerved Kacchan. This day didn't need
to be today.

''You did,'' he admitted, looking around but there

was no way out.

Kacchan sighed: ''Why do you insist on pissing

me off ?''

But everything pisses you off.

''I don't even know what I did,'' Izuku reminded

him.

He wasn't only talking about today.

Once, Kacchan and Izuku were always with each
other, even after he was declared quirkless. And
one day, his childhood friend had started
despising the very sight of him.

Kacchan showed his teeth, pure contempt

coming in waves from him : ''You're a nobody
breathing the same air as me. You're useless and
you couldn't even deal with middle school. Why
the fuck do you think you would survive near a
hero high school?''

Izuku didn't answer. He just looked at him, ready

to bolt if Kacchan ever used his quirk. He would
look ridiculous and he would be laughed at but if
he could avoid firecrackers on his skin, he didn't
care.

And his former friend almost immediately proved

him right..

Kacchan's arm crossed the air and though Izuku

almost jumped out of his skin, he wasn't the
target. Kacchan grabbed the notebook which had
still been on the desk, his note and analysis, and
the pages crackled as firecrackers started to
destroy it.

Izuku could only stare at what he was doing.

Before irremediable damage was done, Kacchan

threw his work behind his back without looking.
''If you want to be a hero that much, why don't
you take a dive from the rooftop and pray to have
a quirk in your next life?''

An incredible silence fell on the classroom, so

heavy it was almost physical. Students looked at
Bakugou and at each other, their eyes wide,
unease written in everyone's body languages.

No one on this room liked Izuku but everyone of

them realized that Kacchan had just crossed a
line, and it was like everyone was holding his
breath.

But no one said anything.

Neither did Izuku. He took what was left of his

notebook and his backpack and he left without a
word.

He saw his teacher as he went out. The adult

looked at his ruined notebook, then looked at his
own feet, obviously uncomfortable, but he didn't
say anything.

It didn't surprise Izuku.

Proving that life had a sense of humor, and Izuku

was the punchline, he was going back to his
apartment when a villain tried to kill him. He
remembered drowning. He remembered trying to
fight for his life.

And failing.

Then, All Might appeared in what was obviously a

fevered dream created by a brain who had been
deprived from oxygen for too long.

Except it wasn't.

The things he learned that day.

''I am quirkless. Do you... Do you think I can be a

hero ?''

This was a stupid question. Izuku was aware of it

before he even asked, but he couldn't help it. It
was pathetic but he needed the validation. He
needed someone to tell him that yes, his dreams
weren't foolish. That he could so something.

All Might took a deep breath, his head slightly

shaking from right to left, and Izuku knew what
was his going to say because his body language
had already answered. Hope died within him
before All Might even said the words and he
braced himself to hear the actual words.

''Without power, can one become a hero? No,

I think not.''

It was like all the air had fled Izuku's lungs. Even
though he knew it. Even though he was prepared
for it.

''If you desire to help people, becoming a

police officer is always an option,'' All Might
continued. ''That's an admirable work.''

This actually help Izuku anchor himself back to

reality.

Because of the sheer stupidity of this suggestion.

The police discriminated on quirks. Not that they

actually used them but they wanted their
members to have them ready if there was a
problem, and there was a project of law that
would keep people with certain quirks from
enrolling, so a quirkless person could never
approach a post.

''It's not wrong to dream. However, you need

to be realistic, kid.''

It was at this moment that Izuku realized what was

happening.

All Might didn't understand. He couldn't. All

Might had a quirk. He had the most incredible
quirk Izuku heard about. He couldn't realize the
difference in their lives.

We don't live in the same world.

After All Might left, Izuku stayed a long time on

this roof. Just thinking, while leaning on the
handrail.

Explosions were shaking the place as Bakugou

was fighting back, desperately trying to breathe
as the Sludge Villain was wrapped around him
and trying to get inside him, and Izuku was
terrified because he knew. He knew intimately
what was happening, how he was fighting for air,
how it was impossible to fight against this villain.

And it was his fault because he had accidentally

allowed the villain to escape when he had
grabbed All Might.

Izuku's body moved on his own.

He had been looking at the heroes, wondering

what the hell they were doing as someone was
getting drowned on dry land, then he saw how
scared Kacchan was, and then, he was already in
movement.

His legs carried him, and he crossed the place

before anyone had the time to hold him back.
Unless they had a Speed quirk, they wouldn't
caught him, not when he ran every day at full
speed.

Not that Izuku had a plan. He just knew that the

Sludge had eyes that didn't change not matter
the form he took so he clawed at them, making
him scream and for a moment, Bakugou could
breathe.

And then, the Sludge Villain lunged at Izuku,

determined to finish what he had started earlier
this day.

Izuku knew he was dead.

But All Might appeared from nowhere. Saved him

once again, punching the air to hit the Sludge
Villain. And then, he disappeared. No doubt that
he was closing on his time limit.

Leaving Izuku alone with Kacchan who was silent

for once and a dozen of heroes who
congratulated him for his quirk, how he could
easily be a hero. Some also encouraged Izuku,
telling him he had been brave.

At least until they realized Izuku was quirkless.

''You could have been killed !''

''Reckless...''

''Stupid.''

''Lucky to be alive.''

''You need to be realistic.''

It was the middle of the nigh and Izuku was

consulting his phone on the roof of his former
middle school. Entering here had been
ridiculously easy, more than what he had
expected.

He had wanted to be away from everything, and

somewhere quiet, but not the quiet of his
apartment. He had considered the place All
Might had accidentally taken him to, but he
couldn't access it, so school without any students
was the next best thing.

And here he was, on his phone, finishing the work

he had as an administrator. Gwen had already
treated his request, and he contacted
Defendersofthebrave to ask her if she was
willing to help Harker22. Izuku was now waiting
for her answer.

Izuku was considering dropping the server. They

didn't need him. Gwen would probably make a
much better job. And it wasn't like the people he
knew on the server were real friends.

It wasn't like Izuku had any friends. Or anything.

Izuku just needed to finish this. He just needed to

finish this request. Then, he could quit.

That was the plan. One last job. Then he would

quit and be done with all this. But someone
reached him through the server. Someone who
didn't want to talk to the administrator of the
server, but to SmallMight1541.

Izuku had started chatting with Snowdrift about

a year ago, first because they both liked All
Might. Then, they had shared more and more.
And this time, Snowdrift really needed to talk,
and honestly, Izuku needed the distraction.

The chatted for a long time.

Two hours later, Izuku left the roof without looking

back. He had decided not to delete his account
about ten minutes after they had started chatting.

Izuku grew his network. Anyone who had a

problem, he helped as long as they didn't want
to harm others. A favor for a favor, and he started
using them, knowing more and more people,
everywhere.

More and more people found him. More and

more people who had problems because they
didn't have the right quirk, or because someone
else had a more interesting one and laws and
rules tended to bend for those.

Most of the time, Izuku just put people in contact.

Facilitated exchanges of services or transactions.
Made researches thanks to Gwen so he would
know who he was dealing with and would make
sure he wasn't hurting anyone. This was his
server, so it was his responsibility.

But they didn't to Smallmight1541, of course.

Smallmight1541 was a user who could analyze
quirks.

No, they went to the administrator of the server.

Username : Anyone.

The day of the graduation, Kacchan received his

invitation to the Exemplars in front of the whole
school, delivered by the principal himself, who
congratulated him on his heroic behavior.
Kacchan looked like he wanted to rip apart the
letter with his teeth.

And Izuku was here, because as a home schooled

student, this school was where he was supposed
to have his certificate delivered. He even clapped
with everyone else to congratulate Kacchan. The
Exemplars were the elite of the hero course,
young people with great quirks who showed
talents and a heroic fortitude. They could go into
any school they wanted and once they
graduated, they would access the top of the Hero
rankings. Chosen by the Hero Commission.

And about ten minutes after Kacchan had

received this great honor, he followed Izuku to an
isolated spot.

''Deku...'' he growled, stalking towards him.

''Congratulations, Kacchan,'' Izuku said politely.

He tried to grab Izuku by the collar.

Maybe to push him against the wall. Maybe to

blow his face off.

Izuku never let him the time to try.

He dodged, grabbing Kacchan's wrist and he

kicked his knee, the articulation making an almost
pop sound under his foot. Unbalanced, Kacchan
crashed to the ground, and before he could jump
at Izuku's throat once again, the green-haired boy
stepped on his wrist, but without putting all his
weight on it.

Kacchan froze completely, and Izuku, his heart

beating so loudly in his ears, completely in
control. Even if Kacchan's face hadn't betrayed
how shocked he was that Izuku was fighting back,
he would have known. Because this wasn't
supposed to happen. Kacchan was the symbol of
victory while Izuku was quirkless. Despite the
grren-haired-boy's training, they stood a world
apart and Izuku was supposed to be defenseless.

But now that Izuku had realized he didn't have

anything to lose, things were simpler.

And with his foot on Kacchan's wrist, his

childhood friend was realizing there was a lot he
couldn't risk.

Izuku saw himself hitting breaking his wrist. He

could almost hear the cracking sound the
breaking bone would make, how with two other
kicks, Kacchan would never be able to use his
quirk again without atrocious pain.

But Izuku didn't.

''Goodbye, Kacchan,'' Izuku simply said.

There was a ring specialized into giving people

new identity. Like a Witness Protection Program
for people who were born with the wrong cards
like being related to a villain, having a villainous
quirk or a weak one, etc.

Izuku had thought about it for a long time. Quite

honestly, Midoriya Izuku had no future. Not in this
country. Quirkless people didn't have interesting
jobs.

Midoriya Izuku, quirkless and pretty much

worthless, disappeared.

Akatani Mikumo, white-haired boy with an

analysis quirk, took his place.

Five schools had accepted Izuku, except that they

had actually accepted Akatani Mikumo, who had
an analysis quirk and the same grades as
Midoriya Izuku. He quickly wondered if he would
have been admitted without his quirk, but
refrained from going further. There was no point.

UA was one of the school which accepted him.

He considered it, but not for long. Kacchan would

go there and if there was one person who could
identify him, it was the angry pomeranian
disguised as a teenager. So he
chose Kohaku. Great school, not far, great
program. Also, there was a lot of lessons online,
so Izuku could continue to be homeschooled and
to enjoy his free time.

And to work as Anyone.

Then, a crazy plan was born inside Izuku's mind.

Something that was based on a nothing tangible,
but it was an opportunity. He thought about it.
Debated it.

Then, since he realized he wouldn't be able to

pull this off on his own, he decided he would
abandon the idea if those who could help him
refused.

Anyone :

[I must warn you that some part of this

project might be motivated by pure pettiness.]

Humans being were conditioned to ignore risks.

They could know about it, they could take
precautions against it, but they didn't fear them
until consequences were ripe and about to punch
them in the face.

Toshinori knew he had less and less time with

One for All, not because of the quirk in itself but
because his body couldn't take the stress and it
just stopped every time he reached his limits.
There was no way to circumvent that so he was
reduced to check his time again and again, and
to make sure not to go beyond, which was quite
ironic.

But it worked. It had always worked.

So somehow, Toshinori had managed to convince

himself it would always work.

First, it was the car crash. Then, someone fell into

a river. There was an accident on the road so
Toshinori had to bring them himself to the
hospital because there was no doctor on the site.
Then, a bank robbery. A car chase. Even for
Tokyo, accidents and misdeeds were everywhere
on this specific day.

Toshinori knew he was investing too much time, a

time he didn't have. He also knew there were
other heroes who could handle such situations.

But he didn't manage to slow down. He couldn't

take the risk that someone could get hurt
because he wasn't fast enough. Because what if
the hero who was supposed to answer didn't
have the right quirk for the situation? What if
someone died trying to help?

He was in the middle of a closed construction site

when one of the metal bar tried to fall on his
head, and quite honestly, it wasn't the worst that
had happened to him today.

Until something made him lose his footing.

It was as simple as that, but when he did, it was

as if One for All completely abandoned him. He
crashed into the ground, and everything became
black. When he opened his eyes again, he was
laying on the ground, trapped under a lot of
metal.

Toshinori tried to get rid of it, but there was

nothing. No strength, no energy, just an intense
cold that didn't leave place for anything else.

Except for fear, of course. The last time his body

had failed was when he had almost died.

''Is there anyone here?'' someone young called.

Toshinori didnt dare to say anything. He was too

scared to call out for help. He was the one
supposed to save people, not the other way
around. But still, he looked in the direction of the
voice, and saw who was running toward him.

And Toshinori recognized him. Young, green-

haired, wide green eyes, and even wearing an All
Might hoodie.

The boy froze when he saw him.

He got extremely pale when he looked at what

Toshinori couldn't see from his body behind the
metal pipes.

Confirming what the intense feelings of

numbness and pain were trying to tell Toshinori
all along.

I don't know his name, Toshinori realized. He had

never asked. Even after the second Sludge villain
attack, he was expecting to learn his name in the
news but there was nothing. He had meant to do
some researches, but he had been too busy to do
so.

The boy looked at the mess of metal and pipes.

He looked terrified, probably because his hero
was approaching his end, and none of them
could do anything about it. The boy pulled out
his phone in a second, calling for help. Good
reflexes, but it seemed to be too late.

''Come closer, please,'' Toshinori asked, feeling

colder and colder, his strength leaving him.

And the boy did, still looking afraid but trying to

hide it. Brave kid.

But Toshinori already knew that. Only someone

brave would run at a villain to save someone.
Why hadn't he talked to him that day? He should
have said something.

''I am sorry, young man. I am sorry I told you you

couldn't become a hero.''

The young man looked horrified. ''Forget that. It's

alright.''

''No, it's not,'' Toshirnori corrected. ''I was afraid.

For you. What it meant for me. But now, I need
your help. My time is up.''

And he wasn't just talking about his quirk.

''My quirk... My quirk is named One for All. It

didn't appear with me, you see, but it was passed
down to me, like a torch of eternal fire. I inherited
the ability to transfer power.''

The boy's eyes comically widened.

''What?''

Of course he couldn't believe it. No one had

heard of a quirk which could be transferred. But
All Might had one responsibility as a One for All
holder, even more important than fighting All for
One or to be the symbol of Peace.

''Find Gran Torino. He will help you. He will

explain you everything.''

''Don't say that. You're going to be fine!''

Toshinori didn't have the time for comfort, so he

plucked a hair from his head and put it in the
boy's hand. It's a boy, really a boy. Even younger
than I was when I lost Nana. The green-haired-
boy looked at it without understanding.

''To inherit my quirk, you have to consume a

piece of my DNA,'' Toshinori explained.

The boy's face immediately became blank.

''Do it!'' Toshinori growled.

The boy put his hand to his face so fast he pretty

much smacked himself on the mouth and he
gulped down the hair.

Toshinori closed his eyes, serene because he

knew that One for All wouldn't die with him. Gran
Torino would handle it. He already did once.
Everything would be alright.

And when he opened them, there was no metal,

no pipes, and even though the ground was cold
under him, like it had half frozen over, All Might
was feeling completely alright.

And his quirk was gone.

Izuku ran, put back his cap and his mask to hide
his face, avoided cameras, took two buses, and
then and only then, he sent the signal so
everyone would stop using their quirks.

He needed as much distance as humanly possible

between All Might and him when he would
realize what had just happened, if anything had
happened at all. Apart from being weirded out by
swallowing a hair, Izuku couldn't feel anything
different.

One for All. A rumor few could find and fewer

could listen to.

None of this would have happened without

Anyone. The massive operation had been a
combination of quirks and a lot of favors were
called. The worst had been to make All Might run
around and to exhaust his quirk so he would be
easier to trick. Izuku had chosen All Might's
innocents to rescue specifically because of their
quirks, to make sure they wouldn't be in actual
danger.

Izuku rubbed his arms, trying to get warm up a

little. He had been so cold over there, at All
Might's side, but he couldn't show it because the
hero had to believe the cold was from his injuries
and not from an ice quirk. Combined to several
Weakness quirks, an illusion one, a dizzy mind
quirk, and a multitude of people who had used
their powers to make the number 1 hero believe
that he was actually getting weaker. Implemented
by the bump of the head when he had slipped on
ice and fell.

When Izuku felt like he was far enough, Izuku

checked his phone, and confirmed with his
warper for the day that everyone was back home
with no problem, Snowdrift included.

Izuku sighed in relief. He had secured this

warper's services because he didn't want anyone
willing to help him to risk suffering All Might's
wrath.

Yes, you're the one who will have to take

responsibility for that, a little voice in his head
mocked.

Izuku pushed the thought away. He had just

executed one crazy plan, was still alive, and now,
he was going to stay low for a while.

Half a second later, a little girl rammed into

Izuku's leg, but since there were some hamsters
bigger than her, Izuku didn't bulge and she fell,
tears in her eyes, which immediately made him
panic.

''Are you okay?''

She flinched when he tried to give her his hand to

help her go back to her feet, and Izuku froze,
because this reaction was just a drop in a sea of
red flags. The little girl was maybe five -Izuku
didn't know enough children to guess correctly-
with white hair, red eyes, and a horn on her
forehead. She was wearing what looked like to be
a grayish nightgown who wasn't enough to
protect her from the wind that was biting at them,
her arms and legs were covered in bandages, and
she was barefoot.

And she looked terrified.

Izuku crouched down slowly, making himself

smaller and less scary.

''Do you need help ?'' he asked her

Her red eyes, like a baby rabbit, widened and she

looked around her, as if she was scared someone
had heard Izuku.

Unfortunately, she was right to be afraid.

''Eri!'' someone called from the darkness of the

alley, obviously unamused.

Izuku got up just as a man with a bird mask got

out of the alley. He took one look at the girl -Eri –
who was still on the ground and Izuku realized he
couldn't let her go with him.

''Look at what you've done, causing so much

trouble to a stranger. Come back, Eri.''

It wasn't the mask. Plenty of people wore them in

an age where mutations were common. It was the
absolute absence of care in his eyes. Usually,
when someone looked at a kid, they were some
warmth, a hint that people were actually seeing
something small and cute that belonged to their
species. But not here.

Eri turned towards the man with a bird mask and

she hesitated, clearly not wanting to go with him.
She looked at Izuku, but then immediately
dropped her gaze and she thought furiously. She
wasn't expecting him to help her.

And she wasn't expecting Izuku to gently ruffle

her hair. She looked up to him, her big eyes filled
with interrogation and some mistrust, but Izuku
didn't let see how bothered he was by this.
Instead, he stayed calm. Looked at her.

I am here. It's going to be alright.

And there it was. Hope.

Good. At least one person who believe I can find

a way out of this mess.

''You know her?'' Izuku asked, smiling as if he

wasn't considering screaming his head off to alert
a hero who would be near-by. Hell, even All
Might if that was necessary.

''She is my daughter,'' the masked man said as he

was removing a glove. He seemed bored. No
doubt that he wasn't passionate by this
conversation. ''She is at a difficult age. Sorry for
the trouble."

''She doesn't look like you.''

The masked man looked at him and it was as if

the temperature suddenly dropped. He looked at
him like Izuku's life meant nothing. Like he was a
bug, annoying and harmless and that crushing
him under his foot wouldn't bother the man. He
would just do it and live on with his life without
ever pausing on his existence.

''Move along, brat,'' the masked man said, a last

warning, a last chance for Izuku to get the hint
and to run for his life.

He is going to kill me.

''I... I don't think if I can do that,'' Izuku said

lamely.

He didn't have anything on him. Sure, he could

fight if needed but the man had just removed his
glove so his quirk was contact-based and Izuku
didn't want to leave him the occasion to lay his
hand on him. And there was the little girl. He
could ran like hell but would he be fast enough if
he was carrying her

But the adult was tired to wait.

''Eri?'' he called, making her flinch. ''Remember

this is your fault.''

He lunged at Izuku.

Raw terror drenched the teenager and he raised

his fist, reacting on instinct because he knew that
this man was about to kill him.

And then, the world was drown in a sea of pain.

Someone knocked on Ao's door in the middle of

the night and she went to greet them with a
baseball bat. Not that her unexpected and
unwelcome guest didn't warn her he was coming
but still, there was a certain protocol when
someone dared to wake her up.

She knew it was Akatani. She knew he was

accompanied by a child, a little girl with long
white hair and red eyes, like a baby rabbit.

But he had obviously forgotten to mention his

arm : completely purple, irremediably broken if
quirks like hers didn't exist. Akatani was breathing
slowly, as if he was trying to keep a well-earned
scream of pain inside his throat. He was pale as
death and there were drops of sweats on his
forehead, making his now green curls heavy, but
apart from that, nothing would indicate that his
arm was a mess of broken bones.

''Ao?'' he asked, and his voice was almost

calmed, though strained. ''I'm sorry to ask you
that but I think I need help.''

In a dark cell of Tartarus, surrounded by machine

guns, his brainwaves monitored, and strapped to
a bed, a shadow of a man was taking refuge
inside his head. By all account, he should be
dead. The Symbol of Peace had ripped off his
arms, and destroyed his face, and when his
comrades had barely managed to bring him back
from the Great Beyond, the Symbol of Peace had
found him again, and threw him into this
purgatory without showing him the mercy of
killing him for good.

He didn't know for how long he had been there.

At first, he was sedated. Almost constantly. Little
by little, he had fought the effects, starting to
claw his way back to the land of the awaken. It
might be a year or two. Four at the most. The
guard who was taking care of him and who kept
talking even though his prisoner neither answered
nor acknowledged him hadn't seem to change
much.

Solitude was a torture. One of the thing that was

keeping him sane were his guards, who tended to
chat in front of him, unaware of how he was
feeding on every distractions. The other was how
deep he could plunge inside his own mind. How
he could almost touch remnants from other ages.

And, at this precise moment, since he was so far

inside his mind, he felt it. The moment where his
quirk, the quirk he had given to his little brother,
found a new holder.

The ninth.

CHAPTER 2

Back then

When the letter from the Exemplar program

arrived for Shouto, no one in the Todoroki
household was surprised. As the son of the
Number 2 hero, going to UA was just a formality.
Endeavor said something Shouto didn't listen
about this letter being the first steps on a
glorious road. Fuyumi congratulated him. Natsuo
send an email with a lot of exclamation points.

And Endeavor became more and more insistent

about Shouto using his flames. About how
Shouto had a destiny to fulfill, how he had to walk
on his father's path, and how his childish rebellion
had to stop or he would be ripped apart by the
other Exemplars, though somehow, Shouto was
superior to all of them because he was
Endeavor's son. Whatever. It made the usual
amount of sense.

Shouto had learned from a young age to mute

whatever his old man was saying, but not this
time. Because his old man was - and he couldn't
believe he was going to admit this- right. Going
to UA would be the first step to become like
Endeavor. No doubt that the Hero Commission
was already excited at the idea of having another
hero with as much offensive power.

He couldn't smother his old man's fire. As much

as he tried to, he looked like him. More often and
often, he could feel the same anger inside him.

Even if Shouto didn't use his flames, even if he

wasn't drafted into Endeavor agency, there would
always be the risk of becoming like Endeavor.
Always.

So he decided to run away.

Shouto didn't warn Fuyumi because even though

he loved his sister dearly and his sister loved him
back, she would have warned their old man in the
second. So, one day, he secretly prepared a bag,
with some cash and enough clothes to last a
week, and he left as if he was leaving for school.
He changed as soon as he could in a gym and he
didn't look back, knowing that he had the rest of
the day before his family realized he wasn't
coming back.

At no point did he worry about what would

happen to him. He had a strong quirk. That
meant that he would always have a way to survive
any situation.

Shouto's first stop was to a library, because his

escape had been a rushed decision and he
needed a place to think about what he would do
next, and a connection to the web his old man
couldn't look at. His own phone was off, so he
wouldn't be tracked down with it and no one
would be able to contact him. If he heard a
message of Fuyumi begging him to go home...
He wasn't sure he wouldn't cave in.

As soon as he had access to a computer, he

searched for the one person who understood
what Shouto was trying to do : Todoroki Touya.

His older brother, Fuyumi's twin, had left the

house when he was sixteen, and that was all
Shouto was remembering about him. His
childhood was a blur where he had been isolated
from his sibling, always training to be molded
into Endeavor's perfect creation, and he didn't
have as many memories as most people.

So, he had no way to know if Touya even wanted

to meet him. Shouto knew that Fuyumi didn't
have any contact with him, and she had been the
closest to their eldest brother. And he had also
left after Shouto had manifested his quirk and a
little before his face was scarred.

For all he knew, he was blaming Shouto for being

the catalyst of their family's breaking point.

His research didn't lead to anything, and he could

hardly look for anyone having a fire quirk and a
hatred for Endeavor, but he realized Touya may
not have wanted to keep the Todoroki name, so
he looked for a Yukimura, his mother maiden
name.

Now, Shouto didn't find a Yukimura Touya.

Instead, he found a Yukimura Shizuya and a

Yukimura Fuyume. White-haired and grey eyes,
they lived in Kyoto. Elderly though their skin
didn't show it much -which wasn't unusual with
some quirks- and they were laughing and smiling,
both of them wearing traditional clothes.

They were familiar even though Shouto had never

seen them.

He didn't need to search much to confirm they

had a daughter named Rei.

They looked happy.

Do they know? Do they know what happened to

their daughter?

Do they know about us?

Shouto didn't know what to think about it, so he

looked away. Took his phone and checked it.

Fortunately, the old man or Fuyumi hadn't called

yet. The school probably hadn't warned them yet,
and since they would contact Fuyumi first, he still
had time.

After an hesitation, he went to the familiar app.

Shouto had found the Clamor server when he was

looking for ways to improve his ice. He had
stayed away from personal conversations, and
had simply lurked from quirk meta to quirk meta,
until he had actually accepted to expose the only
side of his quirk he was interested in. Little by
little, he had delved deeper, until he realized who
was the administrator and what he could do.

Anyone dealt in favor. If someone could help him

find Touya, or even a better situation, it was
them.

But ultimately, Shouto didn't ask. Instead, he

went to someone he had talked a lot with, at first
about how to stop being so affected by the
drawbacks of his ice (and he remembered being
stupefied when he was asked why he wasn't using
a warm and water-proofed jacket), then of other
things, more personal.

It was strange to think that SmallMight1541 was

the person closest to Shouto and he had never
met him.

He started typing before he had the time to think

about it.

Snowdrift :

[It might seem sudden but I would like to

meet you.]

Shouto looked at the green point indicating that

Smallmight1541 was online, and realized what he
was asking, so he deleted the message
immediately.

But his friend had seen it anyway.

Smallmight1541 :

[When?]

Shouto hesitated for a couple of seconds. Then

typed again.

Snowdrift :

[As soon as possible.]

Smallmight1541 :

[Send two pictures of you, one showing

two fingers, the other showing three.]

Shouto frowned. A picture was already something

that just wasn't done on this server, everyone
preferring to remain anonymous, but the extra
conditions were just odd.

Snowdrift :

[Why?]

SmallMight1541 :

[I am making sure you're not a pedophile.]

Fair enough.

Five days before the entrance exam and a full day

after he had ran from home, Shouto entered a
shopping mall, looking for Smallmight1541, and
he paused when he found him.

SmallMight1541 wasn't looking in the direction of

the gates but was slightly turned, looking at
screens behind a glass, and Shouto wasn't
surprised to see that one of All Might's latest
feats was on.

He... He didn't quite look like the photos he'd

sent.

It was the same person, but he didn't feel the

same. Shouto had seen a boy his age, nervous
and now, this same boy was calmer, at ease, and
there was a melancholic air about him as he was
looking at All Might. SmallMight1541 turned
towards him, maybe because he had felt Shouto's
gaze, and as soon as their eyes met, he tensed,
and became the awkward kid Shouto had seen
once again.

Well, I can't back down now.

He told him his name was Midoriya Izuku.

Five seconds after talking to him, Shouto realized

how awkward the situation was and that coming
here was a mistake.

Half an hour after that, they were both eating ice

cream, Shouto had told him he had ran away and
didn't need any help, and Midoriya had a
notebook opened in front of him as he was
creating a plan so Shouto would have a plan that
went beyond 'fleeing this bastard's house'.

A few hours later, they were still talking.

And Shouto had realized he had to go home.

That he had to use what was given to him, be it
UA, the possibility to have a licence to use his
quirk, and a real education. He also had to go
back to Fuyumi.

He still asked Midoriya why he was willing to help

him to this extent. This guy was already ready to
pull favors and to help him with all he had at his
disposal and they had just met IRL.

Mdioriya hesitated. ''Do you remember, about

five months ago, when you message me because
you weren't feeling well, and we talked all night?
We roasted Endeavor together.''

Shouto perfectly remembered because it had

been the day where he had incinerated the UA
pamphlet left in his room. It had already taken his
vow of not using his left side at the time, but
when he had realized Endeavor had come into his
room, trespassing on the only place that
belonged to him, he had seen red and before he
even thought about it, his flames had awoken.

It had disturbed him to know that his resolve was

so weak.

''Yes, why?''

Midoriya just smiled but there was no joy in this

expression. Kindness in his eyes, and something
Shouto didn't manage to recognize.

Ultimately, he didn't reply and said instead :

''Take care of yourself.''

Endeavor was furious and relieved at the same

time when Shouto returned home. Made him go
to his room until the day of the entrance exam.

Shouto apologized.

But only to Fuyumi.

They kept meeting after that.They ate together.

They went and watched movies. Sometimes, they
sparred, even if Midoriya had decided not to
apply to a hero school.

A shame, as far as Shouto was concerned.

They were talking about the server and Anyone

when Shouto told him everything about his
family, making Midoriya choke on his tea. He told
him who he really was. He told him about
Endeavor's goal. How it had broken his mother.
How he didn't remember much of his childhood,
and how it wasn't only as of late that he had
started wondering where his eldest brother was.

''I considered asking Anyone, but I still don't

know enough about them to ask for a favor,''
Shouto explained, letting his friend the time to
deal with all those new informations.

''You could have asked,'' Midoriya finally said

carefully. ''They would have been happy to help
you.''

''How do you know?''

''Because I am Anyone.''

Oh.

In the end, Shouto didn't ask Midoriya to help

him find his brother.

Ultimately, he didn't think Touya wanted to have

anything to do with him.

When Izuku saw Todoroki after his hair had

become white, almost silver, his friend was visibly
disturbed by his new hair color and he reached
out twice as if he wanted to touch the curls, but
stopped in time. It would have been amusing if
Izuku hadn't been so stressed that his leg was
twitching.

He had just became Akatani Mikumo and he

needed to talk to his friend. Todoroki had been
nothing but honest, and he would feel guilty as
long as he would keep deceiving him.

And then, he chickened out.

There was a lot of reasons for that. Todoroki was

the only person he could call a friend. He also
had a hero worthy quirk, so Izuku wasn't certain
he could completely understand what Izuku
wanted to explain. There was also the fact that as
soon as he had found out he didn't have a quirk
and would never have one, his friends had ran for
the hills and those who didn't had tried to
'correct' his behavior.

Izuku really didn't want to take the risk of losing

his only friend. So he decided to keep living in
the lie, and to enjoy a good movie with
improbable quirks with his friends.

Sadly, Todoroki had a pair of functioning eyes.

''Midoriya?'' he called as Izuku was delving into

dark thoughts. ''You seem distracted. Do you
want to tell me something?''

Izuku gulped but played it cool. ''Why do you say

that ?''

''You keep trying to drink your milk-shake even

though it's been empty for ten minutes.''

Argh. Izuku thew his empty goblet in a trashcan.

''Midoriya?'' Todoroki asked again, not especially

surprised by Izuku's antics.

The green-haired-teen had done worse in front of

him. And it wasn't even talking about his quirk
rants, which Todoroki listened to with a saint-like
patience.

Do it. You want to say it and if it doesn't work out,

it meant that this isn't a friendship you want to
keep, just one you're dependent on.

The words didn't escape his lips. On the contrary,

Izuku had to push them out, and they were thown
in the air, tumbling into each other.

''I am quirkless, Todoroki.''

Whatever Todoroki was expecting to hear, it

wasn't that. For a brief moment, he looked at
Izuku as if he couldn't believe it, then the surprise
disappeared and his usual stoicism remained.

''I thought you had an analysis quirk,'' he said

carefully.

You and everyone else.

''No, analyzing quirks is just something I like to

do,'' Izuku smiled. ''I always had trouble making
friends. I am controlling myself when I am with
you but I am kinda weird. I used to freak out
people when I mumbled about quirks.''

This was a conversation that asked for a quiet

place and no eye contact, so they found a bench
in a nearby park, and Izuku talked himself out of
running away. He was torn apart between
wanting to tell his story, this stupid and ridiculous
story, and wanting for no one to know how he
hadn't managed to fit it.

Todoroki waited without a word, leaving him time

to make his decision. It was probably why Izuku
talked.

''When I was twelve, a girl got tired of me

mumbling about quirks and she electrocuted me
in front of my classmates. No one did anything.''

He could still remember him expecting for

someone to intervene. To say something.

But just like Izuku hadn't reacted, had waited for

someone else to do something, all his classmates
had done the same. Bystander syndrome at its
finest.

Izuku should have been the one to say

something.

''It didn't hurt at the time. I remember that. I

remember the violence of the charge, but it only
hurt afterwards. At least, some of them asked me
if I was okay, but I was a little too stunned to
answer.'' Too late, when she was already gone,
but at least, they did. ''I passed out later, in the
street, and fortunately, someone drove me to the
hospital. It turns out that being electrocuted
sucks.''

''Was she arrested?'' Todoroki asked.

That's cute.

''Of course not,'' Izuku smiled. ''The school

hushed it out. We made a deal with her parents
to be compensated, she left school, and so did I
because... Well, I study better on my own.''

''That's unfair.''

Izuku shrugged. ''That's life. A trial would have

been pointless anyway. Quirkless people are
known to be more fragile, and at the time, we
desperately needed the money. It was far from a
bad deal.''

At the time, the money Izuku's father had left

them was almost non existent. His mother had
been out of the job market for a while, and
thanks to this money, she had been able to
breathe long enough to become a chef.

Funny how things worked out sometimes.

''But still, I wanted one person to know,'' Izuku

explained even though he wasn't sure Todoroki
would understand. ''At least one.''

Soon, no one would know who Midoriya Izuku

was. Those who would remember would remind
themselves of this quirkless boy who fled his
school, fled the hardship, and who would never
amount to anything.

A quick glance made him see how Todoroki,

expect for his clenched fists, his knuckles white.

But when he talked again, his voice didn't betray

the intense emotions that were coursing though
him.

''The fact you don't have a quirk doesn't matter.

You're an incredible person and I'm glad to know
you.''

Izuku breathed again.

He hadn't realized he was holding his breath until

this moment.

Training with Todoroki was brutal. Izuku had

learned how to fight in classes, with people who
were here to have fun. Izuku had just been
accidentally thrown into a wall when they decided
to take a break, which probably motivated his
decision of mentioning his plan to Todoroki just
as he was drinking water.

Eventually, Todoroki stopped coughing, while

Izuku was checking his phone. When he had
become the administrator of the server, he hadn't
realized how much he would have to work, but he
supposed that that one was on him.

''That's insane,'' Todoroki finally said, drenched.

''Maybe,'' Izuku conceded.

Sanity had been overrated for a while anyway.

''I will help,'' Todoroki decided.

And it appeared insanity is contagious.

Izuku put his phone away and raised an eyebrow
at the son of Endeavor, who was extremely
famous even though he wasn't even in UA yet.
''You can't help. You will soon be a UA student. A
future hero. You can't take the risk.''

That seemed obviousto Izuku.

And yet...

''Do you remember when I met you,'' Todoroki

asked, ''the day when I tried to run away, and you
told me I was being reckless and impulsive?''

The green-haired-teen frowned. ''I didn't say

that...''

Izuku actually remembered being helpful and

really logical about it.

''That's what I heard,'' Todoroki said. ''But you

also told me that if I needed help, you would be
here. So that's what I'm going to do. This is a
spectacular bad idea, and I will make sure you
survive through it.''

There was a lot of things Izuku would have liked

to say but sometimes, there was no word. How
could he convey that Todoroki having his back
meant the world to him? That he was so grateful
he had found him, a friend who trusted him,
someone he could be close to?

Instead, he took a full minute to get his face back

under control, because there was no force in the
world that could prevent him from smiling, and
his eyes were trying to leak.

''I just won't tell you when I intend to do that,''

Izuku then said.

Todoroki didn't seem to appreciate Izuku's

common sense and emptied what was left of his
water bottle on his head.

Nowadays

All Might had lived a long time, collecting new

experience, good or bad, and as he had grown
older, he had discovered that the emotional
reactions to new experience only varied by
intensity.

But when he got up in this empty field, One for

All gone, this was something new. Something
that swallowed him. It was innovative guilt and
shame. It was unadulterated failure because he
had managed to be tricked into giving the most
powerful quirk in the world, his master’s legacy.

It was like being crushed alive.

He ran, sheer fury managing to activate the

embers of One for All because he had to find the
boy. He had to make him realize how grave this
was. Toshinori didn’t know what he would do to
him to have his permission and he was afraid to
find out, but he would do it anyway.

How does he even know? One for All is a well-

guarded secret.

Toshinori ran, sensing how he was going beyond

his limits, how his body would make him pay
later. He had seen the boy run at the Sludge
villain. He was athletic and he could have fled in
any direction.

How.

People startled when they saw a blur frantically

looking for someone but Toshinori didn’t slow
down. He couldn’t find him. He didn’t even know
his name. Only that he was quirkless. The quirk
database.

Does.

But later. The quirk database would be if

Toshinori didn’t find him and he had to find him
now. Toshinori had to fix his mistake as soon as
possible.

He.

A mouthful of blood spilled from Toshinori’s

mouth, and One for All started to disappear,
sensing that his body was at his limits. He had no
choice but to stop.

Know ?

All Might screamed, an animal sound that didn’t

seem to belong to a human throat, and Toshinori
reappeared, the ghost of the Symbol of Peace as
long as One for All was in the wild.

There was only one place where to go after such

a disaster, and Toshinori was terrified at the idea
of admitting what had just happened, what he
had let happen, but even he could recognize
when he was over his head.

When Gran Torino saw him arriving on his

doorstep, disheveled, panicked, and in his true
form, he didn't make any snarky comments or
made fun of him, his usual mode of
communication. Instead, his old teacher let him
in, a hand on Toshinori's arm as if he was
comforting him.

This was the most thoughtful Gran Torino had

ever been with him, except from when Nana...
Well, all that to say that Toshinori would have
preferred the usual jabs.

And when Toshinori told him what had just

happened, how he was so easily tricked, how he
had lost One for All, his old teacher needed to
sit, suddenly looking frail and worried. Because
Toshinori had so utterly failed at his mission.

He had done that. All of that was his fault.

''I told him he couldn’t be a hero without a

quirk,'' he remembered. ''Is that my fault? If I
had… I meant to talk to him. After the Sludge
villain…''

He couldn’t remember why he didn’t do it. He

had been impressed. He had wanted to recharge
One for All a little, then, it had been in the back
of his mind. He thought about it, but he thought
he had the time. And there was always someone
else to save, some other villain to defeat.

''I told him everything,'' he realized, his breathing

suddenly so loud in his ears.

He couldn't help it. It was as if there wasn't

enough air in the room, while his heart was
pounding in his chest, threatening to escape his
rib cage.

Until a cold hand grabbed his arm, strong despite

the age of his owner.

''Toshinori, focus,'' Gran Torino said, and

somehow, it worked. His voice was real, and
Toshinori managed to cling to it. To use it to
anchor himself back to reality. ''You're panicking.
Which is a logical reaction but not what we need.
We need to find him. Now.''

And somehow, knowing that managed to cut

through the fog blinding Toshinori.

Because he still had a job to do.

Gran Torino and him quickly got to work,

investigating from Gran Torino's living room,
calling every favor, every help they could use
without revealing what it was about.

The quirk database didn't reveal anything.

Did he lie to me?

No, Toshinori didn't think so. There had been a

special kind of powerlessness that couldn't be
faked when he had asked if he could be a hero,
even without a quirk.

But Tsukauchi told them of an accident where a

strength similar to All Might's had been involved,
not too long ago. By the time the police had
arrived, there was no trace of the people
involved, but an alley had been almost
destroyed.

Just when Toshinori thought the situation couldn't

be more concerning.

''You're telling me he used One for All half an

hour he stole it?'' Toshinori asked.

What if next time, he uses that on someone?

A villain with my quirk.

Even All for One hadn't managed to put his

hands on One for All, and All Might had handed
the most powerful quirk in the world to a ghost.

''Maybe he wanted to test it. And that means he

must have been screaming in pain as soon as he
stopped,'' Gran Torino noted with a frightening
smile. ''We have to check the hospital and every
doctors. Then, we just have to make him cough it
up.''

Toshinori rubbed his temples. A monstrous

headache was starting to form inside his skull.
That, or every past One for All users screaming
that he was a failure.''He is going to stay low. If
he is smart enough to make such a plan, he
knows that I could break him in two even while
running on the embers of my quirk.''

Gran Torino and him went through everything

Toshinori remembered. And it wasn't much. He
remembered the kid almost dying. He
remembered his yellow backpack and the
notebooks full of notes about heroes in it, but he
hadn't found any ID at the time. He wasn't even
wearing an uniform.

''I met him when he tried to save someone,''

Toshinori finally remembered. ''A friend, maybe.
Him, I can find.''

Bakugou. He was almost certain his name had

been Bakugou. The media had repeated it for
weeks as the young man was saluted for his
valiant effort against the villain.

While the other boy had been ignored, wouldn't

have been known if the Sludge Villain hadn't
revealed his existence, what he had tried to do.

''That's a start,'' Gran Torino nodded.

Now, what Toshinori would have wanted to do

was to march down to this school, found Young
Bakugou, and asked him about his friend in order
to arrive at the thief's home and to get his quirk
back.

He didn't do that for two reasons. The first being

that he didn't want to spread panic. He didn't
want people to see All Might frantically
scrambling around. The Symbol of Peace could
only show his smile.

The other reason was that he was spent. He

couldn't use One for All for now while the boy
had a full, if difficult access, to the quirk. If he
appeared in front of him right now, if the boy
panicked and decided to fight, Toshinori wouldn't
have the strength to prevent collateral damages.

Despite his instinct screaming at him to run and

find him now, it was better to wait, so the boy
wouldn't be warned. He had to be swift and
subtle.

So Gran Torino and him plotted and planned, and

they almost had a heart attack when someone
knocked at the door. But Gran Torino swore,
which was his way of telling Toshinori that he was
indeed expecting company, and that it had
slipped his mind because of this catastrophe.

There was only one person who would visit Gran

Torino at this time of a day.

''Is anyone here?'' a young voice called, full of

light as if life had never hurt him.

It wasn't true but despite that, Tenko carried on

and enjoyed every second of his life, unknowingly
giving hope to Toshinori and Gran Torino.

They immediately scrambled to hide any plans of

nerve-soothing retribution and while Gran Torino
went and opened the door, Toshinori made sure
to control his face, not wanting his master’s
grandson to worry about him.

Shimura Tenko was a nineteen-year-old young

man with light gray hair and red eyes who
greeted Gran Torino as soon as he was let in, get
rid of the archery gloves that he was wearing
outside to contain his quirk.

Not that Tenko didn't have a perfect control over

his quirk. He hadn’t decayed anything by
accident in years, but he was still expected to
wear gloves in public places, which tended to
annoy him because he thought that neutralizing
his quirk was the best way to lose his mastery
over it.

And he paused when he saw Toshinori in his true

form, surprise passing on his face, then a smile
that could have illuminated the night.

‘’Yagi!’’ he exclaimed, his arms already raised as if

his body was already automatically expecting the
bear hug.

Not that he was wrong. Toshinori almost

launched himself at his master's grandson,
hugging him as fast as humanly possible. This
speed might have something to do with the need
to hide his face and to give himself the time to
hide any lingering shame.

Toshinori had briefly, very briefly, considered

Tenko as a successor. But Tenko didn’t want to be
a hero and Nana herself would probably come
back to haunt both Gran Torino and him if they
involved her grandson on this road.

The hero didn't let go for a while because he

needed the embrace.

At the end of the school year, Katsuki was pulled

from his class, his vice principal escorting him and
watching him like an hawk. A pro hero was
waiting for him in the principal's office, and the
vice-principal hadn't only fetched him, she had
also made sure to warn him.

Nothing could have prepared him to see All

Might, in the flesh, waiting with an obviously
distraught principal of this shitty school. Katsuki
had seen him once before, but it had been so
fast, the Sludge villain had been all over him -
drowning him alive- and everything had just
happened too fast to really realize what was
happening.

But All Might wasn't here for him.

Katsuki couldn't believe what was happening

when he showed him the footage of Deku, crying
and rushing to his aid against the Sludge villain.

''I am trying to find this young man,'' All Might

explained, ''but I do not know his name and he
wasn't wearing an uniform or anything that could
have allowed me to find me again. But he tried to
help you...''

Behind All Might, the principal's and the vice-

principal's face were completely blank, not
showing anything. They must have the best poker
face in the world.

''So, I was hoping that you might know him? And

tell me where he is?''

Even now that Katsuki was an exemplar, Deku

managed to spoil that.

This crybaby he had known since forever.

Katsuki took a deep breathe, the words said by

the vice-principal engraved in his mind.

Bakugou-kun, you have to understand how proud

the school is to count an exemplar among our
students. It would be a shame if some childish
antics were revealed. It would compromise your
future career.

And none of us wants that.

''I don't,'' he lied to his idol. To the man he

wanted to be. Or he would lose everything. ''I
never knew who he was.''

A month after receiving his quirk and two weeks

after finding a way not to break his bones and
crawl to Ao so she would heal him, Izuku was
treating requests on his computer when he
received a new one, which didn't surprise him.
Anyone was getting more and more popular and
he had to treat them by order of priority in order
not to be overwhelmed.

He had a bad feeling when he saw that it came

from Eri's adoptive parents. Izuku was keeping an
eye on the whole family because since he was the
one who had rescued Eri, he would always make
sure she was safe, and he had confirmed she was
in a loving family and that she didn't miss
anything. They wouldn't write to him unless they
needed help.

One desperate plea later, Izuku realized that

''help'' was an euphemism.

Three days ago, people from the government

had retrieved Eri when she was at school, thinking
about integrating her to the Paragon program
due to her interesting quirk. The teacher had let
them take the little girl, then informed her
parents, because of course, why not trust blindly
the government?

The parents hadn't found their daughter back.

People in black refused to let them see her.

Money was offered in compensation, enough to
make them rich. They had basically told them to
shove this money where the sun didn't shine and
convinced -corrupted- someone to tell them
where their daughter was, because the police
wasn't helping, and had explained they had to
refer to the same Hero Committee who had taken
Eri.

And now, they were panicking, rambling, saying

how Eri was in danger, and they couldn't let her
there.

Anyone :

[What do you mean? Where is she?

The answer iced Izuku's blood in his veins.

Izushi :

[Eri-chan is in Tartarus.]

CHAPTER 3
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Nagisa stared at Izuku for a long time, not saying

a word.

Also known as Gwen, she was the hacker and the

backbone of Anyone. Older than him, in college,
she was an extremely well-dressed young woman
whose head bore a striking resemblance to a
spider's, and whose long claws helped her
navigate the labyrinth of web that covered her
house. She had said again and again to Izuku that
she despised wastes of time, but under her cold
exterior, for anyone with a shovel and a lot of
patience, there was a golden heart that couldn't
help but to protect the innocent.

That was why Izuku had gone to her as soon as

he learned where Eri was, with a plan.

''You lost your mind,'' Nagisa told him.

A plan that might need to be refined.

''I hope you just bumped your head not too long
ago,'' she continued, ''because you're obviously
not thinking straight.''

Oh, Izuku wasn't thinking. He was trapped in this

deep emotional place where concepts like
reasons and sanity didn't matter anymore,
replaced by a beast whose howl was drowning
everything else.

Yes, this was Tartarus they were talking about. An

urban legend for a very long time, the place
where they kept monsters, but it was real and Eri
wouldn't spend a second longer than necessary
in that place. Not if Izuku could help it.

Izuku didn't say any of that. He simply waited

because in the end, she didn't answer his simple
question : could she obtain the blueprints of the
most secured prison in the country?

''No,'' Nagisa finally answered after a pause. ''It's

no. You're going to get yourself killed. They won't
ask questions, they won't try to arrest you. They
will shoot you until you stop moving, and then,
they will keep shooting.''

That was a risk Izuku might have to take. And he

hadn't decided that because of One for All -a
flame of a candle compared to the blaze All
Might seemed to be able to summon- within him.

It was just that he didn't have it in him to

abandon Eri.

Nagisa couldn't help. It was a problem, but it

wasn't the end. There was always a solution.
Always.

''Then, do you know anyone else who could help

me, without leaving any trace?'' Izuku asked.

She crossed her arms. ''No one that would be

willing to help. It's too dangerous.''

''I see. Thank you for your time, Nagisa,'' he said

with a bow.

As he started to leave, careful of not stepping on

any of the sticky spider threads on the floor,
Nagisa starting to fidget. Between the pause
when she had answered the first time, and how
her arms were crossed on her chest, in a
defensive posture, it meant that she was either
worried about him or had been lying about what
she could do.

''Are you going still going to attempt that? Even

if you know you're going to fail?''

Yes. I will.

''I will consider my options,'' he answered

instead, pausing in a dramatic stand, but not
entirely because of his free will.

Nagisa took a deep breath.

''Are you leveraging your life to guilt me into

helping you? Because it sounds like that.''

A familiar doubt pierced at Izuku's heart.

Are you taking advantage of good people? Using

them to do whatever pleases you?

Inside him, One for All seemed to burn, full of

reproach.

Unlike Todoroki, Nagisa wasn't a friend. She was

an ally. Someone who had his back, for a
payment, but also someone he liked. Someone
he cared about.

''I am not. I need a service. If you can't do it,

whatever the reason is, I will search for another
option. You don't owe me anything.''

''Oh, but I can do it,'' she almost snarled. ''And I

can make sure I am never found out. But it won't
be free.''

She told him her price.

It was a lot. Not as expensive as it could have

been, but not an amount he could get his hands
on, not on his own, not even if he asked his
mother's help. For a moment, he wondered if
Nagisa had taken a look at his bank account. She
already knew his name when they met, so it
wouldn't be implausible.

It wasn't a real price. It was a wall Izuku couldn't

climb so he wouldn't attempt something
incredibly dangerous. It was his confrontation
with reality Nagisa had planned so he would
realize he had to be realistic.

Too bad he hated this very concept.

''I will be in touch,'' Izuku smiled, because he

could see the way to the solution. ''But before I
go...''

''What do you want?''

He pointed at his red sneaker who was stuck on

the floor because he hadn't seen one of the
thinnest threads. Nagisa's quirk allowed her to
create a web she could navigate easily thanks to
her mutation, but to anyone else, it was a trap,
and now, Izuku either needed her help to
entangle himself or he would have to leave
without a right shoe.
Izuku had entered a bar three times in his life, but
entered might not have been the right word
because he had been warped inside every time,
which was really scary because one had to trust
the warper not to drop them into a volcano or not
to cut them in half.

But on this occasion, he was more serene

because the owner of the bar was well-disposed
towards Izuku since he had legally kept the place
from being demolished.

Kurogiri's good disposition lasted only until Izuku

finished asking him to help break into the most
secured prison of the country. Now, Kurogiri's
alias did not lie and his body was indeed a mass
of black mist with two golden eyes, so it wasn't
easy to read his face but if Izuku had to try, he
would say that Kurogiri was currently wearing a
''Are you kidding me???'' expression.

Izuku gave him a minute, enjoying how his hood

had some kind of veil that gave the impression
that there was only a mass of shadows where his
face should have been. It was like a mask, and
masks had power, allowing a dumb teenager to
pretend he knew what he was doing.

Kurogiri finished cleaning the glass in his hands,

though it seemed redundant since he had been
busying his hands with it since Izuku had arrived.
Still, he carefully put it on the counter, and
focused back on Izuku.

''You're going to get yourself killed,'' he said

slowly. ''But that's not important. What's
important is that you're also trying to get me
killed.''

Why do people always react like this when I ask

them to help me break in a prison?

''I am aware of how complex...''

''Demented,'' the warper corrected. ''It is not

complex but demented. Why would you do
that?''

For a moment, Izuku could only stare at him.

''Is that a real question?''

Kurogiri tilted his head.

''Because there is a little girl who was taken from

her parents' arm,'' Izuku explained. ''She is scared
and alone, and she thinks no one is coming. And
the people who abducted her also think no one is
coming from her, so they won't expect it. That's
why we can do it. And as for why I am doing
that... They think they can get away with it. And it
annoys me.''

At that moment... At that moment, Izuku had

Kurogiri's complete attention.

So he explained to him how he needed money to

complete the plan, and how fortunate they were
that he had acquired the itinerary of an armored
van which would transport diamonds from the
safety of a bank to a jewel store. He even had the
exact coordinates, because the friend of the sister
of an Clamor user had been dumped by one the
men in the security. If only he had a warp quirk
which would allow to get in and get out quickly.

It didn't escape him how Kurogiri started to eye

the bottles of expensive alcohol.

''If, and I insist on the if, we do this, when are we

supposed to commit highway robbery?''

Izuku checked the time on his phone.

''In two hours and fourteen minutes,'' he

answered.

Kurogiri was speechless.

''I am sorry!'' Izuku apologized, suddenly feeling

self-conscious. ''That's why I was asking for us to
meet yesterday.''

Nagisa's face when she opened the Endeavor

backpack was a memory Izuku would cherish for
the rest of his life -though it might happen sooner
than expected if he kept pulling those stunts. Her
many eyes became incredibly wide when she saw
all the diamonds inside.

She slowly closed the bag again. ''I am not going

to ask you how you got that.''

It was probably wise.

''But why the Endeavor bag?'' she asked in a

vaguely horrified voice, and at this moment, Izuku
had no doubt she was more disturbed by his
choice of Hero merchandise than by his decision
of breaking into Tartarus.

''Good quality and also extremely cheap because

not a lot of people want them,'' Izuku explained
cheerfully.

Entering Tartarus was surprisingly easy.

Actually, it wasn’t. But it was surprisingly easy

compared to getting out.

Nagisa hadn’t been sure she could hack into the

server because there was no wi-fi, only the
internal system, and as she said ’Unless I sprout
the ultimate hacking quirk, I won’t be in without
an invitation.’ So everyone involved in the
operation had prayed someone would disobey
the rules and use a personal device from inside
the prison. Different mails had been sent, Nagisa
had her clawed fingers crossed for several days,
until one of them had clicked on a link, opening a
golden path to the hacker, and suddenly, Nagisa
was weaving her web all around Tartarus.

And doing so, she confirmed that Eri was here

and she found her exact location.

However, there was the fact like unlike what he

did with All Might, Izuku couldn’t afford to simply
run and hope for the best this time.

So Kurogiri’s involvement was vital. When the

barman wasn’t looking at Izuku like he was seeing
a dead man walking, he was confirming what
Izuku knew about his quirk : he created a portal
from his own mass and he needed the GPS
locations. That meant that if the blueprints
obtained by Nagisa were wrong, Izuku could be
warped through a wall. Which would probably be
a source of relief for his two associates, but Izuku
had a job to do.

So they did the coin test.

One day, Nagisa located a supply closet in

Tartarus, Kurogiri created a warp gate, and Izuku
very gently put the coin down, so it wouldn’t roll
down somewhere. They waited sixty seconds,
then Kurogiri warped it back. Along with some
dust, but at least, it didn’t end up in concrete.

Unfortunately, it triggered an alarm that sent the

Tartarus staff running, and which almost gave a
heart attack to Kurogiri.

It quickly appeared that Tartarus had some way to

know when a quirk was used. Nagisa never found
out what it was, but be it a quirk or a machine,
Izuku still cajoled Kurogiri into doing the coin test
again. And again. And again. At random hours, at
different places, and if the first time, the guards
ran at full speed, they quickly became annoyed
as they never found anything.

That’s how the response time became slower and

slower.

Until Izuku himself was warped inside.

Kurogiri's Warp Gate was like walking into mist.

For a moment, it was impossible to see anything,
the black fog all around him, ether-like but with a
definite weight on his whole body.

And as soon as it disappeared, as soon as he was

left alone in the supply closet, fear punched him
in the guts and almost left him for dead.

He was in Tartarus. Wearing the black uniform

and cap of a Tartarus guard, without any access
except for Nagisa's talents with hacking, and a
quirk he could barely control.

He hadn't even been that panicked the day he

had stolen One for All.

''Yami?'' Nagisa called through the earbud in his

ear. ''Do you copy?''

Yami. The other way to read Akatani Mikumo.

Have no fear, so you're not alone here, he smiled.

''G,'' he answered, for they would only call each

other by their nicknames. Their villain names.
''Can you guide me?''

Eri had never expected the happiness to last.

Those warm meals, her new family with her new
parents and her new sister, school with her new
friends... She knew she couldn't keep them.

All because of her curse.

''Eri-chan,'' Nurse Natsume called, a lady with

purple hair who always smiled. No matter what
happened. ''You really have to eat.''

They were in Eri's room, pink and full of toys, but

without any window. So different from the room
Eri shared with her older sister : small but with
large windows that let the moonlight chase away
nightmares, painted in blue, and with birds
painted on the ceiling. So different, because
when she had lived with her family, she was
barely in her room, Yoko-nee and her roaming in
the house, playing together, and only coming
back to the room to sleep.

But since she had been brought here, she lived in

this one room, and she only got out when they
went to the classroom. A white room where she
had to use her quirk. And even if no one was
hurting her anymore, it had the same smell as
Overhaul's laboratory.

''Eri-chan... You have to eat everything in your

plate to become a beautiful paragon.''

Eri looked at the plate, and she felt nauseous at

the idea of taking another bite, even if she knew
she was eating less and less the days.

She was supposed to be a paragon. The best

type of hero, trained by the Hero Committee.
They chose special people and they trained them
to become the best version of themselves. That's
why she was here for now. Because her quirk was
powerful but dangerous, and this place offered
the best conditions to train her.

At least, that was what Nurse Natsume kept

explaining to her. But when Eri asked, the adult
never said where they were exactly. She just
smiled and asked her to be a good girl.

Eri was reluctantly picking up her fork, and was

about to stab a pea with it, when she was
interrupted by the heavy door of her room
opening. It wasn't an usual door but one without
doorknob, and it wouldn't open unless there was
an adult.

Nurse Natsume sighed and started to get up. She

always accompanied Eri to the classroom.

''You can't just call for her at any time,'' she

sighed, then she paused.

So did Eri, raising her head to see a white-haired-

guard, in their black uniform. At first, she fought it
was one of the women because the guard was
short, but she realized she wasn't recognizing
him.

Well, at least, not as one of the usual guards.

Neither did Nurse Natsume who gasped and ran

in the same breath.

In a blur of green lightning, the very small guard

caught her before she could push the red button
on the wall, and he pulled what Eri had learned
to know as a taser from his pocket. A pocket
quirk, as one of the greatest person in the world
had called them.

The small guard looked up as soon as Nurse

Natsume was unconscious, smiling at her, and Eri
smiled back.

Eri ran to Yami-nii's arms, unable to believe he

had come for her once again.

Like in a dream, they got out of the room, doors

opening for them without Yami-nii touching them.
As if even this strange bad place couldn't contain
her hero.

Until one of the door remained shut before them,

and everything came back to Eri. How things
were never good for long.

She realized Yami-nii never should have come.

That she would drag him with him.

''Hey, G,'' Yami-nii called, a hand to his ear,

unaware of what she was thinking. ''The door isn't
opening... What does that mean?''

The door finally opened.

Then, Yami-nii said a really bad word.

The plan was simple. Get Eri. Run back to the

drop point. Have Nagisa clear the technological
details. Escape and live to see the day.

So of course, something had to go wrong.

‘’That means,'' Nagisa explained between her

teeth, ''that there is another hacker trying to kick
me out and to find where I am.’’

For a moment, Izuku forgot Eri was right next to

him and a word one shouldn't utter in pleasant
company escaped his lips. He only realized that
there was still a very tiny little girl next to him
because he saw her flinch from the corner of his
eye.

That just wouldn't do.

He crouched in front of the most courageous

person he had ever met. And he smiled, because
if he let her be scared, he had already lost.

''Have no fear,'' Izuku said. ''Why?''

This made Eri smile. A tiny, trembling smile, but a

smile nonetheless.

''Because you are here?'' Eri said, and she smiled

wider, believing that he had the means to get
them out, to save the day.

To be a hero.

And Izuku couldn't betray that trust.

''Exactly,'' he said. ''We're getting out. Everything

will be fine.''

Full Cowl. 5%.

He hauled Eri on his back and started running,

using this stolen quirk of his that would break his
bones if he wasn't careful, like All Might's fury
reminding him how he had obtained this power.

‘’You can’t let them know who you are,'' Izuku

reminded Nagisa who was still at the other end of
the line. ''That’s the number 1 priority.’’

The only reason why he had asked Nagisa and

Kurogiri's help was because the two of them
could make sure not to be linked to the
operation. Izuku was the only one to take a risk.

‘’Go back to the drop point,'' Nagisa ordered,

probably between clenched teeth. ''Our warper
will try to extract you every five minutes, until the
last second.’’

He didn't need Nagisa to find the way back. He

has studied the plan until they were engraved in
his memory.

But he hadn't counted on the alarms that

suddenly blasted through the air.

''They know where you are!''

Izuku accelerated as much as he dared.

‘’I am going to try something…’’

She barely finished the word that the alarms

stopped screaming in their ears. And one by one,
the lights on the wall shut off, leaving only red
LED that barely allowed to see the shapes of
things.

Suddenly, Eri and him were in the dark and in a

complete silence, Nagisa's voice gone.

At least, until they heard the noise of a lot of

people coming their way.

Nagisa didn’t often regret what she did. Learning

from her mistakes was one thing, but lamenting
over what she should have done was useless.

However, when, in a panic, she caused a massive

blackout in Tartarus, she stared at her screen for a
long moment, wondering if maybe, just maybe,
she should have taken a second to think about it.

Then she threw the laptop bought specifically for

this occasion in a trashcan, and left the hero
festival she had taken refuge in because fee wi-fi
and a crowd of cosplayers were always a good
thing when illegal activities were concerned.

Good luck finding her in such a crowd.

And good luck, Anyone.

Everything went wrong.

Whatever Nagisa had done, there was no light

anymore, no alarms, but the metal doors had still
closed on them, trapping them where they were,
and Izuku and Eri couldn't count on the support
of their favorite hacker anymore.

And yet, it was ridiculously low on Izuku's list of

priorities.

''I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,’’ Eri was sobbing next to

his ear as a horrible pain was passing through
Izuku.

It wasn’t like the three times he broke his arm, to

Ao’s fury. It was a normal pain, the kind of pain
that was just a consequence of too much force
applied to a limb. But what Izuku was feeling…
Everything was wrong with it.

Izuku knew it was Rewind. He knew what that

quirk could do, Eri had told him what had
happened to his father, and her family and him
had to work like crazy to convince her she wasn't
cursed, that no quirk was inherently bad.

''Don't worry,'' he managed to say. ''Just hold on

to me.''

One for All.

''Everything will be fine,'' he grinned.

It was a chance that he had a quirk that broke his

bones, wasn’t it?

Full Cowl 100%.

Anyone was dead. Kurogiri was aware of it even

before Gwen had called him to tell him
everything had started to go to hell in a
handbasket, and honestly, nothing kept him from
just leaving. He didn’t owe that much to Anyone.

He wasn’t a hero. He had done things that would

probably make Anyone’s hair stand on ends.

But Anyone wasn’t a hero either. Despite how

honorable he could be, despite how he helped
people, he was an enemy of the heroes, refusing
to abide by their rules, refusing to be broken by
them.

So Kurogiri would stay as long as he could. To

honor men and women from another age who
didn’t hesitate to stand against the flawed hero
system.

Prisoners were screaming at full lungs, some

howling with joy, others just making noses, and
finally those whose screams were saturated with
madness. All of them screaming and hitting the
wall when they could because someone was out,
their screams following Izuku and Eri.

He would remember this sound for the rest of life.

Eri was on his back as he was running, as fast as

he could, One for All roaring inside him. He was
trapped between Rewind and pain, the first
barely keeping his quirk from crushing him from
the inside while the ghost of the second
reminding him that what he was doing was
unnatural, and that if he hesitated for one
second, the consequences would kill him.

Even if he was still in one piece for now, the

shockwaves of Eri's quirk were spreading through
him, trying to bring him to an unknown place he
didn't want to discover.

He never managed to get close to the drop

point. Not when every guard in Tartarus was
running after him.

At some point, Izuku just stopped thinking. There

was no time. Not when those hunting them were
so close. So he used everything of All Might's
power to run faster. To destroy every metal wall in
his way, kicking them or punching them down.

He could not afford to be trapped. He could not

allow himself to be stopped.

And so, he delved deeper and deeper into the

entrails of the prison.

Until he reached a place where everything was

quiet. No prisoners yelling, no prisoners trying to
escape. On his back, Eri's fists were burying
themselves in the fabric of Izuku's coat.

But as Izuku realized something was wrong, and

that he should take the freaking time to pause
and to think about a real escape plan, he had
taken so much momentum that no force on earth
would have been able to make him slow down.

He still tried, even though he knew that this

wasn't a good idea since using One for All like
crazy was the only thing keeping him from being
rewound from existence.

And he crashed into one of the most solid wall he

have ever encountered.

Eri got ejected from his back, screaming, and he

barely managed to catch her, bringing her against
his chest and using himself as a cushion so she
wouldn't get hurt.

He couldn't say the same thing for himself and all

the air was chased from his lungs, while his
shoulder bumped into something metallic, and
some whiny sound was heard. After a moment,
he realized he was the one making that sound.

Eri rolled off him and to the ground with a plop

sound, breathing loudly.

And even though Izuku had stopped using Full

Cowl, he was still there and not in any pain of any
kind. Rewind had stopped acting.

Finally something that is going the right way

today.

He barely finished the thought that several things

happened so fast they were almost simultaneous.

Izuku realized what he had hit at almost mach

speed had been a bed and there had been
someone on it. The someone in question made a
noise that belonged to a pissed off predator and
certainly not a human throat. And last, but not
the least, something passed through the air.

Something intense and terrifying, barely

contained violence if violence was cold and
ineluctable. Something that gave Izuku's
goosebumps and who kept him from breathing
for a second, as he hit by the realization that he
could easily die. Easily get killed, and no one
could prevent it.

Eri, smart girl that she was, ran before Izuku had
even the time to process all that. Alas, in a panic,
she ran straight into the prisoner that Izuku could
barely see.

And of course, Eri did the only thing she would

do when she was terrified.

Izuku jumped backwards just as she activated her

quirk.

Both the prisoner and the child screamed, the

sound chilling Izuku to the bones.

The villain fell to his hands and knees, his whole

body shaken by spasms and for a moment, Izuku
thought he was about to throw up. He didn’t,
tried to get to his feet, and growled. He
managed to do it the second time, leaning on
what was left of the bed.

As for Eri, she had fallen out of reach. Izuku

couldn't use more than 5%, but it was enough
and a mere moment later, she was back in his
arms, then on his back.

He took a step back, the villain blocking the way.

On Izuku's back, Eri was feverish, unresponding.

Now, shadows were still omnipresent but Izuku

could guess forms, movements, and somewhat
see anything that was pale. So he was perfectly
able to distinguish the hint of white teeth on the
prisoner's face and to guess his wolfish smile.

Izuku realized they were about to die.

The air was so thick with animosity that Izuku

could barely breathe. As for Eri, burning with
fever, she was trembling and clinging to Izuku’s
vest, her face hidden against his back. He had to
get her out, as soon as possible.

Somhow.

The prisoner was tall. That was Izuku’s first

thought, and that was coming from a boy who
had talked with All Might up close. And when the
prisoner talked, he sounded like how dragons
would speak if they had a voice.

''An One for All holder, visiting little old me?'' he

mocked. ''Oh, you really shouldn't have.''

Izuku took a step back, aware that this man was

between him and the way out. He hadn't done
anything yet. Hadn't even taken a step towards
him. But he knew he was dangerous and he
wanted to hurt him.

All Might must have been the one to put him

here.

Izuku was no All Might. He barely could handle

his quirk without breaking his bones. But he
didn't matter. He was the only thing standing
between Eri and one of the prisoner of Tartarus.

He would sacrifice every limb, everything he had,

to make sure she stayed alive. If she was taken
again, she would live. Her quirk made her too
precious to be discarded by the staff of Tartarus.

''Foolish successor. All Might should have

protected you. He should have kept you away
from me, but it seems that he didn't learn his
lesson.''

If he knew what All Might thinks of me...

''Tell me, child, will he mourn you?'' the villain

asked, raising his hand.

One for All. 100%.

And at this precise moments, all the lights were

online again.

Izuku blinked, trying not to get blinded by it. The

prisoner didn’t have as much chance and
immediately put an arm in front of his eyes, even
more sensitive than Izuku's.

For a second, they managed to take a good look

at each other.

A man in his thirties, white curls not unlike Izuku's.

Pale. Plain.

And for a fleeting moment, there was a look of

abject horror on his face.

Izuku looked behind him, ready to see some

horrible monster sneaking up on him to devour
them with its poisonous fangs or something, for it
was the kind of day he was having, but he didn't
find anything.

Then he looked up, and his heart missed a beat

as he realized they were surrounded by a lot of
the machine guns on the walls of the cells. All
starting to move.

Izuku full cowled out of here before he even had

the time to think, and so did the prisoner. Well,
maybe not full cowled but he also got the hell
out of there. They were barely out that the
sounds of bullets was heard and Izuku jumped
behind the wall in case they would bounce out of
the room.

And the villain was standing right next to him,

listening to the symphony of bullets like he didn't
have a care in the world, while keeping a cold
eye on the two children.

''Well, I am sure they are very proud of their

security now,'' he mocked, his voice raspy. Maybe
it was less deep, and just that way because he
hadn't talked to anyone in a long time. ''Foiled by
a teenage babysitter.''

He probably had more to say but the finest of

Tartarus decided to arrive at this very moment.
Not that it seemed to bother the villain, so Izuku
shamelessly hid behind him. He wasn't fast
enough to dodge bullets anymore, after all.

''Speaking of fools...'' the human shield said.

One by one, all the guards stopped, fear on their

face.

A dozen of Tartarus guards. All armed to the

teeth. And they all paled when they saw who was
out of his cell.

Izuku heard the name All for One uttered in fear.

And as the new One for All holder, he decided to

take advantage of the situation by letting the
guards and All for One having a talk while he
escaped with Eri.

All for One's hand gripped his shoulder before he

had the time to take one step. Without a care in
the world, and without even looking at the
teenager, he secured his grip on the collar of
Izuku's jacket and he easily kept him in place as if
Izuku wasn't using five per cent of the most
powerful quirk in the world.

''Gentlemen,'' he called as he raised his other

hand, a smile worth of the Cheshire cat on his
face. ''I would suggest you to dodge.''

Everyone fled for their lives while Izuku was still

hold by his collar.

The rest happened in a blur. A mess of shadows

and of quirks, of avoiding prisoners that had
managed to break out of their cells because of
the chaos Izuku had brought with him, guards
fighting to put them back in.

Honestly, it was a good thing Eri was

unconscious.

And in the middle of the chaos, All for One,

fraying himself a path out of the nightmare, and
Izuku, who was too weak to do anything else,
followed him.

At least, until they got out of the prison half-

buried in the ocean.

Eri woke up about an hour after Izuku managed

to lose All for One in the crowd of a train station.
Actually, Izuku doubted he had managed to flee,
and he suspected that All for One had allowed
him to break out of the prison with him as a way
to repay him, but he was too tired to care about
the details.

It didn't stop him from taking all the counter-

measures to make sure he wasn't followed.

By the time he met with Eri's parents, he could

barely keep his eyes opened and only
stubbornness kept him from passing out from
sheer exhaustion. But he couldn't let them know
that. Because he was Anyone.

He was carrying Eri in his arms. She could have

walked and Izuku's whole body was screaming at
the weight, but he didn't want to let her go just
yet. He wanted to make sure she was alright.

So, hidden behind a hood, he gave Eri back to

her family who had decided to move to Australia
where the government was less prone to kidnap
children with interesting quirks.

They thanked Izuku, tears in their eyes, and he

couldn't bear it because he had been stupid and
incredibly lucky at the same time. He didn't tell
them about All for One, but he made clear that
without Eri, they would have never gotten out of
this hellhole.

They didn't care.

And then, things got awkward when they made

clear that they couldn't accept the money Izuku
had transferred on their account to help them
with their new life. Money Izuku had never heard
about, but when they told him the sum, he
realized it was about the equivalent of a certain
hacker's share in diamonds.

Izuku went back to his empty and cold home,

unable to realize he had survived being so
reckless and stupid. Nagisa and Kurogiri certainly
didn't and couldn't believe it to announce them it
was indeed better to be lucky than to be smart.

He crawled on his bed, too tired to go under the

blankets, and just looked at his ceiling.

His whole body was shivering.

I am never doing something like that again.

Izuku woke up later to the smell of bacon and his

body immediately reminded him that he hadn't
eaten for far too long despite extensively using
his quirk. He smiled from under his blankets, just
quietly happy because he may have ten more
minutes of sleep before a delicious breakfast with
his mom.

Then, he remembered his mom was in America

right now and she couldn't be here.

Izuku jumped out of his bed, hazy, and ran to his

kitchen, Full Cowl already activated.

There was a man in his kitchen. Tall, almost as tall

as All Might, he was wearing a formal wear,
though only the black pants and white shirts with
rolled up sleeve. His jacket was draped over the
back of Izuku's mom's chair, and whatever he was
cooking, it smelled like an edible heaven.

All for One turned towards Izuku who was still

frozen where he was, unable to currently deal
with the situation.

''Just in time,'' the villain smiled. ''Take a seat.

Breakfast is ready and we need to talk.''

Notes:
Just so you know. Izuku returning
home and laying on the blanket of
his bed, then waking up under the
blanket isn't a continuity error. :)

Also, I love how last chapter,

everyone was blaming All for One
for what was happening to Eri.
The guy had been in and out of a
coma for the last ten years! For
once in his life, he is innocent! xD

CHAPTER 4
Notes:
Fanart from the previous chapter:
https://gentrychild.tumblr.com/po
st/185548615679/laughingherring
-a-not-at-all-suspicious-tartarus
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Toshinori would always remember the phone call

that had changed his life. A phone call from
Tartarus.

Ten years ago, Toshinori had fought All for One

and almost lost his life. He had destroyed his skull
and ripped off his arms, and the bastard had
been declared dead on site. And despite Gran
Torino and Sir Nighteye begging him to rest, to
heal, he hadn't managed to stop. He had to see
it with his own eyes.

And he had been right to check for his followers

had retrieved him and somehow gotten him back
from the Great Beyond. All Might, half dead, had
arrested everyone of them, trembling at the idea
of what would have happened if All for One had
survived while he would have been none the
wiser.

Ultimately, he had died from his wounds in

prison, in the infirmary of Tartarus.

And the day Tartarus had called to announce that

death, Toshinori had known he was now free.

When confronted with the super villain Izuku had

accidentally broken out of the most secured
prison in the country, a man who had basically
walked out of said prison as soon as he wasn't
restrained anymore, Izuku did the only thing any
rational person would do.

He ran like hell. No shoes, no plan, nothing

except Full Cowl roaring in his veins and he fled.

At least, he tried to.

Strong tendrils stopped him dead, then hands

picked him up by his shoulders and suddenly, his
feet weren't touching the ground and he was
forcibly brought to the kitchen table.

''No, no, no,'' All for One said with the tone one
would employ with a disobedient pet or a very
young child. ''Your breakfast is going to get cold
and we have so much to talk about. Sit. Enjoy the
eggs. If you don't like them, I can make
something else.''

And he dropped him on his chair, before putting

the plate in front of him. Then, he sat at the other
end of the table, facing Izuku, his own plate in
front of him and he started to eat. Slowly, his
manners perfect, while Izuku was dying of sheer
stress over there.

Then, he looked at Izuku. Then at Izuku's plate.

''You're not eating?''

Izuku took one bite to shut him up and to have

some time to think about an escape plan but it
wasn't over. After his swallowed the piece of
grilled bacon, All for One just looked at him, like
he was expecting Izuku to say the most important
thing in the world.

Manners taught by his mom kicked Izuku in the

face.

''It's good,'' Izuku assured, also because his heart

wouldn't take it if the fiend decided to cook
something else just for him. And he wasn't even
lying. Under the taste of raw terror and probable
evil, it was actually quite delicious. Not bad for a
last meal.

''That's great,'' All for One said with a smile so

genuine that it creeped out Izuku. ''I didn't cook
for so long, I wasn't sure I still knew how.''

Izuku could remember how he was unable to

move back in his cell. Izuku couldn't have stood it
for two days, and this man had to be locked away
for years. Not cooking, not moving, not really
living.

''How long were you in prison?'' Izuku couldn't

help himself to ask.

''Far too long for my taste. How come there is no

adult here? Where is your mother?'' he asked
while showing a photography of Izuku and his
mom, when Izuku was far younger.

''Far away,'' Izuku answered, as vague as All for

One himself and while.

Too far away for you to reach her.

''Now, Izuku...''

The air got thick with an intensity not unlike All

Might's, but Izuku knew the Symbol of Peace
wouldn't hurt him. That he was a hero, and as
such, it was okay for him to be so powerful. But
the man in front of him escaped rules, and
wouldn't hesitate to destroy everything standing
between him and what he wanted.

''I would love to know why an One for All holder

is acting as a vigilante and why All Might didn't
put you in safety as soon as he learned Tartarus
had been breached,'' All for One asked with the
smile of someone who already knew he would be
answered.

Izuku told him everything. Well, he was very

discreet about Anyone, but apart from that, he
told him what was the story between All Might
and him. And why he had to get Eri back.

It seemed logical. All for One obviously didn't

like All Might, so the last thing Izuku needed was
for him to think they got along. And fortunately,
he didn't even had to lie about it.

As he'd talked, All for One had listened to him,

his elbows on the table, his hands joined in front
of his face, half hiding it. And as Izuku finished his
story, All for One's expression got somber and he
hid more and more of his face until he dropped
his head, taking deep breaths. His shoulders were
trembling, probably from anger.

And then, he made some noise. Tried to make it

stop. Did some more. And Izuku realized what
was happening when All for One stopped
holding his laughs in and just burst out laughing,
barely breathing.

''You stole his quirk! I can't believe it... Nine

generations of pain in my a... side and you just...''
He laughed some more, suddenly looking very
young. ''I can't believe it. His face when he
realized it... I would pay money to see it.''

Izuku glanced at the door, wondering if All for

One's hilarity would allow him to flee, but the
villain saw him looking and immediately sobered
up.

''So you went through hell to retrieve an

innocent. How heroic,'' All for One mocked. ''But
now, I have a problem. Every One for All holders
so far had been an enemy of mine, and they
almost all died by my hand, but I am somehow
fond of the quirk.''

So was Izuku, so no surprise here.

Nine generations of One for All holders meant

this man was extremely old. And he either had
the most versatile quirk ever seen, or he had
multiple quirks. The latter was supposed to be
impossible but so were transferable quirks.

''And since you provided such a lovely diversion

for my escape, I am willing to let you live if you
give this quirk back to me.''

Izuku just stared at him.

''I have an arsenal myself,'' All for One continued,

''and I am not opposed of giving you one of mine
in exchange. And I take only interesting ones, so I
am sure you will find what you want.''

The nerve of that guy. Izuku had planned during

several months to steal this quirk, two more to
actually survive it, and this man thought he could
just waltz in and claimed his work after admitting
he had spent eight generations of failing at taking
One for All for himself.

Only the memory of walls exploding with a mere

thought and of the sea of prisoners and guards
deciding to be somewhere else as soon as All for
One approached allowed Izuku to bite his
tongue.

Instead, he ate more bacon. If he had to die, he

wanted to be full of crispy, bad for his health,
bacon on his way to the afterlife.

Once he was done, he gave his answer. ''I don't

know a lot about One for All. But I am fairly
certain that you're powerful enough without it.'' A
little flattery never hurt. ''And anyway, this quirk
tries to break my bones every time I use it, so I
don't have the means to be your enemy...''

''Isn't that a great reason to change quirk, then?''

''There is also the fact that I don't trust you,''

Izuku admitted.

All for One stopped smiling, and that was almost

better. Izuku didn't trust smiles.

''Then, I guess I will have to take it from you,'' the

villain said.

No, you won't.

''Then why didn't you do it when I was asleep? Or

back in Tartarus?'' Izuku asked.

The villain shrugged and ate more bacon. That

man went through masks quickly and easily, but
Izuku would always remember the monster in the
dark who was about to kill him just to spite All
Might.

''Now, I won't pretend I am an expert on One for

All or your own quirk'' A quirk which could take
and give quirks. That sounded absolutely
amazing and Izuku had to control himself not to
ask questions. ''But it seems to me that there is a
reason why you didn't simply retrieve the quirk
for all those years.''

All for One looked at him like he was the most

interesting thing in the world, which was more
unnerving than any threats he could have thrown
at Izuku.

''You're a bright child. A reckless, unconscious,

and powerful child, but under this utter disregard
for your safety, there is some cutting-edge
intelligence.''

The silence spread between them, thick and

weighting on Izuku like giant pillow smothering
him. Though All for One didn't seem to mind. He
was just watching Izuku intently, fascination in his
eyes.

''Now that I refused your proposition,'' Izuku

asked matter-of-factly, ''are you going to torture
me or to kill me?''

To force him to give One for All to the villain. Not

that he would manage to.

Izuku wasn't a good person, but he had stolen

the equivalent of a nuclear bomb. He was now
responsible of everything that would happen
because of it.

All for One actually dropped his fork.

''I wouldn't hurt you. I am not a monster,'' he

pouted like a child, all offended.

Forgive me if I hurt the supervillain's fragile

feelings.

''You tried to kill me in Tartarus just because you

thought All Might might be sad because of it,''
Izuku reminded him.

All for One shrugged. ''I am always cranky when I

wake up. Pay no attention to it.''

Izuku would do no such a thing.

''You're pale. You could use more bacon,'' All for

One decreed and actually walked away to cook
more of his delicious food.

But as he passed near Izuku, he did something

that just made the teenager freeze, not
understanding what was happening at the
moment.

He only saw him move, and felt the weight and

movement on All for One's hand on the top of his
head, in a mere moment, then he was leaving,
and it was only as he started to throw more
bacon on the frying that Izuku realized his hair
had just been ruffled.

No. Just no.

''What do you think you're doing?'' Izuku heard

himself asking, incredibly creeped out.

All for One shrugged. He was still cooking, his

back to Izuku, but the teenager just knew he was
smiling.

''It seems obvious,'' the holder of multiple quirks

said. ''Children should be taken care of, and it's
the adults' job to do that. Since there is no other
adult here, it's normal for me to make sure you
are fed.''

Izuku wasn't understanding what was happening,

he didn't want to understand what was
happening, but he definitely knew what he
wanted.

''Get out of my house.''

All for One turned towards him, his eyes

glimmering with trolling humor. He was enjoying
this.

''But I have nowhere to go,'' he said, pretending

to be saddened, a hand on the hole where his
heart should have been.

''It's great,'' Izuku said, now on his feet as he

forced himself to smile like All Might. He has
always thought it was to ward off fear, but maybe
it would work against evil. ''The world is full of
opportunities and if you have nothing now, you
can only ascend.''

''I will be lonely,'' All for One whined, so proud of

himself he would need a mop to get rid of all the
smugness. ''You're the only one I know now.''

''Make new friends, preferably some you didn't

meet in prison.''

''I am sorry, Izuku...''

Argh. The name on his lips was unnerving. No

one called him by his first name, except for his
mother, and she has the right for she was the one
who had brought him into this world.

''But since your mom is working abroad and there

is no one watching over you and taking care of
you, I feel that it's my duty as a responsible adult
to make sure you don't jump into something you
won't be able to survive.''

''You're not a responsible adult, you're a felon!

And you just want to stay around to steal my
quirk!''

The willingly given condition was no joke, and

Izuku's bad karma for tricking All Might was
coming back to haunt him.

''Actually,'' All for One shrugged as he kept

fussing over the bacon, ''I never went to trial, so I
can't be considered a felon since I was never
judged.''

He didn't say anything about One for All but his

silence was enough confirmation.

''Also,'' the villain continued, ''since you didn't

mention that All Might told you about his quirk, I
would love to know how you learned about it.
Did someone, in that charming network of
people All Might couldn't save, tell you about it?
Anyone, isn't it?''

Izuku froze.

At no point did he mention the name of his

organisation, and when he had mentioned its
involvement in the quirk heist, he had just
mentioned volunteers who didn't know what they
were really doing.

How does he know?

''We have a friend in common,'' All for One

answered as if he was reading his mind. Hell,
maybe he had the quirk for it. ''He was the first
one I visited, actually. I got some clothes back,
some news about the world, and you have no
idea how amused I was to know we're using the
same warper. Though he obviously didn't realize
he was hired to help steal One for All.''

That traitorous son of a mist.

It was a phone call that destroyed everything for

All Might.

The loss of his quirk and his diminishing time

were a slow and festering wound. But that one
call from Tartarus? It almost stopped his heart.

After everything I did... After everything I did to

stop him, and it was for nothing...

So now, they were in Tartarus. In the warden's

office, a woman with white wings, blond hair, and
blue eyes underlined by dark circles. Her name
was Inoue Saya, her quirk was Protection and
allowed her to be immunized to the effects of
most quirks, and she looked like she wanted to
bury herself under a nice rock.

Tsukauchi-kun, a police officer and Toshinori's

friend, had been invited in order to obtain some
answers. As always during an interview, his face
didn't betray anything but professionalism and he
probably already know what questions to ask.

Gran Torino had been invited because God

himself couldn't have prevented from coming,
and to signify an adequate amount of disapproval
about the bastard's unfortunate and unfair
survival.

As for Toshinori himself, he was wearing his

costume, One for All was activated, and he was
sitting on a chair that was turned so the back was
facing the warden, and he had to be careful so
his hands whose knuckles were white would not
break anything.

He didn't say anything. He was just looking at

them, his smile gone, and letting his allies do the
talking.

''We were led to believe that All for One was

dead,'' Tsukauchi-kun started. ''Actually, that's
what you said to us.

''The man is asking why you fucking lied to to

us,'' Gran Torino informed Inoue.

The warden sighed and passed a hand in her hair,

ruffling them even more. It was obviously not the
first time and that might to do with the giant and
barely covered hole in her prison.

''Listen, I will be frank with you,'' Inoue said.

''That would be a change,'' Gran Torino snarled.

She paused, and nodded, as if she was

acknowledging the old teacher had a point.

''I am not sure of why my predecessor said that,''

she continued. ''What I can tell you is that the
villain named All for One died from grievous
wounds in the infirmary, but revived himself,
maybe because of a quirk, later.''

Gran Torino was breathing through his teeth and

if anger had been explosive, the prison would
have disappeared.

''And then what? The damn prison forgot how to

use a phone during the next ten years? Or to go
and warn the hero who arrested him? Because
you could find him at the huge golden tower in
the middle of Tokyo!''

Tsukauchi-kun slightly moved so he would be in

position to catch Gran Torino if he decided to
kick the warden in the teeth. He would fail, but
his function probably forced him to at least try to
prevent harm.

Inoue Saya saw the danger coming and leaned

back in her chair, behind her large and sturdy
desk.

''What I am going to say is only speculations. My

predecessor is dead and will never be able to
answer our questions. But I read on the file that
this villain... He had some gruesome wounds,
didn't he? Both arms ripped off... His face had
disappeared... I mean, you know the stigma that
follows heroes who use too much strength...''

At those words, Gran Torino choked on sheer

wrath. No doubt that he estimated All for One
deserved more.

''So I think that the previous warden was trying to

preserve All Might's reputation, through a very
misguided method. To make the problem
disappear, if we can say, while maintaining the
best security measures.''

''That's still a crime...'' Tsukauchi-kun said at the

same moment Gran Torino was exclaiming :
''That's bullshit!''

Inoue looked like she wanted to hide under the

desk. That would have probably been
wise.''Again, I would love to have my
predecessor explaining his choice. But since I
have no quirk to speak to the dead, I will just
have to deal with the first mass evasion ever
witnessed in this establishment.''

Several dangerous criminals, from what they were

told. They also didn't know whose criminal the
intruder had decided to help break out. From
what Tartarus knew, cells had been randomly
opened, probably to blur their intentions.

But the three men here had no doubt that All for
One had always been the prize. It couldn't be a
coincidence that he would reappear after One for
All's loss.

''And that's not the worse...'' the warden

admitted.

''How can this not the the worst? Is a meteorite

about to land on Japan?''

Inoue ignored Gran Torino. ''We have no idea of

the what the intruder looks like.''

A heavy silence answered word.

''What do you mean?'' Tsukauchi-kun finally

asked, astonished.

''Are we in a prison or in a fucking theme park,

fucking open for fucking everyone from 9 to 5 ?''
the old hero snarled.

''Someone was accessing our cameras and

deleted every recording. We don't have any
footage of his face. No doubt that it was the work
of a very powerful technological quirk...''

The police officer facepalmed.

''Is your staff entirely composed of blind and very

slow people?'' Gran Torino inquired with a shark
smile. ''Because that would explain a lot.''

''What my colleague is asking is : did no guards

manage to see him?''

''He was wearing a cap that was obscuring his

face...'' Inoue mumbled, obviously
uncomfortable.

''For fuck's sake...''

''… And the only moment where they could have

a clear view of whoever it was, he was right next
to a supervillain who managed to be a challenge
for the Symbol of Peace himself. Half of them
admitted they were so focused on All for One
that they didn't even realize someone else was
here.''

On that one, they all begrudgingly and silently

acknowledged that yes, the son of bitch tended
to take precedence over everything.

''What was the quirk of the intruder?'' Tsukauchi-

kun asked.

''Probably the technological quirk that allowed

him to bypass security.''

More questions were asked. At no point did

Toshinori intervened. He just watched and
listened, keeping himself from reacting for now.
Finally, they left, and as soon as no one and
nothing in Tartarus could listen to them,
Tsukauchi-kun and Gran Torino started to argue.
Tsukauchi-kun wanted a mass hunt to find the
ghost of a child who had stolen One for All, and
to alert everyone about All for One. Even though
it was impossible, because, as Gran Torino
reminded him, One for All like All for One were a
secret so no one would panic and no one could
take advantage of it.

''What are we going to do?'' Gran Torino finally

asked, and there was no anger in his voice now.
Just absolute exhaustion.

And for the first time since Toshinori had received

this phone call and uttered the worst invective
ever spoken in the English language, he allowed
himself to think about what was going to happen,
turned towards his teacher and his friend, and he
unclenched his jaw with difficulty.

''We find him,'' he managed to say, unholy rage

saturating every word. ''And I will pass him
through a grinder until he turns into bloody mist.
Let's see if he comes back from that.''

Notes:
This fic is either extremely serious,
either pure crack. There is no in
between.

CHAPTER 5
Notes:
Fanart from the previous chapter!
https://gentrychild.tumblr.com/po
st/623062997629386752

The warp gate appeared in front of Izuku and he

hesitated, because until now, Kurogiri had been a
work relationship. He came to him when he
needed something and had something to pay
him, be it a favor, cash, or, in one occasion,
diamonds.

Now, he was a problem, a potential leak, and

Izuku needed to know what he had told All for
One about Anyone, because the last thing he
needed was a super villain being interested in a
network of people not afraid to ignore the law a
little to help others.

So Izuku took a deep breathe and walked

through the warp gate, because he didn't have a
choice. He was transported into the bar, Kurogiri
already waiting for him.

Izuku slapped his Anyone mask on his face, not a

real one, not even a hood, but the appearance of
someone who knew what he was doing.

Hiding his face was unnecessary since Kurogiri

was the one who had transported Izuku, with his
face bare, in Tartarus. In return, Izuku knew where
he lived, knew his favorite alias, and had enough
information to burn the bartender if he ever
decided to betray him. The teenager believed in
mutual assured destruction when his close allies
were concerned.

You are Anyone. And you are here to obtain

answers.

He took a deep breath, focusing on the warper in

front of him, ready to grill him about what he had
said about Anyone to All for One, but before he
could, the mass of black mist put a hand on his
shoulder.

''Thank you,'' Kurogiri said, his voice full of

emotions. ''I don't know how you did it, but thank
you.''

Izuku took one step back because people were

far more touchy with him these days.

''What do you mean?''

''You freed Sensei. Did you know he was there? If

that was the case, I didn't need you to pay me. I
would have done anything to help him.''

Well, that was good to know.

''By Sensei, you mean...'' Then Izuku interrupted

himself by realizing something. ''Did... Did he
give you a quirk?''

Kurogiri carefully avoided to straight up answer,

which was an answer in itself.

''I owe him everything,'' he said instead. ''We lost

a lot the day he was arrested. Everyone thought
he was dead.''

Izuku suspected the we was the villain

community, which was going to be a problem.
The last thing he had wanted was to give back
their terrifying Godfather to anyone willing to use
their quirks to hurt others.

But that was secondary.

''And yet, you told him about Anyone,'' Izuku

noticed, his voice incredibly cold and he wasn't
even faking it to sell his Anyone persona.

The stress of the last two days was starting to get

to him. Or more precisely, he was realizing that
he had just escaped the most secured prison of
the country, that his body had went through the
grinder of Rewind, and that when he had been
asleep, a criminal, a killer, had been able to walk
in his home and anything could have happened
to him.

''I always respected your privacy, Kurogiri,'' Izuku

continued, and he realized how mad he was
starting to become at the invasion of his privacy.
At how his mom was in danger, now. But he
couldn't show it, so he was getting colder and
colder. ''I believe that one should not throw
someone else under the bus for no reason. And
yet, you gave informations about me to someone
dangerous, without my consent, without my
knowledge, leaving me completely unprepared.''

Here it was. The crux of what was bothering him.

Kurogiri hesitated. On some level, he probably

realized that he had put Izuku into one hell of an
uncomfortable situation. However...

''My loyalty lies with him. It will always lies with

him first. I owe him a debt that can never be
paid.''

It wasn't even Kurogiri's fault. Izuku could

recognize he had rushed into an almost suicidal
enterprise, not caring anymore, and he was now
paying the price.

''Kurogiri, I don't care. This man just appeared

where I live while I was sleeping and cooked me
breakfast. He could be your personal savior and I
would still need to know what you told him.''

Kurogiri froze and for a moment, he was

completely still, like a cat who had just been
surprised and who didn't know how to react.
Finally, he tilted his head, didn't say anything for
five more seconds, but at last, managed to regain
the ability to use his voice with a small : ''I beg
your pardon?''

''What. Did. You. Tell. Him. About. Anyone?''

''No,'' Kurogi shook his head. ''Before that.''

''You heard me. And he...'' Izuku continued

before realizing what he was about to explain.

The villain kept trying to steal One for All. Not

that it was surprising, and honestly, Izuku was
more serene when he knew where All for One
was, but the problem was that his quirk was
activated by contact.

So he kept petting Izuku's hair. And he suspected

there had been an attempt at what ominously
looked like a hug, but he couldn't be sure, and
was almost certain -and hoping- he was wrong.

There was no way in hell he was going to tell that

to Kurogiri.

''… Don't change the subject and answer the

question!''

And Kurogiri did.

What he had revealed about Anyone wasn't so

bad. How the server functioned, how he had
found it, and the details of the transactions
exchanged with Izuku. Even if one of those
transactions concerned the greatest quirk heist,
Izuku had already revealed how he had obtained
One for All, and in this case, Kurogiri hadn't even
know that Izuku had left with one brand new quirk
at this tome.

They migrated to the bar and Kurogiri had the

kindness to prepare Izuku a cocktail -without any
alcohol, of course- so they could deal with the
rest.

The first thing Izuku had done as soon as All for

One had left his apartment was to message
Nagisa and to ask her to find everything she
knew about All for One. She had freaked out
because she hadn't known until now if he had
truly managed to escape from Tartarus, then she
had freaked out even more, thinking Izuku had
met this villain in the prison, and had
congratulated him on still being alive despite
meeting the boogeyman.

With the hindsight, Izuku could admit that telling

her the boogeyman had just finished cooking him
breakfast hadn't been his brightest idea.

But he liked to check multiply his sources,

especially when the first one came from rumors
on the web, and Kurogiri was happy to confirm
what he had heard.

All for One was indeed merciless. He had been a

villain before the word even had an official
meaning in their society. Though Kurogiri talked
about him like he was a freedom fighter, it didn't
change the fact that it was a man used to
violence and murder, and who had ruled through
fear for a time.

And Kurogiri confirmed Izuku's final suspicion: All

for One and All Might had fought a decade ago.

To be more precise, All Might had almost killied

Izuku's favorite prisoner, and he had obviously
thrown him in jail. Without his arms and his face.

No wonder All for One had considered killing

Izuku as soon as he had approached. The new
holder of One for All had been incredibly
lucky the super villain had changed his mind at
the last second.

''So, he hates All Might,'' Izuku summarized, still

dealing with the fact that the number one hero
had maimed a villain.

''That's an euphemism,'' Kurogiri confirmed.

All Might killing a villain wouldn't have surprised

him. Unlike most fans, Izuku understood that
there were times where it simply wasn't possible
for a hero to held back enough to arrest a
homicidal villain without lethal force. But what
Kurogiri was talking about... It felt like rage, and
something personal between the two men.

''So, All for One will probably go after him?''

All Might, who didn't have One for All anymore.

He hadn't stopped appearing and using his quirk
after what Izuku had done, to the teenage boy's
relief, but it was less frequent. His time was
probably decreasing.

He was weaker. Vulnerable. Because of Izuku.

Kurogori nodded : ''Without a doubt.''

This was going to be a problem.

Izuku left the bar and for a moment, he looked at

his phone, desperate to talk to someone who
would understand the situation and who would
tell him that everything would be alright.

He looked for Todoroki's contact info.

But any words not implying Izuku hadn't

massively fucked upt would be a lie. And that
would be a weight Todoroki hadn't asked for, but
that Izuku would thrust on him, and his friend
would gave everything to help him, because that
was what Todoroki did.

That was selfishness talking, and Izuku, once he

recognized it, destroyed it with a thought and he
put his phone away.

Izuku kept walking on auto-pilot, following the

sound of a commotion and before he even
realized what he was doing, he was among a
crowd watching a hero fight.
Kamui Woods was taking care of a woman with a
mutation quirk, thorns covering her back, her
shoulders, and mistaking themselves for her hair.
It was the end, as the hero was restraining her a
meter above the ground, and they were talking.

You should find All Might. Because of you, he is a

sitting duck and you just freed his nemesis who
might have one hell of a grudge.

The woman was screaming something, her

features contorted by rage, and more and more
spikes were appearing even if the tendrils of
woods were keeping her still. It was probably an
effect of her emotions on her quirk, and not an
actual attempt to get free.

And it was a good thing she was facing Kamui

Woods, someone with a mutation quirk. A lot of
heroes who didn't study quirks didn't realize that
and could have mistaken it for a threat.

Kamui Woods kept talking to her, and she

listened. No one could hear what they were
saying. Not at this distance, and not with all the
noise of the city and of the fans.

Find All Might. Give him back his quirk. You know
it's the right thing to do.

One for All flickered inside Izuku.

Just as the woman with the thorn quirk started to

cry, and Kamui Woods moved so his body would
hide it, protecting her privacy and she just started
sobbing.

And you know you won't do it.

Izuku walked away, from the crowd and from the

too honest of a voice inside his mind, and he
disappeared behind a building, and as soon as he
was out of sight, he used Full Cowl.

It had been less than twenty four hours since

Izuku had almost been riddled with bullets in a
prison that would make Alcatraz look like the
Club Med, and that had been only the start of the
descent into the madness, so he could recognize
the signs telling him that he was exhausted,
needed a break, and to sleep. Instead, Izuku
came back to his apartment in the evening and
he discovered that not only was All for One
inside, but he had bought some groceries and
was currently putting them in the fridge.

He had changed clothes, donning a navy blue

suit that looked expensive, and he was currently...
not humming, but close. He seemed happy, as if
he had woken up this morning and realized that
life was beautiful.

Izuku was downright envious. When he woke up,

he usually cursed his alarm clock.

All for One turned, a smile on his face, probably

about to greet him as if he was home instead of
being one of those cats who wouldn't hesitate to
invite themselves in other people's home, but his
smile dropped in a second when he saw that
Izuku was wearing an All Might hoodie. For a
moment, he stared, something between pain and
sheer offense fighting on his face, and Izuku had
rarely felt so satisfied at accidentally messing with
someone.

Izuku didn't say anything. He just stood there, his

hands in his pockets, One for All simmering
under his skin, ready to be used at any moment,
and he stared at the man who was probably
responsible for All Might's injury. In some way,
Izuku had finished what All for One had started.

All for One close the fridge, leaned his back on it,
and crossed his arms, waiting for Izuku to say
something, anything. Not that this would happen.
Talking would be giving him an opportunity to
mess with Izuku's mind and to troll him into doing
whatever he wanted.

So they both waited in silence, waiting for the

other to blink.

Izuku was hit with how large All for One was.
Izuku had met All Might, and the two men were
about the same size, but All Might had never
looked at Izuku like he was trying to see what he
was hiding, and that went beyond the most
powerful quirk in the world.

Surprisingly, All for One was the first one to talk.

''How was your day?'' he finally asked.

''Well, I came back home to see that a strange

old man had decided to move in, so not great.''

All for One raised an eyebrow at that : ''Old?''

Oh, I am sorry. Is that what's offending you? After

you kept breaking into my home?

''Yes,'' Izuku confirmed, ''I think that anyone who

is still alive despite being present for the rise of
quirks can be qualified as such.''

The villain who had prepared breakfast for him

this morning just looked at him, and for a
moment, Izuku saw his life flash before his eyes.

He took one step back, One for All ready to

spring as soon as he would need it.

''So you know about me,'' the villain said, his

arms still crossed over his chest. ''Even though
you couldn't have been older than five when I
was sent away. What did you learn?''

Izuku gulped down. ''You can take and give

quirks. You make deals with people, giving them
powers in exchange of their loyalty. And you steal
quirks that you like.''

All for One raised an amused eyebrow at that,

and Izuku understood that the villain wasn't going
to be lectured about being a quirk thief by the
current holder of One for All.

''You killed a lot of people,'' Izuku continued.

''I did,'' he confirmed, not quite cheerfully bit it

was clear he wasn't losing any sleep over it. ''I
started at a time where people like me and their
family were hunted down by the government,
then I kept killing because they never stopped
trying to kill me.''

Izuku squinted at him. He couldn't help it.

''Only because people tried to kill? Always in self-

defense?''

''From a certain point of view,'' the sociopath

nodded.

Izuku wasn't going to start crying because he was

a grown boy who couldn't afford a full breakdown
at the moment, but he deeply regretted this fact.

How I am supposed to prevent him from killing

All Might? All Might himself was barely able to,
and that was at peak strength.

Izuku had never regretted it taking One for All for

himself. At the time, he had also known it was a
heavy burden he had decided to carry.

But somehow, he had still managed to

underestimate how much problems it would
bring.

''What do you want? Why are you here? And why

do you want to cook in my kitchen so much?''

The last question was a mistake as All for One

immediately jumped on the chance to change
subject.

''I have been fed some gruel, that I would never

call food, for a decade. Excuse me if I want to
sustain myself with something that a human
being with functioning taste buds can enjoy. And
maybe you might want to eat a meal that wasn't
cooked in less than five minutes. How can you
survive on instant meals? No wonder you're... ''

He made a vague gesture referring about Izuku's

height. Coincidentally, it was the same gesture
Izuku had once used to talk to his mother about
an adorable kitten who was incredibly small and
cute, and that annoyed the hell out of him.

''I have more pressing concerns than your culinary

quest.''

''Like this destructive quirk that was used to

pester me for a little less than two centuries?'' All
for One asked, and for someone who kept
insisting that this quirk was destructive and
dangerous, he seemed to really want it.

''No, like the fact that I have to deal with a stalker,

and have no time for that.''

''Who is stalking you?''

Izuku just stared at this man who had broken into

his home and was using his kitchen like his own,
and two seconds later, it finally dawned on the
villain.

''I am not stalking you. Just keeping an eye on y...

that quirk that belongs to me.''

''Well, since I am currently the one possessing it,

and before that, it was All Might's, I am not sure
to understand how that ownership works.''

This was the wrong thing to say.

As soon as Izuku pronounced the name of the

number 1 hero, All for One's face became blank
and something... Something horribly cold started
to spread in the room, giving goosebumps to
Izuku.

All for One took a deep breath, his eyes

absolutely glacial, and Izuku just wanted to have
a quirk that would make him vanish. Some half
forgotten instinct of when his ancestors were
monkeys climbing trees to escape predators was
screaming at him that in the absence of any high
refuges, the best thing to do was to stay still,
hoping the danger in front of him wouldn't notice
him.

But Izuku had never pretended he had any

common sense, and he walked towards the
cupboard.

All for One watched him as the teenage boy

started boiling some water, then when he
grabbed some tea.

The villain slowly regained control as Izuku was

preparing tea and when the cold his temper has
summoned finally disappeared, he took two
mugs, one with a sleeping white cat, the other
with a green rabbit, and put them on the table
before he decided to handle the kettle himself.
Maybe he had a quirk allowing him not to be
bothered by the burning metal. Or maybe he
didn't trust Izuku with boiling liquid in his hands.

''How was One for All born?'' Izuku asked as he

sat at the kitchen table. ''You can tell me since
you were there.''

''Knowledge is power, Izuku,'' All for One

reminded him as he was pouring them tea. ''Why
should I give you power with nothing in
exchange?

Izuku took his cup, the one with the white cat,
while All for One claimed the green rabbit one.

''Well... I let you use my kitchen this morning,'' he

tried.

All for One gave him a smile that would make a

shark pause. ''Of course, I can still stop being
such a charming guest and lock you up
somewhere to pluck One for All piece by piece.''

They both know he couldn't do that or he

wouldn't be playing this charade, but Izuku didn't
say anything. He simply grabbed the sugar pot
and added an astronomical amount of sugar in
his tea without breaking eye contact with the
villain.

Strangely, that made All for One chuckle.

''Answers for answers?'' he proposed, already in a

better mood.

Izuku thought about it while he made sure his tea

had cooled down enough.

''You first,'' he finally decided.

Because he didn't trust this man farther that he

could throw him, and despite having a really
good enhancer quirk, he was certain that All for
One had enough quirks to neutralize it.

So All for One started his story, with the

enthusiasm of a man who had spent too long not
talking to anyone and who was delighted by the
occasion to make up for lost time.

''You have to understand that when quirks started

to appear, people possessing those abilities were
outnumbered and not a lot of them were combat
oriented. That made everyone possessing a
power... a quirk, I mean, a target. Before the
government even started to hunt us down,
civilians were doing the work on their own. Militia
who wanted to purge the world from out
presence. And as soon as one of those morons
realized that quirks were genetic, anyone who
was thought to be related to a quirk user was in
danger.''

Izuku had learned about that in history books, but

not like that. He knew this had been an age of
chaos, and even though the government had
suppressed some early quirk users, every history
books strongly implied that it had been villains,
and that this had only been done in order to
protect everyone.

But even though Izuku didn't trust All for One, he

didn't trust the government either, and how the
villain in front of him was talking... He was truly
remembering what had happened.

He had lived through it.

The fifteen-year-old had trouble wrapping his

mind around that, and he listened, fascinated.

''This was a bloodbath,'' All for One continued,

his voice gaining something. Not like he was
traumatized, or in pain, but more as if he was still
annoyed by how nonsensical this tragedy had
been. ''The government did nothing for so long...
Someone had to do something.''

He smiled at Izuku.

''So I did,'' he declared, obviously still satisfied

about it.

He drank his tea and Izuku did the same because

this conversation with a cryptid was slowly putting
him on edge.

''I was fair. I took the quirks from those who didn't
want them. I gave quirks to those who asked for
them. All I asked in exchange was for them to
watch my back. To protect us.''

On this last world, there were less old man

rambling about the good old time, and more
intensity, so it immediately drew Izuku's attention.

''Your group?'' he asked, feeling incredibly young

since this conversation had started.

''Them too,'' All for One nodded as if yes, his

comrades had been concerned, but not the
priority at the time, ''But at first, it was just my
little brother and I.''

He had a family? Good to know that some evil

deity hadn't touched the ground with its scepter
and proclaimed ''There shall be a terrifying force
of nature,'' with All for One springing into
existence, fully formed, wearing a bespoke suit,
and already stealing quirks and ruining lives.

''My foolish, adorable little brother,'' the villain

continued, unaware of Izuku absolutely roasting
him from the safety of his mind. ''He always had a
weak health. And I always took care of him.''

His whole face changed when he talked about his

little brother. He must have loved him very much.

''And so, in order to protect him, I find a quirk for

him. A stockpiling quirk that even someone
whose body wasn't suited to strong quirks could
handle. That quirk would become One for All. At
least, as soon as he transferred him to his
successor. He found his quirk, and turned the one
I had offered him into a weapon against me.''

Well, so much for the loving sibling relationship.

''Why?'' Izuku asked

All for One shrugged. ''Propaganda, mostly. He

believed the government's bull... lies about how
quirks should only be used for the greater good,
never for one's own benefit, and always under
the control of the higher powers.''

Yikes.

All for One smiled at Izuku's wince, suddenly all

smug and happy, and Izuku wiped the expression
from his face.

''But how did One for All was used against you if
it was born from a member of your family?'' Izuku
insisted.

''First, it was made my me,'' and All for One put

emphasis on it. ''That quirk originally belongs to
me. One for All was then used to stop me. As a
counterpower.''

Izuku was an only child so he wouldn't pretend to

understand the bonds of brotherhood, but from
what he had heard, siblings weren't supposed to
try to hard when they attempted to murder each
other, and there was always a reason. Often
stupid, but there was always at least one.

''There is a difference between believing

something, and creating a line of heroes
dedicated to end you... '' Izuku thought out loud,
until something really obvious hit him in the face.
'''When you say you offered him the quirk, he
agreed, right?''

For a long moment, All for One didn't say

anything.

Then, he finished his tea.

And finally, he mumbled under his breath,

without looking at Izuku in the eyes : ''Well, he
used it afterwards.''

Oh My God.

''Did you force a quirk down the throat of your

little brother? At a time where it was a death
sentence?''

The human disaster shrugged. ''I believe I am

owed some answers, now.''

''You mean, after this bunch of half-truths and

reminiscences about the past?''

''Exactly. I talked about my family. The least you

can do is to tell me about yours.''

''Of course. I can tell you about one family

member,'' Izuku assured.

All for One glanced at the picture of Izuku's mom.

''I have a father that I didn't see in years, and

honestly, this is all there is to say,'' Izuku answered
truthfully.

The villain made a strange face for half a second,

and then, he regained control. Someone was not
happy to have the short end of the stick. He
would get an answer, but nothing to leverage
against Izuku.

Of course, he could threaten Izuku into talking.

This cold rage could reappear.

But that would be an answer in itself. That would

be more logical that whatever mask he was
showing Izuku.

But All for One simply played with his cup, and
told Izuku : ''I am going to need more than that.''

''With all the lies you dared to try to feed me, I

think I am being extremely compliant but his
name is Midoriya Hisashi. I don't have a lot of
memories of him. Last time I heard about him, he
was working abroad but I don't know where. I do
not concern myself with him.''

Actually, Izuku rarely thought about him. It was

Izuku and his mom, and they didn't need anyone
else. However, All for One seemed interested,
leaning towards Izuku as if he could physically
take the answers from him.

''Distant father?'' he asked,

''Non-existent,'' Izuku admitted. ''He disappeared

a little after I was declared quirkless.''

''That's why he left?''

''Probably. Things changed in two centuries.

Quirkless people are shunned, and honestly, no
one wants to have anything with them.''

All for One went to drink more tea, realized his

mug was empty, and he crossed his arms, before
putting them back on the table again.

This man had lived through a time period where

people with a quirk were ostracized, and now, it
was the opposite. Izuku would have thought he
would find amusing how the tables had turned,
but instead, maybe he was annoyed to see how
things didn't really changed. They just shifted.

''I don't really care,'' Izuku reassured him, which

was stupid because he doubted the villains could
actually feel emotions. ''I don't even blame my
father, at least not for leaving.''

All for One looked up, and there was something

like hope or faith in humanity in his eyes.

''He had every right to not want to be part of this

family anymore,'' Izuku continued. ''But he
abandoned my mom when she needed him. And
he stopped supporting us when I was five. And
that's despicable.''

The hope died in All for One's eyes and he

passed a hand on his face, then on his hair,
slowly, as if he was removing something.

''You mean that for your family received no

money, nor any kind of child support, for ten
years?'' he slowly asked for clarifications.

Do I really care if All for One learns more about

my father?

The fact that Izuku honestly didn't care was

probably worrying, but the villain could have
grabbed any random person on the street and
they would his father and them would have the
same worth as hostages.

Also, it had the benefit to make All for One

realize that even if he found this specific family
member, he wouldn't gain anything from it.

''He used to send us money at first, and little by

little, it decreased so much that it wasn't enough
to allow anyone to survive with it,'' Izuku
answered. ''Now, everything is fine and my mom
has a good job, but at the time... This was a very
bad situation.''

What had ironically saved them was when Izuku

had been injured by a classmate. Almost killed, if
he had to be honest, but at least, the settlement
agreement had allowed them to keep their head
above the surface long enough for his mother to
find a good job, and now, they didn't need
anyone to live comfortably.

''I am sorry,'' All for One said quietly.

Izuku immediately perked up.

''If you are, can you get out of my apartment?''

''Not a chance,'' All for One smiled back.

CHAPTER 6
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Hi, Mom!

Everything is okay. You know me: I am boring,

so I don’t have to a lot to tell you. Except that
I enjoyed my holydays and that many heroes
had their quirks analyzed. I, however, as a
soon-to-be adult, stopped running after them
for autographs. (No, it doesn’t have anything
to do with the fact I already have ALL the
autographs.)

I am soon going to go to my new high school. I

am especially excited about the possibility to
have internships and to be able to analyze
quirks in a professional setting.

And don’t worry. Those stories about yakuza

(can you believe they still exist?) coming back
to life are just that. Stories. Even if they
weren’t, you know me. I run at the first sign of
danger.

I miss you. But Dubai is Dubai and if they

extended your contract for two months, it
means they recognize your talents, so they are
smart. Please, have fun and send pictures.

I shall do my best to keep our home in one

piece.

With love,

Your favorite (and only but that’s a detail) son,

Midoriya Izuku.
Izuku read the email again. Once he was satisfied,
he clicked on Send.

At seven am in the morning, an ungodly hour

where no one should be awake, least of all of
good Japanese teenage boys, a key scratched
the lock of the front door. It scratched again as
the key simply didn’t fit.

Izuku couldn’t help but to smile in his mug of

coffee.

A smile that disappeared when the door still

opened with a click, revealing the bane of his
existence entering with bags full of groceries.
Which didn’t make any sense because he had
done that the day before and the fridge was still
full of food.

But the most annoying thing was that he was

holding a key that he wasn’t supposed to have.

“Hello, Izuku,” All for One greeted him with a

smile, as if he was really happy to see him. “I
didn’t expect to see you up so early. Also, there is
a problem with the door…”

He stopped dead on his tracks as he saw the new

decorations Izuku had brought to his bedroom
door.

It was covered in All Might posters and All Might

stickers. One couldn’t even see the wood
underneath.

For Izuku had very complicated feelings towards

All Might, but he knew All for One hated him and
the teenage boy was ready to use any advantage
to ward off evil.

“There is nothing wrong with the door,” he

explained while pretending he wasn’t seeing All
for One’s glare. It wasn't even directed at him but
at the All Mights. “I just changed every lock in
this house.”

That distracted the villain long enough for him to

stop glaring and to give Izuku what suspiciously
looked like a worried glance.

As if he wasn’t exactly feeling welcomed.

“Though I am impressed by how quickly you

managed to do that, it’s a waste of money,” All
for One said as he was getting rid of his bags full
of groceries.

“About wastes of money, you have a quirk to

break into my place, don’t you?” Izuku asked.

The villain didn’t even slow down, making his way

to the kitchen and getting a mixing bowl.

“Just to lock and unlock. Don’t worry, I am not

damaging the lock itself.”

For a couple of seconds, Izuku watched him

taking out flour, eggs, and sugar, and baking
soda.

“I am not worried about that," the teenager

informed him. "I am wondering why you have a
key you don’t need to my apartment. Especially
as there are only two keys, mine, in my pocket,
and my spare, who is in my closet and which
hasn’t moved from there for several weeks.”

“Yes, I found it,” All for One confirmed as he

started preparing pancakes.

Izuku pretended to be surprised.

“That’s strange, because it’s not in my closet but

in my drawer.”

All for One’s back was still to Izuku but the

teenage boy was certain that the villain was
looking up, then closing his eyes, and taking a
deep annoyed breath, the same way his mom did
when Izuku sometimes teased her when she
procrastinated something.

That was an adult thing.

“Fine. You have a neighbor named Takahashi

Kyoko. I know that because you have a set of
keys belonging to her, so I assumed you or your
parent had done the neighborly thing to
exchange keys in case there was a problem.”

Izuku’s keys, the important ones, were with him

when his mom was away. But the other stuff was
on a bowl on a little table right in front of the
door, something he had seen so many times that
it might as well had been invisible. And he had
completely forgotten the existence of this key
that didn’t belong to them.

And now that he thought about it, Ms. Takahashi

was the one supposed to keep an eye on him
while his mom was away. Nothing serious, just
make sure Izuku didn’t drop dead or something.
However, as soon as Midoriya Inko had been
gone, they had both agreed without even talking
that they didn’t need to concern themselves with
each other.

“She kept her keys near her window, so I didn’t

even have to visit,” All for One explained.

I hope it’s just a bad lie, because if it’s the truth,

it’s just disturbing.

Izuku finished his second cup of coffee of the day

because he needed it, then got to his feet and
walked to the kitchen counter. All for One had
finished making the pancakes preparation and he
was now pulling out four frying pans on the
ceramic hob, so he could bake the pancakes
faster.

All for One had no reason to be surprised when

Izuku started helping him, because it was the
logical thing to do for the breakfast to be ready
even faster.

“And did you visit anyone else?” Izuku asked.

“I explored the town. Didn’t take any actions for

now. Are you afraid I could track down All Might
and murder him?”

There was no point in lying.

“Obviously.”

That made All for One smile.

“I considered it. But ultimately, I am more

amused to know he is in absolute despair. Each
second I enjoy my life is a victory over this
moron.”

The teenager didn't wince but it was close. All

Might was in despair because of him. He was the
one who had stolen his quirk.

The one who had inflicted such harm on

someone because he had wanted a quirk.
Needed one.

That was something Izuku would have to carry

with him for the rest of his life.

However, he wasn’t lost in his thoughts enough

not to notice All for One’s hand as it approached
his head. Izuku smoothly ducked while still
cooking the pancakes.

“My quirk is still impossible to steal!” Izuku

barked.

“It doesn’t hurt to make sure,” All for One smiled

but he focused back on breakfast.

The villain's apparent happiness was disturbing to

look at.

Izuku wondered if All for One used to prepare

food for his little brother when they were
younger. He was smiling a little, obviously looking
like he enjoyed cooking, and two hundred years
had to be enough to make someone a little
melancholic.

Maybe it was because of prison. Maybe he

craved for normal things. Little things. Every
second I spend enjoying my life is a victory over
All Might. It sounded like even before he had
been sent to prison, All for One hadn’t have the
time to enjoy his freedom.

Izuku didn’t know what to make of him, and it was

freaking him out. He couldn’t ignore All for One
because you didn’t get sent to Tartarus for
loitering, and even if he was willing to ignore this
menace unleashed on society, the fiend had
decided to move in. But after seeing what had
happened in Tartarus, Izuku simply didn’t have
the power to stop him if he decided to kill All
Might.

They ate breakfast together, both drowning their

pancakes in maple syrup. There was also bacon
and that was absolutely divine. Since Izuku
couldn’t admit out loud, he decided to keep
himself from asking All for One if he had a
cooking quirk by stuffing his mouth full of
delicious food.

Of course, it wasn’t better than what Izuku’s mom

could make.

There is a good chance this is not even good, just

an upgrade compared to my own cooking, which
isn’t difficult.

“I meant to ask you,” All for one suddenly said,

breaking the tense silence that they both
preferred to evolve in. “Are you always up this
early? Because yesterday, it was midnight when I
left and you were still working on your laptop.”

The reason why he knew that was because he had

stayed around in the living room and Izuku had
transferred his work from his bedroom to the
kitchen table in order to keep an eye on the
multi-quirked menace. But even without that kind
of incentive, Izuku had learned not to interact
with the general concept of sunrise.

“I have to train today. That’s why I am up so

early.”

“You have to train physically this morning and

you ate that much of my cooking?” All for one
smiled. “Consider me flattered.”

“What can I say?” Izuku smiled back. “I am not a

picky eater.”

For a moment, the adult seemed on the fence as

to either be offended by Izuku insulting his
cooking, or to be amused by his suicidal need to
have the last word.

“Good to know,” he finally said instead. “Well, if

you don’t mind, I will take my leave for now.”

“Where are you going?”

And by that, Izuku meant: Are you planning to

commit something evil on your way out?

“Shopping. I need clothes, and maybe a new

carpet for the bar. Why, you want to join me?”

And with that, he gave a look that meant

anything to Izuku’s All Might shirt, indicating that
a change in his wardrobe was needed, as far as
the squatter was concerned.

“No, thank you. I don’t have any place in my

closet since I had fun at the last hero
convention.” The villain winced as if Izuku’s words
were provoking physical pain. “Why does
Kurogiri need a carpet?”

All for One shrugged.

Izuku had the habit of training with Todoroki in

special gyms, reserved in advance, and paid by
the number two hero’s credit card. The kind
where one could use their quirk freely.

It was also sound-proof because a lot of

destructive quirks made loud noises, and that
wasn’t even talking about the actual sound-
based-ones, so Izuku decided to inform Todoroki
about his little escapade in Tartarus and how a
stray had followed him home, in the middle of
their sparring.

He was blaming the early rising for that decision.

Todoroki took it well.

And Izuku blamed the heavy breakfast for the fact

he hadn’t been fast enough to avoid the ice that
had half encased him.

“What is wrong with you?” Todoroki said. He

didn’t scream because he never did, but he didn’t
need to for Izuku to hear the hurt and the worry
in his voice.

Which was worse than yelling.

“So you broke into the most secured prison in the

country. The kind of prison where our
government throw the worst of the worst to
forget them. And at no point did you think to tell
me about this insane plan of yours?”

“Of course not,” Izuku said as he was hitting the

ice with his fist to get free. The trick was to use
enough strength to break the ice, but not enough
to hurt himself.

Todoroki froze. Not literally like Izuku, but he

paused, and there was something on his face that
made Izuku realize that he would need to
develop his answer.

“You said it yourself. It was insane. And you’re

too good of a friend not to try to help. I decided
to jump into Tartarus. I was the only one who had
to deal with the risks.”

That wasn’t what Todoroki wanted to hear but

that was the truth.

For a moment, he was silent, anger silently

building inside him. Izuku could feel it.

“I don’t know if you’re arrogant,” Todoroki said,

something cold in his eyes. “Or if you don’t care
about your own life.”

Izuku, who had managed to half free his right leg,

Full Cowled out of the ice coffin. For a moment,
the power of One for All, the weakness of Izuku’s
body, and the ice, all fought each other, but Izuku
flash stepped next to Todoroki without any
additional scratches.

“It’s none of that,” he explained, words tumbling

into each other because he needed Todoroki to
understand, even if he didn’t agree with his
decision, but he didn’t know how. “It’s just that a
little girl was in prison. They stole her way from
her parents and put her in a pink princess room
without any windows. It’s a special kind of insanity
where I had to do something, no matter the
consequences, but I wasn’t insane enough to risk
the only friend I have.”

This was selfish.

Todoroki called him out on it, and he threatened

him with various punishments if he ever pulled
something like that, and Izuku agreed that he was
right to be mad, because he would have been
screaming at his friend if Todoroki had ever done
something like that without involving him.

And when a new wave of ice jumped at him,

Izuku managed to avoid it, this time.

Then, they talked about All for One. His strange

behavior. And at some point, the conversation
devolved into why a Japanese man would keep
cooking American breakfasts. Which was
probably a stress response to a super villain
stalking Izuku.

Then, they thought about solutions. Or at least

tried to.

“I can negotiate with my old man…” Todoroki

started to say really carefully, probably because
the very thought was repulsing him but he was
hiding his disgust from his friend.

“Giving the quirk back to All Might would be

easier,” Izuku noticed.

“That’s a possibility.”

They silently acknowledged that none of those

options would happen.

“Do you even know where he is?” Todoroki

asked..

Izuku thought about it, then grabbed his phone

and started typing with this usual speed, to
Todoroki’s amusement.

“Are you using Anyone to track him?”

“No, he gave me his phone number and I am

asking him where he is.”

Todoroki’s eyes comically widened, and by the

time he managed to deal with this information,
Izuku had received an answer, which he checked
before showing the screen of his phone to his
friend.

All for One had sent him a selfie, except that his
face was hidden by his hand, but Izuku could still
see the beginning of a smile on his lips. More
importantly, he was evidently in a place that was
indeed selling carpets, and a horrible red thing
was right behind him. As if someone had killed a
bear and dyed the poor thing in crimson after
skinning it.

That’s my life now, Izuku realized. Babysitting a

two hundred year old monster.

Todoroki and Izuku had just sat at the table of a

restaurant when he received an alert on his
phone, telling him that someone requested
Anyone’s help.

Cuffed to a table and trapped in a police

interrogation room, Dabi could perfectly see his
future. Even if he didn’t say anything, they would
soon obtain his DNA, and Endeavor would know
where he was.

It shouldn’t have been so dreadful. If someone

could get him out at lightspeed, it was the
number 2 hero. But the very thought of seeing
this bastard, of being indebted to him... It made
him sick, the scars on his face itching as if his
battered body rejected the very notion.

He didn't have money for a lawyer.

But he had the right to a phone call, and a rumor.

Some way to find help for people who were in
trouble.

So he went on Clamor with his prepaid phone

and accessed the server. He had no idea of what
to do, so he just addressed a message to a
username named Anyone, explaining the
situation.

To Dabi’s surprise, he answered in the next two

minutes, contacting him on a private channel.

Anyone:

[I see. Is time of the essence?]

That was a understatement.

Inferno more inferyes:

[Very much.]

Anyone:

[I see. ]

[Wait. ]

Then nothing.

Anyone wasn’t here anymore. Disconnected.

And half an hour later, a lawyer he had never

called appeared in front of him.

Fifteen minutes after that, he was leaving the

police station.

After they finished eating, Izuku pondered about

a situation he had not been invited to but that he
would like to check anyway. One of the members
of the server, WorstJeanist, was fleeing an
abusive girlfriend but needed to get his stuff
back, so he had asked if people who wouldn’t get
scared by an enhancer quirk could help him move
out. Two had answered, Ilovekittens222 and
Mightyshield.

But WorstJeanist had mentioned that the

girlfriend was involved in shady dealings, so Izuku
would have like to be there in person to make
sure everything was alright. If there was a drug
like Trigger involved, the situation could
degenerate quickly.

Todoroki helped him decide by grabbing one of

those black hoodies, the ones that kept their face
hidden, from his bag, and he declared that he
was coming with him.

“Anyway, the girlfriend isn’t even supposed to

come back before tomorrow. I am sure it’s
nothing,” Izuku assured.

Todoroki sighed.

“Did you have to say that out loud?”

As it turned out, and unlike what Todoroki would

say later, it was indeed nothing. Some ugly break
up and a man who needed to take his stuff out of
the house without his violent drug-selling-
girlfriend attacking him. Nothing more.

Everyone had been surprised to see two

members of Anyone with their face hidden but
they had been warmly welcomed when Todoroki
and Izuku had showed they could easily carry the
heaviest boxes.

The problem had come after they had finished,

from them witnessing someone dragging a
screaming woman into a car.

And that explained why Todoroki had caught a

woman who had jumped out of a running car and
why Izuku was now pursuing said car on foot.

And it hurt.

Full Cowl. Twelve per cent.

He could feel One for All coursing through him,

flashes of power threatening to break him if his
focus ever weakened. One moment of inattention
and the quirk would flare up and break him into
pieces.

Izuku ran faster, almost to the car despite the

screaming of the motor and the howling of the
tires as the driver was taking more and more
speed.

Full Cowl. Fifteen per cent.

His legs loudly protested under the added

pressure, though the sole of his feet complained
even more as they were slamming on the
pavement with added speed.

Not only did he catch back the car, but he almost

ran into it as the driver took a turn and rushed in
his direction.

Izuku didn’t have the time to slow down, he

would have stumbled, so he did a flip, landed
roughly on the top of a wall, and ran out of reach
of the car that was still negotiating its turn before
the teenage boy jumped down on the street.

Then, he stopped, turning to face the expensive

car.

In this moment, he saw the driver. Completely

ordinary. A man with dark hair in a suit, the usual
kind of guy who would work in an office and that
no one would pay too much attention to.

Except for the absolute fury on his face.

He looked at Izuku as if he hated him. Like he was

blaming him for everything wrong that had ever
happened in his life. In an instant, because there
was no better alternative, Izuku became his
personal nemesis and the bane of existence.

And he floored it. Izuku actually saw the exact

moment where this man decided to run him over
with this car.

But Izuku didn’t move.

One for All was still activated. Red lines were

dancing on his skin but none of the green
lightnings, not as he was completely still.

Ten meters.

From the corner of his eye, Izuku saw Todoroki

keeping the woman he had saved from running
towards them.

Five meters.

Izuku stopped looking at anything that wasn’t the

car, his concentration needing to be absolute.

Two meters.

Full Cowl. Twenty per cent.

Just for a second, Izuku used twenty per cent to
jump out of the way, and several things
happened at the same time.

Horrible pain spread though him but that wasn’t

the pain he had felt the first time he had used
One for All. More importantly, Izuku managed to
launch himself into the air right before a ton of
metal turned him into a pancake.

And the car crashed into the metal pole Izuku had
had this back to a moment earlier.

A second later, Izuku landed on one knee, in the

position known as a super hero landing. It looked
really cool and it had been a completely accident
because his legs had refused to carry him any
further.

Also, his whole body was hurting and Todoroki

appeared behind him to help him getting back
on his feet, wonderfully stable under Izuku’s
shoulder.

Ilovekittens222, a man two meters tall with a

beard and build like he could stop a horse in full
gallop by grabbing him, was a nurse and made
sure that the driver was still in one piece,
commented about the fact he had obviously
been drinking, then called an ambulance. While
he did that, MightyShield, a pink-haired-teenage
girl whose quirk allowed her to turn into a bear,
was about to call the cops when the green-haired
woman they had just saved and who was still
shaking because of the ordeal told her they
couldn’t.

Because this jerk was her ex-boyfriend and also a

member of the Hero Commission. Cops wouldn’t
want to touch him unless it was for something
serious. More serious than driving under influence
and not respecting a restraining order, apparently.

Anyone couldn’t be known.

Fortunately, WorstJeanist had an idea.

Kazuhito was forty four years old, had a quirk that

allowed him to dismantle anything mechanical,
and his life was great. Because he knew how to
seize occasions, and with one decision, his life
had changed for the better.

So he finished his jogging on the beach and

walked back to his beautiful house which was
right next to the sea. In term of architecture, the
building was as modern and as beautiful as what
money could buy, all in chrome, fake wood, and
glass. And in term of security, it was practically a
vault. No one was getting in or out without
Kazuhito’s permission.

So he wasn’t prepared to see a white-haired man

in a suit eating an apple at Kazuhito’s dining
table.

Kazuhito recognized him in an instant, because

he had worked for that man during a decade. But
it couldn’t be him because All Might had
murdered him ten years ago.

“Hello, Kazuhito,” All for One greeted him like an

old friend. “You look like you’ve just seen a
ghost.”

Kazuhito took one step backwards and the

stranger’s demeanor immediately changed,
something cold and violent spreading through
the air.

If I move again, he is going to paint the walls with

my blood.

If he ran, the most terrifying man who had ever

existed would hunt him down. But if Kazuhito
couldn’t run, he could explain himself, and the
words spilled from his lips, too fast, and his voice
too high.

“I didn’t know… I thought you were dead.

Everyone did. I never would have done that if… I
am sorry…”

Can I reach my cellphone without him noticing?

Can I call the heroes before he kills me?

The problem was that he didn’t think a hero that

wasn’t All Might could pose any threats against
this man.

“I understand,” All for One said, and his voice

was so relaxed that Kazuhito couldn’t help but to
be hopeful. “Nature abhors void, and I always
knew that if I was gone, things would start to fall
apart. Some people were always bound to drift
away, and to make some mistakes.”

All for One wasn’t just a villain, he was also a

business man. If Kazuhito managed to find a deal
with him, giving him back the money with
interests, for example, maybe even his quirk to
sweeten the deal… Maybe he could stay alive.

“I can be understanding,” his former boss

continued. “I can forgive some people.”

Kazuhito shifted his weight from one foot to

another.

And that’s how he finally noticed the carpet under

his feet. Something he didn’t recognize, because
he had never bought it, and it had never been in
his home before today.

By the time he looked up again, All for One was

right in front of him, his hand on Kazuhito’s throat,
and he slammed the accountant against the wall
so hard that a flash of white light appeared in
front of his eyes.

Kazuhito’s hands reached the steel-like grip, but

he couldn’t only claw at the fingers as no air was
reaching his lungs.

His feet were dangling above the ground.

“But you are not one of them, aren’t you,

Kazuhito? Your job was specifically to do what it
takes so some things wouldn’t fall apart, and now,
I find you in this beautiful house.”

Kazuhito… couldn’t… breathe.

“And I can’t help but wonder how much of it was

bought with my money.”

Izuku was sitting on the couch, watching TV, when

All for One came back. The bane of his existence
closed the door behind him and Izuku heart a
jingling sound, which meant he had obtained
another set of keys, somehow. The villain then sat
on the little couch, so close to Izuku that they
were brushing shoulders, but it was more due to
his size than a desire to annoy the teenage boy.

At least, until he actually leaned on Izuku’s

shoulder.

That would have been a good moment to push

him away but Izuku’s whole body was still hurting
from his little stunt at twenty per cent, so he had
absolutely no desire to move if this wasn’t
necessary.

So, he decided to be philosophical about it and

he postponed the use of One for All.

“So, what did you do with your day?” All for One
asked as he was watching the hero fight on TV.

Well, after Hinata, the green-haired-woman, had

revealed the crazy driver was a member of the
Hero Commission who didn’t care about details
like restraining orders, WorstJeanist had taken a
stroll into his ex girlfriend’s safe and grabbed half
the drug that was there, and they had dropped it
in the trunk.

After that, WorstJeanist had left, while Todoroki

and Izuku had led Hinata to the people who had
helped Izuku change identity. But from what
Ilovekittens222 had said, the policemen had been
really interested by their discovery and didn’t
seem to suspect someone’s else involvement
since the man was smelling of alcohol.

“Nothing worth mentioning,” Izuku didn’t quite

lie. “What about you?”

All for One shrugged.

“I bought a carpet for Kurogiri. He liked it.”

Notes:
Thank you to Pocket for giving me
Dabi's username.
Also, All for One bought two
carpets, one for Kurogiri, the other
not to dirty the floor.

Also, the All Might posters to

keep AFO out is inspired by
bnha_knarl's comics. They are on
tumblr, check their art.

CHAPTER 7
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Pain was a familiar companion for Izuku. It was

something he had thought he had been used to
when he had started training, before he even had
a quirk. But obtaining One for All had brought a
whole new level of suffering.

This quirk had destroyed his arm the first time he

had used it. Only adrenaline and the need to
make Eri safe had allowed him to keep going.

The second time, it had been his legs. An

accident where he had jumped with a little too
much enthusiasm and the quirk had thrown him
through the air. If he had landed back on the
pavement instead of the roof of a nearby
building, he would have died. The worst pain he
had ever lived through.

The third and last time had been in Tartarus. And

without Eri, everything would have ended in a
fiery catastrophe.

So pain had to become something Izuku was

used to. Because One for All was a tsunami and
Izuku was the dam terribly while also being the
one who had to swim above it. He had to train
every day with it and he had to have absolute
control over the output he was using.

So the day before, when he had used twenty per

cent for a second, he knew he could use it
without breaking anything. He would have never
attempted it if that wasn’t the case.

And during the night, all his muscles decided to

remind him that karma was vindictive and he
woke up utterly still, his brain having learn that
any movement meant pain.

Unfortunately, nature was calling so he had no

choice but to move. He hissed though his teeth
and dragged himself to the bathroom, really
unhappy about being forced to wake up in
general and about being forced to move too.
Then, he went to the kitchen, made some coffee,
and drank two cups, waiting for the nefarious
influence of the morning to dissipate. Slowly, light
stopped attacking him, noises weren’t as
aggressive as before, and the mist of grumpiness
that haunted his mind started to disappear.

And that’s how he noticed All for One on the

couch, squinting at him.

Those two previous cups of coffee reminded

Izuku that he had actually brought back some
catastrophe from Tartarus. Some human-shaped
disaster that didn’t seem to need to sleep.

“Why are you limping?” the squatter asked, a

somber look on his face.

Izuku immediately stood straight and erased

every trace of pain and unease. In his posture, on
his face, in his eyes. He moved to take another
sip of coffee, his movements fluid and relaxed.

He was extremely good at this game. Vocalizing

pain helped when he was alone, but the teenager
had become a master at hiding any weaknesses
since his former friends had started using their
quirks on him.

“What are you talking about?” he asked, without

any hint of the previous hiss in his voice.

All for One folded the newspaper he was

holding, and threw it on the couch without
looking, his gestures stiff and too controlled.

Izuku wasn’t sure of what was happening but he

could just feel that his roommate was extremely
annoyed and that the teenage boy absolutely
didn’t want to deal with this. So, he made a
beeline to his room, just as the villain was getting
to his feet and started to walk toward him. He
grabbed some clothes and got out, remembering
to late that it could have been the occasion to
test his All Might posters protection.

“How did you hurt yourself?” All for One asked

calmly but Izuku didn’t trust that calm.

Izuku stepped in the bathroom just as All for One

was almost on him, absolutely towering, and with
the intensity of a shark who had just smelled
blood.

“I am not hurt,” Izuku lied through his teeth. “I

just hate mornings in general.” And this time, he
was telling the truth.

And he closed the door in All for One’s face,

before locking it behind him. Then, he waited ten
seconds to see if the villain would force the door,
but it seemed that he had made a good bet in
thinking he would respect some boundaries.

Hot water was a blessing for sore muscles but this

was immediately cancelled when Izuku got out of
the bathroom to see that All for One was still
waiting, his arms crossed.

Doesn’t he have anything better to do with his

time?

“You said that your quirk tried to break your

bones every time you tried to use it,” All for One
remembered, blocking Izuku’s way as he tried to
flee this conversation. “How many times did that
happen?”

Of course, One for All might be a priority over

every other nefarious plans.

“If that happens more than once, it means your

body can’t handle the strain of One for All,” All
for One continued as Izuku wasn’t answering.
“This quirk isn’t suited for you. You have to get
rid of it.”

Izuku stopped trying to avoid him and faced the

villain, One for All right under his skin, waiting to
be unleashed.

“I do not have to do anything,” the teenager

calmly said.

But All for One was barely listening, his eyes

piercing through Izuku, as if he was looking at
something hidden inside him.

“You are in pain. This quirk is too dangerous for

you,” the villain said, but not to Izuku. He was
talking to himself, almost muttering.

And in this instant, Izuku knew All for One wanted

to take the quirk that had kept him alive.

One for All was not the quirk Izuku would have
chosen if he had any choice. It belonged to a
better man. A man that was needed by all and
who hadn’t deserved to have his quirk stolen. It
was also something that constantly put Izuku’s
health in danger.

But the only way for someone else to take his

quirk from him, be it All Might or All for One,
would be to kill Izuku, and even then, One for All
would die with him.

“One for All is my quirk. If you want it, don’t

pretend it’s for my sake.”

For a moment, the child’s whole demeanor

changed, like an animal backed into a corner.

Do. Not. Touch. Me. That was what he seemed to

be silently screaming. If he was pushed too far, he
could lash out. And if he ever thought he was in
danger of losing this damn quirk, that would
cease to be a mere possibility.

Even now, he was a hair away from violence.

It was too dangerous. Especially as One for All,

this ticking bomb, couldn’t be taken against their
holder’s free will.

The last holder of One for All and All for One
glared at each other.

The thief who had taken the most powerful quirk

in the world and who had now to protect it with
his life, unable to let it go, so the burden was his
to assume.

And the villain who coveted it, but whose

behavior didn’t make sense.

Everything would have been simpler if Izuku

could understand what was hidden behind this
man’s glacial gaze.

Calling his former sidekick to beg for help should

have been one of the most awkward moments of
Toshinori’s existence, but he was at a point where
he could simply not fall lower.

First, he was running on embers as someone had

stolen One for All. Someone who would have
been easy to find if Toshinori had taken five
minutes to ask for his name or even to talk to him
beyond a speech explaining that quirkless people
couldn’t be heroes.

And yes, the irony still hurt.

Second, All for One was alive, probably because

even hell hadn’t wanted to welcome him, and he
was now free.

To his credit, Nighteye had immediately asked

them to come after the call. His agency was
empty, Toshinori suspecting that he had sent
everyone away so they wouldn’t be deranged,
and Gran Torino and him had been led into
Nighteye’s office before things got too awkward.

Toshinori didn’t fail to notice that there were less

All Might merchandises than a decade ago. Even
if it meant that Nighteye had stopped being such
a devoted fan, Toshinori couldn’t help but to be
relieved. This way, reconnecting with Nighteye
felt more real.

And the last time he had been too close to a fan,

even for only half an hour, it hadn’t ended well.

“I know why you’re here,” Nighteye said as soon

as Gran Torino and Toshinori had taken a seat.

A cold sweat ran on Toshinori’s back.

“You do?” he asked cautiously, trying to reign in

the panic.

How does he know? Who else knows? Does the

villain realize it? Did it reach All for One’s ears?
The level of criminality didn’t rise, so I thought I
had manage to fool them into still being
intimidated by me, but was it the calm before the
storm?

“This seems obvious,” Nighteye smiled, the

expression bringing Toshinori back to the time
where they were still working together. “I know
that you asked Nedzu to have access to Mirio’s
files. Am I wrong to assume you’re here because
you decided to choose a successor?”

Toshinori choked on his own blood.

There were several things that ought to be said.

For example, it would have been good to remind
Nighteye that it had happened several months
ago and that even at the time, he hadn’t made a
decision – though Young Togata seemed to be a
good candidate. He could also have told him
how a lot of things had changed.

Or even to tell Nighteye than when Toshinori had

called, asking for help, it was for a serious
problem.

But since he couldn’t breathe, his teacher was

kind enough to talk for him.

“That would be difficult since he doesn’t have

One for All anymore,” Gran Torino said as if he
was talking about the weather.

Toshinori wiped out the blood from his mouth just

as Nighteye deflated.

“You… You chose a successor? Already?”

The words Without telling me? hanged out in the

air between them.

“It’s… not exactly that,” his old teacher said.

Toshinori and him looked at each other, Gran

Torino silently asking him if Toshinori wanted him
to explain the situation to his former sidekick, but
that was Toshinori’s responsibility. He had even
prepared himself in advance.

“Nighteye, I didn’t choose a successor. My quirk

was stolen away from me.”

Now, one could have thought that Nighteye

didn’t react, but the way he got completely still,
not even breathing, was a reaction in itself.

A couple of seconds passed, and Nighteye still

wasn’t reacting. Actually, he wasn’t even blinking.
So Toshinori decided to get rid of all the bad
news.

He explained how he had met the boy, how

Toshinori had been stupid enough to give him his
quirk, and how he had been unable to find him.

Then, he went to the juicy part: All for One was

alive and free.

Toshinori stopped talking when Nighteye hold

one finger.

“I am sorry. Would you both excuse me for a

moment?”

“Of course,” Toshinori nodded.

Nighteye slowly got to his feet, his hip hitting his

desk as he scurried away, but he didn’t even
slowed down as he made a beeline to a plain
unassuming door in the back of his office. He
grabbed the key in his pocket, the keychain
showing All Might in his Bronze Age period, and
when he opened the door, Toshinori and Gran
Torino were greeted by the sight of a dressing
room covered in All Might merchandise. Posters,
plushies, figurines, cardboards.

Ah, here is the rest of his collection.

Nighteye stepped inside the room and locked

the door behind him.

Then, a muffled scream was heard through the

door.

“He took it well,” Gran Torino commented.

Nighteye took five minutes to deal with those

new informations. Toshinori could hardly blame
him. It had been a couple of months and he was
still internally screaming about the loss of his
quirk.

“If All for One finds this kid…” Nighteye started,

slightly out of breath. “In the best case scenario,
he will kill him to end the One for All line. In the
worst case, he will torture him until he is offered
the quirk.”

Or he could go after Toshinori while he was

weakened. No one said it, but it was blatantly
loud as Gran Torino and Nighteye were badly
trying to hide their worry every time they looked
at him.

But they had one advantage.

“When I found All for One, he was still gravely

injured. He lost both arms and half of his face.
Escaping Tartarus must have cost him and he
must be constantly treating, especially after
spending ten years in this prison. We need to find
him, or at least find One for All, before he
retrieve his strength.”

Toshinori’s only consolation was that he had hurt

All for One more than he had hurt him.

“We have to check hospitals, and every one that

can look like a doctor. We also have to find this
kid…”

“But first,” Gran Torino intervened. “Could you

once again use your foresight on All Might?”

Night had fallen and All Might was on one knee,

emaciated, blood on his face as he tried to regain
his strength but couldn’t. His time was up.

And villains were closing in. Huge, their brain

exposed, they were looking at the weakened
Symbol of Peace, ready to snuff his light.

All Might managed to get back to his feet, his

smile replaced by a wince of pain and exhaustion,
but he manage to activate One for All one last
time.

And he paused.

Sir Nighteye wasn’t really there, but he turned,

following his hero's gaze.

He saw a child, dressed in black, his face hidden

by his hood. Red lines were dancing on his skin
and green lightning circled around him as the
most powerful quirk in the world was giving him a
power he did not deserve.

The villains attacked.

And the thief joined in.

“Nighteye?” All Might called. “What did you

see?”

There were times one had to admit he simply was

unlucky. For example, when three stupid hero
students decided to follow him and to be an
annoyance, that was one of those common
occurrences confirming that like sucked in
general. When the cops arrived just as someone
was about to barbecue their feet, that was a
genuine stroke of bad luck.

When one of them came back the day after to

mess with Dabi just as his hands were full of
groceries, even he could admit something must
have jinxed him.

The jackass from yesterday was a blond boy who

was a third year at some second rate hero school.
A lukewarm fire quirk and no discipline. Next to
him was a bigger and meaner version of him,
probably a big brother or something.

At least, the two other hero students from the day

before had the sense not to come today.

“Because of you,” Jackass number 1 snarled,

“This bullshit could end up in my file!”

Lord, give me the patience not to smoke them

like a ham.

“And that’s my problem because…” Dabi started,

but no one seemed intent on explaining how he
was responsible for terminal cases of stupidity.

Still, he thought about it. How those three

morons had followed him in a dark alley, trying to
intimidate him, and how they had paled when
they had seen a blue flame, the kind that could
cremate a human body and leave nothing
behind.

Nope. No matter how many times he thought

about it, it was still the jackass’ fault.

“Because this could end my future and if that

happens, there is no reason why you should have
one!”

A fireball formed just above Jackass number 1’s

palm, and he threw it at Dabi. It was slow, not hot
enough, and a disgrace to every fire users worth
the name. Dabi lazily raised his arm in turn. Unlike
what most people believe, fire could be excellent
to fight fire, or at least to drown his flame’s
opponent.

Except that the blue fire he could summon only

for a couple of seconds before he started to cook
himself alive barely flickered.

Jackass number 2 smiled at him, all his body stiff

as he was probably using a quirk to smother
Dabi’s flames.

Several things happened so fast that it was

almost simultaneous.

By reflex, Dabi threw away the two grocery bags

that were in his left hand because he would need
both arms to negate the fire ball. By doing so, he
exposed the only food he would have for the
week to a fire that would destroy it, so those two
jackasses were dead.

Some blur of green moved, too fast for Dabi to

really see what it was.

Dabi’s blue fire cancelled the fire ball and a wave

of blue flames was redirected on the two
imbeciles, Jackass number 2 struggling to keep
them alive.

And suddenly, there was someone holding his

groceries in one hand and recording the whole
fight with the phone in his other hand.

Everyone stopped. Dabi because his blue fire was

really recognizable for people who knew it.
Jackass number 1 because he was a hero student.

“That’s enough, don’t you think?” the newcomer

said.

Young. Definitely a middle schooler. He was

wearing an All Might hoodie, and a red cap. A
surgical mask was obscuring his features but from
here, Dabi could see white curls and green eyes.
Maybe a speed quirk. And he had enough faith in
it to butt in a duel between two fire users.

“Unless you want that sent to your school,

Watanabe Ryu,” the kid in an All Might hoodie
said to the hero student, his voice calm, as if he
risked his life every day. “Or maybe to the police.
I am sure they would be delighted to talk to you
again.”

Even Dabi hadn’t known Jackass number 1’s

name, but that had to be it because he had paled
so much he almost became transparent.

Usually, the cops would be more inclined to give

the benefit of the doubt of two people
connected to a hero school, especially as Dabi
looked like a villain. But a video of them using
their quirks wouldn’t only destroy their chances at
becoming heroes, but would destroy the rest of
their lives.

So they fled, leaving Dabi alone with the boy who

had saved his groceries from an unfortunate fate.
Groceries that he immediately put out of reach
when Dabi approached.

“Give that back.”

“In a second,” the kid assured.

Even from here, Dabi could see that the eggs had
been broken even though the bag hadn’t
touched the ground. They had probably ruptured
because of the speed. People with enhancer
quirks needed real training in order not to break
what they caught in mid-air

“I didn’t ask for your help,” Dabi immediately

clarified, because he didn’t owe him anything.

“Not this time. But I wonder if you would have

reached for my help again if you have found
yourself back in an interrogation room.”

And just like that, Dabi realized who was in front

of him.

Izuku was almost certain something had broken in

one of the bags he was holding –probably eggs-
and he was sweating buckets because it had to
be his fault. High speed brought power, and he
should have realized that the content of the bags
might not be able to survive the contact.

Something else to work on. A lot of people were

more resistant than before the rise of quirks, but
Izuku was proof enough that some of them were
still pretty fragile, so he had to make sure he
wouldn’t accidentally hurt someone while he was
using One for All.

“You are Anyone,” Inferno more inferyes realized,

taking a not quite step back, but definitely
putting himself in this position where he could
raise an arm and throw fire without exposing too
much of his body to the heat. “And you’re here
because I deleted the app right after you helped
me.”

He deleted it? Izuku had thought he had just

ended his account.

“Well, in a sense. I usually do that through the

server but since you weren’t there anymore, I had
to come in person.”

Of course, he could have let it go, but after

fleeing his own apartment this morning, he had
needed a distraction. Unfortunately, just when he
needed, no request had come in for Anyone, so
here he was, saving groceries and involving
himself into other people’s business.

He hadn’t even meant to intervene at first. Just…

patrolling. Yes, that was the word.

“You’re living under the name Yukihama Kaname

but no one corresponding to a man your age with
a fire quirk lives in Japan, so I assume it’s not your
real name,” Izuku continued. “However, you’re
starting to get known by the police for quirk
usage on public property and for a lot of fights.
No jobs.”

“So what?” the fire user asked, his voice devoid

of intonation but he was starting to get annoyed.

Izuku made sure that the grocery bags were in

front of him, a pitiful shield as far as those went.
However, it could serve as a reminder that since
he had saved them, he should be spared from
the flames for five more minutes.

“Anyone offers a good network for people who

are searching for a job despite difficult
circumstances.”

And by that, he meant villainous quirks or

mutations.

Not that blue fire was a bad quirk in itself. The

number 2 hero was a fire user after all, even using
this exact movement when he needed to use a
flamethrower technique, but everything was a
matter of perception…

Izuku’s brain screeshed to a halt and tried to tell

him something.

“Aren’t you here to ask me to repay the favor?”

the fire user asked, with open distrust in his voice.

With what money? From what Nagisa found, you

have nothing.

“No, it’s just the quickest way so you won’t be

pulled in an interrogation room anymore. I can’t
send a lawyer every time.”

But Izuku wasn’t really focused on the

conversation anymore, because there was
something really familiar about the man in front
of him. The way he talked. The quirk. Maybe even
the face…

The eyes.

The exact same shade of blue.

“Why are you staring at me?” Inferno more

Inferyes frowned.

“You have interesting eyes.”

The fire user took one step backwards just as

Izuku realized what he had just said, and his brain
decided that would be a good idea to throw the
groceries bags at him. They hit this guy on the
chest, but at least, it left Izuku the time to leave
as fast as he had arrived, helped by Full Cowl.

Shouto was half asleep in his bed after a solo

training session when his phone rang, right next
to his ear.

It was nine pm when All for One appeared on the

rooftop of the modestly high building where
Izuku had taken refuge, sitting on the edge and
his legs dangling in the air as he was looking at
Mount Lady punching the day light out of the
villain who also had a gigantification quirk.

Thankfully, the police and her sidekicks had

evacuated the zone, because those two were
causing a lot of collateral damages.

Construction companies probably sent her

chocolate every time she fought somewhere.

“Izuku?” the villain called, and there was

something strange in his voice, but at the time,
the teenage boy barely paid attention, more
interested in the warp quirk he was using. Some
sort of black substance that had covered him to
bring him here.

All for One stayed where he was, but his whole

body was tense. It couldn’t be because of their
argument this morning, could he? Because this
wasn’t different from any of his attempts to grab
One for All.

“How did you find me?” Izuku asked.

All for One slowly started to approach.

Izuku brought one of his knees closer to his chest,

one of his feet back on something solid. If
someone tried to make him fall, he would be able
to kick the floor to propel himself to safety.

“I didn’t,” the villain said, stopping where he was.

Maybe five meters from Izuku. “My warp quirk
doesn’t need coordinates but bring me to the
people I know.”

That sounded interesting. Warp quirks were rare

and precious, but most people were
automatically thinking about the quirk similar to
Kurogiri’s. To be able to access any place at any
time. Or at least, a place the user had already
seen.

But this one… It allowed the warper to

immediately find the person he was looking for.

“Anyone you ever met?” Izuku asked.

“What do you think?’ All for One asked.

One should never ask what Izuku thought about a

quirk unless they were prepared to the long
answer.

“You probably have to at least talk to them. Or

have the time to observe them, just to memorize
who they are. A human brain isn’t made to
remember every face you ever encountered…
You can warp to people but can you warp people
to you? And if it’s the case, is it only the one you
know or everyone because you, as the receptor, is
the one fulfilling the acquaintance condition?”

“Not bad.” All for One’s small smile reached his

eyes and managed to give his whole face some
tranquil happiness.

“You’re not going to tell me what I got right?”

“I won’t, but I am impressed by your ease at

analyzing quirks.”

Izuku didn’t care about him being impressed, he

wanted answers. It was unfair to dangle such a
great quirks in front of him and not tell him what
it could do.

And judging by All for One’s little smile, the fiend

was aware of it.

A random thought made the fun of analyzing a

quirk disappear.

“Then, are you going to tell me when you

obtained this quirk?” the teenage boy asked,
because for all he knew, someone was suddenly
quirkless because he had jumped head first into
Tartarus.

“Is that some note of disapproval I am hearing in

your voice, Izuku? For stealing a quirk?”

Suddenly, Mount Lady’s special move was

fascinating.

“I know that what I did was bad,” Izuku said

quietly, still looking at the pro hero. “I know how
much it hurt him.”

One glance behind him confirmed that All for

One’s smile had become wolfish.

Every instance where All Might is hurt brings him

joy.

“But I don’t think you can say the same things,”

Izuku continued. “Once the quirk is in your
possession, I doubt people still interest you.”

Izuku wouldn’t pretend he was a connoisseur of

good and evil men, but someone had once told
him that evil began when one begin to treat
people as things. At the time, Izuku hadn’t
understand it, but he was almost certain this has
something to do where people weren’t seen as
people anymore, but as a mean to an end.

All for One confirmed exactly what Izuku was

thinking by completely ignoring what he said
about people and focusing on quirks.

“It’s not like they even use their quirks. Those

people follow the rules and don’t use their quirks
without a license. If they do, they hide it in their
homes, convincing themselves that those sparks
of power are the best they could have. While I
can use a quirk to its full potential.”

“That sounds like justification.”

Be honest. You just want to have quirks. It doesn’t

go beyond that.

“It’s not. Would you refuse one of my quirk

because of how it was obtained?”

That’s some nice change of subject.

Izuku dangled his right leg in the emptiness, and

didn’t fail to notice that it made All for One even
tenser than before. The villain had been getting
closer and closer to the end of the roof, and if
something was making him uncomfortable, Izuku
doubted it was the height. Not with the kind of
quirk that he had showed in Tartarus.

It was strange how things changed once you had

the means to survive them. Before, being so
close to a fall would have at least elevated Izuku’s
heartbeat. Now, he could see the thousands of
ways he could slow down his fall, land on another
building, or even use fully One for All to survive.
He was no All Might and couldn’t simply jump
and land on his feet, but his new quirk seemed to
make everything more survivable.

And even now, he was calm, because he knew he

wouldn’t fall.

But All for One had asked him a question, so he

went back to that.

“It’s even simpler than that: I don’t trust you. Even

if I did, I don’t need anything else. People don’t
always have the mutation to deal with enhanced
strength. Things like resistance and shock
absorption depend of genetic coincidences. But
it doesn’t mean one can’t get used to a new input
of power. One for All can be controlled as long as
I slowly get used to it.”

“Sounds like someone who hasn’t experienced

chronic pains yet would say…” the villain started
to mock, his veneer of patience chipping.

Far away from them, the giant villain grabbed a

car and tried to slam it on Mount Lady’s face. She
avoided it and uppercut him with all the wrath
someone who was about to see his assurance
augment could muster.

It was a bad move because the villain got

knocked out and fell backwards, not regaining a
small frame. Mount Lady tried to keep him from
falling completely, but she could barely slow him
down.

The shockwave never reached them. They were

too far. But All for One’s arm appeared near him,
so fast it was almost a blur, and Izuku caught it
because if someone tried to push the teenage
boy to his death, the least Izuku could do was to
make them accompany him.

But All for One simply grabbed his wrist, his

fingers incredibly cold, and neither of them let
go.

“I don’t mind you having fun watching quirks in

action. But not this close to the ledge.”

And he dragged Izuku away from the best view in

the city.

Dabi didn’t open the door of his appartement

when someone decided to knock so hard the
cheap door tried to escape from the frame.
Instead, he look through the hole to see a
teenager he had never seen but that he
immediately recognized.

“Open the door,” Todoroki Shouto said. “We

need to talk.”

Notes:
If you're wondering why All for
One was taking so much time
approaching Izuku at the end, it
was because he didn't want to
startle him and make him fall.
Also, from this point, Izuku has the
sneaking and horrifying suspicion
that AFO is adopting him.

Next chapter happens after some

time has passed and the real plot
should start. Because yes, I have a
plot beyond "AFO makes
breakfast for Izuku."

Thank you for all the previous

comments. <3

CHAPTER 8
Summary:
Izuku and Shouto's first day in high
school!

Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Izuku was dreaming of flying when someone

committed the mistake of waking him up. The
wind was still screaming in his ears- but the cold,
strangely, wasn’t affecting him- when he opened
his eyes, but the dream shattered when he
looked up to see All for One’s familiar face
looking at him.

He sat up immediately, every cell of his body

groaning, be it because of the morning or
because there was nothing more unpleasant that
someone sneaking up on you while you were
asleep.

“What are you doing in my room?” Izuku calmly

growled.

All for One took a step backwards and presented

a cup of coffee as if it was a shield between the
consequences of invading Izuku’s space and a
super villain who had enough quirks to fear
nothing except for a teenager who didn’t agree
with the very concept of mornings.

The heavenly smell distracted Izuku long enough

for All for One to explain himself.

“If you don’t wake up now, you’re going to be

late for your first day of school. Here,” he said as
he put the mug on Izuku’s white and plain
nightstand. It wasn’t in All Might’s colors before it
was the newest thing in this room. “Take your
sugar with some coffee. Breakfast is ready.”

Since the coffee was perfect, Izuku choose to

mercifully spare his annoying roommate and he
watched him leave without as much as a shudder
when he passed in front of the All Might posters.
The ward isn't powerful enough.
Izuku finished his coffee and grabbed his phone,
only to realize that he was still wearing his Gang
Orca hoodie from yesterday. Because, now that
he remembered, he had fallen asleep on the
couch as he was working on an Anyone problem
but for two weeks now, when he had made that
mistake, he had either woken up tucked in his
bed, either with a villain leaning on him like an
affectionate cat.

After checking the hour, he started to crawl back

under the blankets.

I definitely have five more minutes to sleep.

Maybe even seven before the breakfast goes
cold.

Izuku woke up ten minutes later as All for One

was knocking on his door, and he burst out his
room so fast he almost collided with the local
villain. He jumped in the shower, put on his high
school uniform (minus the tie), and ran to the
kitchen where All for One was waiting for him.

“Are you having first day jitters?” All for One

asked as Izuku was chewing a mouthful of eggs,
bacon, and grilled toasts.

Izuku shook his head. Once his mouth was empty,

he sipped some of his coffee to give himself the
time to put words on what he was feeling.

“No, I am not worried. I just have to survive a

couple of weeks, and then I will be able to take
full advantage of the online classes. I will just
have to be in school once in a while if I can justify
an internship.”

“Survive? I wasn’t aware high schools had

become so dangerous.”

Spoken like someone who had never been

electrocuted so much in middle school that his
heart had developed arrhythmia for a while.

“Schools aren’t the problem,” Izuku noted.

“People are.”

It had been so long since he had actually been in

a school, but he still remembered the last time.
How annoyed people were every time he opened
his mouth. How the teachers turned a blind eye,
even when a childhood friend would slap his
back, tiny explosions on his palm.

How when he had fallen after some girl with no

more patience had sent an electric current
through his body, and how no one had even
reacted. Just silence when he had fallen,
hiccupping in pain, and silence when he had left,
painfully walking out of the school, stunned,
disorientated, then the ground had come to meet
him again.

So, even if Izuku wasn’t stressed at the idea of

going back in an institution where teenagers were
put in competition until they snap, it didn’t mean
he was eager to spend time there.

And now, All for One was looking at him, with this
familiar hungry expression, as if he needed to
know anything, like a great beast that was
feeding on secrets, and could smell their
shadows.

But Izuku’s secrets were his own and he guarded

them jealously.

All for One leaned back and in a second, his

interest was erased. Hard to look for weaknesses
when you are so obvious about it, after all. He
poured more coffee into Izuku’s cup, the black
one with the words Plus Ultra written in white,
and he added more sugar.

And more.

And more.

“Don’t think of school as a chore but as a

network,” the sociopath advised. “People can be
annoying but some of them are interesting, with
quirks and experiences you don’t have. Be in
their good favors, and you can learn from them.
As for the rest… It’s a good training for pest
management.”

How cold. People as a mass of information to

analyze, and something to gain from.

But, and Izuku would never admit it, analyzing

was a familiar ground, and if one followed this
line of thought, things appeared to be simpler.

Almost reassuring.

“And I will add that any growing boy needs

friends,” All for One told him.

“Could you remind me of how many friends you

have?” Izuku asked with the most innocent face
one had ever witnessed.

All for One gave him a bright smile.

“I am flattered to know you want to end up like

me.”

Argh.

“I already have two friends,” Izuku muttered, his

face half hidden behind his cup.

“Today is the first step on the road of glory, and

you have to show the world the legacy you
represent… You have a power that is beyond
most people’s dreams! And thanks to your
training, you have to surpass All Might…”

Shouto sneaked a glance to his nee-san who

wasn’t saying anything but who was starting to
push more food towards their old man, probably
in the hope that he would finally shut up.

But Endeavor, the number 2 hero, and

unfortunately, Shouto’s gene donor, just couldn’t
be stopped. As soon as Shouto would lay a toe
inside UA, the privacy granted any heroes’ family
would stop to apply to him and everyone would
see what his father had created. A child with an
incredibly powerful quirk, with a training that
allowed him to rival with pro heroes, and no one
would think it was due to Shouto’s own efforts,
but because Endeavor had been the one to mold
him.

That annoyed the hell out of him every time he

thought about it.

Absentmindedly, he checked his phone and the

Clamor server. He knew Midoriya wouldn’t be
there, not when he was one of those strange
people who hated mornings but who could stay
awake all night without problem.

And he was right. There was no green light next

to the icon of SmallMight1541. But someone else
had left a message for him.

Inferno more inferyes:

[Good luck for today.]

Shouto fought a smile.

Izuku did his tie in front of the mirror and ignored

All for One hovering around him. Yes, I know it's
crooked. Then, he put on his sneakers and
grabbed his bag.

“I can drive you,” All for One told him.

Izuku froze. Then, slowly turned towards the

villain.

“Don’t take this the wrong way but don’t ever

approach my school. Ever. I don’t want to deal
with a red alert because a S-class villain walked
by.”

Visions of people screaming in panic, of fires and

car crashes, and worse, of All Might appearing,
immediately came to mind.

“It’s true that it would make one annoying traffic

jam,” All for One nodded, and Izuku remembered
that the last time there had been a human traffic
jam, it was In Tartarus and the villain had simply
started to throw people out of the way to pass
through, with Izuku and Eri under his arm.

All for One shoved something in Izuku’s hands. A

black box, warm to the touch, and which hadn’t
seen the light of the day since Izuku had stopped
going to school so her mom didn’t need to
prepare him meals to eat outside.

“You made me a bento?” the teenager asked.

“Of course I did. Left to your own devices, you

grab something from a convini or forget to eat. I
leave in the fear of you dropping dead and for
One for All to be lost forever.”

Izuku squinted at him.

And All for One hugged him.

He didn’t even try to hide it. Izuku saw it coming.

But his back was to the door and his hands were
holding the bento, and unless he had used One
for All to gain some speed, there was no way to
avoid him in time, so the villain sneaked a quick
hug, his shin put on the top of Izuku’s head.

All for One let him go just before Izuku had to

claw his way out.

“Now off you go,” All for One, with his usual
trolling smile, waved him off at the door. “And
don’t get caught using Full Cowl!”

Izuku immediately stopped starting to call One

for All and pointedly didn’t use his quirk as he
walked out.

At least, until he was out of the street.

In front of the mirror right before the exit, the one

Natsuo had installed so he could check his outfit
before leaving, Shouto was holding the golden
braided rope between his index and thumb, not
convinced by what he was seeing. The rope was
on his blazer, hanging to the right shoulder pad
and finishing in the first button on the jacket. This
was an extra decoration to identify him as an
Exemplar, someone hand-picked by the Hero
Commission.

If I rip it off, is there a chance that someone will

notice it?

“Shouto, you look so good!” Fuyumi

complimented him, her phone in hand.

Okay, maybe nee-san will.

“Studying is important but don’t forget to have

fun and to make friends,” his sister said as she
was taking a worrying amount of pictures.

Shouto didn’t have the heart to tell her that there

would be no opportunity to have fun. UA was a
school which reunited the elite of quirk users,
children with as much training as he did. The first
day would be an opportunity to judge the
competition, then, it would be a bitter battle to
constantly prove their worth. None of the
students would think about making friends or
having fun, and if Shouto ever thought about
that, he would start with a disadvantage.

But that was exactly what their dad would have

said, and worse, it would worry his sister

“I will do my best,” he answered instead.

Then, they both froze when their old man’s

familiar and annoying voice was heard through
the house, calling for Shouto, then for Fuyumi.

“Where is Shouto? I will drive him to school!”

Shouto barged through the door.

The last thing he heard as he escaped was

Fuyumi.

“Oh, that’s too bad,” his nee-san was saying. “He

just left.”

SmallMight1541 :

[Ave Snowdrift. Morituri te salutant. ]

Snowdrift:

[You’re being dramatic.]

SmallMight1541:

[Am I?]

Izuku arrived on time to school but he never

reached his classroom.

Instead, someone from the school - whose name

he forgot because of how stressed he was - called
him by his full name, Akatani Mikumo, and led
him to a room where a demi-dozens of students
were already sitting, looking as uncomfortable as
Izuku and he was led to a desk with a tablet and a
stack of paper.

The woman who had led Izuku here explained

that they were here because they all had
intellectual quirks and the school had prepared a
quick test to assess their abilities. Other students
with enhancer quirks, or elemental quirks, and so
on, were also taking this same kind of test in
rooms that would accommodate them, and that
there was no need to worry.

The tablet on Izuku’s assigned desk was showing

a hero fight. Hawks vs a villain with an ironskin
quirk.

Of course, it wasn’t a fight Izuku was familiar with.

He asked the permission to put his headphones

on and started to write.

He went to this familiar place where things had a

sense. Quirks were mysteries wrapped in enigmas
wrapped in more mysteries and Izuku had always
loved discovering their secrets. He might not
have an analysis quirk but he had years and years
of practice and no quirk could rival with that.

His pen was almost flying above the paper.

And his heart almost escaped his ribcage when

the supervisor put a hand on his shoulder,
startling him. In a second, he saw himself being
escorted out of the room, then grilled about his
quirk. His new identity was solid but not perfect.
What would happen if they make the link with
Midoriya Izuku?

Izuku looked up at the middle-aged lady with a

smiling face and completely black eyes, but he
could have been looking at All Might himself at
this moment.

“Akatani-kun,” she gently called him, “I don’t

think you’re realizing it but you’re mumbling and
it’s hindering your classmates.”

The wave of relief that swept through Izuku

almost made him weep.

Shouto might have been the only one not to be

surprised when Aizawa-Sensei decided to test
them on their first day, with the promise to expel
the one with the worst results at the end.

What he didn’t expect was how completely

unprepared a lot of them were.

One of the students, a blond boy, actually

electrocuted himself and a dark-haired girl with
earlobes ending in jack plugs had to hold his
hand until the end of the test. Another blond boy
who spoke French couldn’t use his quirk more
than two seconds without being in pain.

At least, the invisible girl throwing her shoes

when she was supposed to sprint and jump was
smart.

Shouto was starting to suspect that none of his

classmates realized they were in a competitive
military school.

But that wasn’t the worst.

“DIE!” one the students screamed, a blond boy

with crimson eyes who seemed to love yelling
violent battle cries when he was using his quirk.

Shouto had kept an eye on him since he had first

shown his quirk.

Midoriya had never told him his childhood

friend’s name, calling him Kacchan, but he had
lovingly described a powerful Explosion quirk and
some details about his personality had slipped
through.

Ochako generally considered herself a good

person. Her parents had raised her right, taught
her to be polite and to be nice of people, but not
to be a doormat.

But when Aizawa-Sensei had announced that the

last one at the tests would be disqualified, she
had been ready to beat all of her classmates with
a baseball bat if it was what it took to stay in this
school- especially as this was one of the only hero
schools who didn’t bleed their students dry with
the tuition fees.

This fierce feeling of You will have to kill me if you

want to expel me and even that might not be
enough was exacerbated by the fact there was
not one, not two, but three Exemplars. Three
students who already had an advantage and it
wasn’t a surprise to see them appear in the top
three. Todoroki Shouto, Yaoyorozu Momo, and
Bakugou Katsuki. The last one had been
especially displeased about his place.

As if that mattered. The only good place was the

one that wasn’t the last.

At least, until Aizawa-Sensei decided that it was a

logical ruse. Everyone screamed, outraged, and
the only one who didn’t say anything was the boy
ranked last, a boy with purple hair that defied
gravity not because of a quirk but because of
fashion. He had dropped to his knees, his hands
in front of his face, and he wasn’t moving.

Ochako immediately walked to him.

Tenya was already leaving, eager not to be late to

the next class, when he saw two of his classmates
lagging behind. One was Uraraka Ochako,
ranked 10, who was kneeling next to Shinsou
Hitoshi, ranked last, who was deathly pale.

He had noticed the moment when his classmate

had dropped to his knees but he hadn’t reacted.
He had thought that he would need some time
alone.

He just didn’t…

Once again, he hadn’t acted as a hero.

That’s why you weren’t chosen as an Exemplar,

unlike nii-san. You still have a long way to go.

By the time he was walking towards Uraraka and

Shinsou, the purple-haired boy was already
walking away, pretending that nothing had
happened.

Tenya had lost an occasion to do the right thing.

Snowdrift:

[ I met Bakugou Katsuki. ]

SmallMight1441:

[ How is he?]

Snowdrift:

[ Loud, violent, and prone to a stroke if

he doesn’t watch himself.]

The weather was fair so most students had

decided to eat outside and Izuku had followed
them, like a sheep following his flock. There was
safety in numbers and he was completely ready
to lose himself into a tiny crowd, if only to deal
with what had just happened.

For he had passed the test. He had actually been

congratulated for his results.

And two students had been escorted out. No one

had seen them ever since, but they had probably
been expelled on the spot for lying about their
quirks.

Kohaku wasn’t a hero school, and though

students were allowed to use intellectual quirks, it
was the exception and not the rule. They weren’t
supposed to be selected on quirks. But Kohaku
had tested their students to make sure no
quirkless students or anyone having an ill-
omened quirk had managed to slip through.

Izuku wasn’t even surprised by it. But it was

disturbing.

He had been congratulated on his ability to

analyze quirks.

And he would have been kicked out if they had

known he was quirkless.

But of course, even if they were called out, they

wouldn’t call that quirk discrimination. They
would talk about trust and how one couldn’t trust
liars.

Izuku was brought back to the conversation when

the girl next to him, whose hair was made of
many green snakes, and with gray eyes which
reminded Izuku of a stormy night, showed a
picture of a tiny black cat who was surrounded by
snake-haired family members

Everyone, Izuku included, cooed when they saw

the picture of the adorable ball of fluff.

“Akatani, you never answered,” Hebisuga

reminded him. “Do you have a pet?”

Izuku paused, thinking about the evil cat that had

followed him from Tartarus. “No, it’s just…”

A super villain who refused to leave but who also

made the bento I just shared with all of you.

“… A cat who hangs out at my place like he is at

home. Even though it’s definitely not his.”

“Oh, he adopted you,” Yuuto teased. He was an

orange-haired boy with a thermos quirk, which
explained why he had actually brought ice cream
from home, who was wrong.

“He did not adopt me,” Izuku corrected him. “He

is just a demonic thing.”

“What does he look like?” Ayato (infrared quirk)

asked as he tried not to laugh at Izuku’s pain.

“Big and white,” Izuku said before deciding that

if his mouth was full of rice, he didn’t have to
answer any more questions, so he did just that.

He didn’t have to force himself to eat. This bento

was absolutely delicious. It rivaled with what his
mother, a chef, could do. That was how good it
was.

“Well, my cat is definitely not a demon and she is

the cuddliest thing ever.”

So is mine. Unfortunately.

Of course, Izuku was aware of why All for One

was touch-starved. One quick Google search had
confirmed that isolation was just not a good thing
for a human being and All for One was almost
well-adjusted for someone who had been
trapped in a cell for ten years.

Izuku had simply been unlucky enough to be the

object of an incredible imprinting, probably
helped by the light of a familiar quirk and maybe
a resemblance to All for One’s little brother.

Dabi, the first time he had witnessed how clingy

All for One could get with Izuku, had called that
the Ducky Syndrome.

But only when All for One hadn’t been around to

hear him say that.

Smallmight1541:
 [People in my class are actually nice! ]

[And there are so many incredible

quirks!]

After his classes had ended, Izuku had headed to

UA to meet Todoroki. His friend hadn’t been
certain it was a good idea since Bakugou was
there, but Izuku was confident in his ability to
avoid him in time. After all, it had been practiced
over many years.

However, since Izuku was watching out for

heterochromatic partner in crime and an
explosive childhood friend, he wasn’t quite
prepared to see a really thin and very tall man in
a yellow suit too big for him.

Holy crap.

All Might, in his incognito form, was leaving UA.

He was maybe fifteen meters away from Izuku

and from One for All.

Todoroki was not far behind him. He smiled at

Izuku and frowned when he was ignored.

Izuku somehow managed to keep walking while

exercising a perfect control on his face. He didn’t
look at All Might, slightly turning his head away,
and he calmly walked away as if he had never
done anything wrong in his life, and definitely not
stolen One for All.

Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy crap.

One for All was just right under his skin, reacting
to Izuku’s panic and begging to be used but that
would be a suicidal move. Using a hint of Full
Cowl would lead to All Might immediately
noticing him. One California Smash later, Izuku
would finish embedded into a wall.

Even though this would probably be deserved,

Izuku preferred to avoid such unfortunate fate.

Todoroki caught up with him, surprised but not

saying anything. He knew Izuku enough to realize
he wouldn’t react like that for no reason.

“Don’t look but the tall and thin man in a yellow

suit is All Might.”

Todoroki immediately looked back despite what

Izuku has just asked. He stopped after one
panicked glare and he passed an arm around
Izuku’s shoulders as if he wanted to hide the quirk
thief from the Symbol of Peace.

“Him?” He knew about All Might’s wound and

how it had weakened him but he had never seen
the number 1 hero’s true appearance. “Maybe he
was talking with Nedzu. After all, he is an UA
alumni.”

“Maybe…”

Izuku knew he had to be inconspicuous but in the

end, he couldn’t prevent himself from looking
again. The first time he had seen the number 1
hero in person, he had been jaded. The second
time, he had been scared and apologetic,
entrusting the most powerful quirk in the world to
Izuku because he thought he didn’t have a
choice.

Now, there was a sadness that definitely wasn’t

here before.

Kurogiri didn’t say anything that could have

constituted a warning before a mass of black mist
appeared in the middle of the bar, just tall and
large enough to allow a person to discreetly slip
through.

The first one to emerge was a white-haired boy

wearing grey pants, a blue sweater and a black
tie, the uniform of Kohaku, a school that regularly
produced members of the Hero Commission. His
big green eyes and his freckles made him look
younger than he was, and anyone looking at him
would see a shy kid who would apologize if
someone stepped on his foot.

That same kid also had a quirk that made him

look like the lovechild child the Symbol of Peace
would have had with the general concept of
chaos. He had no fear. And his concept of a
hobby was to lead an illegal organization where
he avoided cops and heroes to help people
where the law failed, and whose idea of finding
funds for his budget was to commit various
robberies concerning anything that was insured.

This last detail was the reason why Dabi still had a
bruise on his back, a newfound knowledge about
security systems, and a bank account that wasn’t
weeping in pain anymore each time he looked at
anything that wasn’t a basic item necessary for his
survival.

His boss smiled at Dabi and Dabi smiled back,

then smiled at the second teenager who
appeared. Shouto was wearing the UA uniform
with the mark of an Exemplar on his jacket.

Dabi had been terrified at the idea of not

receiving his invitation to be an Exemplar when
he had been Shouto’s age. When the letter had
arrived, he hadn’t even been happy. Just relieved
because that meant he didn’t have to train
anymore. But his little brother was smarter than
him and had learned to despite their father much
earlier.

Though he still had to realize that he wasn’t

supposed to force his long lost brother’s door or
to create an ice cage so he wouldn’t escape. A
phone call would have been enough.

And he was currently… not clinging, but standing

really close to Yami- his business name because
Anyone was too confusing and Midoriya was a
name only Shouto seemed to be allowed to use.
As for Yami himself, he had this look on his face
when he was carefully controlling his expression
so no one would notice anything wrong, the
same way Fuyumi did.

“How was school? And why do you both look like

you’ve seen a ghost?”

Shouto and Yami both looked at each other,

silently agreeing to say the same bullshit.

“Stressful first day,” they both said at the same

time as if they had a telepathic quirk.

Then, they immediately went to the bar and

warmly greeted Kurogiri who welcomed them like
favorite nephews, and a couple of minutes later,
two plates of French fries with cheese and bacon
were presented to the kids.

Unbelievable.

“Why do they get the VIP treatment while I have

been here for an hour and the only thing I got
was pretzels?”

“Because they are VIP, obviously,” Kurogiri

informed him without sparing him a glance, but
an ink spot started to appear near Dabi’s pretzels
bowl and he barely managed to save them in
time from the warp gate.

Yami shared with him. Shouto didn’t. Maybe

because he knew Yami would get as many snacks
as he wanted since he was obviously Kurogiri’s
favorite. Or maybe he needed to be reminded
that Dabi was fast enough to steal his food.

Many fries and pretzels had been stolen in all

direction when All for One appeared in the bar in
a mass of black liquid, as if shadows had
somehow oozed through reality. A warp quirk he
wasn’t born with but that he had stolen. For all
Dabi knew, it had been taken before his birth but
that was still disturbing.

The legendary villain was maybe as tall as

Endeavor, white-haired, wearing a dark suit, as
always, and he looked like he wasn’t even in his
thirties. In a world of quirks where anyone could
have any mutation, he would have passed as
plain if it wasn’t for his presence.

It was as if he was everywhere. Dabi just couldn’t

ignore him as every cell of his body was focused
on him, screaming at him that this man was
dangerous. Maybe that was what prey species felt
around a predator.

“Kurogiri,” he said, his tone warm and obviously

amused but there was just something hiding in
every word that forced Dabi to pay attention.
Fortunately-and as always when the white-haired
child was in the same room- he was paying
attention to Yami and not to Shouto or Dabi.
“You can’t keep feeding them junk food.”

“Don’t listen to him, Kurogiri. You definitely can,”

Yami assured, showing his utter disdain for the
atavistic survival instinct most human beings
seemed to have.

It drew a chuckle from All for One.

The proof that dragons could purr.

Yami leaned back, just a little, so he would be

between Shouto and All for One if anything
happened. Dabi’s brother had an incredible quirk
and a minute spent in the villain’s company would
reveal he loved those as much as Yami did, so the
leader of Anyone unconsciously interposed
himself.

Never afraid to lose his own power.

Dabi suspected that this was because just like his,

the enhancer quirk Yami used was too destructive
unless one took immense precautions. The
teenage boy had mentioned how he could never
afford to lose focus because the price to pay was
broken bones.

To ill-suited quirks, he silently cheered. May we

never be forced to use our full powers.

All for One walked to the bar and rubbed

shoulders with Yami before starting to steal fries
in his plates. Then, when Yami tried to push the
plate away, All for One decided to hug him with
one arm.

The plate was quickly brought back as a gesture

of good will, but this wasn't enough and the arm
stayed where it was.

From what Dabi had observed in their previous

interactions, Yami would soon escape. Then,
there would be head pats, attempts at clinginess,
and other instances where the most terrifying
villain that had ever walked the earth would
absentmindedly touch Yami.

Once, and only once, Dabi has asked Shouto why

the most terrifying villain was circling around
Anyone despite not being a part of the
organization.

To this day, he was still haunted by Shouto’s very

vague answer where he had more or less implied
that Yami had accidentally broken out the lord of
the underworld from Tartarus.

For the sake of his sanity, Dabi had decided to

believe that this was typical teenage
exaggeration.

Inferno more inferyes:

[ Honestly, as soon as AFO saw a

teenage villain with an illegal organization, a
complete disregard for laws, and a fascination
with quirks, Yami was adopted. It must have
felt like finding a long lost son. ]

Snowdrift:

[It’s funny that you mention that

because I actually have a theory…]

Hawks’ feathers flickered in annoyance. That was

the only thing betraying his irritation as he
confirmed that the Hero Commission had frozen
his funds. And without warning him, of course.

If he had been in his agency, he would have never

showed how annoyed he was. In a public place,
one had to wear the adequate mask. A lesson
taught again and again from the moment he had
been chosen as a Paragon, the Hero
Commission’s special ones.

But since he was hidden in his apartment, he let

himself fall on his couch, groaning and using
some power words about stupid bureaucrats and
how this whole situation was betraying a
staggering lack of common sense.

Earlier this day, his handler had asked him to take

care of an organization named Anyone, for it was
a villainous group breaking the law.

Hawks, who actually kept his ears to the ground

and knew the rumors about someone helping
anyone in nee, in exchange of a future favor, had
reminded Mera that a villain was defined as
someone using their quirk to hurt others, so
Anyone couldn’t be qualified as such. Unless, of
course, the Hero Commission had other elements
he wasn’t aware of.

Like one of their members being arrested

because of drugs in his car, right after he had
violated the restraining order his girlfriend had
against him.

The Hero Commission had never answered his

question, preferring to use the discretionary
rights they had over the account opened for him
since he was twelve. He had almost ample funds
he could use for himself and for his agency, but in
exchange, the Commission could see everything
he was doing and felt free to wipe it out
completely when he was being difficult.

When his rank had dropped a year ago, Hawks

had spent a month surviving on the money he
had been squirreling away on a personal account.
If it had lasted longer, he wouldn’t have been
able to pay his sidekicks or his rent.

They would probably contact him again

tomorrow. And when they would ask Hawks to
jump, he would know to answer “How high?”

Notes:
Another way to read Akatani
Mikumo is Yami, which meant
Darkness, and it's probably the
reason why I settled on this name.
Also, Izuku in this story has five
names: Midoriya Izuku, Akatani
Mikumo, Anyone, Yami, and
SmallMight1541. And for those
who didn't notice, 1541 is All for
One's cell number in Tartarus. ^^

What else...
This chapter is more about
worldbuilding that I wanted to
because I realized that the
chronology wouldn't allow me to
tackle the fun stuff with people
being low-key traumatized and
Izuku going O.o so soon.

I want to thank all of you for the

reactions I had on this fic. I want
you to know I keep rereading your
comments again and again.

EDIT: DISCLAIMER: Please, do not

adopt dingos. They are wild
animals who are about as friendly
as hyenas.
I apologize for all the Australian
readers (or just aware of dingos in
general) for almost having a heart
attack when they learned about
Eri's potential project. BNHA and
Anyone are world of fiction and
just like I expect my beloved
readers not to break into prisons
to accidentally break out
supervillains, I trust you not to
attempt to pet wild animals.

CHAPTER 9
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

You have six new messages from Snowdrift.

… And that’s why there is a high probability

that Yami is All for One’s secret lovechild!]

Inferno more Infernes:

[It’s 4 AM.]

[Just go to sleep.]

[Besides, it would make more sense if

Yami was All Might’s secret lovechild.
Abandoned by his dad. And All for One, in a
delicious twist of fate, would have adopted
the son of the Symbol of Peace. ]

Snowdrift is currently typing.

Spicy McNuggets joined the server.

The mornings were quiet in the Kurosawa family.

Kazuko was rinsing the dishes, making sure to

have something to do since the moment she had
woken up. Always busy, always something in her
hands, while her expression was carefully
controlled.

Behind her, her daughter wasn’t as careful,

playing with her breakfast without touching it. At
twelve, Miyu looked older than her age, with her
father’s black hair and golden eyes. The rest
looked like her mother.

And there were dark circles under her eyes as she

smiled at Kazuko. They had tried to keep Masashi
content this week, careful to play the part of the
loving family who understood his sacrifices, but
Miyu must have snapped at her father during
training, and the result had been nightmares
plaguing her night.

Kazuko carefully hid her anger, smiled back at her

daughter, and she made sure her back was to her
husband by the time he arrived in the kitchen,
already dressed to leave, but not in his hero
costume.

Not when he just didn’t manage to rise up in the

ranks. Instead, his quirk allowed him to be
regularly hired by the government, and this way,
this family didn’t have to worry about money.

But it was eating at Masashi not to be a real hero.

No fame or recognition for him, only working in
the shadows.

She used to have sympathy for him. To

understand his frustration.

Not anymore.

“You’re not eating your breakfast?” she asked her

husband, smiling as if she was really happy to see
him.

The trick was to mind the eyes.

“I will grab something to eat later,” Masashi

smiled back. “Work doesn’t wait.”

He kissed her on the cheek, a hand on the small

of her back, then he left but not before ruffling
Miyu’s hair. Kazuko waited for him to leave, then
listened until she heard the purring of her
husband’s car.

Once she was sure Masashi had driven away, she

turned to her daughter who was blatantly
watching by the window.

“It’s time to pack your bags, honey.”

Miyu nodded, got to her feet, hugged her

mother, and scurried off to her room. She had
known this was coming for a month now. Since
the moment her quirk training had become more
intensive and the nightmares haunting them had
become impossible to ignore –the benefit of the
doubt could only survive for so long- but they
had needed to wait for when Masashi would
leave for more than a day.

Now, Kazuko needed to pack her own bags, to

check that Miyu wouldn’t forget anything, and to
call the school to inform them that her daughter
was sick in order to give them some time.

Instead of doing all that, she grabbed her phone,

opened the Clamor app, and contacted
Gladiolus, who was thankfully already online.

Aster:

[ He is gone.]

Gladiolus:

[You’re doing the right

thing.]

Kazuko knew that but that didn’t mean she didn’t

need to hear it again.

However, there was one last detail the people

who would help her needed to know.

Aster:

[There is one thing I didn’t tell you

about my husband.]

Ao, who had just spent the last two weeks

convincing Aster of leaving the home of an
abusive narcissist, was informed that the jackass
in question was not only on the Hero
Commission’s payroll (which she thankfully
already knew) but that this was the pro hero
Nightmare.

He was the opposite of high-ranked and most

people didn’t know him, but he had gained a
reputation in some underground circles as a man
who worked as an interrogator. And the people
he talked with often left the room with white hair.

This was bad news.

Ao’s trusted baseball bat could take care of a lot,

but dealing with a pro hero might be beyond her
powers.

The young woman passed a hand in her short

blue hair, furiously thinking.

At no point did she allow herself to panic. Once

upon a time, she had been trained as a medic
and her teachers had made sure she always kept
her cool.

Nightmare was supposed to be gone for a week.

So nothing kept her from picking up Aster and
her daughter before driving them to a safe place.

She just needed a contingency plan in case there

was a problem.

And she knew just the kid who could help her
with that.

Let’s hope Akatani is currently in one piece.

Gladiolus:

[Just to know, how could I neutralize

someone who has a quirk that traumatizes
people by showing them their worst fears?]

SmallMight1541:

[ ??? ]

Izuku found out that in term of completely waking

up someone, there was nothing like this fine
moment where someone didn’t want to contact
Anyone because it wasn’t worth it, so instead,
they contacted Akatani Mikumo to ask questions
about a quirk, before casually mentioning a dark
story about a quirk marriage and an abusive
spouse and father.

It might even more efficient than caffeine.

Well, maybe.

Izuku contacted Kurogiri right before he arrived

to school and passed though the warp gate as
soon as it appeared, only to walk in right in front
of All for One, sitting on a stool, his back to the
bar, obviously waiting for him.
Argh.

“What are you doing here?” Izuku blurted out

before remembering that it was impossible to get
a straight answer out of All for One so he turned
towards Kurogiri. “Actually, why didn’t you tell me
he was here?”

The bartender gave him a dry look. “Am I

supposed to give you his location every time he
is in sight?”

“Why not?” Izuku asked, remembering how every

time he arrived to the bar, Kurogiri texted his
boss. “That’s exactly what you do for him.”

Kurogiri decided to find himself something to do

and to avoid eye contacts.

“He was working for me before you were even

born,” All for One reminded Izuku. “And I am
planning to have some me time. Are you going to
jump into danger today?” he asked before the
teenage boy could ask about his plan.

“Actually, no. I am barely needed.”

And in a hurry.

Nightmare was leaving for the week, had already

left, and it would take an extraordinary amount of
back luck for him to return just as his wife and
daughter were leaving. But Izuku could still help
carry the bags while making sure everything
would be alright.

All for One gave him a look which clearly meant

that he was not trusting Izuku, but since the
feeling was reciprocal, Izuku didn’t see anything
wrong with it, and went upstairs, to a room
supposed to contain supplies to the bar but that
actually stored various equipment which could be
useful for one interested in vigilantism.

However, these days, it had changed to become

a changing room and Izuku found the Ingenium
messenger bag he had left there last time. He
fished out some clothes but not the hoodie he
was usually wearing to cover his face, so he chose
a more classical black mask instead.

His phone biped, warning Izuku that Ao was half

an hour away from the house.

Izuku went downstairs, and as soon as he

approached, the noise of Kurogiri and All for
One’s conversation died down, both men
pretending to be really busy not doing anything.
The teenage boy made a “Can I?” gesture at the
bartender to ask the permission to go behind the
bar, and Kurogiri went beyond that by warping
out of the way.

He passed behind the bar –for it was where

Kurogiri was hiding the good stuff like the
baseball bat, the duct tape, other things, and the
expensive alcohol now that Izuku thought about
it- and as he did, he kicked into something.
Something black, in metal, and which looked
suspiciously like a villain helmet.

Izuku picked it up and examined it.

Yes, definitely a villain helmet.

Inhale. Expire.

“Is there something I should know about this me

time?” Izuku asked.

All for One and Kurogiri looked at each other.

“No, I don’t see anything worth mentioning,” All

for One finally said. “Though, if we could go back
to this errand you were mentioning earlier…”

Dabi had just come back home and let himself

fall on his couch when his phone rang.

Not two minutes after drilling All for One about

his plan for the day, and only getting some very
vague answers about going for a walk and how
the helmet was just a precaution, barely needed
really, Izuku asked Kurogiri to please make sure
that All for One wouldn’t cause anything awful.

While All for One was contacting one of the two

persons who should absolutely not be called for a
case of quirk marriage gone wrong.

“Are you decent?” he asked Dabi on the phone.

Not even a hello, or anything that could have
prepared Todoroki’s brother to the local
sociopath’s phone call.

Unsurprisingly, there was a very long pause at the

other end of the line.

“Yes…” Dabi answered with real worry in his

voice. “Why are you asking thaaaa…”

Dabi appeared in the middle of a mass of

shadows, distinctly freaked out, and still sitting on
his couch which had been warped along.

This was actually fascinating. Izuku knew that

Kurogiri tended to extend his warp zone in order
not to accidentally cut someone or something
important, but that was a conscious decision. All
for One’s Transmission might be automatically
grabbing anything people hanged on to.

Is there a limit?

Can he accidentally teleport a boat if someone is

on one of those? If someone is chained to a wall,
would only a part of the wall be warped away
with the target?

“Dabi,” All for One greeted the very freaked-out

fire user. “If you would be so kind to accompany
Yami to his dangerous mission he doesn’t want to
tell us about? I have a feeling he will need a
responsible adult with him but Kurogiri and I have
prior engagements.”

Dabi, still on the couch, raised one eyebrow.

“That’s quite the mark of trust coming from you.”

Every word was practically dripping of mistrust.

And rightfully so.

“Well, since there is a shortage of responsible

babysitters,” All for One smiled at him,
“someone who runs slower than him and who will
bear the brunt of consequences if something
goes wrong, will have to be enough.”

Beat.

“Well, ain’t I flattered?” Dabi mocked after he

managed to find his voice back.

“He won’t accompany me,” Izuku said and his

voice cut through the stunned atmosphere of the
room. “I am going alone.”

That was the trick when you had to talk with

people who refused to be reasonable. Never ask.
You had to tell them what was going to happen,
without ambiguity.

His eyes lingered on Dabi, Todoroki’s words still

echoing in his mind.

With his wealth and fame, my father made my

mother’s family agree to the marriage. All to get
his hands on her quirk.

“It’s Anyone’s business.” This time, Izuku’s eyes

were on All for One who was looking at him with
interest, carefully guarded. They had a fragile
balance and he was very close to upset it. None
of them wanted that. “And there is no time to
waste. Kurogiri, I have some coordinates I need
to be delivered to, please.”

Kurogiri was the epitome of efficiency, and a

moment later, Izuku was passing through a warp
gate.

He was greeted by a heavy rain which quickly

soaked him, but at least, he now had a good
reason to keep his hood up. He checked that the
warp gate had closed, fixed his messenger back
on his shoulder, and he started to walk up the
road.

The neighborhood smelled of wealth, full of big

houses with a lot of spaces between them. Most
of them were traditional, but not all, and the one
belonging to Aster, also known Kurosawa Kazuko,
was one of them.

Izuku squinted to try to see if he could see Ao’s

car–it would be coming from the other direction-
but the rain was blurring everything from such a
distance.

It was also covering noises.

And finally, the hoodie Izuku’s was wearing was a

normal one, and the fabric didn’t allow him to see
through it, so his peripheral vision was a joke.

That’s how he didn’t see that Dabi had been

warped where Izuku himself had appeared and
had just caught back with him.

“I am a part of Anyone, so technically, I am

concerned,” he drawled, startling the teenage
boy.

Once his heart stopped trying to escape his

ribcage, Izuku simply stared at him.

“So… What is this secret mission about?” Dabi

asked.

Izuku told Dabi about the situation. Once upon a

time, a man with a quirk ill-suited to the heroic
path but still incredibly useful for the Hero
Commission, had wanted a child who could
accomplish his dream, so he had married a
woman with a shapeshifting quirk. At four, their
daughter had demonstrated she could shapeshift
into what people feared, a flashy quirk that had
brought joy to both parents.

Until Nightmare had started training the child,

and when the mother had started to protest,
nightmares had happened.

It was hard to fight when constantly sleep

deprived.

“This pro hero left so the only thing to do should

be to go there and to help them pack or carry
their bags, but it wouldn’t be the first time that
someone returned home at the wrong time,”
Izuku explained. “In those moments, it’s good to
have someone who can make them consider the
merits of moving out of the way.”

For a long moment, Dabi didn’t say anything.

It was okay. Izuku was completely fine with heavy

silences.

“How do you propose to take care of Nightmare

if he comes back?” Dabi finally asked. “People
connected to the Hero Commission are hard to
intimidate.”

Izuku rummaged through his bag, and presented

an item borrowed from Kurogiri’s treasure box.

“A pepper spray?” Dabi noted with disbelief.

Izuku nodded.

“You’re telling me to take down a hero with a

pepper spray? I expected something a little more
impressive involving some plan with both our
quirks.”

Izuku tried to find a way to casually admit to Dabi

that since he tended to cook himself alive every
time he used his quirk, Izuku wanted to avoid him
to use Cremation. But since he didn’t find a
delicate way to put it, he chose not to mention
that.

“I don’t want you to take down a hero. If you see

a hero, I want you to run. But if he uses his quirk
on you, since it isn’t physical, your best bet is to
use that because most people can’t focus their
quirks when they feel like the devil is slowly trying
to pluck out their eyeballs.”

Dabi took the little can of pepper spray and

examined it at a respectable distance.

“What if I pepper spray myself?”

Izuku opened his Ingenium messenger bag again,

grabbed a bottle of milk, and presented it to
Dabi who actually did a double take at that.

“What else do you have in here?”

“Duct tape, sandwiches, a thermos of coffee and

more duct tape.”

“But no umbrella?”

Annoyance stabbed at Izuku. Repeatedly.

“If you don’t want my pepper spray, you can give

it back.”

“No, it’s mine now,” Dabi decided while raising

his hand so the pepper spray would be out of
reach for the shorter teen.

That’s how Ao found them, utterly soaked and

bickering.

The young woman ignored their antics and went

to a house full of flowers. Kurosawa-san, a very
pretty lady who also looked exhausted, greeted
them, then her eyes widened when she saw how
many of them they were.

Ao went with Kurosawa-san to help her edit a

letter she was leaving behind to explain what was
happening. Dabi stayed with Miyu, Kurosawa-
san’s twelve-year-old who immediately took a
liking to the older Todoroki. As for Izuku, there
were heavy bags needing to be carried down a
very narrow stairway.

Izuku had just finished carrying the bags,

Kurosawa-san thanking him and congratulating
on his enhancer quirk –because people always
did that with flashy heroic quirks, it was the polite
thing to do- when someone rang at the door.

Ao shook her head at Kurosawa-san.

“If it was my husband, he would be opening with

his key,” Kurosawa-san said, her chin high and her
breath measured, but she wasn’t exactly calm. “I
will take care of it.”

Izuku stayed in the stairway, hidden from sight.

The good news was that Kurosawa-san was right.

It wasn’t her husband. It was someone else Izuku
had already met, on the worst day of his life.

“Good morning, Kurosawa-san,” Death Arms

greeted her. “Is everything alright?”

Death Arms realized that this little service

Nightmare has asked of him would be more
complicated than expected as soon as his
colleague’s wife opened the door.

A barely opened door, which was the first sign

that something was wrong. The second was that
Kurosawa Kazuko, a woman with blond hair
barely touching her shoulders and grey eyes
seemed incredibly uncomfortable.

“Death Arms,” she smiled but her eyes were cool

at most. “What an unexpected surprise.”

They had met several times before, always with

her husband present, and she had been the
definition of courtesy. But right now, it was clear
she was busy and not liking the interruption.

“I didn’t mean to disturb you,” Death Arms

assured, “but Nightmare told me he wouldn’t be
there this week and asked me to keep an eye on
you in case there was a problem.”

He hadn’t said why he was worried. He had

simply told that to Death Arms, entrusting his
family to him while he was away. It was definitely
something the punching hero didn’t need on top
of his current activities, but when a colleague
asked something like that, he usually had
reasons, and if Death Arms didn’t do this job,
anything wrong happening during this week
would punch him back in the face.

“My husband worries too much but I can assure

you that I am not a child and that I can take care
of myself even when he isn’t here,” Kurosawa-san
informed him.

Well, she isn’t wrong. Time to go.

Someone coughed inside and Kurosawa-san’s eye

twitched at the sound.

“Did you hear that?” the pro hero asked.

“Hear what?” she asked back.

Death Arms slapped his palm against the door,

accidentally putting too much strength and the
board hit the wall with a loud noise that startled
three people.

Nightmare’s doorway allowed to directly access

to the living room, and there were two people on
the couch. One was Miyu’s: Nightmare’s
daughter. Her hand was in front of her mouth, so
the sneezing must have come from her. Next to
her was a man whose face was covered in scars
and piercings and who was wearing ripped jeans,
boots, and a hoodie, all black. One hand of his
hand was gripping the air around Miyu’s shoulder,
as if he had tried to keep her from sneezing, and
the other was holding a manga.

There were other manga on the coffee table, as if

they had been talking about that.

Next to Kurosawa-san, a young woman was

standing with her combat boots firmly planted to
the ground, her arms crossed on her chest. Her
skin was really pale, her blue hair was short and
cut in an undercut, and her dark eyes didn’t
betray anything. She couldn’t be older than the
other man, barely in her twenties.

“This is my friend,” Kurosawa explained. “We are

in the same book club.”

Death Arms looked at the scarred young man.

“I am also in the book club,” he drawled, not

even trying to convince him. “Nice to meet you.”

But the final nail in the coffin of Death Arms’

tranquil day was the pile of luggage waiting next
to the door.

“You’re going somewhere?”

Kurosawa-san stopped smiling. Every hint of

politeness disappeared, replaced by steel.

“I think I have been patient enough. Leave us,

Death Arms. Or I will call the police.”

“Does your husband know about this trip?” the

pro hero asked, already knowing the answer to
his question.

Her face changed again, and suddenly, it was as if

she has somehow become smaller.

“Don’t do that,” she pleaded in a quiet voice.

The blue-haired woman shifted her weight on her

right leg, her leather jacket creaking with the
movement, and in a second, she had placed
herself between Death Arms and Kurosawa-san
as if he was the threat.

Whatever was happening here, it was what

Nightmare had feared. Maybe his wife had met
people manipulating her. Maybe she was in the
middle of a depression and making choices she
would regret later.

The only thing Death Arms knew was that if she

let her leave, there would be hell to pay for him.

“You’re leaving with his daughter,” the pro hero

said, speaking in a soft voice. “Shouldn’t he be
told about that?”

Actually, he should be told about that right now.

Death Arms crossed the threshold.

“You can’t come in here!” Kurosawa-san

screamed, outraged, but the girl with blue hair
grabbed her hand and made her step back.

While the man near Nightmare’s daughter got to

his feet, starting to approach, his hands in his
pockets. He stopped five meters away from the
pro hero, the threat clear, and enough space for a
long ranged quirk to be used.

It didn’t matter. Death Arms was a pro and this

man was a scrub at best. There was a world
between someone trained and someone who
wasn’t.

He focused back on Kurosawa-san, while keeping

an eye on the other two.

“You… You can’t simply take his daughter.

Kurosawa-san, whatever is happening, I am sure
you can talk things out.”

Death Arms had assisted to messy divorces. And

when children were concerned, it was almost
always ugly.

And if it was something else… Well, there were

systems. Running away wouldn’t do any good to
anyone. Laws were laws for a reason.

“And what do you think will happen?” the

stranger asked, his piercing blue eyes burning
with disdain.

“People will look into it.”

“People will do nothing,” he snarled, the

movement making Death Arms notice that those
weren't piercings he had on his face, but staples.
“The Hero Commission will shut that down so fast
you will have whiplash. They protect their heroes,
but never the people around them.”

“I want to go with mom,” Nightmare’s daughter

intervened, jumping to her feet.

Her All Might backpack was in her hand.

“It’s not as simple as that,” Death Arms snapped

at her.

Both mother and daughter gave him a look that

would have incinerated him if they had a fire
quirk.

And someone entered the living room. A child in

a green hoodie a little too big for him, his hood
up and a black surgical mask covering his face.
He kind of sauntered awkwardly in the room, as if
he wasn’t aware of the tension around them.

Since he looked like he would be down with a

flicker, Death Arms barely paid attention to him,
still focused on the two adults in black.

“Kurosawa-san, do you want him out of your

house?” the teenage boy asked.

“Yes.”

Dabi got his hands out of his pockets as soon as

his boss asked the question, hearing the hidden
orders in his words. Yami might have a strong
quirk, but he wasn’t like Dabi or Shouto. Fighting
against someone with training wasn’t like their
usual missions, and Yami wasn’t prepared for it.

But it was alright.

Everyone moved back when they were in danger

of being licked by blue flames.

So he was really surprised when Yami calmly

walked towards the hero, kicked him in the knee,
making him lose his balance, before grabbing
him and hurling him through the air, out of the
house and into the street.

And judging by the many mouths wide opened,

he wasn’t the only one.

“Dabi,” Yami called, cool as a cucumber, as if he

hadn’t just thrown out like a pro hero abandoned
garbage on the street. “Call Kurogiri and ask for
an evacuation. I am taking care of this.”

And then, he left, closing the room behind him.

Izuku had panicked when he had heard Death

Arms’ voice, not because of how he was one
phone call away from making Nightmare come
back to his house and to his lovely family, but
because the sound of the pro hero’s voice had
triggered the memories of the worst day of his
life.

“Reckless… You could have been killed!”

But memories only had as much power as Izuku

was giving them.

“Do you realize what you are doing?” the pro

hero uttered with some difficulty as he got back
to his feet.

He hadn’t broken his fall when he had landed, so

the impact couldn’t have been enjoyable.
“You’re putting them in danger,” Izuku answered
circling around the hero, his footstep light.

Death Arms would be attacking soon. He could

see it in the way he was bracing himself.

“You’re the one who just assaulted a hero!”

“Technically, I was putting an end to a breaking-

and-entering. You didn’t have any right to go in
this house and to intimidate this family.”

A court of law would atomize Izuku, but from a

moral standpoint, he was still standing in the
lighter shade of grey, and that was all that
mattered to him. Unfortunately, the pro hero
didn’t seem to share his reasoning.

Death Arms punched his fists together and ran at

Izuku in the exact same move he had used
against the Sludge villain an eternity ago. His
enhancer quirk propelled him, letting him
accumulate momentum, and in a second, he was
almost in Izuku’s face.

Almost.

Izuku dodged, his foot work enhanced by Full

Cowl twelve per cent and he let his leg stretched.
The pro hero stumbled on it, and the momentum
that should have been used to send Izuku flying
caught back to him and send him crashing to the
ground.

The teenage boy immediately put some distance

between them, refraining himself from touching
his ankle. Stopping a running Death Arms was
like hitting metal.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Dabi on the

porch, frozen where he was and definitely not
evacuating the Kurosawas and Ao like Izuku had
asked.

The teenage boy made a shooing noise at Dabi,

but Death Arms distracted him as he lunged.

He always does that. Too much power, his gravity

center is always forward, and he never watches
his balance. He would know. Death Arms was one
of the heroes in his notebook.

Izuku wasn’t about to try to win a strength duel

with a pro hero. It wasn’t like he had to beat him.
Just to keep him occupied long enough for the
people in the house to leave.

So he dodged, betting on his speed, and even

though Death Arms pursued him, the teenage
boy was faster and more agile, compensating his
lack of experience with his quirk and reflexes. He
harried the pro hero, hitting the legs –because
that was what to aim when confronted to
someone the size of a bear- and he always left
just in time not to be tagged by an enhanced
punch.

“I see that you are trained,” Death Arms noted,

his voice even and not a sign that he was out of
breath. Too bad, but Izuku wasn’t tired either. “It’s
a shame that someone with such a quirk would
walk the villain road. But you leave me no
choice.”

“Neither do you.”

Izuku tried to aim for the hero’s tibia but he was

waiting for him, so instead, he slapped Death
Arms at the back of his head just because it was
annoying, and retreated again.

“You didn’t ask what the problem was,” Izuku

observed. “You just decided to barge in and to
follow the rules, not caring about the reasons.”

No concern for Kurosawa-san. No attempt to

question the situation. Just a “You can’t.” and the
assumption that Nightmare was in the right.

Talking was never a free action in a fight and

Death Arms ‘s fist passed so closed to Izuku’s
nose that it made him flinch in time for the pro
hero to punch him in the chest with his other
hand.

Izuku half dodged it, his ribs groaning as an

enhanced punch were tickling them but he didn’t
back down. He propelled himself forwards, in the
giant opening Death Arms had created and the
young villain elbowed him in the throat while
toning down One for All.

The throat was an extremely vulnerable with no

muscle to protect it, and also one of the only
places on the human body one could hurt
without hurting themselves. In doubt, one should
always aim for that.

Death Arms choked, a hand clutching at his

throat, desperately trying to inhale but the air just
didn’t want to reach his lungs. He hunched over.
Tried to move backwards.

“Tell me, Death Arms: when did you stop caring

about the people you’re supposed to protect?”
Izuku asked. “And how could you forget this is
actually half of your job?”

Death Arms looked at him, his wide eyes.

And Izuku kicked him in the face at seven per

cent, sending him to sleep.

Sensei didn’t need him so Kurogiri was free to

leave the headquarters of some villains that had
been involved or connected to All for One’s
organization a decade ago, and he answered
Dabi’s message. Always having his phone on him
and responding in the minute was a useful habit
he had never lost, even when he has stopped
being active in the underground.

Dabi was asking for a transport. Picking them up

wasn’t complicated because everyone in the
Anyone server could activate the GPS location
which would give the coordinates necessary for
Kurogiri to activate his quirk. But the drop point
was an address to a place where he had never
went, so he warned them he could only bring
them closer to their destination.

Right as he was about to warp, a man who had at

some point shifted into a vaguely humanoid red
beast, passed through the window right next to
Kurogiri. He crashed into the ground among a
sea of glass shards, leaving an imprint in the mud
and he made a break for it. Unfortunately for him,
Kurogiri didn’t even had the time to warp him
back in the headquarters that black tendrils
grabbed him and dragged him in.

Well, that’s something not to mention to Anyone.

Dabi had expected to be led to some abandoned

warehouse or something, but they were in a
pretty suburb house belonging to a woman
whose appearance was a meld of human and
wolf. She was also pink, but Dabi didn’t know if it
was natural or because of her quirk that allowed
her to change pigments, as she showed
Kurosawa Kazuko by changing her blond hair to a
dark grey.

Ao was with them, and the three women were

discussing what would happen. They would
change Kazuko and Miyu’s appearance, give
them new identities, and they had already a place
for them to go, but Kazuko also informed them
she had enough money to leave the country.

As for Dabi, he stayed with Miyu, playing cards

with her in a corner of the room.

A lot of people assume that stressful situations

were the difficult things to live through. That
when they were scared, when they witnessed
violence, or when they were hurt, it was the most
difficult part. But often, it happened fast and
there was no time to really assimilate it.

No, the worse was after the violence. During this

quiet time when one had the occasion to realize
what had just happened, and at this moment, the
fear hit you like a train and you were left
trembling and reliving through it, but without the
benefit of being protected by adrenaline.

So Dabi stayed with her, distracted her, and they

played cards while pretending that they weren’t
seeing her hands trembling.

They talked too. Talked about her father. About a

training that had left Miyu in pain every day
because her father had one day decided that she
wasn’t good enough. How, for three generations,
no Kurosawa had managed to be nothing else
that the Hero Commission’s lapdog, so Miyu had
to succeed and bring this family into the light.
How she had loved her father even after she had
stopped believing in this mission. Until he had
started to hurt her mother by depriving her of
sleep via the use of his quirk, all because she had
tried to protect Miyu.

Dabi didn’t share anything. He didn’t talk about

his past. He just listened.

Yami would have been better at that. Hell, he had

even managed to make Shouto talk about their
dirty family secrets –or he wouldn’t have
protested so much at the idea of bringing Dabi to
a family where a pro hero of a father was a dick
favoring quirk marriages. But Dabi’s boss had
stayed at the Kurosawa household to finish
cleaning things up.

Dabi could still see how he had fought Death

Arms. He had immediately rushed out, because
even if this kid has a strong quirk and was able to
keep his cool under pressure, he wasn’t like Dabi
or Shouto. He hadn’t been trained to fight, and
certainly not against a pro.

Except that Yami had clearly outmatched Death

Arms.

Fast. Efficient. So careful not to injure him.

Dabi hadn’t been needed, and he had wondered

if Yami had decided to intervene because he had
felt how angry he had been. How angry he still
was. He wouldn’t have hesitated to hurt the hero,
to make him pay for his stupidity.

Suddenly, the door opened without warning,

startling them, for they were all on edge and
there hadn’t been even a hint that someone was
coming. They immediately turned towards the
newcomer.

One of them went beyond that.

Miyu jumped to his feet and panic splashed Dabi.

A moment later, he had jumped back without
even realizing what he was doing.

Her form shifted, growing taller and larger in an

instant, powerful muscles developing, covered by
a red, blue, and white costume.

In a second, All Might was in the room, his

presence oppressive for anyone who had ever
been on the wrong side of the law.

And the unsmiling hero was looking at Yami like

he wanted to rip him apart.

Izuku saw Miyu change.

That was the only thing that prevented him from

running out of the house like he had an angry
symbol of peace pursuing him. But even if he
knew this wasn’t All Might, he couldn’t suppress
his reaction.

The fear, the adrenaline, and Full Cowl

automatically activating.

Keep calm. Don’t show you’re afraid. The last

thing you need is to make someone feel guilty
because of her quirk.

So his mind jumped into a familiar territory.

“Don’t feel compelled to answer but is that panic

everyone seems to feel another component of
your quirk?” he slowly asked, still juggling with
the flight-fight-freeze reaction saturating every
cell of his body. “Because if that’s the case, it’s
beautifully complex. It’s a telepathic bond based
on fear, with a shapeshifting component, allied to
an emotional wave.”

All Might disappeared, leaving a horrified twelve-

year-old behind him.

“I am so sorry,” Miyu said, her hands in front of

her mouth.

“Don’t worry about it,” Ao reassured her. “At

least, now, he will remember to knock.”

They didn’t leave until they were sure Kurosawa

Kazuko and Miyu were alright. Yami had been the
picture of courtesy and enthusiasm, and he had
even managed to make Miyu smile by explaining
her that the reason why his hair was dyed white
was because he had at first asked for red but
upon seeing the result, Ao had laughed so much
that she had fallen from her chair.

But he was smiling too much, like Fuyumi when

she wanted to hide something.

And as soon as they were out, right as Dabi was

opening his mouth to ask why All Might was his
biggest fear, Yami said goodbye to him and fled.

Death Arms’ sidekicks had started to worry when

their titular hero had stopped responding, so they
localized his phone. Unfortunately for all people
involved, Hawks had been talking with one of
those sidekicks, asking him about Anyone, when
they had found it.

Hawks had flown there as fast as he could, not

wanting to risk the disappearance of a hero,
especially as the Hero Killer was still around.

The good news was that Death Arms was

unharmed.

The strange news was that someone had duct

taped him to a street light. Layers and layers of
duct tape, and under that, a pro hero who
seemed mummified and who was avoiding eye
contact with Hawks. Even better, someone had
also duct taped an umbrella next to him so he
could be protected from the rain.

Now, we don’t have the time to unpack all that,

but there are still questions to be asked.

“You have an enhancer quirk, don’t you?” Hawks

asked as he landed next to his esteemed
colleague.

“Indeed,” Death Arms gritted between his teeth.

“But you can’t break your binds?”

“Special duct tape and it’s too tight for me to

move,” Death Arms admitted.

Hawks carefully selected his longest feather and

cut through the duct tape twice, to free both the
umbrella and the pro hero. The latter jumped to
his feet, and get rid of the remaining traces of
duct tape to pretend that this incredibly
embarrassing episode had never happened.

But here was no way Hawks was letting that go.

“So… Who did that?”

Death Arms was already leaving, walking quickly

in the direction of a house whose garden was full
of flowers.

“As far as you’re concerned, he was two meters

tall and could breathe fire.”

Snickering wasn’t professional so Hawks definitely

didn’t do that.

But when Death Arms stopped pouting about his

wounded ego and explained the situation about
a pro hero’s wife and daughter fleeing their
home, helped by several suspicious people, he
immediately sobered up. They went into the
house, looking for clues.

And they found one, next to Death Arms’ cell

phone that had been put on the kitchen table.

A letter.

Where Kurosawa Kazuko explained to her

husband why she had left. What he was
responsible of. She was asking him not to look for
them. And that a copy of this letter had been
sent to several people she trusted.

Hawks, as someone who had met Nightmare

several times during missions for the Hero
Commission, believed those allegations
wholeheartedly.

Five minutes later, as Death Arms and him were

still in Nightmare’s house, Hawks received a
message informing him that this wasn’t even the
low point of the day.

Hawks had been trained not to show alarm on his

face. To remain calm, because panic was
contagious and the last thing any hero needed
was a hysterical civilian realizing that their hero
was way over his head.

But that didn’t fool his colleague.

“What is it?” Death Arms asked.

And here I thought that my greatest fear was

letting everyone down.

The rain had finally stopped so Izuku took refuge

on the highest roof he could find, enjoying the
quiet. He has spent several years of his life
getting used to be alone, so he sometimes
needed for people to go away for a while.

But of course, the bane of Izuku’s existence chose

this moment to warp right behind him.

“Why do I always find you on roofs?” All for One

asked, still holding an umbrella. Wherever he had
come from, it was still raining there.

“I like high places,” Izuku shrugged.

If there was one person that didn’t need to know

anxiety was eating at him just because he had
seen the previous holder of One for All, it was
this man.

“Short people usually do,” All for One nodded as

if this was common knowledge.

Be strong, Midoriya Izuku. Do not push All for

One from a roof. Even if you really want to.

It wouldn’t do anything anyway.

But it might make you feel better.

Izuku bravely ignored this little voice in his head.

“Is there a reason why you’re here and not

somewhere with Kurogiri?” he growled at All for
One.

But the villain didn’t answer.

Izuku had been looking at him from the corner of

his eye, but he turned towards the man in a suit.

All for One was looking at him as if he was trying

to read Izuku’s mind. He didn’t seem worried, or
angry, or sad. But there was something, a quiet
intensity paired with a calm that gave
goosebumps to the teenage boy.

They stared at each other until the silence

became unbearable.

“All for One?”

Finally, the villain reacted. A sigh wasn’t

reassuring, but it was better than the calculation
that wasn’t even hidden.

“I need you to know that it wasn’t me. They will

blame me, but you have to know they are lying. It
will be announced soon.”

Izuku braced himself.

“There was an attack on the USJ today. Several

villains fought against students of 1-A, then All
Might.”

Shouto took five seconds to assure his sister that

he was fine, in one piece, and not traumatized,
and he rushed to his bedroom, his ruined phone
still in his hand. He had tried to make it work as
soon as the villains had been neutralized by All
Might –their surprise guest of the day- but
someone’s explosion had destroyed it.

This whole day had been… interesting, to say the

least. Villains had been warped into the USJ, one
of them with an earth-bending quirk leveling half
the field, destabilizing them in a second.

Thirteen had been injured protecting students.

But it was nothing compared to what had

happened to Aizawa-Sensei before All Might had
appeared, and thrown the villain with an exposed
brain that had been attacking their teacher
through the roof and into the sky despite not
being supposed to have a quirk anymore.

Shouto pushed the memories away, and opened

the door of his bedroom. There was two prepaid
phone in a bag in his closet. He had to call
Midoriya and Dabi before the news announced
the attack to the world.

Two steps into his room later, he realized that

someone had been waiting for him. White-haired,
potentially insane, and definitely as quiet as a
ninja.

Shouto didn’t follow his example and threw his

ruined phone at him before his brain had the time
to really recognize Midoriya.

“Shouto, is everything okay?” Fuyumi asked from

the hallway.

Okay wasn’t the word to use when a villain

decided to break into Endeavor’s home.

“What are you doing here?” Shouto mouthed.

“You weren’t answering your phone…” Midoriya

whispered.

So, the obvious solution seemed to sneak in

Shouto’s room. Which was located in the house of
the number 2 hero.

“Shouto?” Fuyumi called again.

“It’s nothing, onee-san. Just a spider.”

A doubtful silence answered him, but Shouto

didn’t need her to believe him, just not to enter
his room long enough to tell Midoriya what had
happened.

And he did. He summarized the situation,

efficient.

And he finished on the villain that had almost

beaten All Might. A deep black color, a beak, and
his brain exposed.

The fact that he had two quirks: regeneration and

shock absorption.

And how as soon as All Might had beat him, all

the villains had been warped out.

A few hours after UA announced that the USJ had

been attacked earlier in the day and that no
student had been injured thanks to the
intervention of their teachers and of All Might
who had been present at the time as an
exceptional guest, the government warned the
public about a massive break-out from a prison
for high-leveled villains.

The break-out had happened a few days ago.

And the Hero Commission was examining the

very real possibility that some of those villains
had banded together.

Notes:
Many thanks to
Proclaimerofheroes for Hawks'
username: Spicy McNuggets.

CHAPTER 10
Notes:
Fanart! Thank you for illustrating
what a gremlin Izuku can be in the
morning before his coffee:
https://gentrychild.tumblr.com/po
st/187142449374/thank-you-so-
much-i-confirm-that-izuku-is-a
 Fanart from the previous chapter!
https://redoaktreehill.tumblr.com/
post/611272840520646656/he-
has-spent-several-years-of-his-life-
getting
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

There was a room on the last floor of the Might

Tower. It was more secured than Fort Knox and it
wasn’t used except for when classified matters
needed to be discussed, most of them
concerning All for One or All Might’ injuries, but
also other secret missions that couldn’t be known
under any circumstances.

Despite sometimes working at the Might tower,

Tenko didn’t have his place here.

The young man was sitting at the round table, on

Gran Torino’s right, and he had done his best to
pretend he was invisible since he had entered.
The fact that Sir Nighteye, All Might’s former
sidekick, had been throwing curious glances at
him since he had arrived, wasn’t doing anything
to put him at ease.

Yagi was on Gran Torino’s left, floating in a

costume adapted to when he was using his quirk,
elbows on the table and his joint hands half-
hiding his face because he had just told them the
unthinkable had happened. That One for All was
gone, stolen by someone who had abused him,
and when he had finished, he had apologized
while looking at Tenko.

Of course, he wasn’t apologizing to Tenko. But

since the grandmother he had never known
wasn’t here to give him absolution, Tenko was the
next best thing.

“Yesterday, Death Arms was attacked by

someone with an enhancing quirk,” Yagi
explained. “He didn’t get his description except
for a young teen but I think there aren’t too many
teenagers who can easily knock out a pro hero.”

“We already know he doesn’t hesitate to use the

quirk,” Sir Nighteye intervened, pushing his
glasses up the bridge of his nose. “He used One
for All right after stealing it.”

Gran Torino had once told him that using One for
All without the proper training could make one
limb’s blow off. Had the thief known he had to be
prepared? Or had he destroyed his body and
dragged himself to the hospital, taking time to
heal and that was why All Might and Gran Torino
hadn’t managed to find him? Because he had
been dormant?

“How is Death Arms?” he asked, putting his

hands on the table, pinkie fingers raised so he
wouldn’t have to live through another
Embarrassing Christmas Episode.

Sir Nighteye gave him a sharp glance, and Tenko

had a feeling All Might’s former sidekick was also
wondering what the hell he was doing here, but
he still answered: “Unharmed. He knocked him
out then duck taped him to a lamp post. Probably
to ridicule him.”

“And what started the fight?”

For a moment, only silence answered the

youngest Shimura’s question. Gran Torino finally
opened his mouth, ready to say things as they
were, but Yagi beat him to it.

“This is complicated. The pro hero Nightmare’s

wife decided to take their daughter and leave
while he was on a week-long assignment. He had
previously asked Death Arms to keep an eye on
his family while he was gone and when he came
to check in, there were several people inside
helping her to pack.”

None of them said out loud how fishy it sounded.

But they all thought it really loudly.

Stop it. You don’t have any proof. You could be

accusing someone completely innocent.

“It was obviously planned for a while,” Sir

Nighteye intervened. “I tried to see if Kurosawa
Kazuko or Kurosawa Miyu could have known him
beforehand and asked for his help. So far, I have
no results. I also didn’t find anyone
corresponding to All Might’s description of the
thief, but I am not giving up.”

Years after Sir Nighteye had left the Might Tower,

Tenko had needed money. He had barely
mentioned that he was starting to look for a job
that Yagi had appeared screaming I AM HERE
and had told him that he was very late with his
paperwork, despite Detective Tsukauchi helping
him.

This was a well-paid but colossal work. And every

time Tenko did it, he couldn’t help but remember
how Sir Nighteye was three times as fast as he
was and managed to do an incredible hero work
on top of that. If someone could find this needle
in a haystack, it was him.

“This has to be our number 1 priority,” Sir

Nighteye finished.

“Especially as the Hero Commission is now aware

of how I am losing in power,” Yagi added.

It was said in such a tone that Tenko didn’t get

the meaning of the words, at first. He was still
mentally cursing the boy who had woke up one
morning and decided to steal One for All, and his
anger oriented towards someone who had hurt a
loved one took precedence on words in such a
calm town.

It was only when Sir Nighteye choked on air that

Tenko realized what he had just heard.

“You did what?” the pro hero asked in a high-

pitched voice that should have only been heard
by dogs.

“He said he told the Hero Commission that he

was losing in power,” Gran Torino repeated. He
obviously wasn’t happy about it but he had
known beforehand.

“Why?”

He wasn’t the only one swimming in complete

incomprehension. One for All was secret for a
reason and he doubted Yagi would just reveal it
for no reason, but the cause of his discomfort was
more about the Hero Commission in itself. They
pushed those models, those exemplars, as what
heroes could be, blatantly favoring flashy quirks
and they were influencing everything and
everyone while never doing a thing to help
people with villainous quirks.

“Since All for One is out in the wild and sending

villains after me while I am doing some guest
appearances in UA, I thought it would be better if
they were aware of it,” Yagi drily said. “All they
know is that after an encounter with a boy, I
started losing in power and how I suspect his
quirk feeds on mine, which is true in a sense.
They have the resources to help.”

Tenko discreetly winced. Accusing a parasitic

quirk was a problem, especially with the current
rise of villainous quirk discrimination. But there
was no other choice, unless they were willing to
let the Hero Commission know about the most
powerful quirk in the world that could be
transferred.

“Speaking about All for One, did the Hero

Commission manage to convince Tartarus to
share intel?” Gran Torino asked.

“They are working on it. They already confirmed

that they were vague on purpose about the
break-out in order not to scare the population by
making them think they aren’t controlling the
situation.”

Tenko could confirm that the population was

scared.

Despite never mentioning the name All for One,

overnight, rumors of a legendary villain who
could steal quirk had spread through the country.
Even Tenko had called Gran Torino in the second
to confirm it, and he had refused to really believe
it when he had discovered the villain who had
contributed to mess up his family wasn’t actually
dead.

“But they aren’t controlling the situation,” Sir

Nighteye mocked. “They are lying about it.”

I beg your pardon?

“What?” Tenko barked more than he asked.

“What are they lying about?”

Was the Hero Commission just lying to anyone

that wasn’t a pro hero?

“The break out didn’t happen three days ago but

a month ago,” Sir Nighteye informed him. “Don’t
worry, they only admitted to All Might because
they panicked when All for One broke out.”

Okay, the Hero Commission is actually lying to

everyone who isn’t the Symbol of Peace.

Tenko passed a hand on his face (minus one

finger) because he was suddenly really tired.

“Well, that explains why you suddenly needed

me so much at the agency,” he said to Gran
Torino and All Might who were suddenly avoiding
looking at him in the eyes.

He had known those two since he was five and

having the worst day of his life, and they
managed to forget telling him that ancestral
quirks were stolen and super villains had broken
out from the worst secret prison he had ever
heard about.

Yagi sighed. “He was greatly weakened by his

sojourn in Tartarus so…”

“Also by you punching his face so hard that it

stayed stuck to your fist…” Gran Torino noted
absentmindedly.

Everyone looked at the retired hero who decided

to play dumb and who pretended that he was an
innocent senile old man. It didn’t fool anyone but
none of them were brave enough to call him out.

“… Thank you, Gran Torino,” Yagi finally said

after a long pause. “He isn’t in good health so I
was expecting him to take his time before
causing problems. And the usual signs, such as
quirk theft and various catastrophes weren’t
there… I am sorry. I should have told you
sooner.”

About All for One? Certainly.

“It was a calculated risk that we both decided,”

the retired hero intervened, not pretending to be
senile anymore. “But now that he has already
targeted All Might once, even though it was
indirect, he might target One for All holders’
family like he did in the past… So it means the
complete Shimura family must be warned and
protected.”

The expressions of the three of them must have

been telling because Sir Nighteye immediately
frowned.

“What’s the problem?” he asked. “Apart from a

villain’s usual homicidal tendencies?”

Tenko’s father was what most polite people would

call an asshole. He hated heroes and meeting
Gran Torino and Yagi had resulted in a shouting
match that had made him look possessed. He
refused any communication with them and he
wouldn’t tolerate his family being in contact with
heroes trying to save their lives.

“I will talk to him,” Tenko assured without an

ounce of enthusiasm.

The rest of the conversation went to the USJ, how

anyone could have known All Might had been
invited to help in a class, and how to track down
All for One, who was especially slippery from
what the pro heroes said.

This time, Tenko barely intervened. He didn’t

know enough about the situation so he needed
to gorge in information before he could really
have a good input.

The meeting was almost over when Sir Nighteye

decided to add one last thing.

“I would like to include someone else in your

team.” All Might’s sidekick waited for a dramatic
pause. “Togata Mirio.”

Not someone Tenko knew but Yagi immediately

reacted to it.

There was a difference between Yagi, Tenko’s

unofficial dorky uncle and the Symbol of Peace.
The difference wasn’t in One for All, but in an air,
something that immediately drew people’s
attention and made them beware.

“He’s a student,” Yagi reminded them, still thin

but every inch of him was the number 1 hero.

“He has been my intern for a year and I trained

him for longer. His results speak for themselves,
and he was the one supposed to inherit One for
All. I am certain he could help.”

There was a candidate to get One for All?

Had this Togata known?

Had he prepared himself to receive the most

powerful quirk in the world, only for this burden
and blessing to be stolen from him?

“I will think about it,” Yagi conceded after a long

moment of reflection.

As soon as Tenko and Nighteye were left,

Sorahiko crumpled on his chair, his old bones
creaking, so he immediately complained about
Toshinori’s uncomfortable chair. His student
smiled at Sorahiko’s delightful and usual
grumpiness.

Following All for One’s movements used to be

easy. Between the sudden case of quirklessness,
the missing pro heroes and the scent of sulphur,
he never took much care in hiding his presence.
But now, except for someone discretely cleaning
up the underworld, there was almost no sign of
him.

Having to wait for All for One to manifest was

exhausting.

“Toshinori… I was wondering if there is another

reason than their snooping resources which
pushed you to ask the Hero Commission’s help.”

“Of course, you noticed,” Toshinori smiled. He

brought the cup of tea that had been left
untouched during the whole meeting to his lips
and he winced when he realized it was cold.
“They are very good at keeping their heroes in
top shape and I need every advantage now that I
lost One for All for so long.”

This might be the truth but Gran Torino was

curious to know how they managed to train their
Paragons and keep them in such great shape
even after they were injured. Those heroes
weren’t allowed to retire until the Hero
Commission was done with them.

“You disapprove?” Toshinori asked quietly,

bringing Sorahiko back into the moment.

Stupid boy.

Adults should never judge the young. Their job

was to prepare them for the world and be there
for them when they needed help.

“Never,” he assured. “I trust you. The only thing I

would disapprove is you not calling for help when
you need it. Also, I can’t wait to kick this brat in
the head.”

“Even now, I truly think he is misguided,”

Toshinori admitted.

Yes, they had to be there for their children, even

when they were especially ridiculous and too
good-hearted for their own good.

“He didn’t seem that misguided when he created

an operation in order to steal your quirk,”
Sorahiko growled.

“He is young and in pain,” Toshinori shrugged,

and how much of this was him blaming himself
for putting his foot in his mouth in a moment of
weakness? “So we have to find him before All for
One does. And then, we have to kill this bastard,
once and for all.”

It was difficult for Nagisa to yawn because her

chelicerae weren’t quite like a mouth. Yes,
chelicerae which were jaws with sharp edge,
while mandibles were for other insects, thank you
very much. But a week of being fast enough to
hide Akatani Mikumo’s former identity was really
helpful for physical manifestations of exhaustion.

Erasing someone wasn’t that difficult if the

subject was cooperative. But Akatani went further
and beyond by being secretive while having a
mother who wasn’t aware of his activities. Nagisa
had to erase him from the database of his former
school, she had to tweak Midoriya Inko’s civil
registry and she had made one hell of a good job
as someone with great skills had started
investigating on every green-haired quirkless boy
in the country.

And then, he has asked her to verify the alibi of

his pet villain because All Might had been
attacked. Surprisingly, he actually had one, but
that didn’t mean she would ever accept to
approach him.

Of course, he was only innocent because he had

been sending a bunch of villains and common
criminal (and by that, she meant PDG) to the
hospital at the time, but it was still slightly better
than trying to assassinate All Might and a bunch
of kids.

So she crawled up the wall and into her bed

around noon, letting the threads regularly created
by her quirk bring her closer to the land of
dreams. Sleep claimed her as soon as she put her
head against her web, but she still had the time
to have one last thought.

Between All Might’s former sidekick looking for

him and a pro hero in the top 5 snooping around
the Anyone server, this kid is going to be
extremely busy.

Izuku needed a safe place to discuss about how

he had potentially and indirectly thrown a super
villain on society, almost killing his best friend
while he was at it. But since the bar was Kurogiri’s
headquarters, an accomplice at worst and a
snitch at best, he chose another place.

Strangely, Dabi didn’t seem happy when Todoroki

and Izuku arrived to his apartment unannounced.
Though it was certainly Izuku misinterpreting his
scowl, the annoyance in his eyes, and the fact he
slammed the door in their faces. Unfortunately for
him, Izuku grabbed the door before he managed
to shut it, channeling a little of One for All.

Dabi sled comically across the floor as he was

pushing the door with all his weight, and even
when Todoroki entered by the opening, he didn’t
give up and still tried to lock Izuku out. Tried was
the key word.

“Oh please, come in,” Dabi snarked as they

entered the little apartment and started sitting on
the couch. “Make yourself at home.”

Izuku emptied the content of his backpack on

Dabi’s coffee table, unleashing a wave of sweets
and drinks. He might have almost broken in, but
he wasn’t rude enough to come here empty-
handed.

“That’s already what we’re doing,” Todoroki told

Dabi while he was grabbing the strawberry milk.
He stabbed him with the straw, drank a little, then
decided that it wasn’t cold enough so he used his
quirk on it.

“Then, please, don’t change a thing,” Dabi

mocked but Izuku had seen how his eyes had
softened… as soon as he had seen the snacks.
He grabbed anything that looked like chocolate,
sat on a comfy chair, and kept his loot like he was
expecting Izuku to tackle it to steal it.

He was wrong, of course. Izuku wouldn’t tackle

him, though he wouldn’t let him keep all the
chocolate either. But not now, so he wordlessly
pushed a coke bottle towards his best friend who
immediately made it cold.

“Is there a reason why you’re visiting me instead

of hassling Kurogiri for fries with cheese?” Dabi
asked.

Izuku’s mouth was full of marshmallows so

Todoroki kindly took it upon himself to answer for
him.

“Because it’s All for One’s territory and we need a

safe house to plot against him if necessary.”

And then, he drank more of his strawberry milk

while Dabi looked like someone who was
regretting all of his life choices. However, he did
an admirable job at keeping a straight face.

Then, he looked at Izuku.

“Wasn’t an attack on All Might something to be

expected from him?”

In that moment, the green-haired-boy realized

Dabi absolutely didn’t care about All Might being
killed. Not in a I Don’t Care If This Man Lives Or
Dies way but in a He Made His Bed When He
Decided To Be A Hero way.

“We have a fragile balance and attacking All

Might would break it, so no,” Izuku carefully
explained because he was far from All Might’s
level and he was afraid All for One had just
decided to ignore him and to kill heroes.

He still remembered Tartarus.

How was he supposed to stop a force of nature?

“And he has an alibi,” Todoroki added. “He was

fighting villains at the time.”

Dabi raised an eyebrow because All for One

wasn’t a good Samaritan.

“He was throwing concurrent around,” Izuku

corrected. “But that doesn’t mean anything. He
wasn’t at the USJ but Kurogiri and a team of
villains could have been sent by him. They both
left their phones at the bar at the time so I
couldn’t track their locations.”

Dabi made a very funny face. “You’re tracking All

for One and one of his lieutenants? Do you think,
in all your teenage wisdom, that this is wise?”

“Well, I am obviously failing to track them down

so I doubt it counts,” Izuku pouted.

“He will be alright,” Todoroki smiled in his

strawberry milk. “All for One has a soft spot for
him and he is also Kurogiri’s favorite.”

The older Todoroki sibling gave an incredibly

offended look to the youngest, and when he
talked again, his voice was low and as cold as
Todoroki’s ice.

“Don’t you even start,” Dabi growled.

Todoroki just smiled more, and Dabi soon

followed. A moment later, they were snickering
and Izuku had no idea of what was happening.

I don’t have siblings. I just don’t speak their

language.

“To go back to the USJ attack, you know, the one

who almost killed you,” he reminded Todoroki,
“Kurogiri could have done it. He didn’t have to
stay with All for One the whole time.”

“The warp quirk was different from Kurogiri,”

Todoroki intervened. “It wasn’t a mist portal but
some bad-smelling liquid. And it didn’t look like
All for One’s shadow warp either.”

“Did he tell you anything?” Dabi asked.

“He said that it wasn’t him.”

“And do you believe him?” Todoroki wondered.

“I don’t believe him,” Izuku said without a

moment of hesitation. “But him attacking All
Might like that makes no sense.”

All for One might hate All Might but if he wanted

to kill him, he didn’t have to make such an
intricate plan. All he had to do was to find him
and pick a fight with him, because All Might
hadn’t owned One for All for several months now,
and he had to be weakened.

Even if he wasn’t weakened enough… All for One

only had to wait. Age would catch up with All
Might. Where was the urgency?

Of course, Izuku’s information about All Might

gradually losing One for All’s remnants came from
All for One’s remarks. Maybe he was messing with
his mind. Maybe his whole plan was to slowly
drive him crazy in order to make him insane
enough to give up One for All.

The teenager realized he had started breathing a

little too quickly because the siblings shared a
worried look, so Izuku forced himself to inspire
and expire slowly.

“The problem between All Might and All for One

is personal. At his current level…” Now that he
was healed. “He would simply fight him. No
intermediaries. No distance. And I doubt he had
the time to break in and out of Tartarus again.”

“Again?” Dabi asked.

“All for One escaped a month ago…” Izuku

started but Todoroki, this false friend, coughed.

Coincidentally, he was pushed by the green-

haired-boy’s shoulder one moment later.

“He was accidentally broken out a month ago,”

Izuku continued. “And when he escaped, he
simply made a giant hole in the roof and flew
away. Unless someone else had the ability to fly,
no one else left with us… Why are you so pale?”

Pale might have actually been a euphemism.

Dabi was almost transparent. Izuku immediately
decided to leave him the chocolates because he
looked like he had just met a dementor.

“You went into Tartarus?” the fire user said in a

really strange voice.

“I told you that,” his brother told him.

“I thought you were joking… I actually refuse to

believe it. I don’t want to think that you actually
went into this hellhole.” He took a moment to
calm down which suspiciously looked like a very
tired man looking into the void. “Why?”

Todoroki and Izuku looked at each other.

They told him about ErI. How she had been

kidnapped in order to integrate the Paragon
program. How Izuku had lost it and designed a
plan without consulting Todoroki so he would be
the only one to shoulder the risks. And how
meeting All for One had allowed Eri and him to
get out.

Dabi had known Yami was absolutely insane but it

appeared that he had underestimated how deep
that river ran.

Dabi obviously needed some time to deal with

the kind of interesting situations Izuku could find
himself into, so he turned towards Todoroki who
was still looking at his brother with a look of pure
sympathy.

“If it’s not All for One, who could it be?”

“There are other villain groups,” Todoroki

reminded him. “Didn’t you piss off the yakuza
when you rescued Eri?”

Yes, but Izuku hadn’t known he was a yakuza

before Eri had mentioned this detail. Not that
knowing beforehand would have stopped him.

But at least, it seemed to drag Dabi back to

reality.

“They still exist?” he asked, which was a better

reaction than Izuku’s who actually had to make a
Wikipedia research because he wasn’t sure of
what they were anymore. “If we assume that All
for One didn’t try to kill All Might and my little
brother, we need to find information and since
none of us are well informed as far as villains are
concerned, we need help.”

Help was a rare commodity, especially when

information and secrets were so costly. They
would need someone who would want to help
and not trick them, and whose price would be
affordable.

Like someone wanting to be trusted by them.

“About someone that could give us

information…” Izuku started, wanting to slowly
introduce the idea then giving up. “The pro hero
Hawks just joined the Anyone server.”

Both Todorokis stared at him, with the exact same

expression: some kind of flat Are You Kidding
Me?

“It’s a spy,” Dabi blandly said.

“How can he be a spy?” Shouto asked. “He is the

number 3 hero. He has bright red wings. It’s the
last person to send if you want to spy on
someone.”

Well, if Izuku had to guess, the Hero Commission

was obsessed with control and had sent someone
they had molded since infancy without caring
about pesky details such as discretion and
credibility.

“Oh, I know he is a spy. That’s not even a

question. Especially after I destroyed this Hero
Commission official’s car,” Izuku reminded him.

“You did what?”

Whoops.

“We also planted drugs in his car,” Shouto

helpfully added and at this point, Dabi just closed
his eyes and it looked like he was silently
counting to ten. “He attacked his ex-girlfriend
and tried to run over Midoriya with his car. What
were we supposed to do?”

“Not that!”

Izuku realized that he had spent so much time

with unreasonable people that a lot of his past
actions appeared to have been a little more
extreme that he had realized at the time.

Since when am I so numb to the craziness in my

life?

And is Dabi supposed to be the reasonable one?

The first time I saw him, he was ready to
barbecue several people.

“Dabi, we’re past that. What is done is done,” he

said in a calm and reasonable voice. Then he
winced when he realized he had just borrowed All
for One’s method to make people pay attention.
“As for Hawks, since he was sent to spy on us,
why not use him to obtain answers?”

“The villain who lives in your house and is

strangely fond of you could be a good source of
information and probably not as dangerous as a
fu… freaking paragon,” Dabi noted.

“He’s been out of the game for ten years,” Izuku

dismissed it.

All for One didn’t know the players anymore and

he hadn’t even known about the exemplars and
the paragons. But Kurogiri might know something
if he had let those misty ears of his to the ground
during All for One’s imprisonment.

Still, even if he could banish Hawks from the

server, he liked the idea of a hero protecting him
from villains.

Todoroki had another theory, and he dared to say

it while eating Izuku’s snacks.

“You just want to meet a pro hero in the top ten,”

he accused him.

An accusation that was completely unfounded

and absolutely mean-spirited. Everyone knew
heroes weren’t that interesting to Izuku, especially
heroes with such a complex quirk that probably
had a dozen of secrets.

“I already met one,” Izuku reminded him,

wounded in his soul. “I even met the number 1.
You were there.”

“Then, you want to meet another one,” Todoroki

shrugged while Dabi was laughing at him.

Izuku gasped.

Midoriya left soon after Shouto called him out on

his quirk obsession while he remained at Dabi’s
place to borrow some manga and leave others
for his older brother to read, and it quickly ended
with both of them reading side by side in a
comfortable silence.

At some point, Dabi inquired about how Shouto

was feeling about the Sport Festival coming
soon, and he just shrugged without mentioning
that his main worry was that he wouldn’t have a
costume designed to keep him warm but that he
would be able to push through it for as long as it
took.

When they had met again, they had quickly

figured out that they didn’t need to talk with each
to fill the silence. Enjoying each other’s presence
was enough. However, that didn’t mean they
never talked, and his older brother was especially
hungry for details about Natsuo and Fuyumi. How
were they? What they were doing? Was Fuyumi
still soft on her students? But the one thing they
never mentioned was Endeavor.

They both hated him.

But where Shouto wanted to prove how worthless

his dream had been, to destroy his pride by never
letting him win, surpassing in every sense of the
word, Dabi wanted to obliterate him. Probably
because he had been more hurt by this bastard.
Maybe because Shouto hadn’t had the time to
make his hate grow as much as his brother. In
several years, Shouto might be there too.

But mentioning him was something they had

both agreed not to do, without even talking
about it. Because they had just found each other
again and hate wasn’t something they wanted to
bring here.

Anyone

[Can you do something about Salty

McNuggets without outright banning him? ]

Gwen

[ Like what? Send a message to

everyone except him that he is a spy and not
to speak to him about Anyone? ]

Anyone

[Exactly.]

Ten years ago, Kurogiri hadn’t been the one to

find Sensei after his fight with All Might. Instead,
one of their shapeshifting allies had turned into a
trusted doctor to confirm his death on the site,
then the barman had warped away the
ambulance in the Doctor’s laboratory.

He remembered being surprised about the

ambulance, as if Sensei was merely injured
instead of horribly maimed, but he shouldn’t have
been. They couldn’t afford people realizing that
their adored hero had killed a man.

Ten years later, as Kurogiri was warping in that

laboratory accompanied by Sensei, he still felt
how he had been at the time. Scared. As if the
world was tumbling down. But Sensei himself
barely acknowledged that the last time he was
here, he was missing two arms, his face, and
probably had a few ribs reduced to powder.

Traces of the fight that had ensued after All Might

had found the laboratory remained here and
there. Dents in the walls. Smashed equipment.
Suspicious spots that someone pacifist would
mistake for dirt but to people like Sensei and him,
it was unmistakably blood.

All for One didn’t even look at the few surviving

computers and crossed the room until he was
facing the wall. He crouched down and put his
hand on the surface, trying to find something.
Kurogiri approached behind him, trying to see if
anything was different, but the wall looked
smooth and plain.

There must have been something nonetheless

because Sensei made a pleased sound and
opened a slab that had been invisible, revealing
an old safe.

“One of our doctor’s most endearing qualities,

beyond his loyalty, was his paranoia. Anything on
his computers could be deleted in a blink but he
kept his researches in safe places. And I know the
code,” he explained while punching it on the
pad.

The red line turned to green and a little noise was

heard, the final confirmation that it was the right
code.

Only for nothing to happen

Both men just looked at the little safe that was

refusing to do his job with open contempt.

“After ten years, it’s possible that it was

damaged, especially if a lot of quirks were used
too close to it,” Kurogiri cautiously noticed.

The annoyed glance his boss sent him assured

him that he was already aware of it.

The way he grabbed the safe, destroying the

metal with his bare hands and ripping it open like
a fruit, made Kurogiri decide to shut up for a
while. Once half of the safe was reduced to metal
scraps, it was clear that it was empty.

“Our good doctor had the time to take his

research with him,” Sensei noted.

Once the research was on an old man who

couldn’t run very fast, anyone could have taken it
from him, which meant any villain group could
have created the multiquirked bioweapon who
could have killed the youngest Todoroki.

“I always thought you were the only one who

could grant other quirks,” Kurogiri mused out
loud before being startled by the loud noise of
the remnants of the safe being twisted and
flattened by the lord of the underworld.

“The doctor was working on it,” he explained

absentmindedly but the box kept being twisted,
making a sound that was giving goosebumps to
Kurogiri despite mist not supposed to have that
kind of physical reaction. “His field subject was
empowering quirks but he made an interesting
discovery while working on strengthening
someone so they could bear multiple quirks.”

He shoved the safe in the hiding spot and closed

it, the wall smooth again.

“It will take time to find him,” he mused as he

stood again, all trace of annoyance hidden but
Kurogiri knew him enough to see his hesitation.

Tartarus had changed All for One. Ten years in a

dark cell was the kind of torture that would
thoroughly destroyed most people’s mind. Sensei
had survived, of course, and he was now clinging
to the warmer aspects of existence like a man
who had nearly drowned would cling to the land.
Before, he had put some distance between
everyone and him, but now, there was the start of
a real bond between Kurogiri and him. He used
to be blasé about a lot, probably because he had
seen things repeat again and again during two
centuries, but now, he took delights in everything
about life, from the food to people, appreciating
every new experience.

And he was absolutely fascinated by Yami.

How couldn’t he be? He had been broken out

buy a child who would surely one day burn this
society to the ground. Impossible to predict, he
had taken upon himself to help people, adopting
a familiar favor for a favor method, and he was
impossible to predict. For an immortal in constant
danger of being bored to death, this was
irresistible.

And more, it looked like he needed him.

“If you don’t want to get away from your current

business, it’s more than understandable,” Kurogiri
said.

All for One looked at him.

It wasn’t even a glare but it iced the warper to the

bones. It was as if a large predator had taken
notice of him, reminding him that they weren’t
friends and that many people had died because
they had thought they could reach Sensei.

The impression of being studied as a potential

problem to be snuffed disappeared as soon as it
had appeared but it didn’t mean Kurogiri would
forget it any time soon.

“There are… solutions,” Sensei admitted.

“Solutions I am not willing to explore for now.”

Snowdrift

[ I am wondering about something.]

[What will you do when your mother

comes back?]

SmallMight1541

[She will probably murder me and none

of this will be my concern anymore.]

Katsuki was brushing his teeth when someone

rang at the door.

Naturally, since the Bakugou family wasn’t

expecting anyone, everyone played dead until
the person who had decided to show up
unannounced understood his endeavor could
only fail. Three heartbeats later, whoever was at
the door let his finger on the doorbell and the
most annoying ring echoed through the house.

The toothbrush met an unfortunate end as

Katsuki preferred to redirect his anger but in the
end, he wasn’t the one who lost patience first.

“KATSUKI, OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!” his mom

screamed at full lungs.

“I AM BRUSHING MY FUCKING TEETH!” he

yelled back as he grabbed another toothbrush
under the sink. For some reasons, his father made
stocks of those.

“MASARU, OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!” his mom

next yelled.

The blond teen rolled his eyes but at least, the

house was quiet again. Someone with a deep
voice started talking, Katsuki’s soft words barely
audible, but he made an effort to listen in in case
he needed to jump downstairs and scare a door-
to-door salesman.

His dad was simply too soft on them.

“I am the pro hero Sir Nighteye, at the head of

the Nighteye agency,” he heard instead. “I am
currently working with Might Tower and I have
questions to ask to Bakugou Katsuki.”

Notes:
This is actually the first half of the
chapter I was supposed to post,
but I decided that a 30-pages-
chapter was a little too long. The
good news is that you should have
another one soon.

CHAPTER 11
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

A moment later, the family was reunited in the

living room, all of them on the couch as if they
were forming a common front against the pro
hero sent by All Might’s agency. But of course,
Katsuki was the only one on the defensive,
because his parents had no idea he had lied to
the number 1 hero’s face all those months ago.

Sir Nighteye, though Katsuki doubted he had

been knighted, was a tall man who reminded him
of a mantis, with cold hard eyes that were clearly
expressing he wasn’t impressed by what he was
seeing. He was sitting on a chair that wasn’t quite
big enough for him, but he didn’t seem to care as
he leaned towards the Bakugous.

“Is that about the USJ?” his mom asked, her

voice grating on the hero student’s sensitive ears.
“Are you interrogating everyone in Katsuki’s
class?”

Something suspiciously close to hope started to

bloom in Katsuki’s chest.

Honestly, there wasn’t much to say about the

USJ. Some morons had tried to attack them and
they had fought back with all they had, but at
least, it was a safe topic.

Of fucking course, Nighteye didn’t take long

before dashing his hopes.

“I am afraid it’s about a more ancient villain

attack. I am investigating the circumstances
around the Sludge villain’s accident.”

The smell was everything. Something watery and

dirty, like dirt after rain, and it was on Katsuki’s
clothes and hair, impossible to get rid off.

Katsuki destroyed the memory like he always did.

The smell was the first thing he kept
remembering, probably because it was the first
thing he had noticed right before the bastard had
jumped him. When he remembered that smell,
other memories weren’t far. Unable to move,
unable to breathe, alone, his quirk not enough to
destroy the villain…

How powerless and pitiful he had been.

A wave of rage passed through him, washing

away this bullshit that kept sticking to him.

“During the altercation, a little before All Might

intervened, someone tried to rescue you,”
Nighteye continued. “We would like to find him.”

Deku’s stupid face appeared in front of Katsuki’s

eyes, but it wasn’t the crying face he had when he
had rushed like a madman and threw his
backpack in the Sludge villain’s eye, allowing
Katsuki to breathe just for a couple of seconds.

Katsuki still hated him for it.

What came to mind was on the graduation day,

when Katsuki had become an Exemplar, being
congratulated as if he had been the only one
there, fighting the villain. How Deku had been so
fucking calm when he had made him fall, his foot
on his wrist, wordlessly threatening him to break
it and to end his career before it even began.

His mother smacked him on the shoulder to draw

his attention.

“Don’t hit me!” he screamed at her.

“Why didn’t I know someone else was there?”

she asked, ignoring him and smacking him on the
shoulder again. “Why don’t you ever say anything
to me?”

Because I fucking hate talking to you.

“I can’t help you,” Katsuki told the pro hero after

ignoring his mother. “I barely saw him. I was busy
at the time.”

“Are you sure you never met him before? He

risked his safety for you. Surely…”

“I. Don’t. Know. Him,” Katsuki cut, more and

more annoyed because Deku had to ruin
everything. Without him, he wouldn’t have to lie.
“I already told that to All Might.”

God, he had lied to All Might. He had looked at

him in the eyes and lied.

“When did you speak to All Might?” his mom

asked, her hand on his arm as she tried to draw
his attention, as if he wasn’t so fucking obviously
busy at the moment, and they all ignored her
anyway.

“You didn’t speak with him afterwards?” Nighteye

insisted, frowning because he had obviously
expected more. Well, if he was disappointed and
frustrated, he could join the fucking club. “The
heroes made sure you both weren’t hurt –it’s the
protocol- so you must have been next to each
other. You must have talked or acknowledged
each other.”

Katsuki mentally went back to this day and he

was relieved to remember that they hadn’t talked.
A quick glance at most, as heroes were
congratulating him and while Death Arms was
telling the truth: how Deku’s actions had been
idiotic.
Then, ice spread through him as he remembered
the last words to him that day.

''If you want to be a hero that much, why don't

you take a dive from the rooftop and pray to have
a quirk in your next life?”

Why were All Might and Nighteye so interested in

Deku?

It was as if he had been thrown into icy water. For

a moment, Katsuki could barely breathe but he
managed to somehow control his face because if
that was what he thought it as about, he was…
He actually didn’t have the words for it.

They couldn’t find Deku. This nerd didn’t have

the skills to evade a pro hero, so it was possible
that he had disappeared in a very definitive way.

“Bakugou, he asked you a question,” his mom

said, hitting him with her shoulder and he almost
exploded.

“I WAS THINKING!”

Had Deku found an isolated place? Somewhere

where no one would find him?

“It was not the best day of my life, and honestly, I

don’t remember much of it,” he heard himself
say.

Deku looking at him like he was done with

everything.

“Goodbye, Kacchan.”

“Bakugou-kun, it’s important.” The pro hero was

obviously losing patience and in turn, this made
Katsuki angrier because Who Was He To Lose
Patience With Him? “As a hero in training and an
exemplar, you must help me.”

“My son almost died that day,” his mom growled.

“Can you give him a moment to think or do you
prefer to keep hassling him?”

His mother being helpful and almost… sensitive

was actually the thing that made Katsuki escape
that thing that was really starting to look like blind
panic.

“Of course,” Nighteye acknowledged, contrite,

before continuing with more softness in his voice.
“If you don’t know who he is, you can maybe give
me a description?”

“Plain-looking,” Katsuki answered automatically.

“I wasn’t really paying attention.”

“Green hair and green eyes? Freckled face?”

Wait…

“Maybe,” the hero student said, hope starting to

make his heart beat again.

They didn’t know who he was. If they were

investigating on a disappearance or a suicide,
they would know his name, right? Deku’s mother
would have given them that kind of information.

It’s about something else.

At least, he hoped.

“I’m sorry.” That might have been the first time

Katsuki ever said those three words. “I was more
focused on the Sludge villain than anyone’s else.”

“So am I,” Nighteye sighed. “Whoever this boy

is, we suspect him of being involved with an
illegal organization known as Anyone. You’ve ever
heard about it?” Katsuki shook his head. “It
started as an online forum but it quickly became
a group of people who use their quirks without a
license. They are involved in violent altercations
and they are the one who attacked Death Arms
yesterday.”

Holy shit.

Death Arms had been the one to chew out Deku.

But why would a group of quirk users want
anything to do with a quirkless boy?

“All that to say that if you remember anything or

if you learn anything about that boy, you have to
call me,” Nighteye continued but he mentally
had one foot out of the house. “All Might is
counting on you.”

He stood up, a card already in his hand, and he

held it out for Katsuki to take. The hero student
started to get up, just relieved that this man
would finally leave this house... But he never had
the time to take it before his father snatched it
before he even had the time to raise his arm.

“This is going on the fridge,” his father

explained. “We can’t risk losing that, can we?”

Then, he accompanied Nighteye to the door.

That damn nerd.

The pro hero was finally gone and Katsuki had

scurried off into his bedroom to think in peace.
That moment when he had been terrified at the
idea of Deku offing himself had unlocked a
shitstorm of memories that, now that he was
examining them, didn’t look so good.

He had only been there for a few minutes when

his dad knocked at his door. Not that he
announced himself but his mom usually barged
in.

“Come in,” Katsuki called.

And he did, walking into his room and closing the

door behind him, before pausing, as if he was
looking for the words to use.

“What’s wrong?” Katsuki asked, his nerves

already too much on edge to wait longer.

His dad gave him a strange look.

“Is there a reason why you never told a soul

about Izuku-kun helping you during this villain
attack?” he asked.

That left Katsuki speechless.

“I don’t know why you’re so surprised. Izuku-kun

used to always be with you,” his dad, the
presence so discreet in this house that he could
have been a ghost, sighed. “There is no way I
could forget him.”

To tell him why he hadn’t said a word would be to

admit he had done something wrong. That just
wasn’t something Katsuki was capable of doing.

He didn’t like how his father was looking at him.

Masaru had never done anything until now. His
mom was the threat. She was the one shouting
and hitting, always grating on his nerves, while his
dad just didn’t say anything and let them do what
they wanted. Such a change of character was
unsettling.

“I don’t know what happened and honestly, I am

not sure I want to know,” his dad continued. “But
whatever your reason is to lie to the Symbol of
Peace… From now on, you won’t say a word
about it. You deny until your dying breath.”

“Wait…”

Katsuki knew that. He knew that once he had lied

to All Might of all people, he had crossed a limit,
but even if he never wanted to admit to his hero
that he had lied to him, he was young and All
Might would be disappointed but there would be
a way to fix his mistake.

But now, his passive father was in his room, and

he was scared for Katsuki, and in turn, it made
him uneasy.

“This is serious, Katsuki. You’re an exemplar. They

will destroy you if they learn you did something
like that.”

An exemplar was chosen by the Hero

Commission as a hope as a future high-ranked
hero and Katsuki had always known he would one
of them. The day he had received this distinction,
he had been so angry with everyone, especially
Deku, for being congratulated on this fucking
thing with the Sludge that it had occulted
everything else.

But just now, he was realizing that since people

had high hopes for him, they wouldn’t forgive his
lie.

Slowly, the hero student nodded.

“And no need to mention that to your mother,”

his father added before closing the door behind
him.

Leaving Katsuki alone.

Izuku went on an Anyone mission. No fighting

involved, this time. Just someone who needed
help painting his house and offered pizza as
payment, and a bunch of people who didn’t know
each other had showed up. By the time it was
done, Izuku’s clothes were covered in paint,
people had given him cookies because he was
the youngest on the bunch, and he was feeling
warm and happy because he had been
surrounded by kind people who had shared
stories and bonded as soon as they had entered
the same place.

He had needed this kind of work. He had reached

out to Anyone to have a community at a time
where he was desperately alone, and always
giving his energy had made him forget how good
it felt to being offered some warmth.

However, as soon as he left, cold seized him

again. Distraction was the only good subterfuge
that worked to fight anxiety but once that he was
alone again with his own thoughts, fear starting
to eat at him.

In the end, he went on a beach that wasn’t far

from his home. Dagobah municipal beach used
to be a beautiful public spot but pollution had
turned it into a junkyard and no one came here
anymore. A perfect place to train if one had all
their vaccines up to date.

Izuku trained for a couple of hours until his mind

was only occupied by One for All. There was no
room for doubt or worries while using this quirk,
not when any lapse of control would end up with
his bones broken.

By the time he was done, he was exhausted and

calm again.

He took a break by sitting on the cleanest spot he

managed to find and checked his emails and the
server. Eri was fine and currently trying to
convince her adoptive parents to adopt a dingo,
and her sister and her had already planned to
sneak one into their bedroom if they refused.
Someone reasonable would have explained that
it wasn’t a good idea but Izuku tried not to be a
hypocrite and asked for photos if she managed to
pull it off.

As for the Kurosawas, they were still in the

country but they were planning on going to
Europe at the end of the week.

He was brushing through requests on quirk

counselling when he received a message from
Nagisa.

Gwen:

[Isn’t that a little late for a school

night?]

SmallMight1541

[You also have school. ]

Gwen:

[College isn’t school. It’s a nightmare.]

[Can I call you?]

Most of the time, phone calls were difficult for

Izuku. Texts could be modified before they were
sent. He could study them, make sure that he
didn’t sound ridiculous before his interlocutor
read them.

Phone calls were just complicated. Maybe for

everyone. Definitely for someone who had spent
two years without going to school and not a lot of
socialization.

But with Nagisa, curiously, it was okay. She wasn’t

someone he had to be wary of.

She explained to him that All Might’s sidekick was

looking for him and that he had to be prepared
for the Might Tower to pull the big guns when it
came to find him. She also assured him that she
had faith in her ability to hide him online but that
if this continued, he might have to predict that in
his budget or asked her to do less for Anyone.

Then, she asked him what had happened with

Death Arms, if he was willing to talk about it, and
Izuku explained everything without mentioning
any name or quirks. And when she heard about
the situation, she immediately told him that she
wouldn’t mind helping pro bono.

Nagisa cared about people. She just didn’t like

admitting it.

“What’s happening to you?” she asked at some

point. “You seem sad.”

“I am starting to get tired,” Izuku said.

He wasn’t exactly lying. It was starting to get

really late and he had just trained for several
hours. But she wasn’t convinced by his half-truth.

“I’m a college student,” Nagisa scoffed. “I know

tired and this is not it.”

Izuku took a deep breath, the I am fine already on

his lips. He was feeling colder and colder and he
was starting to want to end the conversation so
he could go back to train until he was so tired he
would pass out without being able to think
anymore.

Confiding into someone wasn’t something Izuku

did. Even with Todoroki, he was careful because
he knew he had enough trouble without being
bothered by his stupid fears. Nagisa and him
weren’t even friends.

And yet…

“I am scared, Gwen. I have this feeling everything

is going to decay between my hands. I can try to
hold those problems at bay for a moment, I can
temporarily help people, but the drawback is
going to send me stumbling and hurt everyone I
cared about.”

For a moment, Izuku could only hear his

heartbeat into the silence of the night. All those
word thrown around, still hovering around him,
clinging to him and someone else was able to
see them.

“Okay,” Nagisa said after a moment, her voice

more serious than it had ever been. “Let’s
examine the facts.”

Izuku stoop up. Starting to walk. Being still was

just beyond him right now.

“You’re fifteen, Yami. Fifteen, and you already

helped so many people. You created a place
where we can be free and help each other. Your
rescued a little girl from the depth of Tartarus.
And you’re doing an admirable job of placating
the villain who escaped.”

The Tartarus break-in had never been a rescue. It

had been Izuku being unable to find a solution so
he had thrown himself at a situation that he had
no chance to get away from, because better to
try and fail than to admit his powerlessness.

He had escaped only because he had been

extraordinarily lucky, and now, a tyking bomb was
trying to get his hands on the most powerful
quirk of the world.

And now, people he loved would pay the price

for his lack of foresight.

“You’re doing a fucking good job,” she insisted

as if she had heard his thoughts.

Izuku breathed deeply. Focused on her words

instead of the voice in his head.

“But let’s imagine the worst,” she continued.

“Let’s imagine that all of your work crumbles. The
good you created will remain. Society was
already fucked up before. You didn’t contribute
to making it more twisted. On the contrary, even
if you stop now, the good you created will
remain. Realize that every effort you make is a gift
offered to people, but that they aren’t owned
anything. You’re not a martyr, so stop acting like
one and realize that you have more chances to
make things better than anything else.”

It was actually what managed to calm him down.

She left him to the worst, and rock bottom was
already better than what would have happened if
he had never done anything.

“I must add that I’m a fine hacker and that no one

will find you or your mom as long as I’m here.”

Her absolute trust in her abilities made him smile.

“Yami, do me a favor: slow down with the Anyone

work. Delegate more and go to school. You
might think the distractions are helping but you
are just wearing yourself down.”

“You are wise,” Izuku finally said, his words a little

choked because of the emotions.

Thank you.

“Obviously,” Nagisa scoffed.

Despite the late –early- hour, the lights were still

on when Izuku came back home. Still, the
teenager made sure not to make any noise as he
sneaked in, his footsteps completely silent as he
was walking with his weight on his toes and
because he knew with floorboard would creak.

But of course, he shouldn’t have bothered

because All for One wasn’t sleeping, resting his
eyes, or dozing off like most people would at
three am. Instead, he was waiting on the couch
and didn’t even raise his head from the novel he
was reading when Izuku entered the living room.
The villain was still dressed in formal wears, with
his folded jacket next to him as the only
acknowledgement of the late hour.

“Another twenty minutes and I would have sent a

rescue party,” he greeted him without a hint of a
smile.

Oh dear, his stalker seemed to be less satisfied

with Izuku’s curfew. How would he survive the
adult‘s obvious disapproval?

“Moreover,” All for One added, “I feel it’s my

duty to warn you that lack of sleep stunts one’s
growth.”

Let’s see if you’re still taller than me when I put

you into a hole in the ground.

Izuku started walking again, going into the

kitchen, but such insult had to be answered.

“So does stress, and yet, here you are, stalking

me and destroying my blood pressure. A little
hypocritical of you, don’t you think?” the
teenager asked as he opened a kitchen drawer
and grabbed some sweets as a post training
snack.

He might not have been as discreet as he

intended to because the loud wrinkling of the
paper echoed in the room, followed by an
amused silence.

There was something about eating sugar when

you were tired. It didn’t exactly quell one’s
hunger but the rush of energy was enough to
continue through the day. Izuku ate three sweets,
thinking about what All for One had said.

“I never saw you sleep.” The villain was always up

earlier than Izuku, already dressed and preparing
the breakfast. As for the night, Izuku was a
notorious night owl but All for One had never
gone to bed before him, as many times where
Izuku had dozed off on the couch or sitting at the
table, only to wake up in his bed in the morning,
could prove. “Do you have a quirk for that?”

All for One turned another page of his book, but

now, he was smiling. “It’s an adult’s super power.
The older you get, the less sleep you need.
Maybe you will one day experience it if your
recklessness doesn’t kill you,” he ranted like the
old man that he actually was.

It suddenly dawned on Izuku: the perfect way to

snipe back at those comments about his height.

“It’s true that at such a venerable age, going to

sleep is quite the gamble,” the teenager nodded.

The book closed abruptly and the sound it made

manage to be a thing of pure indignation, but it
was nothing compared to All for One’s glare.

“A baby,” the old geezer muttered under his

breath. “I am being sassed by a baby.”

Izuku turned to hide a smile, pretended he was

looking for a glass, and controlled his laugh so it
would disappear from his voice.

“I know I must seem young for someone who

lived through the apparition of quirks. I could
come back in ten years to continue this
conversation but… you’re not getting any
younger. Who knows if you will still be with us?”
Izuku wondered out loud, definitely without any
hint of sass, as he poured himself some orange
juice.

The bristling of clothes warned him that All for

One was moving and he immediately scrambled
out of the way. Between his speed and the space
between them, he should have been able to
escape but somehow, he still managed to be
trapped in a hug while the most evil villain who
had ever walked the earth was using his other
hand to open a drawer and raid Izuku’s stash of
candies.

This man is like a living and warmer Cask of

Amontillado.

After cohabitating with All for One for quite a

while, Izuku had begrudgingly admitted –though
never out loud- that the physical contacts weren’t
only about stealing One for All. Those were
attempts to get as close as possible as something
familiar, the same way Izuku kept wearing All
Might merchandise despite having ruined
everything with his favorite hero.

As much as he didn’t like to think about it, All for

One had gone through a traumatizing ordeal. Ten
years of isolation would have driven anyone else
insane, and he had been thrown in a world that
he didn’t really recognize anymore, leaving him
unsettled.

And then, Izuku had arrived, with a quirk that had

been here from the beginning of All for One’s life
as a villain. That was a constant in his life, the
shining beacon in the darkness of a hostile
environment. In those conditions, a transfer
wasn’t surprising.

Especially as Izuku had a sneaking suspicion that

he looked a little like All for One’s little brother.

But that didn’t mean he had to accept being

treated like a living plushie, so he started to
squirm his way to freedom.

All for One’s arm didn’t move an inch.

“Are you planning to let me go before you die of

old age?”

“What are you saying?” the personification of a

headache asked. “I apologize but my ears aren’t
what they used to be.”

And he squeezed Izuku.

The risk I took was calculated but man, am I bad

at math.

The villain Death Arms had met was a child in a

green hoodie. He had been wearing a mask and
his hood had been obscuring the upper part of
his face so Hawks didn’t have anything to work
with. What was more interesting was that the
people who had been accompanying him. A
young blue-haired-woman. And another, a man
with dark hair and large scars. This last one had
been the more aggressive, immediately ready to
fight the pro hero.

Hawks could work with that.

There was nothing in the database, which wasn’t

surprising since Hawks didn’t even have a quirk to
work with. He consulted the police database for
criminals with such distinctive signs. And he
found nothing.

Before doing something horribly long like

searching for everyone with an ill-suited quirk or
who had been hurt during a villain attack, Hawks
called several secretaries working for police
precincts and some nurses. It wasn’t because
nothing was written that no one had seen
anything. Just that the suspect hadn’t been
arrested.

The terms scarred asshat and damn patchwork

face ringed a bell for several of them, usually
from his victims, accompanied by some burns.
With their help, Hawks was able to delimit a zone,
then he changed his patrol roads in order to fly
over there and he found him on his second day.

The villain was tranquilly walking in the street, a

grocery bag in his right hand. Hawks immediately
noted the name of the bag. If he was doing his
shopping around here, it meant his home wasn’t
far.

Hawks waited until the villain was near an alley

before throwing his feathers. Four of them, the
smallest ones, they pierced through the villain’s
coat before twisting themselves in order to secure
a grip and with an effort of will, Hawks managed
to push him into an alley. At the same time, long
feathers stabbed the concrete, startling the
passerby who had been walking just a little too
close from the fire user. The teenager in a Gang
Orca hoodie almost immediately jumped back,
then froze when he recognized Hawks.

“Ongoing operation,” he barked at the kid who

had been a little too close to a dangerous fire
user. A little too harsh, especially since he had
been trained to be always nice and helpful with
civilians, but the kid scurried off before he had
the time to soften him with a smile.

Hawks jumped into the alley, his hands raised in

the commonly acknowledged I Am Not Here To
Fight gesture and his wings raised in the less
known I Don’t Need My Hands To Skewer You
gesture.

As for the villain, he had his hands raised in a

gesture that looked like Endeavor’s pre Whoops,
Was That Flamethrower Too Hot For You? move.

“So, this is what pro heroes are reduced to, these

days?” the villain drawled. “Mugging innocents in
dark alleys.”

The memory of Death Arms being duct taped to

a pole immediately came to Hawks’ mind.

“You’re hardly innocent and I just need to talk to

you. You’re a hard man to find.”

Actually, not really. He stuck out like a sore thumb

and he really should have worn a mask when he
had been with the Kurosawas. However, flattery
could go a long way.

Piercing blue eyes stared at Hawks’ very soul and

whatever they saw, they didn’t seem impressed.
Then, they darted behind the pro hero’s back but
he didn’t turn around to look. He had left feathers
here and there and he would be warned if
anyone tried to sneak on him.

“I am not interested in dragging the Kurosawas

home,” Hawks admitted and the villain just kept
staring at him, not showing anything. “Nightmare
is directly employed by the Hero Commission. He
is hard to leave.”

The pro hero was actually well-placed to know

exactly what Nightmare did. When the police
didn’t manage to obtain information, Nightmare
intervened. Anyone who was supposed to uphold
the law left the secured location where the
suspect had been brought, and when Nightmare
got out, he had answers and it wasn’t rare for the
unfortunate soul’s hair to have turned white.

At those words, the villain sighed. It wasn’t an

obvious sight of relief, more of someone whose
respiration was suddenly more fluid. Nothing
really. But Hawks was trained to notice this kind of
things.

“I am here for Anyone. I want in.”

Mocking eyes blue eyes met his. “Oh, really?”

When he had been chosen as a Paragon, Hawks

had been trained into being many things.
Efficient. Fast. Loved. Combat training, again and
again, but also how to take care of his image,
how to lead and how to read people’s faces so he
wouldn’t be taken by surprise. Everything for him
to be a popular hero the Commission could be
proud of.

But no one had ever taught him how to infiltrate

organizations, because that was underground
hero work, and he was winging it –pun intended.

“I want to help,” Hawks said, completely truthful.

“Anyone presents an advantage because I can
reach everyone who needs it without having to
be bound by stupid rules. But someone on the
server is preventing me from accessing anything.”

“Oh my,” the bastard answered, deadpan.

The first rule to find information was to make

friend with the informant, so Hawks smiled and
chose not to grab him and suspend him twenty
meters above the ground until he had what he
needed to know.

“This might be because your job is about

stopping people like us,” the villain continued,
getting in Hawks’ space and even if he wasn’t
aiming at him anymore, he could feel how the air
around them had warmed. Thankfully, Hawks
trusted his speed. “Or because there is no way
Anyone would trust the Hero Commission’s
golden boy.”

That had been one of Hawks’ main worries when

the Commission had asked him to infiltrate
Anyone. But he had one advantage that others
didn’t: his back was against the wall.

He had to succeed.

“I’m aware you won’t trust me for now,” he said.

“But that’s not your decision. That’s Anyone’s. Tell
them I want to help and that I am interested in
what you do. And that you would be foolish not
to use my abilities.”

They stared each other down.

And then, the villain chuckled.

“You know what? I will tell them. But don’t

complain about the result,” he warned him, and
for some reason, it almost sounded like he pitied
him.

“That’s all I’m asking,” Hawks grinned.

If it didn’t work, he would just have to make

himself impossible to ignore. Anyone’s activities
could be tracked down with enough time and a
keen eye. Hawks would be everywhere, making
friends with any users, any potential members of
the inner circle.

Someone would tell him something. Eventually.

His feathers came back to him, four of them

burned to a crisp, and after thanking the villain
for taking the time to talk to him, he realized that
he was missing some important information.

“Do you have a name?” Hawks asked him.

“Yes,” the fire user smiled, barring his teeth.

Fair enough.

Dabi watched Spicy McNuggets exiting the alley

and flying away and he had a feeling he would
regret not turning him into a pile of ashes but
Anyone wouldn’t let him murder pro heroes. Even
when it would have made everything easier.

Now, where are my groceries?

He had barely finished the thought that a shadow

fell from the roof –no, not the roof, a fire escape.
He managed to recognize his boss before
accidentally burning him to death by reflex.

The teenager landed lightly, as if the very

concept of gravity held as much weight as sanity
over him. But Dabi was quite used to him
appearing and disappearing like a ninja and he
was very interested in the familiar grocery bag in
his hand.

“Where did you even manage to go?” he asked

while taking back his food after a thank you
disguised at a nod.

Yami had been walking behind him when the

number 3 hero had appeared.

The teenager shrugged: “He left several feathers

behind, floating around, so I preferred to take
some distance in case he would detect me with
them…”

His voice drifted off, and allied to the pensive

look on his face, Dabi had no doubt he was
thinking about Hawks’ quirk. In the safety of the
bar or in Dabi’s apartment, he would mumble to
himself to his heart content, but in public, unless
he was extremely focused, he would often stop
himself from rambling about them.

Someone had forced him to stop talking about

quirks at some point. Maybe they had bullied him
into not speaking at all. Probably at a time where
he couldn’t use his quirk without breaking
himself.

When he had been defenseless.

Another, though troubling, thing, was that Dabi

could see a little of All for One in the way Yami
was retreating in the comfort of his own thoughts,
his eyes gleaming like a cat who has just seen
something shiny and that he would love to claim.

“I guess that we will have to take care of Hawks

sooner than expected,” Yami suddenly said with a
smile that was far too innocent to be trusted.

And then, Anyone went on his merry way before

Dabi could ask him if he was planning to murder
a pro hero.

Notes:
o/ I see a lot of you have theories
about who attacked the USJ and
it's so hard for me not to spoil
you, so don't be surprised if i
don't answer about it.
Nonetheless, I love hearing your
thoughts.

CHAPTER 12
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

With the Sport Festival closing in, Izuku was

expecting to train with Todoroki more and more.
His friend had enough power and skills to win the
tournament but the main danger was related to
how long the Sport Festival would last. Without
the heating system of his hero costume,
hypothermia was the real enemy, especially as
Todoroki refused to use his flames.

Izuku actually had a plan for that. It would take

some time, but after everything they had been
through together, he had faith that he could talk
with Todoroki about how he didn’t have two
quirks but one: his own.

His plan was mercilessly shot many times then

dragged to a lake and drowned to finish the job,
because Todoroki sent him a message telling him
that he wanted to train alone until the Sport
Festival passed.

Are you sure? Izuku has asked in those exact

terms.

Three words that formed a closed question. Yes

or no. Nothing else was needed.

Nonetheless, Todoroki had explained to him that

the Sport Festival was an important step to reach
his goal and how, as much as he enjoyed their
time together, it wasn’t as efficient, and he
couldn’t afford the distraction.

Izuku could absolutely understand and respect

such a choice.

On the same day, Izuku’s homeroom teacher sent

an email explaining that she had to leave for a
week and that she would need the papers
assigned to the students three days early.

Well, Plus Ultra.

On the same day, the Midoriyas’ trusted coffee

machine broke down and died an undignified
and shameful death.

Izuku had his limits.

Dabi was warped into the bar by Kurogiri, took

one step outside the portal, and was immediately
hit by the aura of pure annoyance sweeping
through the place. The fire user gulped down, all
of his instinct telling him to be invisible and when
he looked around, he was expecting to see All for
One.

Instead, he saw Yami hunched over a table in a

corner, furiously writing something as if the paper
had insulted his mother, owed him money, and
kicked his cat. There was a serious I Can’t Kick
You In the Teeth Right Now But That Doesn’t
Mean I Am Not Tempted quality to what he was
doing, and coming from the most polite boy Dabi
had ever met, the change was glaring and a little
scary.

For a moment, absolute silence would have ruled

over the bar if it hadn’t been for the noise of the
quill doing its best to stab the paper while still
writing words, and Dabi did the one thing
someone shouldn’t do in this situation: opening
his mouth

“Is there a problem?” he asked.

Yami put down his pen.

He looked up at Dabi, green soulless eyes staring

at him.

“None,” Yami assured, his face completely blank.

“I am just a little late with my homework.”

And then, he returned to his work that were

obviously taking the blame for something else.

Dabi decided not to push his luck and turned

towards Kurogiri who was ignoring the leader of
Anyone being so cold he could have rivaled
Dabi’s baby brother quirk.

What the hell is happening, he mouthed.

Kurogiri made an Abort Mission gesture.

Dabi borrowed a baseball bat from Kurogiri and

fled through another warp portal. No need to
stay here when there were remunerated Anyone
missions to take care of.

Hitoshi was in his room, looking at the footage of

the last three Sport Festivals on his laptop and
taking notes on his math notebook because he
hadn’t managed to find another one and because
he despised this subject.

The Sport Festival followed the same pattern

every year. The first trial would thin the herd by
making the environment inhospitable. Hitoshi
wasn’t the best at physical feats –his quirk just
wasn’t made for it- but he would have to run
every day until the Sport Festival if he wanted to
be ready and so he wouldn’t have to be forced to
use people as human shields.

His reputation was already bad enough.

The second trial was always a team-exercise. The

problem was that he hadn’t made any friend
since the school year had started. Especially as a
lot of them were still uncomfortable with him
because of what he had done during the quirk
assessment. He had sabotaged everyone’s last
test so he wouldn’t be the last one.

It had been necessary.

Hitoshi simply didn’t have the luxury of having a

nice and flashy heroic quirk like his classmates. If
he couldn’t be strong or fast enough, he had to
be smart instead.

Maybe Uraraka and Iida would accept me in their

team. Asui was also friendly with everyone. And if
he didn’t find anyone… He had the perfect quirk
to convince allies.

The last trial would be a tournament and that was

what was worrying him. All of his classmates knew
about his quirk so his main advantage was gone.
He would have to study them and find a way to
rile them up. At least, Shinsou had made sure to
make them think his quirk could only be activated
when someone directly answered to one of his
questions, so they wouldn’t expect the any vocal
acknowledgment condition.

Hitoshi stopped the footage and passed a hand

on his face, suddenly really tired.

He didn’t want to do that. He didn’t like that.

Attacking people on their insecurities or using
them as dolls just to reach his goal made him
uneasy.

But he couldn’t afford to do what he wanted.

It was already a small miracle that someone like

him, with a villainous quirk, had been admitted.
But that didn’t mean he would stay. There had
been cases of students from gen ed becoming
hero students by taking someone’s place.

Shinsou had to prove he deserved to be here.

No matter what it took.

Tensei winced as he watched his little brother

running into a tree. Taking corners without
knocking themselves out was the trial every
speed quirk users had to face. The alternative
was to develop a thick skull.

And the middle road was to install an airbag in

his hero costume, something that Tensei had
done as soon as it had been designed.

Tenya went back to his feet, not even wobbly. His

baby brother had always been tougher than
Tensei, so it wasn’t surprising. He didn’t even take
a break and he started running again.

Always training and giving his all, especially since

he had been confronted to real villains.

No, not since the USJ. Tenya had thrown himself

into his training since the day the letter that was
supposed to tell him he had been selected as an
exemplar had never arrived.

Tensei had regularly butted head with the Hero

Commission, most of all about his sidekicks.
Everyone couldn’t enter a hero school so it wasn’t
rare for adults to work at a hero agency as
sidekicks until they had the experience needed to
pass the hero exam. Iidaten was known to
welcome people who had studied longer in order
to ease them into the hero life, but things had
gotten more difficult now that the Hero
Commission’s exams were focused on the heroes
being able to do anything, preferring to reward
flashy quirks who were good for fighting and
ignoring how some were more suited to rescue,
support, or intel. Unless, of course, such people
were on the Hero Commission’s payroll. Then,
obtaining one’s license became strangely easier.

How interesting that just when Ingenium had

received support and more and more people had
been able to pass the hero exam, his little brother
hadn’t been chosen as an exemplar.

Despite every hero student in hero families

always being chosen for this.

Tensei would have to tell him. He would have to

explain Tenya again that he wasn’t lacking in
anything, but also that it was Tensei’s fault if he
had been ignored. And he would have to tell a
child who tended to see the world in black and
white that sometimes, their allies were a bunch of
jerks.

Needless to say, he wasn’t eager to have this

conversation.

After the Sport Festival, he decided. Better not to

distract him for now.

Shouto had known that cutting Midoriya out of

his training wouldn’t be easy. Not because his
friend wouldn’t respect his need for privacy, but
simply because he preferred training with him. It
was fun. It actually didn’t feel like training.

And that was the problem. His friend, his brother,

the warmth he felt with them… It dulled him.

Victory belonged to the unreasonable. Shouto

had never made as much progress with his ice as
when he had decided to deny Endeavor’s any
hold over him. No doubt, no fear, nothing
clouding his mind. Just pure will, and the ability
to immerse himself in his rage until nothing
remain except his goal.

He needed to find that drive again.

That was how he would win.

Kohaku Academy was a high school which

allowed students to choose their own curriculum
in order to help them find their path. They had a
myriad of teachers, a lot of clubs, they would
soon offer internships with society partnered with
the school, and they were relatively lax with
conflicting schedules as long as their students
passed their exams in time and if their grades
were kept up.

In Izuku’s case, that tended to lead to true feats of

procrastination, but as he was rushing through
the hallways with a ton of finished homework in
his arm, he was relieved to see he wasn’t the only
one. Several classmates were running around in
the hallways and his homeroom teacher almost
met her end under a pile of homework, which she
looked at with haunted eyes as she fully
appreciated the price she had to pay for her
impromptu time away from school.

And as soon as they had thrown that at her, the

three students fled before they could be given
more homework or some other cruel and unusual
punishments.

“I had a week to do that,” Yuuto whined as they

were in front of their lockers to leave as fast as
possible.

“When did you start?” Hebisuga smiled, the

snakes on her head looking at the boy with a
thermos quirk while Hebisuga herself was
rummaging through her bag.

“This morning,” the procrastinator admitted.

“And not even because I was busy with
something else. I just stayed in front of my laptop
and my mind wandered.”

Izuku was acutely familiar with the feeling,

especially when he had to take care of the
budget of Anyone.

“Also, did you find an internship?” Yuuto

continued as they were leaving.

Izuku had a whole organization to take care of.

And a sociopath to keep an eye on.

I shouldn’t have to run after another job, he

silently whined.

“Not yet,” he admitted.

If he had to be honest, Izuku didn’t really care

about finding this kind of opportunities. He had
never considered the future, but his present was
Anyone. It gave him a purpose. It brought him
some money. And he was invested in it.

“I asked everywhere but I’m still waiting for

answers. What about you, Hebisuga?”

Her smug smile illuminated the grey day. “I didn’t

find an internship in a company. Instead, I took a
job in an association that fights quirk
discrimination.”

Izuku hadn’t even known it was a possibility, but

now that she was mentioning it, he was interested
in this option. Since he wouldn’t be paid to work
for some company, why not actually make some
good?

“Will that really help you?” Yuuto asked, showing

some incredible agility by managing to put his
whole foot in his mouth. “Wouldn’t an internship
be better for your future?”

Hebisuga stopped before staring at him, the

snakes crowning her head slightly rising to look at
the orange-haired-boy.

The effect was chilling,

“Yes,” the gorgon answered. “For some reasons,

I think that taking part in the fight against
discrimination against mutation quirks and
villainous quirks could help me in the long-run.”

Yuuto gulped.

“I think it’s a great idea,” Izuku said, as much to

give Yuuto some breathing room as because he
really thought it was a better alternative to the
usual internship. “Did you know them from
before or did you select them among many?”

It immediately made Hebisuga smile, and they

started walking again, Yuuto addressing a little
thankful nod to Izuku behind their classmate
head.

“My sister is actually one of the members,” she

explained. “They do a lot of work to promote
positivity when it comes to villainous quirks and
quirklessness.”

Izuku absolutely didn’t squeal.

“Quirkless people too? They still exist?” Yuuto

asked, his eyes wide.

Both Hebisuka and Izuku stared at him.

“You know what?” the student decided. “I just

realized I am dreadfully ignorant of today’s
problems in our society and I think going to a
march and talking with people could enlighten
me.”

In the end, the three of them decided to go to

the march.

Stalker: [ I will be home for lunch.

Do you want something in particular? ]

Me: [This isn’t your home.]

Me: [Don’t wait for me. I won’t be here.

I’m going to a march with some friend.]

Stalker: [ Don’t get arrested. ]

Stalker: [ But if you get arrested, don’t try to

break out.

Call me. We do not need another Tartarus

incident. ]

Izuku had barely finished texting to the bane of

his existence when Yuuto looked over his
shoulder. The three of them had stopped right
before going to the march in order to put some
hoodie or sweatshirts over their uniform because
even though they weren’t supposed to be in
trouble for going there, better safe than sorry.

The phone was shaken before Yuuto had the time

to see anything, but it didn’t stop him from
drawing conclusions.

Wrong conclusions.

“Oh, right, I should call my parents too!” he

realized, his phone already in hand.

“That’s not my…” Izuku started, before realizing

that he couldn’t really finish that sentence without
bringing to much attention to him, so he just
sighed.

The problem with places that reunited many

people facing discrimination was that a lot of
them let their guard down. They thought they
were with their people, or at least people who
understood their plights, so they assumed
everyone here was nice and that they were safe
with them.

By doing so, they were forgetting one primordial

rule: there were assholes everywhere.

Saya, an art student specialized in sculptures, was

trying to find her friends and her little sister when
she saw a man luring a woman into an alley. They
were holding each other’s arms, the woman
stumbling and smiling, but she was also trying to
slow down, digging her heels in the pavement, a
hand on the man’s arm, but he never slowed
down.

Her companions hissed near her ears, drawing

her attention as if she hadn’t already
noticed something was wrong. Saya knew that
there was something off with the cat-eared
woman the same way she knew when someone
was about to get sick or when someone
approached.

Another set of senses could be useful.

They were almost out of the alley and near a car

when Saya caught up with them. The man, in his
thirties, black-haired, unassuming, was actually
startled when he noticed her, before politely
smiling at her.

He immediately gave her a very reasonable

explanation about why his friend didn’t feel so
good and the friend in question didn’t react,
puzzled about the whole situation. Saya nodded,
a similar polite smile on her lips, and explained
that there were people with water and some of
them were nurses and doctors among the people
marching, so it would be better if they asked their
help.

Words were exchanged. Far less polite, and the

black-haired man dropped the girl before walking
to Saya. He was taller and larger than her, and
also an idiot.

“Do you need help?” she asked the cat-eared

woman, ignoring the man walking in her
direction.

She looked at her, then at him, her pupils so wide

it looked like she had been smoking something
especially illegal, and a little frown on her face as
she was slowly realizing that none of this was
normal.

Then, a nod.

It was enough as far as Saya was concerned.

The snakes growing on her head hissed while her

eyes’ color shifted from brown to silver. She had
the most beautiful eyes in the family, according to
her mother.

A minute later, both Saya and the cat-eared girl

whose name was Sakai Rei, were walking out of
the alley, leaving behind the statue of the man
who had made the mistake of looking at her in
the eyes.

Now that the moron had been turned to stone for

the next hour, the effect of his quirk was
completely gone, Sakai was fine, though shaken,
and she quickly agreed than even though the
heroes watching the march were going to be
warned and put to use, none of them needed to
know who had helped her.

As she indicated Midnight and her Midnight boys

to a very grateful Sakai Rei, Saya wasn’t afraid of
her secret being exposed. Midnight didn’t ask
more questions than what was needed, and Sakai
wouldn’t rat her out.

A lot of people with villainous quirks didn’t fully

register their abilities. The full extent of one’s
quirk wasn’t known outside of family, a habit born
during the rise of quirks where secrets were the
reason why people survived, and it had no reason
to stop now that schools and bosses insisted on
knowing people’s quirks before recruiting them.
But even where it was revealed… Most people
shut up about it. On one hand, gratefulness
wasn’t to be underestimated. And on the other, if
the secret got out, no one wanted a pissed off
quirk user to have a conversation with the one
they had saved.

Saya waited a moment by the wall, her phone in

hand as she pretended to play with it so people
wouldn’t stop to ask her if she was okay.
Everything around her was blurry, the drawbacks
of her quirk, but it wouldn’t last long, not when
she had barely used it, and her scaly companions
provided her with a good sixth sense to
compensate the temporal lack of sight.

By the time the words was less blurry, her baby

sister had called her twice and Saya was blinking
like crazy, but she quickly find her. Wearing the
Kohaku uniform but also a black hoodie above it
to hide from which school she belonged, Akioh
turned towards her, her own green companions
rising to greet her and they both smiled at each
other.

Her baby sister proudly announced to Saya that

two of her classmates had joined her and wanted
to learn more about their association. One of
them was an orange-haired boy. The other…
Well, he wasn’t with his friend, but with Saya’s
favorite video game partner, in a very animated
conversation.

She actually blinked even more when she saw

Shimura talking with a kid who had light grey hair,
and for a moment, she wondered if it was one of
those family members her friend never talked
about, first because of a similar air between them,
second because of the familiarity with which they
were talking to each other.

“I think that people simply don’t realize the kind

of discrimination quirk users face, and that’s why
they had to be educated about it. We all know
people with mutation quirk or with dangerous
quirks, but how many people actually realize the
kind of bullshit they have to face every day?
Information and helping each other seems the
way to go, as far as I am concerned,” the kid was
explaining.

The delighted smile on Shimura Tenko’s face was

quite telling.

“You know what, Akatani-kun? I think we’re going

to get along.”

Manual was half-following the conversation

between Mount Lady and Kamui Woods about
the morality of helping a colleague even if it
meant stealing the spotlight (Kamui Woods
wasn’t amused) and half-keeping an eye on the
crowd to see if anyone needed help. In his
experience, the actual people marching rarely
made trouble. The heroes’ job was to make sure
they were safe and to make sure outsiders
wouldn’t cause problems.

The shadows spread over him as something was

blocking the timid light of this day and Manual
turned to see a massive hero in a bespoke suit,
holding something behind his back. Something
Manual should have paid attention to but he was
dazed by the presence of the number 10 hero:
Gang Orca.

Awe invaded every cell of Manual’s body. He

might have his license, he might have his own
agency for quite a while and he might have
helped many people, but he still hadn’t lost this
sense of wonder that showed at any meeting with
high ranked heroes.

“Gang Orca,” he greeted him without showing

how impressed he was. “I didn’t know you were
coming but we’re glad to see you there.”

The thought of the number 10 hero being here

because he expected trouble briefly crossed his
mind but people on the site would have been
told long before the request for back-ups had
been emitted.

“Manual. Gunhead. Mount Lady. Kamui Woods,”

Gang Orca nodded. “I learned there was a march
and I… Is everything alright so far?”

“There was a problem but Midnight is already on

it with two sidekicks,” Gunhead quipped in while
Mount Lady and Kamui Woods, the newbies,
were oddly silent, maybe because they were
wondering if their bickering had been heard.

“Oh, that’s good. Well, if you need anything, I will

be over there,” Gang Orca smiled, showing three
rows of teeth.

And he just… crossed the invisible threshold

between the heroes and the civilians marching for
quirk egality.

Manual couldn’t tell a top hero that he wasn’t

supposed to be on this side of the march
because… Because he couldn’t, so he just quietly
watched Gang Orca now walking with the crowd.

“Damn, he even brought his own sign,” Mount

Lady whispered.

Indeed. That was the thing behind his back that

Manual hadn’t really understood at the time.

“Are we allowed to do that?” Kamui Woods

asked.

“You can do a lot if you’re in the top 10,”

Gunhead chuckled.

However, what a pro hero in the top 10 couldn’t

do was to forget to watch behind him or a
distracted grey-haired-boy could accidentally
walk into him and almost fall because Gang Orca
was one massive man.

The boy (Manual couldn’t see him well with the

distance and the crowd) froze, and Gang Orca
tensed in return, probably fearing that he had
frightened him or something. Fortunately, the boy
pulled out a notebook from nowhere, and a
moment later, Gang Orca was giving him an
autograph, a massive toothy smile on his face.

All pro heroes watching sighed in relief.

It lasted until someone at the end of the march

decided to use his quirk to throw smoke at
someone else, and whoever he was arguing with
answered in kind with what looked like cotton
candy, if cotton candy could go everywhere,
creating a colossal sticky mess.

Izuku, his notebook still in hand, watched Gang

Orca dashing through the crowd (which was
especially easy since people were jumping out of
his way) to arrest the people at the origin of the
altercation, but more people had joined in, more
quirks flying around.

In such situation, the protocol asked for everyone

to be interrogated until the pro heroes were sure
of who had used their quirks and why. With so
many people, it would take hours, something
everyone who was familiar with big public events
knew.

So Manual had barely asked for everyone to stay

calm and not to move that half of the people
here pretty much decided to scatter in every
direction. Thankfully, most of them stopped when
they realized the pro heroes weren’t amused.
Kamui Woods helped with the rest.

One of them slipped through. And by slipped

through, Manual meant that the boy simply
walked out of here as if he didn’t have a care in
the world. He was so calm that the pro hero
actually didn’t notice him until he was out of the
crowd, a loner outside the barely contained
group.

“Hey! You, with the black hoodie! Stop!”

The boy didn’t slow down. He didn’t walk faster

either. He simply continued on his way, and if he
didn’t have his hood up and if it hadn’t been
blatantly obvious that he was ignoring Manual, he
would have done anything needed not to draw
attention.

Manual ran after him, people immediately getting

out of his way, and in a moment, he was on the
boy’s heels. A boy who disappeared into an alley,
a dead-end.

Manual caught back with him in one second and

half. The pro hero was already planning to use
the water on him to stop him, because if the
pressure was controlled, it wouldn’t hurt him.

But by the time Manual actually entered the alley,

no one was there anymore.

He looked around, searching for any way out

except for the high walls, difficult to climb, then
for any hiding spots or camouflage ability, but he
didn’t find anything in what should have been a
dead-end.

Did he just… Did he warp out or something?

Five hours after escaping the pro hero Manual,

Izuku was in Kyushu and jumping from a building
that had a reasonable height. Not high enough to
meet a gruesome end, but high enough for him
to have the time to find a solution if he missed
several of the pre-determined spots that were
going to be used to slow down his descent.

Blessed be balconies and quick reflexes fueled by

a legendary quirk.

Izuku was strangely calm as he was negotiating

his controlled fall, because One for All didn’t
allow anything but the present when it was used.
Stray thoughts, doubts, all of that led to a lack of
control, to the output of power slipping, and to
broken bones. During a mission, that would mean
death. Outside of it, that means hours of pain
and favors to be healed.

Balcony, telephone poll, a quick run on a wall.

Gravity pushing him down, his whole body
fighting against it.

He wasn’t worried, because he knew he would be

fine. It seemed crazy, but in a world where almost
everyone had powers, this word didn’t have much
sense. What was insane was that people didn’t
realize it.

Timing, preparation, and control were the key to

make the impossible come true.

Of course, the most incredible quirk in the world

didn’t hurt.

Izuku twisted his body in mid-air. He was almost

certain he could have now landed on his feet, but
a nice mattress of trash was waiting for him in the
alley he had left and why waste it? He fell rolling,
the rotation his body made absorbing what was
left of the shock, and the trash bags made for a
soft, though smelly, landing spot.

Coincidentally, the impact made one of the

dumpster move, revealing the yellow backpack
Izuku had hidden behind it. The teenager got
back to his feet, grabbed it, and quickly removed
the black hoodie whose hood was connected to a
thin veil. It had first been made for people with
mutations like Nagisa who didn’t like to be stared
at when they were outside, and it had become
popular at some time because it had the
advantage of making anyone look like a video
game character whose hooded face was
perpetually hidden in shadows.

The black Anyone hoodie was put in the bag and

replaced by another black hoodie but All Might-
themed, and it made all the difference. Izuku’s
gloves and mask followed.

He was still kneeling in the alley when the silent

rustle of shadows warned him of who was about
to arrive, and a cold sweat drenched his back at
the idea of what would have happened if Izuku’s
personal stalker had arrived fifteen minutes
earlier.

The shadows disappeared, leaving All for One

behind like some unwanted gift, and evil
incarnate looked around, unimpressed with his
surroundings. He lazily adjusted his cufflinks,
giving himself the time to examine Izuku as if he
had expected him to find him in pieces or in an
insane situation.

“I heard about the march from earlier,” the villain

said without even a hello. “I’m impressed by your
uncanny ability to unleash chaos wherever you
go.”

Lies and slander.

Izuku rolled his eyes, stood up, and started

walking out of the alley. “Did anyone ever told
you that you are overly dramatic?”

The villain didn’t answer, which immediately led

Izuku to believe that someone had indeed told
him that. Who were they? Had they survived?
Was it All Might?

“What are you doing so far from Mustafu?” All for

One asked instead, waiting for Izuku to lie to him
and tell him that it was an Anyone mission.

For those, Izuku asked Kurogiri to warp him so he

didn’t lose any time, and from the glint in the
villain’s eye, the teenager was convinced the
barman had been thoroughly interrogated before
All for One had warped here.

So he simply shrugged and did his best not to

look at the buildings behind him.

“That’s not an answer,” All for One noticed,

trailing after Izuku who was about to tell him to
mind his own business when someone passed
too close to the alley.

Naturally, both the antic villain and the younger

villain shut up in order not to talk about an illegal
activity in front of a civilian. A random guy who
actually walked into the alley, which was strange,
because even though it wasn’t a dead end, it was
littered in trash and there was almost no light
now that the night had fallen. Not the kind of
place you would want to walk into.

The reason why this good man insisted in going

in such a desolate alley was made quite clear
when an impressive hunting knife appeared out
of thin air in his hand, and he pointed it at Izuku,
his grip a little too tight to be efficient and with
too much distance to stab them, unless he
decided to throw it but the balance would be off.

“Give me you wallets, phones, everything!” he

ordered All for One and Anyone.

Both Izuku and All for One looked at each other

in disbelief.

Are you seeing that too?

All for One nodded, his eyes a little wide.

Then he looked at Random Guy and he smiled.

The last time Izuku had seen this exact

expression, it was when he was advising guards
to dodge the incoming cataclysmic attack in
Tartarus, so he had to nip that in the bud.

No, he said silently but vehemently. Bad

sociopath. Do not murder someone in broad
daylight.

All for One gave him a fond smile and nodded

with the firm intention of doing something painful
and lethal for the thief and mind soothing for the
villain. It was a very specific nod.

“Are you fucking deaf?” the moron continued,

showing the conservation instinct of a lemming.
“Suit! Give me the cash if you don’t want
something awful happening to Junior over
there!”

Both villains paid attention to the robber again. It

wasn’t that they had been ignoring him, but they
were well past that. They could both stop him
long before he rushed at them to hurt them. That
problem had been handled as soon as it had
appeared, it just wasn’t official yet.

But now, there was a whole conversation

conveyed only through body language about his
fate, and he didn’t seem to realize how out of his
depth he was.

And that calling him Junior wasn’t endearing him

to Izuku. At all.

“Does this buffoon still think he is actually

robbing us?” All for One sneered.

Worse, he thinks we’re related. Izuku actually

shuddered at this last thought, and All for One’s
arm immediately appeared around his shoulders,
the villain slightly shifting place with him so he
would be between Izuku and the thief.

“You can’t kill him just for trying to rob us,” the
teenager sighed.

“You’re mistaken,” the villain informed him, his

voice so soothing and calm it would have been
great for a lullaby. “I can kill him. I actually really
want to.”

Random Guy looked at Izuku, then at All for One,

and at Izuku again. Then, he kind of shook the
knife, as if to remind them that this was his
robbery and that he was in charge of the
situation.

Right before choking as All for One looked at him

with the same killing intent that had made
hardened criminal in Tartarus stop in their tracks.

Izuku clang to All for One’s arm. Full Cowl should

be enough to at least slow him down.

To his surprise, All for One seemed to slightly

calm down and he scooted closer to Izuku,
probably to deprive the teenager from the
leverage he would need to physically stop him.
Just in case, Izuku shifted his feet to anchor
himself to the ground.

“Hello?” the teenager called Random Guy to

draw his attention away from the super villain.
“He wants to kill you. This would be really easy
for him and I am certain a part of him would
enjoy it.”

“Ignore the boy,” All for One muttered, but at

least, he wasn’t moving. “I wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

“Your best chance with him is to have your neck

broken,” Izuku continued. “A clean and swift end.
But I once saw him splatter a wall with someone’s
blood.” All for One winced. “As for I, I simply
can’t neutralize you without hurting you. I won’t
enjoy it, but I also won’t hesitate if the alternative
is letting you stab someone. You understand?”

In response, the knife was significantly lowered.

That’s progress.

“So why don’t you drop the knife so we can

forget this and get on with our lives?”

Random Guy, considerably paler than when he

had first threatened them, not only dropped the
knife that fell to the ground with a loud clang, but
he also did something Izuku would never have
expected. He took his own wallet from his
pocket, took some cash from it, and threw it in
one direction before running in the other.

The noise of disgust All for One made would

have been comical if Izuku hadn’t been
dumbfounded.

“I blame All Might for that. In my time, criminals

had a work ethic. Or at least, they were less
pathetic.”

“I should have helped him stab you,” Izuku

quietly realized as he let All for One go.

He didn’t give him the same courtesy and All for

One’s arm passed around Izuku’s shoulders once
again.

“You do realize this incident proves my point,

don’t you?” the villain asked as they were warped
back to Kurogiri.

Hawks’ loft was on the last floor of his building.

Not high enough for the windows to be
perpetually locked for security reasons, but at a
nice enough altitude for him not to have to touch
the ground then climb an awful amount of stairs
to go home.

Night had fallen for several hours when he came

back but he still noticed the traces on the railing
of the balcony. As if someone had hit it with
enough strength to slightly bend the metal.

There was a building whose roof was relatively

close to Hawks’ sky door, if one had an
impressive enhancer or jump quirk and no fear of
death.

There were also scratches on the sliding French

door, where someone had used something sharp
to force it.

The sliding door, still slightly open, was brutally

pushed as Hawks’ smallest feathers were flying
through the loft, tracking any vibration, any
movements, any sign of a hidden villain who had
just broken into his apartment.

How do they know where I live?

Hawks entered a second later, his sword-feather

in hand, scanning his surroundings.

He took him a couple of minute to make sure no

one was hidden in the dark and that nothing had
been disturbed. The advantage of living in an
organized mess was that he always noticed when
the delicate balance of his home was disturbed.

The only things out of place were on his kitchen

table: a phone, the fancy model impossible to
trace, and a MacDonald nuggets box.

Hawks opened the box from afar, revealing

twenty chicken nuggets with their spicy sauces.

Now, that’s either a threat or one of the craziest

fan gifts I’ve ever received? He had the time to
think before his memories reminded him that no,
even someone breaking him in his apartment to
give him his favorite food wasn’t the craziest stunt
a fan had pulled.

Of course, there was a third option. One Hawks

only realized after an embarrassingly long
moment, after he remembered what was his
username of the platform where Anyone was
working. The fire user had passed his message,
then.

The Clamor app was the only thing on the new

phone, and Anyone themselves had already left
messages.

Anyone

[People coming to Anyone usually need

help. ]

[Do you need help, Hero Hawks?]

Help.

Such an innocuous word but everything had a

price. Anyone was specialized in networking and
helping each other, but there was also a lot of
exchange, and anyone offering to help a hero
expected something in return, be it gratitude,
consideration, or something more substantial.

But the raison d’être of such vigilante groups was

the shortcomings of the hero society. Hawks had
to show that he was different from the rest of his
colleagues. That he could be of use, and on their
side.

Spicy McNuggets

[I do. ]

[I want to save more people. People I

can reach without being bound by the
corrupted rules of this society. ]

Anyone

[We can work with that.]

Hawks was certain that whoever was writing was

smiling behind their screen.

The night shift was the perfect place to train his

perception. Customers were rare, the job was
easy, and even if he didn’t exactly need the
money, it was good for him to clear his mind.
After all, a blade that kept being sharpened
would become brittle more quickly.

He was playing with his knife, hidden from sight

behind the counter, when he noticed a young
man crossing the street. Tall, almost lanky but he
moved a little too gracefully to be described as
such, he was floating in a red hoodie and his long
black hair was tied in a ponytail at the nape of his
neck.

The knife swirled and spun between Chizome’s

fingers, almost as if it had a mind on its own. To
keep it or not to keep it?

In the end, he decided that even though he was

supposed to be an ally, some manners were still
necessary from time to time.

Oguro Kousuke entered the grocery shop,

looking left and right, before walking straight to
Chizome. It didn’t matter how many times he
asked him to be careful, to call first, or not to
draw attention by being so obviously nervous,
the boy refused to learn.

That was the problem with this society. A lack of

discipline. An inability to understand the
necessary sacrifices to reach their potential.

Even some of those so-called heroes were just

willing to run after villains in order to fill their
quota and obtain their paycheck instead of
investing themselves in their mission.

“Good evening,” the liaison agent from the Hero

Commission greeted him, mumbling. “Is there a
more discreet place to do this?”

“No need,” Chizome assured.

He would notice everyone coming in long before

they crossed the street.

Oguro looked around nonetheless, then gave his

All Might-themed-backpack to the warrior.
Chizome took the files from it, six of them,
summarizing what six pro heroes had done to
draw the attention of the Hero Commission.

Why they were failing.

He studied them carefully, barely refraining

himself from rolling his eyes as the files were
revealing how they were doing the minimum. No
one would ever be able to rival All Might, but was
that too much to ask for them to try?

One name drew his attention.

“Tell me about him,” Chizome ordered.

Oguro barely glanced at the file, already knowing

what he had to say because he shared Chizome’s
views on the decline of heroism. The Hero
Commission might be using him as an errand boy
so Chizome would be able to protect the most
important person in this society, while preserving
his innocence and plausible deniability, but the
warrior had managed to turn him into an asset for
his side activity: culling the unworthy.

Of course, the Hero Commission in itself wasn’t

aware of their arrangements, but the very nature
of their agreement guaranteed Chizome’s some
leeway in how he protected his light bearer

“Ingenium,” Oguro said as if the pro hero’s name

and legal name with address wasn’t written in the
borrowed file. “He is legacy and does good work
but that’s the problem: he treats his job like a
nine to five. But that’s not what actually caught
my attention.”

That was already a bad thing. Fake heroes all

around, so many of them that it sometimes
seemed impossible to bring this corrupted
society on the right path.

“Heroes need a certain standard,” the young

man continued, standing straighter. “They are
protectors. Guardians. They need many skills and
to dedicate themselves to their missions. But
when one treat such calling as a job… Ingenium’s
sidekicks aren’t real heroes because of that. They
just have a skill they apply to their job, bringing
down the heroic level.”

I see.

Ingenium’s policies were singlehandedly bringing

down the level of pro heroes.

Targeting him would be easier than proving than

those sidekicks turned sub-heroes weren’t up to
the task but would the message be understood?
Wouldn’t it be clearer to prove several times why
those heroes were fake before taking care of the
one creating them in a misplaced sense of
kindness?

In any case, he would give them a fighting

chance. He could have found them in their
homes, or in any place they relaxed, but Chizome
wasn’t heartless enough not to give them a
chance to prove their worth.

Once this was done, Chizome went back to what

the Hero Commission was actually paying them
to do. The best for the last.

“Do you have something to tell me about All

Might?”

Because it was Chizome’s real mission. The

reason why he even accepted to be affiliated,
even from afar, with the Hero Commission.

He protected All Might.

Villains, heroes, civilians. So many threats that

couldn’t snuff out the light of the Symbol of
Peace but who dared to try to taint it. But All
Might couldn’t take care of them himself, of
course. He would arrest them, because he was
good. And they would remain threats, Damocles
swords that could one day end the greatest man
this world had ever known.

That was why Chizome was here.

His hands were stained so All Might would remain

the hero they all needed.

“No, I didn’t hear anything from him,” the young

man lied.

Chizome would have known it even if he hadn’t

been able to observe his face. He knew it from
the smell of fear Oguro was giving off, from the
slight hesitation most people wouldn’t have
detected, and generally, because the warrior
knew how to observe people.

He grabbed Oguro by the back of the neck and

smacked his face on the counter, and the errand
boy didn’t try to fight back, aware that Chizome
was simply stronger than him.

“All Might’s apparitions are getting rarer. He

arrives and leaves in a flash, and he doesn’t stay
with his fans anymore. I know there is
something.”

Chizome didn’t like needless violence but it

sometimes did wonders on stubborn people.

“So… What. Is. Happening?” he asked once

again.

“Okay… Okay,” the boy admitted. “Something

did happen to All Might. But it’s classified. I
wasn’t even supposed to know…”

Chizome’s knife –not the one he had been

playing with, his hunting knife- stabbed the
counter right next to Oguro’s ear, startling him.

He could have nicked it. He had chosen not to.

The knife was back in a second in his hand, the

blade playing with the spot between Oguro’s
skull and his ear.

Some part of him wanted to cut. Just draw the

blood a little.

“My mission is to protect All Might from any

threats,” the warrior assured. “If you try to hide
information from me, I will consider you a threat
and I will show you no mercy.”

Ogurou gulped down. Licked his lips.

Then, he nodded.

“A villain attacked All Might. A child. Whatever

he did to the Symbol of Peace, it’s draining him
from his power little by little.”

For a moment, there was nothing. Just words that

didn’t make sense.

Then, comprehension.

Pure rage passed through Chizome. The need to

maim and murder was almost too much, his
hands clenching as he was dealing with the need
to rip something apart with his bare hands.

Not the Commission who had dared to hide such

information from him, though they were also a
target of his wrath.

But from the villain who had dared to rob society

from All Might’s light.

“Tell me everything.”

Notes:
Izuku and Tenko: *talks to each
other and generally get along*
Nana, inside OFA, rubbing her
head because she's having a
headache: "Why can't anyone see
that this kid is a villain?"

CHAPTER 13
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

As soon as Hawks had been in contact with

Anyone, his phone hadn’t stopped ringing as
whoever he had talked to had made sure to keep
him busy, sending him to everyone calling for an
immediate help. Sometimes, it was for nothing.
But more often than not, he was taking care of
more accidents and more confrontations than he
could have found with his patrols.

In a couple of days, Hawks had already proven

that with his speed and his experience, he was a
force to be reckoned with, impossible to compare
with well-meaning civilians. But he hadn’t inserted
himself into the community yet. He had gained
some information about how Anyone worked, but
not enough.

I told him I wanted to help people and Anyone

made sure I could only do that and nothing else.

He needed to gain their trust. He needed to

climb the ladder so he could access the inner
circle.

And he needed to find information about the

villain who was stealing All Might’s power.

A detail the Hero Commission had finally

revealed and that he would have liked to know
long before he had met the scarred fire user. It
explained how someone so young had wiped the
floor with Death Arms and it was frightening to
imagine that somewhere, a vigilante was slowly
becoming as powerful as the Symbol of Peace.

Hawks’ phone biped again, making him alter his

trajectory. A teenager who had lost control of his
quirk and who was freaking out. This one would
take time.

I am going to miss the start of the Sport Festival,

he mentally sighed.

Thirty minutes before the Sport Festival’s start,

everyone in UA was preparing themselves for the
rare chance of being noticed by pro heroes from
all over the country. Everyone, except for
Todoroki Shouto.

Since the school year had started, the son of the

number 2 hero had been three steps ahead of
the rest of the class, to Bakugou Katsuki’s endless
frustration. He didn’t try to make friends with
anyone in school, he left as soon as the classes
ended, he had been a force to be reckoned with
during the USJ attack, and he was singlehandedly
focused on being the best.

And so far, he had proved that he was, refusing

any distraction.

So when he asked Iida how long he had before

the Sport Festival started, only to go out in the
hallway with his phone in hand, under the
indignant exclamation of the Class rep, Toru had
no choice but to follow him to know what was
happening. It was a life-or-death situation.

Curiosity might have eaten her alive, after all.

By the time she had taken off her gym uniform,

only leaving the hero costume underneath,
Todoroki had called someone, his back to her,
arguing with whoever was at the other end of the
line.

“I am just saying we were supposed to handle

that together,” the boy who had frozen her feet
to the ground during their first hero training said,
outraged. “That was the plan…” A pause. “I
wasn’t that busy.”

Who the hell is he talking to?

“If you’re not going to wait for me before doing

something insane, you could at least tell me
afterwards… No, you’re not telling me now, you
were busted…” he mocked, and there was just a
hint of fondness in his voice that contradicted
Todoroki’s always cold personality. “Exactly. That’s
all I’m asking.”

Then, the person at the other end of the line said

something that made Todoroki Shouto, the
person who had frozen the skin of her feet to the
floor, smile.

“I don’t need luck but thank you,” Todoroki said

before hanging up, while Toru was trying to keep
this image engraved in her mind forever.

She left and went back to the locker rooms

before anyone noticed she was gone. It didn’t
entirely work because Mina raised an
interrogative eyebrow at her, but she thankfully
didn’t say anything out loud.

And by the time Todoroki came back into the

waiting room, he was as cold and as distant as
before.

Dabi was already eating some popcorns when

Yami came back from his phone call upstairs, just
as the Sport Festival was about to start. The
teenager, his phone still in hand, sat at the bar, a
notebook already on the counter.

“Dabi,” his boss said, his eyes glued to the giant

TV screen that had been brought into Kurogiri’s
domain for the occasion. “The only snitch I
tolerate is Kurogiri.”

What is he talking … Oh, the Hawks problem. In

Dabi’s defense, he had thought Shouto was
already aware of it since those two tended to do
their illegal and dangerous missions together.

“What did he snitch about?” All for One asked, a

shark who had just smelled blood in the water,
looking at Dabi’s with an intent that gave him
goosebumps.

Dabi opened his mouth, already ready to

mention Hawks’ name because some atavistic
instinct was screaming at him to do anything to
have the predator look away from him…

… And Yami slammed a handful of popcorns in

Dabi’s mouth before he had the time to utter a
word.

“Nothing,” the teenager said while Dabi was

choking. Behind the bar, Kurogiri started to
gently hit him on the back to prevent him from
dying, while Yami didn’t even show an ounce of
remorse. “Oh, it’s starting!”

While Dabi was still dragging himself back to the

land of the livings, helped by Kurogiri, the only
one with some human decency in this place, All
for One stopped looking at Dabi and paid
attention to the screen. It might be probably less
about watching UA’s young hopes and more
about the hand in front of his mouth and how he
was blatantly forcing himself not to laugh.

Once he was certain that Dabi wasn’t going to

die and dirty his bar, Kurogiri didn’t manage to
focus on the Sport Festival.

Not when Sensei and Yami were having a running

commentary on every student’s quirk, managing
to easily guess the drawbacks, the applications,
and the potential improvements. They were
actually better than Present Mic at his job.

Dabi and Kurogiri shared a glance, just to make

sure that they weren’t the odd ones here. Relief
swept through them both, because in a chaotic
world, there was nothing quite like the shared
camaraderie of the people who had to be the
reasonable ones.

The two first events of the Sport Festival weren’t

to thin the herd, unlike what most people
thought. It was actually the place where students
who didn’t have flashy quirks could show their
wits. But of course, when one had been trained
by the number 2 hero, subtlety wasn’t needed.

Shouto won the first event, an obstacle race, by

running like a man who was used to outrunning
heroes, the cops, and anyone chasing after
vigilante, but also by catapulting the explosive
boy away from him right before the finish line.

He also won the cavalry battle, making the same

explosive boy’s team slip on ice at the last
second. There had to be some story between
them. Dabi would ask him about it later.

At no point did Dabi wonder why Shouto wasn’t

using his flames, because the right side was the
one he favored and also the best way to stop his
competitors without hurting them.

Until the third event. The tournament.

Dabi knew that something was wrong before

Shouto started fighting, in the way Yami got really
quiet and intense as he watched the first fight.
Even before Shouto threw an iceberg at his
opponent, which meant there had probably been
some paternal words of encouragement not too
long ago.

Then, the fight against the bird boy. A high

mobility that allowed him to avoid several of
Shouto’s too impressive attacks (a waste of power,
especially when he needed to fight several other
students later) and for a moment, both boys
disappeared, hidden under the ice.

Whatever happened underneath, Dabi and the

rest of the country saw Shouto dashing out,
running almost to the edge of the ring right as
something broke through the ice. The bird’s
quirk, bigger that it had ever been, roaring as it
propelled himself in Shouto’s direction.

At least until it took an icicle the size of a

telephone pole through the chest.

A horrified silence fell on the coliseum UA had

created, the mighty pro heroes frozen in shock as
the bird boy fell to the ground while his shadow
demon slowly shrank and curled unto himself, but
Dabi knew Shouto had more sense than to
assassinate a classmate on live television.

The jury was still out if he would kill someone

where he couldn’t be seen.

On the screen, Dabi’s little brother jogged to his

classmate and crouched by his side. They talked
for a moment, the other boy still on the ground
and not willing to move from there, until Shouto
gave him a hand and helped him stand up. The
heroine Midnight, the referee, quickly announced
that Shouto had won through forfeit.

The cameras almost missed the moment where

both boys bowed to each other, showing that
there was no hard feeling. The kind of stupidity
the hero society loved.

To Dabi’s concern, Shouto had still not shown any

sign of his fire.

By the time his match with Bakugou happened,

Shouto had used his left side as much as he could
to warm himself, taking full advantage of the
specificities of his vow: never use his left side in
battle, but out of it, he was free to melt his ice or
chase away the cold.

And yet, he had barely stopped shivering when

Midnight announced the start of the last fight.
The fight that would end the tournament.

Shouto was acutely aware of his father watching,

his face twisted in scorn and furor.

The power from his right side flared up.

Bakugou knew he had something planned so he

hunted him through the arena, explosions
following Shouto, making his ears ring and his
bones protest from the shockwaves, but he was
always fast enough to protect himself with ice. Ice
wall, ice shield, icicles trying to pierce at Bakugou
and that he always avoided in time. A real game
of tag that reminded him of Midoriya’s moves.

Shouto had trained enough with his friend to

know only two things could stop him: higher
speed or overwhelming force.

As soon as there was some distance between

them, something that was earned by a hit that
made his ears ring and his inner sense of balance
beg him to just lie down on the ground for a
second, Shouto unleashed the full power of his
quirk, ice engulfing a quarter of the arena,
trapping the other boy in a coffin of ice.

A coffin that he escaped with a scream of rage

and explosions almost as violent as Bakugou
himself. But he didn’t notice how the breath
escaping his mouth was pure condensation. How
the temperature had dramatically dropped and
how moving furiously was the only thing keeping
him warm.

Shouto’s vision was starting to feel blurry, as he

was the one in the epicenter of the cold zone. He
didn’t move when Bakugou jumped in the air,
ready to pull a Howitzer Impact. A move that
turned Bakugou into a tornado so the build-up of
oxygen would fuel the explosion.

Except that Bakugou’s palms never detonated.

Shouto saw his face when he realized what was

happening. How he had jumped in the air, using
only his leg strength and that despite his
explosions failing him, he was too far from the
ground to have the time to avoid Shouto’s
outstretched hand.

A hand covered in frost, like most of Shouto’s

body, because he had used his quirk to create an
iceless cold that was spread through the arena,
preventing Bakugou from sweating. Because as
much as he trusted his classmate to never give
up, he also knew that his incredible determination
was fueled by anger, the kind that made him lose
track of human limitation.

Extreme Temperature Shock.

Shouto slapped Bakugou’s chest, focusing the

intensity of his quirk here to brutally lower the
core temperature. The backlash hurt Shouto’s
already weakened body, more that he would care
to admit, but he pushed through the pain.
Smothering the flames begging to be released.

His opponent made a brave effort to remain

conscious but for someone who wasn’t used to
deal with cold, such an intense change of
temperature tended to brutally take people out
of the fight.

Still, Shouto jumped back as Bakugou crashed

into the ground, still struggling to reach him.

He passed out on the iced ground a couple of

seconds after his landing.

“TODOROKI SHOUTO WINS!”

As Todoroki was receiving his medal from All

Might’s hands, at the top of the podium, Dabi
was shivering with rage.

Inferno more inferyes

[We need to talk.]

After getting away from the podium with an

enraged and muzzled number 2 who had
perfectly recovered, and from All Might’s hug that
tasted like dramatic irony considering Shouto’s
role in the loss of his quirk, he got away. The
world was blurry and he still felt horribly cold, but
it was worth it. It had to be.

His old man called him immature and told him

that this childish rebellion would cost him if he
kept being so stubborn, but it didn’t change the
fact that he had been wrong. He had assured that
Shouto would reach his limits, and Shouto had
proven that he was more than able to win the
Sport Festival without using Endeavor’s power.

He somehow got home, wearing a very warm

sweater created by a worried Yaoyorozu, and he
dragged himself to bed, and under the blankets.
He could have stayed awake, he could have kept
going, but he didn’t have to, so he had the right
to sleep a little.

At some point, his sister entered his room. She

tried not to make a noise but her steps were
heavy. He could have sat up and talked to her but
that seemed unnecessary.

Fuyumi put another warm blanket over him.

Ruffled his hair, something no one had done
since… for a long time.

It was supposed to be a quick nap to regain his

strength.

He woke up the next day, in the early afternoon.

Izuku was at home when he learned about

Ingenium. One of the many alerts concerning
every pro hero in this country pinged on his
phone, and he checked it absentmindedly,
expecting another heroic deed, maybe
something with a video he could analyze with
glee.

Instead, he discovered that the pro hero

Ingenium had become the latest victim of the
Hero Killer. Found in an alley early this morning,
alive, but no one knew if he would make it.

Stain.

Usually, when a villain met the path of a hero, it

was as they were in the middle of an illegal
activity like a crime or at least fighting with
another villain. When they targeted heroes, it was
either personal or they wanted to prove
something by targeting a high ranked pro. Even
the USJ accident hadn’t been outside this pattern
because idiots trying to take on All Might weren’t
as rare as logic should dictate. What had
surprised everyone was the fact several villains
had been here.

But Stain didn’t follow this pattern. He went after

pro heroes, sometimes letting them alive. A lot of
people thought it was because those heroes were
considered worthy, but Izuku didn’t share this
opinion. After all, the dead were pitiful witnesses
while the livings were the best to spread his
motives.

Something heavy fell on Izuku.

It suspiciously felt like an evil immortal snuggling

him while reading above his shoulder.

After a cry of distress, a noise of disgust, and a

daring escape, Izuku managed to get away while
All for One was pondering about the state of the
current hero society.

“They used to call those kind of people what they

are: maniacs. And to catch them faster,” he
complained like the old man that he was, before
looking at Izuku, his grey eyes steeling over. “Be
careful when you run around for Anyone
purposes.”

“He is targeting heroes, not villains,” Izuku

reminded him.

All for One smiled, as if he found it adorable that

Izuku called himself a villain. The condescension
might have annoyed someone else but Izuku
could understand that for a supervillain, what
Izuku had done was small potato.

“Don’t be naïve,” he gently chided him, as if

Izuku should know better. “The Hero Killer thinks
he is a man on a mission. He will kill anyone
interfering with it.”

Dabi’s apartment was what a charitable soul

would have called shabby. It was in an awful part
of town, it was paid in cash because there was no
real contract, the only reason why he didn’t have
problems with neighbors was because he
carefully cultivated his image of a crazy
pyromaniac with a cremation quirk, and it was
empty and cold most of the time. But somehow,
when the two little menaces weren’t at the bar or
pulling some crazy stunts, they loved being there.

But two days after the Sport Festival, Shouto

arrived dragging his feet, obviously anticipating
the reason why Dabi had called him. He greeted
him from afar, then hovered in the living room. Of
course, someone who didn’t know Shouto would
have thought he was being aloof and indifferent,
but really, past the patented Todoroki mask, it
was obvious he was on the defensive.

Dabi didn’t get up, preferring to stay on the

couch. He hated the idea of walking to Shouto
and to loom over him, no matter how irritated he
was.

“Why are you not using your flames?”

He had briefly thought of Shouto not being able

to use them. A mental block. Something that
would explain why he was willing to be covered
in frost during battle, risking hypothermia and
frostbite –just like Fuyumi when she used her
quirk. But he had observed him during his fight,
saw how Shouto had controlled himself not to
use his flames, clenching his fist the same way
Dabi refrained himself from using his fire unless
he really needed to.

“I chose not to,” the masterpiece confirmed. “At

least, not in battle.”

“You chose not to…” Dabi repeated, hoping that

the words would make sense now that they were
in his mouth but such idea was still beyond the
spectrum of Dabi’s comprehension. “Why?”

Any hesitation or unease disappeared from

Shouto’s face, determination once again shining
in those cold eyes of his as he told Dabi about his
vow.

How he could never forgive Endeavor.

And how he would prove that he could become

number 1 and surpass All Might without
Endeavor’s power.

Dabi could have laughed but it wasn’t funny.

Someone else could have listened to the anger
raging within him and exploded, but he despised
such stupid demonstrations of emotions. People
who expressed their anger with a booming voice
and in expressive ways were idiots who had the
self-control of a child, and Dabi couldn’t allow
himself to fall that low.

A deep breath.

He was monumentally angry but his anger was

something cold and sharp that sustained him.
Something he fueled and on which he had
complete control.

Because in a world of fools and willfully blind

people, he couldn’t afford to lose sight of the
truth.

“You have the perfect quirk,” he reminded the

Todoroki masterpiece, his voice so cold one
could have thought he has his twin’s quirk. “Who
cares where it comes from? It’s a tool. A tool that
you need in order to avoid perfectly avoidable
frostbites.”

“I can handle it,” Shouto declared as if will was

enough, his head high with this typical Todoroki
pride. The kind that came with knowing they
were the elite. The kind Touya had before he was
replaced with the better option because he was
defective. “I won, didn’t I?”

“No, you can’t,” Dabi growled, his voice low and

every scar in his body furiously itching with a cold
tingle. Cold, because that was what happened
when one was burned too deeply: a hellish heat
then a cold nothing because the nerves were
dead. “As for winning the Sport Festival… You
were fighting a bunch of kids who have been
training for a month at most. As someone who
works for Anyone, you know a school tournament
doesn’t prove anything. There are no pretty rules
of specific areas when you fight someone. There
are no civilians staying away. The only thing you
proved is that you are willing to hurt yourself as a
point of pride.”

He leaned forwards, still on the couch, controlling

himself not to walk to his brother and shake him
by the shoulders until this determined and
stubborn expression disappeared from his face.

Dabi couldn’t understand.

He just couldn’t understand how the golden

child, the one who wouldn’t be devoured by his
own quirk, refused to use it fully.

“Have you ever noticed the scars on Fuyumi’s

body?” he continued, and it wasn’t to help
Shouto anymore. It was everything that had killed
Touya spilling out. “Have you perhaps failed to
notice mine? Do you think it’s fair that that Yami is
constantly in danger of breaking his bones every
time he uses his quirk?”

All of them, fighting against their own quirks not

to be destroyed by them.

Some being more successful than others.

It felt like being mocked for every of Dabi’s

shortcomings, how he had failed being up to the
task again and again.

But with five words, his irritation washed away.

“I can’t let him win,” Dabi’s little brother

whispered, and there was something haunted in
his words.

Endeavor’s quest had plunged Dabi into insanity,

long before he had reduced his former self to
ashes.

Replaced. Not enough. A failure. Weak. Stupid

enough to try to win a prize that never existed.

But he hadn’t been the only victim of this

madness.

“If I use my flames… It means he gets what he

wanted,” Shouto said louder, vulnerability gone.
“It means that everything he did to our family was
worth it.”

Dabi stood up, walking to the brother he barely

knew. Anger was hidden again, and only the pure
tranquility that certitude could bring remained.
He held out his hand, his fingers brushing
Shouto’s cheek, then cupping it. His brother
stayed still for a moment, then slowly leaned into
the contact.

“Let him win,” Dabi said quietly.

Shouto’s eyes widened. It should have been

comical of his brother’s stoic face, but he could
be forgiven to not believe his ears.

Dabi hugged his brother.

“Use the pain he gave you. Use his power. Hone

all the experiences, all the skills, everything this
bastard passed on us. Let him think he won.
Then, use his own flames to burn him alive.”

The day after the Sport Festival, Todoroki had

called Izuku and asked for them to meet. It had
ended with a lunch on top of one of their favorite
roofs, an occasion that should have been fun and
dedicated to congratulations because his friend
had won UA Sport Festival.

And yet, Todoroki was obviously in a pensive

mood, silent as they finished their meal.
Something must have happened, be it at the
Sport Festival itself or after.

Had Endeavor said something? From what

Todoroki had told him, he was the kind to
absolutely corrupt such beautiful victory.

Todoroki will tell me what’s bothering him. He

isn’t the kind to hold back when he needs to talk.

Izuku was about to shudder but he refused to and

straightened up. At this altitude, the wind was so
strong that its cold was piercing through Izuku
despite the perfectly adequate jacket he had put
on. He could have texted Kurogiri to warp him a
scarf or something warm in a moment, but the
more he thought about it, the more certain he
was that it wasn’t worth the teasing All for One
would unleash on him as soon as he heard about
it.

And he would. Kurogiri and Izuku’s roommate

were constantly together those days, looking for
whoever had attacked the USJ or at least going
through the underworld and leaving a trail of
terror and ass-kicking.

“Did you see the news about Ingenium?”

Todoroki suddenly asked, thankfully interrupting
his thoughts before they gave him a headache.
“His brother is in my class.”

“Yes, Iida.” Izuku had seen him during the Sport

Festival. “Poor man. Even if you know that pro
hero is a dangerous job, it’s not something you
can prepare yourself for.”

“I wouldn’t mind,” Todoroki mused out-loud with

a concerning dreamy look on his face before
snapping out of it with obvious regret. “But I do
doubt Iida had the same concern.”

Awkwardness claimed the silence again as

Todoroki was looking down at his hand, his
expression getting more somber by the second.

You’re the ninth One for All holder. Be brave.

Or at least, be direct.

“Do… Do you want to tell me something?”

Izuku’s friend looked up.

Then, he said everything. About the Sport

Festival, how he had made sure to be number 1
again and again, how he had proved his power,
then an entire conversation with Dabi this
morning. He almost repeated each word, as if
they were engraved in his memory.

“What do you think?” Todoroki asked a stupefied

Izuku once he was done.

Well, my first question would be: is Dabi serious

about murdering Endeavor or is that just a
charming filial exaggeration?

Your arms are crossed and you look angry, so do

you really want my opinion about your vow or do
you want me to be your best friend and say amen
to everything you’re saying?

Am I allowed to tell you that if you hadn’t

avoided me, we would be in the middle of plan A
and none of this would be happening?

“What do you want?” he carefully asked. “What

is your goal?”

Todoroki didn’t hesitate. “To be the number 1

hero. To surpass All Might without using anything
belonging to this bastard.”

“Unless you also stole your quirk from a top hero,

I don’t think you can say half of you belongs to
him,” Izuku joked to lighten the mood.

Todoroki stared at him.

“Not that I would judge if you did.”

Todoroki stared harder.

Plan B, then.

Izuku leaned towards him, channeling

SmallMight1541, the quirk specialist. He needed
to deal with facts, not emotions, because those
were treacherous.

“When we first started talking to each other, you

only mentioned an ice quirk with drawbacks,” he
reminded him. “I was convinced you were
dealing with an ill-suited quirk, while you actually
have the most beautiful and one of the most
powerful quirks I’ve ever seen. Moreover, it’s a
stable quirk that your vow is unbalancing.”

Todoroki didn’t ask questions if he wasn’t ready

to hear the answers so Izuku agreeing with Dabi
didn’t bother him.

“You never tried to convince me to use my left

side…” he remembered.

A smidge of the brutal honestly of Plan C, now.

“Because I know you will eventually use your

flames,” Izuku said, a certitude born from
experience keeping him calm. “One day, it will be
a matter of survival. One for All taught me that in
those cases, the body goes 100%.”

“Is that all you’re thinking of my determination?”

Todoroki mocked without managing to
completely hide how upset it made him.

“I have complete faith in your strength of will. But

everyone has their limits and if you continue on
this path, you will soon reach them.”

Shouto’s old man had said the exact same thing.

Midoriya was his closest friend. His only friend.

They had shared things with each other than no
one else could know.

They understood how logic wasn’t that important

as long as they reached their goals. When
Midoriya had decided to mess with All Might in
the hope of gaining an unconfirmed legendary
quirk, Shouto hadn’t believed him but he has still
helped so he would be safe.

If Midoriya didn’t believe in Shouto, he would

have to convince him.

“You have All Might’s quirk. Will you feel better if

I proved that my ice is more than enough against
it?”

Down to Plan E they were.

“Well, it’s been quite a while since we trained

together,” Izuku accepted. “I know just the
place.”

Reckless avatar of chaos: [Don’t wait for me

tonight.]

Me: [What are you doing?]

Reckless avatar of chaos: [I’m busy.]

Me: [Doing what?]

Reckless avatar of chaos: [Being busy.]

It was a little before midnight when Shouto

arrived to Dagobah municipal beach park, a
misleading name that would lull the tourists into
thinking it was a beautiful place only for them to
realize that this was an unofficial junkyard. The
walls of trash were so high that the lights of the
city were barely reaching the beach and they
were lucky tonight was a full moon or Shouto
would have had to set something on fire
beforehand to be able to see anything.

Despite the moonlight, Shouto almost didn’t find

his opponent. More precisely, for a mad second,
he wondered if the form sitting on a giant
American fridge was a new type of gargoyle,
before realizing that it was just his friend wearing
a black hoodie and not bothering to greet him.

“Until one of us either touches the water or is

sent out of the beach?” Midoriya proposed from
his perch.

Midoriya liked high places.

“Or if one of us is stopped more than ten

seconds,” Todoroki added because he didn’t see
himself dragging a Midoriya trapped in an ice
cube to the sea. “Or give up.”

The white-haired boy jumped from the fridge,

One for All propelling him through the air, and
several meters away from Shouto. He landed
without disturbing the sand, even if physics
dictated that the impact should have been
violent.

Then, he turned towards Shouto, a smile on his

face.

“3,” Midoriya called.

Midoriya was good. More often than not, as he

was training in UA, Shouto regretted him not
having him at his side. He would make an
incredible hero.

“2,” Todoroki answered, placing his feet.

But Midoriya hadn’t started training since infancy.

He hadn’t been trained by a top hero either.

“1,” they both said at the same time.

Notes:
Writer currently murdered by finals
so I won't answer the comments
right away.
But I WILL answer them.

CHAPTER 14
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Ice jumped at Izuku, big enough to swallow him

whole, fast enough to convince some part of his
brain that it was eager to devour him.

He wasn’t quite fast enough to avoid it entirely

but that didn’t matter. He knew Todoroki, he
knew how he fought, and he knew that with
enough speed and a good timing, one could
break through the ice.

Fifteen percent.

Izuku kicked through the wave of ice a second

before it took hold of him. For a very stressful
moment, he thought he had underestimated how
thick the ice was but the twinge of panic made
him push through it, and he escaped the attack
before jumping behind a pile of trash.

Midoriya disappeared from his sight but that

didn’t prevent Shouto from throwing more ice in
his general direction, trying to find him. In a
perfect world, he would have frozen the whole
beach and be done with it, but Midoriya would
escape this kind of half-hearted moves.

Midoriya, who had One for All. Shouto had no

doubt that he would one day surpass All Might.
And Shouto also knew that he had to be the one
to surpass Midoriya. He could help him, believe
in him, like him, but Shouto was the one who
would become number 1.

For now, Shouto was stronger than him. Or at

least, he was stronger than him as long as he
didn’t feel inclined to break all his bones and get
an earful from Ao, their medic. That was why he
had chosen a field where he would have as much
cover as he wanted, hoping to push Shouto to
exhaust himself trying to catch up with him.

He is efficient. He will try to end the fight as soon

as he can. It means that he will show up if I give
him an opportunity.

Shouto started running in direction of a high

point, climbing on a pile of detritus while using
his ice to stabilize the whole thing.

Here, I am trying to take advantage of the

altitude to find you and smite you from above.

It barely took him a couple of seconds to reach

the summit. He could have taken longer but there
was no need to advertise the trap, and with a
little luck, the obscurity would hide the trace of
frost around him.

Come on.

Shouto got his wish and more as Midoriya

signaled his position by making a higher and
more unstable pile of trash fall on him, in all its
disgusting glory.

When All for One warped near Izuku’s location,

he was fully expecting fire and brimstone, or at
least, a defenestrated pro hero. The little one
tended to find problems, pour gasoline on it,
before throwing the matches in the air so
someone else could pick them up and burn
themselves with the resulting explosion.

He was thankfully warped with enough distance

between the Ninth and him so Izuku wouldn’t
notice him and try to bury him under a mountain
of trash, just like he was trying to do to his friend.
All for One used Flight, a quirk taken from an
American pro hero which allowed his user to be
covered by an aerodynamic barrier that protected
from harm, cold, and heat, and launched himself
in the sky, keeping an eye on the two teenagers.

Apart from the fact that it was exceptionally late

and that they were out doors, it didn’t seem to
differ much from their usual training.

Is Izuku mellowing out with age?

Or maybe this society had brainwashed him

enough to think that using quirks in public places
was enough of a villainous act to allow him to
sleep at night, contented because he had done
his quota of mischief.

Don’t they know the woods are better for this

kind of training?

Ice quickly recovered the sand and the trash,

always a hair away from Izuku who was deploying
treasures of agility and speed to escape
Todoroki’s power. Even more interesting, he
didn’t bother fighting Todoroki face to face,
preferring to hound him down, forcing him to
waste his strength, while using the environment
to his advantage by either hiding or throwing
some abandoned piece of furniture at his
opponent.

Izuku knew how to adapt to his environment and

how to take any opportunities, unlike All Might
who was nothing more than a brawler, simply
throwing his strength around without any grace,
only counting on the power of One for All and
hoping for the best.

All for One floated tranquilly just under the

clouds and he decided that it was nothing more
than the usual sparring session and that he didn’t
have to cancel his meeting with an old associate
with whom he had to have a conversation about
consequences and what gravity could do to a
human body.

He warped away, unaware than in a couple of

seconds, Todoroki Shouto would get tired of
Izuku hiding and decorate the field in ice spikes.

As an ice spear, one of many, pierced the trash

pile behind which Izuku was hiding, the tip
piercing at the place where he had been a
second ago, the One for All holder decided that
he needed a new strategy.

He had counted on running circles around

Todoroki until he froze himself. It was only a
matter of time and that would allow Izuku to
avoid accidentally hurting his friend. But he had
misjudged the field. The beach was bigger than
the UA arena and as Todoroki kept chasing him,
the activity kept him warm.

He might even be able to last long enough to

beat Izuku convincing himself that his fire was
something that could be ignored.

This was going to kill him. Probably not today but

one day, he would be fighting a villain, and by
the time he realized he needed his fire, he would
be too weakened to survive.

It wasn't that Todoroki didn’t care about what

would happen to him, but because he was
arrogant. It was probably not his fault, not when
he had been called a masterpiece since his quirk
had manifested, but he was convinced he would
always find a way to win.

Just like All Might. Plus Ultra. But Izuku was one
of the rare persons who knew that the Symbol of
Peace coughed up blood every time he was
surprised and that he was missing organs.

What kind of friend would he be if he let Todoroki

walk on this road?

Todoroki got tired of waiting for Izuku to attack

and he hunted him through the beach, attacking
at the slightest sound. And since Izuku had to
climb on piles of various junks or jump from one
hiding spot to another, he couldn’t help making
noises in the silent night.

However, quickly, Todoroki’s incredible power had

covered the place in ice, some of them massive
constructions. Slippery, but stable and one could
climb them without making any noises as long as
he was willing to ignore the scream his frozen skin
made every time his bare hands touched the ice.

Thanks to the little icebergs his friend had thrown

with abandon at the start of the fight, Izuku
quickly managed to reach the sea.

In his hand, he had a plastic basin, collected from

the smelly treasure box around them.

When Midoriya attacked again, jumping from

above, Shouto was ready. He created an ice arch,
a nice enough shield, and when Midoriya crashed
through it, both feet first to break it, he was
welcomed with enough ice to throw him away
from Shouto. Not much. Speed was of the
essence.

And as soon as he crashed on the sand, Shouto

stomped on the ground, ice spreading from his
right foot and rushing Midoriya, trapping him
where he was before he had the time to use this
insane speed of his to escape.

He was too focused on Midoriya to notice what

he had let go in his brutal change of trajectory.
He just saw something from the corner of his eye
and he caught it by pure reflex.

He just had to time to realize he was holding a

basin before glacial sea water drenched him, the
pain it brought so brutal that it didn’t even
register for a moment. His body just knew what
kind of damage water would inflict on someone
evolving in a cold epicenter.

A moment later, his senses caught up with him

and it was like every cell of his body was trying to
curl up on themselves, trying to escape the
sudden cold. He hadn’t even have the time to get
used to it, to let himself be numbed by it.

For a second, he stumbled, just fighting with how

awful everything felt. He should have trusted
Midoriya to hasten hypothermia without using a
quirk, be it his or Shouto’s.

Midoriya who was still on the ground, fighting to

get rid of the ice coffin he had been trapped into.

His elbow had just managed to escape, the skin

red and raw, when Shouto managed to steel
himself. A second at most. He had enough time
to add more ice, to make sure Midoriya stayed
put for ten seconds, and he would win.

But Midoriya didn’t try to escape. He just

whipped his arm so his hand would face Shouto.

And he flicked his middle finger at him.

Not only was Shouto not expecting being thrown

two meters into the air, stopping only because
some part of him that didn’t need to think
anymore summoned an ice wall in his back, but
nothing could have prepared him to the wind the
blast created.

It was as if a thousand knives had attacked his

skin. Even worse because of the ice Shouto’s right
side had produced. For a terrifying moment, he
wondered if the ice wasn’t going rip his skin from
his flesh. As if he didn’t have enough scars.

His left side was screaming at him to just use it.

To protect him from this.

Exactly what Midoriya wanted.

The crazy bastard finally managed to escape the

ice, slightly wobbling on his feet. The landing or
the ice must have affected him.

“So…,” the bearer of All Might’s quirk said, “I got

serious for two minutes and you’re already about
to freeze. You didn’t manage to lay a finger on
me yet.”

Annoyance shot at him.

“How is that Holding Out strategy going for

you?” Midoriya asked.

Shouto breathed, condensation escaping his

mouth. He could still feel his fingers.

His back was against the sea shore. Midoriya had

moved him so he would be easy to send into the
ocean.

But if Shouto was fast enough, he could still win.

Izuku had failed his landing. He was forcing

himself not to shiver. The Air Blast he had used,
at twenty percent, had been above his limits and
his fingers were bruised.

If they had been simply sparring, it would have

been enough to stop the fight.

How ruthless must I be to make him see the

truth?

The sea was close enough for Izuku to hear the

sound of the waves on the shore. Throwing
Todoroki there would be complicated since he
could keep himself anchored thanks to the walls
of ice he was creating at his back. Air Blast is out
for throwing him into the water. But it was more
than enough to worsen the damages made by
the cold.

Honestly, Izuku didn’t need to win the fight.

Todoroki using his flames would be just as much
as a victory. He should let time do its work,
helped by the freezing water that had already
covered Todoroki in frost and as many Air Blasts
as possible.

Make it last.

Izuku took one step, more to check if his body

was correctly responding than anything else.

Unfortunately, that step was on a patch of ice that

definitely hadn’t been there a moment ago.

Izuku’s foot slipped on the ice without his

permission and without asking him his opinion,
and suddenly, he was falling while Todoroki had
him in sight. His landing was undignified and
about to be a lot colder but he didn’t waste a
moment, already scrambling away.

Going back to your feet will take too long. You

might fall again.

He flicked his finger, taking advantage of the

sliding lane the quirk had created.

Air Blast.

The power, twenty percent, bruised his fingers,

but the brutal impulse propelled him backwards
on the iced lane, just in time to avoid Todoroki
who about to drop an ice cube the size of Texas
on him.

The fact that Izuku completely lost control of his

movements and landed in a pile of trash, before
having a bicycle falling from said pile and on his
head, didn’t take anything away from his quick
thinking.

Just from his dignity.

He had barely finished the thought when

Todoroki’s ice jumped at him, Todoroki in tow as
he was running at full speed, all his previous
exhaustion seemingly forgotten now that he had
the possibility to send Izuku into another ice age.

Izuku, still sitting, looked at the bike that had

bounced from his skull to land on the ground
next to him.

He grinned.

Shouto could have ended the fight if a bicycle-

shaped-missile hadn’t crashed into his chest,
sending him tumbling back, a snarl of pure rage
escaping his throat. Ice englobed the damn
thing, then did the same to the distance
separating him from his opponent.

Things became a blur after that. Shouto didn’t

know how long they fought. He just knew it was
furious and merciless.

The fight might not have gone so far if they

hadn’t been regular sparring partners. They knew
each other’s limits. So when Midoriya escaped ice
with scratches and more bruises, Shouto knew
that he had barely noticed it. And when Shouto’s
body starting to numb and his movements to
slow down, Midoriya didn’t show any mercy,
because as long as he was moving, the fight was
still going.

Things became simpler. They were finally facing

each other, Midoriya trying to grab him, and
Shouto trying to trap him with ice or to slow him
down by projecting cold at him. There wasn’t
enough distance to take the time to think, to
elaborate strategies.

Only the present existed in that moment.

It tasted like freedom.

Midoriya’s movements weren’t betraying any

hesitation anymore as he danced around Shouto,
his arms red because of the cold, his knuckles
and forearms scratched to hell and back because
of how many times he had broken through the ice
to hit him. Every time he moved, wind followed
him, biting at Shouto with a thousand fangs.

As for Shouto, he abandoned the massive use of

his power, privileging speed. He ripped
Midoriya’s warmth piece by piece and they both
knew that it was only a question of time before
Shouto’s ice trapped him again.

And this time, Midoriya wouldn’t escape it.

That made Midoriya impatient. He could have run

away, taken more distance to use those damn air
blasts on him. Instead, he put more strength into
his punches, trying to break through the walls of
protection.

His fist hit Shouto’s shoulder, making the thin

layer of ice that had formed on it explode, pain
finally reaching him.

Shouto ignored it.

And when he punched back, without his quirk,

putting his hip in the movement, his right hook
hit Midoriya’s ribs –the one he had been
unconsciously protecting since he had drenched
Shouto in water- at full strength.

He had known Midoriya wouldn’t expect him to

stop using his quirk and to fight with his bare
hands but the results went beyond his
expectations. His balance lost, Midoriya twisted
his body, moving his arms to try to regain it, but
between the violence of the punch and the frozen
ground, he didn’t have a chance.
He fell abruptly on the ground and Shouto
lunged, ice already starting to form.

Midoriya’s fist went through the frozen ground,

with a violence that horrified the very small part
of survival instinct Shouto had at the idea of what
that strength could do to a human body. His hand
moved again, a blur, and sand was thrown in the
direction of Shouto’s eyes.

Still moving –he didn’t have a choice, not when

he was carried by his momentum-, he moved his
head to avoid it, exposing his left side,
preventing himself from immediately freezing
Midoriya.

Giving him half a second for his insane friend to

put his hands to the ground and propel his leg,
so fast it almost became a blur, near Shouto’s
face.

The kick never touched him.

The Air Blast it produced, more violent than

anything Midoriya had done before, sent him
flying, airborne.

For a moment, Shouto was too stunned to react

but he did notice that the darkness at the edge of
his mind receded and that delicious warmth
licked at him.

When he landed, his left side was on fire.

The ice had already been shimmering under the

moonlight but the flames brought it to a different
level, illuminating the beach and turning an
unofficial junkyard into something straight out of
a strange but beautiful fairytale.

Izuku managed to stand again, first by putting a

knee on the ground, then back on his feet, more
because the wonder of this sight compelled him
to take a better look than because he was in a
real hurry.

In front of him, Todoroki did the same. The frost

on his skin was evaporating, leaving without a
trace even though on anyone else, it would have
left damage. But Todoroki was loved by all
components of his quirks, unlike Izuku or Dabi.

There was something beautiful about a fire in a

dark night.

Todoroki, flames still growing, so bright for Izuku’s

eyes which had become accustomed to the semi-
darkness, put himself in his usual ice-throwing-
position, more ice spreading from his right foot.

While his fire grew stronger.

“You’re insane,” Todoroki said, his face not

expressing anything, be it anger, sadness or
relief, but there was a real fondness in his voice.

His back was against the sea.

“That’s nothing new,” Izuku reminded him as he

put himself into a fighting stance.

It wasn’t over.

One for All. Full Cowl.

Shouto didn’t think about how disappointing this

situation was. How he had thought that if it ever
happened, it would be a conscious decision. A
voluntary surrender. Not his body choosing for
him right before the cold did too much damage.

He didn’t even think about his father, even

though his shadow had loomed over him since he
had discovered his quirk.

Instead, he called both powers, fire and ice, with

all the energy he could muster. His eyes never left
Midoriya.

He was feeling at peace.

The air around them changed as Shouto’s quirk

was influencing the wind, more and more power
being called. In return, One for All was roaring
inside Izuku, spreading through him, as much as
he could, about to burst and to unleash the same
kind of devastating power.

Until something strange happened.

One moment, Izuku’s brain was seeing the quirk,

fascinated by the display of power, those flames
that were shimmering and mesmerizing,
illuminating the ice, proving that it was an
incredible quirk, just like Izuku knew, and
something in him burst with joy because his
friend was finally using his full quirk and it was
magnificent.

And the other, the tiny lizard living in Izuku’s

brain, slightly scorched, gone through hell,
started to draw his attention to the fact that he
wasn’t fireproof and that unless he intended to
use one hundred per cent and break all his
bones, he needed a plan or he was going to die.

Uh oh.

Suddenly creating a very high heat in a place that

had been thoroughly frozen could cause an
explosion, especially as the wind created by
several Air Blasts and the one brought by the sea
brought more oxygen to the mix.

It was something an adult who would have been

observing the match could have noticed. That
same adult, if he hadn’t been busy elsewhere,
could have warped the boys to safety.

It was something Todoroki Shouto could have

noticed in time if the cold hadn’t slowed down his
reasoning skills. The cold, and several blows to
the head.

He noticed what was happening when he saw

Midoriya Izuku running into the opposite
direction.

He wasn’t fast enough to stop the reaction.

The blast devastated the beach, sending

everything it contained violently flying. Shouto
was included in it, the explosion shattering the
ice wall in front of him and his back shattering the
one behind him, and he crashed into the sea.

That had been twelve meters away from him.

He immediately jumped to his feet, ignoring the

pain, his muscles screaming in agony, and he
started running.

“Midoriya!”

Shouto didn’t know where he was. The

topography of the beach had changed because
of him, and Midoriya was nowhere to be seen.

His imagination brought him the image of

Midoriya’s broken body crashing on the sand, in
the shadows.

“MIDORIYA!” he screamed, hurting his throat.

His heart was beating so fast it was the only thing

he was hearing. His heart beating like crazy and
the sound of his blood being pumped into his
veins.

His fire came out, in a tentative to see better in

case shadows were hiding him from his sight, but
still nothing.

Shouto was breathing, fast now that he thought

about it, but it was like the air wasn’t reaching his
lungs.

“Izuku?” he called out, his voice weak.

Only the silence answered him.

A cold that had nothing that to do with his quirk

spread through him and pain, unlike anything he
had been through, crashed through him.

Until he heard a muffled noise, on his right.

Slowly, like in a dream, Shouto turned. He saw

trash moving from a large fridge that was lying on
its back, the same fridge Midoriya had been
sitting on when he had arrived. The door brutally
opened, almost ripped from its hinges, reminding
Shouto of a coffin, and Midoriya, none for the
worse, graciously got out of it.

“The door was locked from the inside,” he

grumbled without even looking at him, his quirk
still activated as he had to use it to escape. His
friend got out without betraying any hint of pain
or unease, but he shut down the door again and
sat on the fridge like it was a bench, his shoulders
betraying his exhaustion. “I had actually kept that
thing near the shore so I could throw it at you if
there was a problem but this makes a good
hiding spot or panic room if you need it. But I
had forgotten it couldn’t be opened from the
inside unless you have enhanced strength.”

Shouto just stared at him.

“Did you know I had a plan that didn’t involve

fighting to make you use your flames?” Midoriya
continued, still not looking up. “I actually had
four of them. We could be eating pizza while I am
showing you a PowerPoint about your quirk.”

He didn’t know if he was insanely relieved or if he

wanted to strangle him because this dumbass
didn’t seem to realize that Shouto had thought he
was hurt or worse a moment ago.

Izuku finally looked up. Looked around, at what

was left of the beach. Here and there, things were
on fire. At least, none of the metal pieces had
turned into shrapnel because of the explosion.

“Oh,” this madman quietly said.

Both, Shouto realized. It’s definitely both.

He dropped to his knees.

Midoriya was by his side in a second, his hands

on his arms, checking for injuries.

The flames disappeared just as Izuku was

touching his friend. Not that it was needed since
he had approached him by the right anyway. Both
boys knelt in the sand, some of Todoroki’s weight
on Izuku. He didn’t seem hurt, but he was
probably even more exhausted than Izuku was.
Physically but also mentally.

Todoroki leaned more and more on Izuku, his

body still shivering because of the punishment it
had been through by being deprived of the
flames. The One for All holder, also cold,
wondered if it wouldn’t be better to get away so
his friend could summon his fire again and get
warmer but his instinct whispered against it.

They stayed like this, in a half hug, while Todoroki

was resolute to stay still and not say a thing.

But Izuku wasn’t good with silence.

“So, what I wanted to say is that your quirk allows

you to regulate your temperature by using your
left side when you draw ice, and your right side
when you use fire,” he started mumbling,
because quirks were comforting and because
Todoroki never interrupted him or found it creepy
when he went on a quirk rant. “Since those
protections are dependent on an balance, and
protect you when your resistance to extreme
temperatures fails, this is the proof that you
actually have one quirk and not two. ''

Todoroki’s head slightly moved, which probably

meant something like that: Oh please, do
continue. After all, your side job is to analyze
quirks and you know what you’re talking about
since people pay you for that.

''What I am trying to say is that your power is

your own. You don't have your father's quirk and
your mother's quirk because they don’t work that
way. You have something new, which only
belongs to you.”

For a moment, Todoroki didn’t do anything. He

didn’t move, didn’t talk, didn’t show any sign that
he was hearing what Izuku was saying.

Then he said the most annoying thing he could

have uttered.

“Couldn’t you have said that sooner?”

It left Izuku speechless. He was aching all over, he

was insanely cold because someone someone’s
brilliant plan to use a quirk that put him through
hypothermia at Mach speed was to throw
icebergs around like they were candies on
Halloween day, and now, someone had
something to say about what Izuku could have
done.

The audacity of this man…

“Did something compel you to wait after the

bloody fight where we almost died in a fire storm
before telling me that or did you just want to see
my quirk in action?” Todoroki continued, still not
raising his head but dripping sass like there was
no tomorrow.

For a moment, Izuku seriously considered

stopping to hold half of this dead weight and to
push him in the sand with a noise of disgust.

“You’re the one who challenged me!” Izuku

reminded him. “Not even a Hello, or How Are
You Doing? first. You just got all offended and
decided you had to fight me. Not even me, but
the one who has All Might’s quirk!”

“… I have no recollection of the events in

question,” this false friend said, proving that bad
faith wasn’t lethal, even in such incredible
quantities.

“You know what? I wasn’t going to bring it up but

you’re covered in sea water, so you probably fell
into the sea, and that means I won.
Congratulations. You were beaten by a quirkless
boy who received his quirk not even half a year
ago. “

No one knew was how long they could have kept

bickering but they were interrupted by a strange
noise.

It suspiciously sounded like police sirens, getting

closer and closer.

Midoriya took Shouto’s hand. That was his only

warning before his friend activated One for All
and dashed out of the beach, dragging Shouto
behind him as if he was a helium balloon.

Ryuku, Dragon Hero, had been visiting a friend

when the explosion had happened and she was
the first one to arrive on Dagobah beach, her
other and more massive form not hindered by
meager considerations like traffic or speed limits.

If she had looked just outside the beach, she

would have seen a boy with a speed quirk
dragging another by the hand, before brutally
stopping and excitedly pointing her to his friend,
in the universal “Look, it’s Ryuku!’ gesture all her
fans had.

But since she immediately flew to where the

explosion had started, trying to see if someone
had been injured, and how many people were
involved to have created such destruction, she
didn’t see the second boy picking the fanboy up
by the back of his shirt and dragging him away
from the crime scene.

It was technically early when someone knocked

on Dabi’s door. Someone who almost met a fiery
and deserved death but who turned out to be his
boss – who was protected by the most terrifying
quirk user ever known to men – and his little
brother –who was mostly fireproof so why bother?

They both looked exhausted. Yami wasn’t

covered enough for the weather, his usual
hoodies gone, but the temperatures weren’t low
enough to explain why the exposed skin was red
because of the cold. As for Shouto, he was half
shirtless. The left half.

They both reeked of trash but a special mention

went to Shouto who also managed to smell like a
wet dog.

Dabi sighed, not payed enough for this chaotic

bullshit and not having the patience of dealing
with this little sibling bullshit. Another one of his
brothers had used up all his tolerance for chaotic
tendencies after 1 AM, before Shouto had even
been born.

“What happened?” he asked.

They both looked at each other, silently

communicating and deciding that Dabi didn’t
need to know too much, which meant several
laws had been broken somewhere.

“We had a conversation,” Yami explained with

that innocent face of his that had fooled so many,
hiding that he was pure craziness and will under
an angelic appearance.

“Are you injured?”

They shook their heads.

“Good. Then, go home.”

And Dabi slammed the door in their face, before

locking behind him.

No one could prove that he was smiling because

Shouto had used his fire. But no one could prove
otherwise.

Todoroki and Izuku looked at each other, shocked

and appalled to see that Dabi would be cruel and
unreasonable enough to leave them out in the
middle of the night. Then, they both started to
pat their pockets to locate their keys. Todoroki
was the first one to find his set and unlocked the
door before sneaking into the apartment.

Dabi found them as they were locking the door

behind them because it wasn’t an especially safe
neighborhood. Harsh words were said by the
young adult –and Izuku took a moment to
acknowledge that Dabi wasn’t an older teen but
an actual adult – probably because of the late
hour and a lack of caffeine. Really, he couldn’t
blame him for such relentless flow of inane
questions such as: “How did you even enter?”,
“No, you can’t sleep here.” and “When did you
even leave sleeping bags in my apartment?”

Ten minutes after breaking into his place with

keys they weren’t supposed to have, the two
teenagers were curled up in their sleeping bags
and they were dead to the world because of an
obvious case of quirk exhaustion. As for Dabi, he
had accepted his fate. However, he still wondered
when they had managed to leave clothes and
sleeping bags on the last shelve of his cupboard
without him noticing.

Whatever had happened, Shouto had obviously

used his left side. That was a step on a road that
would protect from frostbites or from being killed
by his own quirk.

That was more than enough to earn him a pass at

waking up Dabi in the middle of the night.

He made sure that there would be enough food

for the breakfast tomorrow. For a moment, he
considered taking Shouto’s phone to call Fuyumi
and to warn her that he was sleeping at a friend’s
house but the thought only crossed his mind
because he was severely sleep-deprived and he
pushed it away as soon as it was born.

Dabi went to sleep, not noticing the man who

had warped into his home. A man who had just
been informed that the beach on which he had
left two teenagers that were supposed to know
better had been devastated by what the police
thought to be several individuals with powerful
quirks.

All for One made sure none of them were hurt,

then waited on the eldest Todoroki’s couch for
the sun to rise or for sleep to find him first. Going
back to Inko’s home would have been a waste of
time.

After all, since he had left Tartarus, not even once

had he managed to sleep without Izuku nearby.

Notes:
Yes, All for One's dad senses
utterly failed him. He Trusted
Teenagers To Be Reasonable.

A huge thank you to all of you for

your comments and your constant
support. Seriously, I love you and
don't think I don't read and read
those comments many times when
I need strength.

My finals aren't over because half

of the exams were delayed to
after Christmas because of strikes
near my university. (Not as cool as
it seems because I just keep
studying and stressing about it
instead of being free.) So I am
working like crazy and I don't
know when I will have the time to
answer the comments, but they
will be answered.

DISCLAIMER: DO NOT HIDE IN

FRIDGES. Most of them can't be
opened from the inside. Only hide
in a fridge if you have a quirk or
any other power that allows you to
break out from it.

CHAPTER 15
Notes:
Fanart from the previous chapter!
https://jaaeheartie.tumblr.com/po
st/614594969610649600/show-
chapter-archive
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Shouto had always risen with the sun. His training

started long before his breakfast and there were
simply not enough hours in the day to waste
them in slumber. Even working for Anyone hadn’t
altered his sleep patterns. It had just taught him
to make do with less sleep, while still waking up
early.

The day after the Sport Festival was one of the

only times when he had slept way past 8 AM. He
had felt like he had slipped into a coma and woke
up feverish and feeling awful because his body
was bringing his temperature back to balance.

This morning managed to be worse than the

aftermaths of Shouto winning the Sport Festival
with only his ice. He was feeling too hot, his skin
too tight for his body, and he had sweated during
the night. The “guest room” where they were
sleeping had turned into a sauna because he had
been unconsciously warming it up during the
night. His head hurt. His body hurt. He was
feeling grumpy and the idea of actually getting
up was unbearable.

Even worse, Shouto was feeling weak.

So he just waited for his body to stop being so

unreasonable, not wishing for Dabi to see him
like this because they would both know it was
because of a mix of hypothermia and exhaustion
that could have been avoided if he had used his
flames from the start.

My flames…

Shouto wasn’t sure what to think of it. At the

time, it had just felt natural and there was quite a
rush when the cold had receded and he had
finally used a power he had done his best to seal
inside him for more than a year.

Shouto still remembered how calm he had been.

He had forgotten what Endeavor had wanted to
create. He had forgotten his mother’s pain and
the scar on his face. He had forgotten about Dabi
and Fuyumi’s worries for his well-being.

This sensation… This freedom, as he only existed

in the present… He wanted that.

Shouto stayed lying on his side, in a blue

sleeping bag, and watching a Midoriya who had
turned into a green caterpillar during the night.
His friend didn’t show any sign of being awake.
The mass of green fabric, which had completely
swallowed this hypothermia-inducing-fiend who
had to be responsible for Shouto’s dizziness, only
moved at the rhythm of his breathing.

He must have fallen asleep again – something

that never happened - because the sound of
footsteps was what brought him back to reality.
Heavier than Fuyumi’s, lighter than Endeavor’s or
even Natsuo’s.

My eldest brother.

“Good morning, Dabi,” All for One greeted him

from the living room, confirming what Shouto’s
ears had deduced.

Oh, All for One is here too, Shouto thought,

proving that he was indeed in a sorry state, right
before he heard Dabi’s yelp and the specific
whoosh sound of a fire user setting himself on
fire. That was how Shouto realized that All for
One was here.

“Are you all under the impression that my

apartment is an inn opened to all?” Dabi asked,
his voice more high-pitched than usual.

Shouto tried to kick the sleeping bag away but he

somehow only managed to get tangled in it.

“What can I say, Dabi?” All for One answered, his

voice not betraying a hint of sleep. He must have
been awake for a while. “You are simply too good
of a host. We can’t help but to indulge in your
hospitality.”

The door was brutally opened, revealing All for

One, not wearing a jacket, the sleeves of his
white shirt rolled up on his arms, and his hair not
styled. It changed him, making him appear
younger.

The villain was carrying a four cup carrier in his

hands, and he walked to what Midoriya had
turned into the night.

“Good morning Todoroki,” he said as he was

kneeling by Midoriya’s side. “It’s a little past nine.
You might want to call your family if they don’t
know where you are.”

This was… actually a good idea.

“Izuku, you are supposed to catch up on your

work for school today,” All for One said before
touching where Izuku’s hair should have been.

The green sleeping bag growled.

Not in the usual way human beings did, where it

was a figure of speech in order to communicate
irritation, but a bona fide snarl that wasn’t
supposed to come from a human throat.

In All for One’s place, Shouto would have kept his

hands far away and backed down slowly but the
villain didn’t react and simply put a coffee next to
Midoriya. Then, he left, leaving another one by
the door. Dabi was also looking at what he was
doing, freaked out.

Midoriya emerged from his sleeping bag and

grabbed the first cup, hovering over it like it was
a precious treasure. He wiggled, still half in the
sleeping bag, so he could drink with his back to
Shouto.

“Midoriya, your villain is being creepy,” Shouto

informed him. “Do something.”

“He’s not my villain,” he groaned but his heart

wasn’t in it.

Since Shouto didn’t want to leave his brother with

a super villain for too long, he stood up without
waiting for Midoriya.

Pain surged through his body, the consequences

of what he had been put through the day before.
Not using his flames until it was almost too late
always had a toll on him, and it wasn’t even
talking about the shockwaves and the repeated
smelly and blunt object thrown in his direction.
Still, a life of conditioning allowed him to hide it.
He wouldn’t be able to run or to fight at full
strength, but he would be able to hide it long
enough to recover.

And on its way out, he saw another cup of coffee

left at the door. Another in the middle of the
room. And the last on the table, next to an
incredibly big box of donuts.

All for One was in Dabi’s apartment, in Dabi’s

kitchen, washing some cups with obvious
disapprobation because there hadn’t been
enough clean glasses. He gave four of them to
Shouto – who was stiff because of pain - so he
would bring them to the table and he grabbed a
bottle of orange juice that definitely had not
been in Dabi’s fridge the day before.

How long had he been there? How had he known

where Dabi lived? Yami wasn’t the type to share
information. And how much had he discovered,
as he went through Dabi’s stuff?

All for One ignored how freaked out he was.

No, it wasn’t that. Ignoring meant acknowledging

how crazy the situation was.

All for One simply didn’t care. He walked to the

couch, poured himself a drink, and checked
something on his phone while Shouto was
already digging in the box of pastries, more used
to the craziness of the Anyone life.

Dabi was wondering if he was willing to risk his

life to chase them out and keep all the donuts for
himself when something who vaguely looked like
Yami got out of the “guest room”, his hair a mess
that might have a life on its own and a glare that
could have rivaled with Cremation.

The teenager didn’t pay attention to them and he

swooped on the coffee left on the ground, by the
door. He found the other coffee and picked it up
in his other hand, then he walked to the coffee
table, where the last coffee was waiting, before
he apparently realized that All for One had left
caffeinated breadcrumbs for him to follow.

“You’re not as funny as you think you are,” the

supposedly smart leader of Anyone said.

“That’s plenty enough as far as I am concerned,”

All for One, delighted.

Izuku didn’t let go of his cups of coffee. He had

picked them up. They were his, now.

“You can probably put one down,” Dabi, this

fool, told him as he was attacking the chocolate
donuts. At least, until All for One leaned forwards
to take two and the fire user decided to be
somewhere else.

“He doesn’t trust us,” Todoroki explained.

“Neither of us drinks coffee,” the leaf-juice

drinker noted, as if that was enough to let them
approach his morning nectar.

“And yet, he still doesn’t trust us.”

Izuku nodded before turning towards the only

other person who could steal his coffee and enjoy
it.

“Is there a reason why you’re here or is that just

the usual stalking?”

“I came to make sure no hero would surprise you

in your sleep after the stunt you pulled on the
Dagobah beach,” the bane of his existence
mocked. “How ungrateful of you.”

Izuku froze. So did Todoroki.

“What happened?” Dabi immediately asked as if

he was expecting heroes to join them for
breakfast.

All for One did some manipulation on his phone

before showing something to Dabi. Something
that made his eyes widen and Todoroki’s face,
next to him, suspiciously blank.

“For some unfathomable reason, they decided to

fight each other and one of them tried his best to
pulverize his opponent. I would usually suspect
Todoroki-kun since flames were involved but I
refuse to underestimate Yami’s innovative spirit.”

Oh, coffee to drink.

Can’t talk.

Too busy drinking coffee.

That didn’t prevent Dabi from showing the phone

to Izuku. On it, one could see a photo of the
beach, which had suffered some damages. Way
more damages than Izuku remembered, actually,
but it had been at night and the police was there,
so he hadn’t paid too much attention at the time.

It also appeared that the explosion had been

violent enough to actually clear a massive spot of
various trash, the photo showing a beautiful
image of the horizon.

“Was that your way to answer an Anyone request

to clean up the beach?” Dabi asked,
dumbfounded.

Shouto stayed mostly quiet as Dabi was grilling

Midoriya and All for One was mocking him. (Or
maybe not. There wasn’t the sharp edge of
mockery here. It was the softer version.) He
needed to think.

Yesterday had been a blur. He had been focused

on his goal. He had been determined to win. He
had given everything he had.

He had used his flames.

Now, as he was calmer and with the memory of

the utter tranquility that he had lived through as
he willingly used his flames in battle, he had the
advantage of hindsight.

And he didn’t like what he was noticing.

Shouto had been the one to ask for this battle.

And yet… Midoriya had reacted to it in a way he
should have considered long before he put a foot
on this beach.

What about letting me choose the place and

finding somewhere with a lot of hiding spots.
Somewhere that couldn’t be more unlike the
UA ring that was giving you a massive
advantage? Oh, those Air Blasts? I am sure it’s
a coincidence if I’ve never showed you that
before. Think nothing of it. Just as you
shouldn’t think anything of how I could have
stayed hidden and tried to take you out from
a distance. Instead, I chose to fight face to
face right after drenching you into cold water,
so you would have no choice but to use your
flames to survive, just like I had told you.

Shouto remembered the fridge, that Izuku had

admitted placing at a specific place in case of
need. Was that something he had found as he
had arrived on the beach? Or had he prepared
the field long before the fight, finding anything
that could give him an advantage?

I forgot… He did so many insane things that I

forgot that the reason why he is still alive is
because he is a strategist.

And after the fight… Midoriya had dragged him

to Dabi’s place, helping him to run because
Shouto was unable to keep up. Because he
wasn’t as fast, but especially because he had
been exhausted at the time.

While Midoriya himself could have kept fighting.

If Midoriya had been hurt or got tired, he had

obviously recovered during the night and he
could have undertaken any mission right now –
that is, if All for One hadn’t been hovering - while
Shouto was forcing himself not to show his
exhaustion as he would need at least a day to
recover.

Because Midoriya is a vigilante. After the fight, he

has to be in a good enough state to run away. He
doesn’t have Recovery Girl if he goes beyond his
limits in order to win.

Shouto looked at Midoriya who had just finished

his second chocolate donut and was looking with
suspicion at the one All for One was offering him.
An understandable reaction because the villain
had an amused smile on his face.

In how many ways did I actually lose this fight?

“I need to learn to control my fire,” Shouto said

after All for One and Yami warped away.

“Yes, you do,” Dabi confirmed.

Once Izuku had enough caffeine in his system to

stay awake and alert, he cleaned himself up and
grabbed his laptop because he needed to finalize
his research for an internship. He had chosen his
high school because they didn’t mind many
absences as long as they were justified and had
great online courses. However, anyone would
become suspicious if a student missed so many
classes without justifying of any extra activities.

Researching the companies that interested him

wasn’t a problem. He already had his mind on
several of them. But he quickly realized, as he
typed and retyped, that he absolutely had no
idea how to write an email in a professional
setting. He started searching online for that – his
usual MO when he needed to learn a skill- before
he realized something.

All for One, in his kitchen, preparing something

that smelled heavenly good, noticed Izuku was
staring.

“Yes?”

“You’re an adult,” Izuku realized out-loud for the

first time.

Until now, the teenager had only classified him as

a cataclysm or as a stalker.

“I have been around for quite a while, yes,” All

for One mocked.

However, there was adult and adult. Could Izuku

trust this man as an accomplished member of
society who knew how to navigate in a world of
social graces?

No, definitely not.

Izuku went back to his researches and his drafts of

emails. Alas, All for One was now curious and he
abandoned the pan to come and look over
Izuku’s shoulder, a hand on the back of his chair.

“What is it?”

“I need to write an email in adult. I found a quirk

counselling company for my internship.”

All for One leaned more, his hand now on Izuku’s

shoulder and the leader of Anyone made him
understand that he needed some space by
violently shrugging. The villain took the hint and
sat next to him instead of hovering.

“Isn’t the quirk counselling the job of the State?

It’s the only worthwhile policy they implemented
and they gave it to the private sector?”

Once again, Izuku was reminded that some of the

policies he had lived with all his life were actually
pretty recent. All for One didn’t know about the
quirk counselling companies or the paragons,
even though he had thought the last one had
been there for at least twenty years.

“Well, they have a contract with the

government,” Izuku explained. “The quirk
counselling for people under the age of twelve
and the evaluation of one’s quirk and any new
development is free, but you pay for the quirk
analysis.”

“Under the age of twelve? Quirks are influenced

by emotions. What do they think happens at
puberty?”

People were more tolerant of young teenagers

not perfectly controlling their quirks because of
that.

Well, they were with nice quirks, harmless quirks.

Dangerous and scary quirks didn’t always receive
the same consideration.

That was why Izuku had started to have a small

but reasonable income with quirk analysis.

“There are associations that help people with low

income,” he chose to say instead.

“Oh, and you’re going to join one of those.” All

for One looked at the drafts and started
correcting them, weirding Izuku out because that
seemed so… normal. “One of those brave
organizations that help little people.”

“Absolutely not.”

All for One looked at him, surprised.

“I am going to join one of those bullshit

organizations where I can easily do the minimum
of work so I have a good excuse not to be at
school and more time to invest in Anyone.”

Izuku didn’t sleep a lot but his days weren’t

getting any longer and he needed to find time,
one way or another.

“That’s almost reasonable of you,” All for One

said, incredulous.

“My homeroom teacher thinks I have a frail health

with all the days I’m skipping. I have to find a way
to buy time before I get a home visit.”

For some reasons, that made All for One smile.

“And being surrounded by quirks is far from a

chore for you,” he added.

“That too,” Izuku admitted.

Izuku was so busy finishing his email that he

didn’t pay attention to the news of a notorious
money launderer found dead in the morning.
Someone had dropped him from a building.

Several times.

Katsuki left his house on Sunday and just walked.

Anywhere would have been better than this
suffocating atmosphere where his mom was
mocking him about not being the winner of the
Sport Festival despite his speech at the start of it,
and his father who continued to not react, to
pretend that Katsuki wasn’t living a fucking lie.

He had lied to All Might.

He would have to continue to lie, hoping that no

one would ever learn the truth.

The strength, the source of his pride, wasn’t

enough anymore.

It was as if he couldn’t breathe. It was as if he

couldn’t do anything, useless, pathetic, and
Katsuki was none of that.

It felt horribly similar to the sensation of the slime

villain holding him under his control as he was
slowly killing him.

On Monday, Shouta didn’t fail to notice that

Todoroki Shouto, winner of the Sport Festival,
continued to eclipse his classmates when it came
to fighting abilities. Even Bakugou couldn’t keep
up, to his great and loud annoyance.

It was clear than Todoroki had been trained by

Endeavor but he also had something more.
Something pragmatic that was supposed to be
found with people who had field experience.
They were more driven, knew how to evaluate
situations, and they had something that simply
couldn’t be taught in school or on their own.

Did Endeavor take him on hero work? That would

explain the obvious gap in experience,
something that kept him apart from the rest of 1-
A but that seemed too far-fetched, even for the
number 2.

Shinsou, sitting next to Uraraka and ignoring

whatever Iida was telling him, was staring at the
two boys who were going through the obstacle of
the race as if they barely existed. There was open
envy on his face.

Shouta took note of it, recognizing a feeling he

had once felt. One could love their quirk while
being aware of how easier their life would be if
they had a flashy power. Especially as Shinsou
had discovered his limits during the Sport
Festival.

Because of the USJ attack, Shouta had noticed

Shinsou’s weakness, if only because it was
obvious, but he hadn’t helped him with it,
distracted by his time in the hospital. He would
have to take care of…

He was suddenly distracted by Todoroki speaking

tranquilly to Bakugou. If Shouta had gotten used
to the screaming of the exploding boy who had
taken not winning the first place personally,
Todoroki himself rarely acknowledged him.

And it was even rarer when he taunted him back.

“What made you think I was at full strength?”

A sharp light and increase of heat that had to be

produced by Todoroki’s left side – a power he
had never used until now – illustrated his words.
The scream of rage that followed quickly drew
back Shouta’s attention to his two most
troublesome students.

As he was changing after some vigilantism on his

lunch break, Izuku noticed once again the
enormous bruise on his side. It started from his
thigh and climbed up to his ribs, as he has tried
to absorb the impact of his landing. During the
weekend, it had turned to a deep purple color.

Like every time, he couldn’t help but to poke at

it. And just like every time he had touched it, he
couldn’t help a little “Ow” and be surprised that
it hurt. Once his inspection was done, he left his
vigilante attire in a corner of the storage room
above Kurogiri’s bar, and was about to get down
and ask Kurogiri to warp him back to school when
his phone biped.

Snowdrift:

[Bakugou is now aware I

can use fire.]

[His scream of rage was so

loud that it hurt his throat.]

SmallMight1541:

[I’ve known him all my life.

It’s physically impossible for
him.]

Snowdrift:

[And I am telling you my

homeroom teacher had to send
him to Recovery Girl.]

SmallMight1541:

[Did you see her use her

quirk?]

[This is so cool. Unlike

Gladiolus, she can heal by using
the subject’s strength, so she
isn’t in danger of exhausting
herself. I would love to know
more about her quirk but
everything is classified.]

[But I do know she visits

 hospitals…]

When Aizawa-Sensei, still covered in bandages

and certainly not in any state to teach, told them
about the internships, Hitoshi didn’t expect to
receive a single offer. He had taken one step on
the ring, his one chance to show what he could
do, right before Bakugou had ejected him with an
explosion. But instead of the usual piece of paper
with the name of a couple of agencies who might
have chosen him, he received a letter.

From the Hero Public Safety Commission.

Hitoshi read the letter without understanding any

word, so he had to reread it to confirm that yes,
the Hero Commission, the one who named the
Exemplars, was offering him an internship and a
special program for additional lessons. They even
added that they had been impressed by his quirk
and how they would be honored to have Hitoshi
working with them.

The rest of the hour was a blur. Half of him

couldn’t believe it, not when he had barely made
it into the tournament, not for long, not even
showing what he could do, unlike the amazing
display made by Uraraka, half mad with
happiness and excitement.

This was his shot.

This was his chance to be seen and recognized,

and for people to finally stop looking at him and
pronouncing the words: villainous quirk.

This feeling only lasted until the end of the class,

as their teacher got out of his sleeping bag and
asked for a moment of his time.

Hitoshi braced himself.

He was not disappointed.

“There are a lot of advantages in working with

the Hero Commission,” his teacher started. “They
are going to dispatch you on several types of
situation, so not only will you have the experience
of the field but you will also know the different
types of activity a hero can do.”

So far, so good.

“Why do I sense a but?”

“I would like to delay your acceptation to this

internship.”

Hitoshi blinked. During this moment, less than a

second, several replies came to mind. How about
no? Why in the hell would I do that? I got an
internship, if you try to prevent me from
progressing as a hero, you will have to kill me
first.

Thankfully, the stupefaction and pure outrage

prevented him from exploding before Aizawa-
Sensei explained what he meant.

“If you say yes, it starts now. This will be a time-

consuming program, where you will also be
taught how to use your quirk. But as far as I am
concerned, you already have a good control over
Brainwash and what you need to do is to catch
up in term of physical abilities.”

The anger died down.

“Train with me during this week of internship then

until the summer,” Eraserhead continued.

That was… something else. That wasn’t him

being condemned to catching up while the
others accumulated experience. That was a very
generous offer from a pro who had actually
thought of his situation and who wanted to help.

Eraserhead was a hero who didn’t have a physical

quirk, just like him. Working with him would be an
incredible chance.

But abandoning the Hero Commission…

Doubt set inside Hitoshi.

“That’s… Thank you.” He had to make his

teacher understand that he realized what it
meant, that he was thankful for the offer. “Can’t I
do both?”

“You can’t. Trust me, even not sleeping doesn’t

make days longer. You simply won’t have the
time.”

Hitoshi gulped down.

“No hero is a one trick pony. What will you do if

you can’t use Brainwash?”

“I will find a way.”

It was said with more assurance than he really had

and it was noticed.

“Optimism suits people like All Might who were

born with powerful and flashy quirks. People like
us have to get smart and work harder.”

That was the thing: Hitoshi was tired of being the

one who had to work harder. The one who had to
find ways, to compensate for his quirk, because it
made people uncomfortable.

Working harder didn’t work. If Shinsou had just

done his best like a good hero during the exam,
he would never have passed. Instead, he had
used his quirks on other candidates. Helping
them, organizing them, and sometimes using
them to take down robots.

Aizawa-Sensei saw his hesitation.

“I am not trying to punish you, Shinsou. I am

giving you my opinion as a pro. In the end, the
choice is yours.”

Ultimately, Hitoshi’s decision was easy to make.

He was in UA and he needed to prove to
everyone he belonged here. He couldn’t play it
safe.

He sent two emails.

One thanking Aizawa-Sensei for his offer and

explaining him what he was going to do.

And the other to the Hero Commission,

accepting their generous offer.

They answered one hour later.

Hawks was working three jobs at once these days

and to say that he was tired would be an
understatement. Even the quiet bliss of a good
flight wasn’t enough to erase the weariness of
flying around at high speed, working for Anyone
while being completely cut away from anything
that could interest him.

He needed someone with enough standing on

the server to choose if they decided to listen or
not to Anyone. After a careful exploration of the
server, he found someone well-liked, a discrete
presence that anyone seemed to know at some
level or another.

Whoever they were, Hawks had started talking

with them and little by little, his interlocutor had
stopped running circles around him, and he could
now share his concern about auspicious
disappearances. People with specific quirks, the
kind that could take away someone’s quirk or
vitality, were vanishing. And a lot of them seemed
to be young and male.

It could be a coincidence. Quirks like those

weren’t extremely appreciated and someone
could have decided to impose some eugenic
sense of morality upon them.

It could be the Thief, that person who belonged

to Anyone, eliminating competition. Villains had
done worse.

Or it could be someone discovering that the

Symbol of Peace had been hurt and who was now
delivering a reckoning.

In any case, this was a purge and Hawks didn’t

want any innocent to become a victim, so he
wanted them to be warned.

He was landing when he received his

interlocutor’s answer. They were thanking him,
and even though they didn’t want to reveal which
user had this kind of quirk, they were worried and
promised that everyone would receive a warning.

SpicyMcNuggets:

[One more thing: I don’t

mind if Anyone knows about the
situation but there is no need for
them to know the information is
coming from me.]

The last thing he wanted was for the

administrator to drop in this channel to warn
them against the pro hero.

His interlocutor replied almost immediately.

SmallMight1541:

[I respect the privacy of

anyone who talks to me. I won’t
tell a thing. ]

Hawks smiled as he started walking, his feather

floating around to make sure that no one was
paying attention to him. Technically, no one
would be surprised to see a hero patrolling but it
was rare to see Hawks walking.

Even rarer to see him knocking on someone’s

door. Someone who played dead until he got
tired of Hawks being loud, annoying, and
impossible to ignore right in front of his secret
lair/apartment.

The very recognizable colleague of the Thief

opened the door, pissed beyond measure, but he
should feel lucky. If he hadn’t been there, Hawks
would have broken in and left the file Anyone had
asked for as a gesture of good will on his kitchen
table.

Let’s see how you feel when someone breaks into

your home and leaves you a present.

“Hello, dear colleague!” he greeted the fire user,

a file in hand. “For your boss!”

If he couldn’t progress on the server in itself, he

could become put more pressure of a pretty
obvious member of the inner circle.

Inferno more inferyes:

[ I am going to murder
you.]

Anyone:

[ What did I do this time? ]

Izuku’s favorite kind of mission was when

someone called for help and, by the time he
arrived, a bunch of Anyone members had already
showed up and driven the threat away. It left him
with warm feelings in his chest because Anyone
was building something on which people could
rely on even if he wasn’t here.

A community.

With the mission finished in the best way

possible, Izuku had met Todoroki so he could
pass the file containing every detail about the
noumu and the USJ attack on Dabi’s behalf, then
for an impromptu strategy session that one could
have mistaken for two friends going to the new
waffles place that had just opened.

“Why are you so interested in Hawks?” Todoroki

asked with his legendary sense of timing, just as
Izuku had his mouth full of waffle, chocolate,
marshmallows, strawberries and whipped cream.
“Apart from his quirk, I mean.”

The last part was clearly to call Izuku out but he

ignored it because Todoroki had every right to be
concerned, especially now that Hawks had
proved he knew where Dabi lived. A place that
was a safe haven for them.

Of course, it wouldn’t have been a problem if

Dabi had worn a mask, just like everyone in
Anyone.

It didn’t matter. Now that Izuku had invited a

hero/obvious mole into their group, he was
responsible of him.

“There has never been a paragon as perfect as

Hawks,” Izuku explained. “His control over his
quirk is incredible. His popularity is off the charts.
He isn’t only a hard worker, but he is also good at
delegating, which explains how he can have so
many activities without collapsing from sheer
exhaustion. Those are skillsets that can help
Anyone, and with the information he can give
me, I see no reason not to use him.”

Todoroki Shouto took one look at him, nodded,

and gave him a blank look.

“You want an autograph, don’t you?”

Izuku gasped, offended and appalled that he

would be suspected of such a thing. As if he was
the kind to be blinded by some cool quirk and a
top hero. He was Anyone. A real villain, who was
beyond such meager considerations, and he
made it clear in a vicious rant.

Though he didn’t deny that an autograph would

potentially be appreciated.

As Todoroki was being chastised by Izuku,

listening to him and repenting on his faults, he
pointed his fork at Izuku’s waffles, wordlessly
asking if he could taste one.

“You’re asking me that right after calling me out

for being a hero nerd?”

Todoroki raised an eyebrow.

“Am I wrong?”

Izuku squinted at him.

“I think Anyone can benefit him,” he later

corrected Todoroki as he was shamelessly
stealing a piece of his waffles without even
having the decency to choke on it. “I think he
needs to slow down, to be in contact with the
people he saves, to see the hope and the
gratitude in their eyes, because if he keeps giving
so much of himself, he will burn out… Spare me
that look, Todoroki. And having a network of
people who can help him without the HC
breathing down his neck can’t hurt him.”

“And if he betrays us, his reputation can be

crushed.”

Indeed, Izuku mentally agreed a little too quickly.

“I wouldn’t do that,” he affirmed, not trying to

convince himself but simply reminding himself
that he was more than his cold Anyone persona.
“I like heroes a little too much to end their
careers when they can still help people. But if that
can keep him from selling the people I love to the
Hero Commission, he doesn’t need to know
about my scruples. “

Notes:
Thank you so much for all the
comments you gave me and the
support.

CHAPTER 16
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chizome killed the boy as he was sleeping in his

bed.

Ryougi Tanaka didn’t look any older than fifteen,

his soft and black wavy hair ruffled by his sleep,
and he was a monster who died with his throat
sliced, without waking up because of the drug
put in the late snack he had ordered to the room
service two hours ago. Not even his quirk, which
allowed him to take people’s life to live longer,
could protect him against something so
innocuous.

It wasn’t Chizome’s favorite method but it would

do.

He cleaned his knife on the part of the sheet that

wasn’t gorged with blood, noting that despite the
fact Ryougi was older than Chizome’s father, he
kept looking like a teenager into his death.

It had been so utterly complicated to find him.

Ryougi had lived for a while, accumulating money
and high placed friends, but his taste for luxuries
had been his downfall. A high-class hotel might
be perfect for anonymity but it didn’t guarantee
much in term of security.

Chizome’s job wasn’t done, so he walked to the

bathroom and to its oversized bathtub, before
taking the chemicals he had brought in his bag.
Once he was done preparing it, he carried the
body to it, making sure not to drag it despite how
heavy death had made him.

In a couple of hours, there would be no trace of

the parasite quirk and his holder.

Chizome then grabbed the bloodstained sheets,

turned the mattress to hide the blood, and made
the bed again with what he had grabbed in the
laundry room.

He couldn’t afford to have the murders of people

with parasite quirks coming back to him, no
matter how necessary they were.

Izuku opened his eyes, his body completely still,

his mind alert, and he looked around, his senses
hunting for any movements in the dark or any
sound in the night.

It wasn’t the first time he woke up like this,

anxiety curling inside his stomach, ready to fight.
It had become a part of his routine during the
first month after stealing One for All, . But it had
stopped… some time after All for One had
moved in, now that he thought about it.

He trusted his roommate to react faster than him

and to make a lot of noises if All Might ever came
knocking on Izuku’s door.

The teenager shifted in his bed, moving on his

side then on his back. He punched the pillow to
give it a better form. He went back on his side.

Ultimately he realized that he wouldn’t be able to

fall asleep before drinking something.

He got out of bed, grabbing the warm Thirteen

hoodie on his way out, put it on, and walked
silently to the door before opening it slowly. He
didn’t bother to turn on the light in the hallway. It
was his home, he knew where everything was and
he didn’t need any light to walk through it after
nightfall…

Izuku almost jumped out of his skin when he saw

something that wasn’t supposed to be there,
sitting against the wall, right beside the door of
his bedroom. He declined his brain’s first
suggestion that it was some demon about to
drag him to the hell where quirk thieves burned
for eternity, frantically switched on the light in his
room, and discovered All for One, creepier than
usual.

He didn’t have his jacket but apart from that, he

was still in his day clothes. He was sitting on the
floor, his back to the wall, one knee up, and his
eyes were closed.

All for One didn’t look up at Izuku but his body

language did this thing where he didn’t need to
move to acknowledge him.

“I can’t sleep,” was his only explanation.

As if it answered any of Izuku’s burning questions

such as Does that happen often? Do you just
hang out outside my room when I am asleep? Do
you even sleep? Is it upside down like a bat or do
you just crawl into a coffin when you need a nap?

Izuku didn’t say anything and went to the kitchen.

He grabbed two cups, the one with the white cat

and the green rabbit, made some hot cocoa with
marshmallows, and took back the whole bag with
him, under his arm.

The noise made All for One open his eyes but he
didn’t react when Izuku walked back to him,
which confirmed the teenager's suspicions.

His face when Izuku gave him a cup of

chocolate…. Wonder and astonishment, all rolled
in one.

All for One took the cup, and almost spilled its
content when Izuku sat next to him, tranquilly
drinking his own beverage.

“Why are you not sleeping?” the villain asked,

playing with his cup instead of drinking the
excellent hot chocolate made for him.

He wasn’t fidgeting. His moments were precise

and voluntary. Someone trying to pretend he was
completely focused on the conversation instead
of actually being in a very dark place far away.
The tension saturating his body was quite telling.

“No specific reasons,” Izuku didn’t quite lie.

Fear left its trace on people. If Izuku, at only

fifteen, was on edge, he wasn’t sure he wanted to
know what would keep a man who had been
around for two centuries awake at night.
Especially as he had spent the last decade in a
dark cell, hooked to a machine, in complete
isolation.

After that, they didn’t utter a word.

They just sat there, side by side, drinking their hot

chocolate in a peaceful silence.

To his great embarrassment, Izuku woke up in the

early morning, in front of his room, using All for
One’s shoulder as a pillow. The villain didn’t
mention it for the rest of the day but his smug
smile was more than eloquent.

Gwen:

[I know you are busy preparing for your

internship but did you take a look at your
budget recently?]

SmallMight1541:

[What’s wrong with my budget???]

SmallMight1541:

[You must be kidding me!]

[Thanks, Gwen.]

Like a cat who had heard the sound of a tuna can

being opened, Dabi found Izuku while he was
fighting with his budget in the bar.

“Oh,” he commented with a grin when he saw

Izuku surrounded by papers, furiously calculating
how much money he needed to avoid any bad
surprises, “does that mean we are at this time of
the year where we steal everything that isn’t
nailed to the ground?”

Anyone dealt more in favors than in money but it

didn’t prevent Izuku from accepting donations
and taking little commissions when he helped
people find each other. Thankfully, the
dematerialization allowed for the server to
function at minimum costs, but Izuku also insisted
to pay people what they were worth, such as
lawyers when someone needed help, or even
Gwen who was guaranteeing the safety of the
server and covering Izuku’s tracks.

That was why… Izuku wasn’t especially proud of

it… a lot of the budget was supplied by freeing
cash or valuable objects, something Dabi loved
helping with.
Stealing. You steal stuff to finance your illegal
activities. Just admit it.

“Not this time,” Izuku answered, ignoring Dabi’s

surprised look.

If he wanted to keep a decent budget for rainy

days, it might be best to find some cheaper labor
than someone he would feel obliged to pay well.

Gwen:

[Good luck for your internship!]

SmallMight1541:

[Thanks!!!]

Izuku presented himself fifteen minutes early to

the Bright Quirks agency. He was wearing the
formal version of his uniform, with the vest and
everything, and he had even made a valiant
attempt at taming his curls. He was so nervous
that his stomach was doing strange things, which
didn’t make any sense because he had broken
into Tartarus and fought heroes, so an internship
shouldn’t be that stressful.

At least, until he wondered if anyone in the quirk

counselling agency had a quirk that would allow
them to realize that everything he had said was a
lie. Maybe that same hypothetical quirk could
indicate that Izuku’s power, which definitely
wasn’t Quirk Analysis; belonged to the Symbol of
Peace.

For a moment, the leader of Anyone considered

calling Kurogiri so he could warp him back home
but All for One would know he had fled and Izuku
simply couldn’t live with that so he knocked at
the door – realizing too late there was a ringbell -
then entered.

The man at the reception was very nice to him

when Izuku explained why he was here but he
also told him that the boss, Higarawa-san, wasn’t
here yet. so He invited Izuku to take a seat in the
waiting area because it shouldn’t be long before
he arrived.

So Izuku did. He waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Forty-five minutes later, Izuku was politely

ignoring that the receptionist was in full-blown
panic and how the poor man kept sending emails
on his computer, probably desperate for
someone to come and see the intern.

A woman in her forties finally arrived, the sounds

of her heels resonating in the open space. Dark
eyes, dark hair tied in a ponytail, red skin, and a
pair of elegant horns that made her appear even
taller than she really was, she paused in front of
Izuku, a polite smile on her face but it didn’t
manage to hide her annoyance, easily visible in
her sharp movements and how she was holding
herself.

Izuku did his best to suppress his middle school

flashbacks, with annoyed adults who didn’t have
any time to waste coddling him.

She introduced herself as Yukimura Raiko and

told him that her quirk was Resistance without
going into the details.

She vehemently assured him that they were

happy to see him but that since Higarawa-san
had been delayed, she would be the one guiding
him today, if he didn’t mind.

That left Izuku dumbfounded.

How could anyone mind being surrounded by

quirks in a place whose goal was to explore the
possibilities hidden within them?

Izuku’s enthusiasm turned out to be a mistake as

he realized that Yukimura meant that, after the
visit, she would give him his first file and would
observe him as he counselled someone.

He thought he would have more time to

familiarize himself in the job in order for no one
to doubt that he had a quirk analysis quirk.

Several things just weren’t done. Interns weren’t

left alone when they arrived. People in charge of
the students sent to them were supposed to
show up on time. And, under no pretext, could
they make a student from Kohaku, a high school
that the Hero Commission was using as a
recruiting ground, think that they were
unprofessional.

But Higarawa Kai, the man who had hired Raiko,

had health issues and his son, Higarawa Shinji,
was the one supposed to replace him. Alas, he
hadn’t changed his habits and showed up at work
only when it suited him, so now, Raiko had to pick
up the slack.

Bright Quirks had several activities that included

quirk discovery, counselling for varying ages, pro
bono activities, and so on. Akatani Mikumo,
despite having the perfect quirk for their activity,
seemed nervous and shy, so she decided not to
put him in front of young children and exhausted
parents. She also vetoed the dangerous quirks.
Not that people with those would harm him on
purpose but a child from a prestigious school
with an intellectual quirk probably wouldn’t know
how to handle himself if something went wrong.

In the end, she chose one of their pro bono

cases, a thirteen-years-old girl with a telekinesis
quirk who wanted to know if her telekinesis quirk
was strong enough for her to be a hero.

As soon as Akatani Mikumo made eye contact

with the client, his entire demeanor immediately
changed.

The anxious white-haired-boy was gone, replaced

with someone calm, assured, and brimming with
a tranquil confidence. He started by assuring that
yes, she could be a hero, which wasn’t the best
way to start those kind of sessions, but he
immediately backed it up by mentioning several
heroes who had a similar quirk and showing her
several videos on his own phone.

Then, they talked about her quirk, Akatani having

already memorized the content of the file and
bombarding her with questions, obviously
fascinated with all the applications. They tested
the quirks to its limits, in one of the rooms
designed for it, be it the range, the number of
objects she could take control of, the weight, and
how much concentration was needed.

From that, Akatani made a training program so

she could make her quirk stronger but he also
took the time to insist on how she needed to
learn to multitask while using her quirk. He
proposed several clever solutions like reading
poetry she didn’t know out loud or doing
homework while she was levitating bottle waters.
He also told her to join a dojo or anything that
could allow her to acquire the stamina needed for
the hero course, and then, gave her several
Youtube channels for exercises to do at home or
outside without needing to pay for anything.

When he turned towards Raiko and asked what

he had forgotten, not only didn’t she have
anything to add but she would later admit, once
the client was gone, that she hadn’t thought of
advice this kind of free resources to her clients.

I should have known that a Kohaku student would

be that good.

As soon as Yukimura-san asked him if something

in particular interested him, Izuku put his greedy
little raccoon hands on the pro bono files. Most
of them were villainous quirks or mutations, the
kind that were handled quickly, and it usually
meant there was a lot more to discover.

Izuku couldn’t wait.

But before he did, Yukimura-san showed him

there was an extinguisher in the desk assigned to
him and how to use it. For some reasons.

Two days later, Izuku would send her a thank-you

email for teaching him how to save his eyebrows
from an incandescent quirk. He would hear her
laugh from across the hallway.

Inferno more inferyes:

[ Is Yami sick? I haven't seen him running

around in a while.]

Snowdrift:

[He is having fun at his internship.]

“No, your child doesn’t have a scary awesome

quirk that turns him into a swarm of rats. What
your son has is an awesome quirk that turns him
into a swarm of cute and efficient rodents. That’s
not a lie and that’s better on a CV.”

“Your school said that? In an email? Well, aren’t

you lucky? You can press charges for
discrimination and get money from it. I even
know an association that will help you.”

“Don’t worry about the flames, I asked you to do

that here because the room is fireproofed and it’s
not a little fire that’s going to ruin my day. Trust
me, I had worse.”

“You went through worse that spontaneous

combustion right next to you?”

“…”

Izuku took a deep breath and showed his most

innocent face.

“So, about that quirk! I really think that…”

“Of course you can become a hero. Do it for all

the people who didn’t believe in you and mocked
you. Do it and think of their faces when you will
have their license. Spite is an excellent motivator.
Don’t be afraid to use it.”

“No, you don’t need the fancy sneakers from the

Hawks line designed for speedsters. They might
resist to an insane level of friction but they cost a
fortune. Shop Ingenium. Or even better, go to
this place. You get normal sneakers for 100 yen
because those shoes that are unfit for sale but
very fit to wear, especially if you’re going to ruin
them training.“

“I know you have a Komodo dragon quirk but did

anyone thought to check if you actually had any
poison?”

“We think… We think our child might be

quirkless. My grandmother was.”

Izuku didn’t think of that doctor who had told him

to give up on his dream. Instead, he focused on
the parents of the three-years-old they thankfully
hadn’t brought for this appointment. They were
simply looking for advice.

“I see,” Izuku started, making sure his voice was

calm and appeasing. “It seems a little premature
to determine that but if it’s the case, she will be
disappointed. Remind her that you love her and
that civilization was built by people for whom the
Age of Quirks was nothing but a dream.”

“That seems so simple when you say it like that.”

Izuku didn’t think of his mother crying and

apologizing when he had asked if he could
become a hero.

“It is,” he assured, and there was a little too much

of his Anyone voice in his words, because he
needed to be heard, so he quickly hid behind his
Akatani mask again. “Nothing can replace
intelligence or hard work. Most of us don’t use
our quirks in our everyday life, except as a party
trick. We grant too much valor to quirks in
general.

Izuku didn’t think of All Might telling him he

couldn’t become a hero.

But he did think about his brief time in middle

school.

“But one last thing…” he warned. “Don’t take

her to a doctor to get tested. Find a quirk that
can’t be proved, blame it on an uncle or a
grandparent, and pretend she has a quirk in
public.”

“What? That’s at the opposite of what you’ve just

said!”

The scar on Izuku’s back started to tingle, not

painful, but a constant reminder.

“I said being quirkless didn’t matter. But we need

to be realist and admit we live in a discriminatory
society. No need to give weapons to small-
minded people to hurt your child.”

“You’re developing a good reputation!”

Yukimura-san congratulated him after a few days.

The compliment would have made Izuku blush for

who knew how many hours if she hadn’t made
him feel like a fraud a second later.

“No wonder from someone with a quirk such as

yours!”

In ten words, it hit him that without the quirk he

pretended to have, they would never have left
him on his own with clients. They wouldn’t have
given him so many responsibilities from his first
day.

And a sadness that he had never suspected

washed over him.

My aptitude for quirk analysis, just like yours, was

developed with experience. I spent two years
working as quirk analyst, helping people to
understand the limits of their quirks, and for
others, how they could go beyond them. I spent
even longer dissecting any quirk I could lay my
eyes on.

Work, experience, and passion. Those are my

weapons in this job.

For the same work and the same result, would

you say such a thing to someone quirkless?

“Thank you, Yumikura-san!” Izuku smiled,

pretending to be embarrassed by the
compliment and not utterly tired.

“Congratulations, you actually have a magnetic

quirk and not a telekinesis quirk!”

“Yes, you’re absolutely right. This is a wind quirk

and not a telekinesis quirk.”

“You’re the third person who's come in this office,

sat in this chair, and who has been told that they
have a telekinesis quirk because things go up in
the air around you once in a while. Who told you
that? Give me the name. I just want to talk.”

Izuku met the man who had graciously accepted

for him to intern in this beautiful agency on his
third day, while he was in the restroom, already
changed into a new shirt and checking that he
still had his eyebrows. One of his clients had
brought his child who had an absolutely
fascinating quirk: she could create dust and set it
aflame.

Alas, by the time she proudly exclaimed that she

could set it on fire with a thought, Izuku had been
in the middle of that cloud of dust, just as a spark
created a chain reaction. Thankfully, he had
grabbed the small child and jumped out of there
quickly enough but the explosion still had shaken
the walls of the designated testing area and sent
adults running in their direction.

Those same adults who had not reacted when

Kami had compared Izuku to All Might, thinking it
was just a child exaggerating how fast he was.

In any case, this tall man with icy blue eyes

greeted him, introduced himself as Higarawa
Shinji, and congratulated him because he had
heard that despite his lack of experience, Izuku
was a fast and efficient worker.

As a symbol of trust, he decided to give him a

mission that was reserved to the official analysts.

Akatani-kun, holding a red file in his hand, was

very quiet when he knocked at Raiko’s door. The
contrast with the bright young man who was
loved by his clients and who was absolutely
adorable every time he talked about quirks was
almost shocking.

She immediately left what she was doing,

alarmed, because something had obviously
happened.

Her first thought was that it was a client. Not

someone who had accidentally scared him with
his quirk but who had been voluntarily aggressive
or given him the creeps. She had left him alone in
the office of a coworker on paternity leave,
assuming that he knew he only had to raise his
voice for Katsuma and Raiko to run to him, but it
had been stupid not to make things clear from
the get go.

Instead, Akatani-kun explained what Higarawa

Shinji was expecting of him.

Couples about to get married could ask an

agency to look at their quirks and tell them what
kind of powers their children could develop.
What had started as a way to know if some
mutations could put the child or even the
expecting mother at risk had quickly become the
prelude to many quirk marriages.

The controversy on quirk prediction had quieted

down several years ago but it didn’t mean it had
died down. Raiko did it, because she thought
that when someone brought a child into this
world, it was better to know every possibility.
Takuma and Watanabe refused.

But it was not the kind of things you gave to a

high school student.

She took the file, assured him Higarawa had

made a mistake and not to worry about it.

When Izuku arrived to the office the next day, the

file had reappeared and was waiting on his desk.

Yukimura-san really tried, the echoes of her

discussion with Higarawa resonating in the
hallways, but in the end, Higawara was above her
in the hierarchy and Higarawa’s own boss, his
father, was on sick leave. When Izuku told him
that he did not feel comfortable with facilitating
quirk marriages and would not to this, Higarawa
threw the file on his desk, papers flying
everywhere.

“Do your job if you don’t want your school to

hear about this. That’s how the adult world
works.”

Izuku stayed in the office that didn’t belong to

him, looking at the file and what it represented.

He had frozen when it had been handed to him.

He had tried to say something, unease saturating
his brain, words crashing into each other as he
tried to explain that it just… he shouldn’t do that,
shouldn’t have to do that, but he had been
ignored, Higarawa even commenting that his
quirk was perfect for it.

Suddenly, he was back in middle school as he

tried to explain that it wasn’t normal, that he
needed help, and he was reminded how he didn’t
fit, how there simply wasn’t a place for him in the
world, and how no one could help him.

He thought he had left that behind him so why

had he frozen?

Izuku felt pathetic. Powerless. Exactly how he had

felt after he had tried to help Kacchan as he was
being suffocated by the Sludge villain.

Or when someone had electrocuted him for

mumbling. No one reacting to it, as if he was
invisible. As if nothing wrong was happening.

Izuku didn’t know how long he stayed like this,

falling in the well of dark memories he apparently
hadn’t managed to forget. But at some point, he
took a deep breath.

And he remembered.

He remembered that he wasn’t the same as when

he was in middle school.

He remembered that he was a villain.

Izuku reminded himself that he didn’t have to put

up with this kind of bullshit.

SmallMight1541:

[I want every dirty secret Higarawa

Shinji has, please.]

Gwen:

[Well, someone is busy. Don’t you

already have something planned for today?]

SmallMight1541:

[I can multitask.]
A timid knock at his door brought Shinji back to
reality and to his office in his father's company.
He passed a hand on his face, tired, and opened
a file in front of him so he would look busy.

“Come in.”

Akatani opened the door, moving with a fluidity

that reminded Shinji of his kendo instructor, then
he closed the door behind him. To Shinji’s
satisfaction, he was holding the file that had
caused his ridiculous dispute with Yukimura.

“I can’t wait to see what someone with such

interesting quirk managed to do,” Shinji smiled,
holding out his hand.

Unlike what Yukimura suspected, he didn’t feel

any animosity against Akatani. It didn’t matter
that the kid had the perfect quirk for this job, the
quirk Shinji’s father had and that he hadn’t passed
onto his son. But as an adult, he felt it was his
duty to help him get rid of any naïve delusions.

No matter how good he was at his job, he was a

child and he had to obey adults.

Akatani meekly gave the file, waiting to know if

Shinji would be satisfied, but honestly? He knew
it would be perfect, just like he knew that Akatani
would cave in and do what was asked.

So he didn’t expect to open the file only to see

that its content had been replaced with copies of
his mails and his texts. Extracts of his bank
accounts, the official one and the hidden one, but
also the one from Bright Agency, detailing the
transfer from one to the other.

His life, every dirty secret of his, lovingly put

together into one red file, for everyone to see.

When Shinji looked up, Akatani wasn’t there

anymore. Because Akatani was a child. A high
school student who kept geeking about quirks,
shy and plain.

The boy who was looking at him had eyes so cold

that his gaze was burning through Shinji. He
stood straight, his head high, a tranquil but
implacable power emanating from him.

“You seem to be under the impression that it's a

privilege to intern here,” Akatani said and his
voice sent chills down Shinji’s back because there
was nothing in it. No warmth, no anger, just this
suffocating cold. “It's not. You're not paying me
so you aren't owed my best. You've been nothing
but distant to the point of negligence so you
aren't owed my respect. You also think that your
intellect gives you the right to be arrogant and
scornful with others, so you aren't even owned
my manners now.”

Shinji could only listen. He could barely breathe,

so to talk or to move was unthinkable.

He has a fear quirk. He has to.

“So here is what's going to happen,” the boy

who wasn’t one explained. “I am going to make
my own hours. I am going to get paid for them,
50% of what my clients pay. And you are going to
say I make full hours to my school.”

“That’s… That’s insane.”

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

He couldn’t do that. He simply couldn’t.

“No, that’s blackmail,” Akatani corrected him, his

green eyes staring down Shinji’s soul. “If you
don’t, your girlfriend will find out about your
fiancée and your fiancée will find out about your
girlfriend. Your father will find out about the
money you embezzled from the company why he
was lying in bed, and honestly? I don’t want to do
that to a sick old man but I will. As for our
colleagues, I will give them the content of those
mails. I know it’s only petty comments but I doubt
they would appreciate working in such an hostile
environment.”

Shinji just stared at him.

“I am not robbing you,” Akatani added. “I know

what I am worth. I know what my work is worth.
And I know that I don’t have to put up with this.”

The boy leaned back just a little, his hands in his

pockets, and Shinji managed to focus again, his
instinct ceasing to scream at him that he was
about to die just long enough for him to realize
he was trapped.

None of that information could get out or his life

would be ruined. His father loved him but he
wouldn’t hesitate to cut him out of his will to help
him go back on the right path.

So, slowly, he nodded.

And just like that, the boy shifted into the Akatani
Mikumo had met yesterday, a well-crafted mask
he never would have suspected if it hadn’t been
taken away so violently.

He is Hero Commission material, he realized. I

thought he was just a quirk analyst but Kohaku
grooms higher execs. Maybe they are already
forming him.

“Now, if you will excuse me, Higarawa-san, I am

expected somewhere else,” Akatani apologized
with a nice and polite bow. “Have a nice
evening.”

It’s only when he left the room that Shinji started

breathing again.

He hadn’t realized he had held his breath this

whole time.

Stopping a van transporting funds wasn’t easy

but it wasn’t the main challenge in what Anyone
had asked of Hawks.

The real difficulty was not to be identified despite

a very well-known quirk and bright red wings.

First, he destroyed every light and camera, which

immediately made the driver panic because he
couldn’t see in the dark. How unfortunate for him.
Then, since he couldn’t break through the
armored door, he pierced through it with enough
sharp feathers, even though the effort made his
mind ring.

The driver never had the time to grab his gun and
he was promptly ejected from the van (though his
impact with the ground was obviously softened
by five feathers holding him safely). His partner in
the back soon followed him, though she didn’t
even try to fight back, simply going limp and
curling into herself to mitigate any impact, so
Hawks could have bet she was the one who had
leaked the itinerary.

It wasn’t the first time Hawks was stopping a van

going at full speed but it never missed to elevate
his heartbeat. He gave his brain half a second to
convince itself that he wasn’t going to die in this
coffin on wheels as it crashed into the wall, metal
screaming and reducing his hollow bones into
fine powder, and he got out of this death trap on
wheels.

The phone that had appeared in his apartment

next to a box of chicken nuggets was already in
his hand.

Spicy McNuggets:

[ Done.]

He made sure not to brag about it. The last thing

he needed was for this organization to decide he
needed to do something worse to show his
loyalty.

Anyone:

[Thank you for your generous

contribution, Hero Hawks. ]

[I would advise you to take five steps

away from the van. ]

Hawks jumped backwards instead, gliding

through the air as he had no idea of what was
going to happen but when the leader of an illegal
organization told him to back off, he listened.

Black mist formed over the van, covering it

carefully at first before it swallowed him whole,
making him disappeared while Hawks could only
watch, though a feather did find its way inside the
van. Just in case.

He had already suspected they had a warper with

them because similar robberies had happened
where the vehicle had disappeared instead of
being driven away, and that made Anyone even
more dangerous than expected.

Warpers were rare, just like healers and people

with intelligence quirks. They knew their worth
and one of them using Anyone was either a villain
who had no interest in working legally, or a
lieutenant. If this was the latter… The villains from
the USJ had a warper. Someone who could send
people and bring them back, with the
appearance of some dark mud oozing from them.

Now that Hawks was looking at it, he could

confirm that it didn’t seem to be the same type of
warp. Of course, its appearance might change
depending on who or on what it was used.

Since lagging behind at the crime scene would

have been especially stupid, Hawks started
running, the sensation strange as he had lost the
habit. When he jogged, it was with his wings in
his back, acting like a parachute and slowing him
down, but also an assurance that he could fly
away at any moment.

The number 3 hero turned robber didn’t summon

his feathers until he was hidden behind a
building, and it was only then that he soared in
the sky, carried by his quirk.

Only to see a lone form on a rooftop, a pair of

binoculars in hand, watching the driver and the
other guard that Hawks had evacuated a couple
of minutes ago. The binoculars were either
infrared or the watcher had a good night vision,
because there was no way he could have seen
anything with all the lights down.

As a devoted servant of the people, Hawks

decided to reassure the watcher in person,
helped by a descending currant. To his
disappointment, the watcher wasn’t startled when
a masked weirdo with giant wings landed right
next to him, but it might have to do something
with the fact the watcher was a masked weirdo
with binoculars himself.

Masks, helmets, and other ways to hide one’s

face weren’t exactly a common sight nowadays
but no one was surprised when someone decided
not to show their faces. It was a relic from a time
where human had a stricter definition, when
small-minded and scared people worried when
their neighbors weren’t completely humanoid.
Even now, some people simply disliked stares.

Long before Hawks was born, a fashion company

had developed a special type of hood with a
large collar and had grafted some sort of veil on
it, completely hiding one’s face without hindering
one’s eyesight. The success of those clothes had
depended less from an envy to hide mutations in
public than from the mighty need to have a cool
hoodie where one’s face seemed obscured in
shadow, making its wearer look like a video-game
assassin.

Such black hoodies were nowadays often seen

where vigilante from Anyone intervened, and
Hawks had no doubt that Anyone themselves had
sent someone to keep an eye on him.

‘’It’s a lovely night, isn’t it?’’ Hawks greeted him,

without removing his Oni mask.

The red wings and the quirk might have told the
watcher who he was but Hawks had a hunch that
vigilantes appreciated their masks and illusions. In
Rome…

‘’A little cold,’’ the watcher admitted, his voice

young and male.

Something Hawks had already suspected from his

size, the way he was holding himself, and the
Ingenium sneakers.

The Thief is a teenage boy, a voice in his mind

reminded him.

The simplest way to know would have been to

throw him from his building and to see what kind
of quirk he used before the hero caught him at
the last second, but as it might compromise his
future relationship with Anyone, Hawks decided
to be patient.

Especially as, from what Death Arms had told

him, the Thief had been extremely calm under
pressure, while this kid was a ball of nerves, tense
energy running through him as if it was taking
everything he had not to run in the other
direction.

Maybe he had it all wrong. Maybe it was a low-

level member who could easily be sacrificed if
something went wrong with the pro hero.

“If you will excuse me, Mr. Hawks” the boy said
before taking out his phone and using the Clamor
app.

The angle was a little awkward but Hawks

managed to read the exchange nonetheless.

Wyrmling9 :

[He found me.]

Anyone:

[I expected nothing less.]

[Please, thank him on my behalf.]

It was only when he started to open his All Might

backpack – putting him in the front so he could
keep his eyes on the hero and have one hand
available – that Hawks realized what the thanks
was about.

“Tell our boss that I didn’t do this to be paid or

even to be filmed committing a criminal activity,”
Hawks smiled to attenuate the impact of his
words while still making him understand he
wasn’t an imbecile.

The kid froze. Hesitated.

“I can keep the money if you want but you were

already filmed robbing a fund transport anyway.”

“The cameras were destroyed.”

Hawks knew that because the first thing he had

done when he had been given this location was
to check the blueprints of this section and to
study any road and any security system on it.

“Yes, the cameras belonging to the city,” the kid

confirmed, his whole body language screaming
that he wanted to be anywhere but here. “The
one that had been infiltrated and put on a loop
so no image could lead to you. Not the infrared
ones that were placed down there.”

This little…

Not that it mattered. The Hero Commission was

fully aware that he would have to dirty his hands
but he hadn’t expected them to be so well-
equipped.

Hawks made a show to look in the direction of

the street down below and the kid confirmed
what he was saying by showing him the pretty
good video on his phone. At no point did he
realize that one of Hawks’ feathers had sneaked
on him.

“On behalf on Anyone, I sincerely thank you for

your contribution, Mr. Hawks,” the kid bowed. “I
will erase those images from my phone and they
won’t resurface unless Anyone has the proof you
betrayed the trust of this community. We
apologize but your activity forces us to be
careful.”

“May this night be the first step of a durable

friendship, then,” Hawks smiled, already planning
another visit at Dabi’s.

The kid didn’t answer, touching his phone again,

and sending a message to someone without even
looking at the screen. A moment later, a portal of
darkness had opened behind him.

He bowed again in front of Hawks and turned his

back to him, still unaware of the feather sticking
to him. That should have been enough but Hawks
had almost nothing on this organization and his
curiosity got the better of him.

“Why are you doing this?” the pro hero asked.

“Working for Anyone?”

The boy paused.

At this moment, Hawks saw something more than

an uneasy teenager.

He could have sworn the watcher was smiling and

there was something about him, an aura of quiet
strength, as he knew what he wanted and that
made him at peace with who he was.

“Pro heroes don’t have the monopoly of wanting

to help people,” the teenager answered a
moment before he was taken away.

Hawks didn’t fail to notice that the warp gate was

the same black mist that had taken care of the
van, and not the black liquid witnessed during
the USJ.

He sensed the destruction of his feather two

minutes later, as if someone had taken an
especially heavy rock to reduce it to nothing.

Izuku finished reducing the feather to red powder

under his heel, sent another message to Kurogiri,
and left for the secondary location once he was
sure he wasn’t followed. The last thing he wanted
was to lead heroes to his mother’s apartment,
and worse, to the villain that lived there.

Well, the other villain. The worse villain. The

insane villain.

Izuku made sure to never warp too close to his

apartment and as soon as he was in his
neighborhood, he took off his hoodie, put it in his
All Might bag, and sent a message to Nagisa to
thank her for pretending to be him while he was
right in front of a pro hero.

And at the second where he pressed the Send

button, he started geeking out because he had
been in front of Pro Hero Hawks. Number 3 hero.
Quirk: adamantine wings. He had stopped a van
on his own and with ease when it took Izuku three
persons and several close-calls with the asphalt or
a wall.

The effort he had made not to bombard the pro

hero with questions about his quirk had probably
cost him a year of his lifespan but it was worth it
because he had witnessed an amazing display of
an amazing quirk and as soon as he arrived
home, every detail would go into his notebook.

He would make sure to include the obvious night

vision and speculations about what this lone
feather could have done if it hadn’t been
destroyed. Locate him? If that was the case, was
there a limit to its range?

His thought were interrupted by a delicious smell

floating in front of his apartment, a scent
reminding him of childhood and happiness. He
unlocked the door, only to see All for One in the
little kitchen, surrounded by several plates of
cookies with chocolate chips.

Izuku could only see his back but there was

tension in his shoulders,

“Are you stress baking?” Izuku asked, wondering

if he had to evacuate his own apartment because
that was an industrial amount of cookies and
there was still more in the oven.

“No, it’s a bribe destined to an especially

stubborn and troublesome associate,” All for One
explained as he furiously kept stress baking. “I
have to go on a business trip.”

“What’s your business?” Izuku innocently asked

as he started circling around a plate of cookies.

“Please, do remind me why you were out this

late,” the villain enquired instead of answering
like a normal human being.

“…”

“Yes, that’s what I thought.”

It destroyed any remaining scruples of his and

Izuku started attacking the plate.

Those cookies tasted like pure heaven.

They were soft and warm and delicious. Izuku

inhaled the first one and he nibbled on the
second, trying to make it last.

“I will be gone for three days,” All for One

continued, still cooking with his back to Izuku,
unaware that a small part of his bribe was being
attacked.

Izuku wondered if he had the time to move out in

three days.

“If there is a problem, call Kurogiri. He is staying

around specifically so there is at least one adult I
trust who will make sure you don’t starve to death
in my absence.’’

‘’You’re aware that I manage to survive on my

own for a while before you arrived, right?’’

“One shouldn’t count too much on luck. And

that’s why I offering this…”

The villain grabbed the plate closest to him,

finally turned around, and showed it to Izuku only
to realize that half a plate had already met a
tragic fate.

Said plate was promptly confiscated, to Izuku’s

horror.

‘’ … in exchange of your promise to calm down

when it comes to attacking heroes and generally
jumping head first into troubles,” All for One
growled.

“You are bribing me… into staying out of

trouble?’’

‘’Common sense and threats don’t seem to work

so I am forced to be ingenious.’’

I can’t believe he dares to talk to me about

common sense.

But Izuku thought about it. Considered how late

he was with school work.

And it wasn’t even talking of his lack of sleep.

“Todoroki will be busy on his internship,” Izuku

nodded. “Spare any catastrophe, it should be a
calm week.”

Notes:
Thank you so much for all the
comments!

The internship week for UA and

the heroes start a week after
Izuku's, that's why he failed to
mention any villain attack or edgy
serial killer.

CHAPTER 17
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Endeavor’s office was needlessly large, a waste of

space for an agency who had so many sidekicks,
but Shouto was willing to believe that it had been
built to accommodate the ego of the
Incandescent hero.

“I must admit that I am surprised to see you here,

Shouto,” his old man said, sitting behind his desk
and unable to hide his smug smile despite his
words. “I thought that you were determined not
to have anything to do with me?”

A wave of annoyance washed over Shouto.

He repressed it, of course. It shouldn’t have been

so difficult, not when he had done so for his
entire life, but this man had a gift to burn away all
his patience.

“Or do you want to keep proving to me that you

don’t need to use your flames?” Endeavor
continued.

Despite what his old man believed, Shouto was

well past the stage where he felt the need not to
use his fire in battle. A near-hypothermia on a
beach had made him accept that this power
belonged to him, and he had been training with
his brother in order to catch up his lack of
experience.
However, he wasn’t past the petty amusement of
making Endeavor fume as he kept making him
think he wasn’t using his left side.

“Detective work,” he conceded to answer.

“Detective work?”

“It’s your specialty, isn’t it? You didn’t rise up

through the ranks thanks to your charisma after
all. I’m here to see what I can learn in this field.”

Dabi could teach him everything he needed to

know about Endeavor’s techniques. UA could
teach him how to act as a hero. Anyone had
given him experience, be it for fighting, for
handling civilians, or for solving problems.

But none of them had any experience in

investigation. The best they had was a problem
magnet and several people whose go to go way
to find answer was to annoy people until
someone tried to beat them, then to interrogate
the fool.

“That’s a start,” Endeavor grinned after a

moment of hesitation, obviously happy.

What I wouldn’t do for Anyone…

“Get ready, then. We’re leaving.”

“Where are going?” Shouto asked.

Endeavor’s grin widened.

“I am going to show you what it is to be a hero.”

Izuku stretched at his desk, trying to get rid of the

fatigue. He had barely slept since All for One had
left, too busy claiming his own apartment back,
only eating cookies, and answering to Anyone
requests when he wasn’t completely immersed in
the joy of analyzing quirks.

He loved it. He loved taking a quirk apart,

discovering what made it tick, revealing its
secrets. It was like a puzzle that never became
frustrating, a riddle constantly evolving. But most
of all, he liked helping, the way people smiled at
him as they talked about their quirks.

He liked making them happy.

Izuku got up, took his pile of files, quickly read

through them to make sure he hadn’t forgotten
anything, then he crossed the hallways to knock
at Yukimura’s door.

“Come in!”

The teenager found her at her desk but not on

her computer, her pencil flying on a piece of
paper, the page almost completely black with ink.
Just like him, Yukimura preferred to write her
ideas on paper to assimilate them better.

“Hello!” Izuku greeted her even though it was the

fourth time they had seen each other today. “I am
returning the files you gave me and taking the
rest. If you don’t mind.”

Yukimura paused, her pencil in the air, and she

stared at him.

“You finished those files?”

Izuku nodded.

“You finished making the analyses of all those

quirks and you found the notes I asked you to
look for? You did all that?”

“I did! I have never researched articles from other

quirk analysts, so I am not sure it will be useful,
but I sent you those by email!”

“Well, thank you, Akatani-kun. You can put those

on the chair and go home.”

What?

“I have nothing else to give you,” she explained,

reassuring Izuku that he wasn’t being punished
for doing the job too quickly or something like
that. “So congratulations. You finished early. Go
home. Have fun.”

Izuku tried to protest. The research she had asked

him wasn’t the best he could do, and maybe she
needed him to reclassify the library? He had
noticed that some files weren't at their places.

Yukimura Raiko gently but definitively kicked him

out of the Bright Quirks agency, ordering him to
relax and to enjoy the benefits of doing one’s job
well and efficiently.

But if enjoying the benefits of doing one’s job

well and efficiently was a concept that Izuku, as a
villain with a vigilante activity, understood,
relaxing wasn’t something he was familiar with.

So he left Hosu by train, not wanting to bother

Kurogiri, then walked home. He didn’t even use
Full Cowl.

After all, why not finish the day as Akatani

Mikumo?

Izuku went back to his disturbingly empty home

and put the TV on so it wouldn’t be too quiet.
Then, he grabbed his softest hoodie, the Thirteen
one, and lie down on the couch.

He fell asleep in a second, probably because he

was comforted by the fact no villain would
transport him back to his room just because he
had the audacity to nap in the living room.

Exactly two hours after nightfall, six brainless

beings appeared in Hosu. Their handler gave
them two orders: scatter and destroy.

And they obeyed magnificently.

Shouto had barely put a foot in Hosu when parts

of the town started to burst into flames.

That’s how Midoriya must feel all the time, he had

the time to think just before he created a wall of
ice to separate civilians from a villain who could
have been the lighter-colored-version of the
noumu in the USJ.

Endeavor and the rest of his sidekicks

immediately reacted, his old man fighting the
noumu and the rest taking care of the civilians,
evacuating the zone at high speed.

Shouto was ordered to stay back (and watch),

which contradicted everything he had learned
while working for Anyone. Standing down was
nerve-wracking, but at least, he could use his ice
to make sure the Endeavor agency wouldn’t
contribute too much to the many fires starting
out.

Until he heard a hero screaming the name of his

class president.

Snowdrift:

[I need to find Iida Tenya in Hosu.]

[Now.]

Izuku had one eye opened, only one, and had

been woken up a little too abruptly by Todoroki’s
alarm. No matter in what mode his phone was, if
Nagisa or Todoroki sent him a message via the
server, Izuku heard it.

How do I know this name…? Iida… Ah yes, Sport

Festival. Quirk: Engine. Ingenium’s brother.

Anyone:

[What does he look like?]

Snowdrift:

[He is dressed exactly like Ingenium.]

[I think he is after the Hero Killer.]

The administrator of Anyone posted three

photos, two of Ingenium in his hero costume and
one of Iida Tenya, from the Sport Festival. In a
second, every member of the server, not only
those who had asked for help and who were
signed up to offer services, but everyone who
had ever come in contact with the server received
a notification.

Those photos were forwarded to everyone who

had ever mentioned living in Hosu, people
remembering and making sure that anyone who
could help would see them.

All the eyes Anyone had in Hosu were wide open,

knowing who to look for.

Izuku hadn’t finished putting his vigilante outfit

on when the first picture arrived, showing a
teenager wearing Ingenium’s armor running.

Caffeineaddict:

[A picture of a teenager in armor, taken through

the glass of a window from a cellphone.]

[I saw him!]

Nowadays, phones could give their GPS location

to anyone who knew how to look for them,
turning them into a perfect way for a vigilante to
warp exactly where someone asking for
immediate assistance was.

Izuku was warped down the street, already

running, frantically looking for one hero student
who had apparently decided to fight a serial killer
whose modus operandi was to target fully trained
heroes with far more experience, but if Todoroki
believed that Ingenium's little brother was in
danger, Izuku trusted him.

But Iida Tenya was already gone, his quirk

allowing him to cover a lot of distance in very
little time, and he could have gone in any
direction.

Orangeshield:

[An extremely blurry picture of someone wearing

armor.]

[Here!]

Izuku was warped close to a wall this time and

immediately saw the hero in armor. The adult in a
high tech and extremely chromed armor who
certainly wasn’t Iida.

Count:

[A selfie of a young man wearing a bright blue

shirt with short sleeves despite the cold, followed
by what appeared to be the same brainless villain
seen in the USJ.]

[HELP!!!!!]

Kaworu’s quirk was a resistance to the cold, which

was absolutely useless against some shirtless
psychopath whose brain was exposed as he was
trying to murder him.

Running every morning was far more useful.

At least, until the villain got bigger, now running

on all fours, and in a second, he was on him. But
he never reached Kaworu. Instead, the college
student heard the familiar sound of someone
falling on his face at high speed, and when he
looked back, he saw a hooded figure standing on
the villain's back and shoulder after somehow
slamming him on the pavement.

But not for long.

The villain slapped the ground with both hands,

propelling himself upwards and moving so fast
Kaworu barely managed to follow the movement.
But the vigilante had already jumped away, as if
gravity didn’t have much of a hold on him.

Kaworu braced himself, ready to help now that

they were two against one.

The vigilante gave him a look and even though

his face was completely hidden by shadows, that
was a What the hell do you think you’re doing?
look.

Kaworu took the hint and ran away.

The last thing he saw was one of Anyone’s

vigilante running away in the other direction,
followed by a villain twice his size.

Kurogiri yawned as his phone biped again,

messages from Anyone asking him again to warp
him at specific GPS coordinates.

Back in his days working for All for One, he had

been used to be mistaken for a taxi and had
stopped questioning this kind of orders when
speed was of the essence.

He would later regret not asking Yami what he

was doing.

Panic was washing over Izuku, waves after waves,

dread threatening to stop his heart, because he
couldn’t find Todoroki’s classmate. He had the
sneaking suspicion that Iida Tenya had indeed
been at the first location only to run where no
one would see him.

Izuku kept running, of course, checking all the

alleys isolated from the center of the town, the
kind of place the Hero Killer favored. His phone
wasn’t saying anything anymore, and maybe that
meant that the Anyone members had the good
idea to evacuate.

But it could also mean that Ingenium’s brother

had found the Hero Killer. Alone against
someone who specialized in ambushing pro
heroes.

Izuku’s feet were barely touching the ground, Full

Cowl roaring in his veins, just searching frantically,
terrified. Terrified because someone could die
because he wasn’t fast enough, because he
wasn’t efficient enough.

Because he wasn’t a hero.

And then, he heard it. A scream among many, the

sound not enough to draw his attention as a city
was burning and people were being chased by
noumus, but what Izuku recognized was the
emotion within it.

The same uncontrollable anger he had felt

several months ago.

“YOU’RE JUST…”

When he had learned that Eri had been taken

from the people who loved her.

“…THE CRIMINAL…”

Izuku flung himself in the air, crossing one, two,

three roofs so fast that he could feel his body
protesting under the strain.

“… WHO HURT MY BROTHER!”

Tenya saw the blade coming.

Unbridled rage was barely allowing him to raise

his head to look at Stain but as he was going to
die, he wanted the Hero Killer to see all his
hatred, to see the grudge that would survive
Tenya’s death.

And as the blade was about to strike him, he saw

something else. A shadow from above, as if the
night itself had flung itself at them.

Stain couldn’t have possibly seen it but he

somehow sensed it, reacting so fast his blade
became a blur. He spun, putting all his
momentum in the movement, his katana about to
cut his new target… only for a horrible noise to
echo into the night.

Tenya didn’t realize what it was at the time. He

just saw Stain jumping back, a snarl on his lips, his
sword suddenly in his other hand and he slashed
the air with it, threatening to give a similar fate to
anyone approaching.

It’s only when he saw the blood starting to

blossom on the fabric covering his shoulder and
the way he was holding his right wrist that Tenya
realized what had happened.

What he had heard had been a cracking sound,

as the Hero Killer’s wrist had been snapped by
the impact of a kick, the same impact making him
lose control of his sword and hurting himself.

As for the shadow, who wasn’t a shadow at all, he

was standing in front of Tenya, one of his arm
raised in a declaration of protection.

Tenya’s mind, probably because his organism was

swimming in adrenaline, focused on two things.

The newcomer was wearing Ingenium sneakers,

from the speedster line.

And his quirk was a power type. A special one.

So close, Tenya could feel the energy emanating

from him, wild, barely controlled, and frightening
in a way an atavistic part of him couldn’t ignore.
That was raw power, eerily reminding him of the
USJ, when All Might had brushed past him.

“A hero… No, you’re a vigilante,” the Hero Killer

said, not acknowledging the pain of his broken
wrist. “And a kid.”

Izuku had misjudged the kick. More exactly, he

had jumped first and taken care of his trajectory
later, which was an especially stupid idea when a
blade was involved. If he had waited a moment,
made sure to be more efficient, to fully use the
effect of surprise, Stain wouldn’t have been able
to jump back, standing over a hero Izuku hadn’t
seen until now.

Native. Quirk: suspended animation. Good at

taking care of the injured while waiting for the
ambulance to arrive. Not hurt for now, not
moving either, and clearly a hostage. It wasn’t
because the Hero Killer’s katana wasn’t by his
throat that the threat wasn’t limpid.

“I will give you the same choice I offered this

one,” Stain declared, pointing his sword in
Todoroki’s friend’s direction. “Leave. Don’t stand
in my way. I can show mercy to children.”

“And let you kill them?” Izuku asked, his mouth

extremely dry.

“They made their choice. What will be yours?”

They were paralyzed, which was either a quirk or

a poison on the blade. If it was the latter, Stain
had needed to cut them. If it was a quirk, it could
be anything. He could blink only for Izuku’s body
to fail him and to be at the lack of mercy of a
serial killer.

He would have taken the risk if it wasn’t for the

two persons depending on him.

Behind his veil, Izuku smiled, because sometimes,

a forced grin was the only way to counter the
fear.

One wrong move, and two people would die

because he was too powerless to save them.

I still have a chance. Tenya tried to move, pushing

his body, his muscles screaming under the effort,
but they were still locked, refusing to help him
stand up. I still have a chance to kill him.

For his brother. For all the heroes who had died
because of Stain. For all the families crying for
them.

For the pain that wouldn’t disappear before

justice was delivered for his brother. Before the
Hero Ingenium was the one to kill the Hero Killer.

“Take him and run!” Native screamed. “Run

before he kills you!”

But the vigilante didn’t run. He spread out his

arms, slowly, not to be threatening but to draw
everyone’s attention.

And when he spoke, they could only listen.

“Hosu is burning. Villains are roaming the streets,

hunting people down. Now is not the time to
fight.”

The shadow of doubt pierced through Tenya’s

hatred, just for a moment. Not because of the
words used, but how they were said. As if the
truth couldn’t be clearer, as if the path to take
was limpid.

For just a moment, the sound of the blood in his

ears, the veil of red in front of his eyes, receded.

“Let’s walk away. Let’s live another day. We can

still fight when people aren’t in danger. Let’s use
all of our lives for something greater than
ourselves. That’s the right thing to do.”

The revelation hit Tenya like a train.

Hosu was burning.

People needed heroes.

And Tenya had just abandoned his post in a

middle of a crisis.

“The right thing to do?” the Hero Killer drawled,

as if he was tasting each word. “The right thing to
do is never the easy one. They can’t be allowed
to walk out. They are weak, unworthy of their
titles of protectors. They must be culled. For the
good of this society.”

“You would kill anyone and twist your logic to suit

your needs,” Tenya growled.

Strangely, among everything he had told the

psychopath who had maimed Tensei, this was the
thing that sent him in a rage.

“I kill for a greater purpose! I kill to purge the

darkness, be it fake heroes chasing after glory or
threats allowed to remain unchecked because our
leaders are too complacent to do something!
Someone has to do the dirty work!”

Izuku’s mind made a connection.

Maybe it was because of how someone proud to

ambush heroes had suddenly gotten extremely
defensive about what he did. Maybe because he
still had Hawks’ warning at the back of his mind,
about a specific type of teenagers disappearing
these days.

In any case, it was certainly because Stain’s spiel

was eerily reminiscent of the justification of
someone who saw some types of quirks are
inherent threats.

“Are you… Are you the one who made all those
people with parasitic quirks disappear?”

The surprise and the sudden calculation in Stain’s

eyes were worth more than any words.
eyes were worth more than any words.

“Why?” the vigilante whispered, as Tenya was

wondering what the hell they were talking about,
because he hadn’t heard of anyone disappearing.

It was a small word, barely audible, and yet,

horror saturated it.

But Stain heard it. He whipped his word in front

of him, religious fervor lighting up his features.

“For All Might,” he said on the tone a believer

would use to speak the name of his god. “For the
greatest hero, the only one true and real in a
world of fakes. The hero whose light was stolen.
That’s why he needs people like me. People who
live in the darkness, to protect the light.”

As someone who had met All Might, Tenya had

no doubt that the number 1 hero would be
horrified to hear this, but he didn’t have the time
to dwell on it, because something about the
vigilante’s entire presence shifted. Or snapped.

All tension left his body, a puppet whose strings

had just been cut, and he threw his head back,
laughing. There was despair, and laughter, and
sadness, and a trace of insanity in this sound, and
Tenya felt goosebumps spread over his forearms,
under his costume.

“Well, isn’t it your lucky day?” the vigilante

laughed, putting a hand on his chest.

Power exploded out of him.

“I am the one who ended All Might’s legacy.”

Chizome realized what he had just said.

Stain screamed, his sword moving in position…

The vigilante died under Tenya’s eyes. The first

slash dug through his chest and took out his arm,
but he survived that. Stain then cut him, piece by
piece, carving him and slicing him until he was
only a lump of flesh. But that wasn’t what killed
him. No, he died slowly, drowning because of the
blood in his lungs, and the Hero Killer watched
until the end.

… and he ran at him, faster than anyone had the

right to be.

But the vigilante suddenly wasn’t there anymore.

The Hero Killer’s bloodlust washed over Izuku,

registering without slowing him down. Another
human being wanted his death, but that was
nothing compared to what meeting All for One in
Tartarus had felt like. It was even possible that
living with the villain had numbed him to such
influences.

His lack of reaction didn’t prevent him from

running like hell, away from the screaming lunatic
with a dozen of blades, and up the wall.

Full Cowl, ten percent.

Climbing vertically was a matter of speed,

balance, and luck. Izuku had just enough of the
latter not to crash his nose against a brick wall at
high speed, and adrenaline did the rest. He
almost propelled himself upwards, his hand
slamming the edge of the room and he managed
to jump on the ledge and to take a running start.

It didn’t prevent a knife from flying right past him,

then another. A glance behind him showed him
Stain, his ascension not even finished, but already
trying his best to kill him.

Completely forgetting Iida and Native, just as

planned.

Focus on me. Only see me.

Because everything was made simpler now that

Izuku didn’t have to keep an eye on two potential
collateral damages.

And so the Hero Killer did, running after him on

the roofs, while Izuku kept going at half-speed,
enough not to distance him and think he could
catch up with him.

He wouldn’t. Izuku was fast, faster than him, and

he could lose him on those roofs. He didn’t have
to beat him to win. Staying alive and making sure
Iida and Native would be alright was enough.

And then, the realization hit him.

What about the other Iida and Native? What

about all the other heroes who would die if Stain
wasn’t stopped tonight?

How long until a hero caught him?

Would it happen tonight? When Hosu was

burning and noumus were roaming the streets?

If you don’t take care of him, who will?

Stain wasn’t expecting Izuku to turn back and to

suddenly run at him like a maniac.

It was fair enough, as Izuku himself hadn’t

expected it either. He might actually have been
more surprised than the Hero Killer because he
had assumed that he was the one in charge of
taking decision, but his body had other ideas.

“You’re nothing but a fake!” Stain snarled.

I know that.

His sword almost took out Izuku’s arm. Izuku had

One for All, he should have been faster, and yet,
the piece of metal threatened to rip him apart, his
speed and power not being enough to
overwhelm the Hero Killer’s technique.

Izuku swirled and punched like a boxer, dancing

around him.

Avoiding the katana again and again, sometimes

by a hair.

“All Might won’t take care of vermin like you!

That’s why he needs me! Someone willing to live
in the shadows!”

Someone willing to kill indiscriminately for a

twisted logic.

The Hero Killer followed him, his blade almost

alive and intent of biting at Izuku like a snake, and
Izuku kept leading him where he wanted.

“COME! IF YOU THINK YOU CAN KILL ME!”

Stain screamed, as he had his back to the edge of
the roof and the street down below.

Izuku faked his balance being off, just a little, but

a swordsman like Stain had to notice and he
jumped at the opportunity. Literally jumped,
because he hated Izuku, and he couldn’t not take
the occasion to viciously destroy him.

One for All. Full Cowl. Twenty percent.

Izuku regained the right position, Stain’s eyes

widening at the sudden burst of speed, and he
kicked with all his strength.

The kick didn’t touch Stain or even the sword.

But the Air Blast landed, right as Stain’s feet

weren’t touching the ground, and he was
propelled him through the air, his arms spread
out to try to regain his balance, his sword on the
side.

But the impact had pushed him beyond the roof

and there was nowhere to land.

The Hero Killer never made a sound as he fell

fifteen meters into the emptiness.

A car cushioned –so to speak- his fall, the vehicle

collapsing into a mess of metal and glass, and for
the moment, Stain didn’t move.

Izuku didn’t wait for him to do so before he called

the ambulance. He activated the voice changer
on his phone, knowing they couldn’t trace the
call, he told them who was injured and where,
and he left, not looking back at the villain.

What Izuku had done was more than what he had

allowed for Ingenium and all those heroes he had
killed. And certainly more than what those people
with parasitic quirks were given.

“Not bad, Mr. Thief,” Kousuke smiled from

another roof as he stopped filming the
unexpected but impressive fight.

All Might’s quirk wasn’t his favorite but one had

to be appreciative of the sheer panache of
someone willing to target the Symbol of Peace.

His smile turned into a wince as he noticed the

incoming threat and he dropped to the ground in
order not to be noticed.

The first rule a speedster learned was that inertia

was a harsh mistress. Taking corners was a
delicate matter necessitating strength, which
didn’t bother Izuku too much, and brutal stops
were just that: brutal.

As Izuku was running back towards Iida and

Native to make sure they were alright, he found
out personally how painful it was to have his
momentum reversed by the most vicious kick he
had ever experienced. He barely had the time to
see a blur of yellow and white from the corner of
his eye, right before someone’s boot broke
something inside his chest.

He was flung backwards so hard that he bounced

several times before crashing on the roof, all the
air knocked out of his lungs

“Hello, young man,” the oldest hero he had ever

seen still working greeted him. “That quirk
doesn’t belong to you.”

Notes:
1. It's extremely strange to write a
fic where Izuku doesn't know Iida
when the Stain arc happens.
2. Despite Todoroki complaining
about how he just got there when
Hosu burst in flames, he had been
there for a few hours. He was
exaggerating.

EDIT:
To my great shame, I yet again
forgot to share the links of
absolutely amazing Anyone
fanarts, depriving you from seeing
the talent of those artists:
https://gentrychild.tumblr.com/po
st/611296635569487872/redoaktr
eehill-he-has-spent-several-years-
of
https://gentrychild.tumblr.com/po
st/614311102314102784/do-not-
apologize-for-drawing-some-
beautiful-art-of
https://gentrychild.tumblr.com/po
st/614596392684535808/i-just-
screamed-like-a-banshee-in-the-
middle-of

CHAPTER 18
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Then

In China, too far away to warp back, All for One

looked up from his phone and from his Candy
Crush game, a strange sensation making his
senses ring. As if someone had just walked on his
grave. Or maybe something akin to a disturbance
in the Force.

As an old friend’s entire security team would try

to murder him about two seconds later, he would
assume that he had simply felt their killing
intents.

Unaware of the exact moment where Anyone had

been warped in Hosu.

Shouto heroically stood on the side doing

nothing for five excruciating minutes until Anyone
stopped reporting the situation.

The only thing that could stop Midoriya from

looking for Iida was either death or imminent
death.

His body moved on his own.

“SHOUTO!” Endeavor screamed behind him,

distracting him.

Shouto was looking back at his old man when he

saw something from the corner of his eye.
Massive, black, an inhuman noise escaping his
throat.

Noumu.

Time seemed to slow down as he picked up what

appeared to be a piece of a car door on the
ground, the teenager seeing everything at once.
Endeavor’s sidekicks trying to reach him, the
noumu about to grab his head and who probably
had enough power to crush his skull like a
nutshell. Flames at his back as the number 2 hero
was already on the move.

Shouto was faster than every one of them, ice

surging from him and taking half of the noumu’s
body. Colder than he had ever used before,
maybe as cold as Fuyumi’s power, he felt the chill
to his bones and the noumu himself screamed in
agony.

Most people assumed only fire could keep

someone from regenerating but frostbites were
as efficient.

Without losing any of his momentum, Shouto

raised his sturdy piece of metal and put his hip in
the moment as he hit the noumu with it, ripping
and shattering his arm with the sheer momentum
that almost made the villain fall.

Behind Shouto, the sudden absence of flames

and the deafening silence indicated that he might
have shown too much, but he didn’t have the
time to care about that. Ice surged from his right
foot, trapping the noumu who was busy trying to
regrow some limbs, and the teenagers turned
towards the slack-faced heroes.

“A friend needs my help! Take care of this!”

And with that, more ice surged from under him,

carrying him at high speeds through the streets.

One of the advantages of acting as a hero

(student) was that he didn’t have to worry about
leaving traces.

Now

Izuku breathed and pain burst inside his chest. He

had never broken a rib before but he was quite
certain that this was it.

Focus, Midoriya Izuku. You don’t have any time to

waste.

He pushed through the pain, making sure to look

like a man whose chest has almost caved in under
the meanest kick he had ever received and as if
he couldn’t move right now.

It was an unsurprisingly easy role to play.

Above him, a hero dressed in white except for a

yellow cape, yellow boots, and a yellow belt. His
voice had been the kind of neutral heroes
probably learned to speak in, but his eyes
betrayed him. Anger, so much anger

“Do you even realize what you did?” the hero

growled, grabbing something behind his back
and revealing handcuffs, the ones heroes put on
villains with power-type quirks.

He knows All Might. He knows what I did… No,

focus. You can’t let him cuff you. You can’t let him
hit you again. Speed quirk and he knows how to
use his momentum.

The hero grabbed his shoulder and forced him to

sit up, twisting Izuku’s arm behind his back to put
on the handcuff.

He apparently didn’t expect Izuku to flip his

finger at the hero’s face, an Air Blast in tow. He
should have. It was no different than a Detroit
Smash, and it sent the hero stumbling down.

Full Cowl. Twenty percent.

Izuku jumped to his feet and ran at full speed,

trying to put as much distance between the hero
and him, but a second later, he was on him. The
teenager threw himself away, just in time, and
avoided being kicked in the spine, which turned
out to be a relief as the old man’s kick cracked
the roof, to Izuku’s horror.

He wasn’t holding back.

Of course he isn’t. I don’t need to be in one piece

to give One for All back.

Izuku kept running, avoiding a first kick, even

another, but not the third.

He couldn’t follow his movements, not when he

was bouncing around him like a murderous ping-
pong ball but again and again, he prevented him
from making him fall to the ground. Because if he
stopped moving, the hero was going to definitely
neutralize him.

Izuku swirled and jerked around, not even able to

afford the luxury of running in a straight line, not
when the hero was dancing around him.

What saved him was the lack of wall or any kind

of support that would have allowed the hero from
bouncing as much as he could have. If he had
been trapped in a room or even down in the
street, he would have been overwhelmed.

Izuku quickly stopped trying to follow the hero’s

movements. He couldn’t, and every time he
paused to think, another bruise was added to his
evergrowing collection.

So he listened to his instinct, reacting to the flow

of the fight. He was moving so fast that he was
constantly at risk of losing his balance.

Somehow, it worked.

Izuku avoided when he could, and never blocked

upfront when he couldn’t. Instead, he swirled and
redirected the hit, never letting him kick him as
hard as the first time. But every time he tried to
kick or punch back, the hero not only avoided it
but he always managed to land a kick.

By some miracle, Izuku managed to reach the

roof on which he had tried to escape the Hero
Killer. He looked around, and that costed him a
kick to the head, his head ringing under the boot,
but he landed more or less where he needed,
and he blindly reached for what he was looking
for, the spots of lights in front of his eyes
hindering him.

What happened next was both reflex and the

experience taught by hours and hours on the
field as a vigilante. He didn’t see the next kick
coming. He couldn’t have. But he sensed it,
because this man hated him, and Izuku could
sense his bloodlust.

So he slashed, with the same knife Stain had

thrown at him as he was trying to kill him. One of
the two knives that had landed on this very roof.

And it found something solid, making the hero

yelp as the blade pierced the fabric of his boot.

Shouto found Iida before he found Midoriya,

bleeding in an alley, obviously trying to move but
something was preventing him to do so.

Paralyzed?

For a moment, Shouto froze at the idea of him

being too late, of another member of the Iida
family with damage to his spine, but Iida was
trembling. Fighting against what was probably a
quirk. It made sense. It matched Stain’s modus
operandi.

“Todoroki?” his classmate recognized him, stupor

quickly letting place to relief. “There is a vigilante
on the roof! Fighting Stain!”

Translation: Midoriya had the bright idea to

prevent Iida from finding a serial killer by
fighting him himself.

Shouto glanced at Iida and the hero he hadn’t

seen at first, deciding that they weren’t at risk of
immediately dying on him and he looked up,
hearing the sounds of people fighting for their
lives.

He ran back, trying to see more of what was

going on before jumping there.

And for just a moment, he managed to see a

cape and bright colors.

The bright colors of a hero costume.

Shouto confirmed the location of Midoriya’s

phone again, his meager hope that this was just a
mistake mercilessly burned down, and he called
his fire, aware that he couldn’t allow Midoriya to
be captured by a hero. Even if it was just for
vigilantism, even if he had only tried to help, All
Might would probably personally fall out of the
sky when he would hear about a quirk so similar
to the one that had been stolen from him.

His left side started to warm up.

I didn’t realize who was up there. I am but a

humble hero student who panicked when my
friend and a pro hero confirmed that the Hero
Killer was there. Really, anyone could have made
that mistake.

He had just acknowledged and accepted that this

would still be a black mark on his file when the
most annoying sound in the world was uttered
right behind him.

“SHOUTOOOOOOO!”

Shouto looked back at his old man, who looked

especially annoyed and he carefully considered
how to push the number 2 hero to recklessly use
his quirk first and to ask questions later, so
Shouto wouldn’t have to.

He took one second of reflection before pointing

in Midoriya’s direction.

“Something here!” he screamed.

Todoroki Enji had just neutralized one noumu, ran

after his son, been jumped by two other noumus
bearing a striking resemblance with a murderous
jack-in-the-box, and by the time he finally found
Shouto, he was slightly on edge.

So, when Shouto pointed at the roof with more

urgency that he had shown when he had ran into
a noumu, he naturally assumed that it was the
same kind of villain and threw fire to hold it back
long enough for the two wounded people to be
evacuated or at least protected.

The scream of surprise and the flow of insults

later calling him directly by name made him
regret this decision.
Fire brightened the night, making Sorahiko jump
in one direction, his wounded foot slowing him
down, and the thief jumped into another
direction. He blinked furiously, trying to regain
some night vision, to see where he was.

Only to realize that there was no one else on the

roof anymore, the thief gone.

Momentum wasn’t slowed down by Kurogiri’s

warp gates so Izuku more or less crashed in the
bar with all the grace of a wet towel. He was back
on his feet in a second, adrenaline preventing
him from being in a position of weakness, and by
the time he looked at the barman, Kurogiri’s
yellow eyes had considerably widened.

For a moment, Izuku could see what the barman

was beholding: a beaten teenager with a
laborious breath and still holding a bloody knife.

Oh no.

“All for One doesn’t need to know about that!,”

Izuku said, almost ripping off his hood so he
could look at Kurogiri, because visual contact was
important when one needed to convince people.

“Mmm mm,” Kurogiri answered in the tone of

someone already texting the fiend, his right hand
hidden behind the counter.

Kousuke was almost disappointed as he watched

the thief escape, jumping from the roof as if
gravity was a minor detail, or at least
inconsequential compared to the terrifying old
man he had just met.

It wasn’t that he was on the heroes’ side but he

always had a soft spot for speedsters. He simply
couldn’t help but to root for them.

But if one actor had managed to escape, the

spectacle was far from over. After all, heroes were
so predictable. So, from the roof, Kousuke
followed them, cameras still in hand, specially
chosen so he could film from afar.

The number 2 hero and the old hero exchanged

some choices words. The little Ingenium and the
other nobody managed to move again. Maybe
because Chizome had finally died, maybe
because he had ran out of time.

In any case, they checked. They all walked to

where a vigilante with a stolen quirk had thrown a
villain whose very acts were cautioned by the
government, the car where he had landed
collapsing and the man himself unmoving.

Kousuke would have been satisfied with just that.

A bunch of heroes gawking at what was left of
the man they hadn’t managed to catch. Between
this and what their noumus had done to the city,
he had enough material already.

But Chizome apparently had more to tell, and so

he woke up, bloodlust saturating the air.

“WHERE ARE YOU?”

Searching for the thief Kousuke himself had told

him about. Oh, it hadn’t been asked of him, but
as an artist, he had known what kind of chain
reaction it would provoke.

“CORRUPTION… EVERYWHERE… SOMEONE

MUST DO THE DIRTY WORK… SOMEONE HAS
TO PURGE…”

He took one step, even though his body must

have been in pieces after the fall, and the heroes
could only stare, petrified because of a bloodlust
that wasn’t even directed at them.

“COME!” he called the Thief, daring him to show

himself. “JUST TRY ME… YOU FAKE! THE ONLY
ONE ALLOWED TO KILL ME IS… ALL MIGHT.
THE TRUE HERO… SOMETHING YOU WILL
NEVER BE…”

And on that, he stopped, as if his curse had taken

the last of his energy.

Kousuke filmed it. The frozen heroes. The

monster condemning society. The camera was
probably trembling as he couldn’t completely
contain his excitement, but who could blame
him?

He only retreated when more heroes arrived, his

quirk quickly taking him away from the danger.

He was almost out of the neighborhood when a

shadow obscured the light of the streets, and he
looked up to see the slightly distorted form of the
winged noumu. He was heavily breathing and it
less landed than crashed at Kousuke’s feet.

Drops of blood splattered over him as he did,

staining his nice jacket.

“Hey! Be careful!”

The noumu didn’t answer, of course, and Kousuke

crouched by him only to see that the wound
seemed to have been caused by an ice javelin,
still sticking out of him.

Heroes are becoming more and more ruthless

those days…

But since this one had found his way back to him,
he could hardly let him here. Kousuke called for
Ujiko, and he waited for Johnny-chan’s slimy
black liquid to cover the both of them.

They appeared in the laboratory, filled to the brim

with vats containing mindless puppets, simple
weapons devoid of any subtlety or artistic
appreciation. In the middle of them, like a father
who wasn’t satisfied with simply having pictures
of his family on his desk, the Doctor was working,
leaving his work only when Kousuke stopped
coughing the foul liquid.

“Six…” he greeted him. “How did my adorable

children do?”

Snowdrift:

[Are you okay?]

SmallMight1541:

[I am fine. Cuts and bruises, and I will

feel it in the morning. ]

[What about you?]

Snowdrift:

[Not a scratch.]

[Obviously.]

SmallMight1541:

[Of course.]

[And Iida Tenya?]

Shouto had to shorten his conversation with

Midoriya, both to look at his class president, who
looked absolutely miserable but alive and with all
limbs functioning, and because the chief of police
entered the hospital room where the two
teenagers had been brought. Not because they
were injured –though, Iida had needed stitches–
but because the Hosu police had felt the need to
take them away from the scene.

People usually didn’t get into too much trouble

as long as they stayed quiet, so Shouto didn’t
utter a word as the policeman explained the
damages done to Hosu during the attack and
how lucky they had been that the heroes and law
enforcements had been so prompt to react.

However, he had his limits.

“Two villains who were apprehended by the

heroes were found with severe frostbites for one
and impaled for the other,” Tsuragamae Kenji,
Hosu’s chief of police said, looking directly at
him.

“Those villains…” Shouto was careful not to call

them noumus. Technically, he could argue that he
had heard this name at the USJ but with Midoriya
beating Stain a couple of hours ago, he didn’t
want to be asked how he knew about them. “…
were attacking the city. The second one almost
injured civilians.”

“And yet, you do not have your license. As for

you…” He turned towards Iida. “… you
abandoned the hero responsible of you and you
looked for the Hero Killer, didn’t you?”

Iida nodded.

The chief of police continued a moment like that,

talking about the dawn of quirks, of the decision
made to make the chaos cease, of a chosen few
allowed to use their quirks.

Of the police taking the oath to make order reign

without their quirks and how only heroes were
allowed to use their quirks.

“What are you trying to say?” Shouto said even

though he was perfectly aware of what was going
on.

“I need to understand that you are in a delicate

position. You both broke the law.”

“If we use our quirks, it was to protect people,”

Shouto growled. “That’s what heroes are
supposed to do.”

“But when you used your quirks, you weren’t in

the legality. You knew you weren’t supposed to
run around. This has consequences, for you and
for the adults responsible of you.”

“Wait…” Iida whispered in a horrified voice, as

anger was building inside Shouto.

“The situation is simple. If the truth about what

happened tonight is revealed, you might have
the support of the public, but you will have to
face legal consequences. However, as the
situation is complicated and since it would be
dangerous if a vigilante was known to have taken
the law in his own hands…” Just like you did was
left unspoken. “… You have another alternative:
don’t speak of what happened. Don’t contradict
the official version: the number 2 hero is the one
who stopped Stain.”

“You’re asking us to lie?” Iida asked.

“Simply to stay silent,” Manual intervened. “No

one is happy about it but the media would jump
on the story like sharks smelling blood. You both
saw what happened because of the USJ. This is
not a time where we can allow the trust in the
hero society to be eroded.”

“I have caused so many problems to so many of

you…” Iida’s head was hanging in shame. “Yes,
of course. I can only accept.”

Good for him.

“I don’t.”

“Todoroki, they are right…” Iida tried to say.

Shouto glared at him.

“I do not like to be pressured. Our guardians

aren’t here. We are minors. And you’re
threatening us in order to comply…”

“We’re not…”

“You will know if I ever threaten you,” the chief of

police promised with a huge doggy grin.

“The truth is that we are allowed to use our quirk

in self-defense, be it our own defense or
someone’s else. Or should I call the legal team of
the Endeavor agency to know how an arrest
would really end?” Shouto threatened him in
return.

Manual was looking at him, mouth opened with

shock, while Iida looked like he had seen a ghost,
maybe because if Tsugaramae’s glare could have
killed, Shouto would have dropped dead on this
very spot.

But Shouto knew the law. And even more, he

knew what he was: an Exemplar chosen by the
Hero Commission. The son of Endeavor.

Someone harder to push around than expected,

as far as the Chief of police was concerned.

Tsuragamae gave him a cold look, obviously

weighting his options, and not liking his odds
against the Endeavor agency legal team, who ate
policemen for breakfast. But Shouto didn’t let him
spin that another way.

“However,” he added, “I understand why hiding

that a vigilante was the one to stop Stain is
necessary. It would simply reflect badly on the
heroes and the police. I am not willing to be
intimidated into doing what’s necessary, though.”

Because that was what had been happening.

Carrot and stick, given to two minors right after
they had been through a traumatic event.

Manual sighed, relieved that Shouto could show

himself reasonable, but the esteemed chief of
police wasn’t done.

“You really are your father’s son, aren’t you?” he

mocked.

Something cold and vicious passed through

Shouto, and before he even realized it, he had
taken a step towards him.

“You mangy mutt…”

A lot of things could have happened in this

moment. None of them would have been good
for Shouto’s reputation, but unlike what Iida’s
huge gasp seemed to imply, he wasn’t about to
fistfight the Hosu chief of police. Just to have
several words of choice with him.

But instead, the door opened. Though, opened

wasn’t the right word, as it had been locked.
Instead, it was more or less forced, revealing a
really embarrassed hero behind it.

“I am sorry. I didn’t mean to listen to you but I

thought you might want to…” He opened the
door completely and the doorknob fell to the
floor. “In any case, I heard you and giving the
credit to Endeavor won’t work.”

Shouto just watched the newcomer, frozen just

like the rest of them, but he was pretty certain
that he was the only one who had started
sweating.

“Several videos were just released, showing the

vigilante fighting and neutralizing Stain. We are in
luck that Endeavor didn’t already receive the
credit.”

The chief of police grabbed his phone, checking

if this was true, and he thanked the pro hero,
leaving to chew out those who hadn’t warned
him, someone who had taken Shouto’s number 1
post in the list of people he couldn’t stand.

And as he did, he left the two UA students with

the number 1 hero.

“Young Iida, Young Todoroki…” All Might

greeted while Manual has his back against a wall,
the distinct panicked look of someone who
hadn’t been ready to see the Symbol of Peace on
his face. “I would appreciate if you could give me
some of Your time. The hero who was injured in
the line of duty is a very old friend of mine. I am
personally interested into finding this vigilante.”

[A first video of the town burning, terrifying

villains breaking whatever they can find.
Sometimes, what they can find are people, only
saved in the nick of time by heroes. There is
something beautiful in the footage, a terrible
majesty, images one cannot look away from.]

[A second video, showing terrified civilians about

to be snatched away by a winged villain, only to
be saved by an ice wielding hero. Young, too far
away to be clearly distinguished, but he take the
time to make sure the two civilians are alright
before leaving again, as if he is desperate to save
as many people as possible.]

[A third video showing someone whose face is

impossible to see being pursued by an enraged
Hero Killer, all his rage and madness clear as the
light of the day, for everyone to see.]

[The vigilante runs, obviously using a hero-

worthy-quirk.]

[The vigilante stops and turns back, the world

witnessing the moment where he chooses to fight
a villain who targets and kills pro heroes.]

[Whoever has the camera is filming from far away

but it doesn’t prevent anyone from hearing Stain
calls the vigilante a fake. Unworthy.]

[The vigilante doesn’t answer. He doesn’t need

to. Instead, he moves like water, unafraid as he is
facing a sword, determined.]

[Heroic, even as he stumbles, anyone watching

this gasping as they can see the end.]

[And even more heroic as he somehow manages

to win, defeating a villain that no pro heroes had
managed to stop before.]

[A fourth video, showing the Hero Killer, as he

delivers his message, while calling for the
vigilante who has stopped him.]

In movies and series, people with bruised ribs

kept running, even a couple of hours after they
had been injured. They winced, put on their hero
costume or their vigilante apparatus, and they
kept fighting.

Whoever wrote those scripts was a filthy liar. Now

that Izuku didn’t have a hero trying to kill him, the
idea of simply raising his arms was enough to
make him tear up. Breathing hurt like his chest
was on fire. Not breathing didn’t stop hurting: it
just hurt less.

In front of him, her fingertips gently put on his

neck, Ao was finishing examining him. She had
been dragged out of bed and warped in some
track pants she probably used as pajamas and a
tank top, exposing the tattoos on her arms and
shoulders. Of course, qualifying them as tattoos
might be an understatement. Dragons, snakes,
phoenixes, and other mythological creatures were
dancing on her skin, and whoever had drawn
them could be proud of what was no less but a
masterpiece.

With a sigh, she passed a hand in her short blue

hair.

“Congratulations, Akatani. It’s the first time you

don’t call me for quirk overuse.”

“So, he is alright?” Kurogiri asked behind her.

He had been hovering since Izuku had come

back, his phone in hand. He was probably
sending a continuous stream of updates to All for
One.

“No, he’s not. He has two broken ribs, his

collarbone is damaged, and he is in shock.”

“I am not in shock,” Izuku tried to protest but his

voice sounded flat.

He had rarely felt so tired.

Ao looked down and she followed his gaze, to his

right hand and the faint shiver that was
possessing his fingers.

A second of attention was enough to make it

stop, but in exchange, the pain in his ribs flared
up.

How does that even work?

“I rest my case,” Ao concluded. “Now, if you

want to argue with your healer, please continue. I
just love to be dragged out of my girlfriend’s
embrace in the middle of the night to make sure
that teenage vigilante are not about to drop
dead.”

Izuku chose to shut up.

“None of what you have is life threatening. There

is not much to do for the ribs except hugging a
pillow so you hurt less and fortunately for you,
your collarbone is not broken. All you have to do
is to wait a few weeks and it will heal on its own.
This includes the bruises that will soon bloom on
you like flowers in Spring. You’re in luck, because
I have enough energy to heal most of this. What
do you choose?”

Before, she would have left me after confirming

that none of my injuries were life-threatening or
debilitating. I must have scored some brownie
points with the whole Nightmare problem.

Izuku considered his options.

Ao had a healing quirk, one of the rarest and

most sought out talents, but she had chosen not
to work in this field. She obviously had some
medical training, but she warned her “patients”
that she wasn’t a medical practitioner and that
she would send them to the hospital if their
wounds were beyond her abilities.

He didn’t know the details but he was sure that it

was because she used her own strength to heal.
Diagnostics were relatively easy but he had seen
her pale and almost fall over that day when he
had broken both his legs.

Usually, he chose to assume his wounds when

they weren’t slowing him down. He could handle
the pain.

But this night…

He didn’t want to be vulnerable.

Tenya's anger hadn’t diminished. It was still

eating him alive, trying to spread in every cell of
his body, but now, it wasn’t the only thing inside
him. Shame was added to it, the kind that kept
him from raising his head as he was interrogated.
Confusion and fear were also here, because he
didn’t understand what had happened.

He had been there. He had witnessed it. And yet,

nothing made sense.

He felt lost.

But All Might and Gran Torino, the hero who had
been injured, his foot bandaged and moving with
a crutch, needed his help, so he told them
everything he remembered.

He didn’t hide that he had searched for Stain and

tried to defeat him. How he hadn’t been able to
do anything against him.

How the vigilante had saved him. What he was

wearing: black hoodie, something covering his
face as if it was made of shadows, dark jeans and
Ingenium sneakers.

How his quirk had felt up close, a power-type

similar to All Might’s, wild and barely controlled
though. Powerful.

How he had talked, how he had laughed, his

exact words, and the two heroes had frowned as
Tenya repeated that he had announced that he
was the one who had ended All Might’s legacy.

“My legacy is people like Young Todoroki and

you,” All Might had told him. “Despite what he
thinks, no one can take that away.”

Tenya, reassured, had continued and next told

them how he had saved them. How he had tried
to resolve the situation peacefully, how he hadn’t
hesitated to risk his life to protect Native and
Tenya, but he had apparently not hesitated to
injure a pro hero.

“Why?” he asked, his voice breaking at the end

of the word because he was tired and because it
didn’t make sense. “How can a vigilante act both
like a hero and like a villain?”

“Everything isn’t black and white, kid,” Gran

Torino said. “It’s not because someone shows
mercy or kindness once that it’s a good person.
Just like someone being rude to you or making a
mistake doesn’t have to be a bad person.”

“Because he is acting rashly,” All Might said

softly, “trying to help, but not caring about who is
injured as he does what he wants. Because he is
in the wrong and probably can’t admit it, so
someone has to stop him.”

Tenya didn’t quite flinch but it was close.

Wasn’t this his exact situation? He had been in

the wrong, his actions almost costing at least the
life of another pro hero, but no one had stopped
him, and no one would, not after Todoroki had
almost jumped at the chief of police’s throat,
defending the both of them.

Not when he hadn’t honestly and clearly

admitted what he had tried to do.

Slowly, he unclenched his fists and took a deep

breath. He didn’t manage to look at them in the
eyes, least of all All Might himself, but he did
push the words out.

“I came to Hosu to kill the Hero Killer!” he said,

bowing. “The only reason why I didn’t is because
I wasn't strong enough to defeat him!”

“Oh, we know,” All Might answered almost

absentmindedly, as if he was thinking about
something else while having this conversation
with Tenya.

As for the class president of 1-A, who would

probably have to abdicate in shame before he
was arrested, he couldn’t say what surprised him
the most; their lack of surprise or how they barely
reacted to Tenya admitting a crime.

“What?” he squeaked.

“It was pretty obvious,” Gran Torino muttered

under his breath.

It was?

“I… I deserve to be punished for this!”

“Maybe. Maybe not,” the old hero said, this time

clearly. “In any case, you won’t. Lucky you.”

Tenya stared at him, unable to comprehend what

was happening, his mouth opened.

All Might gave a sharp glance to his friend, and

when he spoke, all his attention was back on
Tenya and he couldn’t do anything else but to
listen to him.

“You did this because you love your brother.

Because you couldn’t abide to know that the
monster who had hurt him was still out there,
free,” the number 1 hero said, his voice kind, but
there was a hint of another emotion under the
words. “You wanted to hurt him just as Stain had
hurt your brother. Even more. In doing so, you
became the judge, the jury and the executioner.
This was pure vengeance.”

Tenya nodded, because this was exactly what he

had been thinking.

Even now, knowing that Stain was alive felt like an

insult to the Ingenium’s name.

“I won’t lie to you, Young Iida. Everyone would

understand why you would want Stain dead. But
by acting like you did, you scorned a system of
laws and order put in place to protect everyone.
A system made to protect you from dying in a
dark alley but also to protect you from tainting
your hands with blood. I have seen heroes
abandon all reason and destroy everything good
within them because they thought the end
justified the means.”

He thought of the vigilante pointing at the

burning town. Master of his emotions. Knowing
what to do, even ready to deescalate the
situation.

“Rules are here to protect us from our darkest

instincts,” All Might continued. “When you
abandon them, you walk away from civilization.
And going back is extremely hard.”

I… I had never thought of that.

“Second chances are hard to come-by. Trust me

on that. Consider yourself lucky and learn from it.
And one last thing…”

Tenya braced himself.

But the Symbol of Peace simply left his chair, took

two steps, and imprisoned Tenya into the
warmest hug he had ever experienced.

“On behalf of every hero in Hosu,” All Might

said, “let me tell you how relieved we are that
you are still alive to learn more every day.”

Sorahiko watched the youngest Iida, who could

have been the carbon copy of his father and his
brother, leave before turning to All Might who
was still in his heroic form, disturbingly quiet as
he was looking at a point on the wall.

“Toshinori?” he prompted him.

“My only regret about what I did to All for One is

that I didn’t finish the job,” he answered.

Well, glad that we are on the same page.

“Am I a hypocrite for telling him he was wrong to

act as he did?”

The double-guessing hadn’t happened before

One for All had been stolen. Since then, Toshinori
agonized over what he said, aware that people
could take his every word to heart.

And now, he was looking at Sorahiko with the

same look he had after Nana’s death, when he
was desperately looking for the right solution in a
world which never offered this luxury.

“You told him he needed rules to live by,”

Sorahiko tried to answer anyway. “That’s the best
advice you could have given him.”

“What if he had killed you?” Toshinori asked, and

he certainly wasn’t talking about the Young Iida
anymore.

Sorahiko didn’t look at his ankle, stabbed both to

block one of his kick and to slow him down.

The Thief had been fast, even though Sorahiko

was certain he had hurt him. Fast and smart in
how he avoided him.

And he hadn’t attacked him at full strength. Not

when it was compared to the video of his fight
with the Hero Killer, the last kick that had sent
him flying.

He thinks he is on the side of the angels…

The only good news about this mess was that he

had been seen fighting and fleeing noumus. It
meant All for One and his merry band of escaped
villains hadn’t find him yet.

“Do I look like I die so easily? I kicked the ass of

someone far more talented with the same quirk
and if that fire-throwing imbecile hadn’t been
there, I would have delivered him to you in
pieces.”

Toshinori was about to say something, not

completely convinced, when the door suddenly
opened, revealing the little Iida.

“I forgot! The vigilante… The reason why he went

crazy… He accused Stain of having made people
with parasitic quirks disappear!”

Shouto didn’t go far after being interrogated by

All Might. He positioned himself near the closest
waiting area from which he could see the hallway
and he kept trying to contact Midoriya but he
wasn’t answering his phone.

He was about to contact Kurogiri when someone

approached him, his outstretched hand holding a
can of green tea, and Shouto looked up to see
the number 3 hero.

This night just keeps getting better and better…

“Did you seriously call the chief of police a

mangy mutt?” the hero that Midoriya had
decided to involve in Anyone asked, something
close to admiration in his voice.

Shouto tried to disappear into his chair but no

intangibility power appeared. Typical.

“Oh, I am not judging,” Hawks smiled, sitting on

the chair next to Shouto, his wings in the way but
he somehow made do, a can of tea in each hand.
“You were right to call them out. And it’s pretty
embarrassing for them to have a vigilante stop
Stain when they didn’t manage to find him for
years.”

Shouto frowned. He wasn’t aware that Stain had

been in activity for so long.

And with that, his respect for the Hosu police

plummeted even further.

“How do you know what I said to the chief of

police?”

“Oh news travels fast,” Hawks shrugged and he

tried to offer his tea to Shouto once again.

This time, he accepted, just so he would have

something to do in order not to participate to this
conversation.

“I was actually in another city when I heard about

this incident. I arrived too late to help take care of
the noumus but I helped looking for the one who
took down the Hero Killer. It’s amazing what you
can see for the sky. This poor vigilante got beaten
down by Gran Torino on several roofs? You can
actually see the damage from up there. Old
heroes are not to be underestimated.”

Shouto promised himself not to fight Gran Torino

and to mercilessly made fun of Midoriya for
having his ass handed to him by an old man.
Really, he would have done the same for him.

“I could also see the ice you left behind you. It’s
so you travel faster, isn’t it?”

Shouto kept drinking his tea. Warm and perfect

after a long night.

“Speed is good,” Hawks nodded. “Especially

when a friend is in danger. How did you find him,
by the way?”

Shouto had been expecting this question and he

gave him the same answer he had given All
Might. That had been the Symbol of Peace’s
second question, right after an embarrassed
“Young Todoroki, I understand your frustration
but you are aware that you need to be friendly
with the police, right?”

“I heard Manual call for him. Since I didn’t have

anything else to do, I searched from him in the
alleys near the center. That’s where heroes patrol
and where Stain attacks.”

“That’s smart. Do you know how I found them?”

“Because you were flying?”

“A good guess, but no,” Hawks laughed. “I came

here because I received an alert as someone on
the Anyone server asked for help because Tenya,
a UA hero student, was missing.”

Shouto froze –though not literally- and he looked

at the hero who was talking to him about an
illegal organization like he was talking about the
weather or the upcoming hero ranking.

“Whoever Anyone is, I think he forgot that when

he sent this message to everyone, I would be
included in it. In any case, I flew as fast as I could
but I arrived too late, because I was accidentally
led to a false sighting. My fault, really. I knew that
eyewitnesses are rarely perfect.”

And with that, he took a gulp from his own can.

“I am not sure to understand…”

“But you went directly to where Tenya was,”

Hawks interrupted him, and even though he still
wasn’t looking at him, his heroic mask was gone,
leaving place to someone sharp and dangerous.
“I know that because, as I told you, it’s amazing
what you can see for the sky. The traces of your
ice only stops where you fought this noumu, but
apart from that, it was a straight road to this
vigilante. So I wondered Is he the one who
warned Anyone? Or is he one of the vigilante on
their payroll? I mean, as the son of Endeavor,
people would be fighting to recruit you. And, last
but not the least, I wondered if that vigilante had
specifically called you to the rescue?”

Shouto’s face wasn’t showing anything until he

remembered to frown in confusion. There was no
proof here but there was a considerable weight
to the words of a top hero.

If he asks for my phone, I will destroy it. Better to

be uncooperative and stubborn than to let Hawks
realize that he wasn’t only friend with the villain
who had stolen All Might’s quirk, but he was one
of the two people who could always find where
Midoriya’s phone was.

“You are an Exemplar and the son of the number

2 hero, so really, even though running to fight
villains isn’t recommended, it’s completely
different if you are part of a vigilante
organization. I suggest you to be extremely
careful from now on.”

Shouto stared at him.

And then, Hawks was back to the pro hero that

everyone knew, smiling, though, behind this visor,
Shouto couldn’t be sure that it reached his eyes.

“Relax,” Hawks reassured him as if he hadn’t

threatened him, probably because he was tired of
Midoriya running circles around him. “I am also
on the server, after all. But if you ever meet this
friend of yours, can you tell him I need to speak
to him? He has been dodging my calls.”

For a moment, Shouto could only stare, his mind

swirling with ideas, possibilities, half-baked plans
to get away from this, to find a way to fix this, but
nothing concrete came to mind so he fell back on
what he knew.

Don’t show weakness. If you’re not in control, at

least, pretend you are.

And with that, just with his pretending, everything

became clearer. Incidentally, it confirmed
Shouto’s growing suspicion that no one really
knew what they were doing and that all the adults
were bluffing along the way.

“Hero Hawks, don’t take this the wrong way but I

think you have been taking too many double
shifts.”

“Ah, maybe,” the pro hero laughed, only to be

interrupted by Iida finally getting out of the room
where All Might and the hero Midoriya has
slightly stabbed had been.

Iida probably didn’t even see them, too busy

looking at the floor and thinking so loudly that
Shouto could almost hear the thoughts bouncing
inside his skull, when the class president brutally
stopped, frozen. He looked up, his mouth
opened, then he suddenly turned, almost
colliding with a wall, before running back from
where he had come from.

Shouto blinked.

“I wonder what’s going through his head,” Hawks

pondered.

Kurogiri woke up extraordinarily early, but

certainly not by choice. The day before –not
enough hours ago-, Yami had more or less
passed out on his couch and since the bartender
didn’t actually knew where he lived, he had
warped them to the beach house that Sensei had
retrieved, before sitting on the couch to rest his
eyes a minute or two.

All for One opening the fridge only for the light
to reach Kurogiri and to startle him awake. Sensei
gave him an apologetic shrug before opening a
grape juice can and drinking it down.

For someone who had taken a plane to go back

and who had certainly slept less than Kurogiri, he
seemed in excellent form.

Does Sensei even need to sleep?

All for One was wearing his usual bespoke pants

and dress shoes but he had forgone the dress
shirt and the jacket for a black polo shirt, the
slight change somehow managing to make him
look even younger.

“He is alive and in one piece,” Sensei said.

“Consider me impressed. Now, tell me what
happened.”

Kurogiri gave a pointed look in the direction of

the room in which Yami was sleeping.

Sensei smiled and when he spoke again, he had

significantly raised his voice, the sound piercing
the bartender’s ears that had been made
sensitive by sleep.

“I am going to grab the first hero I find from the

street, reduce him to a thin and bloody paste,
and paint the walls of this gaudy tower with it!”

Both men braced themselves, ready for Yami to

jump out of the room and to tackle All for One by
reflex.

Nothing happened.

“See? He is dead to the world. Quirk overuse and

coming down from adrenaline will do that. Now,
tell me everything.”

So Kurogiri did. From the moment he had been

asked to create multiple warp gates for Yami to
run around, long before he had realized what was
happening in Hosu, to Ao’s healing Yami and
asking Kurogiri to keep him warm and rested.

All for One seemed surprisingly calm, as if he was

more focused on predicting what would be the
consequences of his night than to worry about
Yami.

He must have seen him when I was asleep.

“There is something else,” Kurogiri added. “The

day before you left, I helped Anyone secure a van
transporting funds. The protocol, made by
Anyone himself, is that the van must be warped
at a secondary location, the merchandise must be
taken out, and the vehicle in itself must be lost.”

All for One nodded, a faint trace of amusement

tugging at his lips, because Anyone didn’t
hesitate to simply take what they needed when
the call of the budget was heard.

“At the time, I didn’t pay attention but I

remember a red feather there. I assumed that one
of the transporters must have had a mutation
quirk, but it’s only after I heard that the pro hero
Hawks had flown to Hosu and helped look for the
vigilante who took down the Hero Killer that I
remembered his quirk.”

“The number 3 hero… He can fly and

telekinetically control his wings, can’t he? Can he
trace them?”

Kurogiri wasn’t surprised that he knew it. He had

reacquainted with the hero ranking since he had
broken out, and the top 10 had the most
interesting powers.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “If it does, I am

almost certain the feather was out of range.”

“Was he trying to catch Anyone or was he one of

his operatives?”

“… I don’t know,” Kurogiri repeated, but after a

significant pause.

“I see.”

Kurogiri mentally prepared himself for the news

of the winged hero to be found in pieces
somewhere. He didn’t know when it would
happen but he suspected it was simply a matter
of time.

“Thank you for making sure he stayed in one

piece. I am sure that this was quite the challenge.
You should get some rest.”

Izuku woke up in an unfamiliar room, in a house

he didn’t know, his body screaming in pain, and
generally disoriented, especially when he saw
Stain’s still bloody knife on the nightstand.

However, since he had lived through waking up

to have a recently escaped and definitely violent
villain cooking him breakfast, he took it in stride
and got out of bed, wincing as his muscles
disagreed with every movement.

He took a moment from that. Just accepted the

pain, accepted the bruises from being beaten
down, how raw his chest felt after Ao had healed
him, and the strain his quirk had put on his body.
Once he was done, he certainly wasn’t less in
pain, but no one could have guessed it.

Fortunately, he had a vague memory of Kurosawa

sending him an email to tell him not to come to
the Bright Quirk agency today, because of what
had happened in Hosu. He still checked that he
hadn’t dreamed it so he could keep sleeping
without guilt, and he had been surprised to see
that he had actually answered the mail, asking if
everyone was alright, with an average of two
typos per word.

With a little luck, she would assume that this was

either because he was a teenager or because it
had been before 7 AM.

The house was beautiful, modern and it was

decorated with the minimalism that only rich
people could afford. For a second, maybe, Izuku
wondered if it was Kurogiri’s, but it simply didn’t
look like him.

For all he knew, Kurogiri had panicked when he

had seen Izuku sleepily drooling in his bar and he
had thrown him to the nearest place with a bed
he could think of. Maybe the owners would be
back any moment from now on and wouldn’t be
amused to see a teenager squatting here.

Izuku found a compromise by walking through

the splendid patio door and onto the beach.

He was sitting on the warm sand, calmed down

by the sound of the waves rolling on the shores,
when he learned that he had been filmed and
that the Anyone server was currently on fire,
everyone trying to contact him.

Curiously, he didn’t panic. Maybe it was because

of where he had woken up, but nothing felt real.
His only reaction was a How nice of them to have
cut the part where a senior wiped the floor with
me, and he sent several instructions to Nagisa.

Izuku didn’t know how long he stayed there but

he would remember it until his last day. This
feeling of peace, of a world that kept gaining in
speed finally slowing down, finally leaving him
the time to breathe.

A blissful moment that was interrupted by All for

One landing next to him. For once, he hadn’t
warped, apparently out for a flight.

Not that Izuku couldn’t understand. If he could fly,

he would jump on any occasion to use that quirk.

“Is that what you call a calm week?” All for One
asked, oddly… well, calm. “Meeting a Hero Killer,
the Incandescent hero and All Might’s ally all at
once?”

Actually, I barely saw Endeavor.

“I didn’t have a choice. Someone would have

died if I hadn’t intervened.”

“The new Ingenium? As far as I am concerned, it

was natural selection at its finest.”

Izuku looked at him, raising his head. And raising

his head some more. A few days without his
roommate and he had managed to forget how
tall he was. In any case, he raised an eyebrow,
remembering the emotion in All for One’s voice
when he had talked about his little brother.

Somehow he doubted that All for One had been

the picture of restraint when his sibling had been
hurt.

However, he doubted that bringing up All for

One’s dead brother would be considered
endearing, so he chose the diplomatic approach.

“I can understand that you are upset.”

“You broke our deal,” All for One noticed, with

the same tone the devil would use when talking
about an pact signed in blood: promising
consequences that he would enjoy.

“I said: spare any catastrophe,” Izuku reminded

him. “How exactly am I responsible of several
multiquirked villains attacking Hosu?”

Notes:
Thank you so much for all the
comments and your constant
support. Your encouragements
really helped me during this
troubled time.

CHAPTER 19: INTERLUDE

Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chizome couldn’t feel anything beneath his waist.

It was as if his legs had disappeared, even though

he could still see them. He kept trying to move
them. He would look at them, focus on what it
felt like to feel anything there, and he would try
with all his will, just a toe, even the faintest shiver,
to confirm that not everything was over.

But for the first time since he had decided to

hone his body, to become a weapon, his body
wasn’t perfectly answering to him and his legs
stayed still.

Paralyzed.

That was the word, the sentence, though, the

doctors hadn’t told it like that. Too cowardly to
actually announce the awful truth directly.

“The damage to your spine after the fall…

Moving afterwards only worsened your injuries…
Only time will tell…”

Hope was a poison. But hope was the only thing

Chizome had.

So he shut up when the two police officers came

for him. A plain black-haired one, and another
who looked like a blond personification of Death.
The latter didn’t say a word. He just looked at
Chizome, and the air in his lungs seemed almost
viscous under this stare.

They asked questions about the vigilante. About

the heroes that he had culled. And the other
ones, the suspects in his quest to help All Might.

And Chizome didn’t utter a word, conscious that

if there was a deal to be made, it wouldn’t be
with the police, but with the Hero Commission.
They might even be able to fix his spine.

He was waiting for one of their agents, aware that

they had to send one to cover their tracks –
cowards, all of them- when someone knocked at
his door. That person knocked a second time,
warning that she was coming in, and a woman
with short dark blue hair cut into a bob and
wearing glasses entered.

She seemed familiar. Chizome couldn’t remember

where he had seen her but there was something
about her that assured him they had met in some
way.

There was another woman behind her, and

everything about her screamed police officer. She
looked at the first woman, as if she was asking if
she wanted her to stay, but the dark-haired
woman shook her head and thanked her with a
smile. The purple-haired-woman glared at Stain,
as if to warn him not to do anything, and closed
the door behind her.

What was she expecting him to do? Crawl to her

friend and bite her ankles?

“Hello,” the woman said, confirming that she

wasn’t from the Hero Commission because they
weren’t so polite. The casual jeans and shirt were
also a clue. “You don’t know me. And honestly, I
don’t know you either. But I kept my ears to the
ground. And when I heard what had happened to
you, I felt the need to come. Do you mind if I talk
to you?”

The courtesy felt unreal and for a moment,

Chizome wondered if he wasn’t actually
dreaming. Morphine could create strange
dreams. Still, he made a gesture to invite her to
sit in one of the two chair left in the room, and
she let herself fall on it, her shoulders slumped.

“Thank you. Honestly, it has been a stressful… I

don’t even know for how long I have been
stressed anymore. The days tend to blur.”

As if to illustrate her point, she picked her

glasses, tried to clean them with the hem of her
shirt, failed, and put back the cloudy glasses on
her nose.

“Don’t worry, I am not with the police,” she

assured. “Or a hero. I am the one no one ever
thinks about: I am the family of your victims. You
tried to kill both of my sons.”

The image of the two Ingeniums was summoned

from Chizome’s memory and appeared in front of
her face. They were far from identical but there
was enough to justify this feeling of familiarity.

For a moment, he wondered if she was here to

kill him.

“People said that you let him live on purpose, so

he would spread your message, but we both
know it’s a lie, don’t we?” she said, and she was
so calm that it was unnerving. No anger, no
sadness, her emotions tightly controlled and not
leading her.

Too bad that her youngest hadn’t learned that

from her.

“My baby…” On that, her voice almost broke but

she quickly hid it again and there was steel in her
eyes. “My son had internal injuries. You slashed
him, left him bleeding to death in this alley. He
should have died. But Tensei hung onto life. He
hung on, even if no one knew where he was.”

Chizome didn’t say anything. She might not have

been from the police but several agents were
obviously waiting right behind the door. Maybe
recording.

He didn’t tell him how her son had utterly failed

in his duty. How he had whined like a child when
he had left.

Knowing the truth was enough for him.

“And then, you tried to kill my other boy. My

other little one. A child. I wonder how you justify
that to yourself. I mean, I heard what you said,
this silly little rant of yours. About heroes being
unworthy. And yet, here you are, the most
unworthy of all, butchering people, children
included.”

Chizome’s clenches his teeth, because of course,

she didn’t know what kind of sacrifice he had
made to protect All Might. She could afford to
live in the light, unpreoccupied by how
dangerous and ugly the world really was, because
there were people like him working in the
shadow.

The woman leaned in, something cold glowing in

her eyes.

“What makes you competent to judge anyone of

us, let alone people who risk their lives every day
to save others?”

For a moment, from the first time since the

beginning of this conversation, his mind didn’t
find how to counter what she was saying.

That was rage. Rage and hatred and a need to

hurt him, barely controlled, for everyone to see.

And in an instant, they disappeared as she

became the plain woman that had entered his
room and asked if she could sit.

“Don’t worry… I am not trying to get actual

answers from you. I know what you are: evil and
delusional. You’re far from unique.”

Annoyance stung him. She doesn’t know what

she is talking about.

Here she was, talking about her experience,

probably after pulling some strings to find him, in
the hope that he would understand what she had
gone through. But the truth was that he was
aware of it. He knew they had families and
friends.

But the people he had killed had chosen this

path, had chosen those risks.

“I wanted you dead. God, I wanted you dead,”

she sighed, almost dreamily. Like someone who
had contemplated murdering him graphically
several times, which was a little jarring from a
woman who didn’t look like she had ever killed a
spider. “When I learned that you were paralyzed,
I thought of my son, of course. How ironic. But it
wasn’t enough. All those people you killed… My
heart aches for their families. But it’s not like you
can be killed more than once. It’s not like I could
inflict you the same pain upon you, the same
horror, the same death you so callously gifted
your victims. But I thought about it and I have
decided that it wasn’t too bad.”

“Oh, really?” Chizome growled.

He couldn’t help it.

That made her smile, the expression not reaching

her eyes and he realized that it was the first time
he had talked.

“Like my son, you won’t walk again. Unlike my

son, there will be no one for you. My son will be
cared for, he will be able to share his pain and his
frustration with us, and he will get better. He will
get back to his life, and even though he can’t be
a hero anymore, he will keep helping people,
because that’s who he is. His life won’t be easy,
but he will be happy. While you will rot away in a
cell, unable to do the most basic thing, your life
cut short.”

She rose up, regal as she was passing judgement

on his future and deemed it an acceptable
punishment for what Chizome had done.

“I want you to know that from this moment

onwards, I won’t hate you anymore. You have
nothing and you will become nothing more than
a pathetic ghost.”

Do you really think you can forget me? That my

shadow won’t haunt you every time you look at
what your son has become because of me?

“But before I go, I want you to know that you

failed,” she added, utter scorn coloring that cold
smile of hers. “Ingenium will live on. His name
will live through my youngest son, a gentle and
kind boy, but who loves this brother so much that
he was ready to kill you. It will live on through all
the people my oldest son saved. All the sidekicks
he gave a chance and who also love him. And he
will live on, because unlike you, life has still so
much to offer him.”

And for a moment, Chizome saw what she was

seeing. Him trapped, in a cage that wasn’t only
his cell but his own body, while her sons lived on.

While the fake heroes lived on, no one to remind

them the consequences of not taking their duty
seriously.

While the Thief kept using a quirk that didn’t

belong to him.

“Farewell, Stain.”

And she left him, alone with his thoughts. She

didn’t look back.

It was as if, to her, he didn’t exist anymore.

Tenko didn’t remember starting to scratch, only

the moment when he felt the skin of his neck
starting to become raw, threatening to bleed
under his nails.

He immediately stopped and rubbed the spot,

hoping that it wasn’t too visible.

The last thing he needed was for them to worry

about him.

He knocked on Gran Torino’s door three times,

didn’t wait for an answer, and used his key. He
could enter whenever he wanted but he had
learned that it was better to warn paranoid
heroes before he barged in or he could get some
very intense stares for a few seconds.

Yesterday hadn’t been a good day. He had known

it would be a difficult one because he had eaten
with his family. Not only had this not happened in
a while –classes made for a wonderful excuse-
but the mood was still down because of when All
Might had tried to warn them about All for One
and offered him to protect them.

Of course, that hadn’t gone well with his father,

who disliked Yagi just as much as he disliked
Tenko’s grandmother, and he had barked at him
that villains wouldn’t be interest in them if Yagi
and heroes like him didn’t keep hanging around
them, turning them into targets.

So, things were tense and it hadn’t gotten better

as Tenko’s favorite grumpy old man had been
injured on the job by the same boy who had
stolen Yagi’s quirk.

Yagi was already waiting in the living room, sitting

on the couch and floating in clothes too big for
him, lost in thoughts until he saw Tenko and a
smile appeared on his face. It didn't do anything
to hide his exhaustion but it lit up his entire face,
the kind of smile that made people automatically
smile back because someone was happy to see
them.

From the room on the first floor, the one where

Tenko had slept many times, could be heard the
sound of loud snoring despite the closed door.
Gran Torino would deny and would introduce his
cane to anyone who would tell him but he was a
very loud snorer.

“How is he?” Tenko asked.

“It’s superficial. He will probably feel it for several

days but he will be fine.”

He contained a sigh of relief and put the tayaki

he had bought on the kitchen table, next to those
Yagi had brought. No matter how many sweets
were in Gran Torino’s house, they always
disappeared in two days at most.

“That’s good to know.”

Yagi nodded but he still looked... Tenko didn’t

quite have the word. Exhausted was a given.
Guilty wasn’t surprising because everything the
thief was doing or even All for One when he was
unleashing villains on a city was his responsibility
as far as he was concerned. Because he had let
One for All be stolen.

Because he hadn’t finished the job with All for

One.

Worn down seemed to be the closest term. He

didn’t have the strength to keep going and now
that he had paused, every unpleasant in his life
was coming back to haunt him.

“If All for One isn’t showing up in person, that

means his health isn’t allowing it, isn’t it?” Tenko
said. “The noumus are a good way to keep
society on edge but the media and everyone
agree that the heroes did a splendid job
containing them.”

“It’s not the only thing society is saying,” Yagi

said, deadpan. “But yes, that’s a relief. He is
probably licking his wounds and clinging to the
quirks that are barely keeping him alive,” he
continued in a more normal tone, not upbeat but
the professional one that kept people calm.

Tenko made his way to the kettle because this

was the kind of moment that necessitated tea in
great amount. The kind of amount where one
could drown his sorrow in.

If society agreed that the heroes had done an

amazing job in Hosu, what the Thief had done
had divided them. Some were hailing him as the
kind of people who got the job done, others
didn’t forget that a pro hero had been injured
during the altercation, and the Hosu Police was
being chewed out.

“Yes, some people are angry that the heroes

aren’t the ones who arrested Stain,” Tenko
admitted. “But you know that, even if everyone
loves heroes, on principle, some people want
them to be perfect and can’t deal with the
necessities of reality. Honestly, apart from
Endeavor, heroes are not expected to investigate.
The police are in hotter waters.”

“The boy was there at the right time,” Yagi said,

to Tenko’s surprise but All Might was nothing if
honest. “I am not afraid to admit it. Two people
would have died tonight without him. I simply
regret that everyone else seems to want to forget
that a pro hero was injured by him.”

Tenko passed his hand near the kettle to make

sure it was actually getting hotter, only for the
damn thing to choose this moment to whistle,
almost giving him a heart attack.

“I am aware.” And by that, he meant that

Hebitsuga and him had bickered on this exact
point. “It’s because they are arguing that
someone who protected two people and took on
the Hero Killer wouldn’t have wounded a pro
hero for no reason and they are right because
they are unaware of what he did and why Gran
Torino attacked without letting him a chance to
run.”

He poured the tea in three cups, forgetting that

Gran Torino was busy sawing logs, and he
brought two cups to All Might before he took his
own.

“They aren’t aware of the story,” Tenko

continued. “They aren’t aware of who he attacked
and of what he stole. And they can’t know that,
for Gran, it’s not about a villain. It’s about
someone who hurt you.”

Gran Torino was stubborn, grumpy, addicted to

sweets, but he loved fiercely.

“And others are arguing that vigilantes are illegal

for a reason and that it’s to avoid this exact same
of mix-up,” Tenko added, because as the one
conscious person in this room who used social
platforms, he felt like he had to be the one to
keep the Symbol of Peace in the known. “You
should see in what state Tumblr is.”

“I will pass. That sounds like a scary place.”

Spoken like one of the natives.

“I keep thinking about him,” Yagi admitted.

“About what I said to him that day. There is a
childish logic in what he did. If he couldn’t
become a hero without a quirk, taking one was
his only option. And as All for One was presumed
dead at the time, I had to be the target.”

Yagi didn’t comment on how the kid had even

known about One for All but Tenko knew he was
thinking about it. Yagi knew the people he had
revealed his secrets to but even if they hadn’t
been interrogated –all of them volunteering to
tell that to Detective Tsukauchi- , he knew that
they weren’t the only one who knew. There were
the families of the previous users, All for One,
and whoever they could have revealed the secret.

As long as it doesn’t reach the ears of the Hero

Commission.

“A great quirk doesn’t make a hero. Just like a

dangerous quirk doesn’t make the villain,” Tenko
pondered, watching his hands, ungloved.

To say that the moment when his quirk had

manifested had been traumatizing would have
been an understatement. He had spent weeks
dealing with what he had thought to be allergies.
He had been in distress. And after what had
happened to Mon-chan, he had been terrorized,
running through the streets after he had
destroyed part of his home.

If All Might hadn’t found me…

“Of course it doesn’t,” Yagi said and there was a

hint of a growl in his voice for a moment, his hand
on Tenko’s shoulder, squeezing it. “As for him, I
simply didn’t want to sugarcoat this life."

Yagi probably didn’t notice but he put a hand on

his side, right were All for One had ripped off his
guts.

“Even with One for All, this job did a number on

me. Becoming the Symbol of Peace is a path of
constant sacrifice.”

And in this moment, something happened.

People, by definition, weren’t aware of their

ignorance. And because of their ignorance, they
could say things that would be interpreted
completely differently by the people they were
talking to and who didn’t have the same set of
experience.

But that didn’t mean that telling someone older

than you that he misunderstood a truth about
society that he should have been aware of if he
hadn’t been privileged was the most pleasing
experience. Especially when said person was
already blaming themselves.

But right now, Tenko had this image of All Might

finding the thief, trying to surrender peacefully,
and the Thief exploding because All Might had
accidentally said something inconsiderate.

The kid had already flipped out and organized a

heist to steal One for All. The last thing they
needed was this kind of volatility pointed in
Yagi’s, or anyone’s really, direction once again.

“Yes, about that… It’s possible that he knows

about difficult path. Being quirkless is a source of
constant hardship in itself in this society.”

And Yagi didn’t get it. Of course he didn’t.

“I have been one. Unless my memory is failing

me, it could be tough but not to this point.”

“Maybe in your time,” Tenko carefully said

because he didn’t want to call Yagi a fossil. That
was Gran Torino’s job. “When it was more
common. But here, in Japan, quirkless people are
heavily discriminated. Even finding good schools
is complicated, so finding jobs are worst. And…
Well, they don’t tend to live long. Be it because
of mental health or hate crime.”

Toshinori wasn’t surprised by many things. He

had a lot of experience as a hero and that was
definitely a Seen It All kind of job. Horrible things
still wounded him but there were alas familiar. He
was in known territory, knew what to do.

He had been aware that, depending on one’s

quirk, life wasn’t always easy. But in his arrogance,
at no point had he thought that the situation had
changed so drastically for quirkless people.

But Tenko told him. In details. How the

association he was working for had only just
realized that they had to fight for quirkless people
because they were forgotten and run down by
life.

“You could become a police officer,” he had said

to a kid looking up to him, maybe searching for
some hope. Only to discover that All Might
wasn’t only a pitiful shadow of what he used to
be, but also that he simply wasn’t in speaking
terms with his reality.

“I am not saying that to blame you,” Tenko

warned. “I just want you to be prepared if he
throws that in your face when you see him again.
You might not have been aware of his reality, but
it doesn’t excuse what he did.”

One for All wasn’t just a quirk. It was a

manifestation of will. It was the will of seven
heroes before All Might, crystallized to make
something greater than the sum of their parts.
And giving One for All was both an act of trust
and love. It was having faith in your successor,
faith that they will keep fighting the good fight.

It was Shimura Nana’s ultimate act of love.

She had abandoned so much but she was also

the one who had believed in the dream of a
middle schooler and gave him the push he
needed to become the greatest hero Japan had
ever known and to bring peace to this country.

The Thief had violated that. Whatever his reasons

were, he had attacked Yagi, made him go
through the eventuality of his death –Tenko
couldn’t even imagine what it was like to be
confronted with his own end- and tricked him into
giving One for All.

“The truth is that everyone has a sad story but

most people don’t become villains,” Tenko
reminded him.

And that was something Yagi was supposed to

know. But the day apparently was far from over as
Yagi, the man Tenko saw as an uncle, admitted
what had really depressed him.

“This was not the last time that my lack of

awareness led to a tragedy.”

And honestly, Tenko hadn’t been prepared for

more depressing news than the Thief escaping
Gran Torino, but not without neutralizing his
speed in a brutal way. Even the deep rage that
saturated Yagi’s words wasn’t enough of a
warning.

“Stain had been killing people with parasitic

quirks,” All Might growled, suddenly in his All
Might form. “In my name.”

Horror fought despair fought rage fought a

sudden lack of faith in the world.

People had been assassinated in Yagi’s name.

Someone had thought that they were doing this
for the Symbol of Peace. Those people had been
assassinated for their quirks, someone deeming
them unworthy enough to just cross all their
names from a death list in the faint hope of
eventually getting to the one person who might
have weakened All Might.

There were so many things to say. To ask, to

scream, to empathize, to comfort.

But Tenko’s brain, for this moment, simply

couldn’t compute the horror, and he realized why
he hadn’t known why Yagi was so exhausted.
Sometimes, there was so much that it just wasn’t
identifiable.

“How?” was all he managed to say.

“There is a leak in the Hero Commission.

Someone who told a lunatic about my
predicament and it led to children murdered for
their quirks. The last purge of this kind happened
before I was number 1. I will find whoever did
this. And I will make them pay. This has priority
over the search for the Thief and his links with
Anyone.”

“All for One? Where is my All Might collection?”

“What do you mean?”

“My All Might posters. My All Might figurines. My

hero collection. My hoodies.”

“Oh, those.”

“Where. Is. My. Collection?”

“Safe. I hope you enjoyed those cookies.”

Notes:
Finals incoming so I won't answer
all your comments right away.
Thank you so much for your
support.

PS: Also, the mood whiplash at

the end is so violent...

CHAPTER 20
Notes:
Fanarts from the previous chapter!
https://gentrychild.tumblr.com/po
st/620878862132379648/anyone-
chapter-20-so-spoilers-if-you-
havent-read
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

“I am just saying that Stain is pretty cool,” Yuuto

was saying, fully bringing Izuku back into the
conversation.

The teenager who had personally pushed that

lunatic from a roof put down his pen and looked
at his classmate. Hebisuga didn’t bother to stop
writing but she did give him a sharp glance or
maybe she was checking that Yuuto was still
shielding them from the eyes of their homeroom
teacher.

Izuku was shamelessly stealing her homework in

Literature while Hebisuga was discreetly
photographing his paper on quirk evolution. They
would change some words and would be able to
focus on their respective strong subjects, but
sadly, the school didn’t encourage this kind of
spirit of initiative and they couldn’t get caught.

“You do realize that he murdered several heroes

in cold blood, right?” Izuku asked.

He could have added more. For example, that

Stain was crazy, had killed innocent teenagers,
that his mind made leaps through logic that could
win him medal gold in bonkeritude, that he
smelled, and all in all, that he was a despicable
being. But as he was attached to his secret
identity, he tried to hide the utter scorn the Hero
Killer inspired him.

“I am not saying I approve! I am just saying that

he has a point. A lot of heroes are doing this for
the money.”

“That’s rich coming from someone in a private

school who is aiming for an important job,”
Hebisuga glanced at Yuuto with the same
intensity most people would shank someone
with. “Unless you’re planning to donate most of
your salary once you have a high-paying
activity?”

“…”

“Yes, that’s what I thought. And I can’t believe

we’re talking about Stain when we could be
talking about the vigilante.”

No! Go back to the lunatic with a sword!

“He is from the Anyone organization and he is

amazing.”

That was the kind of talk that only someone who

wasn’t aware that the vigilante in question had
been beaten by an old man (the bruises
everywhere under his uniform were a painful
reminder) could hold. For proof, Todoroki, once
he had been out of the hospital, and apparently
after he had insulted the chief of police to his
face, had called Izuku, instead of texting like any
respectable teenagers would do, just to mock
him.

“The way he handled Stain when so many heroes

couldn’t… I thought this story about those
vigilante dispatched where there was trouble was
just an urban legend until now.”

You and so many others. So many people were

trying to get in the server, often disappointed
when they realized that it was more about
exchanging services than a complete vigilante
organization and Izuku and Nagisa had to
compartmentalize everything in order not to be
overwhelmed by the newcomers.

Izuku had been forced to be pretty firm with

anyone asking too many questions and a little
harsh with anyone thinking Anyone’s goal was to
fight the current hero society and to make the
villains pay.

“He still stabbed a pro hero.”

“Yes, but he was attacked first. The pro didn’t try

to arrest him. I heard it’s because he was fighting
Stain.”

“It’s not confirmed and he still stabbed a hero.”

“What do you think, Akatani?”

Izuku raised his head and blinked at them, really

not wanting to add anything to the conversation.

What saved him from giving his opinion on what

he had done was their homeroom teacher’s
apparition. They immediately pretended that they
weren’t immorally gaining time and they became
the picture of innocence.

She must have been really overworked because

she somehow didn’t chew them out and zeroed
on Izuku instead.

Which, really, was a typical day in his life by now.

“Akatani, I just saw your mother’s answer. She

can’t make it to the parents-teacher meeting?”

“My mom is travelling for her work. And I don’t

think she can use video conference, not with the
jetlag?”

“Oh my, is it that bad?”

Izuku had actually no idea of how severe the

jetlag was but he knew that his mom couldn’t
learn about this school, because interesting
questions would follow.

Why is your hair white, Izuku? Why are you not

using your birth name anymore, Izuku? Why are
you pretending to have a quirk? Why is there a
strange man living in our apartment, Izuku?

Izuku nodded.

“Well, we will have to reschedule, then. I am

afraid that the school is adamant about meeting
our students’ parents.”

Izuku looked into his teacher’s eyes, and realized

that this was one of those moments where a well-
meaning adult wasn’t going to let herself be
bullshited into making his life easier.

He took a deep breath.

“My father is going to take a week off soon.

When is the teacher-parents meeting again?”

The only advantage of destroying all his heat-

sensitive nerve endings until it took the
consistence of leather was that Dabi couldn’t feel
himself burning alive anymore. Well, more or less.
However, he could still feel his body heating up,
boiling from the inside as his quirk was killing
him.

He could feel the way he was starting to get

nauseous and how he was getting more light-
headed by the second. He needed to stop using
his flames now and to cool down for ten good
minutes.

“Maybe we should stop here?” he offered.

Shouto, leaning forwards as exhaustion was

taking his toll, had frost spreading on his right
side so he could cool down.

“I can keep going,” his little brother assured,

even though he was out-of-breath.

Dabi turned around, walked to the cooler who

wasn’t cooling much after they had spent thirty
minutes throwing fire into the private training
room, picked up a water bottle, and threw it at
his brother. It bounced off his chest and his half of
a shirt with a loud sound, and finally, Shouto
admitted that a break wouldn’t harm him.

He didn’t notice that Dabi was at his limits and

didn’t bat an eye when he poured the content of
his own water bottle over his head, something
Dabi had counted on.

Shouto didn’t know what it was like to live with a

quirk his body couldn’t handle. Worse, he
thought he did. His power could be dangerous if
he went overboard, especially when he was only
using one half, but he didn’t realize that Dabi had
become a master at bluffing.

Pretend it doesn’t hurt. Pretend you can keep

going. Pretend that you’re in control.

Almost everything Dabi had been taught was

unusable because he couldn’t efficiently use
those moves in a fight. Throwing overwhelming
force at an opponent and finishing in one move
was his best bet.

Yami would have noticed it. As a fellow

unfortunate civilian who had a quirk who could
kill him, he couldn’t not see it, and it showed.
Dabi was starting to get sidelined in the Anyone
missions. Nothing drastic yet but he used to be
able to pick as many missions as he wanted, and
now, he had to wait. Forced to rest.

So it was a good thing that Shouto wasn’t

noticing why Dabi didn’t leave any choice when it
came to pauses. Because, when Shouto knew
something, so did Yami. Dabi didn’t know if they
spent their nights messaging each other but they
shared information.

“You’re making progress with controlling your

flames. I think we will soon be able to study the
super moves.”

Shouto gave him the faintest smile.

Years of not using his left side had left Shouto

with a very poor control over his fire, and he
hadn’t been able to really control the output until
now. But training together had helped him and
allowed Dabi to brush up his control. He might
not be able to lower the temperature of his
flames, but he didn’t always need them to be
massive.

Once he was sure he wasn’t going to cook

himself alive, he offered his brother to continue –
they still had the training room for twenty
minutes- but strangely, Shouto didn’t immediately
jump to his feet so he could quickly progress and
kick Endeavor from his number 2 spot.

Truly, a concerning behavior.

“Something you want to share with the class,

Shouto?”

Nothing Dabi could have thought of would have

prepared him to what his brother next said.

“Hawks strongly suspects I am a part of Anyone

and asked to meet the vigilante who beat Stain,
and I don’t know if I should tell it to Midoriya.”

Shouto wasn’t expecting Dabi to react so

vehemently to the Hawks situation. He reminded
him that he had good reasons not to immediately
involve Midoriya, because the last time someone
involved with the Paragon program had breathed
too loudly next to someone Anyone appreciated,
Midoriya had jumped into Tartarus to break them
out, only to get a supervillain as a surprise guest.

Midoriya tended to overreact and to jump to the

nuclear option in those moments.

It wasn’t like Hawks had any proof. And Shouto

had a measure of protection as an Exemplar and
as a legacy.

Dabi had looked at him like he was insane and

had reminded him that if he was caught,
someone with his quirk and family name wouldn’t
be kicked out from the hero course: they would
grab him and integrate him to the Paragon
program to put him back on the right path.

Shouto hadn’t been aware of this possibility.

Dabi dragged his brother through one of

Kurogiri’s warp gates, bringing him to the bar and
to an impatient bartender. All for One was at the
counter, leaning forwards, as if they were
whispering secrets. From the other side of the
room, another warp gate, Yami appearing in his
school uniform.

Dabi frowned. It was a little late for Yami to still

be in those clothes. He tended to change as soon
as he was out of school, not wanting too many
people to see something that could indicate
where he could be found.

“You have twenty minutes,” Kurogiri warned

them. “I have a meeting and if you’re still here
when they arrive, I will warp you to the most
random locations I can think of.”

“We will come back later,” Dabi said, because

they couldn’t talk about Hawks with All for One
present. He still remembered how he had almost
died, choking on popcorns, when he had almost
revealed Anyone’s dangerous game.

“What kind of meeting?” Shouto asked,

obviously confused.

All for One was about to answer but Yami was

faster: “Kurogiri offers a place where people can
negotiate without fearing for their safety or for
their secrets to be spied on. His quirk can both
assure safety and privacy.”

“You mean you have an actual job?” Shouto

asked Kurogiri, as if the idea had never occurred
to him.

And to be fair, it had never occurred to Dabi ever.

He had just figured that Kurogiri was at Anyone’s
and All for One’s beck and call and lived a life
where he could warp anything he needed to him.
But since both All for One and Yami had been
aware of it, he didn’t want to look like… Well, to
look like what Shouto was looking like now.

“What…” Kurogiri stuttered. “What did you think

I was doing for a living?”

Shouto looked left, right, then up, before making

a vague gesture at the bar.

“No, that’s a hobby.”

His little brother looked at Dabi, an offended look

on his face, as if he was wondering why he had
let him believe that for so long. That would have
been the moment to shrug and to take his leave.

“Am I supposed to point out everything to you?”

Dabi asked instead, as if it had been obvious
from the start.

That would never have worked on Fuyumi and

Natsuo would have smelled something fishy but
Shouto bought it, hook, line, and sinker.

After that, All for One had obviously finished

whatever he was doing with Kurogiri and he
walked to the other side of the bar to pick up his
coat before warping away. Kurogiri, already
multitasking, created a warp gate for Dabi and
Shouto.

Later, Dabi would always thank his lucky star that

he chose to linger.

“It won’t take long,” Yami said. “I need a favor.”

“But of course,” Kurogiri answered, which was a

bold choice for someone who knew the vigilante
involved in the Hosu incident, but to be fair,
nothing could have prepared him for what was
next said.

“I need an adult pretending to be my father at a

parent-teacher meeting,” Yami said like someone
asking to borrow some sugar.

All for One, who had been warping away, finished

to do so and immediately warped back into the
bar, to Shouto’s absolute delight. He was about
to say something but Dabi crushed his foot under
his boot, not willing to lose his brother as a
collateral of the great Anyone and All for One
war.

Kurogiri blinked several times, as if what Izuku

had just asked wasn’t simple and perfectly normal
for a teenage villain with a secret identity his
mom couldn’t learn about.

“And you want me to go?” the bartender asked,

the mist around him fuzzier than usual, and he
was looking behind him. “I suppose it’s because
of our striking resemblance?”

Izuku raised an eyebrow, loudly and wordlessly

telling him what he thought of this excuse. In a
world where people could be trains or washing
machines, it wasn’t unheard for children to take
after one parent.

“I could ask someone from Anyone but I don’t

want an outsider to know too much about me.
While you already know I go to that school.”

“I also know where your school is,” All for One,

behind him, intervened. “I could do it.”

Argh. I thought he had already left.

Still, Izuku didn’t look back. He had been ignoring

him for the past few days and giving too
attention was what he was looking for.

“You can’t do it because when you show up to

my school and they ask me who this strange man
is,” he still consented to explain, making sure to
speak slowly so it would reach the space between
All for One’s ears. “I will not recognize you and
admit that I have been followed for the past few
weeks. I will be very upset about the whole
ordeal and the school will call the cops on you.”

“Ah, you’re still mad.”

There was some silence behind him but Izuku

didn’t care. He was busy staring at Kurogiri and
the bartender was busy staring at a point above
Izuku’s head, probably where All for One’s eyes
were.

“Am I supposed to point out everything to you?

All for One apparently stole all his hero
collection, put them in a safe, and hid the safe
somewhere because of the Hosu incident,”
Todoroki quietly explained to Dabi. Except that
when everyone was trying not to make a noise,
quietly didn’t exist. It just shattered silence, no
matter the volume. “Midoriya barely has anything
to wear now.”

Even Izuku himself hadn’t realized how many hero

merch he had until his wardrobe had suddenly
become empty.

“Oh. Have you considered not exclusively

wearing hero merchandises?” Dabi asked, a smile
in his voice, because he thought this was funny.

“Have you considered not exclusively wearing

Hot Topic?” Izuku asked back with a voice so cold
that it could be used as Todoroki’s right side and
so vicious that it could be used as All for One’s
soul.

He could feel the anger building. It was gnawing

at him, begging to be let out. A part of him
wanted to scream at Dabi, to storm out, to use
his quirk. To do something, anything. But it was
just anger talking, louder than usual, and he
pushed it back within himself.

Izuku took a deep breath.

“I didn’t hide it,” All for One corrected, calm,

uncaring. “I left it in a specific location, at their
second last near-death experience. I thought it
was a good lesson so he could feel what it felt
like to have something precious left at the mercy
of anyone who could steal it from him. If there is
no other catastrophe, he should get it back at the
end of the month…”

Izuku took a deep breath out.

“… And now, he is a little upset because he can’t

make me say where it exactly is. But really, it’s
hardly my fault if the first rule of negotiations is to
be in a position of power.”

The teenager turned towards All for One. The

man with which he had a fragile balance. It would
have been stupid to risk it for something as
benign as a hero collection. Especially as All for
One had just revealed where it was.

“It's mine and I will take it back,” he still warned

him.

Yami stormed out of the bar, leaving everyone in

awe of the brutal moment of anger, and they all
looked at each.

He mad? All for One seemed to be silently

asking.

He mad, Kurogiri confirmed.

He mad, Dabi assured.

But All for One didn’t seem offended or regretful.

Instead, he looked where Yami had left, a glint in
his eyes, as if he was pleased with himself to have
provoked such an interesting reaction.

Since the… unfortunate incident the beach had

known, the town had forbidden access to the
beach and intended to create a voluntary
program so it could be cleaned. However, it was
still child’s play to go in, if one was willing to stroll
in garbage and to climb hills of what people had
thrown out.

The idea behind it was that, as someone who

could both fly and warp, All for One had probably
dropped it from above. If it wasn’t the case, it
would take even longer to find. So Shouto, a cap
firmly planted on his head to hide his distinctive
hair, helped his friend to look for a brand new
safe hiding an expensive hero collection.

It would also have been the perfect occasion to

talk to him about Hawks. But Midoriya was
unusually tense, his short sleeved shirt showing
the bruises left by this night in Hosu and the lack
of any hero hoodie to protect him from the chill
of the afternoon. He had left his black one
outside, not wanting it to smell like trash when he
didn’t have many clothes anymore.

Shouto wasn’t good at knowing why people were

upset. Maybe it was really because of his
collection. But maybe it was because the Hosu
debacle had left him on edge, and Shouto had a
part of responsibility for it.

He was the one who had called him for help. If he

had handled it on his own, Anyone wouldn’t be
under scrutiny.

And he wouldn’t have drawn Hawks’ attention.

Saving Iida wasn’t something he regretted but it

had had a price.

“Is your collection expensive?” Shouto asked,

because he had never bought any hero merch.

Midoriya, still looking out for any safe containing

his treasures and his hopes, sighed: “You might
have noticed that I used to be a bit of an All
Might fan.”

“Yes, I caught a glimpse of it here and there,”

Shouto answered, deadpan.

Was might not be the word. Midoriya’s relations

with All Might were complicated, to say the least,
but he still worshiped him. He was still inspired by
him.

Midoriya kept walking and Shouto followed him,

wading in trash.

“Growing up, my mom and I didn’t have a lot of

money. When I bought some All Might merch, it
was with my mother’s money and it was always
the cheapest items. Not that there is anything
wrong with that!” he added with passion. “I
mean, All Might merchandises tend to offer many
items and a lot of them have affordable prices
and many cool ones can actually be won in
games and stuff.”

He rambled some more, going into an extensive

market analysis, and they stopped in front of a
safe, but it was too old and rusty to be the one
they were looking for.

“What I am trying to say is that, once, buying

hero stuff was rare for me,” Midoriya went back
to track. “It was either gifts from my mom or
something I won or bought to myself when I had
something to celebrate. But that changed when I
started to make money with my quirk analyst
activity. At this point, my mom had already found
a good job, but she was living abroad and I didn’t
want to stretch our resources. You never know
when you need them for a rainy day.”

Shouto kept listening, wondering what it felt like

to be left completely on his own. Even when his
mother had been gone, he had Fuyumi.
Someone who cared about him, who would worry
about him and make sure he was alright.

Of course, Midoriya’s mother was probably the

same. He wouldn’t talk about her like that if she
wasn’t loving and caring. But he wondered how
being lonely and having the one person he could
rely on so far away had shaped him.

“When I started to make money, I wanted to put

it in the common funds but my mom refused. She
wanted me to use it for myself. And so I did,”
Midoriya continued, and this time, he was talking
like someone who was realizing some truths only
as they were spoken out loud, as if they were
impossible to see from inside his mind. “I
remember when I acquired each part of my hero
collection. I remember which quirk analysis
brought me the money. I remember which
mission, when I did something good that left me
tired, made me decide that I could indulge. I
remember which words my mom used when she
offered me one.”

And Shouto understood. It wasn’t about the

money or any kind of value. It wasn’t about All for
One.

It was because it was Midoriya’s, something that

belonged to him, and that had been taken from
him without a care, as if it didn’t matter.

But those were emotions he recognized, and not

something he could put into words. He still tried,
though. Because words sometimes had to be said
out loud for them to gain their full meaning.

“It’s important. It’s yours and it’s important.”

Izuku nodded anyway, and now that he had

explained why he was upset, he seemed lighter
than before.

Then, he paused.

And smiled.

“Change of plan. Let’s look for a fire-proof-

container.”

Reckless avatar of chaos: [Can we meet? I need

to talk to you as soon as possible.]

All for One warped at the end of the pontoon

less than a minute after Izuku had texted him. The
leader of Anyone had chosen this location
because the beach was relatively empty and that
was placing them extremely close to the water
without being at the mercy of the waves.

What had once upon a time been a nice little

porch for people to walk on, maybe dive from
there, or at least look at the fishes that were
swimming in the pure water, away from the shore,
was now shabby but large enough to welcome
several people and the metal barrel Izuku had
dragged there. More exactly, he had brought it,
put every All for One’s bespoke suits in it,
drenched them with fire starter, cracked a match,
and was now facing All for One.

The villain smiled. Of course he did. He smiled

like he found Izuku adorable and wanted to ruffle
his hair, and not because of another attempt to
steal One for All.

“Is that an ultimatum, Izuku?” he grinned,

thoroughly amused. “My clothes in exchange for
your collection?”

He took one step towards him, deliberately

towering over him. The amusement was still
there, but there was now an edge behind it, and
some forgotten conservation instinct was
whispering to Izuku that it might not be a good
idea.

“Do you feel like you have the upper hand?” All
for One asked, words that might have been used
with this exact same tone for heroes who had met
an unfortunate end.

Izuku took a deep breath.

“It’s not about having the upper hand. I am not

threatening to burn your clothes.”

All for One’s smile widened. “Good.”

Izuku smiled back and threw the match in the

barrel.

Because the first rule of negotiation might be to

have the upper hand but the second was Don’t
bluff, something Izuku had learned on his own.

Flames burst to life, hungrily awakening and

spreading on the costly fabric, the light
reverberating in every direction. For a moment,
Izuku worried as the fire seemed eager to escape
the barrel, probably because he had been too
generous with the fire starter product, but they
calmed down and focused on the bespoke suits
with an almost giddy voracity.

All for One just stared, his eyes so wide it would

have been comical, so still that it felt like if
someone had touched him, he would have fallen
without moving a muscle.

Izuku wasn’t an unkind man and left him a

moment to deal with the shock. The villain’s eyes
were still wide when he looked again at Izuku, not
even angry, not yet, not when surprise saturated
every cell of his body.

The teenager’s heart was beating so fast it

threatened to escape his chest but what was
done was done.

Showtime.

“Okay, now that I have your attention, let me

explain you my reasoning: I can’t compromise
with you. Not on that. We made a deal. A deal to
which I added a condition and that was broken
because of villains that I suspect were made from
you or by you. In any case, you know something
and you refuse to tell me.”

All for One blinked, which Izuku considered an

encouragement.

“And now, you made a move on my property.

And I can’t allow it, because, even if I can
technically live without it, if I let you have an inch,
you will take a mile. So let me be clear: you don’t
get to punish me.”

Only one person in this world had any kind of

authority over him and she was abroad. She was
the only one who could treat him as a reckless
teenager and punish him when he was out of line.

All for One thinking he had this kind of power

over him was simply too dangerous to be
allowed. He wasn’t his student. He wasn’t under
his protection. He was a One for All holder.

A One for All holder who was offering him a lot

and he better remembered it.

“Of course, you might decide to punish me for

that too,” Izuku admitted. “But I advise you to
think first: you’re enjoying the life you have.
You’re enjoying being free, you’re enjoying not
being alone, and you’re enjoying the strange
peace we have. That’s why you’re still in my
cramped apartment and not in your beautiful
beach house. Think about what it could cost you
not to respect my boundaries.”

Stupefaction was starting to leave All for One’s

system, and Izuku could feel how guarded he
became when he mentioned that he liked their
strange domesticity.

Yes, I know your secret. You don’t like to be

alone. Not after being prisoner of the dark, with
only yourself for company, for so long.

“Once I get out of my room or whatever form of

grounding you’re planning, I am going to
inconvenience you at the slightest occasion. I will
burn every piece of expensive clothes you own. I
will hide your shoe laces. I will commit arson on
your beautiful beach house that really should be
used more. I might not burn your books but I will
put itching powder on five of them so you will live
in fear every time you want to read. I will put dye
in your shampoo.”

And Izuku meant every word. That wouldn’t be

his first crime. That wouldn’t even been the
craziest thing he would do.

“And you might think you can prevent it. But I

implore to remember who I am and what I do. Or
at least, under which circumstances we met. Do
you really want to live with that kind of constant
pettiness just because you weren’t able to keep
your controlling tendencies in check?”

In that moment, the balance between them

shifted. Maybe All for One had somehow
forgotten that Izuku wasn’t a hero, not even a
vigilante. He had done things people would have
never considered.

And he couldn’t allow anyone to push him

around. He had actually taken some definite and
extreme measures to be sure he wouldn’t be at
the whims of someone else.

“Where is my collection?” Izuku asked.

All for One studied him, pride, amusement,

annoyance and something else fighting on his
face. Something that might be him evaluating
the probabilities of Izuku setting on fire one
supervillain who had overstayed his welcome
both in his life and in Life itself if he was pushed
too far.

Then he approached, close enough to touch

Izuku.

“You can have the safe but you’re on your own to

open it. Those suits weren’t cheap.”

Since there had been a distinct possibility that All

for One would have stuffed him into said safe and
thrown him into the sea, Izuku was quite relieved.
However, he didn’t show it.

“I suppose that the condition of a good

compromise is that no one is completely
satisfied,” he said instead.

All for One shook, as if he still couldn’t believe

what Izuku had done, before walking away.

“You have to admit… He got style.”

“Why have I never thought of that?”

Me: [I would love for us to meet.)

Not-quite-Azula: [When?]

Me: [What about now?]

Dabi was warped to a beautiful house on the

beach. The living room, the kitchen and the
dining table were all in the same but extremely
large space, and there were signs here and there
that a wall had been taken down to allow that. In
the living room, several shopping bags had been
put on the couch, with brands that made Dabi’s
head spin.

All for One was waiting for him, sitting at the

glass table and reading a file. A white cover over
it was stubbornly refusing to give any indication
of what it contained.

“So much to learn in so little time,” All for One

said as he put down the file. “It’s incredible how
the world changed in barely a decade. Please, sit
down. Can I bring you something to drink?”

Water was the safest choice before Dabi realized

that All for One would have to get up and look
for it in the fridge. That means the villain would
have to pass in front of him.

He realized that he didn’t want the super villain to

approach him. Not without someone else in the
room. Most of the time, it was Yami’s job,
something he had taken for granted because if
All for One was usually impossible to ignore,
some atavistic instinct recognizing the threat even
when he wasn’t actively threatening, there was a
big difference when Yami or Kurogiri were here:
one could convince himself that he was bound by
the rules of civilization and that as long as Dabi
was polite, nothing bad would happen.

Why is Kurogiri never here when we need him?

They usually work together.

Dabi took a deep breath, finally recognizing the

fear that had set inside him. Somehow, as he kept
seeing Yami sassing the villain, he had forgotten
that the leader of Anyone was enjoying a strange
immunity that he didn’t share with the rest of
them.

“I was wondering…” he started, making sure not

to show how nervous he was. He had a feeling
that it was similar to bleeding in front of a shark
when All for One was concerned. “Why are you
so calm about what happened in Hosu? I know
Kurogiri thought you would be livid.”

All for One raised an eyebrow, obviously not

expecting the question but he still answered.

“Because this little incident with the Hero Killer

didn’t make things worse. On the contrary. It
showed that the heroes are not omniscient, the
faith in the hero society is once again weakened,
and it gave me precious clues about the new
group that is using my name. As for Yami being
exposed…” A smile was tugging at the corner of
All for One’s mouth. “Vigilantes are a strange
breed. They are breaking the law and doing
whatever they want but they still consider
themselves unofficial heroes. They can’t help but
to think they are on the same side.”

Vigilante came in different shades. Some of them

didn’t realize they were villains and others were
more selfless than heroes.

Anyone was different. They offered a service.

They were organized.

They were disturbing in the Hero society and that

was why they had a top hero snooping around,
wanting to evaluate the potential threat.

And Yami himself was different. He had a past

with All Might, and if Dabi didn’t know what it
was, he realized that it worried Shouto and that it
was enough for heroes to consider him
dangerous.

“Now, Yami was taught that there is no going

back,” All for One continued. “He can’t walk to
the heroes and try to arrange things. And he can
never hope to be one of them.”

And Dabi understood what it meant.

The more Yami would act as Anyone, and the

more heroes would track him down, just like what
had happened in Hosu. They hadn’t tried to talk,
hadn’t turned a blind eye because he had just
stopped Stain: he was the enemy.

There would be a point where Yami would be

cornered. Where his determination and his smarts
wouldn’t be enough. Where he would need help.

And All for One was biding his time, waiting for
the moment where Yami would have no choice
but to ask for help. To be dependent on him
because he would be the only one he could
count on.

What happened to Yami for him to prefer dealing

with All for One instead of All Might himself?

“But we are not here to talk about him. Not

strictly. I happened to find an interesting Heat
Resistance quirk upon my travels, that would
perfectly suit a new field agent. Someone who is
already in Anyone and who would inform me
about everything Yami is hiding.”

“You’re offering me a job?” Dabi asked,

incredulous.

“No, I am offering you a quirk that will allow you

to stop burning alive every time you use your
power.”

Dabi accepted. He didn’t even hesitate.

Not when the alternative was to wither away,

painfully destroyed by a quirk that had never
been suited to his body because a pro hero had
tried to play God with eugenics and had kept
pushing him when it had been clear that his
experience had failed.

No, Touya had kept pushing himself, desperate

not to lose his place.

Fear still washed over him as All for One grabbed

his head, without leaving him even a moment to
prepare himself. Then pain, along with the quirk
that would allow him to survive a little longer.

The floor was cold under Dabi’s face and he

could see a dress shoe from the corner of his eye.
He looked up and he saw All for One, back at the
table, tranquilly drinking from a Scotch glass.

Oh, I passed out. That’s why I am on the floor.

“Congratulations,” All for One smiled at him.

“You survived.”

Dabi blinked slowly.

“Dying was an option?”

“Don’t concern yourself with that,” the devil he

had made a deal with shrugged.

Inferno more Inferyes:

[I am officially All for One’s spy in your

organization.]

Anyone:

[Tell me you at least got a heat-resistance

quirk out of it.]

Inferno more Inferyes:

[Yep.]

Anyone:

[Then, it’s alright. I am not telling you the

worst of what I do anyway.]

Inferno more Inferyes is typing.

Inferno more Inferyes is typing.

Inferno more Inferyes is typing.

Inferno more Inferyes is typing.

Inferno more Inferyes:

[You know what? I don’t even want to

know.]

[But I am curious to know how you

managed to negotiate with him and to get your
collection back.]

Anyone:

[I burned down his suits and I threatened to

do the same thing with his life.]

[:)]

Notes:
Thank you so much for all the
comments and the constant
support!

CHAPTER 21
Summary:
Izuku keeps dealing with
impossible adults. Coincidentally,
several adults deal with an
impossible teenager.

Opening a safe when one didn’t have the

knowledge or the experience was far more
complicated than expected.

Said safe had been warped into Kurogiri’s bar as

soon as All for One had finally coughed up where
it was, to the barman’s horror as a monstrosity of
cold steel that had spent two days on the beach
was now polluting his bar.

Izuku’s heart bled for him, but it had been

necessary and absolutely not spitefully motivated
by how he had snitched in the second to All for
One after the Hosu incident and how he was still
playing dead for the teacher-parents meeting.

The teenager was starting to have many

problems, be it as Anyone or as Akatani Mikumo,
but the only thing he could control was Midoriya
Izuku’s All Might’s collection and by the Dawn of
Quirks, he was going to get it back even if he had
to progress with One for All until he was able to
open that safe with his bare hands.

In the meantime, he had other options.

He had considered asking Dabi to melt it down.

With his brand new heat resistance quirk, blue
flames might have been able to melt the thing.
However, he couldn’t abide the idea of his
collection being damaged in the operation.

There is also the detail of Dabi still exhausting

himself pretty fast because of all his health issues,
some reasonable part of him had added.

The lizard in his brain had shrugged and kept

looking for a solution.

He had googled the model of the safe and

discovered that the combination that unlocked
the whole thing had ten digits. If he got bored
and decided to try every combination, one by
one, it would be in the millions.

Still, he tried 0000000000, 1111111111,

0123456789, 12345567890 and even
4444444444. Alas, super villains weren’t as
predictable as they used to be in movies.

Finding someone via Anyone who would have

the quirk or at the least the knowledge required
to open this thing would have been the simplest
option but he hesitated to use the server these
days, especially as the video of the vigilante
beating a serial killer was still everywhere. He had
several accounts but he didn’t want to risk
compromising any of them right now.

He had gone to Plan B, which meant trying to

kick the safe open, when Todoroki arrived, his
friend freezing a moment in front of the brutal
spectacle.

“I can come back later if this is a bad time?”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Izuku assured. “This safe was

already going to stay here a while to thank
Kurogiri for warning All for One about Hosu. Is
everything alright?”

Oh, Izuku thought when Todoroki told him what

had happened with Hawks.

Sitting on Nagisa’s couch, eerily still and looking

at the horizon, the young woman with a spider
head could see that the teenager was angry. The
kind of cold anger that was simmering right under
the surface, ready to be unleashed in the most
ruthless way.

This was unusual to see him like that. Anger was

not something people expected when they
looked at this baby-faced-kid who looked like he
had never done anything wrong in his life.

But that was the point. As someone who was

hiding the existence of who Akatani Mikumo had
been, Nagisa was aware that Midoriya Izuku had
been raised in an environment where he wasn’t
allowed to be angry. Too much emotion would
have marked him as oversensitive or as a
delinquent, and no one would have forgiven him
for not acting perfectly.

So now, that kid went to a cold place when he

was angry. And it wasn’t because this rage wasn’t
explosive that it couldn’t be incredibly
destructive.

Tartarus had proved that.

“You’re quite touchy when someone threatens

one of your friends, aren’t you?” she said to
distract Akatani from his dark thoughts while she
checked Hawks’ location.

“This is not the most pleasant feeling in the

world,” he admitted. “Will you help me?”

“Of course I will. After all, you’re paying me. But I

don’t like that we will be the only ones on this
operation.”

Some pro heroes didn’t like interacting with their

fans. They were either uncomfortable, either
scared of disappointing them or simply tired and
would have preferred to ignore this part of the
job.

Hawks was not one of them. Not only had he

been trained to always know how to be liked but
he simply enjoyed interacting with people who
liked what he did. So, despite the fatigue, he
signed countless autographs on bags, photos,
and even on a notebook, took pictures, and when
he flew away, he absolutely did not expect for a
warp gate to swallow him as soon as he was out
of sight.

The first thing he did was to fly up, of course.

Whatever the warper wanted from him, Hawks
had no attention to be a sitting duck by
conveniently staying in the same spot. An
extremely familiar spot as the gate had spat him
out right above his apartment, as if to remind him
that Anyone didn’t only know where he lived but
also that they could apparently always find him.

Once Hawks was up in the sky, he sent as many

feathers as he could afford, scouting the familiar
area to see how many people were here but no
one was waiting for him on the roofs.

Instead, the phone given to him by Anyone rang.

Hawks hesitated. If Anyone, who had kept him at

arm-length, had just warped him in broad
daylight, clearly reminding him that he was not
untouchable, that meant he had annoyed them.

Both a good and a bad thing, and in any case, he

didn’t want to have this conversation in his home.
Despite that one vigilante breaking in, he liked to
use it as a safe space. For his peace of mind.

So he answered as he was still in the air.

“What do you want?” a voice changed by a

program asked.

“I already answered that,” Hawks carefully

reminded them. “To help people.”

“You were given what you asked for. Is it

Anyone’s fault if you weren’t honest with what
you wanted?”

“I came to help and I was blacklisted by everyone

on the server.” And worked to the bone with
what could only be described as malevolent glee.
“I want to do a little more than that.”

“Yes, you asked to help. And you did.

Magnificently. But now, you’re asking to meet
the inner circle, and we can’t help but to
wonder why.”

Hawks started to fly down towards the roof of a

building with a pleasant view above the city.

He had made a mistake in how he had

approached Anyone. They weren’t the typical
vigilantes who wanted to save innocents and fight
villains. Or more exactly, they were more than
that. Anyone itself had started as a place where
to exchange services.

They wouldn’t care about grand ideals or general

discontentment about the hero society.

However, Hawks was a great liar. That was why he

knew that the best lies had a part of truth.

“When I start something, I strive to be the best at

what I do. When I study, I aim for a perfect score.
When I am on patrol, I answer to every call for
help. And right now, my current arrangement with
Anyone is preventing me from doing my best.”

And playing with my sanity.

“You’re not using me right,” Hawks continued.

“What I am doing with you is not different from
patrolling for my hero work. I answer calls from
people who need immediate assistance but
you’re preventing me from accessing those who
could really benefit from having someone with
my experience on their side. I am the guy you
should call when you’re dealing with career
villains. I am the one who can neutralize them. I
have the resources and the training to protect
people who want to escape the underworld.”

You need me.

Are you really going to stand for such a waste of

resources when I am right here, willing to do the
job?

“And obviously, if you have a problem with a

hero, I am the one you should call. I prefer to act
as a distraction and sent the heroes away from
you than to have vigilantes running on adrenaline
dealing with pros. It’s better for everyone.”

The voice at the other end of the line didn’t say

anything, unwilling to betray what they felt, but
the opportunity to have the heroes off their backs
had to be extremely tempting.

“What do you want?” Anyone asked once again

but, judging by the tone, they might have well
asked Hawks to cut the bullshit.

The number 3 hero obliged.

“I want to stop being isolated from the server. If

you don’t trust me, let me deal with one of your
lieutenants. I know that you have elite agents to
deal with complex situations.”

“Very well,” his interlocutor smiled. Hawks could

hear it in their voice. “After all, you already met
one of them.”

Just as Anyone hanged up, Hawks’ feather

detected the specific vibrations of a warp gate
being opened on the roof of the building, right
behind him.

Izuku walked through the warp gate, his

breathing even but deep.

His anger carefully hidden, Anyone left behind so

he would only show the Thief who had stolen
One for All.

Obviously, Hawks had been expecting Dabi.

He already knew him and that way, he wouldn’t

be roasted alive and he could extract information
from him, little by little. People talked when they
worked together. They simply couldn’t help it.

Instead, he saw the same teenager that had been

filmed in Hosu. His hands in his pockets,
something about his hood completely hiding his
face, and with a body language indicating that he
wasn’t considering the top hero as a threat.

The heroic vigilante who had defeated the Hero

Killer and the villainous thief who had attacked
the Symbol of Peace and who had stolen his
power.

“Hi,” the kid who had showed him that he had

been filmed during his heist greeted him. He had
completely fooled Hawks at the time. “I am a
huge fan.”

It… oddly made sense. Hawks was the number 3

hero. Even if Dabi was dangerous, someone who
had the number 1 hero’s strength was more
suited to keep an eye on him.

“So am I. Congratulations on stopping the Hero

Killer. Is Anyone aware that you’re stealing All
Might’s power?”

The boy inhaled before answering.

For this moment, half a second maybe, Hawks

prepared himself to attack. That boy had All
Might’s power. The Hero Commission was after
him but they couldn’t ask the help of the police.
Anyone didn’t mean much compared to a threat
against the Symbol of Peace.

But just because of that, the winged hero

hesitated.

It was too easy. He had just put a foot in the door

and the Thief himself had shown up to welcome
him. For all he knew, he was the one who had
asked to meet Hawks.

It made no sense to compromise an asset when

Hawks already knew who Dabi was and where he
lived.

And at no point had they mentioned Todoroki

Shouto. Maybe it was to protect his identity as a
vigilante.

Maybe Todoroki Shouto had warned his

colleague but not his boss.

What if Anyone really didn’t know? What if the

Thief had showed up to eliminate the threat and
Hawks would now have to face someone who
could call the resources of a criminal organization
and the power of the number 1 hero?

Be careful. Be really careful.

“Are your fans aware that the Paragon program

takes away children from their parents to give
them a decade of glory before they break
because of the constant pressure they are going
through?” the Thief asked. “Or what about the
agents not flashy enough to be Paragons, but still
useful to the Hero Commission?”

“A lot of people are actually aware of it. They just

don’t like thinking about it. And didn’t you just
elude the question?”

“Actually, I did,” the vigilante cheerfully

recognized while flicking his middle finger at
Hawks.

And it wasn’t to show him the bird.

Hawks felt the power contained in that one finger

a moment before the shockwave was throwing
him from the roof, the strength of his wings not
enough to counter it. He let himself fall, out of
sight, sending as many feathers he could spare,
but still rattled to the bone as a power that
shouldn’t exist had threatened to break him in
half.

Worse, he had seen the trajectory of the attack.

He had moved in time to avoid it. But the villain
hadn’t aimed where he was but where he had
fled.

Hawks flapped his wings, pushing on his quirk to

take some speed despite the lack of feathers to
carry his weight and he circled around the
building, wondering just how much power this kid
had taken from All Might. From the edge of his
mind, he felt some his feathers, sharp as knifes,
disappear before they could reach the Thief.

Not destroyed but too far away to answer him.

Hawks flew higher, placing himself so the sun

would be right behind him. In his experience, it
was hard to aim with so much light in your eyes.

The Thief was waiting behind a warp gate,

probably what had devoured Hawks’ feathers. His
right hand was holding his phone, in order to tell
the warper where to use their quirk in order to be
shielded. His left hand, the one with which he
had created a wind blast, was in his pocket.

He didn’t look like the same person. Even from

there, Hawks could feel the power of his quirk,
and for someone who had been trained to see
and react to every threat, it was deeply
unnerving.

Hawks’ generation had been taught to love All

Might and to believe in him. He was the Symbol
of Peace, undefeated, incredibly powerful, but on
their side.

Now, they were confronted by someone who

didn’t care about playing by the rules and who
was using the power of the most powerful person
of this country. Now, Hawks, and everyone
confronted to him, had to admit that this kind of
power was almost unnatural, the kind that could
break societies.

“I think we would get along better if we agree

that respecting the other’s privacy is the best way
to go,” the teenager that was around Tsukuyomi’s
age explained. “I have no problem with working
with you. But abandon any investigation that
concerns me. Do not ask about me on the server.
And do not put me in a situation where I am
cornered and I have no choice but to fight
back.”

Hawks considered the erratic teenage boy who

seemed to have exhausted his patience in the
first five seconds of this conversation and who, a
minor detail, really, might be as strong as All
Might.

He made the strategical decision of not pushing

him for now.

“What have you done to yourself?” Ao later

asked as Izuku was sitting in her living room.

As he was holding his hand in front of him so she

could see his broken finger, it seemed redundant
to say the obvious, but he didn’t want to be
accused of being an awful patient.

“I broke my finger,” he told her.

“You know that’s not what I am ask…”

A thick wad of bills appeared in Izuku’s other

hand. More than enough to skip the questions.

Kurogiri played dead until the day of the parent-

teacher meeting but it didn’t surprise Izuku.

When the day arrived, Izuku got dressed, went to

the kitchen and ate breakfast with All for One.
Neither of them felt the need to break the
silence, but it wasn’t unusual in the morning.

After breakfast, Izuku washed the dishes, brushed

his teeth, and put his sneakers on. He was at the
door where he realized he didn’t know where he
had put his backpack but All for One found the
yellow bag behind the couch. Izuku thanked him
and they left the apartment at the same time.

All for One walked to a beautiful car that Izuku

had never seen before. The teenager was more
versed in hero lore than in cars but he could
recognize something tastefully expensive when
he saw one. The villain walked to the passenger
side, opened the car door, and waited.

Izuku got in. Of course he did. He didn’t

acknowledge that All for One was doing him a
favor, he didn’t even say anything. He just sat in
this beautiful car and waited for All for One to say
something.

The villain was obviously torn apart between the

need to judge him in silence, the smugness
oozing from his every pore, and the need to
make fun of him. Unsurprisingly, the latter won in
a couple of seconds.

“I must admit I am curious. What was your plan to

deal with the absence of parents at this
meeting?”

"I am an appreciated student with a useful quirk

and good grades. That’s the kind of privilege that
allows me to be trusted by a teacher when I
explain that my dad is a very busy man who can’t
predict his schedule. Your help is not as necessary
as you think.”

Being loved by his teachers was as new and

strange as having a quirk and Izuku couldn’t help
but to love using this privilege, just as he loved
running with Full Cowl.

“Oh, I am not trying to help you,” All for One.

“It’s just that someone has to make sure you
don’t stab another elderly.”

Izuku couldn’t help a smile.

“Bold words from someone who qualifies as an

elderly.”

Hebisuga Kei was walking down the hall of the

prestigious Kohaku high school, her sister right
behind her, when she noticed the man. Or maybe
she wasn’t the one who noticed him. The snakes
that never left her and who all had their own
personalities suddenly paid attention, making her
pause.

White hair, quite a good face but a little young

for a man who had a child in high school, and
wearing an expensive costume. He was talking
with a young boy who had his back to her and
who, from his familiar body language, was telling
a parental figure to behave and not to embarrass
him in front of his teachers and friends. Kei knew
that because she had the same talk many times
with her own father and it was the reason why her
sister came to parent-teachers meetings instead
of him.

Parent and child both looked at them when the

Hebisuga sisters approached and Kei realized
several things at once.

The boy was actually Akatani Mikumo, who

hadn’t magically gotten smaller, but who seemed
to be so because the adult next to him was more
tree than man.

The expression on the adult’s face went from

warm and amused to neutral and cold now that
he wasn’t looking at his son.

And they had the exact same eyes. More exactly,

in this moment, they looked at the world in the
exact same way.

Akatani was an extremely nice boy but when he

was focused on something or someone, he
seemed to see everything. Yuuto and she thought
it was because he couldn’t turn off his ability to
analyze quirks.

They probably have the same quirk.

“Hebisuga!” Akatani smiled, and behind him, the

man in a suit relaxed, taking cues from Kei’s
friend’s body language. “How are you? Have you
seen Matsuda-Sensei yet?”

“We did. And now, off we go to our dear quirk

analysis teacher.”

They both winced, perfectly aware of the love Kei

was feeling for this subject. A shame as she had
chosen it because it seemed interesting and now,
she could barely keep up.

“Not a fan of quirk analysis?” the man next to

Akatani smiled.

“Let’s just say that my grades would be better if I

had the quirk for it.”

After all, only Akatani managed to have high

grades in this class.

“Akatani H-Hisashi, my father,” Akatani

introduced them, and for some reason, Hisashi
seemed amused. “And this is Hebisuga Kei and
her older sister, Hebisuga Saya.”

He didn’t tell his father where he had met Saya,

something both sisters noted. They didn’t need
to look at each other to agree not to reveal
anything about the march. Akatani seemed pretty
open-minded for someone who had a quirk that
society would love but that didn’t mean he got
this attitude from his parents.

The conversation didn’t last long as Akatani

literally dragged his father away from them when
he thanked Kei for being his son’s friend.

It was kind of adorable.

Saya had taken one look at Akatani’s father and

she had known that this was an extremely
dangerous man.

It was in the way he moved despite his size. How

he held himself, not thinking himself invulnerable
but knowing he could handle whatever was
thrown at him. How, despite being perfectly
polite to the gorgon sisters, his real focus was on
his son, noting everything, even things the boy
wasn’t aware of. Even without her snakes
supplying her with information most humans
couldn’t notice, all the signs were there.

Kei didn’t see it. More exactly, she didn’t realize

what she was seeing, not listening to her instinct.

Too old to automatically trust her snakes and too

young to have unlearned society’s message that
she was overreacting and couldn’t think badly of
people without any kind of proof. It was okay, she
would learn.

In the meantime, she would make sure that

Akatani Hisashi never learned that Saya’s baby
sister had dragged his son into a march that had
almost turned into a riot. She had a feeling that
this man liked being in control of himself but
judging from how focused he was on his child,
that boy was the trigger that could set him off.

All for One was smiling as Izuku was holding his

arm and leading him to the classroom where
Matsuda-Sensei was waiting for them, which was
unnerving. As for Izuku’s own smile, it had
dropped as soon as Hebisuga wasn’t in sight
anymore. He hadn’t been faking his cheeriness
but now that his friend wasn’t there to distract
him, the weight on his chest was getting hard to
ignore.

“Why are you in such a good mood?” he asked

the bane of his existence.

“No reason,” All for One shrugged. “I am just

happy you made friends. Though, I am
wondering: why are you so anxious?”

Izuku didn’t pause. He didn’t look up at the man

who already knew too much about him. Even if
he had wanted to answer, it wasn't like he could
explain this feeling of everything being wrong.

How could he convey what it felt to see his

mother, head down, her fingers fiddling with the
leather of her bag or the fabric of her skirt as the
teachers were telling her how her son was
lacking, subtly implying that there was something
wrong in how she acted as a mother.

“Midoriya needs to focus in class and to stop

scribbling whatever in those notebooks of his.”

“Midoriya doesn’t fit in the class. He needs to

make more efforts.”

“Midoriya’s grades aren’t as good as at the

beginning of the year. Maybe you need to make
sure he is working correctly at home?”

And Izuku’s mother never directly blamed for that.

But oh, how she blamed herself. She couldn’t
hide it, every failing of his haunting her and
putting her anxiety in overdrive.

There wasn’t a name for knowing that your very

existence was hurting your mother but whatever
it was, despite all the years of being
homeschooled, he had managed to forget it until
now, his anxiety reminding him just because he
was back in school, for a PT meeting.

“I am not anxious,” Izuku simply answered.

Matsuda Mika had been in this school for five

years but as it was Kohaku, it easily felt like ten.
The board wanted results, the students either had
powerful parents or were smart enough to have
passed the exam and the interview, and the
parents made her bear the responsibility of their
children’s failures.

She took a moment to drink some water – a

vestigial mutation left her sensitive to
dehydration so water bottles were strategically
placed all around her class and the teacher room
– before she walked to the door, calling the next
parent and child duo. Her next guests were…
Well, she had been curious about them.

Akatani Mikumo had an incredible quirk analysis

quirk but he was also bright, polite, sweet, and a
loner. He hid the last part well, for he had friends
and got along with everyone, but it didn’t change
the fact that most of his lunch breaks were spent
outside and without his two closest friends, or
that he never initiate any conversation aside from
greetings.

Mika had wondered if it was a side effect of his

quirk. When he focused on his ability, he tended
to lose sight of what was happening around him.
But for all she knew, he was just a little shy.

Akatani Mikumo’s father entered the classroom

and if Mika had been talking, she would have
gone quiet.

She had met parents who were from old fortunes.

She had met parents who were politicians. She
had even met parents who were on the Hero
Commission. Every one of them gave the same
impression of being untouchable, and yet, they
didn’t hold a candle to this man.

Next to him, Mika’s student seemed younger and

cuter, the same way cubs were adorable and how
no one wanted to touch them because their
parents were never far. His face was carefully
neutral when he entered the classroom and his
general body language was clearly
communicating that he didn’t want to be here.

It’s strange. He shouldn’t have anything to worry

about. Unless….

Her student didn’t greet her like his father did,

only nodding at her attention, and when he sat,
he positioned his chair so he could both look at
his father and at his teacher.

There was one thing that could explain this

specific student’s reluctance to see his teacher
and his parent in the same room. Something Mika
hadn’t considered until now.

Akatani Mikumo was the student with the most

absences among his classmates. Potentially
among the whole First Years. Kohaku was
extremely lenient about the non-attendance as
long as their students weren’t falling behind, but
those absences were only allowed if the parents
authorized them.

So far, Mika had received a mail or a note from

Akatani Izumi every time her son hadn’t come to
school. But the teacher had never heard the
woman’s voice or seen her and her son had been
extremely reluctant at the idea of the both of
them meeting.

Directly accusing a student of ditching class

would have been a stupid mistake so Mika
pretended that she hadn’t realized anything and
went through the evaluation. Quirk Analysis was
obviously Akatani Mikumo’s strongest subject but
he was also putting a lot of efforts in his other
classes. The agency with which he was doing his
internship said nothing but praises when he was
concerned, and he was appreciated by teachers
and students alike.

And then, as innocently as possible, she said:

“Such results are impressive when we know that
you’re working from home so often. I am glad
that studying online material suits you as much as
actually attending the classes. Though, if I may
ask, I am curious to know what’s keeping you so
busy?”

Grey eyes narrowed as her student’s father

looked at his son, something steel-like in his eyes.
Mika could have well not as been there anymore
because he was completely focused on the
teenager… who simply stared back at him, his
face not showing any emotion.

Quite the impressive feat as Mika herself was

starting to get uneasy and to regret what she has
just done.

But what he said next wasn’t what she was

expecting.

“Your teacher isn’t aware of why you’re missing

class so much?”

If Izuku had a fire quirk, the glare he gave All for

one would have incinerated the villain. Nothing
but a big pile of ashes on a very uncomfortable
chair. He would have unhinged his jaws like a
snake and all of his anger would have manifested
in a stream of blue flames.

Not because All for One was pretending to be

surprised –it wasn’t like he didn’t know that Izuku
gave priority to his Anyone activities over school
– but because since he had entered this
classroom, he had obviously been having so
much fun.

Izuku had no idea how Matsuda-Sensei hadn’t

noticed it. The smugness. The hint of a smile
every time she mentioned what a calm and
serious student he was. The way his eyes gained
a glint every time All for One stopped listening to
her and was outright wondering what type of
quirks she had.

How? he wondered, distracting himself so he

would control his need to stomp on All for One’s
foot. How do people not notice that he is making
fun of them?

Izuku couldn’t blame him for having a mask, not

when he had crafted his Akatani Mikumo identity
so well, but he felt the right to judge those who
didn’t seem to look past what All for One wanted
them to see.

“My son doesn’t like to talk about it but he has a

frail health,” the bane of Izuku’s existence said
with such weariness that Matsuda-Sensei’s eyes
were suddenly filled with compassion.

The effort Izuku made not to roll his eyes was

nothing short of heroic.

“It’s gotten better through the years,” All for One

continued without breaking eye contact with him,
“but as I keep reminding him, getting better
doesn’t mean he should overdo it.” His eyes then
glanced at Izuku’s homeroom teacher. “He gets
tired easily and he gets fevers when he doesn’t
rest enough. I would have thought that you were
aware of it.”

“I had no idea…” Matsuda-Sensei realized and

Izuku could see that she was remembering all
those times where Izuku had seemed exhausted
or lethargic. It made sense in some way.
Vigilanting wasn’t exactly good for one’s health.
“What is the exact nature of the problem?”

All for One opened his mouth but Izuku never let
him the time to answer.

“Does that matter?”

His voice echoed in the room and brought an

absolute silence with it.

In this moment, Akatani Mikumo looked at Mika

with a coldness unlike anything she had
witnessed before. He barely looked like the same
kid but now, he did bear a striking resemblance
with his father.

She didn’t feel the need to ask any more

questions about his health when the subject was
obviously such a sore point.

“An interesting day,” All for One later

commented, unprompted, as they were leaving
the school and walking towards the car.

Many parents and students were also leaving and

it should have created a traffic jam but they were
unconsciously parting like a bank of plankton
seeing a shark to let All for One pass.

“Was it?” Izuku asked absentmindedly, still

thinking of how his teacher hadn’t even
acknowledged his insolence.

If he had even looked at a teacher that way back

in middle school, his mother would have been
called and informed of his unacceptable
behavior. But Matsuda-Sensei hadn’t even
blinked, looking even sheepish as if she was the
one who had gone too far.

It was eerily reminiscent of how teachers treated

Bakugou. With a respect he seemed to innately
deserve.

“People dislike making error of judgement,” All

for One explained as he unlocked the car and
Izuku let himself fall in the passenger seat. He
fought the urge to curl into a ball and nap right
then and there. “Your teacher was curious about
you and exposed something innocuous you
didn’t want to reveal. Her guilt and
embarrassment will leave you a greater room for
maneuver.”

“And you enjoyed watching me squirm as I was

wondering what you were going to tell her,” the
teenager completed.

His body felt heavy, as if he had actually done

something physical and exhausting instead of
simply keeping an eye on All for One, villain,
murderer, and boogeyman, talking with his
homeroom teacher.

Izuku realized what kind of sentence this was and

why this might have been a tad stressful for his
already fried nerves.

“Well, obviously,” the villain smiled, while doing

an absolutely illegal turn. “You will forgive me but
at my age, I take my amusement wherever I can.”

My mental health is just a sick game to you, isn’t

it?

“Who am I to deny an old man hopefully

reaching the dawn of his life?”

“A very small child whose main hobby is to jump

into situations that could kill him,” All for One
retorted. “It’s a miracle you lived long enough to
get in high school. That said, in which middle
school did you even go?”

“Why do you care?”

“I just spent the day helping you and being

generally exquisite. Is a civil conversation too
much to ask?”

Izuku could have argued about every word but he

was also extremely tired and he had to admit that
All for One had indeed helped him.

“… Aldera Middle School.”

CHAPTER 22
Notes:
Fanart from the previous chapter!
https://gentrychild.tumblr.com/po
st/625099446223585281/sooooo-
i-tried-my-hand-at-drawing-part-
of-the-hawk
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Izuku was on the phone with his mother when All

for One warped into the apartment. Sitting on the
couch, the teenager absent-mindedly waved at
him, focused on what his mother was telling him
about Dubai and her coworkers.

“Aren’t you supposed to be already gone?” his

unwanted roommate asked, somehow missing
the phone Izuku was holding to his ear.

Thankfully, his mother didn’t notice the unfamiliar

voice.

The teenager turned his head, showing that he

was in the middle of a call. All for One nodded
and silently apologized.

“What about you, Izuku? How is school? Do you

eat well? Are you… Are you still getting along
with your friends?”

Izuku smiled. He could understand her hesitation

for the last question as friends were a topic that
used to be carefully avoided. Why ask the
question when Izuku would have to admit that he
was constantly on his own? But now, he had
several of those and he could almost see his
mother beam with pride from the other end of
the line when he told her about them.

So the teenager told her about their various

shenanigans, of how funny Yuuto was, of how
fierce Hebisuga was. He also told her about class,
about how fun it was to know that his hobby
could lead to a job.

The conversation soon came to an end but both

Midoriyas were smiling, just glad to know that the
other was happy.

“Goodbye, Mom,” Izuku said. “I love you.”

At least, that what he tried to say but something

strange happened.

All for One had been walking behind him to

access the kitchen, which wasn’t strange because
this wasn’t an especially big apartment. Actually,
as Izuku kept pointing out to All for One, the
oversized villain would have been far more
comfortable in his beach house.

No, what made Izuku wince and wave his arms in

panic was the fact that he had barely said
goodbye to his mom that All for One dropped to
the ground at light speed, hiding behind the
couch as if he was avoiding a sniper. And since he
was a very tall man, it made a huge THUMP
sound that no one, Izuku's mom included, could
ignore.

“Izuku? What was that?”

The bane of my existence.

Izuku looked around, wondering if All Might was

about to barge in, before he asked the same
question to All for One, silently, and with a lot of
arm-waving. The villain failed to answer, still on
the floor, his face a blank mask that refused to
give the beginning of an answer.

“I put my foot on the table and I accidentally

made some books fall,” he lied through his
gritted teeth.

“Izuku, I’ve already told you not to put your feet

on the… Wait, are you the one who made the
books fall?”

Izuku started to sweat. Actual cold sweat down

his back. The last time that had happened, he
was in Tartarus and he had just met All for One.

“Midoriya Izuku…” Oh God, she used my full

name. “Did you adopt a pet while I was away?”

His hand slapped his mouth before the sound of

incredulity and blind panic could escape his lips.

Inhale. Expire.

“Where is this even coming from?” he managed

to ask in a normal voice while All for One was still
doing his best imitation of a carpet.

“Well, I know you’re alone and I still remember

you running after every cat you saw when you
were little. Do you remember that time you run
so fast after a black one that you crashed into a
tree? My poor baby…”

“I don’t and I didn’t bring any strays into our

apartment!”

Technically, one followed me home, but that’s a

story for another day… Actually, for never.

“You promise that if I came back right now, I

wouldn’t see any cat or dog?”

Izuku’s anxiety shot up with the intention to rise

above the stratosphere and for a moment, he
lived in a world where his mom was right behind
the door, wanting to make a surprise to her awful
son. And he was fine with it. The key was in the
lock so he had his five seconds to throw by the
window any proof that a villain lived there, and
yes, that included the villain in question.

Thankfully, there was still an ocean between them

and Izuku assured her that no cute animal lived
here. This seemed to convince his mom, and he
finally managed to hang up and to look at the
bane of his existence, who had left the floor and
who was now looking at what inside the fridge.

“So… What was that?”

All for One didn’t bother to turn towards him, his

sandwich a higher priority.

“Didn’t you have an appointment?”

Izuku actually did.

Yesterday in the morning, the day after the

parent-teacher meeting, All for One had been
hugging him and that must have been the perfect
way to look at someone’s hair because he had
noticed that his curls had a grey-green tint.
Apparently, it was the sign that the quirk that kept
his hair white was about to stop working.

Izuku had shrugged, certain that he still had some

time, only for his hair to go back to dark green in
the middle of the night.

“That conversation isn’t over!” he warned All for

One while Full Cowling to his room.

SmallMight: [Sorry, I am late! I will be there in

twenty minutes.]

He frowned, holding the phone that didn’t

belong to him in his gloved hand. There was no
real name in the contacts, which wasn’t surprising
since her clients were people who wanted not to
be found.

SmallMight… Wasn’t he involved?

He remembered that name being mentioned in

several messages.

Only one way to find out.

Me: [Don’t worry about it. Waiting for you.]

Back when changing identity was only a project,

Izuku had known that this wasn’t the kind of thing
he could do on his own. It was more complicated
than simply dying his hair and calling himself by
another name.

Fortunately, his own server welcomed people

who knew how to do such things. One went to
them, explained what was wanted, and they
would give a price corresponding to what was
needed. They never asked questions, which
meant that they didn’t care if they were helping a
terrified woman to flee her husband or if they
were allowing a criminal to escape justice.

Neutrality at its finest.

Izuku took the train then the bus, his green hair
hidden by a cap, and he arrived to the house in
the suburbs where Anyone had helped to squirrel
away several victims of domestic abuse, men and
women alike. He knew better than to ring the
doorbell and went through the back, his phone in
hand as he was about to call Ava so she would let
him in.

He never needed to as the backdoor wasn’t

locked. It might have been more polite to call
Ava anyway but he didn’t want to hang out in her
garden longer than necessary so he entered, and
walked down the stairs leading to the basement.
The house was big, extra rooms being used for
her clients who needed a night of safety, but she
preferred to do her illegal business underground.

It was only once he reached the last stair, facing

the sturdy metal door, that Izuku realized he
should have called because she might be with a
client and some of them were extremely twitchy.

“Ava? I am here.” Of course she knows you’re

here, you just called her name. “Are you busy?”

She didn’t answer. Actually, the house was

extremely quiet.

The teenager stopped breathing, the sound of

his respiration potentially covering something of
importance, and he listened. For one, two, three
seconds.

Until Izuku heard the faintest whine. So low that in

any other circumstances, he would have thought
it was the product of his imagination, but his
mind wasn’t quite fertile enough to summon a
sound so saturated with fear.

He kicked the door, right under the doorknob.

As he had said, it was sturdy. It could have been

used as the entrance of a panic room, and
nowadays, those took into account people with
mutation quirks, tougher than normal.

But as Izuku had One for All, the thing flew from
its hinges with enough noise to wake up the
dead.

Ava was on the ground, curled into a fetal

position, claw marks all around her. The wolf
woman would have been invisible without her
jeans and her shirt, her fur having the exact color
of the wall and floor. Izuku ran to her and fell to
his knees by her side, terrified at the idea that she
was dead.

But she was shivering, her eyes looking

everywhere but unable to see Izuku. Her fingers
where bloodied but apart from that, she didn’t
seem injured.

“Who did that to you? Are they still here?”

The words had barely passed Izuku’s lips that he

got his answer as he heard another door
opening, and the sound of one step.

That noise should have been enough to let him

react.

It was at the other side of the room, the teenager

had an enhancing quirk, was used to think fast,
and he simply had the time to react.

But Izuku froze, a cold like he had never felt

before reaching every cell of his body and
keeping him in place as his brain was saturated
with dread. Because that was the kind of cold
born from undiluted fear, the kind where you
knew that what was going to happen was
inevitable.

He managed to turn, somehow taking a step, his

movements sluggish, having nothing in common
with the efficient movements he was proud of,
though he never admitted it.

Maybe because he knew that what he was doing

didn’t matter, that there was no difference,
nothing would save him.

Izuku was going to die. He knew it. He was aware

of it, the same way he was aware of the air he
breathed or of the energy of the quirk inside him.

The punch hit him on the cheekbone, pain

exploding on the left side of his face but it was
the least of his troubles as the back of his head
slammed into the wall so hard that for a moment,
everything became white, no, blinding.

Izuku tried to get up nonetheless. Half insane

with terror, aware that the end was near, his body
still made a desperate effort to get away from the
man in front of him. As he scrambled away, his
vision cleared out, revealing what he already
knew. A man larger than life, wearing the same
white tee-shirt and cargo pants he had on this
day on the roof, where he had saved Izuku’s life
under that bridge, but no smile this time.

“Hello, Thief,” All Might greeted him. “You have

something that belongs to me.”

Izuku tried to reach for his phone. He wasn’t sure

why. Maybe because getting up and attacking
was beyond him. Maybe because he had started
to cling to his phone since he had found Anyone,
since he has entertained the thought that he
might not be much but that he was not a Deku
when he was part of a network.

His finger didn’t even reach the black phone that

had fallen on the floor that All Might rise his foot
before mercilessly stomping down.

On Izuku’s hand.

The pain was sharp and unlike what the teenager

had been expecting but that was the only thing
he hadn’t predicted. Despite popular belief,
general quirk suppressors didn’t exist and without
something to restrain someone with an enhancer
quirk, the only alternative was to incapacitate him
until he wasn’t a threat anymore.

This is going to hurt.

“Was it fun?” All Might asked, his voice

frighteningly cold. He seemed larger than life.
Inescapable. “Playing the hero? Pretending that
my power belonged to you?”

The next kick hit Izuku’s arm but that was better
than his stomach, what All Might had been
aiming at because he had moved again, even
though he knew it was futile.

His body was moving on his own, still trying to

escape.

Izuku is eight and his friends are violently shoving

him away, trapping him in a circle of hands and
laughing every time he yelps. Laughing at him,
calling him names, enjoying every tear he sheds,
every sound of pain he makes.

That is how he will learn to be quiet and still, to

spoil their fun. Oh, that will never protect him
completely, but that will certainly protect him
from the worst.

But right now, he hasn’t learned his lesson yet

and he asks them to stop, hoping that his
panicked supplications will alert someone. That
someone will help him. Maybe even Kacchan.

“Was it fun beating heroes? Was it fun to feel

powerful and strong and to know that I was
weakening day by day, living in fear that the next
villain I fought would be the one to put me into
my grave because my power was failing me? Was
that your plan, by the way? Waiting for me to die
because you had stolen my power, only to
become the next Symbol of Peace?”

It hadn’t been Izuku’s plan. Not at all.

What was the plan again? Why did you do that?

Why did you take this quirk?

He didn’t like to think about it. He didn’t mind

thinking of how he had stolen this power. He
didn’t mind acknowledging what he had done
with it. But the why had always puzzled him.

Izuku is twelve and even though he knows that it

annoys people, he isn’t careful and starts
mumbling about Ayate’s quirk. A beautiful wind
quirk, absolutely suited to a future hero.
Especially as her control over it is amazing, even
at her young age.

Inazuma apparently has enough of this because

she slaps his back, in the same way one would
swat a fly, and she uses her quirk on him.

Izuku doesn’t feel the slap. Instead, his body

registers the contact, a moment before electricity
floods his body. He wants to scream but every
muscle of his body is frozen in agony and it
apparently includes his throat.

He collapses, every nerves of his on fire.

No one moves to help him.

He is terrified at the idea of dying.

There is a boot on Izuku’s chest, just under his

clavicle. No weight on it but he still had trouble
breathing. Something is wrong with his lungs.

“We both know who you are: you’re that same

boy on the roof who asked me if he could
become a hero and who couldn’t handle being
told the truth. And now, look at what you’ve
become.”

Izuku wonders if One for All would directly go

back to All Might if he dies here.

“A criminal,” All Might said, and there is pity,

scorn and sadness in his voice, all rolled in one.
“Someone who doesn’t hesitate to use violence.
You even released All for One into the world. Do
you think you’re controlling him? You have to
know that he is killing and murdering his way
back to the top of the food chain, and he does
this thanks to you.”

Izuku is fourteen and hell is unleashed around

him as every prisoner is trying to get out of their
cage, guards are after him, and there is a little girl
depending on him.

He isn’t aware of who he released. He isn’t aware

that soon, a villain whose hobby is to murder
people with their own quirk will swoop in and
carry him to safety.

He only knows that he is here because Eri was

taken from her family. Failed and failed again by
those who were supposed to protect her.

He remembers this unholy rage he felt when he

learned that once again, life had decided to be
unfair with those who had already been dealt bad
cards.

“You’re no hero,” All Might said and he was right.

“You’re a reckless, impulsive child, too blind to
think before he acts, too proud to admit when he
is in over his head, consequences be damned.”

All of those true.

Izuku’s trembling fingers circled around All

Might’s ankle. Some part of him braced himself
for the punch or kick about to rain down on him
because he once again didn’t stay still and docile.

Trying to talk proved more complicated than

expected and he coughed blood. That couldn’t
be a good sign, but he is beyond that and All
Might is still, very still, his face not betraying
anything but Izuku knew that he didn’t expect
him to still be defiant after the correction he had
received.

“I…” More blood in his mouth. Everything hurt.

He was so scared. He just wanted it to stop. “I
never pretended to be a hero.”

“Oh?” Izuku’s hero, the one he had mercilessly

and selfishly hurt, reacted. “And what are you?”

He was larger than life, the room barely able to

contain his presence. His quirk, the one Izuku and
him shared, was burning within him, limitless
power that the hero could actually control. His
mere fury was threatening to stop Izuku’s heart.

He didn’t look like a man. He looked like a demi-

god or a vengeful angel who had come here to
punish him.

But Izuku knew All Might. Before seeing him in

person, he was already a fan who knew
everything there was to know about him and who
could even mimic his face. All Might was
formidable, yes, but he was human. He had
limits.

What Izuku was seeing was a crystallization of all

his fear, a titan symbolizing his guilt, but now that
anger was pushing back the unnatural fear, he
knew that this wasn’t All Might.

One for All roared inside Izuku, coming back to

life as the teenager crushed the bones under his
fingers. The ankle he had been grabbing
snapped with a horrible noise, nothing more than
playdough against Izuku’s strength.

“I am a villain,” Anyone, the Ninth One for All

holder reminded him a moment before he threw
him away with all his strength.

Kurosawa Masashi, also known as Nightmare,

couldn’t prevent the scream that escaped his lips
when he landed, his ruined leg colliding with the
ground. Nothing more than a mess of blood and
white bone, and the prospect of not being able
to fix it should have terrified him if it hadn’t been
for the kid slowly getting back to his feet, his
green eyes burning with cold rage.

The Thief was covered in his own blood and

between the beating he had been through –the
metal pipe Masashi had been holding had
escaped his hand when he was airborne- and the
fear quirk that was saturating his brain with terror,
he shouldn’t have been able to move. He
shouldn’t have been able to do anything but to
wait for the heroes from the Hero Commission to
arrive.

Because if Masashi was the one to deliver the

Thief to the Hero Commission, nothing would be
refused to him. He would finally have access to
everything he wanted in order to find his wife and
his daughter.

The boy walked towards him, everything about

him promising unbridled violence and it
convinced Masashi to stop playing around. He
usually primed his "guests" just enough to put
them in a place where they would do anything to
make it stop, even if it involved revealing all of
their secrets.

The Thief took one more step towards him and

that was all Masashi allowed because he was
aware he needed to be alive to enjoy any
advantages the Hero Commission would grant
him.

He threw all of his power at the boy.

How do you neutralize someone whose quirk can

traumatize people by showing them their worst
fears?

The same way one fought every kind of fear: with

knowledge and anger.

Izuku knew that this was Kurosawa Yumi’s father,

who had probably found Ava in order to retrieve
the family he had terrorized. He knew that
everything he had seen was a lie. And yet, this
wasn’t enough to stop his heart from beating so
fast that it made him physically ill, to warm him
up as he felt like the cold has sipped in the inside
of his bones, and he felt like he was going to die
from a heart attack any moment from now on.

That was why anger was needed. It was ugly,

distracting, a bad advisor, and generally
something Izuku didn’t like to feel.

But among all the forces in the world, anger was

the best solution to get things done.

And as Kurosawa Masashi had accidentally

reminded him of eleven years of absolute, soul-
crushing pain, anger wasn’t hard to find.

One pro hero with a mental quirk against a

teenager half beaten to death with more than
twenty percent of a godlike power, who had just
accessed to a decade of repressed rage at once
and, who had less than a minute before he
passed out because of sheer terror.

The first kick spun Nightmare across the room,

bones breaking under the sole of his red sneaker.
The second spun him into unconsciousness.

The fourth brought him back to reality.

He didn’t stop there.

Izuku stopped at some point. He didn’t know

when or why but he was standing in a puddle of
blood, Kurosawa Masashi’s whimpering and
broken body in front of him.

Despite neutralizing the pro hero, he was still

about to fall over and to curl into a fetal position.
Anger wasn’t enough anymore, the quirk still
doing ravages inside his mind, and he was
clinging to his lucidity like a man in the shower
clinging to a wet bar of soap.

Some part of him whispered that the fear quirk

made the brain release chemical substances that
wouldn’t simply disappear because Nightmare
had stopped using his quirk. Trauma usually
didn’t have an off switch and that explained why
Ava was still on the floor, even though the quirk
had switched target.

He took one step.

Just hang on. Just hang on for a little while.

Then another. Again and again, until he reached

his phone.

Anyone:

[A pro hero injured a civilian. Make sure

nothing happens to her.]

His legs failed him as he was out in the streets

and into the heavy rain. He fell, hard enough to
lose some skin on the pavement, and he stayed
there, curled up, shivering so much that it was
painful. Some part of him wanted to stay here, to
let someone else handle the mess, let them catch
up to him, he deserved it.

But he knew that it was fear talking. A fear that

wasn’t his own but which was too familiar at the
same time. All the demons he had tried to flee
catching up to him and making him pay for
daring to hope that he wasn’t the same pitiful and
weak quirkless boy who couldn’t even talk back
when someone advised him to jump from a roof.

So Izuku stood again, his vision blurry, fighting

the urge to scream, and he forced himself to walk
until he wasn’t out in the open anymore. He
found a dark place where to hide and his frozen
fingers found his phone once again, because he
knew that he was reaching his limits.

“Fear quirk. Help.”

Tranquil footsteps, only heard because the alley

was sheltered from the rain.

More footsteps, a more agitated energy as

someone was trying to look for something.

Then silence, tainted with horror.

His name.

A jacket over him.

Picked up and carried away.

Fear had a specific stench. Rancid and acidic.

Impossible to mistake for something else.

And when Hawks walked down the stairs of the

pretty house in the pretty suburb, an address sent
to him by Anyone, this stench flooded his nostrils.
He didn’t gag but he braced himself, ready to see
what had caused Anyone to call him and send
him alone somewhere close to their interests.

Theories, risks, and what he was going to say to

the Commission were circling inside his mind, for
he was used to thinking fast in order not to lose
any advantage. And yet, he was completely taken
by surprise when he saw that the hero was still
here.

The winged pro hero looked at the broken and

whimpering mass of flesh and blood that
Nightmare was. Hawks had seen victims of bike
accidents that had died upon the impact with the
asphalt but who hadn’t looked half as bad as his
colleague.

And a civilian in the corner, curled into a ball,

obviously dealing with the aftermaths of being
confronted with her worst nightmare.

Hawks easily guessed what had happened.

Between the studio to take photos, the high
quality printer, and the computers that could
have landed a rocket on the moon, it was clear
that it was the kind of place that dealt in new
identities. And since Nightmare’s family was
missing, it was easy to understand what the hell
he was doing here.

On the floor, bent like a pretzel, a metal bar,

covered in blood. Not used on the woman,
thankfully, but judging from the blood patterns,
someone else had been here. Someone with
enhanced strength.

Fuck.

Hawks walked to the woman, taking off his jacket

and covering her with it. She might be covered in
fur but more warmth couldn’t hurt her. He took
one of her hand and even if she didn’t look at
him, her fingers hold his tightly, her claws
threatening to pierce through his glove.

It hurt a little.

He didn’t let go.

“It’s going to be alright. No one is going to hurt

you anymore.”

After all, this was Hawks’ job.

He called for two ambulances, specifying that

one was a hero in a critical state and the other a
civilian who had been hit by a fear quirk. The first
because the ambulances would arrive in no time
and the second because fear quirks, when wield
by professionals, especially those trained by the
Hero Commission, did ravages on one’s mind and
body.

She would need the help of professional –and

probably to be sedated in the first twenty-four
hours- because right now, her body and mind was
continuously submitted to the same kind of stress
one lived through when someone was convinced
that they were dying.

He didn’t let go of her hands, didn’t stop talking

to her, until the ambulances were there.

Notes:
1. This chapter was supposed to
be longer but I apparently have
some limits.
2. See? I told you Aldera would be
fiiiine. At least, for this chapter.
3. A little precision about
Nightmare's quirk: it makes you
hallucinate your worst fear and
what "All Might" told Izuku was
also an hallucination. Nightmare
almost know nothing about the
Thief.

Fanarts!!!!

https://l-anna-
art.tumblr.com/post/62580856097
4118913/fanart-of-anyones-
chapter-22-the-fanfic-belongs

https://gentrychild.tumblr.com/po
st/625099446223585281/sooooo-
i-tried-my-hand-at-drawing-part-
of-the-hawk
https://gentrychild.tumblr.com/po
st/623062997629386752
https://gentrychild.tumblr.com/po
st/620878862132379648/anyone-
chapter-20-so-spoilers-if-you-
havent-read
https://gentrychild.tumblr.com/po
st/185548615679/laughingherring
-a-not-at-all-suspicious-tartarus

CHAPTER 23
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

A broken arm, a damaged elbow, a concussion,

internal and external bruises, broken and bruised
ribs, many contusions and a general state of
shock.

Not that Izuku really noticed those. At first, the

adrenaline and the anger had allowed him to
bypass the pain. Then, the fear and the general
certitude of his imminent demise had proved to
be an efficient distraction.

By the time All for One picked him up in this

alley, he couldn’t function anymore. His brain was
a fog of dread and finality. Every moment was
postponing his final breath, lengthening his
agony.

All for One’s voice, holding him close and

delicately, as if Izuku was something fragile that
could shatter at any moment, imploring him to
just breathe. Izuku didn’t understand most of
what he said, his ears only picking up the tone
and the promise of safety hidden in his words,
but that word kept coming back.

That was another problem. Izuku could do that,

could feel himself breathe, but air didn’t seem to
reach his lungs. Holding his breath, holding All
for One close and hiding his face in his chest
seemed better, seemed to do something against
the painful weight on his chest.

But for once in his life, he listened to All for One

and he did his best to follow his advice.

All for One could handle anyone trying to hurt

Izuku again. With the external threats taken care
of, Izuku only had to survive the internal ones.

Hands touching his face.

They didn’t belong to Ao.

It’s only later that Izuku would realize that his

mind had made the connection with her because
he was being healed by a quirk.

Describing what it felt like to be subjected to this

kind of fear would have been futile but if one
really wanted to try, they might have said that it
was like being in the center of the crash of several
contradicting convictions which all felt like the
ultimate truth.

He was going to die. Everything was in his head.

Izuku was numb. Izuku was in pain. Everything
was due to a quirk. All of that were truths that
Izuku had been hiding from himself because it
was too painful to deal with his wounds, his
anger, and what he had done. Nothing mattered
anymore. If he stopped clinging to whoever was
holding him, something terrible would happen.

His brain lying to him was nothing new but every

technics and shields the teenager usually used
had been swept away, leaving him with no
protection.

To call that a bad moment would have been an

understatement of criminal proportions.

When Izuku was finally brought back to reality,

there was a weight wrapped around him.

The teenager’s fertile imagination summoned the

image of the heavy restraining device heroes
used on people with strength-enhancer quirks
and One for All was about to burst to life and to
test how solid it was when he realized that
whatever was holding him was warm and
breathing.

Guessing who was clinging to him like a winkle to

its rock should have been easy but he would
blame the fact that he had never seen All for One
asleep until now.

Izuku managed to squirm away, realizing that he

wasn’t injured anymore because the slightest
movement should have hurt him enough to make
him swallow a scream, and once he got away, he
confirmed that All for One was the one who had
been hugging him in his sleep.

The supervillain didn’t open his eyes or anything

but Izuku felt him waking up. He slowly took more
space in the bed and let Izuku observe his new
environment, probably deciding that he couldn’t
find any more trouble inside those walls.

Not the walls of the apartment, though. Probably

at the beach house, but not in a room where
Izuku had ever been.

The teenager took two steps on wobbly legs,

utterly exhausted, but he carried on and left the
room. His clothes were found in the washer of the
nearest bathroom, which almost gave him a heart
attack until he discovered that his phone and his
wallet had been left on a little table.

As he checked his phone, noting that All for One

had tried to unlock it and been photographed for
his troubles, he caught his reflection in the mirror.

He was pale as a ghost, inky circles under his

eyes, and he was wearing clothes that didn’t
belong to him. Black sweatpants and a white shirt
with the words CARDIAC ARREST in black letters,
both fitting him, which was pretty creepy on its
own, but his priority was the bruises that were
showing on his bare arms. A quick check-up
confirmed that those weren’t the only ones.

He had vague memories of the healing quirk

used on him. Unlike Ao who didn’t go all the way
because she couldn’t spare too much energy, this
one hadn’t held back.

If Izuku still had bruises, that meant he had been

in an extremely sorry state.

It was only then that it hit him: a pro hero had

almost murdered him.

He had known since the moment he had stolen

One for All that he was going to be a target and
that if he was caught, not only would they not be
gentle, but there was a real risk that he could be
tortured into giving the quirk back. But
apparently, he was in the It’s-Okay-If-He-Dies list.

As someone who hadn’t even been aware that

this list existed, this was slightly disturbing.

The teenager postponed his existential crisis,

walked downstairs before slouching on the
expensive coach, and called the only person he
knew who had common sense.

She answered in the second.

“Gwen, tell me what happened, please.”

Seven hours had passed since his meeting with

Ava. It was a small eternity.

“Are you okay?” Nagisa chose to say instead and

Izuku loved her for this. For caring, even a little,
about how he was doing.

“I am tired,” he admitted. “I am also in the dark.

Do you know what happened after I checked
out?”

Nagisa was the one who handled the Anyone

identity when Izuku was busy or when he needed
to trick gullible pro heroes.

“Ava is still in the hospital but she is awake and

pissed, from what I understand. She also wants to
talk to you as soon as you’re available. She isn’t
injured and even though the police snooped in
her place, they can’t charge her with anything
because all of all the proofs disappeared before
they arrived. I guess we can thank Hawks for that?

“I do not have the slightest idea,” Izuku

admitted.

Throwing that specific problem at the winged

hero had seemed like a good idea at the time,
but the more he thought about that, the more he
worried. Calling All for One to the rescue seemed
more reasonable.

“Nightmare was alive when he left the scene,”

Nagisa continued. “Is that a bad thing?”

From her tone, Izuku guessed that she wasn’t

asking about a pro hero seeing his face but about
how Izuku would have felt if he had killed
someone.

Izuku didn’t feel anything for the man who might

have died from his injuries. Maybe because he
was still too exhausted from the healing. Or
maybe he just didn’t have it in him to care about
a man who had attacked both Ava and him to
find his family and terrorize them once again.

“It is what it is,” he soberly answered.

“Alright. There are other things to take care of

but I can handle them. ”

Later, Izuku would regret not asking about those

other things.

Izuku had intended to take five minutes before

talking to Ava but she called him just as he was
putting down his phone.

Nagisa had probably told her that he was awake.

Ava, Ao and her were on friendly terms and it
wasn’t rare for the information to travel extremely
fast between the three of them.

“Have you said anything to Nightmare?” she

asked without bothering with small talk. “About
you-know-who?”

“No, he didn’t even ask questions.”

“Oh…” A significant paused happened. “That’s

good…”

It was good in the sense that Izuku, unlike Ava,

didn’t have to discover how good he was at
keeping secrets under torture. (It would probably
have been a nice training if All Might or the old
hero who had attacked him in Hosu ever manage
to capture him and to try to get One for All from
him.) But it also meant that Nightmare had
tortured him because he wanted to. No need for
information, just pain for the sake of pain.

Change the subject, Midoriya Izuku.

He didn’t ask how she was, because he was

acutely aware of her condition: feeling like shit
and repressing everything in order to function.

“I heard that the police didn’t have access to your

files? That means the police can focus on the pro
hero who attacked you and put him in jail without
being difficult.”

Silence answered him.

Silences had many meanings. They could be

awkward, embarrassed, stunned, angry, and Izuku
had learned to recognize them through the years
but he had never heard the kind of pause that
Ava made.

He would soon realize that it was the trying-to-

gently-give-you-a-bad-news kind of silence.

“Oh, honey, nothing will happen,” Ava softly told

him.

“WHAT?” Izuku screamed, the cry of pure

indignation and rightful fury escaped him before
he could stop it.

He glanced at the stairs, waiting five seconds to

see if All for One was about to barge in to see
what was happening or at least to put him back
to bed, but he had apparently avoided the worst.
Still, when he talked again, he made sure to
control the volume.

“He broke into your home. He attacked you. Who

cares about your activities? It’s an actual crime,
committed by a pro hero. A vigilante would at
least get twenty years out of this.”

“A vigilante, surely. But Nightmare is a pro hero.

One of the golden children of our society. While I
am not the right kind of victim.”

It was like a hole was opening inside Izuku’s chest.

“I am a criminal,” Ava continued. “I am strong

and scary-looking. No one will take my side over
a pro hero’s, even though he broke into my
house. He will just have to go in front of a jury
and he will talk about his wife, how he still loves
her and how he can’t understand why she would
take their child away from him. That he was just a
desperate father trying to see his child again.”

“There-There have been precedents,” Izuku said.

“Lady Mercy, Protector, and others… Listen, just
give me five minute to make research on my
phone and I will show you all the heroes who fell
because of something similar.”

“But none of them had the backing of the Hero

Commission. Don’t fret about it. I pick my battles.
For now, I am just relieved to know that no hero
or policeman has access to my files.”

Izuku didn’t say anything.

Even when he had been being beaten by

Kurosawa Masashi, he hadn’t felt that powerless.

Shouto was helping Dabi climb the wall when his

phone biped, indicating a message. He promptly
dropped his brother (they were on the right side
of the wall anyway) and he was looking at the
message before his feet even touched the
ground.

A wave of relief washed over him as he saw that it

was Midoriya’s. Gwen, the elusive shadow behind
Anyone, had simply told him that he had been
hurt and hit by a fear quirk, and even if Kurogiri
had confirmed that he was with All for One, the
local super villain was impossible to reach.

The relief vanished when he actually read the

message.

SmallMight1541:

[Alive.]

[Going to sleep some more.]

“Why do we even bother helping him?” Dabi

asked as he was reading above his shoulder.

“Because he is paying you and because he is my

best friend.” Best friends stood by each other,
even when they were infuriating. “Now let’s go.”

Emotional exhaustion was a funny thing.

Izuku put down his phone, aware that he needed

to sleep. He was so tired that he was about to
start crying from sheer exhaustion and the only
thing his body wanted was to lie down and to
hibernate for a week or two. However, he was
aware that consciousness was the only thing
allowing to keep a tight leash on many ugly
emotions that had been awakened and brutally
stirred by his ordeal.

Fear. Shame. Anger. Disgust.

All of them plotting to steal his breath and his

sanity, waiting the opportunity he had no choice
but to give them.

Curled up on the couch, the teenager looked at

the stairs, leading to All for One’s room.

Going back was the easiest option for him. He

wouldn’t be able to avoid the panic attack or
whatever Nightmare’s quirk was doing to him,
something he was currently barely holding at bay,
but that would be far less worse if All for One was
here. In his presence, Izuku simply knew that
nothing could reach Izuku without being punched
into the stratosphere first.

But he couldn’t allow himself to need All for One.

Calling him in the first place, showing him
weakness, had already been a mistake.

So Izuku put down his cellphone on the coffee

table and lied down, accepting that he was going
to spend a bad moment, but that it would end.

He would have thought that sleep would elude

him but the darkness took hold of him as soon as
he closed his eyes, softly dragging him down the
depths of unconsciousness.

And as it did, unease and fear started to rise up.

Until they were replaced with curiosity, the kind of

devouring need to know that Izuku usually only
got when he saw a new and interested quirk he
needed to crack open.

Izuku couldn’t move because he didn’t have legs.

He couldn’t speak because he didn’t have a
mouth. It should have scared him but instead, he
could only look around, in a land where the night
sky was full of stars and where the earth was
frozen.

In front of him, a man he didn’t know but who

seemed eerily familiar. Young, thin, his white hair
was long enough to touch the collar of his shirt
and his green eyes were gentle and… something
else.

“You must be the Ninth”, he said.

He had barely finished his sentence that a

muffled sound of pure indignation echoed
behind Izuku. The teenager couldn’t move but he
did manage to look back just in time to see a
form being dragged away by several panicked
people.

He couldn’t quite make the details but he could

have sworn that whoever had been picked up
and carried away had just sneaked a vicious kick
on her way out.

“Focus on me,” the man who had greeted him

gently said. “Don’t worry, they will hold her back
long enough for us to have a nice chat.”

As he spoke, he put a hand on the side of Izuku’s

face to make him look at him again, the sensation
warm and real but certainly not solid. It was as if
he was being touched by pure energy, warm and
gentle, but still energy and not flesh and bones.

And as this contact was established, something

inside Izuku reached out, wanting to know more.

Memories appeared around him.

Memories of a time where quirks were something

no one understood, something unnatural that
broke the balance of the world, creating
something new where the ones with power could
create a new reality.

He saw One for All, before he even got the quirk

that gave him this name. He saw All for One,
arrogance and smugness oozing from him, as he
exchanged quirks and favors to build a network
of people devoted to him.

And then, he woke up.

The blast of power destroyed the beautiful and

modern glass panels leading to the beach. It
might have been poetic. Glass going back to the
sand from which it had been born.

But as the couch on which Izuku has been

sleeping brutally fell over because One for All
had decided to throw something, the teenager
couldn’t spare any philosophical awe, his mind
too busy dealing with the implications of what he
had just seen.

One for All was a quirk supposed to stockpile

power, passed through the generations. It had
started at the Dawn of Quirks, accumulating the
energy of all the previous holders, until Izuku. But
power was a broad term and apparently, it didn’t
only mean strength.

There was something else stockpiled by this

quirk. Memories. Personalities.

It has something to do with the quirk singularity

theory. Quirks evolved as generations went by.
He needed to write this down. He needed to put
his thoughts in his notebook so he would see
things more clearly.

“Izuku?” All for One softly called from behind

him.

Izuku nodded at him, looking around to see if

there was some paper around here. His notebook
was at home but everyone had paper, even
villains who had forced a quirk on their little
brother because he didn’t like his “advices”.

“I heard…” All for One seemed lost. “I heard my

little brother’s voice.”

Izuku nodded. “Yes, the quirk is haunted.”

“What?” All for One asked, his eyes comically

wide, an odd expression on his face.

“The quirk is haunted,” Izuku repeated as he

walked by him and started to search the drawers.

His hands were trembling but not because of

Nightmare’s quirk. Actually, the fear might still be
here, but far away. Inconsequential compared to
the new revelations and Izuku might have been a
little frantic but he preferred that to a general
state of despair.

He finally acquired the paper and even a pen

while All for One was watching him, oddly quiet,
and the teenager stopped, realizing that he was
forgetting the destroyed windows.

“I… I am going to clean that up first,” Izuku

assured, a little embarrassed because he had just
caused property damage in someone’s house.

“Don’t worry about it,” the villain said.

But he was still looking at him strangely, like Izuku

was forgetting something.

The staring continued.

“Would you like some iced tea?” All for One

finally said.

He didn’t wait for Izuku’s answer, as he went to

the fridge and poured two glasses. He put one in
Izuku’s hand –the one that wasn’t holding the
paper and the pen- and he chugged down his
own glass like it was something stronger that he
desperately needed.

Izuku drank his iced tea in silence, wondering

what All for One had heard from his dreams.

It’s only when his limbs started to feel heavy, his

head nodding and his eyelids heavy that he
realized what All for One had just done and he
barely had the time to glare at him before the
villain confiscated the glass and picked him up.

Izuku fell asleep before they reached the

bedroom.

“He also did that with you?”

“Until I was fifteen, I was convinced that hot

cocoa was the kind of beverage that immediately
put people to sleep.”

Masashi was startled awake as something hit him

in the chest, the sudden movement sending a
wave of pain in his entire body and a burst of
pure agony in what was left of his right leg. He
blinked, haggard, and the first thing he saw was
the ridiculous purple teddy bear, now on his
knees, that Mika had brought him as if that would
make up for all his limbs being broken by a
lunatic with All Might’s power.

The second thing he saw was the man sitting next

to his hospital bed. Tall even though he was
sitting, curly white hair and grey eyes, something
about him was familiar even though Masashi was
certain that they hadn’t met before.

The man wasn’t directly looking at the pro hero,

the view through the windows apparently more
interesting.

“You were taking too much time to wake up,” he

said as if it was explaining everything.

In any case, the pro hero’s finger was already on

the alarm button, calling the nurses.

No one came.

This floor was dedicated to pro heroes and the

staff gave the best care one could hope for.
Things that civilians couldn’t imagine were used
on those who had a hero license in order to bring
them back into fighting shape in record time. If
no one was barging though the door of this
room, it meant that something cataclysmic was
happening or that the Hero Commission wanted
him to have a private conversation with a top
goon.

Masashi had already been interrogated about the

Thief and he had refused to say anything for now.
Not until he had guarantees.

Now was probably the time where someone was

supposed to scare him and to remind him that he
wasn’t untouchable. He knew he was taking a risk
when he had broken in, a risk that would have
paid off if he had found something of value.
Instead, he had bet too much and lost the
occasion, and probably a leg.

“I have met many interrogators in my life,” the

man said, still not looking at him. “In my
experience, the good ones are those who enjoy
their jobs. They don’t have to enjoy the pain but
they at least enjoy the power they wield over
their preys.”

“I am what was made of me. And everything I

did, I did it for my family.”

The man laughed, the sound mirthless and

promising a pain that he would enjoy inflicting.

So Masashi did it before he could. No more than

five seconds, just to remind this man that even in
this hospital bed, he was far from defenseless.

And he found nothing where his quirk used to be.

There was one pro hero who could erase quirk

and his name was Aizawa Shouta. He was an
underground hero who fled cameras.

The other person who could prevent someone

from using their quirk had escaped Tartarus a few
months ago, and when that man looked at
Masashi, something utterly inhuman in his eyes,
the pro hero had no doubt of who was facing
him.

“All- All for One…”

He was supposed to be half-dead, bearing the

wounds the Symbol of Peace had inflicted.

“Do you want to know what I despise the most

about heroes?”

Masashi tried to gulp down but his mouth was

horribly dry, as if every function of his body had
frozen in absolute terror.

The former Emperor of the Underworld leaned

towards him.

“You all believe your own lies,” he whispered to

the pro hero’s ear.

Masashi’s heart was beating so fast that he could

barely hear the words but he forced himself to
understand them, to be attentive, because the
more All for One talked, the longer he would be
spared from something horrible.

“I could tell you about your crimes, from

breaking-and-entering to torture, and the obvious
double standard there is in having a pro hero
able to do that and to walk away with a slap on
the wrist. But if you don’t mind, I will talk about
your quirk.”

Maybe he is like the Hero Commission. Maybe he

wants to know about the child who stole All
Might’s power.

A flicker of hope pierced through Masashi’s heart.

If this was true, this was a familiar territory. Secrets
and how they could be used to ensure survival
was his job.

“If it’s information that you want…”

Masashi didn’t see All for One move. But he

sensed the movement, so fast that it wasn’t even
a blur, a moment before All for One broke his jaw,
making sure that he would stay quiet for the rest
of the conversation.

“It aims specifically at what the target fears the

most and the subconscious literally paralyzes the
victim with fear,” the villain continued as if there
had been no interruption. “There is no escape.
Only unending psychical violence. On someone
already traumatized, it will worsen their
psychological wounds. On someone with a
history of anxiety or depression, it can send them
into a very dangerous spiral.” All for One paused,
taking a short breath. His next words would be as
calm as the previous one but this one breath was
saturated with a rage that brought tears to
Masashi’s eyes. “On a child, it’s nothing short
than a chemical catastrophe. “

His jaw on fire, Masashi thought about his

daughter. About his wife.

He wanted to see them. He would have given

everything to see them once again, even for a
short moment.

“I thought about using your quirk to teach you

what it felt like. I think I could have made your
hair go white in less than an hour. But honestly? I
have never needed a quirk to terrify someone.”

Someone… Anyone…

“You will die tonight. It will not be brutal. It will

be slow, methodical and you will beg me to die
long before I am done with you. No one will
come to save you. No one will mourn you
afterwards.”

It couldn’t end like that.

“Are you afraid of me yet? Maybe even terrified?

Having the feeling that you’re living a
nightmare?”

Masashi nodded, because lying was beyond him.

There was a point where fear saturated
someone’s mind and there was no place for
deception. A point he had witnessed many times
in his career but that he had never experienced
until now.

All for One smiled.

“How lovely. And I haven’t even touched you yet.

The proof that the quirk you’re so proud of isn’t
worth much.”

Kurogiri was watching a teenage villain sleep like

a baby, dead to the world, and the warper was
perfectly aware that if it became literal, Sensei
would grab him by the back of the neck, drag
him outside, and drown him in the sea.

He wouldn’t look away until Sensei was back.

Even blinking felt like foolishly tempting fate.

Yami didn’t eve stir. He just slept soundly, and for

some reason, his fists were clenched on a piece
of paper and a pen. But at this point in Kurogiri’s
life, he had stopped asking questions about this
kid.

In the end, Sensei came back at dawn, wearing

fresh clothes and a smile on his face, which meant
that someone had met a bloody end.

Hanabata Mika loudly cracked her neck, drawing

the horrified glance from a nurse that was walking
in the opposite direction, but she would get over
it. At least, she wasn’t working in the hospital
where Nightmare had been placed.

It was another nurse who had found what was left

of the pro hero. On the walls, on the floor, and on
the ceiling. Whoever had gotten to him had
reduced most of him into a thin paste but left just
enough to let them know that Nightmare had
suffered for a long time.

No one had heard anything. A man had been

massacred in a hospital full of people, with nurses
and doctors walking the hallways, and no one
had heard even a call for help.

Mika pushed the memories of those images away

and she stopped to look at her reflection in a
window. Dark straight hair cut so it barely
touched her shoulders, light make-up that looked
natural while sculpting her face, pink eyes, and
she was wearing a navy blue suit. A picture of
professionalism, the vision you wanted to see
when you had problems, for she was here to take
care of messes and everything would be fine as
long as people listened to her.

With this last verification, she entered the room of

a woman who had just passed the last twenty-
four hours under sedation because of
Nightmare’s quirk. Certainly a criminal but they
couldn’t prove it, a wolf quirk, and she had been
admitted to this hospital under what had to be a
false name. But what was really interesting about
her was the woman at her bedside: Aomine Nao.

Mika and her had been at the same university.

Nao had less tattoos back in the day and she was
supposed to be the next Recovery Girl but she
had abandoned a brilliant future for… this.

But Mika was a professional and she focused on

the wolf that pretended to be called Takeuchi
Mio.

“Takeuchi-san, on behalf of the Hero Public

Safety Commission, I can’t tell you how sorry we
are about what happened. That a pro hero would
have such a conduct…” She made sure to
arrange her face into a suitable expression.
“Please, let us pay for your medical bills.”

“How gracious of you,” Nao said.

Takeuchi put a hand over her friend’s arm.

“That’s a good start. But you must be aware that

it’s not enough.”

Oh my.

“What happened to you was a tragedy. But the

Hero Commission bears no guilt nor responsibility
for this,” Mika reminded her. “My offer was an act
of empathy. Nothing more.”

The wolf smiled, showing very sharp teeth.

“Hanabata-san, I will be as direct as possible. You

have a problem. Nightmare was your hound and
your weapon. He needs to be held responsible
and since he isn’t here anymore, you have to bear
his karma.”

Mika was aware of this. Pro heroes thought they

could do whatever they wanted but it was people
like her that they called once they messed up.
Nightmare had called her again and again,
desperate for her to pull him out from the mess in
which he had jumped head first.

“How do you know what happened to

Nightmare?” she asked, more to gain time that
because she was interested.

“News travel fast. Especially when they are so

sordid.”

That last word confirmed that they were about to

use the Family card against her.

I warned them than not finding Nightmare’s

family to contain the problem was going to blow
back in our face.

She already knew how this conversation was

going to end but she went to the motions.
Professional as always.

“In any case, it doesn’t change much,” Mika lied,

pretending to be regretful. “The Hero
Commission isn’t guilty of anything. Do you really
think a trial would turn in your favor?”

“You know, that’s what I thought several hours

ago,” the wolf admitted. “That nothing would
happen. That I had to pick my battles. But this
night helped me think… and I realized that I don’t
need to win. I simply need you to lose.”

Nao looked at the wolf, pride and fondness in her

eyes.

Irritation stabbed Mika behind the ribs.

Repeatedly.

“The dead aren’t good at defending

themselves,” the wolf continued, saying exactly
what Mika had told her superiors when she had
warned them they might have to make
concessions. “Now, his family can come back and
testify when you are sued. The anti-quirk-
discrimination associations would jump on the
opportunity to spread this. The Hero Commission
would have to deal with a lot of attention towards
their special heroes and how they’re handling
them.”

“And do you really want to give the general

public a reason to distrust the hero society?” Nao
asked. “Vigilantism is on the rise. Stain’s message
is circulating. “

“Extortion?” Mika asked her, some of her true

feelings slipping. “Really?”

“Don’t talk to her,” the wolf barked. “You’re

dealing with me.”

Mika used her quirk, nothing more than a gentle

nudge at first.

“Please, think about this,” she implored and both

women listened, relaxing slightly. “Are you sure
you want to take such a risk. Your name isn’t
Takeuchi Mio. You make a living from illegal
activities. A trial would expose your identity.”

Doubt passed through the wolf’s eyes, because

she felt calmer and Mika’s words made sense.

Because that was what her quirk did: make

people trust her, assuring them that she had their
best interests at heart.

“But the Hero Commission knows how to reward

those who help them,” she continued, increasing
the influence of her quirk. “Please, tell us about
the person who was there with you. Any detail
will help us so much and in exchange, we will
help you.”

The wolf looked at her, and ever so slightly, she

shook her head, subconsciously fighting the
quirk.

Mika pushed just a little more…

And Nao grabbed her friend’s arm, glaring at

Mika, because her quirk didn’t completely work
of people who already knew about her quirk.

“Don’t worry yourself,” the wolf said. “I happen

to be a law-abiding citizen. I pay my taxes, I have
never been arrested, and I didn’t even have a
contravention to my real name. A trial won’t be a
problem. As for the rest… I must admit my
memories are blurry.”

Mika didn’t lose her smile or her serene

expression.

Well, no one can blame me for trying.

“Fortunately, I am allowed to make such a deal.”

It wasn’t the first time the Hero Commission had

to fix someone screwing up and the non-
disclosure agreement was on Mika’s phone. The
wolf and Nao read it, sent it to a lawyer who
unfortunately knew what they were doing
because they sent back another one, and they
extorted a hefty sum out of Mika’s bosses. The
money transfer was made from phone to phone,
and their bank account was in one of those
countries which respected the privacy of their
clients.

That was the problem with criminals. They both

know their rights and they were careful.

Mika left without looking back at Nao. She could

have been great and she had chosen mediocrity.
With a little luck, they would never meet again. If
not, she would be merciless.

Her phone ringed while she was still in the

hospital, which drew a glare from a nurse. A
glance made Mika realize that she was the one
she had met on the way in, except that the poor
woman looked considerably more disheveled.

Her sympathy didn’t prevent her from answering

her ward, Nightmare’s potential replacement.

“Shinsou?” she smiled, for real for once. “How

are you doing?”

“YOU DRUGGED ME.”

“And you generate chaos wherever you go. And

yet, you don’t hear me complaining.”

Two things happened the night after pro hero

Nightmare's incident: the gruesome death of
Kurosawa Masashi and the criminal fire of the lab
in which samples taken on the crime scene had
been processed.

The arson destroyed almost all the blood samples

of the third person present on the scene and who
had put Nightmare in the hospital in the first
place. As for the first sample to be analyzed, the
result was deemed inconclusive.

Probably contaminated, for several DNAs had

been found.

Finding out to whom the extra DNA belonged

hadn’t occurred to the lab assistant at the time,
for several other samples had been available at
the time and the computer he was using didn’t
survive the arson.

Notes:
1. When you want to have a chat
with your adorable nephew but
the quirk just does whatever it
wants.
2. Despite what some characters
are saying, Nightmare WAS in
trouble for what he did. His
license was at risk, at the very
least. That's why he wanted to
negotiate with a higher up by
giving information about the
vigilante who put him in this state.
3. Thank you so much for all the
comments and the constant
support.

CHAPTER 24: INTERLUDE

Notes:
Everything in italics is a flashback
from the last three days.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

A meeting alone with one of the major figures of

the Hero Commission was extremely difficult to
obtain. Extremely important people had to ask in
advance, security clearances were needed,
background checks were the norm, and the time
and the location were chosen carefully.

And yet, Hawks’ presence here was no token of

trust. Standing in the middle of the large room
equipped with a technology coming straight from
I-Island, he was aware that Mune Satoko could
neutralize anyone long before they reached her
desk.

So when he stretched a wing, he did it slowly and

carefully.

Especially as some feathers were still singed.

“Anyone is a vigilante organization at its core,”

Hawks explained. “Certainly illegal and criminal
but only a very small part of Anyone is villainous.
Civilians look for people with specific quirks,
shady people find clients, but the real danger is
that it’s a community. They showed a potential to
move as one and to communicate quickly during
the Hosu attack and they will get better at it.
Whoever is in charge can mobilize many well-
meaning people at once and that’s not something
to be underestimated.”

People with a cause were always more dangerous

than criminals. The latter were pragmatic and
averse to risks, while vigilantes could find a lot of
strength when they thought they were fighting
the good fight.

And now that they had seen the Thief defeating

the Hero Killer, they were galvanized.

“Do you know anything about the leader’s

identity or their goal?” Mune asked even though
she knew the answer.

“I don’t.”

Anyone was just a bunch of messages on a server

and they wouldn’t let Hawks approach. For now.

“But from what I saw, they are extremely smart

and careful. They won’t take any unnecessary
risks.”

There were some simple pleasures in life: drinking

a good cup of coffee, eating a hot katsudon and,
apparently, denying answers to a control freak.

Izuku was enjoying his second cup of coffee

(prepared by the teenager himself and held in
both hand so no one could put anything in it), his
plate of toasts, eggs and bacon left untouched,
while All for One was about to spontaneously
combust.

To Izuku’s immense disappointment, the villain

postponed his transformation into a neat pile of
ashes and took a deep breath.

“During what should have been an appointment

with your hairdresser, you were viciously attacked
by a quirk that exposed you to many traumas.
When I found you, you were injured and
unresponsive.” All for One’s voice was similar to
the noise of the waves crashing on the shore
behind them. Calm, absolute, and you had to
listen to it. “The moment I took my eyes from
you, something happened, something that made
you activate your quirk in your sleep. A quirk that
might be the strongest singular quirk in existence
and which also happened to break your bones if
you’re not careful.”

Technically, everything he was saying was

reasonable but Izuku absolutely refused to admit
he could be right in any way.

“When I found you,” All for One continued, “you

were incoherent, frantic, and apparently full of
adrenaline. I was worried you would run off,
activate your quirk again, or be hit at full strength
by the aftermaths of the fear quirk. In those
cases, the protocol is to make the patient calm
again, and sleeping pills work wonders on people
who are exhausted and desperately need sleep.
But I can understand why you’re angry at me and
I apologize.”

Izuku blinked.

“Izuku, I am truly sorry,” All for One repeated,

looking actually contrite.

“Okay,” Izuku said.

He actually acknowledged that All for One had a

point. Whatever had happened, Izuku had lost
control of his quirk yesterday.

“Great,” All for One smiled, bearing a striking

resemblance to a shark who had just smelled
blood in the water. “Now, are you going to tell
me what happened with One for All?”
“No,” Izuku answered softly.

It wasn’t because All for One had apologized that

he had to forgive him.

And the sight of that stalker silently fuming in

frustration made Izuku’s coffee taste even better.

No dream of previous One for All holders had

come to him during the second part of the night.
Logic dictated that this had been an extremely
vivid hallucination caused by Nightmare’s quirk.

But Izuku knew this was real, even though it was

impossible and didn’t make sense. Somehow,
One for All didn’t only stockpile energy but also
memories and maybe the personality of the past
One for All holders. Worse, those memories, that
Izuku had jumped into like a kid discovering the
secret stash of sweets, had showed either All for
One and his little brother, or All for One alone.

It meant that those were All for One’s memories.

That he was still connected to Izuku’s quirk,
somehow.

Izuku had many questions but also an edge that

he would lose as soon as he gave All for One the
information he wanted. Especially as the villain
was only the second person most suited to
answer him. If he had dreamed of the little
brother once, it could happen again and they
could have a long discussion about what the hell
was going on.

He was just hoping that, next time, he would

have a mouth to ask questions.

All for One got up, passed behind Izuku, getting

suspiciously closer, and the teenager slammed his
palm on his cup of coffee so nothing would be
added to it. Alas, this time, the beverage wasn’t
the target and the super villain passed his arms
around him and held him.

“Are you about to sleeper hold me to put me

back to bed for my own good?”

“I am considering it,” All for One shrugged.

Izuku did his best to squirm away but failed to

escape the embrace. To his horror, All for One
hadn’t even been serious, so the hug lasted
fifteen minutes instead of the couple of seconds
needed to block the flow of air in someone’s
trachea.

“What about the Thief?” Mune asked.

Oh boy…

“I have confirmed that he has All Might’s power

and that he is indeed working for Anyone.”
Actually, Hawks had done that by taking a
terrifying blast to the face. “High-ranked,
probably in over his head and he should have
been my handler if it hadn’t been for the
Nightmare incident.”

Months of running around to gain a little trust,

only for another agent from the Hero Commission
had almost killed his main target three days ago,
destroying any goodwill he had managed to
acquire and setting him back.

Of course, there was still the Todoroki Shouto

card.

Hawks didn’t forget that the Thief had

immediately reacted when Endeavor’s son had
been put at risk.

Something to consider if the need arose but it

would have been too dangerous to deliver this
information to the Hero Commission.

“Another agent was assigned to me, though,”

Hawks continued. “A fire user who is involved in
the theft operations that are alimenting the
budget of Anyone. He was probably chosen
because I already know about him and so no
other agent would be compromised.”

Gwen:

[Are you busy?”]

Anyone:

[Harassed and persecuted by the usual

culprit but go on.]

Gwen:

|Your pet sociopath?]

Anyone:

|Indeed.]

Gwen:

[I am praying every day so I never meet

him…]

[First, there has been an influx of newcomers

in the server and between banning the nutjobs
who wants the Stain slayer to be their leader in
this new era and making background checks, I
have been working overtime so you might want
to adjust your budget.]

Anyone:

[I shall do my best to contain my

enthusiasm.]

Gwen:

[Your heroic efforts bring me to tears.]

[Second, and since we’re speaking of

background checks, I need one of your agents to
see if someone is legit. Obsidianheart wants to
offer people places where they can hide and rest
but his computer is so empty that he must use it
once a week. I need someone on site to be sure
that it’s safe.]

Anyone:

[Is it urgent? I meant to go on a mission

with SaltyMacNuggets but I am not at full
strength yet.]

Gwen:

|Why not use Inferno? He keeps hassling

me for jobs and babysitting Nuggets is a high-
paying one.]

Anyone:

|That’s… actually a good idea.]

“We went on our first mission yesterday,” Hawks

managed to say with a straight face.

The president winced, also aware of what had

happened.

“I am not going to babysit him on a boring

mission,” Dabi complained. He had called Izuku
as soon as he had received the message. “He is
your problem, not mine.”

The teenager looked behind him but there was

no super villain in bespoke suit in the busy street.

Izuku had always been an independent child and

since his mother had started working again, he
had gotten used to being alone. There was a
world between being alone and being lonely,
separating the habit of taking all the space and
being able to do whatever he wanted no matter
the time from this sudden feeling of wanting to
reach out to anyone because the apartment was
quiet and the people you saw seemed incredibly
far away.

On this day, in this beautiful house by the sea, he

regretted those moments where he talked to his
giant All Might plushie to fill the silence of the
apartment.

All for One was constantly touching him. So many

headpats, impromptu hugs, hair ruffles, gentle
touches on his shoulder, unauthorized snugging,
and at one point, he actually picked Izuku up and
put him on the couch just because he had
yawned while writing in his notebook.

Even if Izuku had dozed off about five seconds

after he had informed the bane of his existence
that he wasn’t a toddler or a pet rabbit, this was
unacceptable behavior.

And now, he was on the run, and he didn’t want

to waste the one hour he had before All for One
realized he was gone before warping to him.
Maybe he wouldn’t even need to use a quirk.
Maybe he would just bend the laws of physics
with his indignation.

“Do you remember when I specifically told you to

wear a mask when you went on a mission?” Izuku
reminded Dabi. “Do you remember how you
ignored me?”

A silence that meant everything answered him.

“He knows your face, he knows where you live,

and he probably knows where you buy your
groceries,” Izuku mercilessly reminded him. “So
make no mistake: he is your problem.”

“I received the official report about this. It was…

eventful.”

By that, she meant she had read the bunch of lies

about a pro hero wandering to the countryside
and finding a serial killer who kidnapped young
people and threw them into a house full of death
traps. The official version was that the villain had
made it explode to try to kill Hawks.

What had happened was more complicated, did

not correspond to the simple and boring task he
had been promised, and the explosion at the end
had been perfectly avoidable.

“I hate you,” Dabi growled as he was running

behind Hawks, covered in mud and barely
keeping up even though the pro hero was
carrying no less than five people with his feathers,
while the freaking walls were trying to eat them.

“Less whining, more firing!” Hawks growled back.

And Dabi had done just that.

In a dusty closed space.

Hawks could still smell burnt chicken every time

he moved and one of his eyebrow had been
declared missing in action.

“Let’s go back to the Thief,” Mune ordered. “Is it

possible that he is the one who killed
Nightmare?”

“Not even twenty-four hours after being hit by

Nightmare’s quirk? He would have been sedated
and he will need time to recover, let alone to be
in fighting shape.”

“You’re worse than a three-year-old,” All for One

said right to Izuku, making the teenager jump
one meter into the air. “Unable to use some
common sense and running around every time I
look away.”

Once Izuku’s heart stop trying to jump out of his

chest to run a marathon, he looked around,
making sure that no one in town was paying
attention to them, put on his serious face, and
first tried to calmly talk with the adult.

“I need some alone time,” he explained.

“You’re free to enjoy your alone time in my

company,” All for One nodded.

Okay, Izuku had tried. No one could say he hadn’t

done his best to reason with his man.

“Please, stop following me or I am going to have

to do something drastic that neither of us will
enjoy.”

“Consider me intrigued,” the strange man who

was towering over Izuku said, apparently unaware
of the many people around him, including a
group of constructions workers who looked
strong enough to catch the building and throw it
away if it ever fell on them.

Izuku took one deep breath, too quickly to

consider the consequences of his choice or to
have the wisdom to admit that this was a bad
idea.

“HELP! THIS MAN I DON’T KNOW IS TRYING

TO GET ME IN HIS CAR!”

The last thing Izuku saw as he was running away

was All for One giving his prettiest smile to a
bunch of very non-amused adults walking to him.

“Even then Nightmare’s killer used their bare

hands, few people would be able to torture a
man to death. It’s possible that Anyone has
another power-type user. But I am not neglecting
the possibility that one of Nightmare’s old
enemies found an occasion to get revenge.”

Or the Hero Commission.

All the members didn’t agree with each other and

a pro hero being put to retirement was a thing
that happened.

“So…” Shouto wondered out loud. “Do we talk

about the fact All for One probably killed
Nightmare?””

Midoriya and him were watching dramas in Dabi’s

apartment, snacks and drinks on the coffee table,
and a coffee machine that had mysteriously
appeared in the corner.

“I want to talk about anything but that,” Midoriya

said before emptying his third cup of the
afternoon.

“In that case, I think you should really do

something about your caffeine addiction.”

“I do not have a caffeine addiction,” he dared to

lie to Shouto while looking at him the eyes.

“So you can stop whenever you want?”

“Yes.”

Shouto slowly raised his hand in direction of

Midoriya’s cup but his best friend protectively
clutched his to his heart.

“Just not now,” the One for All holder whispered.

Notes:
Many readers worried about how
Izuku would feel about
Nightmare's death.
Like Shouto, he knows he should
feel guilty. He doesn't.

Thank you to everyone who left a

comment. Your support means the
world to me.

Also, new fanarts! Behold!

https://gentrychild.tumblr.com/po
st/629420116098056192
https://gentrychild.tumblr.com/po
st/628687278051557376/moonpa
w-tfw-you-wake-up-and-find-a-
super-villain
https://gentrychild.tumblr.com/po
st/628357124910710784/haru-pp-
a-quick-drawing-of-gentrychilds
https://gentrychild.tumblr.com/po
st/625099446223585281/sooooo-
i-tried-my-hand-at-drawing-part-
of-the-hawk

And one beautiful animatic!

https://gentrychild.tumblr.com/po
st/627613202378817536/the-
lunar-warrior-bnha-animatic-wip-
27-8-20

CHAPTER 25
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Sorahiko was holding his cane in one hand, his

phone in the other, and a bag of tayaki on his
wrist, wondering why slow people always insisted
on walking right in front of him.

Did they not see the cane, aka the implied

threat?

He took a deep breath and he paused to let them

the time to (slowly) walk away from his wrath.

“Toshinori, do you know what happened to

Nightmare?”

“I heard,” Toshinori said, exhaustion in his voice.

“My first thought was that this is All for One’s
doing. My second is that the Hero Commission
will soon regretfully inform us that they think the
leak was coming from Nightmare, who can’t
defend himself anymore.”

Sorahiko actually hadn’t thought about the last

part but it made a whole lot of sense. In his
defense, Toshinori had the misfortune of dealing
more often with the HPSC than the retired hero.

“Was All for One there for the Nightmare’s quirk

or for…”

A young man chose this moment to try to rob

him.

Average height, dark blue hair shaved on the

sides, the face of a moron, and a ridiculous knife
in his hand. It looked like something straight out
of one of Tenko’s video games.

“Give me your wallet, your phone, everything!”

he said, shaking his blade at Sorahiko and
finishing to prove that he had no idea of how to
use it.

The retired pro hero raised an eyebrow, promptly

ignored him, and started walking again.

“… or did he want to talk to Nightmare about

something else? Someone with this kind of job
knows many secrets.”

Behind him, the young hooligan recovered from

his stupor and started to follow him, still waving
his blade around. If he wasn’t careful, he was
going to poke his eye out.

“It’s not confirmed but there is a possibility that

he fought the boy. I… think it’s related to him;”
Toshinori continued. “I had… Let’s call it a hunch
related to my quirk.”

“Hey, you fossil!”

Sorahiko stopped.

Turned towards the candidate to suicide.

“Toshinori, I am going to have to call you back,”

he apologized to his student as he was hanging
up.

Toshinori, currently being half buried under a pile

of paperwork because Tenko had to study for an
upcoming test, didn’t even have the time to finish
reading his file when Gran Torino called back.

“Sorry, Toshinori. Someone tried to rob me in

daylight. Really, there is nowhere safe anymore.”

A low-pitched whine could be heard into the

background.

No one could prove that Toshinori winced in

sympathy.

“I believe that All for One is hunting the Thief.”

“Well, I wish him luck. That brat is as slippery as

an eel.”

Izuku was having a bad day but he was hiding it

well.

Not that it was surprising. He had elevated the art

of hiding what he felt in order not to worry others
to the rank of Olympic sport, starting his training
when he was five year old and pretending not to
notice when his mother had cried and continuing
on his merry way until he became a teenage
criminal. However, when most of his bad days
were his brain plunging him into a dark well and
having fun keeping his head underwater, this one
was a little different.

He was angry.

The various aches of his body were harder to deal

with, he had no patience for the drama on the
server –Nagisa had been volunteered to handle
it- and he could feel some nervous energy
flowing within him, begging to be released in an
explosive way.

Maybe he was tired.

Maybe the aftermaths of Nightmare’s quirk were

still affecting him.

Maybe not knowing what his quirk was hiding was

putting him on edge. Maybe the guilt from
stealing the quirk of the Symbol of Peace, a man
whose very life was put in danger because of
Izuku. Maybe it was because he had been beaten
half to death by a hero and it had left its traces.
Maybe because a part of him hadn’t felt in
control of his own life for a while, circumstances
always conspiring to make him meet a pro hero
and it was always a painful introduction.

Izuku stopped whining the time to take a step on

his left, dodging the stream of flames Todoroki
was throwing in his general direction and he
dropped to the sand, pulling a lateral kick that
threw both sand and wind at his best friend.

It didn’t smother the flames as much as he would

have wanted.

Not enough power. Sloppy control leading to

wasted energy.

Keep your head in the game.

Todoroki threw an ice wall in front of him,

stalagmites already attacking Izuku but he ran
over them, keeping his footsteps light, One for
All giving him power, and he was praying that the
sole of his red sneakers would handle the shock.
He drew more power from the quirk and the next
moment, the ice had shattered under his leap
and he was colliding with Todoroki.

His first intention had been to tackle him to the

ground but even though the momentum was
enough to send the both of them stumbling in
the sand, Todoroki once again attempted to stab
Izuku with ice, unless he was trying to stop his fall.
In both cases, the result would have been painful
for Izuku so he found wiser to grab Shouto by the
shirt and the leg of his pants and to throw his
best friend far away from him.

Todoroki bounced twice on the sand before

settling as an undignified mess at Dabi’s feet.

Said Todoroki sibling loathed warm weather on

principle and had spent the last hour on a beach
towel, under an umbrella, covered head to toe,
and hugging the ice box containing all the drinks
and snacks that Kurogiri had brought. When he
wasn’t categorically refusing to share with them,
he was glaring every time they sent sand in his
direction.
And yet, despite adamantly refusing to leave the
shadow of the umbrella before, he moved. He
arose, letting go of the ice box, took one step, his
hand reaching out to his little brother… only to
take a photo with his phone.

“This will be worth gold once you’re a pro hero-”

Shouto jumped back to his feet and threw himself

at Dabi to snatch the phone. He immediately
succeeded, in the sense that Dabi preferred to
abandon the compromising photo and to go
back to guard the snack box that he had left
unprotected.

As he did, two teenagers who had just been

sparing for a while looked at it. Then at each
other.

No words were needed.

Todoroki and Izuku were experienced vigilante.

Todoroki went to UA and was trained in different

martial arts. Izuku had fought villains and pro
heroes alike and lived to tell the tales. They were
talented fighters who knew the importance of
strategy.

And yet, they took one look at each other,

nodded, and simply pounced on Dabi. No plan,
no thoughts, just greedy hands reaching out for
the ice cream.

And. It. Worked.

After taking an elbow to the face for Todoroki

and some vicious scratches on the arm for Izuku,
they fled with their loot, pursued by blue fire, at
least until Kurogiri passed his head by a warp
gate and they all immediately stopped using their
quirks.

Snacks were eaten behind an ice wall so Dabi

couldn’t get to them, the solid surface deliciously
cool on their overheated backs.

Izuku could have stayed there for a while, just

hanging down with his friend, waiting for lunch to
arrive. He also still had to empty the safe that
Kurogiri had gratefully brought to the beach
house. It was was currently laying in the sand near
the house, freshly gutted. The teenager might
have lost patience at some point and kicked it
until it opened just a little, then finished the rest
with his bare hands. Now, the treasures unfairly
stolen from him were within arm reach.

But instead, Todoroki got up and walked to the

designated sparring zone, completely expecting
for them to finish their traditional three matches.

So Izuku followed him.

Two minutes later, Dabi was taking another

photo, of his boss this time, as the green-haired-
hellion was trapped in ice, his arms and legs
sticking out three meters above the ground. He
did his best to try to reach the ice but that was it.

He was trapped.

Izuku didn’t wait for Todoroki to completely melt

the ice. Instead, as soon as he could move his
shoulder, he finished the job himself, getting free
as fast as he could.

He didn’t like not being able to move. He didn’t

like not being able to react to an incoming threat.

And just like that, the anger he had been able to

smother, to forget in a dark corner of his mind,
simmered and started to spread within him. No
matter how irrational it was, how this was a
friendly match, how it had nothing to do with
those times where his middle school “friends”
used to hold him down as they were destroying
his toys or when they got more physical. Nothing
to do either with Nightmare, how Izuku had been
tetanized, unable to do anything until it was
almost too late.

He was even angry at the mere idea of being so

angry over those. He used to be past it. He used
to be logical, to know that raging and screaming
wouldn’t change anything about the past.

But that fear quirk seemed to have broken a dam

and now, emotions that Izuku had locked away
for years were surging within him.

Dabi called for a rematch, wondering out loud

who would be the winner today, and Todoroki
prepared himself for the last match.

Izuku should have said something. Todoroki

wouldn’t have cared. He would have understood
– too much, maybe.

A lifetime of relativism made him keep his mouth

shut. There was no need to bother anyone when
he could just grit his teeth and do it. It would be
over soon.

As soon as the fight started, Izuku took some

distance. Todoroki’s weakness was his stamina
and even now that he was using his left side to
balance the effects of his quirk, it didn’t mean
that he could keep throwing ice forever. Six times
out of ten, Izuku was winning the third match
because he was better at running circles around
someone than his friend.

Todoroki’s ice started to spread, trying to reach

him, but he quickly figured out that it was just
wasted energy and he ran after him.

That was when Izuku jumped.

The leap took him through the air, high, higher

than what he usually did, because once your feet
left the ground, you were a sitting duck. But his
arm was ready, an Air Blast more powerful than
normal ready to be unleashed. Either it would
send Todoroki flying, or his friend would find a
way to counterattack. In both case, the fight
would be over soon.

That was what Izuku wanted. For Todoroki to stop

moving and for it to be done.

And for a second, just before he flicked his finger,

exhaustion and frustration echoed to anger.

Pain, a burning, horrible pain, followed as

something black and sizzling with burning hot
energy burst from Izuku’s arm, half swallowing
him while following the trajectory that the Air
Blast would have taken.

Shouto didn’t understand what was happening.

He didn’t have the time to.

The black energy whipped at him, somehow

avoiding the ice he had instinctively thrown in
front of him and whatever this was buzzed in
rage, trashing and running wild, sand flying
everywhere.

One of the strands of energy touched the solid

wooden table around which they were supposed
to have lunch, shattering it upon the impact and
Shouto barely had the time to consider what it
would do to a human body before the quirk took
notice of him once again.

Back on his feet, flames begging to be released,

Dabi watched his little brother somehow avoiding
being pierced by a dozen of whips.

Shouto ran and dodged, throwing ice around to

gain just a few moments, hard earned respite that
never lasted even though Yami, half-lost in a sea
of swirling and violent darkness was trying to stop
whatever was happening.

The boy with a power quirk that could one day

rival All Might punched the ground, trying to
anchor himself into the sand, a cry of rage or
despair or both escaping him, but it was drowned
out by the frantic shadows trying to throw him
around like a puppet.

Burn it, Dabi’s instinct was screaming.

The go-to-go solution to any problem in his life

but sometimes, instinct was not the best advisor
and Dabi did his best to silence the voice in his
head. Using fire, least of all Cremation, would do
nothing against pure energy but it would hurt the
two boys.

Instead, he could only watch as he saw Yami

succumbing to panic and frustration, yelling
something that Dabi didn’t manage to hear but
could figure it out, and the darkness grew even
more, swallowing him whole.

Dabi looked back at the house, where All for One

and Kurogiri were. A dozen of seconds had
passed, apparently not long enough for them to
realize what happened even though All for One
was the only one who could contain whatever
was happening.

Shouto didn’t wait for them. Being a graduate of

the Endeavor “Throw overwhelming force first
and handle the rest later” school, he threw
enough ice to cool down a Californian summer at
Yami, fully intending to slow down Yami as he had
just lost his fight and was flung in every direction.

Shouto’s iceberg were several meters thick and

cold enough to feel like being hugged by a brick
wall that would have been exposed to extreme
temperature.

Yami crashed through it.

Some part of Dabi acknowledged that most

people would have passed out and that Yami at
least had the air knocked out from him but it was
secondary, a detail as he saw that there was
suddenly nothing between his little brother and
demonic black tendrils.

Shouto threw his arms in front of his face, already

summoning more ice to shield himself but his
right side was covered in frost.

Dabi’s flames leaped in their direction, hoping

that whatever the tentacles were, they would
protect themselves, and Yami behind that had
disappeared behind them.

A portal of dark mist appeared in front of Shouto.

And Yami, who probably couldn’t notice any of

that from where he was, kicked the air with a
strength that sent a burst of wind that shifted part
of the beach, flinging himself backwards and
straight into the sea.

Yami disappeared under the surface.

The black energy didn’t.

Despite what movies said, at high speed,

crashing into water still hurt and Izuku should
have brutally felt it. But not all pains were the
same and the absolute agony of something
bursting from his flesh, burning around him and
inside him, proved far too distracting to make
said pain register. All in all, the cold water helped,
if only for a moment.

Everything seemed peaceful under water, even

the chaos of tendrils, still rampaging, seemed
almost beautiful under the surface.

At least, if it hadn’t been for the new, more

urgent burn in his lungs as the impact had
ejected all the air from his lungs.

Izuku thrashed around, trying to use Full Cowl to

reach the surface but it only seemed to bring
more power to the energy that had exploded out
of him, bringing even more maddening pain, and
with that, the tentacles thrashed even more,
hindering his movements, feeding his terror,
trapping him.

And bringing him deeper into the sea.

Shouto was the first to react, icing plots of the

sea in order to reach the angry thing of pure
energy that emerged here and now from the
water but freezing sea water was harder than it
appeared, even without the flow of the waves
crashing on the shore. Fuyumi could have done
it, and faster, her ice’s quirk far stronger than
anyone else in the family, but Shouto was already
tired from the match with Yami.

And yet, it wasn’t Shouto’s strength that failed.

Instead, the dark tendrils shot through the ice.

Maybe to cling to it and bring Yami to the
surface. Maybe to destroy them. In any case,
Shouto’s ice shattered long before he could have
reached Yami and even if he did, he had more
chance to be stabbed than to help him.

Dabi turned towards Kurogiri. He wouldn’t be

able to do much against whatever was happening
to Yami but at the very least, he might be able to
warp him to an environment where he could
actually breathe.

He hadn’t finished turning towards the house that

he almost got trampled by All for One.

Izuku only realized that he had been warped back

to safety when something massive tackled him to
the rough sand, the hellish power still wreaking
havoc around them but somehow, All for One
managed to anchor himself. More importantly, he
managed to keep Izuku in place, no longer
launched in every direction.

The teenager tried to breathe but his lungs full of

water disagreed, and he coughed gallons and
gallons of salt water, still suffocating even though
he was back on dry land.

And at the same time, even though he was

here…

… he was there.

Back in a familiar and desolate place, surrounded

by the night sky, his body barely here, his body a
fog that could see, hear, and move one hand.
Nothing more.

He moved his head left and right, expecting to

see All for One’s little brother, hoping he would
have answers about why a quirk bursting from his
arm had tried to kill him. Instead, he found
himself face to face with a bald man wearing
goggles.

“You have to try harder, dude!”

Izuku blinked.

“Aren’t you a quirk analyst?” the man continued.

“Don’t you know that emotions amplify some
quirks and can make them go berserk? Especially
one charged with One for All?”

Izuku blinked a second time, acutely aware that

he had finally taken his first and painful breath in
the real world. Just as he was acutely aware that
he could have died in the sea, or worse, hurt
Todoroki.

The man raised his arm, thin black tendrils of

energy appearing in a beautiful construction.

“Blackwhip is a useful quirk as long as you don’t

go overboard with it. Fear, anger, rage, all of
those fuel the quirk and if you can’t control those
emotions, you don’t have a fat chance to control
the power either.”

In the real world, Izuku ignored the pain or how

he had almost died a moment before, focusing
on his breathing instead. One breath in, one
breath out. Slowly repressing the anger, the fear,
and the unease back into the usual box, before
locking it away.

“I bet you didn’t expect that when you grabbed

One for All and ran-” He paused for a moment,
finally realizing that Izuku was glaring at him.
“Okay, I understand that you’re mad. But in my
defense, no one asked you to jump in the water.”

Izuku was unfortunately lacking a mouth to ask

him what the hell was wrong with him but he
raised his hand to his head, pretended to trace
circles with his index, then pointed at the ghost
with a certain vehemence.

“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you?

You stole the most powerful quirk in the world,
the crystallized will of heroes whose only purpose
in life was to kill All for One and you never
considered that there might be more to it? Like
us? Or our quirks?”

Izuku’s eyes widened as he realized what he was

saying.

“Yes, my dude. All of our quirks, supercharged by

One for All, and you’re about to be hit with the
full might of them. And I prefer to warn you: none
of us are happy with what you did to Eighth.”

Izuku considered the implication of a bunch of

ghosts having the power of executive decision
over which quirk they could give him or throw in
his way with no warning beforehand.

His hand moved on his own, grabbing the black

energy and getting an offended gasp out of the
Blackwhip user. The quirk spread over his fingers,
like the strings with which children used to play,
warm and beautiful.

“Wait a…”

Izuku fully brought himself back to reality, pinned

down by All for One’s weight. He slowly and
carefully raised a hand to the villain’s forearm,
tapping it twice. All for One let go, barely leaving
Izuku the space to sit on the ground.

The teenager was soaked, covered in sand, it

would be a miracle if his phone had survived the
dip, and his throat hurt. His arm was still glowing
with the red lines of One for All power, energy
just under the surface but Izuku held it in check.

The abominable pain Blackwhip had created was

gone but he was still haunted by its ghost, his
muscles petrified as if they didn’t dare to move
again.

The spot of beach where All for One had warped

him was absolutely trashed. It looked like it had
just gone through an alien invasion but thankfully,
it was away from the beach house so they
wouldn’t have to fix it one day after they had
finished repairing the windows.

Once they confirmed that Izuku’s quirk rampage

was over, Todoroki, Dabi and Kurogiri got closer.
Curiously, they didn’t ask Izuku how he was.

Instead, one by one, they looked at All for One,

quiet accusation in their eyes.

Izuku wasn’t quite sure why but he did the same

because he didn’t want to be left out.

The man who happened to be able to give quirks

realized what was happening before Izuku.

“This is not my fault!”

Izuku waited ten minutes before he confirmed

that this wasn’t All for One’s doing.

Obviously, the delay was caused by the sea water

hurting his throat and not because the situation
amused him.

Snowdrift:

[I am not saying that I was right…]

[But I was absolutely right.]

Inferno more Inferyes:

[You are wrong.]

[Sometimes, people don’t find out about

the full extent of their quirk until later in life.]

[For all we know, he thought he had a

Power quirk like his father and the recent ordeal
made him awaken his mother’s quirk.]

Snowdrift:

[That’s the most stupid thing I have ever

heard.]

Inferno more Inferyes:

[What’s your mother’s quirk?]

Anyone:

[????]

Snowdrift:

[What’s your mother’s quirk?]

Anyone:

[Okay, what’s going on with you two???]

When Izuku walked out from the room he was

using in the beach house, he was freshly
showered, his hair was puffy because of the
hairdryer and he was wearing Gang Orca shorts
and a Thirteen shirt. Some people had safety
blankets. Izuku had hero merch.

He walked down the stairs, his bare feet making

no sound but All for One still heard him coming.
Sitting at the kitchen table, his back to him, Izuku
could see how he became aware of his presence
by the way his shoulders stiffened.

Izuku would have probably been far more freaked

out by this new development with One for All if
All for One’s pain hadn’t been so enjoyable.

With the arm that hadn’t been introduced to

Blackwhip, he checked the bag of rice containing
his phone. He had been hoping that fifteen
minutes would have been enough to soak all the
seawater but he could still see some from behind
the screen.

Still not using his right arm, he let the phone fall
back in the bag of rice, silently. Technically,
without a phone, and since All for One had
shooed Kurogiri, Dabi and Todoroki, Izuku could
stay here indefinitely. It was amazing how quickly
he had gotten used to the warp gates. Worse, his
entire organization was dependent on it. Just like
it depended on Izuku dispatching agents, on
keeping an eye on the server, and he also
needed it to reach his online clients.

If my phone isn’t fixed in two hours, I will run into

town and buy a new one. Or steal…. borrow All
for One’s and call Nagisa so she can get me
one…

Five words interrupted his thoughts.

“Since when and from who?” All for One asked,

his voice flat and not giving any hint about what
he was thinking.

Izuku, still mentally encouraging the bag of rice,

looked up at All for One. The villain was eerily
calm, the same way a calm sea was hiding the
strongest currents and he was drinking the
contents of his cup like it was something stronger
than mere tea.

“Whaat?” Izuku, wordsmith that he was, asked.

“Since when do you have a second quirk and

from who did you take it?”

The teenager tilted his head, puzzled.

Yes, he had kinda taken the quirk from the

Blackwhip user but since it was already inside
him, it was more akin to removing the baby
wheels than an actual theft. And in any case, if All
for One knew about that, he knew from whom
this quirk was coming from.

All for One kept looking at him, waiting for an

answer.

The realization hit Izuku.

The quirk-stealing-fiend was asking him if he had

walked out at some point and yanked the quirk
from a living and breathing person.

“I didn’t steal a quirk!” Izuku said, absolutely

scandalized by the mere implication.

All for One raised an eyebrow at him.

“I didn’t steal a second quirk,” Izuku sheepishly

corrected himself. “You of all people should know
that One for All is the only transferable quirk
around.”

“Well, it appears that it’s not-“ All for One

paused.

He slightly tilted his head to one side, reflection

leaving the place for something else. A
possibility, which judging from the way his eyes
comically widened, appeared far more horrifying
than the idea spontaneously developing the
ability to take quirks.

“It was Blackwhip,” All for One said on the same

tone Izuku’s mom used when she cursed the chair
on which she had just stubbed her little toe.

From the other side of the table, the villain

reached out grabbed Izuku’s face between his
hands and pulled him close, as if he was trying to
sneak a peek into what was happening inside
One for All through the teenager’s eyes.

Izuku, in balance above the table and not really

appreciating having his skull snatched by a villain
having an existential crisis, Izuku grabbed the
thumbs –not the whole hands- and was pulling
them away from his face but All for One let go, as
if he didn’t have the strength to hold him
anymore.

“You’re going to get quirks belonging to a bunch

of imbeciles whose greatest achievement in life
was that they were killed by me,” All for One
continued, still not looking at him.

Good to know what kind of relationship he had

with Izuku’s predecessors.

“Six quirks,” All for One muttered.

“Seven,” Izuku absentmindedly corrected.

All for One gave him a hard look.

“Six,” he insisted, apparently not liking someone

not appreciating his knowledge when it came to
the quirk that he had personally shoved down his
brother’s throat back in the Dawn of Quirks.
“Even if you developed my brother’s quirk, you
will never use it.”

Izuku made a little noise of interrogation.

“The ability to give your quirk to someone else.”

Yikes.

“I was actually talking about All Might’s quirk. The

one he was born with,” Izuku specified.

All for One suddenly put his full attention on him,

a smile spreading on his face. A horrible smile,
half between the Cheshire cat and a shark who
had just smelled blood. Whatever was hidden in
it, it made Izuku stand straighter, his feet back on
the ground so he could stand faster if there was a
problem.

“Oh, interesting,” All for One purred. “You

actually don’t know.”

Izuku didn’t answer. He knew when he was being

baited. All he had to do was to wait.

And All for One didn’t disappoint.

“Yagi was quirkless until a pitiful woman named

Shimura Nana saw something in him and made
him her successor.”

“Why are you lying?”

The words had escaped Izuku’s lips before he

even had the time to think, because that couldn’t
be anything else. Izuku knew that this was a lie
and an outrageous one at that.

All for One raised an eyebrow, obviously amused.

“I’m really not.”

“He…”

Izuku hesitated, not wanting to say that it was

impossible because All Might had told him that
he couldn’t be a hero while being quirkless.
However…

“All Might is still using a quirk…” Izuku caught

himself before he said too much, revealed too
much.

“The shadow of One for All. A reserve, finite in

nature, that will soon disappear. I am actually
amazed he held on to it for as long as he did.”

All Might had told him that it wasn’t realistic to try

to be a hero without a quirk and in his heart,
Izuku had understood what it meant. But when he
had planned to take One for All, when he had
took it for himself, at no point had he considered
that All Might might be in the same situation as
him.

Someone who had found a quirk.

And that meant…

That meant that Izuku had condemned someone

to become quirkless.

After that, they stayed quiet.

All for One was in the middle of what looked like

a spectacular existential crisis and Izuku had just
started a smaller one of his own.

Notes:
1. And then they both spend two
hours blankly staring at the wall.
2. I know that AFO seems to be
taking the "Whoops, all the quirks
that tried to kill me are about to
appear" situation well, but he just
has an extremely good poker face.
3: "Blackwhip user: I can't believe
he didn't immediately recognize
my quirk. :("

CHAPTER 26
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

SmallMight1541:

[Good luck for your finals today!]

Snowdrift:

[I am a little worried.]

[Can we talk a little bit?]

SmallMight1541:

[Of course!]

Snowdrift:

[I know that you told me that what happened with

your quirk was due to quirk singularity and how it
was just a fit of bad luck but don’t you think that’s
strange how YOU are the one who unlocked
several quirks while All Might never showed more
than one quirk.]

[It just reminds me of someone… who isn’t… All

Might…]

Snowdrift:

[Yami?]

Snowdrift:

[Why aren’t you answering anymore?]

Despite Midoriya burying himself in denial and

ignoring a very good theory, Shouto still assumed
that today would be a good day, right until his
old man tried to talk to him during breakfast,
which was the surest way to ruin his week.

The number 2 hero asked about his strategy for

the final exam.

A quick investigation among the Second and

Third Years had confirmed that the First Years'
exam hadn’t changed in five years. They will be
fighting robots. This way, the teachers could see
how much the students had progressed since the
entrance exam and 1-A would be able to go all
out against their opponent without risking
harming a classmate.

As such, Shouto was mainly planning to use ice.

Even though he was certain he could have
melted some important pieces, insisting on using
fire would waste too much energy.

But he couldn’t tell that to Endeavor and risk

making him happy.

“There is an exam today?” he asked instead.

Watching the number 2 hero choke on some rice

was almost worth having a conversation with him.

The sky was clear and blue, there had been

almost no traffic and no slow pedestrians on his
way to UA, he had found 2000 yens on the road
and no one to claim them, everything announcing
that it would be a beautiful day.

But Katsuki didn’t fucking trust it.

Actually, at this point in his life, he trusted his luck

as far as one of his explosions could throw it.
Because every fucking time he thought that his
plan to become the number 1 hero was on track,
something jumped in his way and shattered his
hopes and dreams like it was a national sport.

Starting training at UA to become a hero? They

had been attacked by villains as soon as they had
set foot in the USJ. The Sport Festival? He had
come second, they had tied him up and muzzled
him to this stupid podium, he had come second,
the half-and-half bastard was the one who had
won, and He Had Come Second. Interning with a
top hero? Instead of actually learning something,
he had wasted his time while that same half-and-
half bastard was busy being filmed fighting
villains in Hosu,

At least, Half-And-Half wasn’t the one who had

defeated Stain.

Katsuki could live with a cool vigilante roaming

the streets as long as he didn’t have to live in a
world where someone he couldn’t stand had
helped defeating the Hero Killer.

And before that, the ground zero of his bad luck:

drawing All Might’s attention after the Sludge
incident, only to realize that it had nothing to do
with him and everything to do that punk Deku
doing something stupid and the next thing he
knew, Katsuki was lying to All Might.

Katsuki gritted his teeth.

He was never supposed to ever think about this

nerd again. Deku was supposed to be a pebble in
the path, a detail in his legend that no one would
have cared about. And now, because of him,
because of whatever he was doing, his very
existence was haunting Katsuki.

All it took was one slip. Whatever Deku was

involved in, Katsuki refused to believe that he was
competent enough not to eventually get caught.
On that day, if he ever mentioned that he knew
Katsuki…

He won’t, some part of him tried to reassure… to

lay out the facts. He never did. When he had a
problem with a teacher, he always kept his mouth
shut.

But that didn’t mean that one wouldn’t make the

connection. Wouldn’t look at Katsuki’s file, see
that he had been at Aldera, that Katsuki had
known him… and that he had lied to the Symbol
of the Peace.

Of course, he could always argue that he barely

remembered him. That he was barely at school,
that no one had paid attention to him. But if the
one lie Katsuki had ever said in his life already felt
like a stone on his chest, the idea of telling more
lies was making him sick.

Katsuki furiously walked through the massive

gates of UA. Anger was feeding anger, making
him ready to throw everything he had at the
robots that wouldn’t fail to show up. Everyone
was categorical: they would be tested on how
they could survive an environment infested with
enemies and Katsuki, pragmatic man that he was,
believed in the simplicity of carpet bombing
enemies until they stopped moving.

It wasn’t like UA didn’t have the budget to

replace all those robots.

“It’s always a pleasure to help but are you sure

my presence is necessary? They are only
children.”

Nedzu delicately put his cup on the saucer, using

what could be called his little finger to cushion it
and not make a noise. His guest probably
wouldn’t mind but the principal believed in those
little rituals. One defined themselves by their
actions, by how they acted every day.

“They are talented hero students,” he gently

reminded him. “And… I believe they are going to
need to grow faster. Villains targeted them once
and the world is becoming more dangerous every
day. Or maybe chaotic would be the right word.”

As far as Nedzu was concerned, chaos was far

more interesting despite its risks.

“Also,” he added, unable to hide his smile, “I

can’t wait to see my students’ faces when they
realize who they will have to fight.”

The class changed into their hero costumes and

took the bus to the training ground, some of
them chatting, others staying quiet. Shouto
should have been among the latter but someone
came and sat next to him, standing unnaturally
still, her fists clenched on her lap.

Yaoyorozu Momo, their vice president, who had

the best grades in the class and whose quirk was
a force to be reckoned with when she had the
time to prepare herself.

She was also an Exemplar, just like Shouto.

For a time, she didn’t say a thing. Shouto

wondered if he should have started the
conversation, tried to be friendly but he wasn’t
close to anyone in the class and he just wasn’t
used to social interactions.

It was easier with Midoriya. Shouto barely had to

say something, just to listen him ramble about
quirks or heroes.

“Are you ready?” Yaoyorozu finally asked.

And in this moment, Shouto realized why she was

seeking his company.

Both of them were Exemplars, and because of

this, they share a common experience that the
others couldn’t really understand.

They might not have asked for the position but

they had freely enjoyed the perks that came with
the position. Hero schools fighting to have them,
their reputation already made, the sheer prestige
that the Hero Commission had granted them
when it had deemed them worthy of representing
the best of the quirked society.

But of course, there was a price to it. Their

privilege came with expectations and if they ever
stumbled on the path of excellence, all the
people who admired them wouldn’t hesitate to
tear them apart because to them, it would feel
like a personal betrayal.

Pro heroes could fail from time to time and the

general public showed themselves
understanding. But Exemplars who weren’t up to
the task?

They disappeared from the hero life, relegated to

general education, always reminded of what they
could have been. Those who persevered endured
a flow of critics, the people they had
disappointed never forgetting this slight.

Both Yaoyorozu and him weren’t allowed to fail

until they graduated and proved their worth,
proved that the trust put in them wasn’t a
mistake, and now that Shouto was thinking about
it, that was a lot of pressure to live with.

“I am as ready as I can be,” he answered. “And I

think that so are you.”

Yaoyorozu smiled, just a little, and she stopped

clutching her fingers. She didn’t add anything,
simply nodded, but words were overrated. They
just stayed here, aware that they were going
through the same very specific trial.

For the first time since he had been a part of

Class A, Shouto felt the beginning of something,
a connection, the prelude of something akin to
fellowship.

Soon enough, the bus stopped at the starting

point and the students were greeted by the entire
teaching staff of the best hero school in the
country, which was already a bad surprise.

The teachers confirmed that there would be no

robots this year. Instead, pairs of students would
fight one teacher. They could either put cuffs on
them or manage to escape the testing ground.

Shouto was put with Bakugou Katsuki, which

really, was enough said.

The boy who notoriously couldn’t stand his guts

and him were the ones who had the most
firepower in the class. Since Midoriya’s former
childhood friend who had done everything to
break any hope he had of becoming a hero and
Shouto had ranked first and second in the Sport
Festival, UA probably wanted to teach them a
lesson in humility.

They’re going to make us fight Aizawa, he

understood. He is the only one who can
completely neutralize the advantages our quirks
give us.

Unfortunately, once again, he had been far too

optimistic.

A familiar and powerful laugh echoed through

the air, giving hope to the innocent and waves
and waves of cold sweat for guilty souls.

“HAVE NO FEAR, FOR I AM HERE!” the Symbol

of Peace laughed as he sauntered it. “Well, fear a
little. Maybe. This is an exam, after all.”

And then, he smiled brightly at Shouto and at

Bakugou.

Still on Aizawa’s shoulder, half-wrapped in his

scarf, Principal Nedzu pulled out a camera of
nowhere and took a photo of the entire class,
immortalizing the look on their faces.

In Kohaku, at his desk, Izuku looked up from his

paper on quirk singularity, a strange sensation
making his senses ring. As if, very far away from
him, someone was internally screaming or cursing
his name.

He looked left, then right, drawing the attention

of Hebisuga who silently asked him if there was a
problem, but he shrugged.

Eh, it’s probably nothing.

He went back to work.

“We need to run,” Shouto said as soon as he

entered Ground Beta.

Rows and rows of empty buildings surrounding

them, giving many hiding spots but also hiding
where the number 1 hero was hiding.

“We need to fight,” Bakugou said at the same

time, which already didn’t bode well for their
future cooperation.

Shouto - extremely aware that All Might could

appear at any time and take revenge for that little
prank where he has slipped on dry ice and lost
something quite important - looked around, the
air around his right arm already colder than
before.

“He is faster than either of us,” Bakugou snarled.

“Do you think you can outrun All Might?”

“All Might is a close-range-fighter,” Midoriya was

mumbling while looking at his smoothie instead
of drinking it. “He has several long-range-attacks
but in the end, he is a brawler. Maybe because
the closer he is, the easier it is for him to know
exactly how much strength to use… In any case,
he can afford it, unlike me, so I can’t mimic him,
not without hurting myself…”

“So, how would you fight All Might?” Shouto

asked.

He had learned that Midoriya didn’t mind being

interrupted. His thoughts just reorganized
themselves, jumping in another direction.

And if he could get his friend to accidentally

reveal to Shouto how to beat him during their
next sparring session, it was even better.

Midoriya paused. Drank some of his smoothie.

His eyes seemed to be almost glowing under the
morning light. T

hey only had this intensity when he was thinking

about what he liked the most: quirks.

“The only way to fight overwhelming power and

speed is to take some distance and draw the
opponent where you want him to be. If I had to
fight All Might, I would take some distance and
lure him into a trap. And if I don’t have the time
for that, I would…”

He paused, Shouto’s friend suddenly replaced by

Anyone on a mission and Shouto followed his
gaze only to see the villain they had been
expecting.

“Time to get to work,” Shouto acknowledged.

“It seems easier than fighting him,” Shouto

answered Bakugou. “Unless you think you can
beat the number 1 hero.”

Explosions crackled on Bakugou’s palm as he was

barely controlling his rage. Maybe he disagreed
with what he was saying. Maybe he couldn’t
stand that Shouto was refusing to follow his
delusions right as they were about to meet All
Might.

In any case, Shouto expected him to explode at

him and to scream in his face at the very least.
But instead, Bakugou shook his head and took a
step back, scanning his surroundings as if he was
expecting All Might to appear at any moment.

“Tsk… Run if you want. I don’t need you.”

“You should come with me,” Shouto tried to

convince him. “The two of us…”

“ARE YOU DEAF?”

“Suit yourself,” Shouto shrugged.

His classmate and him had been antagonizing

each other since the start of the year. It made no
sense to waste time trying to work together when
Bakugou was so opposed to it. In the worst case
scenario, it could actually put him in danger.

Bakugou’s eyes widened when Shouto took off at

full speed, running away from here as fast as he
could because if All Might decided to look for
them, it would be at the entrance.

He took a turn on his left, not minding the delay if

it meant that All Might would meet Bakugou first
and would be delayed by the third strongest
student in the class. He accelerated…

… only to see All Might, casually waiting for him,

his arms closed on his chest, and his eyes burning
with cold blue fire.

Shouto didn’t stop, didn’t pause, didn’t even slow

down.

Instead, in his very moment, the world itself

seemed to stop, brought to a halt by the sheer
malice directed at him.

“Leaving your friend already? How disappointing,

Hero.”

Katsuki had seen many All Might fights through

his life. Most of them had been on TV or on the
net, the Symbol of Peace destroying an extra who
hadn’t realized until he was too late that their role
in life was to be a cautionary tale.

And there was one time when he had witnessed

All Might in a fight.

He had felt the power of the number 1 hero.

What should have been wild and uncontrollable
power kept in check by a will of steel. Exhilarating
to witness.

For years, he had laughed at all those villains who

froze when they saw All Might, unable to even
take a step back. He had never understood why
they were so surprised: they had chosen to break
the law, they must have known that the heroes
would come for them. They must have prepared
themselves, in some way.

Nothing could have prepared him to feel All

Might’s bloodlust, the silent promise that he
would destroy him. There was no point of
comparison, no warning: just the unavoidable
and brutal knowledge that the same power which
had brought the era of peace was now directed
at him.

And in this moment, as the most powerful man in

the world was looking at him, Katsuki was acutely
aware of the worst mistake of his life.

When he had let a bunch of extras influence him,

lied to the face of the hero he admired the most.

Becoming complicit in whatever lame mess Deku

was involved in.

And yet, Katsuki didn’t freeze.

To stay still was to die and Katsuki hadn’t come all

this way to lose. He wanted to be the strongest,
the smartest, the number 1, and the blast he
created propelled him in All Might’s direction, just
as Half and Half threw a fucking iceberg at him.
More ice than he had used during his match
against Tapeboy during the Sport Festival, and he
had barely finished his attack that the crunching
noise of someone breaking through it as if it was
as solid as snow was heard.

Katsuki didn’t fail to notice that Half and Half

hadn’t paused either. But whatever, it wasn’t like
Mister Perfect could have done anything to piss
All Might off.

Katsuki took some momentum, using a spinning

motion to augment his input in oxygen while Half
and Half used… not his flames, but the heat he
used at the end of most trainings, when he
needed to get rid of his ice. Not hot enough to
hurt anyone but that wasn’t the point. Vapor rose,
creating a thick mist all around them, thick
enough for Half and Half to disappear behind it.

Hot enough to make Katsuki sweat even more.

All Might emerged from the ice, unhurried

because he didn’t think they were any threat to
him.

He saw Katsuki coming.

It didn’t matter.

Howitzer Impact.

Many things could be said about Bakugou but he

was an excellent fighter and he never gave up.

That was why Shouto could track down by ear

where All Might and him were as he was leaving
the entrance as fast as he could, his heart beating
so fast in his chest that it was almost hurting his
ribs.

He was scared.

Scared of All Might.

The very thought was absurd for heroes and

civilians but Shouto was neither. Instead, he was
the one who had iced the ground so All Might
would fall, right before the Symbol of Peace had
lost his quirk.

Not that he had believed that a quirk could be

transferred at the time.

He had seen that as a way for Midoriya to prove

himself, to make peace with his quirklessness and
to realize what he could do despite not having
one of the powers everyone seemed to be born
with. And then, Shouto had witnessed Midoriya
making the impossible turning into reality for the
first time.

Shouto was complicit of the crime but certainly

not of the miracle, not when he had never
believed it could work.

He stopped far beyond the exit, still in the city

and surrounded by buildings, but the explosions
weren’t as loud as a moment ago, which meant
that Bakugou was getting tired.

Shouto prepared himself, ice spreading from him

in the form of stalagmites. No dry ice, not when
the memory of this day was so vivid right now. If
he remembered it so well, there was no doubt
that All Might remembered it even better.

All Might appeared in front of him, the same way

lightning would catch someone by surprise.
Technically, Shouto had seen it coming but
reacting to it in time was impossible.

Shouto called upon the power of his left side,

because no matter how powerful and reckless
Midoriya was, one thing that always made him
pause was the flames.

The number 1 hero ran through his ice as if it

didn’t exist and his fist connected with his
stomach, sending him flying straight into a wall
before he had the time to summon any flames.

Argh.

Shouto heroically didn’t curl into a ball and threw

up. He even managed to stay upright, but only
because he was hanging on to the wall and he
was not willing to let it go for now.

All Might said something that sounded like All for

One would say but the teenager didn’t manage
to hear a word as Dabi’s voice was ringing inside
his skull.

Something about him regretting not using his

flames for so long and how one day he wouldn’t
be fast enough to draw them out.

“If I can’t get away from him…” Midoriya had

continued after they had finished the mission and
changed clothes because of the paint quirk,
“Well, I know that he is injured here.”

He touched his side and Shouto absentmindedly

noted the place.

“If I punch him here, it might give me a second to

breathe.”

Am I really going to do that? Shouto’s last shred

of moral decency asked.

All Might’s hand appeared in front of him, about

to grab his skull, and for a moment, Shouto had a
vision of a nut cracked by an especially vicious
squirrel.

The next thing he knew, Shouto was kicking All

Might in the side.

Katsuki was not out of breath, just like his arms

weren’t screaming in pain. Instead, he let do
something useful for once, and arrived just in
time to see him kick All Might in the ribs, which
should have been stupid but somehow, the
number 1 did pause, for just a moment.

Katsuki’s body moved on his own, every cell of his

body knowing that this was the golden
opportunity to finally take down All Might. To win.

Only for flames to erupt from Half and Half.

Blue flames.

Katsuki didn’t take a step back as much as he was

punched back by the sheer heat that spread from
Half and Half.

All his life, Shouto had been extremely careful

with his fire, refusing to become reckless like his
old man, and in this very moment, as blue flames
were flooding everything around him, keeping All
Might at distance, he was barely hanging on to
that control, putting all his energy into making
sure that the flames wouldn’t take down Bakugou
or himself.

The rest of the town was fair game.

The street became an oven in a moment, the

flames licking at the asphalt, the walls, the
windows, and making them lose their integrity.
Shouto’s right side was desperately trying to keep
him cool, to insulate him against the hellish
temperature but for the first time since he had
been using both halves at the same time –and
the effort was making his head spin-, he could
feel the heat on his skin.

Not quite painful, not yet, but he knew he was

close to it.

In front of him, All Might wasn’t moving, an arm

protecting his face as he was trying to see what
he could do to get to Shouto despite the asphalt
bubbling between them.

Shouto turned towards Bakugou, who had his

arm raised, his hands pointed in front of him, but
he almost immediately clenched his fist, a feral
grin on his face.

He couldn’t get closer, not unless he wanted his

own sweat to set him on fire. He had no choice
but to leave the town, to make them win by
reaching the exit. But instead, he looked around,
trying to find a way to pass the flames, to reach
All Might.

Still wanting to fight, still wanting to prove

himself.

“Please,” Shouto managed to say, the effort to

say this one word almost making his control slip
and for a moment, pain burst on the side of his
neck.

Bakugou couldn’t possibly have heard him, not

with the roar of the flames drowning any possible
sound, but somehow, he still understood.

Rage, then something close to grief passed on

his face, and he walked to the exit like a man
walking to the death row.

“Congratulations, heroes. You won.”

It took five minutes and a dozen of barrels of

water carried by All Might himself to retrieve
Todoroki Shouto from the hell of his own creation.
At first, the water evaporated before it even
touched the ground but soon, the temperature
became bearable for those who didn’t have some
inherent heat resistance. The student was
retrieved, dehydrated and with what looked like a
nasty sunburn on the left side of his body.

He was led to the infirmary for a check-up but

managed to walk out of it almost immediately,
with some anti-burn cream, some bandage, and a
bottle of water.

Bakugou Katsuki didn’t visit him. Instead, he went

directly to the lockers, changed into his uniform,
and left.

Toshinori fled as soon as he was sure that Young

Todoroki would be alright, smoke already coming
from him and it wasn’t because of that Half Cold
and Half Hot quirk. He jumped in the empty
office and just as he was closing the door, all his
muscles deflated like some sad balloons.

Too close. Just too close.

Despite all the protocol and treatments he was

religiously following, he could feel the remnants
of One for All slowly slipping between his fingers.
It was like he was an hourglass lying on the side
but a small crack was letting the sand escape
little by little.

He grabbed the chair, blocked the door with it,

and walked back to sit on the couch. He would
take some time to rest and see if his body
allowed him to visit Aizawa to talk about how his
students had handled the test.

Young Todoroki and Young Bakugou were

undoubtedly powerful. Young Bakugou had a real
instinct when it came to fighting and fought tooth
and nails to slow him down. Such instinct to win,
this ambition, was what made all the difference
once a student left school.

As for Young Todoroki… If his last move would

have been considered reckless in a populated
area, there was no doubt that this last stand
would have stopped most villains. All Might
himself hadn’t dared to continue because even if
he had broken through the flames thanks to his
speed, he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t have injured
the boy.

Since he didn’t know those students and what

they could withstand, he had spent the whole
fight terrified at the idea of hitting them too hard.

But maybe he had done them a disservice.

Toshinori was a little disturbed with how neither
of them had tried working together.

No doubt that Aizawa will precisely explain to me

how I failed and how there was no need for
Nedzu to invite me…

Waves and waves of cold sweat were running

down Izuku’s back as he was going through one
of the most nonsensical and dangerous situations
he had ever willingly jumped into. But it was too
late to back down. He had no choice but to grit
his teeth, think about quirks, and go with it until
the end.

“You see? If you want to do the whole thing, you

divide the whole thing by section and you go
through it like this.”

Kuwano Kaori, Izuku’s classmates, demonstrated

what she was saying by passing her fingers
through Izuku’s hair, the heat created between
her fingers high enough to tame the stubborn
curls.

Her quirk allowed her to increase the temperature

on a small part of her body, which apparently
made a very efficient hair straightener. When she
had asked if she could use it on him to show
something to Suwabe, a short-haired-girl that
Izuku didn’t know well, he had been torn apart
between the sheer embarrassment of a girl
touching his hair and the curiosity that devoured
him every time he had the occasion to see a quirk
being used.

As always, the curiosity had won. Unfortunately,

he hadn’t considered how he would feel about
something approaching the 180 degrees Celsius
so close to his scalp until Kuwano had grabbed
his head.

It was absolutely terrifying and he couldn’t

believe how some girls just did that several times
a week.

Be brave, Midoriya Izuku.

“Since your hair isn’t as curly as Akatani’s,”

Kuwano continued, “you just need to arrange
them a little when it decides to do whatever it
wants but don’t forget not to let the hair
straightener too long on the strand. It can really
damage it.”

Suwabe approached to inspect what she was

doing, saying something about how she wasn’t
sure her hair straightener would be as efficient as
Kuwano’s fingers on short hair but Izuku stopped
paying attention as he saw, from the corner of his
eye, Yuuto approaching with his phone.

Izuku’s hand flew, so fast that he heard the sound

of the wind as he moved. Even without using One
for All, his training had made him faster than
most people and snatching the phone from
Yuuto’s hand was as easy as stealing candies from
a baby.

Though, it might not be the right expression.

Izuku remembered how protective of his sweets
he used to be as a child.

“Are you a ninja or something?” Yuuto asked as

Izuku was going through his phone and his folder.

“I just don’t like being taken in pictures,” Izuku

avoided answering as he deleted the two photos.

He paused, puzzled because he hadn’t realized

that she had straightened so much of his hair. It
was falling around his face in white strands, far
longer than Izuku expected.

I need a trim.

“My finest work,” Suwabe declared with a smug

smile.

Somewhere, inside a quirk that had been passed

down from heroes to heroes, the first holder of
One for All cackled.

After class, Izuku didn’t wait for his friends and

walked back home, needed the time and the
space to think.

Too many things were happening at once. One

for All was more than what he had been
expecting. Dealing with the fear of having a new
quirk showing up at the wrong time, in the most
destructive way possible, was keeping him awake
at night.

He had tried to make this time profitable with

some quirk analysis but his thoughts were too
loud at night and during the day, between the
classes and dealing with Anyone, he didn’t have
this specific mindset needed to dismantle a quirk
and see what made it tick.

Izuku blew some air, dislodging a strand of

straight hair from his left eye.

He had followed the advice of the Blackwhip user

and controlled his emotion every time he had
tried to use the quirk in those last two days but it
still wasn’t enough. He could only control it at a
ridiculously low percentage. Higher and he took
the risk of seeing it go berserk.

The memory of him drowning as Blackwhip was

dragging him deeper in the sea reminded itself to
him. The burning sensation in his lungs. The pain.
His screams, swallowed by the neverending
amount of water weighting on him.

It was funny how he never had nightmares about

that time with the Sludge villain but one accident
with a quirk had left its traces.

The teenager shook his head, not willing to let

himself wallow in self-pity. He was far too busy for
that.

The only solution he had come up with so far was

to boost the percentage with which he could use
Blackwhip for a short moment. That way, he
didn’t have to control the output but the window
of time, an idea he had directly ripped off from
how he was using Full Cowl and Air Force when
he needed more power.

However, it had proven impossible to use with

Full Cowl so far.

He apparently didn’t have the brain power to

control One for All so his bones wouldn’t
explode, use Full Cowl, and control the time and
the output of Blackwhip at the same time. So far,
all of his attempts had ended painfully as he had
to end the use of one of his quirks.

All in all, his problem seemed to stem from the

fact that he couldn’t use multiple quirks as once,
and he didn’t know which was worse: how he
wasn’t able to use a very cool quirk or how the
solution to his problem might be… might be…

Urgh.

… to actually ask for the advice of someone else

with multiple quirks.

Izuku shuddered as he finished the thought.

Some part of him admitted that it made an awful

lot of sense. Despite how he was considering his
quirk, Shouto only had one and both fire and ice
obeyed to the same rules when it came to using
them. Full Cowl and Blackwhip were completely
different and Izuku didn’t have much experience
with juggling with quirks.

But I don’t want to ask for his help, the child

inside him whined.

On the other hand, what was the point of having

to deal with a several centuries old sociopath who
stubbornly refused to leave Izuku’s apartment if
he couldn’t squeeze some cool quirk facts out of
him?

By the time Izuku arrived to the apartment, he

had carefully erased any trace of distaste from his
face. He was greeted by the odor of fresh coffee,
kicked off his shoes, and almost floated in the
direction of the kitchen, his body craving for the
sweet ambrosia.

Not even All for One’s sight, back to him and

pouring himself a cup in his cup with drawing of
the green rabbit, could put out his good mood.

“You come home early,” the villain said as he

raised his arm, open the cupboard, and took
Izuku’s cup with the white cat on it.

“I wanted to train some more with Blackwhip so I

came straight home,” Izuku explained. “I will
probably go to the beach.”

All for One nodded, filled Izuku’s mug with

coffee, added just enough sugar to make it
delicious, and turned to give it to him.

“Are you going to spend the ni…”

The cup fell.

By some miracle, it didn’t shatter upon impact

but hot coffee splashed on the floor and on some
of the furniture. Fortunately, none of it reached
Izuku or All for One, the latter not even reacting
to it, preferring to stay extremely still and to look
at Izuku with piercing eyes.

“What happened to your hair?”

Izuku pointed at the cup, silently asking the

question that had the priority: What happened
to my coffee?

All for One didn’t answer, preferring to grab the

biggest glass they had and filling it with water.

Maybe dementia had finally gotten to him.

“Uh, are you...”

Cold water splashed Izuku, completely soaking

him in an instant, before he had the time to ask
what was going on.

Izuku calmly and methodically passed a hand

over his face, focusing on things that were real
like the sensation of his hair curling against his
forehead again or the smell of coffee in the air,
but none of it managed to distract him from the
sweet feeling of homicidal rage that the cold
water had managed to summon.

“I admit I might have overreacted,” All for One

said, setting down the now empty glass. “You
just… reminded me of someone.”

And homicidal rage wasn’t such a bad thing.

Actually, the more Izuku considered it, the more
convinced it was that the bad reputation of such
a natural feeling was unfair.

“Izuku?”

Izuku walked away and went to the bathroom,

where he found the bucket next to the cleaning
products.

One of the advantages of living in an old

apartment was that the water took its sweet time
to warm up so he filled said bucket to the brim
with water barely warmer than Todoroki’s ice.

As he left the bathroom with his bucket, Izuku

made a note to call his friend to ask him how his
exam had gone once he was done with this.

All for One tried to run.

It didn’t save him.

Notes:
Anyone now has a TVTropes page
HERE!

And so many new fanarts! Behold!

https://tunafishprincess.tumblr.co
m/post/629419459009986560/sec
ond-place-prize-for-gentrychild-of-
their
https://extratiredofyourcrap.tumbl
r.com/post/634239385049645056
/heres-some-fanart-for-the-fic-
anyone-by
https://blackpunkbird.tumblr.com/
post/634753155246243840/gentr
ychild-panel-redraw-of-my-fav-
manga-page
https://redoaktreehill.tumblr.com/
post/636229700219469825/warm-
drinks-how-i-imagine-it-in-anyone
https://gentrychild.tumblr.com/po
st/637050426314964992/somethi
ng-i-drew-for-fun-gentrychild-i-
think-the
https://twinterrors-
fanart.tumblr.com/post/63742607
7329981440/based-on-
gentrychilds-posts-that-have-been

This has been a complicated and

exhausting year but I am very glad
that I have readers like you
supporting me, so thank you.
You're all very cool.

CHAPTER 27
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

In the Kansai region, in a specific neighborhood,

most of the stores and restaurants had taken a
loan from the same businessman.

There was nothing illegal about it. Simply a rich

man whose company wanted to invest in the local
economy.

The interests of the loan climbing little by little,

slowly so they wouldn’t be noticed at first, not
until it was too late, were just as legal but it still
grabbed the store-keepers by the throat. But they
paid, because if they didn’t, whatever they had
mortgaged would be next, be it the building in
which they were working or their homes.

Until one shopkeeper refused.

He went and met the man he had trusted to be

honest, or at least decent, and he explained to
him that he simply couldn’t pay. How that sudden
increase was pure madness, that he was willing to
keep paying at the rate they had agreed at the
start, but that any other path was simply
impossible to follow.

When that didn’t work, he rallied his neighbors.

They pooled their funds, agreeing that they
would have to settle this matter in court.

They were optimistic, not sure that that they

would win but knowing that at the very least, as
long as they stood together, they would be able
to fight.

And then came Monday.

A blond man with pointy ears strolled inside the

grocery store belonging to that first shopkeeper.
Unassuming, he looked like he was in his thirties
and he was an extremely polite fellow. He made a
point to greet the shopkeeper and his wife,
looked at the different snacks available while
making sure not to make the slightest mess, and
once he selected a chocolate bar, he walked to
the counter and smiled at Kaoru, a college
student who was working part time here.

She smiled back, of course, not even pausing

when the smile revealed how sharp the
customer’s canines were. In a world of quirks,
vestigial mutations were aplenty.

Instead, what made her lose her smile was the

disintegration of the glass bottle of Coke she was
keeping behind the counter. Only the glass,
nothing else, soda spilling on her jeans and her
workspace.

The young woman jumped back, about to bolt

because a quirk had been used in a public place.
She didn’t more to know that she was in danger.

But the blond man wasn’t even paying attention

to her anymore, focused on the elderly couple.

“Life is so precious,” he told the storekeepers. “If

I were you, I would stop looking for troubles.”

He turned towards her and Kaoru just stayed

there like an idiot, unsure of what to do. But he
didn’t talk to her, just sliding some cash to her to
pay for the chocolate bar. He even left a tip,
along with images inside Kaoru’s mind about
what someone who could disintegrate a bottle
with such ease could do to a human body with
sensitive nerves.

The very thought made Kaoru’s chest painful and

her breathing laborious.

Right until she realized that it wasn’t due to the

fear.

In a minute, she started to cough blood. Five

minutes later, she was heaving on the ground,
terror driving her to madness because there were
shards of glass in her lungs, cutting them from
the inside every time she tried to breathe.

The police came. They asked every question that

needed to be asked. They did research. They
even went to the businessman that had granted
the loans. But nothing could be proven.

The research in the quirk registry didn’t lead

anywhere and since there was no camera that
could have taken his picture, the chances of
finding whoever had attacked were slim.

A first person realized that she didn’t want to risk

her life fighting a battle that couldn’t be won.

A second person soon followed.

On Friday, the same man walked into a familial

restaurant.

There was nothing to write home about the

place. The demi dozen of customers were
regulars, coming here more by habit and for the
atmosphere than for the quality of the meal. The
food was average, not bad or bland but not
incredible either.

Really, the only thing worthy of attention was how

people usually had the good sense to abandon
the idea of going to court when they realized how
dangerous it could be. Instead, the owner of this
restaurant had done the opposite and added his
name to the list.

The blond man sat at the table, still perfectly

polite even though the waiter almost spilled half
of his soda on the way from the kitchen to his
table. It was alright. It could happen to anyone
and the kid was probably just beginning anyway.

He lightly touched the rim of the bottle, the same

brand of soda as the lovely young woman he had
met a few days ago had been drinking because
the devil was in the details, and he let his quirk
take hold of the glass.

He could bend it to his will, however he wanted.

When he was younger, he molded them into
animals and his sister still had an impressive
collection, kept on a shelf in her kitchen, and for a
moment, he was tempted to play with it. Instead,
he grinded it to a thin dust, impossible to see
with the naked eye.

The sharp mist rose in the air, every particle under

his control.

And a dome barely bigger than the little table for

one person at which he had sat, appeared around
him, trapping him where he was.

Protection bubble, a very simple quirk that

allowed its user to create a dome of only a one
meter radius, wherever she wanted.

At the same time, another quirk was used. Far

simpler, somewhat considered lame, Breathless
allowed his user to make its victim urgently take
one deep breath.

And so the mercenary did, even though he was

aware of what was trapped in the dome with him.

One could wonder if the efficiency of Breathless

had been boosted by the fact that the waiter
using it had been friend with Kaoru since
elementary school.

Very few people could keep using their quirk as

their lungs were being slashed by minuscule
pieces of glass and the mercenary wasn’t one of
them. Instead, he panicked, unable to control his
breathing, and the weapon of his own making
kept attacking his body from the inside.

At this point, all the customers and members of

the staff left without looking back, unconcerned,
no, complicit of what was happening. Everyone
abandoning him to his fate, except for two
people.

One was an old lady whose face he couldn’t see,

looking at her phone and pretending that he
wasn’t there.

The other was young, wearing blue jeans, a white

shirt, red sneakers and a blue cap. Sitting near
the wall, holding what looked like a cup of coffee
in both of his hands, he didn’t look back as the
mercenary was writhing in agony on the floor.

They left him twenty minutes here, coughing

blood, every breath bringing him a world of pain.

At no point did he realize that this was the exact

timespan during which Kaoru waited before the
ambulance came for her.

“I need you to give a message to your employer

for me,” the kid said, still not looking back, as if it
was an afterthought. “Life is simply too precious
to risk it so recklessly. If I were him, I would stop
looking for trouble.”

And with that, black mist swallowed the

mercenary.

He reappeared a moment later on the table of a

conference room, the businessman who had hired
him now pale as if he had seen a ghost.

Izuku wasn’t a hero. Beating up bad guys

wouldn’t do much to protect people in the long
term because he had no legitimacy, no way to
arrest them. So, sometimes, he had to use other
incentives, such as fear.

Because fear was something that people who

considered themselves untouchable weren’t
familiar with. They lived all their lives, unaware of
what it was like to be powerless and maybe that
was why they couldn’t act like decent human
beings, why they hurt people so easily.

So Izuku had sent several messages. The

mercenary was given a taste of his own medicine,
an idea that Izuku had because he had recently
realized how terrifying it felt to have your quirk
turning on yourself. As for his boss, now that he
has seen what had happened to his man, in what
state he was, how he had been warped right at
his location, he was now aware that they were
people out there who could hurt him. There was
nothing he could do to protect himself and in a
twist of sweet irony, the law couldn’t do anything
for him either.

And if he was stupid enough to try something

again… Well, Anyone wouldn’t be so merciful
next time. Izuku was seriously starting to lack
patience with this kind of behavior.

His phone chimed. If the sound had distracted

him from his dark thoughts the photo Todoroki
sent all but vaporized them.

On it, an All Might Chrome edition hoodie, a

limited edition that Izuku had kept an eye on a
few weeks ago but he hadn’t realized it was
already out.

TS: [Do you want to do some shopping?]

Shouto had underestimated the effect that the

Sport Festival would have on his everyday life.
From one day to the next, his face had appeared
on every screen in the country. It had only
become worse with Hosu, when he had been
filmed heroically going after the villains who had
attacked the town.

Now, people could recognize him in the street.

He had been aware that this would happen at

some point but he hadn’t expected it to be so
soon. So now, he took his precautions. He wore a
cap outside, even a mask today, he made sure
not to be seen when he accompanied Midoriya
during their missions, and he had slowly but
surely learned the art of not drawing attention.

And today, it was quite the feat as he looked like

half a lobster.

He had counted on Recovery Girl to get rid of the

sunburns he had gained fighting All Might but
she had refused because of how exhausted and
slightly dehydrated he had been at the time.
Instead, Fuyumi had prescribed enough ointment
to take a bath in it.

He looked ridiculous.

Half an hour after he had called Midoriya, his best

friend found him as if a giant arrow was pointing
at him. Shouto would have liked to think that he
was tracking his phone, but really, Midoriya might
be just like that.

Something that might come from All for One

since, from what he had heard, that man had an
uncanny ability of finding Midoriya when he was
doing something stupid.

“Sorry,” Midoriya apologized before even

greeting him. He was often doing that and
Shouto knew why. “I meant to call you but the
apartment got flooded yesterday and I
completely lost track of time.”

“Oh? A plumbing problem?”

They had one once, when Natsuo had tried to fix

a leaking tap only to… actually, no one was sure
of what he had done but he had damaged a pipe
and flooded the entire bathroom. Of course,
Fuyumi icing the water to try to stop the deluge
only for the water pressure to propel an ice cube
the size of Shouto’s fist straight between Natsuo’s
eyes hadn’t helped.

“No, just a reckoning,” Midoriya explained in the

tone that meant he had messed with a super
villain that could have flattened a city. “How was
your…”

He looked at him with wide eyes, finally noticing

the sunburn despite the mask and the cap.

“Did the robots have flamethrowers or

something?” he whispered, horrified.

Knowing the principal, he would love the idea.

“They changed the content of the final exam this

year,” Shouto tranquilly explained. “They paired
me with another Exemplar you might now…”

Midoriya winced.

“… and they made us fight a top hero you also

know…”

Midoriya was now bearing a striking resemblance

to the Screaming Man from Munch.

“… so I set a fake town on fire in order to win.”

The look on Midoriya’s face was worth everything

Shouto had gone through during the Final Exam.
He paled, looked at the ceiling, and for a
moment, he didn’t say anything, dealing with
everything that Shouto had just sprung on him
with no preparation.

Now, Shouto couldn’t even begin to imagine how

that felt.

“Todoroki… I can’t believe I am going to ask

that… but did you set the Symbol of Peace on
fire?”

“No, I just set everything else on fire.”

Midoriya’s shoulders slumped in defeat, making

Shouto smile.

Later, Izuku paused in front of the stall. One of his

hands was holding several bags that may or may
not be full of hero merchandise. The other was
holding the strawberry and lemon gelato that he
had been trying to finish as quickly as possible so
they could go back into the shops.

Todoroki paused next to him, holding a mint with

chocolate chips ice cream in his right hand, and
looked at what had drawn his attention.

Hero Killer Stain merchandise.

Posters, masks, keychains with little plastic

swords, and so on.

It didn’t surprise Izuku as he had been wandering

on Internet long enough to realize that there
were many villain fans out there but it was still
rare to find merch in places like this. People
usually had to go to Comic-Cons or to shops for
connoisseurs.

“He would hate it,” Shouto noticed. “Even on his

last leg, he kept complaining about heroes doing
their job for money or for the fame.”

Izuku nodded. “If he was here, he would go on a

very dramatic rant about this society being rotten
to the core.”

“And he would declare that he will get rid of all

the fake heroes while refusing to make eye
contact with anyone near the top 10.”

Izuku hid a laugh as he imagined Stain blatantly

ignoring Hawks, whose face was all over social
media and advertising bills.

“Todoroki!” a girl called behind them.

Todoroki, who had removed his mask to eat his

ice cream, revealing his face for the world to see,
and Izuku froze. A quick glance at his friend didn’t
tell anything to Izuku but another glance at the
window of the shop in front of them showed him
girl clothes standing up on their own.

Around the clothes, another girl with short hair

and a round face who was trying to hold back the
girl with an invisibility quirk. Another student, that
Izuku had last seen in a dark alley and about to
be stabbed by the Hero Killer, was standing his
back to Todoroki and him, arms spread, trying to
prevent a pink-skinned-girl and a blond boy with
a black streak in his hair from approaching.
Behind them, a tall girl with a high pony tail was
facepalming.

Ochako has failed as a hero student, as a

classmate, and as a decent human being the
moment where she had seen Todoroki and hadn’t
kept her mouth shut. Instead, her little “Oh” had
clued in Hakagure and Ashido, creating a chain
reaction where the two biggest gossips in UA had
interrupted Todoroki in what might or might not
be a date.

Hakagure, now that she couldn’t be silenced

anymore, made one valiant step then another,
completely ignoring Ochako’s efforts to push her
back.

“Hi, Todoroki! Fancy seeing you here!”

Todoroki didn’t answer. The boy who had iced

the sole of Hakagure’s feet to the floor once
during a training exercise bore a striking
resemblance with a surprised cat, a mere moment
before one of those fluffy killer jumped ten feet
into the air and fled.

“I’m Hakagure Toru,” the invisible and shameless

girl introduced herself to the white-haired-boy
who had been laughing and eating ice cream
with Todoroki. “This is Uraraka, Ashido, Iida,
Kaminari and Yaoyorozu! We’re Todoroki’s
classmates. Actually, most of 1-A is here today
but we spread out.”

For some reason, the freckled boy didn’t seem

surprised or puzzled by a bunch of hero students
barging in his afternoon and introduced himself
as Akatani Mikumo. He remembered most of
them from the Sport Festival and made Ochako
furiously blush when he complimented her
strategy to defeat Bakugou.

“The Sport Festival of the First Years was just

amazing this year,” he continued. “I tend to
watch the Third Years live and the other years
when I have the time but you truly showed the
Plus Ultra spirit.” He glanced at Todoroki. “By the
way, are the other winners also here?”
“Tokoyami is with Shouji, they were looking for
some camping equipment,” Ochako said, though
she wasn’t sure if it was camping equipment or
clothes suitable for a camping trip. “And
Bakugou didn’t come…”

Akatani nodded, as if that made sense but he

didn’t look disappointed.

He is probably trying to make small talk to a

bunch of nosy hero students.

Bakugou, Kirishima and Shinsou were the only

ones who hadn’t wanted to come to the mall with
the rest of the class. Well, obviously, so did
Todoroki, but he tended to leave right after class
was over so they had all assumed he had
something else to do.

Still, we should maybe explain to him that we

didn’t mean to exclude him.

“Akatani, you said that you usually watched the

Third Years for the Sport Festival but that you
watched the First Years this time,” Ashido
intervened before Ochako could talk. “Is it
because this year, Todoroki was there?”

“Well, yes…”

That wasn’t the thing to say.

Every girl in 1-A knew that Todoroki had talked to

someone right before the Sport Festival started
and Ashido and Hakagure had been looking
through the school for the mysterious
interlocutor. They didn’t care about the most
probable explanation like a family member or a
friend. No, they wanted scandal, romance, and
like sharks who had just smelled blood in the
water, they surrounded Akatani, bombarding him
with questions.

What was his favorite color? (Red.) Since when

did Todoroki and him know each other? (A while.)
Did they get along? (Todoroki was a very good
friend.) Had he seen Momo’s commercial shoot
with Kendo and Pro Hero Uwabami and what did
he think about it? (He hadn’t seen it, sorry, he
didn’t watch much TV, and Momo’s smile didn’t
reach her eyes and gave Ashido goosebumps).

Iida, bless him, tried to stop them from bothering

this poor sweet boy but he failed, hold back by
Kaminari who started to ask questions in turn

Please, for the love of everything that is holy, can

something happen? Anything to distract them so
Todoroki can grab his friend and run?

Atsuhiro smiled at the lovely waitress who

brought him his cappuccino and enjoyed a coffee
worth the name for the first time in what felt an
eternity.

Around him, the wall was crowded and loud.

Children were running around, their parents were
pretending not to notice it, students were
enjoying some free time as they either had
finished their final exam or were trying not to
think about those, young adults were enjoying
their independence, all of this causing a
maelstrom of people who were alternating being
between genuinely happy or stubbornly trying to
be happy.

Atsuhiro finished his cup and hailed the charming

waitress who immediately smiled at him. He
asked him for another cappuccino and some
pastry that he didn’t intend to eat. The point was
for those who would later investigate to see that
the dashing gentleman in this lovely café hadn’t
expecting anything to happen, for he had
ordered something else a minute or two before
the tragedy started.

As the waitress left, a young adult wearing a

backpack passed near Atsuhiro’s table. Maybe a
college student, maybe someone who had just
started to work, the thief didn’t care. What
mattered was that one of the zippers of his bag
was opened and he never noticed the marble
that found his way there.

The young man quickly made it to the center of

the plaza, something Atsuhiro could have
thanked him for because it really was the perfect
stage as far as he was concerned. Suppressing
any emotion on his face, the thief mentally
reached out to the marble… only for a kid to
almost walk into the handsome and naturally
talented magician’s two-legged prop.

Atsuhiro hold on, urging the marble to stay just

that.

Go away, you annoying little thing.

Finally, the child left, running as if the next step

would send him stumbling down in a heap of
limbs but that seemed to be how most small
children usually moved.

As soon as he was far away enough, the marble

broke, normal laws of physics being reestablished
as what it contained regained his mass and his
height. The backpack exploded, nothing
remaining except thin strands of fabric, and
because of the sudden movement, the young
man fell on his back with a cry.

He looked up, more shocked and annoyed that

angry.

It didn’t last, of course. Instead, fear took hold of

him, sinking its claws in his very soul.

Ochako discovered that unlike what happened in

movies, a crowd didn’t suddenly became quiet.
Instead, like the ripples of a rock thrown into a
pond, silence claimed people group by group,
spreading like a disease.

She hadn’t been paying attention to what was

happening around her, too focused on her friends
and on Todoroki’s social life, but still, some part
of her must have been listening in because she
heard the sudden drop of volume around her.

She looked back and her classmates did the

same, all of them remembering the same kind of
tense and shocked silence they had experienced
during their first week of school, when they had
thought they were safe.

A familiar form was standing near the fountain. A

man with dark and sickly grey skin, only wearing
pants, and he had enormous bats wings on his
back.

He didn’t have any eyes but his brain was

exposed.

And he was smiling.

Everyone watched him, no one daring to make a

move. Apart from the 1-A students, no one
recognized him, no one knew the similarity. But
their society was doing their best not to judge
people by their appearances, everyone trained in
this since elementary school.

So no one moved, just looking, trapped between

instinct telling them that this man was a threat
and the lessons of civilization reminding them
that this man hadn’t done anything yet. Hadn’t
used his quirk. Maybe he needed help, was as
disoriented as they were.

Ochako, sweat starting to drip on her back, knew

in this instant that any move would shatter a very
fragile balance and would have dire
consequences. In this moment, she was terrified
at the idea of being the one to bear this
responsibility.

The man didn’t share those worries.

Instead, he slowly made a fist with his hand, one

finger at the time, the movement oddly graceful.
And when he punched the man at his feet, that
fist of his disappeared, a blur that Uraraka’s eyes
didn’t manage to follow but she was already in
movement, but too far away.

The villain’s fist connected with the floor and the

explosion that ensued left a crater in the ground.

Horror pierced through Ochako as if she had

been stabbed, freezing her in her tracks. Nausea
was next, rising in her, and she had a hand up in
front of her mouth, already knowing that she
couldn’t throw up now.

The smoke dissipated, revealing nothing she

expected. No broken and burned body but
instead, some yellow goo in the middle of empty
and scorched clothes. She thought it was the
villain’s quirk, right until the puddle of goo
moving, somehow scurrying away as fast as it
could.

The civilian’s quirk, saving him while everyone

else had failed to intervene.

But the stillness was no more. Someone in the

crowd screamed, finally, the sound saturated with
blind panic. As if it had been the signal everyone
had been waiting for, everyone leaped at once,
hundreds of people running away from a villain at
the same time.

While the students of 1-A were running towards

him.

Todoroki passed Tenya as if the pride the Iidas

had in their speed had the tangibility of cobwebs
but it made him realize something, a lesson that
had been engraved in his flesh, in a dark alley, as
blood lust and hunger for vengeance were
replaced with shame.

Heroes had to protect civilians.

He turned towards Akatani, who had been left

alone. The bags he had been holding in one
hand were on the ground, dropped and
abandoned, and he was looking at the villain with
a blank expression on his face. No fear, no panic,
just an absolute nothing.

It didn’t look like he was even seeing Tenya.

It’s shock, he identified. People liked to talk of

fight-or-flight instinct but UA had taught him that
the more common response to danger was
freezing. That was what had happened to them a
mere moment ago, even though they were hero
students. Keeping one’s cool was something one
learned with hours and hours of experience on
the field. Unfortunately for students such as
themselves, there was no shortcut.

“Find an exit!” he ordered the scared teenager,

still running. “Heroes can’t be far and they will
soon intervene. Everything will be alright!”

Akatani Mikumo looked at Tenya, putting his full

attention on him for the first time since they had
met, and even though the speedster didn’t know
why, something about it deeply disturbed him.

“Thank you,” Todoroki’s friend simply said before

fleeing the fight.

Faith was a strange thing. Izuku didn’t often feel it

but when it happened, he didn’t bother to
question it.

He had faith that Todoroki could handle the fight

against the noumu. A faith based on months
where he had trained with him, fought by his
side, and plotted with him. A faith based upon
facts, which of course, probably didn’t align with
the common definition of this word. But as those
facts were something Izuku knew in his heart, he
was of the opinion that this was enough.

Because he knew that Todoroki could handle the

exploding and now flying noumu, especially as he
was about to be helped by some of his
classmates, Izuku didn’t join the fight.

Because he was needed elsewhere.

Around him, people were frantically running

away, becoming the biggest threat in the entire
floor as an explosive noumu couldn’t hold the
comparison to the colossal stampede that it had
provoked. Panicked people didn’t think. Instead,
their bodies pumped to the brim with adrenalin
oriented themselves away from the threat and
once they had taken enough momentum, they
would not stop.

Ignoring details such as people who had fallen to

the ground or anyone not strong enough to
withstand the sheer power of a frightened crowd.

Without slowing down, Izuku borrowed for the

foreseeable future an All Might hoodie and a
cheap All Might plastic mask, putting them on in
a heartbeat, right before he jumped into the
crowd.

It felt like being swallowed whole by an

enormous beast.

Someone brutally hit him in the back and he

almost received an elbow to the face. He was
pressed in every direction, everyone trying to get
themselves and their family in security, other
bystanders be damned. The worst of individuality
and a mob rolled in one, an entity made of many
parts that knew no mercy and who were unable
to think straight.

One for All. Full Cowl.

Power surged through Izuku, wild, beyond

imagination even in the country that had seen the
birth of All Might, because whatever they thought
of this quirk could never compete with the reality.

The sheer power of a ninth-generation-quirk in a

world that had known quirks for six generations at
most pierced through the thick veil of terror and
suddenly, Izuku could move again as everyone
had the courtesy of getting the hell out of his
way.

It allowed him to get to work, moving within the

crowd, shaping its currents from within. He picked
up those who had fallen, stopped people who
kept frantically pushing those in front of them
when the latter had literally nowhere to go, and
oriented the lost ones towards the exit. It was like
being an especially overworked dog trying to
control a flock of sheep that had just seen a wolf
drooling in their direction.

By the time he managed to bring some

coherence to the chaos, UA students had started
to intervene. Not the ones he had met but others
who had been spread out. Outside the crowd,
they were telling people where to go, handling
those who couldn’t move quickly enough,
reuniting lost children and their parents. Izuku,
relieved, stopped using One for All so he
wouldn’t be noticed.

Pro heroes would soon intervene. It was some

kind of statistical miracle that none of them had
been already here but there was no doubt that
they had been called.

People around him started to slow down, not by

choice but because the door allowing them to
leave the floor could let an average of five people
pass, but certainly not dozens at once. Izuku
resisted to the impulse of jumping across the
crowd and somehow reaching Todoroki and the
noumu. Except for his friend, the UA students
weren’t trying to fight it, preferring to keep busy
the villain that had started to fly around.

Izuku accidentally elbowed a man twice his size

who had tried to force his way and almost pushed
an old lady. Ignoring his growl, the teenager
grabbed his phone to see if the server had
exploded because of the appearance of a brand
new noumu.

His face was still down when the second noumu

appeared from nowhere.

It didn’t mean that Izuku just hadn’t seen him

coming. It meant that the noumu, who could
have been the first’s twin had appeared with his
back to the wall next to the door, in a place
where there had been no space for him to warp.

People were pushed back by his sudden

appearance and all the work the UA students and
Izuku had done to calm the crowd evaporated as
panic took hold of them once again. The
teenager would have thought that there would
be nowhere to move, let alone run, but a circle of
emptiness still managed to appear around the
noumu, creating a human wave that pushed him
down and almost crushed him.

It was done on purpose. They waited for

everyone to be packed like a bunch of sardines
so civilians would be trapped.

People around the noumu were pushing like

crazy, desperate not to be on the first line. All
except one, a man holding a cane who just
looked at the noumu and sighed, not bothering
to flee.

The noumu saw it, saw the absolute resignation in

this man.

And he chose him.

Full Cowl.

Izuku grabbed the shoulder of the man he had

previously elbowed and used it to propel himself
upwards, rising above the crowd, before kicking
him in that very same shoulder to gain more
momentum. The man screamed but since he was
an almost three-meters-tall-tiger, Izuku hope that
he would be alright.

The bald man with the cane didn’t scream. He

didn’t try to flee either.

Izuku reached the wall a heartbeat after he had

started to move, using the sheer speed he had
accumulated to run on the vertical surface.

One for All was roaring in his veins. His vision was
tainted with green.

Faster.

The man’s shoulders slumped down and he raised

his head, accepting what was about to happen.

A glow spread from the noumu’s shoulder to his

raised fist.

Izuku’s kick hit him in the center in the chest,

something breaking under his sneaker, a moment
before the noumu exploded.

Of course, a kick might not have the right word

for it, as it seemed fairly innocuous compared to
the sheer power that rammed into the noumu,
making his chest collapse.

Pain coursed up Izuku’s ankle but he refused to

acknowledge it and the multi-quirk wrecking ball
that pulverized the wall at the right of the exit,
away from the civilian and leading outside,
proved to be an adequate distraction.

Both of them tumbled into the open air.

Izuku was suddenly too far to use the wall or any

decent fulcrum so he threw an arm in front of his
masked face and kicked the air with his legs, an
Air Blast in tow, right before the explosion
seemed to shake the very reality. He felt
scorching heat barely stopped by the airflow he
was using both as a shield and as a mean to take
distance but the shockwave left him dazzled.

And if climbing three floors was a matter of

minutes, falling from them was a matter of
seconds.

Izuku threw his arm to the sky, letting go of Full

Cowl, and reaching deep within him, to a place of
power whose depths he hadn’t suspected until
that day on the beach. He pushed down his fear,
which should have been difficult when the ground
was getting closer and closer but his brain had
always been talented at ignoring bad things in
order to focus on quirks.

Blackwhip burst from his arm, ripping the sleeve

of Izuku’s hoodie, the thick whip of energy
soaring to the noumu, taking a hold of him.

Full Cowl.

Izuku screamed, half because of the sudden pain,

half because of the effort as he sent an impulsion
through the whip, rising as he used the noumu as
a fulcrum, cancelling his speed.

The noumu crashed to the ground in a mess of

broken bones.

Izuku followed, somehow managing to land on

his feet but the impact made him fall to the
ground.

Unhurt.

“What. Was. That?” Kousuke asked out loud,

clutching the tablet connected to various cameras
inside and outside the wall, his knuckles even
starting to become white.

On his screen, the Thief was down, lying on the

asphalt, one arm spread in the noumu’s direction,
as if he was still trying to reach him. His forearm
was bare but with the resolution and this angle
didn’t allow him to see his sleeve had rolled up or
his some support gear had destroyed it.

The bomber moved, slowly putting one foot

under him but his leg didn’t manage to carry his
full weight. As the doctor had made sure to
remove their ability to feel pain, if he couldn’t
move, it meant the Thief had done an impressive
number on him.

The bomber category had been fitted with a

regeneration quirk in order not to be neutralized
by their own explosions. However, and Kousuke
could have bet this O’Clock figurines on that, the
impact with an All Might-level-quirk while being
in the process of detonating had probably
activated bomber cells where they had nothing to
do, causing internal damages to the poor thing.

However, his wings were still working. He moved

them once, then twice, testing them, making sure
that they could carry his broken body, and he
rose slowly, almost painfully.

And the Thief, on his knees, holding his arm,

watched him go, not doing anything to stop him.

Kousuke cursed the angle of the camera. He

would have given a right arm to see an
expression, to try to see what was going through
his mind. He had already crippled Stain. He had
broken Nightmare? Was he scared of doing it
again? Was he injured?

Give me something I can work with.

Give me a story.

But the Thief left, maybe not bothering to pursue

the bomber when he was flying away from the
mall.

It left Kousuke a little heartbroken. It was a

missed opportunity, something great interrupted
too soon, for a pathetic reason, leaving him
haunted with the energy of all those lost
possibilities. But he tried to be philosophical
about it. After all, this was just the beginning.

He was watching the video of the fall from a

different angle when the bomber found him,
several buildings away from the mall. A nice spot
for him to enjoy the show, though he had hoped
that he wouldn’t be disturbed. But the Doctor
had lost too many children back in Hosu and he
had ordered Kousuke to send them home if they
were too injured to go on.

That was why he punched the noumu in the

chest, sending him flying across the roof.

The bomber made a high pitched noise that hurt

Kousuke’s ears and made a whole show of
getting back to his feet with difficulty.

“Oh, come on! You know it’s no reason to slack

off! You’re almost healed as it is!”

And what hadn’t healed right the first time had

just been broken again by Kousuke, so it would
have a chance to heal the right way.

After all, he wouldn’t just hit someone for no

reason.

He wasn’t a monster.

“And don’t pretend that it hurts,” he warned,

passing a hand on his scarred face, the gesture
soothing him

Pain was a privilege. The bombers and the other

noumus, they were weapons. Expensive killing
dolls at most. Unlike him.

Pain is what makes us human, the Doctor had

told him. If you’re not afraid of it, how can you be
truly be alive?

The bomber slowly stretched, bones and muscles

mending, dark and explosive veins running again
on his skin and into his flesh. The rictus he had
been wearing since he had crashed finally
became a smile once again and he jumped on
the rail separating the roof from the emptiness.

The bomber took off, not bearing a scratch,

nothing that could indicate the beating he had
just taken except, maybe, that his chest was
moving faster. They might not feel pain but they
could get tired, no matter how many quirks were
shoved inside them,

Kousuke waved at him as he watched him go but

the bomber didn’t see it. Too bad. He had taught
some of them to wave back.

He was still looking where the noumu had

disappeared when a shadow passed over him.
Puzzled, he looked up and saw what appeared to
be a vending machine.

Flying straight at him.

Oh, he thought, because that was quite the sight.

He blinked. Made the world slow down around

him, enough to look at green blur wearing an All
Might hoodie that had just thrown a missile with
snacks straight at him.

Oh shit, he realized, half a second before it

landed.

Notes:
So many thanks to everyone who
left a comment on the previous
chapter. You are all amazing.

EDIT: Guys, the mercenary is alive!

So is Kaoru! People are tough in
the BNHAverse!

CHAPTER 28
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Every year, vending machines killed more people

than sharks. Even in a world where, in Australia,
two generations of sharks had sprouted quirks
that allowed them to go on land and to greet
tourists.

When the snacks-filled-machines fell, their sheer

weigh was enough to kill a man. When they were
launched by vengeful vigilantes, they turned into
merciless missiles.

How unfortunate for the Thief that Kousuke’s

power dealt in speed.

The vending machine was a breath away from his

face and he still managed to avoid it, the thrill of
having the world slow down around him coursing
through his veins.

The roof groaned under the weight and the

momentum of the vending machine, the metal
twisting and screaming as it slammed into the
concrete, leaving a trail behind it and an
explosion of sweets all around. And as it did,
Kousuke threw his arm towards the Thief.

He tried to slow down, of course, because at this

speed, he could have accidentally broken the
boy’s neck. Delight pierced through him when he
saw that the Thief still tried to avoid it, throwing
his head on the side and he would have actually
managed to put his face just out of reach if it had
been what Kousuke had been aiming for.

The speedster grabbed the ridiculous All Might

plastic mask that he was wearing, revealing the
Thief’s true face.

Only for him to freeze in confusion as he saw All

Might’s boorish features on a teenager.

By the time his brain sped up by his quirk,

Overclock, acknowledged what he was seeing, he
was on the other side of the roof, still holding the
mask.

The Thief didn’t pause, throwing his arm in front

of him and flicking his finger at Kousuke, violent
air pressure in tow.

It never touched the speedster.

Instead, he danced around the Thief, the boy

with All Might’s power, but whose speed was still
no match for Overclock.

“It’s no use…”

He pushed him, sending him tumbling but the kid

threw his right leg back, regained his balance in
the second, pursuing him across the roof,
throwing too much strength around.

“I love your style, you know? But you have to

watch out for…”

The Thief.

Kicked.

The roof.

A shockwave more powerful than what the

vending machine had created rippled through
the ground as if it was made of water, only for the
stone to shatter under Kousuke’s feet, making
him lose his footing for a moment. Still, he
regained it but the Thief was already in his face,
his hand on Kousuke’s arm.

Kousuke made his body go limp, preparing

himself to be thrown upwards.

Instead, the Thief took advantage of the fact that

the speedster’s feet weren’t touching the ground
anymore to punch him three times in the face.

Cold fury bubbled inside Kousuke’s chest,

enraged at the very idea that this brat could
damage the scar he was proudly wearing.

“Straight to the face, uh?” he growled.

The Thief tried to get away but Kousuke’s

enhanced muscles had no trouble throwing him
away and using the sudden leverage to find an
anchor point. His right heel touched the floor and
he started running again, striking the brat six
times in the chest, in the back and in the arms in
a second.

The Thief crashed to what was left of the roof,

bounced, and landed straight in the railing,
leaving a huge bump in it but he at least had the
courtesy of not going overboard.

Kousuke took a deep breath, forcing himself to

calm down.

Mistakes were allowed. Especially for someone so

interesting but who was barely starting running
that specific road.

The teenager, half crouched, took a trembling

breath, obviously in pain but he didn’t show
anything. Instead, he calmly picked up the All
Might mask which had landed not far away from
him and he put it back on.

“Just to sate my curiosity… How did you know I

was here?” he asked.

To his delight, the Thief answered.

People who were too serious and who refused to

talk with villains because it was beneath them
were always so boring. They didn’t know how to
make a story really interesting.

“I didn’t,” he said, sounding even younger than

what Kousuke had thought. “I saw that the
noumu wasn’t returning to the mall. I wanted to
know where it was fleeing. Why are you doing
this? What are you gaining from targeting those
students?”

Kousuke hid a smile.

“It’s just a job, kid. You don’t need to look further

than that. And why talk about me when you are
far more interesting?”

After all, if the speedster had lost all taste for

personal glory, something about him was still
drawn to great stories.

To create narratives and making them stick,

knowing what people would like. And this one?
Oh, this one’s mere presence could change
everything, for better or worse.

“You put those heroes to shame,” he continued

as the kid got back to his feet, favoring his left
leg. “The public is starting to get interested in
you. And even better, you’re making the suits
sweat buckets every time you’re not asking the
permission to use that fine quirk of yours.”

For Kousuke knew what it felt like to love a hero

until you wanted to be just like him. To see this
power, to happily let it mold you, and to hope
you could also fit in the narrative crafted by this
person who had given you so much.

Except that this disastrous debut of his had

taught him better.

“One word of advice, though; I’m sure there is a

voice inside of you that whispers how good it
would be to live in the light. To be a hero, to be
the next All Might, to have everyone depend on
you, to have a goal, a purpose. Well, snuff that
voice out.”

The Thief tilted his head, and something about

his body language indicated that he had just
realized something, making Kousuke hope that
despite what someone kept telling him, wisdom
wasn’t wasted on the youth.

But then, before he even talked, the speedster

realized that something was off.

“Your quirk…” the Thief said, something strange

in his voice, as if he wasn’t completely there.
“There is a limit to it. You’re talking to give
yourself the time to recover.”

Kousuke paused, feeling this gaze behind the

mask, eyes that weren’t seeing him but
something inside him.

“Every time you attack, you take some distance

and you start talking,” he continued, as if he
needed to put it into words to analyze the quirk
correctly. “I thought it was a matter of time but I
was counting… I think it’s more of how much you
speed up. The more you use your quirk, the
longer you need to rest.”

Goosebumps spread on the speedster’s arm as

every cell of his body was screaming to him that
something was wrong.

“It’s… fascinating,” the Thief said, his gaze

piercing into Kousuke’s very soul.

The large hand was circling his entire body,

holding him delicately, aware of how squishy and
fragile Six was. It would have taken nothing for
the man in front of him to twist and break his
body with just a clench of his fingers.

But Six was too tetanized to be scared.

Instead, he could barely think under his gaze,

feeling minuscule, convinced that this man the
Doctor admired and loved could see everything,
every secret, every stray thought that had ever
crossed Six’s mind.

“Fascinating,” the man simply said.

There was something wrong with Izuku’s ankle.

Adrenaline and the urgency of the situation had
hidden how bad it was but it was impossible to
ignore now, not when he was keeping himself
from wincing every time his foot touched the
ground.

Even on a good day, his opponent would have

been faster than him. And since his quirk allowed
him to think faster, he would find a way to dodge
by the time a long-ranged-attack reached him.

He needed even more speed or a way to reach

him without letting go of him.

One for All at full strength would leave him with

broken bones. Blackwhip meant debilitating pain
and revealing that he had another quirk.

There was no right choice.

So Izuku let himself think about the noumus that

had been unleashed in the mall, in the hope of
making a carnage. Of what would have
happened if that one person didn’t have the right
quirk, if Izuku hadn’t been fast enough to save
the other.

He thought of Todoroki, fighting against one of

them in this very moment. Of his classmates, who
just wanted to have fun with their friends and who
were now again victims of an attack and who had
to fight for their lives.

The anger rose within him, carefully, precisely, in

order to fuel Blackwhip.

The speedster, who had been looking at him

oddly – no, through him would be more exact –
smiled, something unhinged in the expression.

“Here he is,” he said, about to use his quirk. “The

villain who crippled Nightmare!”

At that moment, the bomber who was unable to

fly straight almost reached the mall in order to
finish his mission.

Only to brutally meet his end at the end of

something sharp.

“Oh?” the speedster tilted his head instead of

attacking Izuku like he was about to, as if he
could hear something interesting.

Emotions passed over his face, almost too fast for

Izuku to recognize all of them but annoyance
stayed in his eyes longer than the other, only for
regret to take over.

He looked at Izuku, sighing.

“Well, it was a pleasure meeting you.”

Izuku, who had been preparing to unleash an

especially destructive and painful quirk, simply
didn’t get it. He heard the words but the meaning
never registered, the brutal whiplash just too
much for his tired brain.

The speedster noticed the sheer confusion

washing over him and he saluted him.

Only for black and foul-smelling liquid to splash

around him. In a second, it completely covered
him, even appearing in his mouth, making him
gag and soon, the contours of the speedster’s
body started to dissolve.

No, you don’t.

If he escaped, there would be more noumus.

There would be no answer. It would just start
again and Izuku would have to react to it, taking
the risk of failing to save someone, instead of
having the opportunity of preventing the tragedy.

Twin strands of dark energy exploded from Izuku’s

forearms, his panic shielding him from some of
the pain. Blackwhip grabbed the man who was
handling the noumus and yanked him.

At least, it tried to.

But instead of being removed from the influence

of the warp quirk, the speedster stayed in place,
anchored to where he was the same way a
building was anchored to the ground. Not only
did Izuku fail to make him bulge but in this
moment, he felt that it was impossible to make
him move.

The black liquid spread on the tendrils of dark

energy, trying to reach Izuku at full speed, to drag
him wherever the speedster was headed.

He let go a moment before the revolting goo

touched him. Blackwhip disappeared as if it had
never existed, the liquid falling but they
disappeared before it touched the ground, along
with the speedster.

Leaving Izuku alone with his failure.

After taking care of the noumu, Hawks didn’t go

back to the mall. From what his feathers were
picking up, Endeavor had arrived and taken care
of the remaining villain. Before that, the hero
students on site had taken care of the first one.

So, his feather sword still in hand, he flew where

his quirk had sensed something, just to make sure
than another noumu wasn’t waiting in ambush.

He managed to find something worse, leaning

against a railing and eating a bag of M&Ms that
came straight from a vending machine.

What was left of said vending machine was on

the roof behind him, along with a multitude of
snacks scattered across what looked like a
battlefield.

Just when I thought I had seen everything…

The boy in an All Might hoodie didn’t react when

he saw the number 3 hero flying his way,
confirming that there was only one teenage villain
with a power-type quirk and with no respect for
Hawks. The kid didn’t even take a step to leave
and he didn’t try to shoot him midflight, which
the winged hero took as a sign that their
relationship was improving.

Hawks landed on the roof, facing the opposite

direction the Thief was looking at, wings
outstretched so there would be some feathers
between his Anyone handler and him.

Not leaving was stupid but he had to admit that it

was a good thinking spot. They were high
enough to feel that specific calm brought by the
impression of being above one’s problems, but
that building wasn’t the tallest, hiding it in the
shadows of his bigger and more massive siblings.

“Has the Hero Commission ever found out who

filmed me in Hosu and leaked the video?” the kid
asked.

“Is that a way to greet a coworker?”

The Thief put down the cheap All Might mask he

had been slightly holding up in order to eat
without showing his face and he took two steps,
limping a little and looking around until he
located what he wanted. He spun towards Hawks,
a bag of spicy chips in hand, and he gave them
to him.

Hawks accepted the gift, not commenting on

how he had promoted those snacks several times
this year. He supposed he should feel flattered
that the villain who was giving cold sweats to
several members of the Hero Commission was
following him on Twitter but it only reminded him
of when he had broken in his loft.

Still, there was no sense in wasting free snacks.

“I don’t think we even looked for them,” he

answered while eating his chips as loudly as he
could. “Why?”

“I’m not sure yet…”

He seemed exhausted, which made sense since

the noumu Hawks had been very briefly
acquainted with looked like it had met a
bulldozer.

As for whatever had happened here… It had

been something else. There was no scorch mark
that could indicate an explosion but here and
there, an attentive watcher could notice the trace
of someone accelerating and slowing down at
inhumane speed. Since the Thief had been
favoring his left leg since Hawks had arrived, he
doubted that this was his doing.

In my experience, no matter how much goodwill

you put behind it, it’s hard to be at full speed
when you’re in pain.

Hawks’ feathers could pick up the vibrations of

the Thief’s phone but either he wasn’t noticing it
or he was ignoring the many messages someone
was sending him because he didn’t want a pro
hero reading over his shoulder. Instead, he
hesitated, tension all over his body. He shifted his
weight from one foot to another, apparently
remembered that this was a bad idea because of
whatever he had done to his right leg, then finally
asked what had been on his mind.

“Have you ever heard of-”

Hawks’ sensitive feathers picked up something

abnormal.

It didn’t make a difference.

Shadows spread over the Thief, making him flinch

as they greedily took hold of him. He took a step
back but Hawks crossed the distance between
them, his body moving on his own, and he
grabbed him by the shoulder, using his wings to
propel them away from whatever quirk was at
work.

But the shadows didn’t let go of the Thief.

Instead, they also spread over Hawks, and in an
instant, he couldn’t see anything as they
completely took hold of him.

He felt himself falling and staying still at the same

time.

The next moment, his boots were touching the

ground, some wooden floor, and his eyes were
getting used to the lack of light of a windowless
room. He was still holding the Thief, his fingers
actually refusing to let go of his shoulder, and in a
second, he saw everything of his surroundings.

A bar with a large room including several tables,

chairs, and a leather couch. A man behind the
counter, cleaning a glass, his body made of black
mist and his golden eyes comically widened. A
white-haired-man in a suit, young, sitting on a
stool, a glass of something that wasn’t water in
his hand.

His grey eyes were cold and seemed too ancient

for his face.

Hawks was hit by the absolute certitude that he

was going to die.

That he has just committed an unforgivable crime

and that even though he had no idea what it was,
he was going to be ripped to bloody pieces.

A feather sword appeared on its own in his hand,

but he didn’t let go of the Thief, dragging him
backwards with him at full speed as many other
sharp feathers were flying in the man in the suit’s
direction.

None of them reached their target.

Instead, Hawks was grabbed by the face and he

froze as the world wasn’t making any sense
anymore. He finally managed to let go the Thief,
a moment before his head violently hit the wall.

He half stumbled, half crashed to the ground,

gasping for air, disoriented to the extreme, the
world blurry, but not blurry enough for him not to
realize that what was keeping his head to the
ground was a shoe on one side of his face.

He barely noticed it, not when the only thing he

could feel was the absolute emptiness where he
was supposed to feel his feathers, another sense
altogether that had been with him all his life and
which was now gone.

Along with the wings on his back.

The man with cold eyes, the man that was

supposed to be almost terminally crippled,
pressed the sole of his shoe harder against
Hawks’ face, as if he was considering breaking his
skull right here.

Hawks had suspected he was going to die from

the moment he had seen that man. But he hadn’t
even though that he was going to die quirkless.

Snowdrift:

[Are you alright?]

Snowdrift:

[Do you need help?]

Burnin, one of his old man’s sidekicks, informed

Endeavor that they had just received a report
from Hawks confirming that the third and last
noumu, the one who had been sent through a
wall, had been taken care of by Hawks.

Except that Midoriya had been the one to fight

him and now, he wasn’t answering his phone.

Even if he had met Midoriya in his Anyone

persona, Shouto couldn’t really see the number 3
hero simply stealing the credit. No, he had to be
the one to defeat the noumu, which meant that
Midoriya had been distracted by something else.
If he had simply left the job to a pro hero, he
would be answering Shouto’s messages.

“SHOUTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

He kept ignoring his old man –looking at him

meant encouraging him- and he went through
the app that allowed him to track Midoriya’s
phone. Only Gwen and him had access to it, in
case some reckless calamity stopped responding
and had to be picked from wherever corner he
had passed out in.

Familiar coordinates appeared on the screen.

Kurogiri’s bar.

Relief washed over Shouto. It explained

everything. No doubt that All for One had heard
about the incident and warped Midoriya to him.
His best friend, as usual, was probably too busy
antagonizing someone who could raze a town
from the map to think about checking his phone.

“Hawks,” All for One said, delight in this very

word. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

Izuku hesitated, not because he didn’t know what

to do, but because he could see every
ramification of this moment.

Hawks was a Paragon. Now that All for One had

taken his quirk, he couldn’t ignore that this was
the supervillain who had escaped Tartarus, the
one accused of leading the Tartarus escapees
who had attacked the USJ.

All for One was now irrevocably linked to

Anyone.

If Hawks was allowed to leave this bar, the Hero

Commission would stop ignoring Izuku’s
organization and would make hell rain down
upon them, in the off chance of weakening All for
One.

But even if All for One didn’t get any advantage

in protecting Anyone, Izuku knew that he
wouldn’t let Hawks go, not if there was a chance
he could tell All Might that he was healed and
who his associates were.

Something he had to be aware of because Dabi,

All for One’s mole, was the one who had been
working with Hawks.

So, in this moment, Izuku didn’t do anything

because there was a part of him who wished
nothing more than not to have to deal with this.
He had been so careful, had kept Hawks from
getting too close to Anyone, and it had been All
for One’s lack of caution that had shattered all
those efforts.

It seemed fair that he would be the one to fix this

mess.

In the next moment, he was moving, Full Cowl

coursing through him and he grabbed All for One
by the arm, yanking him firmly to get him away
from the number 3 hero.

For Izuku didn’t want to be the kind of person

who hesitated to save someone because the
alternative was easier for him. He had been at the
end of this kind of rationalization, he had met
numerous people who had been left away
because it was easier.

He couldn’t let himself become cold and look

away because it wasn’t his problem. Because
once he stopped caring, there was no going
back.

The glass the villain had still been holding spilled

on Kurogiri’s nice woodwork but he did step away
from Hawks, reporting all of his attention on
Izuku, whose quirk was still active.

Until now, they had both been very careful into

never using their quirk in a confrontational
situation.

Because despite all the breakfasts, the gifts, the

conversations about quirks and the occasional
snuggles, All for One was the villain who had
annihilated every One for All holders before All
Might.

While Izuku was the one holding a power that

had gruesomely maimed All for One once
already.

All for One looked at him, the air around him

becoming colder and colder.

Izuku clenched his fist, slightly shifting his weight

on the ankle that wasn’t injured.

He didn’t want to fight.

But he would, even if he had to break every bone

in his body and some more.

For some reason, it made All for One smile. Not a

nice smile, of course, not by any stretch of the
imagination, but the cold receded just a little,
allowing Izuku to breathe better.

“I can live with the consequences of letting him

go,” the supervillain said. “Can you?”

Not a nice smile at all. The smile of a man who

knew that whatever happened, Izuku was
trapped.

“He is an Anyone operative,” the teenager said.

“What happens to him is none of your concern.”

Touching Anyone in any way was just as bad as

hurting heroes.

All for One’s smile got wide, somehow even more

shark-like than before.

The urge to hit him sank its teeth in Izuku, so

violent that it actually surprised him. He didn’t
get violent when things didn’t go his way. The
thought had never even crossed his mind until
today.

But in this moment, every cell of his being was

saturated with the need to punch the smugness
off his stupid face. Even One for All seemed to
have gained some giddy energy at this very idea.

Slowly, he unclenched his fist and he took a deep

and absolutely not soothing breath. He wasn’t
exhaling his bad energy, he was sucking in all of
his anger and repressing it until he could deal
with it later.

Or never.

Maybe he would just have to bottle all his feeling

up like a Molotov Cocktail and one day, he would
die.

“Now, give back his quirk,” Izuku said.

That one didn’t seem to please the bane of his

existence, the smile faltering just a little. He had
probably planned to play with the quirk for a
while, to see what made it tick.

Izuku knew it because he would have given his

limited figurine made for the 10-years anniversary
of the first All Might movie in order to know how
those feathers worked.

In the end, he did comply. The delay was

probably a good thing, as the number 3 hero
used this time to get up on his own, though he
looked so stiff that a light push would have
probably sent him stumbling down.

His feathers, scattered on Kurogiri’s nice floor,

inert, came back to life as soon as All for One
touched him, flying on their own and back to his
back, two wings forming without the need of any
bone structure.

Hawks opened his mouth.

All for One waved at him and before the number

3 hero had the time to say anything, Kurogiri’s
warp gate swallowed him whole.

The warp gate brought Hawks to the roof of a

building near his loft and he took flight as soon as
his feet touched solid ground, ascending at high
speed, higher and higher as if he could leave
behind what had just happened.

He had almost died in there.

Everyone in his profession made peace with this

eventuality but so far, Hawks always had the
possibility to prepare himself for it. When a
problem had to be fixed, he evaluated how much
risk he needed to take and what could go wrong.
He needed to, so he could take the right
decision.

But in here, there had been no warning. One

moment where he was talking with the kid and
the very next where he was dragged away to be
killed.

Or maybe what was making his hands tremble

wasn’t how he hadn’t been able to anticipate a
dangerous situation. Maybe it was the fact that
none of what he could have done would have
been enough to prevent All for One from killing
him.

Hawks had never felt so powerless than when he

had been hugging that floor, too disoriented to
get back to his feet, too terrified to do anything
that would break the fragile balance between the
two giants arguing over his life.

That terror had not been for him. He had already

been prepared to die here, half-blind and unable
to do anything.

It had been for everything, no, everyone else. He

didn’t know how strong All for One and Yami
were but two people whose power were
approaching All Might’s level could create
cataclysmic collateral damages. Not only would
Hawks had been taken in this fight, making it
pointless, but the same thing would have
happened to the bar and any buildings around it.

In the end, they had backed down.

And Hawks was alive, but only by Yami’s mercy.

The cold started to pierce through his clothes

despite the thick jacket he was wearing. It meant
that the air would soon get thinner if he kept
ascending at this speed.

He stopped trying to find a place high enough to

leave everything behind and he took the
direction of the mall. Meeting colleagues and
pretending that nothing unusual had happened
right after a near death experience was not a
good idea but he needed some time to think. To
obtain it, pretending that everything was fine was
vital.

Because the Paragon raised by the Hero

Commission was screaming at him to drop
everything he was doing in order to tell them that
he had seen All for One.

The supervillain who had terrorized the

underworld for decades, if not for a century. A
villain that could go toe to toe with All Might. A
villain who could take quirks, leaving his victims
with nothing.

He was healed. Maybe even back at full strength.

This very knowledge seemed to be reaching past

Hawks’ ribcage to take hold of his heart, sending
waves and waves of terror through it.

And this was exactly why he was hesitating to call

the Hero Commission. Because they would panic
at the idea of the number 1 villain knowing the
Thief. The latter was a high-ranking member of an
organization that could mobilize large amount of
people, people that no one would suspect until it
was too late.

It was a tactical nightmare.

It took him twenty minutes to get back to the

mall, so long enough for most of the civilians to
be evacuated and for the police to be
everywhere, already preparing the noumus for
transport by putting restraining devices made for
people with enhancer quirks. They looked like
massive metal blankets, restraining any
movement from the upper limbs and weighting
way too much for someone normal to move while
carrying it.

It’s going to hurt their wings, Hawks

acknowledged.

There were ways to bind a criminal’s wings

without damaging them but since the noumu had
shown an enhanced strength, the police probably
didn’t want to take risks. Especially as any
explosion would be contained by the device, not
completely, but enough for the villains to hurt
themselves more than they could hurt anyone.

If society had learned how to contain diverse

quirks, there was no general solution. They were
not prepared to deal with people with multiple
quirks.

If All Might hadn’t injured All for One so severely,

how would Tartarus have contained him?

A stupid question, of course. Once a villain was

too powerful, when their quirk threatened to
crumble society completely, heroes couldn’t
always have the luxury of arresting them.

The mall was bonded and Hawks didn’t feel like

walking two floors to get to the crime scene.
Fortunately, there was a perfect entrance point
where something heavy had been shoved
through the wall and he flew through it, barely
slowing down and startling the heroes on the
other side.

Endeavor himself and several of his sidekicks but

also Kamui Woods, who was standing as far away
to the incandescent hero as possible. Todoroki
Shouto was next to the number 2 hero, looking at
something in his father’s palm.

The hero of Hawks’ childhood glared at him when

he landed a little too close, which made him
smile in return. It was just typical Endeavor.

“Hawks,” Endeavor grumbled, the same way a

fire would make noise as it was devouring wood.
“Where were you?”

Hawks didn’t fail to notice how Shouto seemed

very interested in his answer.

“I was making sure that no other scary villains

were around, of course.”

It was technically the truth and what he had found

had left him unsettled and still frenetically
checking that he could still perceive the
vibrations in the air with his feathers.

“Why didn’t you answer when we called you?”

Endeavor continued.

The question took Hawks aback.

Who was the we? His own sidekicks or Endeavor?

Had they called him on his phone or used some
radio frequencies? There was no missed calls on
his phone but there had been no windows in the
bar so maybe there had been no reception.

“I might have been flying too high at the time,”

he answered without marking a pause.
“Reception is terrible when you’re far above the
tower and I’m not even talking about how hard it
is to hear anything at this altitude. Now, will you
tell me what you’re holding?”

Endeavor showed him.

The broken remains of what looked like a blue

plastic bead.

“Cool,” Hawks said. “What is it?”

“I don’t know yet,” Endeavor said, taking back

what was left of the bead as if he was concerned
Hawks was going to steal it. “But those fragments
were found at two locations, when the first and
third noumus appeared.”

Hawks nodded, not sure of what it meant, then

he looked back at the hole in the wall. Endeavor
and Todoroki followed his gaze, and they all
kinda paused as they were coming to term with
how much strength one needed to throw another
being through so much concrete.

Endeavor talked some more and Hawks made the

right noises at the right time but he wasn’t here.
Compartmentalization was a wonderful skill that
allowed one to function even when he was still
reeling from the short loss of his quirk.

The Thief and All for One… There was something

he wasn’t understanding here.

They had assumed that All for One was the one
leading the League of Villains. How could he not?
They had appeared after he, and many other
inmates, had broken out of Tartarus. The noumus
had several quirks. He was evil incarnated.

But what if he wasn’t?

Most villains weren’t interested in being evil just

for the sake of being evil. They wanted money,
revenge, concrete things. Even All for One
probably hadn’t lived so long by throwing away
valuable resource.

And there was something else.

“I can live with the consequences of letting him

go. Can you?”

“He is an Anyone operative. What happens to

him is none of your concern.”

All for One had been smiling.

He had wanted Hawks to tell the Commission

that he had seen him with a member of Anyone.
He had been eager to release into the wild so he
could tell his masters what he had seen.

Kurogiri was the first one to break the silence,

without even saying a word. Instead, the clinking
sound of a glass being put on the bar was what
broke the tension between All for One and Izuku,
followed by the flowing sound of a very strong
drink being poured into said glass.

All for One made the slightest nod, as if he was

admitting that a drink sounded like a good idea,
but when he raised his arm, Kurogiri had already
brought it to his lips (or at least, Izuku assumed
so), throwing his head back and drinking it in one
gulp.

The look on All for One’s face, then on Kurogiri’s

when he realized what had just happened, were
glorious.

Kurogiri hurried to prepare another glass for a

supervillain who still looked like a very indignant
cat while Izuku casually walked to the bar,
ignoring the horrible pain in his ankle.

The two adults were none the wiser as Izuku

managed not to hop on one foot and to climb on
the stool. He took out his phone and checked his
phone to see what he had missed.

“There were three noumus,” he told the two

villains, relieved to see Shouto’s messages
because he hadn’t realized there had been a third
one. “I only saw two. Grey, winged, and with
explosion quirks. Both of them appeared from
nowhere.”

“What do you mean?” Kurogiri asked, even

though Izuku would have expected All for One to
be the one to question him.

Instead, the villain hadn’t touched his drink and

was watching Izuku from the corner of his eye,
something unnerving in the way he was sitting.

It was like he wasn’t bothering to hide behind the

usual mask, not feeling like conforming to the
usual social charades.

“What I said,” Izuku answered Kurogiri. He was all

out of patience for All for one’s games. “No
visible warp quirks and they weren’t hiding in the
crowd. One moment, there was nothing, the
next, here they were and people in the space
they were now occupying had been pushed
back.”

It meant that it wasn’t the warp quirk from the

USJ.

“It sounds like teleportation but…” Kurogiri

looked at All for One, who looked at Izuku and
frowned.

Izuku only realized why when All for One grabbed

the cheap All Might plastic mask the teenager
had been wearing to protect his secret identity.
No doubt that he disliked seeing All Might’s face
around him longer than necessary.

Naturally, as soon as the mask was just slightly

off, Izuku shifted his features and once again
made his best All Might imitation.

It backfired.

With a noise of disgust, All for One let go of the

mask whose plastic band still at the back of
Izuku’s skull made it painfully boomerang to his
face.

“The difference between a warper and a

teleporter…” All for One pretended that Izuku
hadn’t just been grievously injured by an unjust
attack, “… is that a warper create a portal. The
portal either push whatever is in the way or allow
the warper to at least feel the obstacle. A
teleporter doesn’t have this luxury. If they teleport
to a space that is already occupied by something
solid, both of their molecules fuse.”

Izuku, his mask in hand, grimaced.

All for One drank some more, more relaxed now

that he was talking about quirks. Unless it was
because he was feeding on Izuku’s pain.

“That’s why teleporters are rare. They tend to get

themselves killed long before they can pass their
quirks to their descendant. Are you sure you
didn’t see anything that could qualify as a warp
gate?”

Izuku shook his head.

“It was so crowded that I could barely breathe. If

a warp gate had been used for the second
noumu, someone would have passed through the
gate or been cut in half.”

“Then you don’t have a teleporter but something

else,” All for One shrugged. “After all, quirks are
varied and keep becoming more complex. What
were the noumus’ quirks?”

“Wings. Explosion. Healing,” Izuku answered, not

needing any time to remember them.

All for One smiled, not with his mouth but with
his eyes.

“It’s smart,” he said. “That way, the intensity of

the explosion doesn’t have to be limited by the
need to preserve the wielder. Did it look like they
had an enhancer quirk?”

The shock of his kick against the noumu’s chest

reminded itself to Izuku.

Along with how the noumu had been kicked

around by the speedster.

“It’s possible,” he admitted. “They also had a

handler. He was waiting away from the mall,
where the noumus could regroup if something
happened to them. A man, black hair, a scar on
his face.”

This time, he took a second to find the right

words, seeing the quirk in his mind.

And as he did, he remembered something. A half

forgotten memory, the kind one couldn’t access
unless they got a specific reminder.

With an experience born of a life repressing

anything he couldn’t deal with right now, he held
that thought and didn’t let anything reach his
face.

“I barely know anything about his quirk,” the

teenager admitted. “An interesting speed one,
where he couldn’t only increase his physical
speed but also his thinking process. However, he
needed some cool down time. The faster he
moved, the longer he needed to recuperate.”

All for One gave one appreciative nod to the

description, his usual reaction when he heard
about a quirk he would like to get his hands on.

None of it was genuine.

Izuku didn’t know if it was because he was

looking for it or if it was because he had been
living with the man for several months but the
teenager wasn’t seeing any of the usual curiosity,
the intense fascination this man felt when there
was an interesting to dissect.

“Good think you barely know anything about it,”

Kurogiri said on a strange tone, interrupting his
thoughts.

The teenager looked away, embarrassed. In his

defense, a fight he was part of didn’t leave much
time to observe a quirk.

All for One put down his glass and turned

towards him.

“You do know I love talking about quirks but I am

more interested in the part where you sprained
your ankle.”

Anyone:

[I am going to need you to track Salty’s

phone. Where he is going and who he is calling.]

Gwen:

[On it.]

[Why are you suddenly so interested in his

activities?]

Anyone:

[He got introduced to that cat who

followed me home.]

There were simple pleasures in life and chilling in

a sofa with her girlfriend was one for Ava. She
had done nothing today except eating unhealthy
snacks with Ao and watching TV. Ao herself was
in Morpheus’s arms, using Ava’s lap as a pillow,
her blue hair ruffled by sleep.

Until her eyes snapped open, pure irritation

suddenly coursing through her.

She sat up and looked around, the hair at the

back of her skull making her look like an
especially spooked owl.

“I sense a disturbance in the Force,” she said,

furor in her voice, referencing her favorite movies.

Clone Wars or something. Ava had never stayed

awake during an entire movie (she had problems
watching things so old) but she had watched
several episodes of the cartoon.

“It’s him,” Ao continued. “I know it.”

Ava gently patted her head to put her hair back

into place.

“I know Akatani called you on two of your days

off but three times in a row seems to be a little- “

Ao’s phone rang.

Knockedoverthehead:

[I just don’t like when those two are

fighting.]

Gwen:

[I wasn’t there and I don’t like it either.]

[Yami is just… so small.]

Knockedoverthehead:

[He is.]

[But I wasn’t worried about him. Or about

the other. I just feel that none of us wants to see a
world where those two would be enemies.]

Me: [Are you okay?]

Mi: [My brand new All Might hoodie is destroyed.

T_T]

Me: [Are]

Me: [You]

Me: [Injured?]

MI: [Don’t worry, the man on the roof retreated

long before we could hurt each other!]

Me: [I feel that you’re doing that on purpose.]

MI: [What am I doing on purpose?]

Me: […]

Me: [I am sorry about your hoodie.]

Me: [If that makes you feel better, Uraraka found

your bag full of your other merch. She gave it to
me.]

MI: [It does make me feel better.]

MI: [Could you thank her for me, please?]

Gwen:

[Hawks went to the mall and was seen

talking with Endeavor, then he went straight
home. He didn’t call anyone with the phone that
has the Clamor app.]

Izuku would have liked to see Todoroki as soon as

possible but All for One did his best to become a
second shadow. He followed him on groceries
runs, drove him and picked him up from school
and he was never far when Izuku was on an
Anyone mission.

Patience used to be one of the teenager’s virtue

but since All for One had put his entire
organization in danger by bringing Hawks to the
bar, it had the lifespan of a snowball in hell.

He did try to use words and reason. To appeal to

his hypothetical common sense. But if the only
thing that worked to get some privacy was to
walk to All for One’s closet with a zippo, then so
be it.

“The speed quirk that this villain used was

incredible,” Izuku told Todoroki three days after
the mall incident. There was no awe in his voice.
“It was hero worthy and there was no downside
that could explain why someone like him
wouldn’t have a hero license.”

They were in the middle of a war council and

usually, it shouldn’t have been the two of them.
So far, Dabi had always been invited. Or at least,
included since Todoroki and Izuku organized
those meetings at his apartment.

But recent developments had shown that Dabi

was a zealous mole so he had coincidentally been
sent on several missions today, leaving the
apartment free.

“You’re the proof that people with incredible

quirks don’t always become heroes,” Shouto
reminded him.

Except that he was wrong.

“I am not a hero because I stole that quirk,” he

corrected. “And this villain does have a perfect
heroic quirk.”

Todoroki had been homeschooled most of his life

so maybe he couldn’t understand how rare it was
for someone with the right quirk to get into
trouble. Izuku still remembered the “The right
quirk for the right path” poster on the wall of
Aldera. Society was forgiving to them, made for
them.

Dabi had an incredible fire quirk but for most of

his life, he hadn’t been able to use it without
horribly burning himself. Ao was a healer but her
quirk tired her out.

Todoroki himself was more of a vigilante and

would become a hero.

But that wasn’t the only thing that was bothering

Izuku.

He took a notebook from his bag. Unlike his usual

ones, there was nothing written on it, only a
drawing of All Might on the cover, though no one
would have guessed it was the Symbol of Peace.

It was also extremely old.

Izuku delicately opened it, afraid to tear the

pages, until he found what he was looking for. A
drawing of a pro hero, with lightning for speed
and zigzags to indicate how he was moving.

There was only one word on the two pages:

O’Clock.

“There was something about the quirk that was

familiar but I wasn’t sure I hadn’t invented it,”
Izuku explained. “I had to go through my first
notebooks to confirm it. There was a hero with a
similar speed quirk. His name was O’Clock…”

“Wait,” Todoroki interrupted. “Are you the one

who wrote his name?”

Izuku blinked.

“Well, no, it was my mom.” It wasn’t like one

could mistake her sensible handwriting with
Izuku’s. “It was more than a decade ago. I don’t
think I knew how to write at the time.”

“But you already had notebooks about

heroes…”

“Well, they were unofficial ones but yes,” Izuku

admitted, uncomfortable under Todoroki’s stare.

In his defense, heroes were at their coolest when

they were actually using their quirks.

Todoroki slow blinked at him.

“I asked Nagisa to do some research,” Izuku

changed the subject, really uncomfortable with
the twinkle in his best friend’s eyes. “He retired
after meeting an unknown villain. He suffered
fractures in both legs that made him unable to
use his quirk.”

Todoroki immediately understood what he was

implying.

Izuku still said it anyway.

“I know it’s the same quirk. Yes, it could be

O’Clock’s son or a coincidence but I just know
that it’s the quirk I saw all those years ago. All for
One is the one who took it.”

And he had recognized it when Izuku had

described it.

“I believed him when he told me he wasn’t

responsible of the USJ,” Izuku said. “But the
noumus and their handler come from his old
organization and he can’t be trusted to deal with
them.”

“It’s not like we trusted him before,” Todoroki

reminded him. “And it just means we have to
handle them.”

They would have to do more than them. They

couldn’t afford to keep reacting to those attacks.

Anyone had to go after them.

Notes:
Thank you for the beautiful
fanarts!

https://tunafishprincess.tumblr.co
m/post/637899716514971648/i-
just-really-liked-this-scene-lol-
gentrychild
https://softassilke.tumblr.com/post
/640684268028411905/the-smol-
bean-from-gentrychilds-fic-anyone
https://gentrychild.tumblr.com/po
st/640674625708244992/i-made-
you-a-drawing
https://malz-
art.tumblr.com/post/64137081653
7378816/i-binge-read-anyone-by-
gentrychild-and-i-love
https://kai-
loran.tumblr.com/post/642481022
009819136/well-isnt-it-your-lucky-
day-drew-one-of-my
https://duckychaotic.tumblr.com/p
ost/641937853258104832/dad-
for-one-after-the-mall-incident-
gonna-be
https://the-lunar-
warrior.tumblr.com/post/64293978
6852728832
https://gentrychild.tumblr.com/po
st/637050426314964992/somethi
ng-i-drew-for-fun-gentrychild-i-
think-the
https://karmauh.tumblr.com/post/
643316774777110528/did-i-make-
more-fan-art-for-anyone-yes-yes-i
https://redoaktreehill.tumblr.com/
post/643796513969061888/breaki
ng-news-baby-villain-was-
adopted-by-cryptid
https://katskorners.tumblr.com/po
st/645348444327804928/from-
anyone-as-u-can-tell-im-currently
https://incineraryperiphery.tumblr.
com/post/645295166925766656/t
odays-warmup-anyone-my-
beloved-no-seriously-if
https://katskorners.tumblr.com/po
st/645348444327804928/from-
anyone-as-u-can-tell-im-currently

CHAPTER 29
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

All for One yawned as he walked out of his room,

his hair annoyingly well tussled. (For comparison,
Izuku’s own curls looked like they were trying to
turn intruders into stone every morning.) As for
the tracksuit and the tee-shirt the villain was
wearing, they were making him look ridiculously
young, which was another confirmation that Izuku
definitely should have taken Kurogiri at the
teacher-parent meeting.

The bane of his existence froze, looked around

and looked back at Izuku, pure confusion
spreading on his face.

The teenager ignored him and finished to dress

the plates. Typical Japanese breakfast with a bowl
of rice, some miso soup, grilled salmon, and an
omelette that was a little burned so the worst of it
went to All for One’s plate.

Not that Izuku was protesting against the

delicious bacon and American breakfast he had
gotten for the past few months but sometimes,
he needed to take a break from it.

“You’re awake,” All for One said on the same

tone he had used to when he had commented on
the appearance of Blackwhip.

“I am.”

“At 7 in the morning,” All for One now said on

the same tone he had used when he had realized
Izuku was going to get several quirks. “When you
don’t have to.”

“I went for a light training session this morning,”

Izuku shrugged. “You will be happy to know I
have made considerable progress with
Blackwhip.”

He might be less happy to notice the tiny itty bit

minuscule scratch on his Mercedes but that was a
problem for Future Izuku.

All for One didn’t say anything, seemingly

moving along, but something in his body
language indicated that he knew that Izuku’s
nightmares had returned.

The kind of nightmares that left you gasping for

air, drenched in sweat, and unable to fall back to
sleep because the perspective of going through
it again was enough to make one’s heart race
madly.

Every time the teenager thought that he was over

from what had happened with Nightmare, he had
one of those nights.

All for One was tactful enough not to comment

on it and he sat at the breakfast table, looking at
his plate with… well, it wasn’t suspicion but it
might have been confusion. He thanked Izuku,
then took a bite.

He frowned and took another.

And another.

“It’s actually really good,” All for One frowned,

way too surprised for his own good. “I didn’t
know you could cook.”

“It might come as a surprise to you but I actually

lived by myself long before you arrived.”

“Oh, I was aware of it. The surprise is how you

manage to survive so long…” Izuku reached
across the table to confiscate the plate but All for
One put it out of reach with what could only be
described as a shit-eating-grin. “… Speaking of
the lack of authority figure in your life, when is
your mother coming back?”

Izuku was forced to repress a shudder, like every

time he heard All for One mention his mom. In a
perfect world, the villain wouldn’t be aware of her
existence.

“She was supposed to come back for our

birthdays but since Dubai is way better than
Mustafu, she offered to have me at her place for
two weeks instead,” Izuku explained. “Naturally, I
accepted.”

Except that it hadn’t been natural at all.

Any child would have been delighted at the idea

of spending two weeks in a beautiful place out of
the country, especially if it meant spending time
with his mom. However, most children didn’t have
to babysit a cat in human form whose main
hobby was trying to drive Izuku crazy. Leaving
him unsupervised in the same country where All
Might lived felt like leaving a very bored cat in
the same room as a very buff canary.

Izuku was going to have to put Hawks to use.

Having him tail All for One sounded like a good
way to provide an aperitif before the Plus Ultra
main course but maybe he could have him on
protective detail for the number 1 hero?

“You won’t be in Japan for your birthday?” All for

One asked.

That was indeed what Izuku had said but he had

expected the villain to be overjoyed not to have
him around.

Instead, he looked disappointed… and even a

little hurt?

“I have a life outside of you,” Izuku informed him.

“That’s cute of you to think so.”

Izuku stuffed his mouth full of rice so he wouldn’t

say something rude and that would get him
killed. Unfortunately, it brought a smile back to All
for One’s face, leaving the teenager with the
feeling that he had just lost a battle.

“Do you…” Izuku leaned back to avoid a hair

ruffle. “… have plans for today?” the bane of his
existence asked.

Izuku shrugged.

“I thought about hanging out with Todoroki at

Dabi’s but… I’m tired. I think I’m going to catch
some sleep.”

They didn’t say anything for a while after that,

eating their breakfasts in silence, though All for
One was sneaking glances at Izuku here and
there.

The teenager ignored him, preferring to focus on

the food. He was happy not to have overcooked
the salmon for once.

“This is only a suggestion but if I were you, I

would spend the day with your friend,” All for
One finally said. “Heroes and villains alike need
the time to breathe and to relax in order not to
burn themselves out.”

Izuku slowly nodded. Despite his need to

contradict the villain, even he could recognize
that it was a good idea.

“I will call Todoroki to tell him to save a manga

for me,” he said, refraining himself from
shrugging. It would have been stereotypical.

Instead, he poked at what was left of his rice.

Here, it felt more natural.

“Feel free to spend the night there,” All for One

added like it was nothing. “I will probably come
back home late.”

But of course, Izuku immediately picked up on it.

He couldn’t help it. It was like picking up the

scent of blood in the water.

“Are you going on a date?” he asked in the

second, before realizing that he might not want
the answer to that specific question.

“I am not going on a date,” All for One said a

little too firmly.

Izuku kept talking like he hadn’t heard him.

“Who would want to date you?”

“That’s not a date,” All for One repeated. “But

you would be surprised.”

Oh, definitely. No matter who wanted to date the

local supervillain, Izuku would be surprised.

What would he even write in his profile?

Looking for someone with an interesting quirk

and no morality. Enjoys complaining about the
hero system and killing people creatively. Can
cook. Will definitely move in quickly.

Once they finished eating, All for One did the

dishes while Izuku was pouring himself a glass of
orange juice before going back to bed. The
advantage of being used to sugar and caffeine
was that some mere vitamin C wasn’t enough to
prevent him from sleeping again.

But just as the teenager was walking back to his

room, All for One called him.

Izuku turned towards him, trying to silently

convey that he didn’t tolerate criticism when it
came to his cooking. Yes, even if it was
“constructive”.

“I’m glad we can talk sincerely to each other,” All

for One said instead. “I know you don’t trust me
but I will always be there if you need someone to
lean on.”

For a moment, Izuku didn’t say anything.

All for One didn’t seem to mind and preferred to

go back to the urgent tasks of rinsing the many
dishes.

“Thank you,” the teenager finally answered

awkwardly before going back to his room.

The door to his bedroom was left slightly ajar,

enough for All for One to sneakily peak through it
right before he left, making sure that Izuku was
indeed in his bed, his eyes closed and his fists
clenched.

And as soon as he heard All for One leaving,

Izuku pushed the blanket back, grab the set of
casual clothes he had prepared the day before,
put them on then his sneakers, grabbed his bag
and left the apartment in secret.

MI: [Okay, I’m on the move.]

MI: [Don’t forget to intercept any message Dabi

will get from you-know-who.]

Me: [Already on it.]

Me: [Don’t worry. I know how to keep him

distracted.]

“… and that’s why the appearance of Blackwhip

definitely proves that Midoriya is All for One’s
secret lovechild,” Shouto explained while
pointing with a ruler the doodle of his best friend
being surrounded by black tendrils while Doodle
Shouto and Doodle Dabi were watching, shocked
expression on their little doodle faces.
For a moment, Dabi didn’t say anything. He much
preferred to look at Shouto like he was
considering the pros and cons of incinerating him
right now.

Shouto didn’t worry at any point, though. After

all, if his brother murdered him in a Caïn-like act
of wrath, it meant that Dabi wouldn’t forfeit the
pleasure of proving him wrong.

Not that he could ever manage to…

And just as he had predicted, Dabi took a deep

breath, the tiniest bit of smoke escaping through
the holes in his jaw and his hands, and he turned
to get his own theory board from his closet.

Shouto lunged and grabbed the phone his

brother had left on the coffee table. With quick
fingers, he cut off the sounds of his notifications,
opened the message of All for One asking him to
keep an eye on Midoriya today, and he turned it
so the screen would face the table.

Dabi’s palm violently hit his theory board and

Shouto leaned back in the couch, knowing that
his brother’s innate rambling would last a while.

“I cannot believe I am hearing that in a world

where people know about the quirk singularity
theory,” the eldest of the Todoroki children
snarled. “Do I really have to remind you that we
don’t know anything about All Might’s quirk? It
doesn’t have to be a regular power-type quirk.
From what we’re seeing with Yami, it makes more
sense that it’s able to manipulate energy and that
Yami, being a second generation and a quirk
nerd, would find way to improve the efficiency of
his quirk and improve it in ways he doesn’t even
suspect, especially as he isn’t on speaking-term
with the number 1 hero…”

Sensei: [We’re moving today.]

Kurogiri warped back to the bar as soon as he

received the text from All for One, conscious that
time was of the essence. He put on his game face
as soon as he set a foot in his cherished
sanctuary, the mist covering him in a flash and
obscuring the details of his face and the contours
of his body.

He then grabbed two boxes of cat food.

Half running, he opened the door leading to the

back alley and as if on a cue, a couple of stray
cats appeared. One black, the other white.

They both had the uncanny ability to know

exactly when Kurogiri would come out and feed
them, to the point where the bartender was
wondering if they didn’t have a quirk allowing
them to detect tuna.

“If I’m not here to watch you, will you leave some
food for the others?” Kurogiri asked.

After all, he was supplying the entire cat

population of the neighborhood.

The cats looked at him, radiating innocence and

altruism, which meant that they would absolutely
gorge themselves on the food as soon as Kurogiri
wouldn’t be in sight anymore.

He didn’t have the time to once again explain the

virtue of sharing to a couple of cats so he took
ten seconds to pet the adorable furry killing
machines and he ran back to the bar, grabbing
the vest that was waiting for him on a stool.

Did I really leave it there last night? he had the

time to wonder as he put it on. I usually leave it
on the counter.

He had barely finished the thought when All for

One appeared, the shadows left by his quirk
disappearing. Apparently, time was of the
essence since Yami would be occupied
somewhere else today.

Izuku was already out in the street when the

tracker he had put inside Kurogiri’s vest –his
villain costume when he was working for All for
One- started to move. There was quite a lag as
such devices were used to follow someone
actually progressing towards another place
instead of simply appearing in one but it quickly
showed that he was somewhere in the Sundari
town.

If he took public transportation and walked for a

while, it would take the teenager five hours to
reach it. Long enough for All for One and Kurogiri
to do whatever they had to do and destroy all
traces of their passage.

Fortunately, Izuku had other options.

He found the most convenient building and, with

a touch of Full Cowl, ran on the wall to reach the
roof. He didn’t stop from his point, letting his
quirk strengthen his leg and giving him the
occasion to imitate All Might’s usual way of
moving around.

Some jumps did end up being a little too close

for comfort but Blackwhip was a wonderful quirk
when it came to grappling the nearest surface
and Izuku took full advantage of it.

Of course, even if he was high in the air, using his

quirk in such flashy ways was not without a risk.
This was a blatant breach of the interdiction of
using one’s quirk in public places and the quirk
was recognizable as belonging to the Hosu
vigilante. Quite frankly, Izuku wouldn’t have risked
it if he hadn’t been in Mustafu.

However, Mustafu was his town.

He had always lived there and years of stalking

the heroes’ apparition online had accidentally
made him learn the paths through which they
patrolled. Oh, of course, pro heroes didn’t always
conform to them but legions of fans documented
where they were spotted and where they were
headed.

There were simply times where Izuku loved social

media.

It took him less than ten minutes to reach the

home of CaptainRex, an elderly gentleman whose
quirk allowed how to switch people’s locations.
He could do that three times a day at most and
the further away the third person was, the longer
he needed to rest. The other limitation was that
he needed to be acquainted with the people he
was switching.

CaptainRex didn’t know anyone in Sundari per

see but the little brother of a nice young lady the
cousin of his niece used to tutor lived an hour
away from there. He didn’t want any payment,
just a favor in the future, if he or his extended
circle of relatives needed one, and he insisted for
Izuku to take snacks with him because he looked
too thin and growing boys shouldn’t skip meals.

Izuku blinked and the next thing he knew, he was

in one of those rooms for non-claustrophobic
college students. A laptop was waiting on the
bed, a game still running and the teenager
winced when the avatar was gruesomely
murdered by the other online players. He closed
the laptop, left some cash on it, and a note
thanking the owner of the room for his services.

Since he didn’t want to leave the door unlocked

on his way out, he once again escaped by a
window, landed in the street and got some
curious glances from two onlookers. He then
checked the location, went to the server, and
checked his options.

Several people live near enough to give him a

ride but, to his delight, he saw that Mistral and
Bora weren’t too far away from here.

Izuku let several people use Anyone as a platform

to advertise what they could. Ao’s business of
helping people who needed to get away from
dangerous home lives was how the teenager had
found Ava and become Akatani Mikumo. But
there were others, like those two villains who kept
filming their misdeeds and apparently just
wanted views and comments, or this wonderful
man who had all the good tips to find exclusive
hero merch.

And there were Mistral and Bora.

Two women, probably sisters, whose quirks

allowed them to become beings made of wind.
They were extremely fast but solid enough to
deliver various things to whoever could pay the
price.

Flying had always been the exception to the anti-

quirk laws. Heroes never prevented civilians who
didn’t have a license from using their quirks if
they weren’t hurting someone with it. It was the
job of the police, who could hardly stop someone
high enough in the sky. And thanks to Anyone
providing them a steady amount of clients, their
business had considerably boomed.

They weren’t exactly enthusiastic at the idea of

being used as a taxi but Izuku knew that Mistral
was almost as much of a hero fan as he was and
he threw an exclusive The Mighty Adventures
Of All Might #3 Los Angeles into the bargain.

Now, a collector shouldn’t brag about his

collection but Izuku wasn’t surprised that they
arrived almost instantly. Each grab one arm, their
cold and calloused hands digging in the flesh and
they took flight.

Only for Mistral to drop him ten meters away

from the ground.

Bora did her best to slow down the descent.

“I’m so sorry! You’re heavier than I expected!”

Izuku landed in Sundari thirty minutes after he

had left his apartment, with bruises on his
forearms and half frozen because, unlike All for
One, neither Mistral or Bora could protect him
from the cold wind brought by a fast flight at high
altitude.

And yet, he was smiling, both thanks to the thrill

of the flight and because he wasn’t as dependent
on Kurogiri as he had previously assumed so.

He located All for One and the warper in an

abandoned clinic in a ghost suburb. The door
was locked, which meant that the two villains had
warped directly inside instead of breaking in.

Following them and catching them blatantly

snooping around didn’t interest Izuku. All for One
clearly wasn’t interested in sharing information
and it was easier for the teenager to simply let
the villain-shaped-headache lead him to clues.

It would be better for everyone if they never

noticed that Izuku had been there.

There was a really nice window on the second

floor, probably secured by reinforced glass but
experience had taught the teenager that it was
never as solid as people would have liked it to
be.

Full Cowl.

He climbed there in three jumps and retained

absolute balance on the ledge, his body perfectly
answering to him. He still had some duct tape
from another mission and he put it on the
window, isolating it almost completely with
several layers, before punching through it.

Not only was the sound of broken glass muffled

by the tape but it also protected his knuckles
against the sharp shards. The layers of duct tapes
and shards fell to the ground, without making a
dangerous mess.

The room in which he broke in was a small office

containing two desks and two computers, which
surprised Izuku because even if they were old
enough that no one used those models anymore,
he would have thought that they would have
been stolen anyway.

He went through it but there was nothing more

than office supplies, dead plants, an impressive
layer of dust, and the computer weren’t
alimented in electricity so Izuku walked out
through the unlocked door. He wandered for a
little while, looking at the photos on the once
white walls of the hallways, showing smiling
people in scrubs or in white coats.

Some of them were missing, hastily ripped away

from the wall, leaving torn corners here and
there.

Thanks to his internship and the dubious pleasure

of dealing with his boss, Izuku knew to look for
the bigger office and located it where there was
the best luminosity.

It didn’t hurt that it seemed to be the only locked

room on the entire floor.

He picked some momentum with a spin and

kicked the door weak point, under the door knob.
A violent cracking noise echoed in the hallway,
making him wince, but the door was ripped from
its hinges.

In the sanctum of Doctor Ujiko, Kurogiri

immediately raised his head, his flashlight
frenetically lighting the ceiling. A reasonable
mind would have been assured that even with the
lack of luminosity, he would have noticed
something up there.

But there weren’t in a reasonable place and he

didn’t put it past the Doctor to put some tiny
monsters able to stay undetected for years only
to crawl through the vents and to murder
unsuspecting villains.

“Is there a problem?” All for One called from

where he was, crouching in front of a safe that he
had dug up from the wall with his bare hands.

When they had arrived in the Doctor’s lab, hidden

underground, All for One hadn’t even tried to
turn the lights on. Instead, he had directly walked
to the empty –for most of them- vats, stepped
over some stair that might as well be invisible in
the obscurity, and started to look for hiding spots
and he was now going through ledgers.

There should have been several computers here

but they had disappeared.

“I thought I heard something,” Kurogiri said,

focusing on the words so he wouldn’t mumble.

“It’s not impossible for my old colleague to have

left something behind in order to neutralize
intruders,” All for One shrugged as if what he was
saying wasn’t deeply concerning. “If you see one
of his lab projects, make sure to neutralize it
without killing it.”

How quaint to know that his paranoia was

perfectly justified.

“Why?” he still asked.

“The building is still booby trapped…”

What?

“… and the last time I talked to the Doctor, he

had a plan to create noumus who would act as
sentinels and whose death would trigger traps. I
don’t know if he managed to create them while I
was away but I am not inclined to take the risk.”

Kurogiri looked at the holes All for One had

punched in the wall, the heavy files he has thrown
on the ground and the desk he had thrown across
the room to make sure that there wasn’t
something hidden under it, even though he
apparently knew the place was trapped.

He didn’t say anything but his silence was

eloquent enough.

There were drawings on the walls. The colors

were faded but the pictures were clear, smiling
children trying to depict themselves as much as
they could. Some had heroes on it, All Might
omnipresent, of course, but also others such as
Best Jeanist, Crust, even Endeavor, and more.
And on most of them, the figure of a man with
glasses and an impressive mustache.

Izuku looked at those for a moment, not liking the

idea of an associate of All for One working in a
place with young children that had just come into
their quirks.

There was a computer screen but no monitor with

it, which almost made him roll his eyes until he
remembered that his unofficial supervisor at the
quirk analysis agency had the same setting
because she used two screens and her laptop.

Izuku sat at the desk, almost yelping when he

sank in the chair. He put his phone on the table
in order to know if the traitor and the soon to be
homeless villain were coming his way but
whatever they had found seemed to captivate
them. Then, he started to go through the
drawers. The massive filing cabinet in the corner
would have to go last.

The first drawer was full of lollipops and pens,

some of the latter clearly chewed on. The second
was not only empty but scrubbed clean, which
meant that the interesting stuff must have been
there.

The last, bigger than the first two had two

medical files put on the top of a higher pile. Izuku
knew that those were medical files and not quirk
files because the latter where thinner and he
simply had manipulated too many of them not to
make the difference. He quickly opened them to
see if he recognized a name and when it wasn’t
the case, he put them aside for later.

It would take hours, if not days, to go through all

the medical files in here. If he even managed to
read the doctor’s horrible handwriting. Especially
as it might not have been kanjis at all but some
kind of code or even a foreign alphabet made of
squiggly lines.

Underneath were a phonebook, more files that

appeared to be the convention of the clinic, two
blank notebooks... and a silver laptop.

The teenager almost pounced on it, taking hold

of it and frowning when he realized how heavy
and thick it was. It was old enough of a model
that he didn’t remember seeing one like that.

But in any case, laptops were good. Desk

computers needed to be plugged to a source of
power but if Izuku was ridiculously lucky, even
with no charger in sight, a laptop abandoned for
years might still start if it had some battery left.

Patting the keypad as if it was a sensitive beast

that could smell fear, Izuku started it.

Only for the screen to stay desperately black.

“Please,” he asked as he tried again, because if

printers could smell despair, maybe computers
liked politeness.

Nothing, yet again.

Izuku focused on the damn thing, visualizing the

remaining spark in the battery. If he could turn on
his phone for a brief moment after it died, so
could this. Just so he knew that it was still
working.

Work.

His hand was still on the keyboard when the

screen lighted up. Delight spread through him,
the first clue of where the villains were coming
from. Delight that was slightly dimmed when he
remembered that he didn’t have the password.

The laptop might shut down at any moment so

he contacted his go-to-go expert without wasting
anytime. He apparently was in luck today as she
answered immediately.

“Yes?”

“Nagisa, put down that phone!” someone Izuku

didn’t recognize said in the background, the
whine in their voice overplayed. “I am trying to
have a heart to heart conversation with you!”

“I don’t see how that would work when neither of

us have those,” Izuku’s favorite spider informed
them. “Ignore them and tell me what you need.”

The battery, at 1%, kept blinking.

“I am in front of a very old laptop and I don’t

have the password. Do you…” He realized he
was about to say something stupid but he was
too optimistic to stop. “… know any trick that will
allow me to see the files anyway?”

Nagisa’s sigh manage to convey all the

annoyance in the world.

“I don’t understand why I am still your friend

when you’re so mean to me all the time...”
Nagisa’s friend mumbled.

“It says more about you that it says about me,

don’t you think?”

A very dramatic gasp ensued.

“Yami,” Nagisa said, now completely focused on

him. Even if she couldn’t stare at him, it wasn’t a
comfortable situation “… What is the golden
rule?”

“Hacking doesn’t work like in movies…” the

teenager sheepishly answered.

“Exactly. Just grab the laptop and bring it to

me.”

Kurogiri didn’t see the danger coming but, in his

defense, neither did All for One.

The Symbol of Evil has just finished emptying the

safe when something sprang from it, pouncing
directly at his face. The warper barely had the
time to register what was going on, just seeing a
blur and knowing in this fraction of second that
Sensei wouldn’t manage to avoid the collision.

And yet he somehow did.

All for One clapped his two hands on the thing as

it was right in front of his face, the horrible noise
of broken noises and of torn flesh echoing in the
lab, killing that thing on the spot.

For two heartbeats, All for One bore a striking

resemblance to Yami when he was caught
sneaking things from Kurogiri’s armory. In any
other circumstances, it would have been comical
to see such an adolescent expression on his face.

And then he was on the move, running at

Kurogiri before the warper had the time to realize
that he had killed the creature and what it
entailed.

Izuku almost didn’t see what was happening with

the tracker.

He was going through medical files, looking

directly at the quirks in order to see if any of them
were similar to the ones the noumus had, when
he saw the red dot on his screen make a leap,
disappearing and reappearing farther away.

Izuku had calibrated it so he would see if Kurogiri

and All for One were moving in the building,
which meant that it was supposed to smoothly
progress as they made their way out of wherever
they were.

The leap could only be the result of a lag, as the

technology was having trouble following
someone moving at an inhumane speed.

Izuku was moving before his brain even

acknowledged that if something had sent All for
One running, with the warper in tow, it was bad.
He was holding his yellow backpack in his hand
and he ran through the corridors, the power of
One for All leaving traces on the floor.

The teenager didn’t attempt to leave the same

way he had entered. It would have taken too
much time. Instead, he located the nearest wall
communicating with outside and kicked through
it. Bricks exploded under his sneaker, dust
spreading everywhere but Izuku barely had the
time to acknowledge it as he passed through it in
the same breath, leaping in the emptiness in a
very dramatic way.

Because, even if he was panicking over nothing, it

was better to look absolutely ridiculous than to
be sorry.

A second later, someone else was breaking

through the wall on the first floor, right below
Izuku, actually. Someone wearing both a suit and
a very startled bartender under his arm.

Someone who raised his head and made eye

contact with a very confused One for All holder.

All for One, his eyes probably as wide as Izuku’s,

frantically raised his arms to catch him as they
were both mid-air, letting go of Kurogiri as if he
had completely forgotten his existence.

The teenager raised one arm, a strand of

Blackwhip shooting from it and catching Kurogiri
before the ground made him decelerate too
brutally. With his other arm, the one whose hand
was still holding on to his backpack, he used
Blackwhip to hold on to the building, slowing
down his fall and slightly changing his trajectory
so he would hit neither of the adults.

Unfortunately, the building he was using as

leverage seemed to disappear altogether as a
deflagration sent Izuku tumbling down.

Most people feared the heat created by

explosions but experience had taught Izuku to
watch out for the shockwave. His body reacted
on his own, ignoring the deafening noise that left
his ears ringing as he turned to the side, rolling in
order to absorb the shock.

Even with that, he stayed a moment on the

ground, stunned by the detonation or by the fear.
He wasn’t quite sure of which one had tetanized
every muscle of his body.

Move. If you’re not injured, you can stand. If you

can stand, you can run.

So Izuku did so, getting back to his feet, feeling

the pain on his arm as short sleeves didn’t get
along with a fall on the asphalt. It was nothing
serious, not even bleeding yet, but he would
need to disinfect it.

There was dust everywhere around him. Dogs

were howling, car alarms were screaming from
afar –which had more to do with the awful ringing
in his ears than with distance- and he had a
feeling that people would come and gawk soon
enough. As for the building… it hadn’t been
cleanly demolished. Instead, it looked like that bit
of what was left of it could fall on their head.

They couldn’t afford to stay here.

He put his backpack on his uninjured shoulder,

quickly locating All for One, sitting on the ground
with a hand on his ribs. The villain looked at
Izuku, his eyes wandering over him as if he was
checking that every limb was still attached.

Then he gave him a look that made the teenager

stop dead in his tracks.

It was anger. Not hatred yet but incandescent

anger as if he was refraining himself from walking
to Izuku and grabbing him by the shoulder.

Izuku didn’t look away, his own anger rising and

answering All for One’s.

He was the one who had sneaked behind Izuku’s

back. He was the one who had walked into his life
under the mistaken belief that he had any right to
be here.

He was the one coveting Izuku’s quirk.

They looked at each other, Izuku standing tall,

One for All burning within him, and All for One
still on the ground but certainly not in a position
of weakness.

All for One didn’t look away but the anger

suddenly disappeared from his eyes.

Izuku knew better than to think it meant it was

gone for good. The villain was simply excellent at
hiding emotions.

His own anger vanished when he realized that the

prone form slightly outside his field of vision was
actually someone. He ran to Kurogiri before All
for One had the time to follow his gaze, kneeling
by his side.

Kurogiri was laying on his back, his yellow eyes

opened and staring at the sky but because of the
mist covering his body, Izuku had no idea if he
was injured.

And if he was, Izuku was responsible for it. The

explosion had made him lost control of Blackwhip
and he had dropped the warper without even
slowing him down.

“Kurogiri?” he sheepishly called.

The bartender slowly blinked, as if moving his

eyelids was a novel experience.

“I’m not paid enough for this.”

Izuku vigorously nodded.

Kurogiri assured them that he was fine, right until

All for One asked him if he could warp them back
to the bar.

Kurogiri didn’t tell them that he couldn’t. Instead,

he froze before telling him that this might not be
a good idea, which Izuku took as a confession
that he didn’t trust himself enough not to
accidentally warp them into a volcano.

Dabi and Shouto were still calmly debating the

validity of their respective theories (and obviously,
one was making more sense than the other) when
they saw the shadows of All for One’s warp
appear.

Shouto had always considered that he had fast

reflexes, something that had been drilled into
him, but his brother moved before he even had
the time to finish wondering why All for One was
the one warping instead of Kurogiri.

Dabi moved so fast that he almost became a blur,

grabbing the boards they had been using and
flinging them through the opened door of his
bedroom like they didn’t weight anything.
Shouto, finally understanding the urgency of at
least hiding his theory (the truth, really, no matter
how much Midoriya was denying it) kicked the
door close right as All for One and Kurogiri, the
latter leaning on Midoriya, appeared.

The three of them were covered in dust, looked

scruffy, and if Kurogiri’s lack of face was
impossible to read, All for One’s and Midoriya’s
looked downright grumpy.

“What happened?” Shouto asked.

“There was an explosion,” Midoriya explained.

“Kurogiri fell on his head, I think he has a
concussion.”

“I do not have a concussion,” the bartender

methodically enunciated.

To prove it, he let go of Midoriya and took one

step, only to quickly grab the teenager’s shoulder
again.

As Kurogiri seemed to have momentarily lost his

position as the only reasonable adult figure in
Anyone’s inner circle, Shouto’s big brother
begrudgingly stepped up, asking Kurogiri if light
was painful or if he wanted to throw up. Then, he
half dragged him to the bathroom to tried to see
how injured he was.

As for Midoriya, he put his backpack on the

couch instead of throwing it like he usually did.
He looked at the yellow bag, then at Shouto,
before announcing that he was going to bandage
his arm in the kitchen.

However, words weren’t the only way to

communicate and Shouto immediately
understood Midoriya’s message.

There is something in my bag that I don’t want

All for One to see, Shouto’s best friend had
silently said. Would you be so kind as to take
care of it while the man who definitely is my
dad fusses over the scratch on my arm?

Of course, Shouto glanced back. It’s always a

pleasure to help you run circles around
overpowered men with legendary quirks.

As soon as they were out of sight, Shouto

casually walked toward Midoriya’s bag, aware that
sharp movements drew one’s attention, and
discovered an ancient laptop in there, protected
by a typical Anyone hoodie.

He transferred it to his own bag, glancing at them

but Midoriya was busy disinfecting his wound and
All for One was busy acting like his arm was
about to fall from his shoulder.

“… reckless, irresponsible, and plain stupid. You

could have gotten yourself killed.”

“Oh, I don’t know. After all, I wasn’t the one

irresponsible enough to trigger an explosion.”

“You. Could. Have. Died-“

“Hardly.”

“- And for What?”

“To find out more about the multiquirked villains

attacking civilians. Not only did you not share
your leads but you managed to destroy any clue
that would have allowed me to find the
speedster.”

“Anything else you want to add? Do take

advantage of your adolescent belief that you’re
immortal making me at loss for words.”

“Well, if you insist… your waffles are a spongy

mess.”

Despite being at loss for words, All for One

managed to yell at Izuku for the next twenty
minutes.

Spicy McNuggets

[A building was reduced to pebbles in

Sundari. You wouldn’t know what happened, do
you?]

Inferno more Inferyes

[Hello to you too, hero. What about doing

some investigation work instead of automatically
pointing at us?]

Spicy McNuggets

[Probably because my investigation

revealed that a tall man wearing a suit and
someone smaller, like a child or a teenager, had
been seen near the site of the explosion.]

[Oh, and the freaking scorch marks all over

that building.]

Inferno more Inferyes

[I’m pretty sure that the last one is quirk

profiling.]

Spicy McNuggets is typing…

Five hours later

Nagisa realized that she might have been too

used to Akatani freely walking around her house
when she found Snowdrift, whose real name was
Todoroki Shouto, completely entangled in her
web, stuck to one wall in such way that he
couldn’t move his arms and his feet weren’t
touching the ground anymore.

She apologized for telling him to come in and to

forget the maze of web in her home and once
she managed to free him, she offered him a soda
before taking possession of the laptop.

An acquaintance of hers that might have been

specialized in breaking codes had lent her a fun
tool that would test any potential passwords. She
was eager to test it but she realized that it would
have to wait to find a charger.

Yami had failed to inform her that there was only

5% of battery. It was a miracle that the laptop had
deigned turning on.

She escorted Todoroki outside her house so he

wouldn’t get stuck again and told him to inform
him Yami that it would probably take a couple of
days before she could access the information that
he was coveting.

Notes:
1) “But Gentry,” you’re going to
tell me, “you can’t leave
explosives somewhere for years
and expect them to still work.”
Technology marched on in 200
years, especially anything that had
to do with the military.
2) I just want to say that the
explosion thing was planned long
before the latest chapters in the
manga. I need you to be aware of
this, just like I was <_< at
Horikoshi for using this idea
before me.
3) “Gentry,” some might ask me,
“doesn’t Izuku get really angry at
All for One those days?” “I guess
so,” will I answer.

Thank you so much for everyone

who left a kind comment, gave me
support, and simply had the
courtesy on not asking for
updates. Focusing enough to
write has proved to be a challenge
lately and you, very cool persons
that you are, were a big help.

And last but not the least, thank

you so much for Missdove's
breathtaking animatic:
https://missdove.tumblr.com/post/
647172784303357952/started-a-
new-project-this-time-an-animatic-
of

but also Psychomurderz's amazing

depiction of my favorite feral
gremlin and his poor father:
https://psychomurderz.tumblr.com
/post/653511915527716864/when
-you-havent-had-time-to-dress-
properly-yet
https://psychomurderz.tumblr.com
/post/649628754053906432/this-
is-another-of-my-favorite-scenes-
from-chapter
https://psychomurderz.tumblr.com
/post/649006775417323520/well-
i-love-this-scene-too-i-hope-i-was-
able

and Karmauh's beautiful art of my

two favorite boys!
https://karmauh.tumblr.com/post/
653540240671358976/snaps-
fingers-gentrychild-ive-done-it-
again

CHAPTER 30
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Spicy McNuggets

[I need to see you now.]

Inferno more Inferyes

[How sad, Hero Hawks.]

Spicy McNuggets

[… I have chocolate donuts.]

Inferno more Inferyes

[Why didn’t you start by that?]

[By the way, how does it feel to stoop so

low?]

Spicy McNuggets

[I can live with that.]

[By the way, how does it feel to be so

cheap to bribe?]

Inferno more Inferyes is typing…

Despite explaining to Dabi that he absolutely

didn’t mind flying wherever he was, black fog still
appeared next to Hawks, a door that seemed to
lead to Hell and that he was obviously expected
to walk through.

What I don’t do for hero society, he mentally

complained while refusing to think about how he
hadn’t told the Commission about the return of
All for One, at full strength, and of his affiliation
with Anyone.

Instead, holding the pink box of donuts like a

shield, he walked through the portal, hoping that
baked bribes would be enough not to have to
fend a fireball to the face.

For a moment, he saw nothing, his feathers

desperately trying to sense vibrations in the air,
vibrations that made him feel like the fog was
organic, but it only lasted a step. After that, he
was in the same bar where he had almost died
appeared to his eyes and discovering that the
shadow gate through which he had passed was
the arm of the creepy bartender he barely had
the time to glimpse at the last time he had been
here.

The man, who seemed to be made of black fog,

narrowed his yellow eyes when he saw him. He
turned towards Dabi, who was lounging on a
couch in the back of the room, the fire user’s
attention more focused on the box of donuts
Hawks was carrying than on the bartender.

At least, until the latter spoke, his voice so cold it

could be used to cool down Endeavor.

“Dabi, did you just make me warp a known hero

into my bar?”

Panic spread over Dabi’s scarred face.

Unfortunately for him –how sad-, the bartender
didn’t wait for an answer, his arm turning into a
mass of black smoke that got ahold of the fire
user and made him disappear somewhere.

Hawks failed to care as much as he should about

his disappearance, as the Symbol of Evil was also
here, watching him. Sitting at a table in the center
of the bar, he wasn’t staring at Hawks, watching
him lazily instead.

There was something extremely feline about it

and it unnerved Hawks for obvious reasons.

The super villain was also leaning on a black-

haired-teenager who had barely looked up and
who was furiously writing down something,
surrounded by textbooks.

He was wearing an All Might tee-shirt. Next to a

man who had been sent to Tartarus by the
Symbol of Peace.

Todoroki Shouto, son of Endeavor, was sitting in

front of him, also doing his homework. For some
unknown reason, his hair was dyed black.

Even though it was the first time he had ever

seen his face, Hawks could have guessed who
was the unknown teenager who seemed too
comfortable in the midst of chaos. He just refused
to acknowledge it for a moment, choosing to
savor his blissful ignorance.

The dark-haired-teenager shrugged to get All for

One to stop leaning against him, failed to make
the super villain move, rolled his red eyes, then
raised a hand like an apologetic student in class
about to ask his teacher to repeat themselves.

“That might be my fault,” the Thief admitted,

which was pretty brave considering the owner of
this bar might warp him into a volcano for his sin.
“I told Dabi that we were going to call Hawks
today. I think he understood it as right now.”

The warper stayed still for a moment, before

looking at the spot Dabi had occupied a moment
earlier.

“Should… Should I apologize?”

Yami and Shouto both shrugged, with that lack of

empathy so typical of teenagers. Hawks himself
thought the bartender shouldn’t as Dabi had still
invited someone they barely knew into a safe
house and even if it had benefited Hawks,
knowing that he was treated with the same
courtesy he showed the number 4 hero amused
him greatly.

All for One failed to intervene, preferring to look

at Shouto, the same way sharks looked with open
curiosity at those humans who enjoyed shark
cage diving (a hobby that had lost its popularity
since that accident in Australia when a shark had
managed to pick the locks of the cage). Yami
took it as an opportunity to move his chair away
from the villain, probably in order not to shoulder
some of the weight of a quirk-stealing-nightmare.

All for One slightly stretched his leg and with his
foot, blocked the chair before Yami could be out
of reach but didn’t touch him again.

Hawks didn’t hesitate to give credit where it was

due and he was able to admit that he wouldn’t
have handled so calmly the contact of someone
able to steal his quirk – someone who had
already stolen his quirk, the excruciating details of
what it felt to feel nothing where his feathers
used to be reminding themselves to him – as
Yami did.

The most infamous members of Anyone came to

the conclusion that Dabi should be allowed in
again but apparently silently decided that none of
the donuts shall remain by the time he was
warped back.

Hawks left the pastries to them (he could have

lost a finger if he had gotten too close to the
teenagers) and walked towards the couch that
Dabi had been occupying earlier, both because it
would probably annoy the fire user if he saw that
his place had been stolen but also because it
placed him far away from All for One. As he
walked past the table, at the villain’s level, Yami
slightly leaned back, subtly placing himself
between the Symbol of Evil and a pro hero.

It turned out to be a mistake as All for One took

advantage of the sudden opportunity to lean on
the teenager once again.

And as Hawks sat at Dabi’s place, he found it

extremely interesting that Yami, who had a quirk
strong enough to weaken All Might, wasn’t
worried about the possibility of having this very
quirk stolen. Even if they had made a deal, in this
day and age, the possibility of suddenly being
quirkless was not something one could ignore.

Unless All for One couldn’t steal it without losing

something.

Since he hadn’t hesitated to take Hawks’ quirk –

he didn’t shudder at the memory, no one could
prove it -, it was hardly a matter of him being
limited in term of quirk capacity. No, if Hawks had
to follow his instinct, it was about Yami’s quirk.

All Might had described it as a parasitic quirk

slowly stealing more and more of his power.
Hawks still wasn’t sure about the details but if it
stockpiled power by linking its holder to All
Might, there was a possibility that All for One
couldn’t take the quirk away without severing this
connection and giving All Might back his full
power.

It made more sense to let the Thief steadily

weaken All Might than to take an interesting
power and hope for another opportunity to
weaken the Symbol of Peace and shake the hero
society.
It makes a messy situation even messier.

Hawks wondered if Yami realized it. He wondered

if Anyone, whoever they were, was encouraging
the strange relationship between All for One and
Yami in order to have another layer of protection.
A villain, potentially as strong as All Might,
invested into the continued existence of an
organization of vigilantes.

Hawks made sure that a friendly expression was

still on his face and leaned forwards, looking at
the homework Yami and Shouto were doing.
Though, copying from each other might have
been a more adequate way to describe it.

Not that Hawks would cast the first stone on that

one. At least, they pretended to be good
students while there had been several times
where he had turned a paper only containing the
date and his name because his training with the
Commission hadn’t left him enough time to
sleep, let alone study.

“Which subject is that?” he asked.

“History,” the children both answered.

“Propaganda”, All for One said at the same time.

Everyone looked at him.

Villains did tend to denounce propaganda every

time the History of Heroes was mentioned… but
it was rare to have someone who had actually
been there to witness it all.

Dabi came back to the bar only to witness pure

chaos.

Anyone tended to generate such situations so

maybe it shouldn’t have been such a surprise but,
in his defense, nothing could have prepared him
for such nerdish variant of it.

“- and once we were done fighting for our rights

and almost had the government by the throat,
they had the brilliant idea of issuing hero licenses
to a select few,” All for One was … bitching,
there was no other word for it, as he was sitting at
the bar with a glass in his hand, as far from the
rest of the group as possible, except for Kurogiri
who maintained some distance anyway. “Agents
that would work hand in hand with powered and
non-powered people, in order to guarantee
peace. We were thousands. They selected a
dozen of us and those fools agreed, all too eager
to hunt us down because they were tired of
fighting.”

Dabi witnessed his little brother writing it all

down, which was concerning enough, but as soon
as All for One was finished, he looked at a History
book, glancing at a circled name on a page.

“Watanabe Saiyuki, a politician who fought for

the right of quirked people during the early stage
of the Dawn of Quirks?” he quickly asked, not as
if he was afraid someone would cut him off but as
if he didn’t want to waste time.

And as Yami also had a History book in front of

him while Hawks and Kurogiri were both on their
phone, scrolling at high speed, Dabi had a
feeling that whatever was happening here,
everyone wanted to say as many names as
possible before All for One’s patience ran out.

Distaste spread on the villain’s face, as if he had

bitten into something rancid.

“The term quirks didn’t exist at the time and he

didn’t fight for the right of people with
superpowers, he just wanted to draft us as either
cheap workforce or military assets.”

“Harima Oji, the Uncanny Thief,” Kurogiri then

asked, which surprised Dabi.

The warper was the one who had known All for
One the longest. He would have thought that
they would already have the “Which famous
people did you meet” conversation.

Then, Dabi remembered that All for One was

terrifying and how that kind of game would have
never happened if Yami wasn’t around.

“His quirk allowed him to…”

“Yes, I remember him”, All for One cut him off.

“He was indeed targeting heroes and gave most
of his spoils to those who needed it. That man
had an uncanny ability to find corrupted heroes
and if they didn’t have a fortune lying around, he
wasn’t above stealing their oven or anything that
could be extremely annoying to live without.
Anyone in the top 10 was also fair game. He was
also so good at holding his liquor that I used to
be convinced that it was his meta ability.”

It would have been fascinating for everyone with

a modicum of interest in History but Dabi wasn’t
one of those people. Acknowledging that All for
One wouldn’t spare him a glance –really, it
shouldn’t have surprised him -, he made his way
to the table on which the two teenage menaces
were doing their homeworks on, less interested
by them and more by the donuts box still there.

One donut remained, a chocolate one, Dabi’s

favorite savor.

Someone had taken a bite out of it before

putting it back in the center of the box.

Dabi looked at Hawks, who was sitting at his

place. The hero, wearing civilian clothes instead
of his hero costume, looked up from his phone
and gave him a face that wanted itself innocent.

“I will kill you,” Dabi silently promised.

“Kirigaya Kaoru,” Yami said, interrupting his

threat, “a vigilante with the power to deflect
bullets who died fighting Carnage, a villain with a
mutation quirk allowing him to morph into
something big and red. She was declared a hero
posthumously.”

His black hair and red eyes, courtesy of Ava,

made him look plainer than usual, easier to lose
in a crowd.

“She did manage to kill Carnage,” All for One

nodded, “but she walked away from that fight.
She was executed by the government while she
was being treated in a safe house. They made
sure to use knives.”

Dabi blinked but Yami didn’t show any reaction.

Knowing him, he might not trust a word of what
All for One was saying.

“The Wraith, a killer whose quirk is still unknown

to this day,” Kurogiri said, reading their bio on his
phone and missing the note of interest that
crossed All for One’s face. “No matter how many
men were protecting their target, they managed
to walk past them, do the job, and leave without
anyone seeing how they had killed the mark.”

“I forgot they gave him such a stupid nickname,”

the supervillain smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile. “He
was a mercenary, with a pretty simple quirk that
he learned to fully use to his advantage.
Unfortunately, he caught a terminal case of
morals and that killed him.”

A long silence ensued and the more the seconds

passed, the more everyone became convinced
that All for One had something to do with the
death of the Wraith.

The satisfied little smile on his face might have

something to do with it.

Hawks, the only one of them paid for not to care

too much about his survival, decided to break the
silence.

“Tsuda Kenjiro, a lab assistant who didn’t only

steal important research concerning the quirk
factors but he also sold it to a foreign country and
he was never caught by the government.”

“Quirk?” All for One inquired, as if he couldn’t be

expected to remember someone simply by their
name or by their actions.

As Hawks was going through the Wikipedia page

on his phone, Dabi suddenly wondered if All for
One would have remembered their names if it
wasn’t for their quirks?

No, it can’t be.

Dabi didn’t interact with All for One that much

but the quirk-stealing-villain called the members
of their merry band by name. And yes, Kurogiri,
Dabi and even Hawks were nicknames related to
their quirks, but he called Yami by his real name
and Shouto by his surname.

However, Yami was a special case and Shouto was

sharing a name with the number 2 hero.

Dabi went through memories of conversations

between Yami and him, most of them being
about quirks as they both shared a love for such
analysis, but Anyone had mentioned his
classmates several times.

And now that he was thinking about it, Dabi

remembered All for One urging Yami to remind
him of his classmates’ quirks in order to know
who the teenager was talking about. Those
memories couldn’t be the product of his
imagination because if that was the case, how
would Dabi know that Yami regularly hanged out
with a girl with a gorgon quirk and a boy with a
thermos quirk?

If this is true and he really remembers people

thanks to their quirks… how did he do during the
Dawn of Quirks? There were more quirkless
people than quirked ones at the time???

“Virology intuition,” Hawks finally found while

Dabi was imagining a young All for One (who was
bearing a striking resemblance to Yami in his
mind, something he blamed on Shouto’s stupid
theory) never calling anyone by their names and
squinting as he wondered if he had been
introduced to his interlocutor.

All for One didn’t recognize the quirk either and

asked about the year where the crime had been
commited, only to admit that he didn’t know as
he hadn’t been in the country thirty years ago.

Hawks seemed disappointed to be the only one

not to obtain an answer but he was quickly
distracted by Yami saying that it was time to go.
Apparently, he needed Hawks for a specific
mission.

Surprisingly, when All for One asked what it was

about, instead of his usual “How is it any of your
business?”, Yami deigned to answer.

“From what I understand… it’s about some very

angry squirrels.”

Hawks caught the squirrel a second before the

horrible little thing tried to dig into his face. Even
trapped in his clutch, the rodent was still trying to
attack, far stronger than something so small had
any rights to be.

“Please, don’t upset her,” the woman who had

called them pleaded.

She seemed made of rocks, if rock could have the

color and probably the feeling of flesh under
which blood was flowing. She bore a striking
resemblance to someone in Shouto’s class, and
she was the one who had called Anyone for aid.

Apparently, someone had gone into the forest in

order to safely release the gas produced by their
quirk, not realizing that no human presence didn’t
mean that it was empty and infecting the local
squirrel population with a substance inducing
aggression.

Unless it had just been a cloud of unholy rage.

Hawks put the little demon who had clearly

forgotten its place on the food chain into one of
the carriers the woman was handing to him.

“Are you sure they will get better on their own?”

Shouto asked behind them, a cookie in hand.

“Oh yes,” she whispered, her voice low enough

for Hawks to need to listen intently so it wouldn’t
be drown in the noises of the forest and of
someone loudly munching on some chocolate-
chipped-cookies. “I know the poor boy who did
this and his quirk doesn’t last but we can’t just let
them be on their own in the meantime. Children
love playing here. But I also didn’t want to call
the heroes… I know that using quirks in public
places is illegal but the poor thing can’t control
his gas production. I simply don’t want him on
the villain registry for a mistake so many could
have made.”

Hawks wondered how she felt about a pro hero –

she had to have recognized him - still intervening
here but he was distracted by a flying rodent
leaping at his face from the branch of a tree. Two
of his last remaining feathers not employed to
tracking down and neutralizing the other squirrels
intercepted this one.

Yami got that one, carefully putting the little

demon into another transport carrier as if it wasn’t
trying to chew through his hand, before looking
at him, bewilderment in his red eyes.

“Why do they hate you so much?” he whispered.

Hawks didn’t have the answer to that but he

could hardly deny it as the squirrels had tried to
end his life since he had arrived. He would have
loved to say that it was because he was the man
responsible for the newfound imprisonment of
their brethren but no, it had started from the
moment he had put a foot in this forsaken forest,
little eyes full of hatred suddenly recognizing him
as the ultimate enemy.

The obnoxious sound of someone loudly

munching on some chocolate chips cookies was
interrupted long enough for Dabi to mutter
something that sounded like “Payback is a bitch.”

Both Dabi and Shouto had latched along onto

this excursion, even though Anyone hadn’t called
for them, and probably because they had been
curious about the “squirrel problem”. Of course,
when they had arrived, they had realized that
neither of their quirks was suited to catching and
rehabilitating delinquent rodents, which should
have been the end of it.

Unfortunately, the civilian who was calling for help

had taken one look at Dabi and somehow
adopted him, mistaking him for a young lad who
didn’t hesitate to help the community despite his
frail health. She had immediately set up a picnic
with a white and red tablecloth, home-made
cookies. Drinks had then been warped from the
bar, but only after Yami had made the call.

Apparently, Kurogiri was more than okay with

ignoring the two fire users’ requests.

And now, Hawks not only had to risk his life

against rodents determined to make him pay for
the sin of every hawk that had ever snatched a
family member but he had to listen to the running
commentary, which wasn’t only annoying but also
distracting as his feathers were picking on it when
he should have been focused on ending that
quickly and locating the remaining squirrels.

Yami’s patience was apparently also growing thin

as he found a new plan. Their caller had the
ability to talk to animals, a quirk that hadn’t
helped her as the rats had proved
“uncooperative” – and it was said in a tone that
had made Hawks certain that squirrels had their
own swears – but after a talk with Yami, she
agreed to rile them up so all of them would
attack Hawks at once.

Something Hawks volunteered for.

That was what his life was now.

So she crouched to the ground, her fingers

touching the dirt as if, just like Hawks, she could
feel the vibrations created by so many rodents on
drugs, their anger saturating the air. And when
she spoke, she probably thought that it was too
low for two teenagers and the nice young man
who had complimented her cookies, but Hawks’
ears confirmed that the squirrels had nothing to
envy her in the swearing department.

They moved at once, far more than what Hawks

had suspected, as if a string had snapped,
shattering the little self-control they still had.
They ran at them, at Hawks, coming from
everywhere at once.

But to everyone’s surprise, most of the rodents

didn’t come from the depths of the forest. No,
instead, while Hawks had been distracted by the
rogues, a drop in comparison of their army, the
main part of their forces had apparently snuck
behind their back in order to attack.

Leaving Dabi and Shouto in the first line, gazing

into the eyes of about fifty bloodthirsty squirrels,
rats, and a fox that was used as a mount by three
of those far too smart rodents.

Despite what others would say afterwards, as he

looked into his imminent death, Shouto didn’t
panic. What he did next wasn’t a lack of control
but actually the result of his problem solving
skills.

While Dabi was busy pulverizing his cookie in his

clenched fist, Shouto reacted to the threat and
saved them from being torn apart by an army of
animals squeaking like they wanted to inflict
unending torment on them and to add Dabi and
Shouto’s screams to their Spotify.

And he did that by freezing the animals solid.

It didn’t matter how heavy the silence was until it

was broken by who he suspected to be Koda’s
mom's little “I will get some hairdryers…” and it
didn’t matter how loudly Hawks and Midoriya
laughed, the kind of hysterical laughter that could
only happen after a tense situation.

Shouto regretted nothing.

Me: [Is everything alright?]

Not quite Azula:

{Photo obviously taken from a phone, showing a

hand with third-degree-burns and holding what
appeared to be a very tetanized squirrel, his eyes
wide and with frost on its fur. A hairdryer, one
working with a battery, can be seen on the floor,
where it was put down in order for the photo to
be taken.}

[It’s the kind of experience that I can only live with

Anyone.]

Not quite Azula: [Now, can you tell me why you

wanted Hawks in the bar?]

After chipping at some of Shouto’s ice in order to

cool his drink, Hawks followed Yami in the forest.
The woman who could talk to animals warned
them to be careful as there was no service past a
certain tree she described in details but the Thief
wanted to see if there were any more
psychopathic animals hidden in the woods, so
they left Shouto and Dabi to their thawing.

The attack had cooled down the squirrels’

tempers so they should be safe but Hawks still
left several feathers behind.

As they walked down the trail, Yami didn’t seem

especially worried about the possibility of being
attacked by squirrels under what Hawks
suspected to be steroids. His face and his body
language were relaxed and he wasn’t using his
quirk; something the winged hero knew because
it came with a pressure that was impossible to
mistake for anything else.

There was something about his face… it was

oddly familiar. It felt like watching TV and
recognizing someone, while being unsure if one
recognized the actor or someone built the same
way.

Yami tilted his head, as if he was suddenly

remembering something, before whipping out his
phone, quickly typing a message without even
looking and immediately putting it back in his
pocket.

“Is there a problem?” Hawks asked just as his

feathers were warning him that Dabi and Shouto
had just received a message.

“No,” Yami shrugged, “I’m just warning them to

watch what they’re saying since you left feathers
behind.”

Hawks raised an eyebrow, not saying a word but

the silence was eloquent enough.

The details about his quirk were classified. Most

people didn’t even realize that his quirk was more
than his ability to fly and to telekinetically
manipulate his feathers.

“You have a fascinating quirk,” Yami sheepishly

said. “I admit I went through a bit of a phase
where I obsessed about it.”

It was said innocently enough –and it was maybe

the only time where the Thief had ever been
candid with him- but that creeped Hawks out.
Maybe his ordeal with All for One was too recent
or maybe it was just because heroes hid the
mechanics of their quirks in order not to be
blindsided, but someone taking such a keen
interest to his feathers put him on edge.

Yami might not be able to steal a quirk like All for

One could but with what he had inflicted on All
Might, it was clear that he could easily turn their
greatest strength against any hero he was
interested in.

Once again, he pushed back the memory of All

for One standing over him, about to kill him.

The other one of a small villain ready to fight

against the Symbol of Evil was harder to repress.

“I never thanked you for what you did back then,

did I?”

Yami didn’t answer.

“It was very brave,” Hawks said. “Thank you for

saving my life.”

“You’re welcome,” the teenager answered

without looking back at him.

Hawks couldn’t have said what he was feeling in

this moment.

Embarrassment? Awkwardness? Anger? Sadness?

All of those, hidden behind a blank expression?

“Do you often have to put yourself between All

for One and others?” Hawks asked after a little
while, leaving him time to breathe.

Yami shrugged but there was a shift in the air,

something reminding Hawks of the power he had
felt so close to him barely a couple of days ago. It
wasn’t a threat and it wasn’t probably conscious,
but more of a teenager clinging to his quirk while
he was in an uncomfortable situation.

Everyone did that. It was human.

“Honestly? It was the first time,” the teenager

shrugged again.

He was either lying to Hawks or he was lying to

himself as the winged hero had seen him putting
himself between All for One and other members
of Anyone. It was subtle but there was systematic,
as he always kept an eye on All for One, always
put himself in his line of sight when he was
looking at someone with too much interest.

It was a lot of pressure for a child.

Hawks was curious to know if he was a self-

inflicted burden or if Anyone was the one who
had charged him to keep the Symbol of Evil in
check.

“If you’re so worried about All for One, does that

mean you actually want to do something about
him?” Yami smiled, somehow managing to look
both innocent and mocking at the same time.

It was… a far more complicated question that it

should have been.

Hawks was perfectly aware that he should have

flown back to the Hero Commission headquarters
and tell them that not only was All for One back
at full health but he was somehow associated
with Anyone. However, he had noticed a certain
confidence when it came to dealing with All for
One. Ever since he had escaped Tartarus, the
Commission had simply relied on All Might when
it came to finding it, not wanting to tickle a
formidable opponent who was supposedly too
injured to inflict too much damage upon society.

It was the same logic that made people avoid

wounded animals backed into a corner.

But if they learned that All for One was healed

and seemingly back at full strength… Hawks
wasn’t sure of what they would do and that was
just as concerning. From what he understood,
back in the day, the Commission was all too
happy to let All Might handle All for One and his
activities but the Symbol of Peace was drastically
weakened.

If they wanted to get rid of him, the Commission

would certainly lure him to a trap, somewhere
where they would have the high ground, like I-
Island, so the top heroes could fight him.

However, in term of power, there was a world

between the number 1 hero and Endeavor. Were
they sure to be enough for All for One if All Might
couldn’t fight?

And if they didn’t manage to defeat him,

wouldn’t it mean that they would deliver nine of
the most strongest quirks of Japan to All for One?

Hawks was acutely aware of how quickly All for

One could steal a quirk and he didn’t want to
imagine what he could do with a power like
Hellfire.

And if Hawks shared that with them, the

Commission would put far more resources into
killing the Thief so All Might could regain his
power and be able to take care or at least stall All
for One instead of capturing Yami and even
maybe recruiting him.

Choosing to eliminate him now would be

premature.

They didn’t know what All for One wanted. They

didn’t know why All for One had stayed in the
shadows despite being at full strength. They
didn’t even know the extent of said full strength.

From what Hawks had been told, All for One had
provoked a carnage in Tartarus. How many of his
victims, villains whose quirks were deemed too
dangerous for them to exist in society, had died
quirkless?

It was why Hawks had wanted to see them again,

to gain more information in order to take the
good decision.

And instead of understanding what kind of deal

All for One and Anyone had made, he had seen
familiarity between the Symbol of Evil and the
Thief, which was far worse. Hawks suspected that
if they took out the Thief, nothing would prevent
All for One from passing to plan B, the one with a
lot of collateral damages, in order to rile All
Might up.

“For now, I have faith that Anyone has a reason

for keeping him around,” Hawks lied to a child
with a straight face. “But if he doesn’t have any
use anymore, are you willing to have the heroes
intervene?”

Yami made a face… it was accompanied by yet

another shrug but the expression itself was both
difficult to describe but easy to translate: “Not
my circus, not my monkeys.”

Oh, to be young and to not have to constantly

think about the ramifications of every potential
decision…

He faintly registered the sound of a phone

vibrating.

“Are you not…”

Yami held out a finger and checked his phone,

with far more urgency than he had showed when
he had warned his associates to watch what they
were saying. He tilted his head, not alarmed, but
putting his full attention on what he had just
seen, like a cat who had seen a plate of food
unattended.

“I have to go,” he apologized, slightly bowing,

while a portal of black mist was appearing next to
him.

Hawks didn’t even have the time to ask him what

it was about as he immediately jumped through
it. Instead, he took out his own phone in order to
check if something had happened on the Anyone
server.

His latest model of cellphone laughed in his face

and told him that there was no service in the
area.

Izuku barged into Nagisa’s home, narrowly

avoiding the giant web trap that had probably
been put here in order to slow down overly
enthusiastic vigilantes who had been Full Cowling
all the way here and who might not have slowed
down as much as they should have.

He absolutely didn’t leave traces where he had

suddenly decelerated and the soles of his shoes
didn’t scream in agony as he did.

“You have it?” he asked before he even saw her,

on the ceiling of the living room.

Izuku’s favorite hacker designated the coffee

table where the laptop was already waiting for
him, next to a brand new charger.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t be so happy about it.”

The teenager stopped and looked up, actually

observing Nagisa only to notice that the
spiderwoman looked tired and even a little sad.

“I didn’t manage to save every file but from what

I have seen… It’s mainly the research and a
journal from an associate of your roommate. It’s…
Listen, you will see but he was completely
devoted to All for One. Everything he did, it was
for his approval and it’s close to fanaticism.”

Oguro Kousuke was working at his desk,

answering emails with one hand and playing on
his phone with the other, when he realized that
the police was here to interrogate him about the
leaks that had allowed the Hero Killer to target
several people with parasitic quirks.

He guessed it from the way the floor emptied

itself faster than usual, from a quick scan of his
colleagues’ faces indicating high levels of stress,
but also from the way one of his so-called bosses
was talking with a plain man in a cheap suit,
probably selling Kousuke out as fast as he could
in order not to be implicated, and a dozen of
other clues that were picked and analyzed in less
than a second.

Another second was enough for him to think of

six ways to throw some important people under
the bus, fourteen ways of convincing the cop that
he was completely innocent or even a scapegoat,
and to come to the conclusion that he was bored
with this job and bored with this role.

No matter which variant he chose, a low-level

member of the Commission exposing some dark
secrets everyone with half a brain could have
deduced was boring.

But a villain hidden in plain sight, slaughtering his

way out of the Hero Commission? Oh, it would
be far more interesting.

By the time the police officer arrived, he had

decided to only kill the people on this floor, only
so the rest would realize how lucky they had
been. How their life could have been forfeited
just for being at the wrong place at the right time.

He also knew how he was going to kill them,

making it clean and painless for those he didn’t
care about or even liked, while anyone who had
committed any kind of little slights would get
their own personalized end.

It wasn’t even because Kousuke was mad at

them. But by the time the police officer arrived, a
small eternity had happened to someone who
could think so fast and he needed to distract
himself.

Usually, it would have been at this moment that

his Master would have intervened and told him to
be careful or to pay attention to something he
had missed. But he hadn’t seen the ghost of
O’Clock in a decade and he had learned to live
without him.

“Oguro Kousuke?” the police officer asked as he

stopped in front of his desk, obviously already
knowing who he was.

“Himself,” Kousuke lied, wondering if he would

keep his name after resigning from the
Commission.

He had grown quite attached to it but there were

others, each with its history, strengths and flaws
and all.

Just not Six.

Never again.

He winked at the police officer, making sure to

use normal speed, both in order to recuperate
before accelerating again but also so this plain
man wouldn’t miss it.

The cop’s eyes widened as he somehow

understood what Kousuke was about to do.

The speedster grinned, choosing a nostalgic

death for him.

Instant Eight.

Only for someone to start moving before him.

“Tsukauchi-kun, are you alright?” All Might called

from the other side of the open space, pinning
the villain through the marble floor.

Naomasa’s legs betrayed him and he fell to the

floor, every cell of his body convinced that he had
been killed but that his brain just hadn’t
registered the information yet. Adrenaline was
rushing through his veins and his body was
trembling, as if it wanted to flee the imminent
death situation that had already been resolved.

He had been a detective for thirteen years and a

policeman for even longer. It wasn’t the first time
he had been confronted to someone trying to kill
him.

But he hadn’t even seen him move. Neither of

them, actually.

If All Might hadn’t insisted on accompanying him,

more because he had been quite frantic about
knowing who had put a contract on the Thief’s
head, sending Stain after kids with parasitic
quirks, Naomasa would be dead.

In all of his relatively short but busy life, Kousuke

had never been knocked unconscious. Shot,
exploded, slashed, burned, kicked, hit with a
frying pan, all of it had hurt – somewhat, as his
pain response was a little different than most –
but the way his quirk worked made it difficult for
anyone not matching him in speed to actually
knock him out.

He woke up groggy and stunned, his thoughts

horribly slow and with a throbbing pain inside his
skull.

0/10. Would not recommend it.

He pushed his sluggish thoughts in one direction,

urging himself to feel his bruised flesh, his
weakened skull, and more importantly, his body
slowly trying to repair the damage. Then, he used
Overclock to accelerate the healing process, until
his thoughts were back to their usual speed and
the world made sense again.

He didn’t open his eyes, though.

Instead, he took note of his restraints and how he

was lying down in what had to be a transport van
but not only weren’t they moving but there was
no noise of conversation around him. Just the
sound of soft breathing and one person moving
through the van, their feet barely making any
noise.

Someone who felt like flowers and gunpowder

and who softly cursed under her breath when she
saw that whatever had stopped the transport
convoy hadn’t woken Kousuke up.

She leaned over him, like a prince from a fairy

tale who had just cut through a forest of thorns to
get to him.

And she slapped him across the face. Hard.

“Wake up,” the former pro hero said, boredom

all over her beautiful face.

Whatever the Commission had taught her, it had

apparently covered how to spot people who were
only pretending to sleep.

Kousuke sat up, letting her get rid of the

restraints as he looked around to see two police
officers flat on the ground, breathing deeply
because of what looked like tranquilizer darts
poking from their chests.

“You kept them alive?” he smiled. “That’s

adorable.”

Most people wouldn’t have bothered.

The people who had sent her to rescue him

certainly didn’t.

“Not all of us can indiscriminately murder

everyone in their path,” she informed him,
pushing back her blue and pink hair from her
face.

She finally managed to open the restraints and

stepped back, leaving him taking care of the rest.

“And I’m sure the former president of the

Commission appreciated this compassion of
yours when you put a bullet between his eyes,”
he smiled.

The look she gave him could have curdled milk

but it wouldn’t have hurt if it wasn’t the truth.

Fifteen years ago, a child had manifested an

incredibly destructive quirk that had sent him
running down the street where he lived, bringing
destruction to everything he touched.
Fortunately, All Might had found him and calmed
him down, and all had ended well.

To Hawks’ disappointment, this black-haired and

red-eyes child he had seen in photo once during
a lesson where his instructor was making sure he
knew how to deescalate a situation involving
children, wasn’t Yami. He was about five year too
old, his name was Shimura Tenko and he had a
part-time job at the Might Tower.

With the hindsight, it was pretty clear that Hawks

had thought about him both because of his
powerful quirk and because he was connected to
All Might but as he was sitting at a stolen desk in
the HPSC building, reading the file they had on
Shimura Tenko, he couldn’t convince himself that
there wasn’t an air of resemblance.

He went through the known relatives, which

included a sister, two parents who didn’t have any
siblings, and only one set of grandparents, on the
maternal side.

Things became interesting when he looked at

Shimura Kotaro’s profile. As a child put in the
system, no parents had been listed in the
genealogy but a note in his specific file indicated
that he was actually related to a hero, formerly
known as Sky High.

It was the kind of information Hawks wouldn’t

have access to if he wasn’t connected to the
central database of the Commission, as they
tended not to advertise who was related to pro
heroes so the latter’s enemies wouldn’t find them.

Sky High… Are you connected to All Might in any

way?

He was about to find out when Hanabata Mika, a

colleague of Yokumira Mera, came and told him
that the villain apprehended by All Might earlier
had just managed to escape. Apparently,
someone had intercepted several police vehicles
in order to extract him.

It was a little too close from the usual MO of

Anyone for Hawks not to immediately fly over
there to discover what had happened.

Mika raised an eyebrow as she saw Hawks flying

away.

She had counted on it keeping him busy for the

next couple of days but she hadn’t realized that it
would interest him that much.

Notes:
1. During this entire chapter, Izuku
has black hair and red eyes. Yes, I
know I mentioned it several times
but an Anon on Tumblr admitted
they hadn’t realized until recently
that Izuku has white hair in this fic
so now, I feel the need to tell you
again. Shouto also have black hair
in this chapter.
2. This is my PSA to tell you that
thawing your enemies after you
trapped them into an iceberg
probably doesn’t work so do not
attempt to use your ice powers for
capture in the way that was
depicted in this chapter. This is a
crack fic so the laws of reality
bend themselves in order to
obtain the funniest probabilities.
3. Hawks isn’t the one who took a
bite out of the last donut.
4. Thank you to Hero of Age for
giving me Nana’s hero name in
Anyone.
5. Maybe some of you are
surprised that I have been giving
you only light chapters lately. I am
aware of it and I advise you to
enjoy the light tone of said
chapters. And to remember them
when I will get to the more intense
ones.

Thank you so much to everyone

who commented on my fic! I don't
have the words to tell you how
grateful I am.

I will ask you to stop everything

you're going and go watch this
incredible animatic made by the
just as incredibly talented
Missdove, please!
https://missdove.tumblr.com/post/
657492198440452097/anyone-by-
gentrychild-imagine-a-world-
where-your

Please, also go and look at

Karmauh's very relatable art of
Kurogiri!
https://gentrychild.tumblr.com/po
st/654997871449571328/you-will-
found-no-shame-in-me-as-i-am-
witnessing

EDIT: I will also ask you to stop

everything you're doing in order
to listen to Elize Evan's incredible
original song, available on
Youtube! She composes music
and if other writers are interested
in her making music about your
works for free, I was asked to tell
you not to hesitate to contact her!
Here is her Tumblr!

CHAPTER 31
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

The secret of being a good handler was to make

things personal.

Countless of Hawks’ handlers had been left

behind, moved at other posts, or had simply
annoyed Hawks so much that he had threatened
to go on a hunger strike until they were removed
from his sight. Countless people had made the
mistake of assuming that the heroes under their
charge were weapons, something that was forced
to obey them.

But Mika knew that the secret was to make them

want to comply with the Commission. The heroes
under their care had to be told that they were
special, taught that they had it good, so they
would realize that following the lead of people
like her was better for everyone.

It was why she didn’t simply take care of Shinsou’s

internship and called it a day. Mika called him to
ask him about his day. She brought him his
favorite snacks when he was working for them.
She mentioned cat cafés and underground
heroes when they talked. Soon, she would start
offering gifts, advantages that could be only
obtained through the Hero Commission, so a boy
like him who had been ostracized because of his
quirk, would feel special.

And today, she drove to his school so he wouldn’t

have to walk all the way home.

Unfortunately, as she slowly made her way in the

street that would lead her to the massive gates of
UA, someone jumped on the hood of her car,
bringing it to a halt as panic overwhelmed her
and made her brake with all her strength.

If there was any kind of justice in the world, the

scruffy hobo with a hero license would have been
ejected because of the brutal stop. Unfortunately,
as another proof that the world wasn’t only unfair
but uncaring when it came to her wishes, he
somehow hanged on.

Mika was not a violent person by nature but the

dirty traces of shoes on her car were enough to
make her dream of running him over. Fortunately,
she was a pro. She repressed the rage, opened
her car door, got out and gave him her whitest
smile, because nice was beyond her right now.

“Hello, Eraserhead.”

“Hanabata-san,” he technically greeted her, cold

saturating the five syllabus. “It’s a pleasure to
finally meet you face to face.”

He finally took his nasty boots from Mika’s

beautiful car, jumping down so they could face
each other. With her high heels, their eyes were
at the same level.

“I have tried to reach you in order to talk about

Shinsou Hitoshi. He has been working for you
those past months. You keep pulling out of
school to do hero jobs when he is only a
student.”

Only UA would have complained about the Hero

Commission requisitioning a student. With
Shiketsu, they were the two schools who knew
that their reputation was pristine enough for them
to survive without the good will of the
Commission.

Not so pristine, Mika remembered. The villain

attack they had to deal with made sure of that.

“I can hardly be blamed for providing

experiences for a student’s internship,” she
calmly countered, subtly using her quirk. “Did
you talk with Shinsou about it? Because he
seemed satisfied with the work provided to him
and I can assure you that a pro hero was with him
at all time. But if you are worried, I would be
happy to talk with you to find solutions. I want
Shinsou to be the best hero he can be and I am
aware that, as his homeroom teacher, your
opinion is more than valuable.”

For a moment, his eyes softened and his

shoulders relaxed, stress leaving him as his entire
being chose to trust her.

Only for his eyes to immediately flash red, his hair

rising with the activation of his quirk.

“Don’t.”

One word, saturated of cold and steel and

promises. And if Mika wasn’t sure of what was
promised, she believed that steel too much to
use her quirk again. Especially as most people
generally didn’t realize when she was using it.

“I’m aware that you keep a different hero every

time he goes and works for you,” Eraserhead
continued. “And I don’t find it sufficient as they
never have the time to know him long enough to
properly keep him safe. But I am not going to
fight the Hero Commission about that.”

An excellent decision because it wouldn’t end

well for him. As long as Shinsou was their intern,
they had a power of discretion on what measures
were taken to keep him safe.

“My student had been missing classes because of

his internship. Far too many. You not only went
beyond the time allotted for internships but you
have been taking him several times a week now.”

Mika had first started to make Shinsou train with

volunteers from the Hero Commission, then she
had made him intervene on arrests so the villains
wouldn’t panic and do damage on their way out.
A week ago, Shinsou had even helped rescue
hostages. Thanks to Mika’s work, he was started
to be known. More and more agencies were
asking after him.

It was a stark contrast with what had happened

after the Sport Festival.

“I assure you that Shinsou’s education is our

utmost concern,” she assured, and she was
truthful. “We try to limit how many times we call
upon him during school days but a pro hero like
you must understand that villains don’t respect
schedules. And I like to think that he is getting
practical knowledge that will present an
advantage in his cursus…”

“I don’t think you understand,” he interrupted

her. It made her blood boil but she controlled her
expression. “Shinsou is falling behind. His time
with you might teach him how to use his quirk but
hero training is more than that. It’s what makes
UA students adaptable instead of one-trick
ponies.”

How quaint.

Mika had seen no such adaptability during

Shinsou’s fight with the Bakugou boy. UA had
apparently forgotten to teach him the trick to
fight someone who could create explosions at a
moment’s notice.

“I have already talked with Nedzu and if you keep

interfering with Shinsou’s life as a UA student, we
will have no choice than to end this internship,”
Eraserhead warned her.

She stared at him, dumbstruck.

And then, she laughed in his face.

Technically, UA could absolutely prevent a

student from pursuing an internship. It was
usually done when they feel the student’s safety
was compromised or if their handler wasn’t
making the experience worthwhile. But ending
that kind of contract with the Hero Commission?
For no good reason?

That would do more harm to Eraserhead than to

her.

She raised her hand and waved at the purple-

haired-boy who had just walked out of the
massive gates of UA. Frozen on the sidewalk, he,
and multiple observers, were watching
Eraserhead and her, wondering what they were
saying.

After a moment, Shinsou hesitantly waved back.

Eraserhead followed her gaze and saw his

student looking at him with apprehension in his
eyes.

“So, you’re going to walk to this boy and tell him

that you threatened to end his internship with the
only person who ever believed in his aptitudes?”
Mika asked, laughter still in her voice. “With the
Hero Commission, who let him enjoy the best
working conditions a hero student can dream
of?”

She leaned in, so Eraserhead’s stupid face would

hide the cold smile on her face from her ward.

“You’re going to break his heart,” she promised.

Eraserhead glared at her, scorn and animosity

that would have worried her if they had been
alone in a dark alley passing on his face but he
knew she was right.

‘In any case, I regret to inform you that he has a

mission tomorrow. It’s non-negotiable, I’m afraid.
However, I am not deaf to your worries.” And
again, she wasn’t lying. They would make an
effort so the files would show that the Hero
Commission had listened to the concerns of a
worrywart teacher. Shinsou would be the one to
ask for more missions and they would oblige,
showing they put more trust in his decision skills
than his teachers. “I want the best for Shinsou.
But we need him tomorrow. If it can make you
feel better, know that he will be accompanied by
a top hero with which he already worked with.”

Most adults were liars. They lied with such

righteousness, thinking that it was their right and
moral duty to spare children from the painful
truth, from the harshness of this world, when they
actually lied because it was easier.

“Of course, everyone can be a hero!”

“Oh, I’m sure your classmates didn’t mean any

harm!”

And Hitoshi’s personal favorite, of course: “All

quirks are equal.”

Easy and blatantly false lies who were used more

to pacify kids like him than for anything else.
Insults, as far as he was concerned. At least, when
he was lying to his mom about having friends, he
was putting some effort into it.

It was why he was completely taken aback when

Hanabata told him what Aizawa-Sensei had told
her.

“Your homeroom teacher is worried that your

work with the Commission is making you fall
behind your pairs when it comes to your studies,”
she explained while driving, her eyes firmly on
the road. Hitoshi had noticed that she drove fast
but also carefully in a “Nothing get passed me”
kinda way. “It’s a valid concern and he was right
to tell me about it.”

Hitoshi was so surprised that he didn’t

immediately realize what this meant. He hadn’t
expected her to lie outright but definitely to stay
quiet about it, not sharing the details of what was
a discussion between adults.

Then, he understood that Aizawa-Sensei wanted

him to go on less missions for the Hero
Commission.

“My grades have barely slipped and it’s more

because of that bad paper I did in History than
anything else!” he protested. “I like working with
you! I like what I am doing with the Hero
Commission!”

Her lip quivered and she turned her head away in

order to hide a smile but Hitoshi still caught it.

She was happy to work with him.

Relief and warmth washed over him because he

was also happy to work with her. He was doing
his best to be useful and to progress as fast as
possible and to know that he wasn’t a hindrance
to her meant the world.

“I am really happy to hear that, Shinsou,” she

admitted, “but it’s true that we have been asking
a lot of you at times where you were supposed to
be at school, studying and socializing. And even
though we are grateful to you, it’s not fair...”

“Studying?” he repeated. “Experience on the

field is far more important for my hero training
than theory lessons or even training in class.
Todoroki and Bakugou didn’t become as good as
they are because they studied for it; they had the
opportunity to train with their quirks. An
opportunity you’re providing for me when no one
else did!”

Todoroki wasn’t born already able to perfectly

control his ice. Having the number 2 hero for a
father, with the means and the knowledge to train
him in places that wouldn’t fall under the
interdiction of using quirks in public space, was
what had brought him where he was. Even the
other students in 1-A probably had the
opportunity to train out of sight, especially as
they would only get a slap on the wrist if they
were caught using, for the majority, safe quirks.

But Hitoshi’s quirk wasn’t like that. Brainwashing

wasn’t something he could easily train with. Even
if he had found someone willing to help, being
caught meant risking being considered a villain
for good.

“And we will keep providing it,” Hanabata

assured. “I am not suggesting to end the
internship, but to make more efforts so it won’t
interfere as much with your high school age. Not
to reveal my age but trust me when I say that you
will miss those years when you’re older.”

It took some heroic resolve not to roll his eyes but

Hitoshi still managed to keep a straight face.

He didn’t care about his experience as a high

school student. School was just a stepping stone
on the road that would lead him to the hero life.

Nothing else mattered.

“But before we make those arrangements,” she

added, “I’m afraid that you won’t be going to
school tomorrow. There is a file for you in the
glove box.”

Hitoshi didn’t lunge at it because it would imply

that he was ridiculously eager to show the benefit
of having him continuing to go on missions,
where he was needed, instead of just keeping his
finger crossed for important stuff to only happen
outside of school hours. No, he simply took hold
of it with a strength due to his training as a hero
and opened it with a swiftness that could only be
described as efficient.

However, his enthusiasm was dampened when he

actually saw what it was about.

Screenshots of a Clamor server. Rapports about a

new organization encouraging people to use
their quirks. And of course, the image, taken
straight from a video everyone had seen, from
the Hosu Vigilante, the man who had taken the
Hero Killer out.

“It’s about Anyone,” he said.

Hanabata nodded, her eyes still on the road.

“Aren’t they… Well, they are just vigilantes.”

They were no League of Villains. They had even

helped out during the Hosu attack, when the
Brainless, the siblings of the one who had hurt
Aizawa-Sensei, had been brought there to roam
free and to cause chaos.

Hanabata sighed.

“Shinsou, I would love to believe that everyone

always has the best intentions in the world. But
the truth is that people needs to be accountable.
And that’s why we need your help.”

The next day

It was amazing how new information could

change one’s perspective.

Being quirkless despite both of his parents having

a quirk hadn’t only been a catastrophe for Izuku;
it was fate laughing at the odds and probabilities
by giving him an additional toe joint. However, it
had taken one grainy video to realize he had
probably been lucky to be quirkless and
uninteresting when he had met All for One’s
personal mad scientist.

The teenager was sitting on his bed in front of the

ancient laptop Nagisa had unlocked for him. The
ancient beast was as far as Izuku’s earbuds would
allow it, showing the face of the doctor that had
callously destroyed the Midoriyas’ hopes.

Izuku’s memories before he got diagnosed as

quirkless were blurry for the most part, too
painful to consider. But even if he had wanted to,
he could never forget the face of the first man
who had shattered his dreams.

“… and when I first advanced my theory, I only

saw the physical impact of quirk singularities.
Despite the effort of the government to shut
down those studies…”

If those studies were even vaguely similar to the

experiences he had written about in his notes,
Izuku was all for shutting them down.

The files that weren’t corrupted had revealed

things that had made Nagisa’s reaction perfectly
understandable. People with heteromorph quirks
like her had a painful history when it came to
curious scientists and unethical experiments
whose goal was to learn more about quirks. A
history that was supposed to have died during
the Dawn of Quirks, back when people were
narrow-minded about what defined a human
being as such.

“… the fact that the human baseline evolved in

order to make people more resistant is an open
secret in the scientific community. I was so
focused on the idea that the evolution we’re
witnessing generation after generation isn’t fast
enough to counter the drawbacks of quirks that
are getting more and more powerful,
overwhelming their host’s resistance that I didn’t
see what should have been obvious. But of
course, He did.”

Izuku paused the video, took out his earbuds and

rubbed his temples, pain bouncing on the walls
of his skull.

He needed coffee. He also needed sleep.

Or even better, he needed to stop watching and

listening to this. He needed to go back to a time
where he didn’t know that the noumus were
meant to replace the number serie because the
subjects had proved too unstable or that quirks
could be cloned, which was a terrifying thought.
He needed to unlearn what the Trigger
experimentations had entailed and how the data
had been procured.

And he needed to stop hearing the devotion in

this man voice and to stop seeing the adoration
on his man’s face as he talked about All for One
like he was both a god and a messiah.

But knowledge was power so he played it again,

because he needed to know what those villains
who kept attacking civilians wanted, where the
Doctor was hiding or even what the hell the
number serie was.

“He saw it coming, and as much as I would love

to pretend that it’s thanks to neural paths that
formed in His brain thanks to His quirk, honesty
forces me to admit that He is simply brilliant…”

Izuku’s epic eyerolling was interrupted by his

phone, the notification of a message sent by
Nagisa. It meant that a request needed his
immediate attention, either so he would
intervene himself or so he would find someone
else for the job.

“It appears quite clearly that quirk singularity isn’t

only about quirks that put a strain over their
hosts…”

The teenager passed a hand in his hair (white

again, which had been a relief until he
remembered that it wasn’t his real color) and
thought about it for a second before accepting
the request. He needed the break.

“… but about the influence quirks have on said

hosts. To repeat the words of my esteemed
friend: quirks want to be used…”

Izuku closed the window then the laptop and hid

it in the spot between his desk and the wall.
There weren’t many hiding spots in his room: All
for One had already taken a peek at his closet to
steal his hero merch and hiding something under
the bed meant accepting for it to be discovered
in the first five minutes of a search.

After changing into his work outfit, he texted

Kurogiri to have a warp gate ready. It appeared a
couple of minutes later, probably made by a
sleepy bartender who hadn’t left his bed. Kurogiri
answered his phone at every hour of the day or
night but there was a reason why Izuku knew what
kind of pajamas (night beanie included) he was
wearing.

The black mist had just appeared when someone

knocked on his door, quietly enough not to wake
him up if he was still sleeping.

“If you are awake, breakfast is ready,” All for One

told him through the door.

He had probably heard him move in his room.

Izuku didn’t answer, walking straight into the mist.

All for One would know he had avoided him but

the teenager was too tired to pretend that
nothing was wrong right after listening to the
villain’s associates for hours.

Tootiredforthismeow

[Please, come quickly! They’re screaming

and I think he’s going to kill her!]

Once he had left the message, Shinsou Hitoshi

left the app and looked around, almost expecting
to see a vigilante appear in a cloud of dark
smoke. But of course, the harbor in which he was
waiting remained empty.

The Hero Commission had evacuated it in order

to have a controlled location in which they could
lure the famous vigilante of the Anyone
organization.

At least, Hitoshi hoped that the right one would

show up. It would get awkward if they had
prepared this entire operation only for a newbie
vigilante to arrive. Hanabata might have assured
him that nine times out of ten, someone with a
power-type quirk intervened during emergencies
but one could never be too sure.

So early in the morning, the air wasn’t warmed up

by the sun yet and the teenager was acutely
aware of it, just like he was aware of everything
around him. The sound of waves in the distance.
The warmth of his phone in his pocket. The feel
of the ground under his athletic sneakers, in case
he needed to run at full speed.

But he wouldn’t. He was ready. He had been on

several missions before, mandated by the Hero
Commission of course, and even if a pro hero had
been right next to him each time, he had more
experience than everyone of his classmates.

And it wasn’t like the cavalry was far away from

here.

“What’s happening here?”

Hitoshi almost had a heart attack as he realized

that someone had managed to sneak behind him
and he turned to see a vigilante as silent as a
freaking ninja behind him. His hood was up, and
technically, it shouldn’t have hidden his face but it
was as if it was covered in shadows, which made
Hitoshi pause.

His mouth dried up for a second.

The vigilante was keeping his distance, probably

giving himself some room to work if Hitoshi used
one of those flashy quirk everyone learned to
fear. He was wearing work-out clothes: short,
leggings, red sneakers, and the usual Anyone
hoodie this group of vigilantes wore.

And he was shorter than Hitoshi.

“You’re here,” the hero student said, his voice

trembling. It wasn’t a complete act. “Please, I
need help.”

His quirk waited, ready to ensnare his prey.

Just one word. Even a sound would do.

But the vigilante didn’t say anything. Instead, he

was looking at the building in front of which
Hitoshi had been waiting, as if there was really
someone in there, even though it was completely
silent.

He had to have noticed that the harbor was

empty by now.

If he decided to attack, Hitoshi wasn’t sure the

top hero waiting on standby would be fast
enough to help him. Especially against a power-
type quirk.

The vigilante looked at Hitoshi, slightly tilting his

head as curiosity let place to confusion.

“You’re a UA student...”

Hitoshi smirked.

“Don’t move.”

Izuku’s body froze on its own, each of his muscle

straining under the burden of absolute immobility
while the stillness didn’t completely reach his
mind. Whatever quirk was used on him was lulling
him to a trance, encouraging to just let go and
abandon what was left of his control over himself
but he couldn’t afford it.

He needed to move. He needed to flee.

He needed to find a way.

He had seen the purple-haired hero student

during the Sport Festival but he didn’t know what
his quirk was about, not when he had been
thrown out of bound by Kacchan before he ever
had the chance to use his power on Izuku’s
childhood friend.

Izuku should have payed attention to the first

events. He should have known.

If he had done his research, he would be prisoner

of his own body, unable to do, to do anything but
breathe.

He couldn’t even blink and the panic was rising.

Vigilantes and heroes were the sum of their

reflexes. Years spent risking their lives and having
to react immediately to threats had created new
neural pathways that had taught their body to
react on their own.

It was something First was aware of but he had

assumed that death had freed them from knee-
jerk reflexes. After all, how could one bear the
consequences of such specific brain plasticity
when one didn’t have a brain anymore?

Right until he saw what was happening to Ninth.

In this moment, every vestiges looking through

Izuku’s eyes was reminded of another instance
where a One for All holder had been lured into a
trap as he was trying to rescue someone, only to
be stopped by a quirk.

When the impossible had become a reality.

When Midoriya Izuku had succeeded where All

for One had failed and stolen One for All.

And it wasn’t because the Vestiges didn’t have a

body anymore that they couldn’t blindly react.

“NOT AGAIN!”

Hitoshi sighed in relief, trying to suppress the

shudders brought by the adrenaline flooding his
veins.

The Hosu Vigilante had defeated the Hero Killer

and at least two heroes but all of his strength
wasn’t enough to counter Hitoshi’s quirk. The
teenager couldn’t help a smile – after all, it wasn’t
every day that he could prove that flashy powers
weren’t the best – and for a moment, he
considered getting rid of the vigilante’s hoodie in
order to see what his face looked like. He was
curious and as the one who had arrested the guy,
wouldn’t it make sense for him to be the one to
reveal his identity?

But he had been asked to step back as soon as

the target was neutralized and being reckless or
cocky would disappoint Hanabata.

“I GOT HIM!” he screamed while turning into the

other direction.

Gang Orca, who had been hiding out of sight

because nothing made vigilantes remember that
they might have left the stove on more than top
heroes, was already out and running towards
them.

Hitoshi smiled at him then searched for Hanabata

with his eyes. She had insisted on coming but
since she didn’t have a license or any training,
she had stayed out of sight.

He smiled when he saw her peeking out from

behind one of the massive containers that was
giving ample room to ambush a member of
Anyone.

And because he was more focused on her, he

didn’t pay attention to the smell of ozone, the
same thing he smelled right after a storm.

Instead, he realized what was happening as all his

muscles tensed because something was
happening behind him. Power, wild and
uncontrollable, made his hair stand on end and
reminded the ape in his brain that he was soft
and easily mauled.

He didn’t notice how Gang Orca was now

running toward him at full speed.

Instead, as if he was trapped in one of those

dreams that forced everyone to move in slow
motion, he turned to face the vigilante with a
power type, the vigilante he had just neutralized,
and he saw sparks of blue lightning dancing
around his fingers.

Fingers that he flexed several times, as if he was

trying to make the sparks disappear.

In this moment, two thoughts collided in Hitoshi’s

mind.

They weren’t simultaneous but they still were

absolute and inescapable.

It’s impossible No one can break out of my quirk

on their own.

The vigilante stared at Hitoshi.

His breath caught in his throat and he started

trembling as his body admitted something long
before him.

His brain finally caught up to this second

inescapable truth.

I'm going to die.

Izuku took one second to deal with the familiar

kiss of electricity coursing through his veins. It
had been years since the first time he had felt this
specific brand of pain, and yet, his body still
remembered it perfectly.

One second. No more, not even an additional

instant to deal with the apparition of a new quirk.

He forced his body to move, just before Gang

Orca was upon him.

The last time he had seen him, it had been in the

middle of a march against quirk prejudices and
he had radiated warmth when he had signed
Izuku’s notebook. But now, every trace of civility
was gone, as one of the world’s most dangerous
predator had crossed the distance between
them, his fist moving so fast that it became a blur.

Full Cowl. 40%.

He jumped back just as Gang Orca produced a

hypersonic wave, not caring that Shinsou Hitoshi
was right next to him.

Izuku was aware that the effectiveness of said

waves decreased with range. He was also aware
that with Shinshou right next to him, Gang Orca
couldn’t unleash the kind of attack that shatter
glass and rubbles alike.

The impact still made his teeth hurt and his

stomach flip a couple of times as his body tensed
up, his muscles unable to do anything, let alone
carry his weight.

It made his landing awkward but he managed to

curl into a ball, and with an effort of will that
made his head spin and experience handling the
effects of a quirk that was inflicting one hell of a
recoil, he managed to raise one arm, an Air Blast
in tow.

It stopped Gang Orca in his tracks. Not for long.

One heartbeat at most.

Long enough for a strand of Blackwhip to burst

through Izuku’s sleeve and to grab the number 10
hero by the ankle.

Izuku somehow pushed himself his feet, Full Cowl

burning inside him as he swung the whip and the
orca tied to it like he was trying to break some
kind of record. Gang Orca tried to fight it, try to
use his quirk again to paralyze him, but few
people were able to use their powers as they
were used as the world’s most ambitious yo-yo
and he was launched through the air with a
scream, only for Izuku to sever the tie once he
had gained enough momentum.

His arm sighed in relief as the weight was gone

and he took out his phone with the other hand,
only to wince when about 100 kilos of orca were
reacquainted with gravity and crashed through
the metal roof of a container.

Izuku looked in this direction and saw that Gang

Orca, rightfully in a homicidal mood, was making
his way back to him so he frantically tapped on
his phone screen so he could call Kurogiri and
get out of here as fast as warpingly possible.

But the screen remained dark, even when the

teenager turned the phone on and off again.

Did the shock fry it?

His breathing sped up. His phone wasn’t only

essential to his activities as Anyone: it was his the
guaranty of always having a strategical exit. He
was confident in sending agents on missions
because they were always one message away
from an easy escape road.

Focus.

Izuku looked at Shinsou Hitoshi who was still on

the ground, unable to move, though this
obviously wasn’t affecting his mouth. Even in this
sorry state, completely at Izuku’s mercy, the hero
student was still trying to chain him with his quirk.

A quirk that hadn’t affected him until he had

answered his question. He wasn’t sure if Shinsou
needed a fully articulated answer or if any sound
would be enough so he stayed quiet as he knelt
next to him, reaching out to the phone peeking
out of his pocket.

“As for your mother, she is a…” Shinsou stopped

before Izuku was legally forced to slap him in the
face. “What-What are you doing?”

He visibly paled as he watched Izuku go through

his phone. The leader of Anyone confirmed that
he was the one who had used the app then, since
(to his utter embarrassment and intense regret)
he didn’t know Kurogiri’s phone number, he
destroyed the cellphone, metal screaming
between his fingers until only scraps remain.

Time to cut your losses.

He started to run, as far away from his place and

the top hero that he had sucker punched as
possible but he didn’t manage to take more of a
couple of steps as three things happened at
once.

Shinsou Hitoshi somehow managed to stand.

Maybe Gang Orca hadn’t weakened his own
attack in order to protect him. Maybe he was as
stubborn as Izuku. In any case, the movement
and the scream distracted him.

Long enough for him to notice too late that Gang

Orca wasn’t the only pro hero here.

A long haired man dressed all in black had

emerged from the maze of containers and was
running like the devil but peak human speed was
still a long way from the speed accumulated by
eight holders of One for All.

Their eyes met.

Green against glowing red.

Izuku’s legs failed him, so weak that they might as

well not be there, and he tripped on the
pavement, hard enough for something in his knee
to crack and for pain to burn into the entire joint
but the teenager didn’t really notice despite
violently jumping to his feet.

Pain was nothing compared to the sudden

emptiness within him.

For One for All was gone.

Red-hot fury saturated every cell of Izuku’s body

as he felt his quirk gone, leaving him with
nothing.

He stole it.

For a crazy but limpid moment, he had to refrain

himself from leaping at the man who had just
succeeded where All for One had failed for
months, a man who had stolen his quirk from him.

Then, just abruptly as it had appeared, rage left

him, leaving place to cold calculation as anger
wasn’t going to get his quirk back. No, he
needed to analyze the situation, to understand.

But first, he needed time.

The hero in a black jumpsuit was running at him,

his scarf in his hand and flying in his direction and
there was no inhuman speed to avoid it anymore.
So Izuku kicked Shinsou in the back of the knee.

The hero student stumbled forwards but Izuku

grabbed him by the throat. Shinsou immediately
tried to throw him above his shoulder but he was
barely fit for a hero student while Izuku was both
a vigilante and someone whose quirk put an
extraordinary amount of stress on his muscles.
The hero student didn’t stand a chance and in a
blink, his back was to Izuku and he had a hand on
his throat, compressing it just enough for
breathing to be painful but without granting him
the comfort of simply passing out.

If looks could kill, Izuku would have been

incinerated by the eyes of the hero whose hair
was standing up, like Hebisuga when she was
pissed.

It was alright, though.

Izuku’s glare could easily rival his.

“Sense-“ Shinsou tried to say but Izuku’s fingers

clamped on his windpipe, probably too forcefully
for a simple warning.

Sensei. Shinsou Hitoshi was in the same class as

Shouto and both of them had the same
homeroom teacher.

“Eraserhead,” Izuku snarled.

His quirk wasn’t gone but erased.

“Kurogiri, something is wrong with Yami!” Nagisa

screamed in the phone. “An official from the
Hero Commission has just called for back-ups!
You have to pick him up right now!”

“Let him go,” Aizawa Shouta ordered. “The

punishment for vigilantism is a drop of water in
the ocean compared to harming a hero student.
If you surrender, we will find a solution.”

The vigilante gave him a very unimpressed look,

which should have been impressive as his hood
was hiding his face but Shouta couldn’t muster
much admiration while his fingers were digging
into his student’s throat.

One didn’t need enhanced strength to break

someone’s neck. Determination and a vague idea
of what you were doing was enough.

Nine time out of ten, he would have attacked

anyway. Gaining the will to kill was hard and
Shinsou’s bruised throat was better than being
caught in the crossfire between a member of
Anyone and the number 10 hero that was
sneaking behind him. But there was something
coming from the vigilante, something horribly
cold and furious, that he didn’t want to test.

Keeping the vigilante focused on him to let Gang

Orca the opportunity to immobilize him was the
most logical course of action.

“Think about it,” Shouta insisted, as his eyes were

starting to burn. The USJ had severely worsened
his time. “Anyone has a good reputation with the
public. If you really are who I think you are, you
put an end to the Hero Killer’s reign of terror. You
might be a vigilante but you will only get a slap
on the wrist. But anything you do from now on
will be considered as assault on heroes.”

Gang Orca was almost upon them.

“Let him go,” Shouta implored.

The vigilante tilted his head, as if he was

considering it.

“Okay,” a male voice, young, finally said.

His hand left Shinsou’s throat, lowering to the

back of his shirt, while the other grabbed him by
the belt.

The next second, a teenager was flying in

Shouta’s direction.

His capture scarf immediately flew in direction of

the vigilante, grabbing him by the wrist but just
like he had managed to throw a hero student that
was probably barely lighter than him, he tugged
back hard enough to make Shouta stumble
forwards. Either adrenaline is one hell of a drug
or I need to work out more. He braced himself in
order to catch Shinsou and as he received 177
centimeters of teenager across the chest - better
than his student knocking his head on the
concrete -, he blinked.

That was when everything went from bad to

worse.

The vigilante ran at full speed in Gang Orca’s

direction, forcing Shouta to let go of his wrist or
Shinsou and him would have been dragged
along. The underground hero blinked a couple of
times to give some respite to his eyes, watching
the blur that was the vigilante.

He expected him to try to punch Gang Orca

across the torso, if his raised fist was any
indication.

Instead, at the last moment, he lowered his

center of gravity, sled on his knees, and somehow
passed between Gang Orca’s legs only to jump
up and kick him in the back like a train freight.

Gang Orca roared, turning and swiping at the

vigilante’s head fast enough to make him take a
look at some pearly gates but the vigilante
blocked his arm, holding his wrist with one hand
and barely blocking Gang Orca’s knee a moment
before it hit his stomach.

The number 10 hero took advantage of his

opportunity to punch him in the face, the
vigilante’s head snapping back violently but he
didn’t let go, still holding on to Gang Orca, still
hidden behind the hero’s shape.

From where he was, Shouta could only see one of

the vigilante’s arm and guess the outline of his
body. If he used his quirk, only Gang Orca would
be rendered quirkless and no matter how tough
his mutations made him, he didn’t want to
discover what someone with super strength could
do to him.

The vigilante, still holding Gang Orca’s wrist,

green lightning surrounding him, flicked his
middle finger at him, sending a shockwave
straight to his head. Then another.

He is preventing Gang Orca from using his quirk,

Shouta realized.

Gang Orca grunted and tried to haul the vigilante

so Shouta could have him in his light of sight. A
two meters tall killer whale against a teenager
that was smaller than Shinsou.

The vigilante stayed right the hell where he was.

How strong is he?

“GET THE KID OUT OF HERE!” Gang Orca

screamed without turning back, all of his strength
focused on the member of Anyone.

It was why Shouta could forgive him for not

assuming that he was already dragging a
squirming hero student back.

“We have to help him!” Shinsou said, panic

saturating his every word.

He was afraid and guilty because someone had

made him believe that it was his job to take care
of a vigilante who had permanently ended the
Hero Killer’s career. He was panicking because,
for the first time in his life, he was seeing
someone backed into a corner and discovering
how dangerous this kind of opponent could be.
And he would blame himself, convinced that it
was his fault if the situation had turned into this
mess.

It was why children shouldn’t be on this type of

mission. If something bad happened… it would
haunt them forever.

“We have to stop being potential collateral

damage!” Shouta kept dragging him. “He is a
top hero! Trust him!”

His student nodded. Oh, he didn’t like. But he

knew better than to fight with him on this one.

“Was Hanabata here?” the underground hero

asked even though he already knew the answer.

With his luck, the agent from the Hero

Commission was trapped somewhere. He would
need to evacuate both her and his student before
he came back for Gang Orca.

Civilians might have the priority but despite what

he had said to Shinsou, there was no way he was
leaving Gang Orca alone with a crazy vigilante
longer than necessary.

Shinsou opened his mouth but never answered.

He was distracted by the blue light that flooded
the air, a moment before an arrow made of blue
fire pierced soared through the sky and landed
right next to Gang Orca.

Shouta felt the heat, barely bearable, despite the

distance.

He looked up and away, at the entrance of the

harbor, where a lone silhouette was standing on
top of a tower of containers.

There was more blue flames between his hands.

And a mass of shadows right next to him.

Shouta looked at him, his quirk neutralizing the

flames but what had to be a warp gate didn’t
move. The newcomer was startled, not
understanding what was happening.

A feeling that Shouta soon shared as a massive

shockwave, stronger than anything the vigilante
had thrown before, reached them. To his horror, it
was carrying a very surprised Gang Orca.

Shouta barely had the time to push Shinsou out

of the way.

He did his best to catch Gang Orca with his

capture weapon so the pro hero wouldn’t crash
into him.

It wasn’t enough.

A good man would have been overcome with a

sense of gratitude after seeing Dabi and would
have acknowledged that without a functioning
phone, it was extremely difficult for Kurogiri find
his coordinates and to warp the fire user near
him. But since Izuku had one broken middle
finger, probable internal damage due to Gang
Orca’s quirk that he had felt at short range and
been punched to the face by one of his favorite
hero, he couldn’t help but to internally grumble
because really, why did the warp gate had to be
so far from his actual position?

A strand of darkness rose from his left arm,

reaching one of the highest container and
propelling Izuku upwards. If Todoroki’s homeroom
teacher used his quirk on him while he was in
mid-air, the landing would be brutal but it was the
fastest way to reach Dabi.

And right now, he needed the bliss of using his

quirk. Nothing, not even the moment where
Shinsou Hitoshi had somehow controlled him,
had been scarier than when he had thought that
his quirk was gone.

Now, you know what it feels like to lose your

quirk.

With Blackwhip, he propelled himself up then on

the right, disappearing behind a tower of five
massive containers in order to be out of sight of
Erasure. His feet barely touched the ground
afterwards, for when he wasn’t using the whips of
energy to swing himself in the maze of
containers, he was using Full Cowl to jump
forwards.

If he hadn’t been preoccupied with the high

probability of being arrested by heroes, he would
have noticed that he had never used Blackwhip
so fluidly or that using it in conjunction with Full
Cowl was barely a challenge anymore.

Instead, as he got to Dabi in record time, he tried

to make sense of what he was saying despite the
wind screaming in his ears and the perspective of
a very high fall followed by a brutal stop if his
concentration weakened.

“Hurry!” Izuku managed to guess more than he

heard. The mask on his face didn’t help but at
least the Hawks debacle had taught him
something about stealth. “He is coming!’

Who?

He looked around to see if Gang Orca wasn’t

chasing him (which would be unfair as Orcinus
might allow him to do everything an orca could
do but killer whales weren’t known to be fast
runners) or if Eraserhead had followed his
example with his support gear.

It was how he noticed the presence of a blond

hero with a red cape. Fifteen meters above the
ground. While both of Izuku’s arms were using
Blackwhip to move through the air. In the perfect
place to punch him in the face.

Izuku still made a valiant effort to avoid it.

“POWER!” the familiar hero screamed as his fist

connected with Izuku’s jaw, stunning him and
making Blackwhip disappear as if it had never
existed.

He fell.

Dabi watched his boss fall like a bag of bricks, his

body limp and not of those black tendrils he was
fond of coming out of him to slow down his
descent.

Not enough time to call Kurogiri, who had stayed

back in order not to be too tempting of a target
for the heroes. No time to reach Yami and even if
he did, he couldn’t avoid giving second degree
burns to his brother’s best friend.

If Shouto didn’t kill him, Dabi’s meaner, older,

stronger boss would roast him with his own quirk.

But just as Dabi was about to jump through the

warp gate to forcefully drag Kurogiri to the
battlefield so he could save Yami’s bacon, the
teenage villain twisted his body midair, this
simple movement sending wind everywhere. He
managed to shift so he would face the quickly
approaching ground, raised his fist, and threw a
punch that was so fast that Dabi barely saw it.

Metal and concrete screamed as it twisted and

shattered under the impact, dust rising and
hiding the damage and Yami himself, but only for
a short moment.

As the dust settled, Dabi saw Yami on the

ground, one knee down, in a crater of his own
making.

For a moment, awe overwhelmed Dabi, the same

sense of wonder than when he had been a stupid
kid admiring his old man’s flames, the very
essence of a quirk so powerful captivating him.

Then, reality kicked down the wonder. Yami was

strong but not enough. They had to get out of
here. He had to find a way to get down so Yami
could access Kurogiri’s warp gate.

He leaned over the one of the side of the

container, trying to see if, with enough Jetburn,
he could make several jumps that wouldn’t break
his legs.

Only to see the enraged number 10 hero waiting

for him down there, looking at him like Dabi had
kicked his poodle, insulted his mother and owed
him money.

Dabi stepped right back up on his metal card

tower, away from the top hero’s eyes.

It didn’t prevent the ground under his boots from

immediately starting to vibrate.

Izuku felt the blow coming even though no one

was behind him a moment ago.

He immediately moved to block, One for All

granting him a speed few could rival with, but his
hand didn’t touch anything and the blond hero
still managed to punch him on the side of the
head, making the world still for a second.

Blackwhip took over, protecting him while he was

stunned by the blow but once again, the hero
was gone.

Pain burned in his arms are tendrils of darkness

were madly looking for him. As they did, Izuku
noted that the tower on which Dabi had been
standing was falling apart.

No blue flames.

If Dabi was in danger and needed help, he knew

to signal it. It meant that he had probably jumped
through Kurogiri’s warp gate and that Izuku’s
escape road was gone for now.

Despite Blackwhip roaming free, the hero,

seemingly jumping out of nowhere, managed to
kick in the knee. Izuku flicked one of his non
injured fingers, throwing an Air Blast now that he
was too close to avoid it, but that didn’t even
slow him down and he disappeared again before
reappearing behind him to punch him in the
spine.

White hot pain spread on Izuku’s back but he

pushed through and kicked back, so fast that his
foot should have connected with something but
he found nothing.

“Over here!” the hero mocked on Izuku’s right.

His hero name was Lemillion.

Izuku knew that because he was one of the three

students who had won the Sport Festival this
year.

And once again, he punched him. He was aiming

for the chest but Izuku somehow managed to
dodge most of it and his fist ripped over his
shoulder.

He tried to punch back, putting all his speed in it

so he wouldn’t have the time to get away.

His fist went straight to the 1000000 on his chest

and Lemillion’s next punch sent him kissing the
ground.

Izuku didn’t try to get back on his feet. Instead,

he sat on his behind, hands down as if he was
barely managing to support his own weight, and
he looked as pathetic as possible, which wasn’t
hard.

Heroes usually avoided kicking people down. If a

villain looked like he was surrendering, they were
more than willing to end the pummeling.

A flash of blue appeared in the corner of Izuku’s

vision.

Dabi had come back.

“Nice quirk you got there,” Lemillion said. Unlike

what Izuku had seen in the Sport Festival, his
smile was subdued, all good humor gone. “Too
bad that it doesn’t belong to you, does it?”

UA was notoriously good at editing the fights in

the Sport Festival in such a way that most people
could guess the key features of the quirk while
making it ridiculously frustrating to understand
how it really worked. For anything that wasn’t
straightforward like a power type or a mutation
quirk, it hid the mechanisms of the quirk pretty
well, which was a good thing for the heroes and a
very frustrating experience for quirk nerds and
villain alike.

Lemillion’s quirk had been the subject of a very

violent debate between All for One and Izuku.
Sarcasm had dripped for their every word.
Powerpoints had been showed. Poor decisions
were made.

“Yes, I known,” Lemillion confirmed, taking

Izuku’s silence as surprise than he was aware that
his quirk was stolen.

But Izuku wasn’t stunned by All Might’s show of

trust. No, the teenager was scheming.

“Why did you even do that?” Lemillion asked, as

if this was really bothering him. “Your real quirk is
good on its own. With some training, you would
have obtained a powerful ability.”

Izuku tilted his head, trying to understand what

the hell he was talking about, until something
clicked in his mind.

“Blackwhip isn’t my real quirk,” he corrected the

hero.

Only to immediately be distracted by a flash of

blue and a roar of rage.

Izuku looked on his right and saw what looked

like a mass of blue fire rocketing a meter above
the ground as it was being pursued by a sharp
dressed villain.

The teenager had never seen Dabi moving so fast

but as Gang Orca seemed less carried by his
quirk than by the need to wrap his hands around
the pyromaniac’s throat, Izuku could understand
his eagerness to get the hell out of here, even if
he apparently had to create dozens of fires where
he passed.

He reported his attention back on the hero who

had kept his focus on him.

Good.

“You don’t know all the secrets of All Might’s

quirk, Lemillion.”

“It’s alright,” Lemillion smiled, a smile that

reminded Izuku of All Might this time. “We are
about to spend a long time together and you will
have all the time to explain them to me.”

Dabi was getting further away.

Izuku slowly rose to his feet then called his quirk.

Because for better or worse, this quirk he had

stolen, this quirk that had been keeping him alive
for the past months, was his.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Lemillion

warned him, ready to intervene. “You are strong. I
think you were even close of making All Might’s
power yours. But it doesn’t matter. I am
stronger.”

During his… debate with All for One, Izuku had

bet on short-range teleportation that allowed the
winner of the Sport Festival to accumulate kinetic
force. All for One had bet on a permeation quirk,
convinced that regaining his tangibility was what
allowing Lemillion to jump from wherever he was
hiding.

Izuku had been convinced that he was right.

“You’re right, Lemillion…”

It didn’t mean he hadn’t planned for

contingencies if he ever met a permeation quirk.

“… You are stronger than me.”

Izuku punched the ground at 45%, shattering it

like the upper layer of concrete was as fragile as
clay pottery.

Lemillion’s body moved on his own and he

disappeared.

Because of that, he didn’t notice what Izuku was

doing with his other quirk.

Dabi was yanked out of Gang Orca’s warpath at a

speed that threatened to break his neck and he
flew through the air through Yami’s demented
new quirk.

He was almost immediately above his boss,

wondering if this was a last effort to save him
while two heroes dropped down on him.

Until he heard his order, realizing that Yami had

gotten him exactly where he wanted.

“LIGHT IT UP!”

Dabi’s body reacted to the authority in this voice,

a voice that only bore a passing resemblance to
his brother’s best friend and he obeyed,
unleashing hell.

Yami had already jumped as high as possible by

the time the first flames devoured the spot where
he had been standing.

And then, they spread.

Mirio left the oppressive darkness and catapulted

himself where the Thief was.

He found no Thief.

Only hellfire that tried to devour him in one

excruciating gulp, took away his air, and forced
him to phase again to save his life.

So back in the ground he went, a place where he

couldn’t see, hear or breathe becoming a refuge.
His lungs immediately started to burn, as he
hadn’t manage to breathe again during his brief
moment out.

He forced himself to ignore it, for leaving right

now meant burning.

He had no choice but to suffocate in the dark.

Izuku managed to avoid Dabi’s flames by a hair

and he immediately slowed down Dabi’s descent
so he would land on a container overlooking
Lemillion’s new prison.

For what it’s worth, I’m sorry, he was about to say

to the hero, even though he couldn’t hear him.

The words died on Izuku’s tongue.

Apologizing meant nothing if one wasn’t willing

not to do it again. He was lucid enough to know
that if he had the occasion, he would steal One
for All again. He wouldn’t hesitate to use
Lemillion’s quirk against him, for if Eraserhead
came back, he would prioritize rescuing him over
stopping Izuku.

And since Kurogiri’s warp gate wasn’t waiting

next to Dabi, he didn’t follow him. He would
need to call the warper or for Kurogiri to hazard a
guess and show up on his own and any delay
would allow heroes to target them again.

Vigilante and villains alike cut their loss when they

risk harm and most of them let their opponent
flee without chasing them down, Izuku pondered.
Only heroes always refuse to let go of their prey.

So he kicked the side of the nearest container

and launched himself straight at Gang Orca.

The hero’s clothes were scorched and drenched

at the same time. During the entire time where he
had been in activity, no camera had ever
witnessed him losing his cool or radiating the full
animosity he was capable. Not when he was
considered what of the third most villain-looking
in the industry.

What Izuku was looking at would have easily

propelled him at the first place.

Gang Orca saw it coming, of course, those sonic

waves of him targeting him once again. But at
this speed and with so much momentum, it didn’t
made much of a difference and Izuku still kicked
him in the chest with both feet.

Gang Orca was flung backwards. The law of

physics simply didn’t let him any other choice.
But one of his massive hand grabbed Izuku’s
ankle, gripping it so tight that for a moment, the
teenager was convinced that he wanted to break
it.

The number 10 hero unfortunately had other

plans.

Uh oh.

With a grunt, he swung Izuku around like a

ragdoll and smashed him against the concrete.
Izuku put his hand in front of him so he wouldn’t
crack his head on the ground but Gang Orca
didn’t let him any time to react and kept swinging
him into every hard surface he could reach.

Izuku did his best to protect his head, contracting

every muscles in the hope that it would do
something to attenuate the shock but his body
shrieked in absolute pain and terror all the same.

He bent his knees, crouching down as much as

possible and wrapped his knee around the hero’s
wrist, before using Blackwhip to grab the ground
so he would have some traction and he kept
hanging on, Full Cowl turning him into an
immovable object.

Izuku twisted his body while still holding the

number 10 hero in a vice like grip.

His ankle, the one trapped between steel-like

fingers, screamed.

While Gang Orca’s wrist broke with a cracking

sound that would haunt his nightmares for a
while.

Gang Orca didn’t scream, grunt or even indicated

that he could feel the pain but he was forced to
let go and Izuku jumped away from his grip. He
almost fell when his feet touched the ground and
blood was dripping in one of his eyes behind the
build-in veil of his hoodie.

But Gang Orca didn’t allow Izuku or even himself

the opportunity to take one breath. Despite the
pain of his broken wrist, despite the exhaustion
brought by the fight and the fires around them,
he used his quirk once again. It was far more
powerful than when he had used it the first time,
the kind of power that made Izuku intimately
understand how he had managed to destroy
metal and force Dabi to flee.

Izuku moved so fast that the ground shattered

under his sneakers, avoiding most of the attack
but it still made his bones throb in agony.

He pushed through.

Someone screamed. He couldn’t say if it was

himself or if Dabi had found an opponent
determined to save Lemillion.

He needed to end the fight now.

He raised his fist, One for All screaming inside

him, and the Airblast touched Gang Orca before
his punch did. The pro hero blocked with two
arms and the protection on his forearms
shattered when Izuku’s fists connected with it.

The teenager didn’t leave him the time to

counter attack. He kicked him right where he had
punched him and Gang Orca keeled over.

Izuku jumped and grabbed his head with two

hands before smashing it violently on his knee.

Gang Orca fell.

Izuku grabbed him one moment before he

crumpled to the ground.

He checked that he was breathing then slowly

laid him in the ground, on the left side with his
arm under his head, so his airway would stay
unobstructed.

Izuku managed to stand again.

It wasn’t easy.

Dabi ran towards the small vigilante standing

over the unconscious body of a pro hero. His
sleeves were gone, ripped by Blackwhip and the
exposed skin was already starting to bruise.

He looked like he was about to pass out and he

was still so far when they had to run right now.
They had to flee without looking back, before it
was too late.

Dabi forced himself to accelerate but his body

screamed, already worn out by his previous fight.

Heat Resistance had done nothing to improve his

ruined stamina and just the act of running
through the harbor was threatening to end him. If
the insane hero with yellow goggles hadn’t been
more focused on saving his colleague, he could
have effortlessly taken him out.

Instead, he had just robbed him of his quirk.

“YAMI!” he called him, hoping he would meet

him in the middle because an exhausted Anyone
was still faster than him.

It startled Yami, which wasn’t a good thing for

someone already wobbling on his feet. He slowly
turned to look at Dabi, his head tilted, and what
appeared to be confusion in his body language.

From Dabi’s experience, it either meant

concussion or quirk strain, which could be fixed
as long as they got away from here.

“HURRY!” he screamed, already pressing the

speed dial on his phone to call Kurogiri. “HE IS
COMING!”

Yami’s head whipped on the side, his entire body

tensing, making Dabi think that he had finally
realized the urgency of the situation.

He would later realize that Yami was looking at

something that couldn’t be seen yet, sensing it
like animals could sense cataclysms.

Dabi would remember what happened next until

the day he died.

It wasn’t the impact of someone landing with

such strength that the shockwave pushed him
back that would stay in his memory. No, it was
the same feeling he had to bear when Yami
activated his quirk, something terrible and
beautiful and out of his world that made some
part of him wanted to scream. But it was also the
intensity one look from All for One could create,
when one realized that they stood no choice, that
their fate was out of their hands and inevitable.

It was terror and glory in the form of a man who

was the greatest fear of a villain who ignored the
very concept of fear.

Dabi’s flames came back, warming him from the

inside to protect him from the cold air while
doing nothing to fight the cold within him.

Further away, the pro hero known as Eraserhead

sighed in relief while he was carrying a half
unconscious blond hero on his shoulder.

“No, villains,” the Symbol of Peace said, smiling

but there was no warmth, no assurance that
everything would be fine in this smile. “I am
already here.”

He hadn’t raised his voice but in the absolute

silence his arrival had brought, Dabi could
perfectly hear him.

But All Might wasn’t paying attention to him.

Instead, all of his focus was on Yami, a teenager
who could barely stand, a villain that would
certainly eclipse All for One if he was left the
opportunity to grow.

Dabi took one step towards the warp gate next to

him.

He didn’t feel any guilt at the idea of abandoning

Yami here. It was about survival and he knew
Anyone wouldn’t have seen the point of the both
of them being detained. Better to regroup and to
break him out later with the rest of the team.

All Might stopped him with one look.

A simple glance was enough to convey that the

number 1 hero was perfectly able to stop him
before he made the three additional steps to the
warp gate.

Until Yami make itself stand straighter, willing

away the exhaustion and the injuries he had
accumulated. His head was high. His quirk was
back, green lightning surrounding him.

Don’t do it, Dabi wanted to say.

Yami clenched his fist.

In this moment, Dabi had the conviction that it

wasn’t a last stand to save him. No grand sacrifice
for a friend who could still escape.

The leader of Anyone wasn’t preparing himself to

delay the Symbol of Peace.

No, despite all common sense, he was about to

fight in order to defeat him.

“It’s over,” All Might warned him. “This ends

today.”

Izuku should have felt something. He even knew

what he should have been.

Guilt. Fear. Adoration. Anger. Awe.

But the multiple fights had drained him, throwing

him through so many emotions, so many fears,
that only exhaustion remained.

“You’re injured.”

And yet… yes, something did pierce through

him. Something he hadn’t expected to feel inside
him.

A sense of longing.

He just didn’t know if what he was longing was

the life as a hero he had given up on that roof, all
those months ago, or the embers of One for All
still burning in All Might’s body.

“We don’t have to fight.”

He had told All for One that he was never getting

One for All but until today, he hadn’t fully realized
that no one would get it. That quirk was going
die with him. He didn’t have the strength nor the
will to be quirkless again.

His body wasn’t obeying him correctly. Once the

adrenaline in his system was gone, he doubted
that the pain would allow him to move. If he
didn’t act now, he wouldn’t get another occasion.

He looked around, taking note of every element

of the environment, of every people present here.
Everything he would need in order to somehow
prevent All Might from taking him away.

But first, he opened his mouth, wanting to say

something to the man he had destroyed in order
to obtain a quirk. Something he needed to say.

He never had the occasion to speak.

All Might’s face became as pale as if he had seen

a ghost, just as Izuku felt a presence right behind
him. One strong arm was put around his
shoulders, imprisoning him into a possessive
embrace, while unholy bloodlust saturated the
very air around them.

Izuku didn’t see visions of death and doom.

Instead, he felt the moment where senseless

destruction became inevitable.

“Good to see you, Yagi,” All for One said.

Notes:
Dabi, in a state of mind-shattering
panic: “HE IS COMING!”
Izuku, nursing a head injury and
very confused: “Lemillion? Didn’t
we already take care of that guy?”

Thank you so much to everyone

who left a comment and who told
me they love Anyone. You were
my greatest support while writing
this monster of a chapter.
A special thank you for the
fanartist who kept the Muses
plump and in a good mood!

Many thanks to Ghostcrown!

Many thanks to Moonpaw who

perfectly convey the crack of
Anyone HERE and HERE

Many thanks to Psychomurderz!

Many thanks to Aurieeeeeenyx!

And all my gratitude to my

favorite warrior of the moon for
their incredible animatic.

EDIT: The "He is coming!" was

about All Might, who is far scarier
to the villains than All for One (at
least, in this specific situation).

CHAPTER 32
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Memory worked in a funny way.

It eroded the past, making some experiences

bearable by half drowning them in the fog of the
ages so one could remember the important
lessons without being paralyzed by the price paid
to learn them.

At other times, details became muddier, events

were rewritten but the core of it, what had
marked him, remained clear.

Some memories stayed with him, bringing him

warmth or shame or anger or sadness. Others
were recollected perfectly the emotions
contained in them couldn’t touch him anymore.

And yet, it took one look at All for One’s stupid

mask for Toshinori to remember a time where he
was eighteen and powerless to protect his
master.

He remembered the smell of fire and smoke. He

could still taste the blood on his tongue. He
could feel his throat screaming in pain as he had
screamed for his master until the island on which
they had affronted this monster had been
destroyed.

“All for One,” he heard himself say. He could

barely believe how steady his voice was, not
betraying the hatred coursing through him.

A hatred that couldn’t overwhelm him. He

couldn’t afford it, not when All for One had his
hand on the boy, his bare hand clutching the
shoulder of the current One for All holder as if he
could already feel the quirk.

The boy had his whole hand on All for One’s

thumb. It was an old trick to fight against
someone stronger, for one full hold was
supposed to have more strength than one thumb.
It meant the teenager was ready to flee at any
moment. A rare case of common sense but All for
One wouldn’t let his prey escape and if the boy
was too much to handle, Toshinori wasn’t putting
it past him to just kill the new holder of One for
All to get rid of the quirk once and for all.

Toshinori wouldn’t allow it. Even if One for All

wasn’t a factor, he couldn’t allow All for One to
kill someone in front of him.

“Really, Yagi, why do you look so surprised?”

Despite his mask, Toshinori could perfectly
picture All for One’s smile. It had haunted his
nightmares so many times that it was engraved in
his memory. “Do I look like the kind of man who
dies?”

He certainly did back when Toshinori had his fist

halfway through his skull.

This time, he wouldn’t take a chance, take off his

head and salt it or whatever was needed to kill
revenants once and for all.

“Now would be a great time to warp away,” Izuku

whispered, terror saturating his every cell.

Some of it was for him, as being literally stuck

between two titans about to go to war was
enough to worry him, proving that what Todoroki
had dared to say about his lack of survival instinct
was wrong.

Most of it was for the rest of the world.

Whatever happened today, everything would

change.

All for One didn’t even seem to hear him. His arm
was still holding Izuku – it was actually starting to
hurt – but the teenager was but an afterthought
now that he was facing All Might. Izuku could feel
the tension in his body, the single-mindedly focus
on the number 1 hero.

Finally, he could almost hear. I found him. I can

finally kill him.

But Izuku couldn’t allow it.

All for One didn’t leave him the occasion to do

anything.

The many fires Dabi had left behind him while he

was running away from Gang Orca roared to life,
flames barely bigger than what could be found in
chimneys suddenly becoming blazes that dried
the air and surrounded them like impenetrable
walls.

All Might and Izuku moved at the same time.

Strangely enough, Izuku felt it, felt the moment
the same quirk was used in two different places.

Izuku pulling All for One’s hand away from him

and dashing to the side.

All Might rushing forward.

All for One was lacking this synchronicity, reacting

after them even though the quirk All Might and
Izuku were sharing was born from him, but late
wasn’t too late and he gripped Izuku’s shoulder,
his fingers digging into his flesh before
immediately letting him go.

Izuku realized why as the shadows of All for One’s

warp quirk were surrounding him.

Toshinori’s fingers grazed the Thief’s hoodie but

the shadows robbed the boy from his grasp.
Frustration burned through him, but he didn’t let
himself be distracted, using the anger to fuel his
quirk. Without losing any of his momentum, he
spun and threw a fist at All for One. The bastard
tried to block it with his right hand but only
managed to do it with his wrist. It should have
snapped the bone but the flesh of his arm was
strangely hard, almost stone-like.

“Where did you send him?!” the Symbol of Peace

growled.

All for One punched him with his left hand, using
a strength that almost matched Toshinori’s. The
blow was aimed at his left side, but the number 1
hero elbowed him in the arm and this time, he
had the satisfaction of feeling soft flesh and of
hearing the specific crunch of bones breaking.

Followed by the sensation of something stabbing

him in the tight. Black tendrils veined with red,
coming from All for One’s left hand.

“Away,” the villain answered as Toshinori was

flung away. “This is between you and I.”

The number 1 hero was suddenly airborne but he

grabbed the tendrils, ripping them from his flesh,
and tugged with all his strength. All for One
didn’t see it coming and stumbled forwards,
giving him the time to land and to leap at him.

They raised their fists at the same time.

Texas Smash and what looked like an Air Cannon

were released at the same time.

All for One somehow cancelled the air pressure

released in the Smash while Toshinori dodged his
enemy’s attack and hit again, his California Smash
connecting with the villain. Toshinori had been
aiming for the head but only got the shoulder,
something he tried to rectify but All for One did
something and suddenly, he was sent through
several containers until he finally stopped in one
that was containing a multitude of brightly
colored objects.

It took him a moment to realize that the last

container in which he had landed was full of hero
merch and that what had somewhat softened his
fall was several giant Endeavor plushies.

In any other circumstances, Toshinori would take

the time to appreciate the irony but a familiar
form rose through the smoke, flying above the
fire he had stirred in order to prevent Aizawa-kun
from using his quirk on him.

“I heard that you lost something important,

Yagi,” All for One said as he manually resetted
the arm Toshinori had broken. “If you’re not able
to take care of your toys, the best course of
action is to give it to someone more
responsible.”

Toshinori was the Symbol of Peace and had a

reputation to uphold so he didn’t use his arm to
gesture what he thought of All for One’s
suggestion. Instead, he looked at the place
where the Thief had disappeared, then a little
beyond that.

He couldn’t see Aizawa and Young Shinsou

anymore.

It meant that he could afford not to hold back

anymore.

It wasn’t ideal. Young Lemillion and Gang Orca

were still out there. But if he tried to help, tried to
rescue them, All for One would use it against
him. He had to hope that Gang Orca and
Eraserhead would be able to evacuate the
children.

And he had to kill All for One, because the safest

place was a world where he didn’t exist anymore.

One for All roared inside him, energy echoing his

rage and pulsing through his muscles. He didn’t
know how long he had. His time with his quirk –
what was left of it - had been a little erratic lately.

Plus Ultra.

Momentum was carried over most warp quirks

and All for One’s shadows were no exception. It
explained why even if Izuku appeared right next
to Kurogiri, he didn’t stop there and hit the bar,
drawing a shocked sound out of the bartender.

The teenager put a hand on Kurogiri’s baby in

order to straighten himself, remembering almost
too late that he had broken fingers. The pain
wasn’t too bad for now but from the moment the
adrenaline would wear off, it would be impossible
to ignore and worst, distracting.

Even if Izuku called everyone in his network, he

would need at least forty-five minutes to get to
the harbor. By the time he arrived, All for One or
All Might would be dead. And if he could live
with the disappearance of one, he couldn’t allow
the Symbol of Peace to die.

Not when he was the one who had made him

weaker.

Izuku didn’t bother asking the bartender to warp

him back. Kurogiri might work for him but he was
loyal to All for One.

“Kurogiri!” he called, the desperation in his voice

not totally fake. “All for One is fighting All
Might!”

It startled the warper.

In case of emergencies, Kurogiri’s role was to stay

put until he received additional instructions
because he was their ultimate way out. If he was
captured or incapacitated, they were trapped. So
now, he was on stand-by, waiting for orders, in a
very stressful situation that had to remind him of
the time where he had lost his job in All for One’s
organization.

People who were lost would give a lot for any

kind of direction. And most of the time, the first
thing they were willing to give aay was their
ability to think straight.

“The communications… are down...” Izuku

pleaded, making a show of how he was obviously
too weak and too hurt to do anything. “You…
have to help him!”

“Truly?”

But the mist around him was already moving,

betraying his true feelings as he was already
ready to open a warp gate.

“Hurry,” Izuku growled in the exact same tone All

for One sometimes when he was losing patience,
hoping it would kick start some reflex for Kurogiri.

His imitation was apparently pretty convincing as

a warp gate was immediately opened, heat and
faint wisps of smoke starting to get into the bar.

It would take barely a second for Kurogiri to get

through it.

It took even less time for a One for All holder to

breach the distance.

“SORRY!” Izuku apologized as he full cowled

through the gate.

Heat and flames and smoke immediately greeted

him. The ground was shaking under his feet, only
making him fall to his knees but he pushed
forwards, which saved him from being grabbed
and dragged back by Kurogiri’s arms, sticking out
of new gates and frantically trying to get hold of
him.

Izuku kept avoiding Kurogiri’s ill-advised attempts

to rescue him and kept being thrown off balance
by the air pressure of All for One’s and All Might’s
attacks. Two titans fighting with powers beyond
most people’s comprehension.

They wouldn’t see him. They wouldn’t notice if a

stray attack took him out or if a pile of containers
fell and crushed him.

He was in the middle of a war zone.

He wasn’t the only one.

Flames engulfed Toshinori as if they had taken a

life on their own and were determined to devour
him.

“Ten years. You stole ten years of my life, letting

me rot in the dark because you weren’t even
competent enough to deliver a good killing
blow.”

His costume somewhat protected him.

Spite did the rest.

His fist connected with All for One, in the same

place where he had hit him eight times already.
Every time, the biological armor that was as hard
as diamond had hold on.

This time, Toshinori felt it crack under his punch.

All for One hissed under his breath, one part

pain, three times fury.

“I would be more than honored to grant that

wish,” Toshinori snarled.

A smile was beyond his abilities right now but

showing his teeth had always been easy when All
for One was concerned.

Aizawa Shouta’s ankle wasn’t twisted. Pain wasn’t

coursing up his leg and making him grit his teeth
every time his foot touched the ground. Helping
Shinsou carrying Lemillion’s deadweight was no
torture. And he was strong, maybe not strong
enough to help All Might, but certainly strong
enough to save two UA students.

They hadn’t managed to save Gang Orca,

though. They hadn’t even managed to find him,
not when All for One had aimed at them three
times, slowly, with open amusement, while they
were rescuing Lemillion. Each time, All Might had
stood between the attack and them, either
blocking it or taking the brunt of it.

Those hadn’t been attacks All Might could afford

to take and blood had flowed..

Emotion would have gotten them killed. It still

could. So Shouta had taken the logical choice
and abandoned a colleague, a man who had
protected his student, to his fate.

“Get the kid out of here”, the number 10 hero

had said back when they were only fighting one
vigilante.

He would understand.

It didn’t make the decision easier.

Shouta’s instinct perceived something that his

brain was too tired to pick on and he half-
dropped to the ground, his ankle screaming
under the sudden movement and Shinsou
following him because he couldn’t carry Lemillion
on his own. As they did, a piece of metal flew
right past them.

What looked like the ripped wall of one of the

metal containers surrounding them stabbed the
concrete as if it was made of butter.

Shinsou stopped, his mouth open, unable not to

picture what would have happened if they had
been a little more to the left.

Shouta blinked away the tears his eyes were filled

because of the smoke, that and the fires around
them preventing him from erasing the quirk of
the villain who had turned the harbor into hell on
Earth, and he forced his student to move on,
because they might die while leaving this place
but if they stopped, death became a certitude.

Shinsou stopped again.

The underground hero grabbed him by the

shoulder, ready to carry both Lemillion and him if
it meant they could keep moving, but he felt
something cold and not solid in the usual sense
of the word grabbing his wrist. With horror,
Shouta realized what had made his student stop
as familiar black tendrils grabbed the three of
them.

Oh no.

The next thing he knew, they were airborne.

“Promises, always promises,” All for One

mocked, a madness born from bloodlust
saturating his every word.

All Might recognized it because it echoed his

own.

“But you shall always remain a disappointment,

Yagi. Your predecessor must be rolling in her
grave.”

“Don’t you dare talk about her,” Toshinori

whispered.

All for One shouldn’t have heard him.

He didn’t need to.

“Oh yes, forgive me. I completely forgot I hadn’t

left you enough to bury her. I suppose she just
didn’t leave much of an impression.”

The ground didn’t tremble under Izuku’s feet so

much as it seemed to jump under his sneakers,
almost sending him and his precious cargo
crashing down at a speed that would have
resulted in broken bones.

There were no words to describe the mix of

confusion and terror of jumping from an
extremely dangerous situation to a just as
dangerous but completely different one.

Being trapped in a minefield as two demi-gods

were trying to kill each other was not a relaxing
situation but Shouta had a plan to get out of it or
at least he had tricked his brain into accepting
that there was a plan.. Being suddenly thrown
into the air like they were the other end of a yo-
yo held by a sadistic child was something else
entirely.

All for One wasn’t where he was supposed to be.

The zone where he had finally landed looked like
a meteor impact but he still should have been
there – Toshinori screamed in pain as black
tendrils buried themselves in his side, exactly
where All for One had gutted him all those years
ago.

Logic dictated that what went up eventually went

down but such mercy wasn’t granted to them as
they kept being yanked, until they reached a
zone where the air was pure and the shock waves
of the attacks could be ignored.

Alright, that’s enough.

Shouta’s scarf flew, meeting something solid that

could carry the weight of Shouta and his kids. He
expected the tendrils that had grabbed them to
pull more in order to fight what the support gear
was doing but instead, it pushed them before
disappearing, sending them on a new trajectory.

Once the roofs of containers were close enough,

the underground hero gently threw Shinsou while
he was negotiating his own fall without letting go
of the unconscious Third Year. He gritted his
teeth, convincing himself that he would feel no
pain, and it almost worked as he landed on both
feet, pain shooting from his ankle so sharply that
he felt it in his hip.

Shinsou immediately appeared in front of him, his

student putting himself between him and the
vigilante who had been waiting on them, one
container higher than them. Shouta promptly
dragged his conscious student behind him but
the vigilante wasn’t even looking at them.

Gang Orca, the number 10 hero, was draped

over his back.

Premature relief flooded Shouta. They weren’t

out of danger, far from it, not when any stray
attack could make them fall to their death and
the only way out of the harbor was either through
the flames that were obscuring the underground
hero’s vision or through a war zone.
But at least, Gang Orca wasn’t trapped in the
flames or unconscious and at the mercy of
whatever the Symbol of Peace and the villain that
matched his strength were throwing at each
other.

He opened his mouth to thank the vigilante.

“On whose side are you, anyway?” he said

instead.

The boy stopped looking at whatever was

captivating him below and gave him a look that
made the temperature drop. Gang Orca followed
soon, through less metaphorically so, making a
thud sound as he hit the roof.

“I’m on the side that allows me to help people,”

a boy’s voice answered, except that every word
was filled with cold anger and exhaustion. He
might have helped them but nothing was
forgiven. “I don’t want All Might to die. And I
would like you to remember I was just trying to
help until you heroes decided to lure me here to
arrest me.”

Shinsou flinched.

Toshinori’s punch went through the diamond

quirk All for One was using, the crunching sound
the bones made making him forget the pain.

All for One was more powerful than him. Healed.

But he relied on his quirks so much that he forgot
that he wasn’t a good fighter, especially at close
range.

Toshinori screamed, elbowing him in the throat.

All for One made a choking sound and the

Symbol of peace had to get his arm away from
the metal of the helmet that was now red hot.

The next time that Toshinori was sent through

several containers, he wasn’t lucky enough to fall
again on soft plushies.

He didn’t know what hurt the most: the violence

of the impact or the fact he destroyed so many
sport cars.

The black tendrils of energy erupted from the

vigilante, not just from his arms this time but also
from his back, bursting through his hoodie and
reaching for something down below.

Shouta realized that the reason why he had

dropped Gang Orca wasn’t to make a point but
because he needed all the strength he could
afford as he lifted something, grunting in effort,
his power saturating the air and giving
goosebumps to the underground hero.

He heard someone yelling in pure panic and the

specific sound of a motor screaming but without
any sound of tires on the asphalt.

The car didn't appear as much as the vigilante

dragged it up to their level. This was Hanabata’s
vehicle. Shouta recognized it because he had
jumped on it yesterday to make a point.

Hanabata wasn’t behind the wheel. Instead, the

fire user who had tried to warn the Hosu vigilante
of All Might’s arrival was holding the wheel for
dear life, with a freaked out expression that
undoubtedly mirrored the one Shouta displayed
earlier.

“Shouldn’t you be out of time by now, Yagi?

What did you do to remain so strong despite this
decaying body?”

“Instead of sitting on my ass and crooning over

my stolen quirks, I work out,” Toshinori informed
him, ignoring the first wisps of smoke coming
from his body.

“What happened to the woman this car belongs

to?” Shinsou asked, horrified at the idea that
someone could have hurt his handler. It was
honorable of him but it was also why he failed to
notice that they had just been delivered an
armored vehicle that would protect them from
close range explosions and the flames they would
have to cross.

“I stole her car,” the fire user shrugged.

“I don’t care,” Shouta said at the same time as he

was trying to maneuver Gang Orca on the back
seat.

The top hero’s head bumped against the door

frame, which made the underground hero wince
because that wasn’t going to improve his
concussion and his legs were sticking out of the
car so he sort of folded them.

Togata Mirio was next, more hauled than

delicately put on the back seat. At this point,
Shouta was running only on adrenaline and he
couldn’t allow it to fade before everyone was
safe.

The fire user, who had gotten out of the car just
to watch the trainwreck that Shouta’s life was,
made an amused noise before glancing at his
colleague whose lungs were making the same
noise as an old locomotive about to burst into
flames.

“Are… Are you okay?” Shouta asked, teacher

concern rising within him like every time he saw a
teenager doing something stupid.

The Hosu vigilante nodded but his wheezing

failed to convince anyone with working ears that
he was alright.

“Cars… used to… be… lighter,” he finally

admitted.

Shouta wasn’t sure that his capture weapon could

take the weight of a car and of five persons
without breaking but if the kid and him shared
the burden, they should get down to the ground
in one piece.

“You know, you could have called me and I would

have waited for all of you down there,” the fire
user noticed, moving behind Shinsou.

The first year nodded, as if to say that yes, just

bringing them down here would have been easier
than to lift a car twice.

“My phone died and I didn’t trust you not to floor

it if I jumped down to play hitchhiker,” the
teenage vigilante said, also moving and
disappearing in Shouta’s blind spot.

He would later blame the dizzying influence of

adrenaline and exhaustion for not seeing it
coming.

Someone. Kicked. Shouta. In the Passenger seat.

At the same time, Shinsou appeared in the driver

seat.

Horrified, they both looked back to see the

teenage vigilante hopping a couple of times to
gain some momentum, jumped one last time and
roundhouse kicked the back of the car, sending
all of them into the emptiness, a fifteen meters
fall.

Black tendrils caught them.

The landing was still brutal.

Dabi looked at the harbor being reshaped by his

flames and the power of the two men fighting
through them, repressing a flinch every time a
shockwave reached them.

He couldn’t look away, though. Terror was

coursing through his veins, his fire begging to be
left out. There was something mesmerizing to it,
like standing close to a tornado or a tsunami. It
was as horrifying as it was humbling and some
part of him couldn’t help but to covet such
power.

No wonder the world had almost collapsed when

quirks had appeared. No wonder people back
then had turned people with powers into gods.
Because the alternative was to make them into
monsters and the perspective to live in such a
world would have been far too scary for a human
mind to stay intact.

“Maybe we should have kept Eraserhead

around?” Dabi somehow managed to say calmly.

Yami shook his head.

“He is useless with all this smoke. The last thing I

need is for him to use his quirk on a vague shape
among the flames only for All for One to kill a
depowered All Might.”

He was standing straighter than a moment ago,

all of his exhaustion seemingly gone but Dabi
knew that he had to be running on fumes by
now.

Yami’s quirk was just as otherworldly as All Might’s

and All for One’s but if he put himself between
those two, he would die.

“So, what’s the plan?”

“…” his boss eloquently answered.

“You have a plan, right?”

“Give me a minute,” Yami growled.

All for One chose this moment to somehow make

All Might trip on his own feet and to hit the
number 1 hero with a car. Twice.

Instead of obeying the laws of physics by being

crushed under the sheer weight of a work vehicle,
All Might somehow survived it, ripped the car
and stabbed All for One with it.

“I have a plan,” Dabi smiled. It wasn’t a good

smile. “If you’re interested.”

“No. Just no. That’s the most stupid plan I have

ever heard in my life.”

All for One was stronger than him. Toshinori had

hoped that he had just regrown his arm but a
minute of fighting with him had made it clear that
his health was back to what it had been before
their last fight. His quirks had changed, many of
them now suited to close combat instead of the
long range ones from before. And every time he
managed to land a blow on Toshinori, he
decreased the time he could use One for All.

Toshinori couldn't match him in power. So he had

to be better than him.

He stayed close so All for One couldn't roast him

with fire without being also in danger. Every time
metal serpents tried to get ahold of him, he
broke them and used them as weapons.

All for One was faster than him.

Toshinori compensated by not wasting any

movement, moving slower but more efficiently.

All for One was stronger than him.

Toshinori fought harder, pushing way past his

limits, keeping his mind clear.

Panic was his enemy. Anger would allow him to

hang on.

Decades spent fighting brought a miracle as

Toshinori somehow managed to fight on equal
terms with someone stronger than him. Someone
who has spent ten years rotting in a cell, unable
to train in any way.

All for One was lashing out every time Toshinori

got too close, jumping back or using too much
power to keep him away, leaving openings that
most fighters wouldn't even have noticed but
Toshinori dived into them, for there were the only
things that kept him breathing.

You remember, don't you? You remember what it

is to die at my hands.

Toshinori knew it because he had been haunted

by the shadow of All for One those past years. He
had seen him in so many fights, his body reacting
as if he was really in danger, gutted and half
dead.

It had taken him years to get fully back into

control to convince his brain that every blow
coming close to him wouldn't be the last one.
Unlike All for One, who had been free for less
than a year.

The Symbol of Peace, weakened, running on

fumes, kept battling the rejuvenated Symbol of
Evil, using every trick in the book and some he
invented on the spot to delay his death.

They both knew it couldn't last.

All for One broke his arm like a twig. Better than
his neck but it was the beginning of the end for
Toshinori's body. It registered all the wounds,
internal and external that it had received.

His wishful thinking stopped having much effect

on it and his time was reduced to several
minutes.

It had taken a miracle forged with his own hands

for Toshinori to survive so long. He didn’t have
the strength to build another one.

All for One lunged at him.

A shadow passed over them, forcing them to

jump back just as All for One was about to crush
him and a container crashed between them, steel
screaming as the impact ripped it open, boxes
spilling out with familiar comics.

God, having his arm broken hurt less than

knowing DC comics were about to be destroyed
in that fight.

All for One and All Might paused for a heartbeat

before looking in the direction the container had
come from at the same time.

Perched on a dangerously unstable pile of

containers was standing the Thief.

All Might had no idea of how he had come back

here.

All for One was glaring in the teenager’s direction

and despite the helmet, Toshinori’s mind
managed to conjure the offended look on his
face. The Thief didn’t seem too worried about it.
He apparently preferred to hold out his fingers
like a gun, pointing at the symbol of Evil and
pretending to take a shot.

It should have looked ridiculous.

Instead, Toshinori saw a silent promise in this

simple gesture.

He couldn't help but to smile.

Cheeky brat.

Adrenaline had stopped working its magic and

the only things allowing Izuku to stand were
anger and his spirit of contradiction. His body
was begging him to stop, to just stop and to
recuperate, but All for One had forced his hand.

And this was the only warning he would get.

Down below, All for One glared at him, obviously

wanting to break him in half for interrupting his
moment with the Symbol of Peace.

Izuku glared back.

Do you remember when I told you that if you

ever tried to kill All Might, I would make your
life a living hell? Well, I’m a man of my word.
Stand. Down.

Shadows appeared in the corner of Izuku’s vision

and he jumped out of the way of All for One’s
warp quirk, racing on the roof of the container
before jumping, steel and metal bending under
his feet under the momentum.

So be it.

He had no idea of how much of One for All he

was using. He could hear his bones protesting
but he didn’t know if that was because of the
high percentage or just because of common quirk
overuse.

It didn’t matter.

The shadows of the warp quirk appeared one,

two, three times and Izuku managed to avoid
them every time, sometimes with Blackwhip, but
also with Air Blasts. All for One’s attempt to warp
him back to the bar ceased, probably because All
Might had taken advantage of how distracted he
was.

All Might who was surrounded by smoke, the sure

sign that he was past his limit and hanging on by
sheer force of will.

Izuku the fanboy wanted to see what he would do

next. Anyone couldn’t allow it.

Izuku kept bouncing, spinning and launching

himself with Blackwhip, taking more and more
speed and momentum, in the direction of the
crane towering over the harbor. The 50 tones of
steel that neither All for One nor All Might were
insane enough to mess with.

He propelled himself towards the crane, aiming

for a specific point that he had weakened while
All for One and All Might were distracting each
other. He was going so fast that it felt like he had
become a missile, some kind of energy warhead.

The wild energy of One for All wasn’t just

coursing through him, it was him, barely held
back by Izuku’s mortal coil

Izuku didn’t so much kick through the metal that

it was pulverized around him, unable to withstand
the strength of One for All.

At the same time, he raised his arms, dozens and

dozens of strands of Blackwhip grabbing the top
of the crane. The teenager felt himself screaming
but couldn’t hear anything over the howl of the
stainless steel, and he brought the upper half of
the crane down.

With one last effort, he spinned one last time in

the air, avoiding the twenty-five tons projectile he
had just propelled in the direction of the greatest
villain and the greatest hero the world had ever
known and he hung on to the lower half of the
crane, which was already bending because
nothing was conceived for such a brutal
architectural redesign.

Common sense dictated that something so

heavy, so massive, should have started to fall
slowly but common sense rarely accounted for a
One for All holder launching a crane into the
ground. Terror crashed into incomprehension,
instinct taking over the need to analyse the
situation and the next thing they knew, All for
One and Toshinori were both running for their
lives.

Panic rescinded for one moment, though. Not

even a second but as Toshinori was passing
through the ruined DC comics, his hand found
one. If he had taken the time to think, he would
have noticed that it was Rise of the Super Sons by
Ridley Pearson, a comic that was more than
acceptable to sacrifice and be it instinct or just
the universe granting him a favor for once, he
managed to throw this garbage in All for One’s
direction without even having the time to aim.

It nailed him exactly at the back of his stupid

helmet, almost making him fall, though Toshinori
never had the time to see if he really did. His
body and the last of his time of the day with One
for All had decided to ignore whatever he wanted
and to get him the hell out of here.

About twenty-five tons of steel crashed into the

ground.

Sakamata Kugo wasn’t so much woken up by

what felt like an especially loud earthquake than
by the silence that reigned supreme afterwards.
Disoriented, his body hurting like he had tripped
on his shoelaces in the middle of a stampede, he
was also folded in the backseat of an unknown
car with a hero student lying on his broken ribs.

The Orca hero raised his head slightly, the world

painfully exploding into colors when he did that,
and he saw that the teenager he was supposed
to protect was behind the wheel. Driving the car.

It should have been the most terrifying moment

of the day if Eraserhead, the most no-nonsense
hero he had ever met, wasn’t in the passenger
seat, watching back in the direction of the harbor,
eyes wide and generally gaping.

Only his professionalism as a top hero prevented

Kugo from crawling back into his coma.

Dabi found Izuku at the foot of what remained of

the crane, their meeting point. The teenager was
sitting among the rubbles and the dust, his back
to the cold metal, with no memory of how he had
reached the ground.

I must have passed out for a second.

Passing out again didn’t seem so bad. If he was

just a tiny bit lucky, All for One had died under
several tons of steel and he could finally relax.

Burning bloodlust spread through the air, dashing

Izuku’s hopes and making Dabi freeze, his fingers
now digging into his tight as he was trying to use
pain to convince himself that the promise of a
slow death was only in his mind.

Izuku tried to turn his head but this simple

movement proved to be far too exhausting for
him. Instead, he listened, hearing the sound of
someone digging his way out of the rubbles with
what sounded like an air cannon quirk. When one
added the malevolent quality of the rage burning
around them, it could only be one person.

Why can’t I never have nice things?

Dabi failed to commiserate with his misfortune,

preferring to prioritize surviving All for One’s
wrath. Izuku opened his mouth to tell him to just
run and leave him behind, but instead, Dabi
mouthed the words “Plan B” and lightly shoved
him to the ground.

Izuku crashed to the ground and stayed there,

unable to move except for his soul who was
asking permission to go on an extended vacation.

“Play dead!” Dabi loudly whispered as if he

hadn’t just almost sent Izuku straight to the tunnel
of white light.

But pretending to be deceased wasn’t a problem

for someone who felt like Dabi’s new fancy car
had hit him and probably parked on him to finish
the job so Izukustayed on the ground, every one
of his muscles sighing in relief now that he wasn’t
heaping abuse upon them.

Dabi then proceeded to scream his villain name

and to dramatically fall to his knees to clear the
rubble in the most inefficient way Izuku could see
through his half closed eyes. Eyes that were
burning and begging to be closed for a couple of
days, at least, but the teenager was used to
ignoring the demands of his body.

It’s never going to work.

Izuku had meant it when he had said that Plan B

was ridiculous.

All for One’s bloodlust disappeared right as he

appeared next to Dabi, pushing him out of the
way and rushing to Izuku.

“Was he conscious when you found him?” All for

One asked as he was checking that the teenager
was breathing, probably to make sure he was
alive enough to be strangled with his bare hands.

“I don’t know! He isn’t moving anymore!” Dabi

technically didn’t lie.

All for One took Izuku in his arms and warped

away, Dabi narrowly jumping in the perimeter of
the quirk in order not to be abandoned again.
They reappeared in the bar, where Kurogiri was
waiting for them.

“Kurogiri,” All for One ordered, “call Sakamoto-”

Izuku chose this moment to seemingly come back

to life, springing into action like a devil out of his
box and his hands found each side of All for
One’s face, forcing the super villain to look at the
enraged One for All holder.

“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?” Izuku

roared.

Toshinori’s body failed him right outside the

harbor, the jump he had made to get away from
the crane finishing his reserves. The embers of
One for All were still there, still burning within
him, but he was cut off from his quirk until he
recuperated.

Of course, at this point, One for All was hardly his

quirk anymore. The power was burning so
brightly within the Thief that it was almost
blinding.

A Thief who now had a quirk eerily similar to All

for One’s. The black tendrils he had used to
swing through the harbor like Spiderman could
be the twins of the one the fiend had used to
poke at him. A little voice that eerily sounded like
Mirai whispered that maybe the quirkless kid they
had looked for had never been quirkless, just a
story in order to move him, but he pushed it
away.

He remembered the roof. The hope on the boy’s

face. The despair when All Might had told him
that he didn’t think he could be a hero.

It wasn’t something that could be faked.

God, I hoped the kid didn’t discriminate and also

managed to steal a quirk out of the bastard.

The thought brought him a chuckle, which

reminded him that he had broken ribs. And a
broken arm. And that he was covered in blood.

The sound of helicopters could already be heard

and if the catastrophe provoked by the Thief had
snuffed most of the flames, there was still enough
smoke for heroes and firemen to rush towards the
site. And he didn’t even want to think about the
packs of journalists who were probably running,
flying and swimming to the harbor in order to get
their scoop.

Toshinori looked around, aware that he couldn’t

let anyone see him in this state and looking for a
place to hide. He would then use his phone to
call Nighteye, warn him that Young Togata was
injured and ask him for help.

His salvation came under the form of a Hero

Commission car, armored and with windows
tainted enough for no one to see on the inside. It
was slightly roasted and there was a massive
indent on the back, as if someone with a power-
type quirk had kicked it with all his strength, but it
was still in one piece.

Toshinori stuck out his thumb.

The driver slammed on the brakes so hard that

Toshinori heard every one of the passengers
groan as they were propelled forwards and the
door on the side of the driver was opened,
revealing that a baby was driving the car. A
purple-haired child who was old enough to go to
high school but still a baby in Toshinori’s book.

The boy looked at him, frowning, and Toshinory

saw both him and Eraserhead who was in the
passenger seat failing to recognize him at the
Symbol of Peace. It didn’t matter that he was in
costume. They couldn’t recognize the Symbol of
Peace in the slightly scorched scarecrow in front
of them.

And Toshinori was more than fine with that. He

prefered to be mistaken as an adult in cosplay
accidentally caught in the aftermaths of a villain
attack than to be recognized as All Might while
he was under this form.

But someone on the back seat, Gang Orca (and

seeing him was pure relief as he had seen that he
hadn’t been with Aizawa and his student but
hadn’t found him afterwards, as if he had been
spirited away from the harbor), opened his door,
revealing Mirio who was still unconscious.

“Are you alright?” he couldn’t help but ask.

He didn’t even use All Might’s booming voice or

regained his muscle form or did anything that
could be linked to the number 1 hero, and yet, he
saw them focusing on him, realization on their
face, surprise and horror and awe as they saw his
real form.

Slowly, all of them except Young Togata nodded.

“You wouldn’t be going to UA, would you?”

Toshinori asked in a more sheepish way.

Eraserhead kicked out his student from the driver

seat and got himself behind the wheel while All
Might took his place, doing his best not to wince
as he nursed his broken arm.

He had failed to kill All for One and he had failed

to convince the Thief from giving back One for
All. His worst fears had been realized as All for
One hadn’t only found the Thief but he obviously
had some kind of relationship with him that had
resulted in the Thief obtaining a new quirk.

The Thief had also helped evacuate two heroes

and two hero students and he had saved
Toshinori’s life. He wasn’t sure if it was on purpose
but he couldn’t argue that Toshinori should have
died against All for One and that the Thief’s
intervention had prevented that.

All for One, who is fully healed and who could

have ambushed me any time he wanted. He only
intervened when I had a chance to take back One
for All.

Toshinori could only find one reason as to why an

healed All for One hadn’t tried to kill him sooner.
His interest no longer laid in All Might.

Instead, his attention was now completely

focused on the new One for All holder.

Meanwhile, in UA

“WITH THE TASTE OF POISON PARADISE. I AM

ADDICTED TO YOU, DON’T YOU KNOW THAT
YOU’RE TOXIC?"

Following the movement of the dancer on the

screen, Yaoyorozu turned her head and
accidentally whipped her hair in Shouto’s face.
For a second, the hero student was blind and the
students behind him complained because, since
Ashido’s laptop was too small for everyone to
follow the steps of the Just Dance song, many of
his classmates were just copying each other.

“AND I LOVE WHAT YOU DO, DON’T YOU

KNOW THAT YOU’RE TOXIC?”

All the students Ashido had managed to bring

along in the game threw their hands to the side
and a cry of pain was heard from the back of the
class. It was probably Iida’s sharp movements
claiming another victim but since no sound of
someone being knocked unconscious reached
them, no one in 1-A bothered to stop playing the
strange game a bored Ashido had summoned
from the depths of the Internet.

“IT’S GETTING LATE TO GIVE YOU UP. I TOOK A

SIP FROM MY DEVIL CUP.”

In Iida and Yaorozu’s defense, they had done their

best to control the class in the absence of the
homeroom teacher. They had managed to
contain the sheer chaos a class full of
unsupervised teenagers could get into for five full
minutes, which was more than the leader of
Anyone could say when it came to his own inner
circle.

“Don’t you think…” Yaoyorozu tried to say.

“SLOWLY IT’S TAKING OVER ME. TOO HIGH

CAN’T COME DOWN. LOSING MY HEAD
SPINNING ‘ROUND AND ‘ROUND”

Shouto leaned towards her, which shifted the

center of gravity of half of the class through the
sheer power of mimetism but it wasn’t his
problem.

“Don’t you think it’s weird that Mr. Aizawa and

Shinsou are so late?” Yaoyorozu finally managed
to ask.

“DO YOU FEEL ME NOW?”

Shouto shrugged.

“WITH THE TASTE OF YOUR LIPS, I’M ON A

RIDE.”

Notes:
1. Don’t worry, Hanabata is alive.
She fled on foot when Dabi stole
her car.
2. In case it's not clear, Izuku came
up with the plan to end the fight
and Dabi came up with the plan to
survive Izuku's plan.
3. Thank you to xfallen-flowersx
for their theory about what Shouto
was doing while Izuku was fighting
for his life.
4. I am sorry that I didn’t manage
to answer to the comments last
chapter. I was exhausted because
of the chapter and I quickly
realized that I could either answer
to your beautiful comments or
work on the next chapter. But
know that I was on a cloud for
weeks thanks to the responses I
got to chapter 31 and they are the
reason why I managed to post the
new chapter today and not in six
months.

Thank you so much for your

support.

Many thanks to Karmauh!

Many thanks to Hiddenharrow!

Many thanks to Arlcn HERE and

HERE

Many thanks to Duckiru!

Many thanks to Six-petal-daisy!

Many thanks to Itsumi!

And last but not the least, many

thanks to Ghostcrownk!

CHAPTER 33
Notes:
Warning: needles. If you’re
uncomfortable with those, don’t
read the first passage in All Might
POV, starting with “Toshinori was
so tired that keeping his eyes
open was a strain”
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Izuku remembered screaming in All for One’s face

and the satisfaction after that but not much of
what happened next. The exhaustion was a
constant in his fragments of memory, followed by
All for One who was constantly hovering and
someone he didn’t know, a healer affiliated with
All for One instead of Ao.

He was a small man with white hair, probably due

to age rather than because he was born with it,
and small glasses, which reminded Izuku of his
old pediatrician, which probably explained why
the half unconscious teenager had growled at
him to leave him alone. At some point, the healer
had informed Izuku that he was a pain in the ass
and that he preferred him when he was
unconscious and Izuku had informed that none of
his complaints exempted him from answering
questions about his quirk.

Izuku wasn’t sure if the healer had answered him

in the end. If what he knew of the healing quirk
had been told to him or if his mind had taken it
apart in order to understand it better.

Soon, it didn’t matter.

Izuku didn’t know if he was called or if he chose

to go there but he closed his eyes for good and
in the same moment, he was in the land where
the night sky was full of stars and where the earth
was frozen.

Izuku couldn’t move because he didn’t have legs

or at least no legs that would obey him. He was
anchored to the ground, with only his eyes, his
nose, his ears, part of his chest, and his right arm
out of the strange mist most of his body seemed
to be made of.

There was a man in front of him. Young, short

black-hair, and he was wearing a blue coat that
covered half of his face. He was barely taller than
Izuku and for a moment, he looked more curious
than anything else, as if he had just woken up and
wasn’t quite conscious of what was happening
around him yet.

Awareness crashed into him at last, his eyes

widening a moment before he ran towards Izuku,
his hands grabbing the teenager’s shoulders as
he tried to push him.

“Oh no, you can’t be here,” he grunted as he did

his best to unroot Izuku. “If she learns what I’ve
done, she will make my life a living hell.”

Through the contact between them, Izuku felt

something flashing from the past One for All
holder to him, something awfully familiar even if it
didn’t hurt this time, but it still made him flinch.

“Stop doing that!” the ghost barked even though

Izuku hadn’t done anything, unless he was
blaming him for the fact he was impossible to
move. “Or if you must, at least don’t tell her who
gave you that quirk.”

“I can’t snitch,” Izuku said, except for the fact it

came out more as “Mm mfff ffmmm” because he
didn’t have a freaking mouth.

“I think we’re well past that, Sixth,” a deceptively

calm voice said at the same time.

Sixth froze and for a moment, he refused to look

back. Since Izuku was standing in the opposite
direction, he didn’t have this luxury and was
looking at the beautiful black-haired woman in a
black costume, yellow cape, and white gloves.

She was also holding a trombone.

Since she was glaring daggers at the back of

Sixth’s head and since her arms were as muscled
as Izuku’s, if not more, for a terrifying moment,
the teenager wondered if he was going to watch
her crack the sixth holder’s skull with it.

Izuku wasn’t proud of it but he wondered if the

quirk would still work after the ghost’s potential
death.

“Move along,” she said instead. “I’m not here for

you but I promise you that we will have a
conversation soon enough.”

Sixth patted Izuku’s shoulder twice in a gesture

that could have been comforting if he then didn’t
flee without one last glance at the boy he was
abandoning at the mercy of a very angry woman
and her trombone.

And you call yourself a hero? Izuku silently cursed

Sixth as he left him behind, about to be
bludgeoned by a musical instrument.

The trombone-wielding-menace took one step

towards him before raising her hand, a vault
appearing next to her.

It was so black that it seemed to absorb the light

and a thick glistening chain was circling twice
around it.

The former One for All holder grinned, pure

malevolence revealed in one flash of teeth.

Then she went to work.

What she did with this trombone should have

been punished by the Geneva convention. It was
the worst thing Izuku had ever heard, his ears
begging for the permission to be slowly melted
in a vat of acid as it would be less painful than
listening to this, but from a certain point of view,
it was also a work of art. She wasn’t thoughtlessly
blowing air through the trombone. No, she had
perfected the art of the cacophony, knowing how
to make her instrument produce the most
excruciating sound out of it. Even worse, while
Izuku refused to qualify what she was doing as a
symphony… there was definitely a tempo there,
something that tricked him into believing that
maybe, just maybe, the worst was behind him,
only to set fire to his hopes and dreams.

But eventually, the vault itself disappeared as if it

had managed to flee while Izuku was a captive
audience, and the hero put down her trombone.

“Now that it’s done…” she said in the tone of the

conversation, the trombone disappearing as if it
had never existed. “I have been dying to talk to
you for a while now.”

Izuku tensed, perfectly picking on the animosity

hidden behind the calm voice. Now, she was
looking at him, her eyes so cold that Izuku could
feel a chill taking hold of him.

“Allow me to introduce myself. I used to be

known as Shimura Nana.” She pretended to
curtsy but she didn’t look away from him. “Past
holder of that quirk and now a vestige, mother
and hero, and someone who died fighting your
roommate. And you… You are the one who hurt
someone I love.”

The reflex of blurting out what was going through

his mind overtook Izuku but no word came out. It
wasn’t that the words stayed stuck in his throat.
No, the problem is that he had no throat and no
mouth, which was a slightly terrifying sensation.

He only had eyes to see, ears to hear and one

hand. After a moment of hesitation, he reached
for the very space around them, keeping in mind
how Shimura – and why was that name familiar? –
had made things appear out of thin air.

His first thought was a stick but he didn’t see

himself slowly writing everything he had to say
while Shimura waited for him to be done. No, his
mind soon went to his Clamor server and the
many messages on his screen.

With an effort of will, letters appeared in front of

him.

[You’re AM’s predecessor.]

Because One for All was passed from hero to

hero until Izuku had broken the cycle. Of course,
the one who had chosen All Might as a successor
would be here.

With a grudge.

“Aren’t you a clever one,” she said, her face

blank but her eyes were doing all the talking.

Izuku wasn’t sure if she was talking about his

deduction or the fact he had been able to
interact with the space inside the quirk, but one
thing was certain: she hated him.

Warmth appeared around Izuku, someone

embracing him from behind and for a terrifying
second, the teenager was convinced that All for
One had found his way to a place where he
couldn’t escape his hugs.

“He had a long day, Seventh,” a familiar voice

stated, a note of warning in his voice.

Izuku looked up. Flowing white hair entered his

field of vision, followed by the face of the first
person who had ever greeted him in this strange
place. Green eyes crinkled as the first holder of
One for All smiled at him.

“I had a short life and very stressful past months,”

Shimura snapped back. “You won’t prevent me
from talking to him. I have questions.”

She marched until she was right in front of Izuku,

towering over him. First pressed the teenager’s
back against his chest, this absence of awareness
when it came to personal space confirming that
he was indeed All for One’s brother but also
putting Izuku on edge because he had memories
of classmates holding his arms behind his back
while another was hitting him.

Be brave, he ordered himself, forcing himself to

stand straighter and to raise his head. You took
the quirk. Now, it’s time to handle the
consequences.

“You are a walking contradiction,” Shimura

stated. “You were powerless and you endured
abuse because of it. You witnessed the unfairness
of the world first-hand and you decided to do
something about it. Anyone, the proof that
anyone can be a hero, the hand in the dark you
so desperately needed and that you’re now
providing for others. A heroic endeavor. One can
hardly argue against that.”

If she gave him ten minutes and a notebook,

Izuku could find a way to dispute that last
statement but he knew better than to open his
non-existent mouth.

“But to do that, you stole someone’s quirk.” Izuku

didn’t flinch but it was close. “You took the power
of the Symbol of Peace, leaving him quirkless and
defenseless. And yes, you didn’t know about his
lack of quirk but you had to know that he would
have to retire. You had to know that you were
depriving Japan of its protector.”

Izuku knew more about All Might than he knew

about himself. His stats were defying reason and
there was a world between the number 1 hero
and the number 2. Once the teenager had heard
about One for All, he had understood so many
things that had eluded his quirk analyst mind until
now and he had been aware that even with his
original quirk – only to later learn that All Might
was quirkless, like him -, he wouldn’t be able to
pursue his activities as the number 1 hero.

Izuku had knowingly ended the Symbol of Peace.

It hadn’t mattered at the time.

He hadn’t done it because he hated All Might for

telling him that he could never be a hero, he
hadn’t done it for revenge or because he admired
him and wanted to be like him.

No, he had done it because he had wanted a

quirk and it was the only way to obtain one.

He still remembered sitting on his bed, his laptop

around him, many notebooks surrounding him
and holding him company, as he had realized that
the only one who could have this so-called
transferable quirk was All Might, a man he had
worshiped most of his life.

“Too bad,” had been his only thought, an after-

thought, really, now that a chance not to be
quirkless anymore was in reach.

“And yes, without One for All, you wouldn’t have

been able to rescue Eri and several others. But I
can’t help but to wonder… Can a hero be born
from such a villainous act? Does the fact that you
help others balance the fact that you are making
Toshinori go through the same experience that
almost broke you?”

Izuku hung his head in shame, all aware of what

he was.

“It’s not a rhetorical question, Midoriya Izuku,”

Shimura warned, her tone just slightly softer. “I
cannot read your mind, only see your actions. So I
need you to help me understand.”

Izuku’s fingers moved slightly.

[I’m a villain.]

He raised his head, looking Shimura in the eyes.

 [I have no answer to offer you. No
justification. I was powerless. I needed a quirk
in order to have the power to change things.
And in the end, I chose to steal that power
from a good man because I couldn’t live
anymore with my weakness.]

Izuku was what he was. There was no point in

apologizing about something he would do again
in a heartbeat.

The First’s hold became tighter around him.

Shimura Nana, a woman who loved All Might and

who had chosen him to take her quirk, didn’t say
anything for a long moment. She gave off an air
of sadness and melancholy but worst of all, she
seemed disappointed.

Izuku once again conjured words.

[I deserve your hatred.]

An acknowledgment of what he had done but

also the promise that whatever she threw at him,
he could take it. He was a villain. He was Anyone.
He hadn’t survived until now because he was
someone who could be easily rattled by people
hating him.

But to his surprise, Shimura gave him an almost

amused glance, one eyebrow raised as if she
found him very impertinent.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Izuku,” she said as she

disappeared. “Only one person was ever
deemed worthy of my hatred.”

Toshinori was so tired that keeping his eyes open

was a strain, let alone staying in his muscled form,
but he was the one who had called for a
debriefing at the Might tower and he could
hardly be late for this meeting.

With clumsy fingers, he grabbed the hypodermic

device containing his medicine. He placed it on
his forearm, half a finger under his elbow, and
pressed it against his flesh. He needed a second
to psych himself up enough to press the button
and for the needle to find the vein, even though
the chronic pain he had been carrying over the
years should have immunized him against his
unease when needles were concerned.

The shot burned for a second and the veins

around it darkened, becoming almost black, but
Toshinori knew from experience that this would
be gone in a couple of minutes. Still, he flexed
his arm, clenching his fingers as the first wave of
strength coursed through his body.

The pain he had learned to carry for the last

decade was immediately lessened and he started
to breathe easier. Soon, he would feel stronger.
One for All, or at least what little remained of it,
hummed under his skin, reinvigorated.

Toshinori sighed, leaning back into the couch. His

body might be at peak strength now that he had
recuperated but his soul was weary.

And if he didn’t get up right now, he would be

late to the meeting.

And yet, he stayed there, debating with himself

about something ridiculous but which was
currently paralyzing him.

What should he look like during the meeting?

The Symbol of Peace? Or the ruined hero who

had lost his quirk and was using all the
pharmaceutical knowledge of the doctors of the
Hero Commission to keep running on fumes?

They knew what he looked like. What he really

looked like.

Using One for All when so little remained felt

selfish and would be something he would deeply
regret if he was called for an emergency and
didn’t have enough time to save someone, but
the idea of meeting his colleagues and having to
deal with their looks of concern, their faith in All
Might shattered by what they were seeing, was
physically painful.

But there was always an emergency.

There was always a villain to fight, people to

save, and months ago, a teenager had used his
lack of time against him and waited until he had
exhausted himself before striking and stealing his
quirk.

With a sigh, he accepted that there was no point

hiding his true appearance, not when everyone
invited to this meeting had seen what the Symbol
of Peace looked like when he was off the clock.
He got up from the couch in his office, on which
he had spent more nights than the actual bed in
his house, and left before he was late to the
meeting.

He had taken two steps out of the door when he

regained his muscled form.

He just couldn’t.

When Hitoshi had been summoned to the Might

tower for a debriefing, he had been in a strange
place between excited at the idea of being in a
meeting full of heroes, as if he was already one,
and absolutely terrified because they were going
to talk about how his screw-up had led to the
destruction of an entire harbor.

Aizawa had told him not to worry about it and

that he wasn’t legally responsible for anything.
Hanabata had apologized for placing him in this
situation, reassured him by telling that this would
only be an extremely boring meeting so everyone
would be on the same page, and advised him to
wear something comfy.

He had thought she was trying to make him feel

better when she told him the meeting would be
boring but one hour into it and not only was
Hitoshi bored to tears but his jaws hurt because
he kept them tightly clenched in order not to
yawn.

At least, he wasn’t the only one. His sempai,

Togata Mirio was obviously having trouble
keeping his eyes open and had been leaning on
the table with his fist holding up his forehead to
hide how many times he was resting his eyes.

However, to be fair, he looked like he should have

been resting in his bed, and not only because he
was wearing what looked like pajamas. Hitoshi
still remembered the way flames had engulfed
him back in the harbor, how he had been trapped
under the earth at the risk of being immolated by
the villain who had attacked Hanabata afterwards.

But that was nothing compared to the man on All

Might’s right (and Hitoshi was doing his best not
to geek out because it was All Might, right here).
Not that he was injured or had even been there
during the fight with the Hosu vigilante – they
needed a better name – but he was sleeping on
the Symbol of Peace’s shoulder, his snoring lulling
the night owls in this room to sleep.

And after each person present repeating their

story five times, the last thing they needed was
another incentive to fall asleep face down on this
table.

“I would like to know why the Hero Commission

failed to inform me that they were tracking this
specific villain,” the Symbol of Peace finally asked
and there was something in the way he talked
that put Hitoshi on edge.

He didn’t look like the sad scarecrow that had

hitchhiked while Hitoshi was driving for the first
time, having the appearance of the number 1
hero again, but his sheer presence felt heavier
than what Hitoshi had felt during the Sport
Festival.

But maybe it was just him. Hanabata didn’t seem

to notice anything amiss. Wearing jeans and a
tee-shirt from an old rock band, Hitoshi had
almost failed to recognize her when she had
arrived with snacks. He had known she wasn’t old
per se but he hadn’t realized that she was closer
in age to him than she was to his parents.

His eyes trailed to the band aids on her chin and

the bandage on her hand and wrist. Wounds she
had sustained when the freaking pyromaniac had
dragged her out of her car – she was coming
back for them – and had thrown her on the
ground.

“I wasn’t aware of your interest in this specific

vigilante,” Hanabata explained. “My boss wanted
to arrest the Hosu vigilante without making a fuss
and I suggested asking for Shinsou’s help
because his quirk makes him uniquely suited to
subduing someone peacefully.”

“So is Midnight’s, Kamui Woods’, Hypnos’, and a

dozen of other heroes,” Aizawa commented.

Hitoshi looked at his homeroom teacher, who was

wearing a black tee-shirt, pink sweatpants and
had his hair tied into a bun, but Aizawa was still
looking at Hanabata, clearly blaming her for
everything that had happened.

“You are right,” she answered, looking him in the

eyes. “But the problem is that they are heroes, in
the public eyes, and whose fighting is usually
known. We were hoping that the effect of
surprise would allow a quieter arrest. I also
wanted a team of heroes to be on stand-by in
order to protect Shinsou in case anything went
wrong but Mr. Masuhiro feared that too many
heroes in one place would alert the villain. It’s
why I insisted on having Gang Orca with us,
because if I only had one pro hero with us, I
preferred a top hero.”

If Hanabata hadn’t fought for a hero in the top 10

like Gang Orca, Hitoshi’s back-up would have
been obliterated by the Hosu vigilante and who
knew what would have happened next.

“And I suppose your boss will confirm all of this,”

a tall and thin man in a suit and with green and
yellow hair said, typing something on his
computer.

Hitoshi wasn’t sure if he was working on some file

or just writing down everything that was being
said here.

Hanabata opened her brown leather handbag

and retrieved a notebook out of it. She quickly
wrote down something on a page before cleanly
ripping it off, her long fingers somehow perfectly
creating a long paper rectangle without needing
a pair of scissors or to fold the paper first.

“Mr. Masuhiro resigned yesterday but his notes

and reports are still in his office and you can have
access to it. I haven’t read them myself, as I’m
afraid the transition of power is keeping me busy,
but this…” She slid the piece of paper across the
table and in front of All Might. “… is the phone
number of her secretary. If you call her, she will
send you everything by email.”

She took a deep breath and looked at everyone

around the table.

“If I may…” Hesitation passed over her face but it

was soon replaced by resolution. “Mr. Masuhiro
has worked for the Hero Public Safety
Commission for thirty years and he has always
gone above and beyond his duty. I am sure that
the lack of communication between him and the
Might tower is a simple oversight and I would
take it as a personal favor if you keep in mind his
excellent career and do not judge him by the one
mistake on which it ended.”

Hitoshi blinked, impressed. Masuhiro was the one

who had put them in danger by wanting as little
people involved as possible in order to jump over
All Might and get all the glory of the operation
and she was still defending him.

“It seems like you have a lot of respect for this

man,” the little old hero suddenly said, startling
Hitoshi because he hadn’t noticed he was now
awake. “I hope his successor is up to the task.”

Hanabata nodded.

“Since I was chosen to replace him, I certainly

hope so.”

Aizawa choked on his glass of water and Gang

Orca, wearing a tee shirt from an aquarium,
gently hit him between the shoulder blades.

“He taught me so much,” Hanabata sighed. “I

will miss him.”

“I’ve never heard so much bullshit coming from

one person,” Toshinori commented, a little
impressed, as soon as the heroes and especially
Hanabata were out of the room.

“I think you’re forgetting someone…” Gran

Torino gently mocked as he stretched, his neck
cracking because the shoulder on which he had
slept was a little too high to be a decent pillow.

Memories of All for One flooded his mind,

showing him with his mouth constantly opened as
the villain couldn’t help but to talk and talk and
talk.

“In my defense, I am not listening to half of what

All for One is saying.”

“That’s probably for the best,” his teacher smiled

but there was sadness in his expression.

It had started after the harbor incident, when he

had visited Toshinori in his hospital room, just
before Recovery Girl had fixed him. He had
worried that his teacher was in bad health, a
concern that was creeping upon him more and
more as Gran Torino was getting older, but he
had realized that it was the fight with All for One.

The last time they had fought, Toshinori had been

between life and death for weeks.

With Gran Torino at his side, waiting to see if he

would pull through.

“- is working with All for One,” Mirai said as if it

was a matter of fact, dragging Toshinori away
from bad memories and back into the discussion.
“Why else would he leave him in one piece and
with One for All? Maybe he made a deal with the
leader of Anyone who is using the Thief as a way
to keep both the child and All for One in check.”

Toshinori was aware that Anyone and the Thief

had put many noumus out of commission,
probably making a sizable dent into the budget
of whoever was creating them.

It didn’t mean Mirai was wrong.

“If that’s the case, isn’t he playing a dangerous

game?” Young Togata asked. “Couldn’t All for
One take control of Anyone?”

It didn’t mean he was right either.

We need more information.

“Or he stole a quirk from All for One,” Toshinori

joked to divert the flow of the conversation,
aware that if he let them, they would immediately
assume the worst. “And he is intent on getting it
back.”

Mirai frowned, not sure if this was a quip or not

and to be honest, neither was Toshinori now.
Speaking the words had changed them, making
appear a possibility that should have been
ridiculous but the more he thought about it, the
more he realized he wouldn’t be surprised if this
was the truth.

“I doubt it,” Sir Nighteye finally said, looking

frankly disturbed at this idea. “It’s impossible to
simply… steal a quirk from All for One.”

Toshinori’s smile became sharper and mocking,

an expression he would have never tolerated on
the face of the Symbol of Peace.

“Not so long ago, we all agreed that stealing

One for All was also impossible and yet…”

As soon as All for One finally vacated Midoriya’s

room, Shouto ran to it and sat at the bedside of
his injured friend. His arms and legs were covered
in bandages and a huge bruise was covering one
side of his jaw but apart from that, he looked
peaceful.

So unlike the insane, shamelessly reckless, villain

mastermind that he actually was.

Shouto squeezed Izuku’s hand, feeling energy

coursing under his skin, just like when he was
using One for All. Maybe he was talking with the
Vestiges. Maybe it was why he wasn’t waking up,
too busy talking with them about quirks.

Or just robbing them blind of said quirks.

Shouto glanced back at the door to make sure

that no one was around to hear what he was
about to say and he leaned forwards, so Midoriya
could hear it.

“All for One is your dad. I repeat: All for One is

your dad. How many quirks do you need to
literally steal from the other quirk you stole for
you to admit it?”

Midoriya twitched in his sleep.

With a long-suffering-sigh, Shouto grabbed the

Powerpoint named Dad for One on his phone.
He had never managed to go beyond two slides
before Midoriya fled but now, he couldn’t escape
the truth.

“You owe me a car, you little shit,” Dabi snarled.

“Who asked you to give it to heroes???”

Yami failed to apologize or to offer the keys of

another armored vehicle, preferring to keep
snoring so Dabi raised his black marker, a devious
smile on his scarred face.

Only to suddenly feel cold eyes drilling a hole in

his back.

Izuku was trapped in First’s arms and he didn’t

seem to intend to let him go anytime soon.
Instead, he was hugging him like a plushie, his
chin on the top of Izuku’s head and if he was a
cat, he would be purring.

The teenager came to the conclusion that there

was only enough place for one white cat in his
life. If he was going to get hugged against his
will, it ought to be by the one who made him
breakfast every morning.

“You do realize that after the stunt you pulled, my

brother is going to throw you into the nearest
vault and keep you there for the next twenty
years?” First eventually said, startling Izuku who
had gotten use to both the silence and the
embrace that would make a boa constrictor
proud.

[Todoroki will break me out. Nagisa and him

have full access of Anyone if something
happens to me.]

The beauty of handing the reins to both Todoroki

and Nagisa was that he was confident that they
would make a fine team where they
complemented each other but that they also
wouldn’t overwork themselves if they had distinct
fieldworks and were more willing to delegate.

Not that Izuku did everything on his own, not

when the sheer amount of work would have killed
him, but anxiety didn’t let him let go of his iron
grip on the server.

“It would be entertaining to watch but I will give

you a little spell that you… Well, he won’t calm
down but I hope it will break his brain enough for
you to get a running start,” First chuckled, which
was a really bad sign. When his brother smiled
like that, it meant someone was about to suffer.
“But be careful. It will only work once.”

Izuku woke up to see Todoroki, a look of intense

concentration on his face, butchering an apple.

The teenager stayed still, a state helped by this

strange feeling that his limbs were made of lead,
and he looked at his best friend trying and failing
to cut little slices of apples into specific shape,
probably because the knife he was holding was
too big for the task.

Unless the task was violently torturing a fruit.

This definitely not OSHA compliant attempt at

making a snack made Izuku feel warm, as if he
was finally noticing how cold he had been before.

Maybe because he had woken up to see that his

friend was here, watching over Izuku while he was
unconscious and hurt, and making sure he would
have a snack as soon as possible.

Maybe it was the pretty strong medication he

could feel coursing through his veins.

Izuku stared some more, wincing in sympathy at

how Todoroki was ending the apple’s misery, then
he winced in pain as about everything was
starting to hurt again, even his forehead.

Todoroki and him were in the room Izuku

occupied every time he spent the night at the
beach house. The second most spacious room of
the house, with a large window facing the beach
so he only had to jump from two floors when he
wanted to go for a swim at night. Todoroki was
sitting on a chair taken from the office where All
for One hid the best snacks and that Izuku
regularly raided.

His mind felt less hazy than before so he came to

the conclusion that his concussion had been
taken care of, unlike the rest of his injuries, which
was petty, even coming from All for One.

Todoroki finally realized that Izuku was awake and

looking at him, a smile spreading on his face as
the realization hit him but his eyes were tired.

“Hey,” Izuku said.

“Hey,” Todoroki greeted him back. “I made you

apples. All for One also made some and they are
prettier but in my defense, I didn’t have a century
to get it right.” He paused for a second, looking
at the knife in his hand then at Izuku. “Tell me it’s
not the knife you used to stab Gran Torino in
Hosu.”

“I didn’t stab him,” Izuku corrected him. “He ran

into it.”

“That makes sense,” his best friend nodded.

Izuku knew he would get the difference.

“And no,” he reassured him. “My knife is in the

drawer of my nightstand.”

“Ah yes,” Todoroki nodded once again. “Finders

keeper.”

Exactly.

A plate of apples perfectly cut to look like

bunnies was indeed waiting on Izuku’s nightstand,
recovered by a plastic film but Todoroki’s looked
better so he ate those.

“You were in bed for two days,” his friend filled

him in while Izuku was inhaling the apples. He
hadn’t realized how ravenous he had become.
“You woke up several times, mostly when one of
us put a cup of coffee under your nose, but All for
One warned us you wouldn’t remember most of
it. Every hero and student involved in what is
starting to be known as the Harbor Disaster made
it back to UA but now, Japan is aware that
Anyone exists. Some members were arrested for
vigilantism but Nagisa tells you not to worry
about it, she handled it. But you have to call her
back. My brother was mad about the car but I
handled the situation because he was being very
annoying about it. Also, we need to go now.”

Izuku didn’t even ask him why, too busy that he

was scrambling out of bed. Todoroki dashed
towards his closet, picking clothes because Izuku
was still in his pajamas (not even hero themed
ones) but as soon as he put his feet on the cold
floor, the door burst open and All for One
appeared.

Todoroki and Izuku froze, pinned down under his

stare.

All for One walked to Izuku and he grabbed his

face between his hands, forcing him to look up
before he examined him, probably trying to find if
he was conscious enough to be aware of what
kind of agony he would bring upon the innocent
teenager because of the whole crane-business.

Sometimes, the better defense was to attack.

“I saw your little brother. He said that you would

be upset because you didn’t manage to kill
Eighth and that I should give you a message from
him but…”

Doubt poked at him.

“Go ahead,” All for One enunciated, the room

losing ten degrees with just two words.

“I am not sure of what that means…” Izuku

mumbled.

He wasn’t nervous because All for One was

obviously considering the idea of throwing him
through a window. He could deal with near-death
situations. No, what was paralyzing him with
stress was the knowledge that this was slang that
was almost two centuries old and that he would
look like an absolute idiot if he flubbed it.

“Tell. Me,” All for One ordered.

Plus Ultra.

“Awww, poor little meow meow.”

Izuku didn’t know what he was expecting but one

thing was certain: he never thought that the result
would be so immediate.

All for One made a strange sound, as if someone

had punched him in the solar plexus, and he
completely froze, his eyes now haunted and
looking in the distance.

Izuku poked his hand twice with his index finger.

All for One didn’t move.

He slowly got All for One’s hands away from him

and made a break for it, Todoroki in tow. He
looked back one last time to see that the Symbol
of Evil was still frozen where he was, as if his brain
had crashed in a fiery explosion and was now
rebooting.

What the hell did those words mean?

Running down the stairs woke every ache in

Izuku’s body but he was excellent at ignoring
such details and the only reason why he took the
arm Todoroki was offering him was so his friend
wouldn’t worry.

“That was easier than expected,” he muttered

while looking back at All for One who was still
frozen.

Todoroki shook his head, gently urging him to

keep walking.

“There is a vault in the basement.”

Izuku frowned.

“There is no place to put a vault in the

basement,” the teenage villain reminded him.
“We tried to store a box of books there and we
had to put them in Dabi’s closet because there
was nowhere to put it.”

“There isn’t a vault in the basement,” Todoroki

corrected himself. “There used to be a basement
and now there is just a giant bank vault.”

Izuku blinked.

“You drop a crane on All for One? You try to

flatten him like the pancake? Oh, vault for the
son. Vault for one thousand years!”

“Yoichi, please…”

Ken clutched the knife in his hands,

uncomfortable because he might be a rascal, a
thief, and a villain, but he didn’t like attacking
kids. Threatening adults when they were with
their kids was already toeing the line and even if
he had to admit that it was more efficient in the
long run (an adult alone might try to fight but a
parent would be give him everything they had to
keep their child safe), the expressions on their
little faces had haunted many sleepless nights.

However, money and occasions were scarce these

days. Ken had a couple of… bad encounters.

“… surprised you don’t want to experiment more

with that quirk,” one of the two boys in the alley
was saying. “It’s unlike you.”

Ken couldn’t see his face, not with the black cap
he was wearing, but his clothes were from
expensive brands. He held his head high, like he
had never bowed to anyone before, and he
expressed himself in a refined way.

Ken had been in the game long enough to

recognize a rich kid who probably didn’t hesitate
to use his parent’s credit card.

“You make me sound like I’m obsessed with

quirks…” the second boy that Ken couldn’t see
muttered.

Now, if he hadn’t already been thinking about

how to spend his money (his rent was overdue
and Sergeant Whiskers deserved some treats), he
might have noticed that this voice was familiar.

Instead, he jumped in the alley, brandishing his

knife like someone who was eager to use it.

“Give me your-”

Something whipped around his throat, crushing

his windpipe before slamming him into a wall.
The only thing that saved him from a concussion,
at best, was the fact that he dropped his knife
and used his right arm to cushion the impact.

Even the pain on his forearm and on the side of

his hand wasn’t enough to breach through the
fog of panic that was imprisoning his mind as he
was desperately gasping for air.

But the grip around his throat disappeared,

allowing him to breathe once again. Oxygen had
never tasted so good but his relief was short-lived
as the same thing that had attacked him whipped
around his ankle this time and the next thing he
knew, he was hanging upside down.

He pathetically flailed around, his fingers trying to

reach for something, anything. His quirk allowed
him to transmute anything he touched into a
knife but it had to be solid.

His eyes saw a pair of red sneakers, went up to a

pair of slightly ripped jeans and a black and white
tee-shirt but what really drew Ken’s attention was
the black strand of energy coming from his
opponent’s forearm and curled around his
fingers, as if the kid was a puppeteer
manipulating strings.

Then he saw the face, recognizing the green eyes

underlined by dark circles, the freckles, and the
white curls.

Oh no.

He froze, not daring to move even one muscle

and fear was the only thing that prevented him
from closing his eyes and convincing that it was
just one of his nightmares. God knew that he had
many night terrors involving the white-haired-man
in the suit and the teen who had barely kept the
demon in a bespoke suit from ripping his face off
his skull with his bare hands.

And usually, Ken would have been worried about

said demon appearing from the shadows to finish
the job while the teenager apologized about it
but something on the boy’s face was urging him
not to do any brusque movements.

He didn’t look like someone who wanted to hurt

him – God knew that Ken had met many people
in his life who were eager to use the slightest
pretext to let off some steam by hurting him. No,
instead, he looked like someone who had been
stripped of all his faith on humanity, who was
hanging on by a thread, and wouldn’t have
enough energy to regret what would happen
when it would snap.

Ken also saw the exact moment where the

teenager remembered who he was.

The facepalm was a pretty big clue.

“Glad to see that you are absolutely fine after

what happened,” his friend said in the tone of
someone who had been telling him to go back to
bed and rest only to be told that he was fine. “I
see now that I have nothing to worry about.”

The white-haired-teenager removed his hand

from his face but it was to pinch the bridge of his
nose, hard enough that it made Ken wince in
sympathy.

“That was a calm and measured response to

attempted robbery,” he said, his eyes closed as if,
just like Ken, he was trying to convince himself
that all of this was just a bad dream.

“You went extremely close to ripping his head

off.”

Ken nodded in agreement.

“Maybe, but in a calm and measured manner,”

the white-haired-boy enunciated, burning green
eyes now open and showing flashes of white
teeth as he spoke.

He crouched down, not as if he was tired but in a

way that clearly indicated to anyone with a pair of
eyes and some survival instinct that he could
pounce out of this position in a second, just like a
cat, which was disturbing because human
muscles weren’t supposed to shrug when
confronted to this kind of positional stress.

Ken should have been relieved that he didn’t

have to twist his neck to look at him, not when
the teenager’s face was now lower than his own,
but his level of stress reached the stratosphere.
At first, he thought that it was because he was
uncomfortably close but there was still a decent
amount of space between them.

And yet, there was something haunting the air

between them, a furious energy that had nothing
to do with anger or another human emotion but
that still make his hair rise on ends.

It’s his quirk, he finally realized. Something is

wrong with his quirk.

Every powerful quirk inspired awe but this one…

this one felt otherworldly.

“You see, Random Guy…” the boy started like

they were old friends, everything in his voice,
body language and face indicating pure
tranquility, except for those eyes that seemed to
pierce through his soul. “You don’t mind me
calling you Random Guy, do you?”

“Well, that’s not my name…”

“You see, Random Guy,” the teenager continued

as if Ken had never opened his mouth, “I usually
would have shown patience and talked to you
about your options. However, where some lucky
people sometimes have a bad day, I had a bad
life and the last three days have been a shitstorm
of biblical proportions so I’m afraid I am not in
the best of moods.”

Ken realized the demon in a bespoke suit had

been the better option. Of course, the father was
perfectly able to rip through his chest, grab his
spine and use it to strangle him with it or
something but at least, the promise of violence
was clear. With this smaller version, he didn’t
know if the son was going to let him go and leave
him cut into tiny pieces in this alley, and the
incertitude was putting such stress on his heart
that he might go into cardiac arrest before the
end of this conversation.

“And I am not even wearing any hero merch,” the

teenager continued as if it was the most
distressing thing of those last three days, “so
right now, I feel surprisingly uncomfortable.”

“Sorry about that!” the boy with the cap said,

startling Ken because he had forgotten he was
there.

“Don’t apologize. You’re perfect,” Ken’s current

nightmare said, oddly sincere, before turning
back and looking at his prisoner once again.
“What I am trying to say is that I need you to
stop. Stop trying to be a villain. Stop trying to rob
people. You’re in over your head. You are going
to get yourself killed, if you're lucky. So please,
stop while you still can. ”

Ken saw no sanity in those eyes. Only a vague

moral code held together by spite and habit.

So he nodded.

“Thank you,” the boy said before getting back to

his feet.

The quirk that was holding his ankle disappeared

and Ken fell to the ground, curled into a ball, and
stayed there, refusing to move until he was alone.
His heart was still beating madly against his ribs,
the adrenaline in his veins urging him to run, to
just run, but an atavistic instinct was whispering to
him that he ought to stay immobile because
sharp movements drew the attention of
predators.

“Let’s go,” the boy said as his friend and him

were leaving the alley. “I have to evaluate the
damage the bane of my existence has done to
the organization and I am probably going to
need a coffee before I decide if burning the
Might Tower to the ground is a good idea.”

Notes:
1. Don’t worry. There is a 90%
chance that it’s just the caffeine
withdrawal talking.
2. The last chapter was so insane
that I will need two chapters just
to deal with the consequences.
This chapter was Izuku managing
not to get vaulted. The next is
Izuku handling the whole situation
with Anyone.

Many thanks to Izarrka!

Many thanks to Psychomurderz!

Many thanks to Redoaktreehill!

Many thanks to Ghostcrownk!

Many thank to Karmauh

Many thanks to Hoodiemanic!

And many thank to Karmauh

again!

CHAPTER 34
Notes:
Warning: Underage drinking.
Pocket, please, avert your eyes. I
know your sensitive soul can’t
handle it.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

The anger was building up and up, threatening to

spill from him in an explosive way, to destroy
everything it touched until only ashes and pain
remained. Containing it was painful, not like a
wound but in the specific way a soul could ache,
poisoned by what felt like rightful rage.

But Izuku wouldn’t let this rage out. He despised

this very idea.

How many times had he seen people having a

bad day and using it as an excuse to lash out at
others, to just scream and explode and yell under
the justification that sometimes, anger had to be
let out, that it wouldn’t have happened if people
hadn’t angered them, that they were only
reacting to the unfairness of the world in order
not to be eaten by their rage?

Those people were wrong. Worse, they were

pathetic. The moment where you looked for
excuses for your behavior, it meant placing the
blame on someone else’s shoulder.

Anger was a tool and Izuku wouldn’t let it control

him.

Izuku took a last sip out of his plain white mug.

There was usually an All Might one for him in the
bar, the only one no one but him would drink
from because All for One despised the number 1
hero and the rest of the inner circle weren’t keen
on having the Symbol of Evil fulminate why they
were trying to drink.

This kind of spectacle was usually good for Izuku’s

soul but anything with the colors of All Might or
Gang Orca reminded him of the debacle at the
harbor.

So plain white mug it was.

“So,” Izuku started, putting the now empty cup

of coffee on the table. “Let me get this straight.
The Hero Commission decided to arrest me by
using a hero student with a brainwashing quirk
and a top hero. When I managed to fight back,
the Commission handler on the scene called for
help and the Nighteye agency, which Gwen spies
on since Day 1, learned about it.”

The tablet that was standing on the table was

showing a white spider on its black screen. It
didn’t make any noise or send any message but
the way the animation was moving its eight legs
made it clear that their revered hacker was still
listening to the conversation.

“And when she realized that All Might had been

called on the scene, she contacted Kurogiri who
sent Dabi to my last location…”

Dabi, who wasn’t sitting around the round table

that had been warped into the bar for the
occasion but in one of the comfortable leather
couches, saluted him with his glass.

“You’re welcome,” the pyromaniac disaster said

as he raised his martini, wearing a dark blue
three-pieces-suit that was unlike anything he had
worn before.

Either Izuku was paying him enough for him to

graduate from Hot Topic or he had someplace to
be later this day.

“Thank you,” Izuku said truthfully before going

back to the matter at hand. “Kurogiri didn’t only
call Dabi. He contacted All for One, who then
decided to show up to pick a fight with the
Symbol of Peace just as I was deescalating the
situation.”

The reactions were immediate. Todoroki laughed

while Kurogiri raised his eyebrows. A dubitative
[…] message appeared under the little spider on
the tablet. As for Dabi, he choked on his drink.

All for One seemed almost amused.

“From my point of view, a reckless child was

about to fight the Symbol of Piece despite barely
standing upright. I spared you a humiliating
defeat and additional injuries. Not that I expect a
word of thanks. I am aware that teenagers live
and breathe ingratitude.”

For a moment, Izuku saw himself walking across

the table and smashing his empty cup against the
side of this smug face.

He decided against it as it would work better if

there was steaming coffee inside the mug at the
time.

“Thank you for confirming that my organization of

vigilantes is affiliated with the supervillain who is
still thought to have planned the attack on the
USJ,” Izuku almost snarled. “Thank you for
completely derailing my plans and attacking All
Might, despite the fact I told you I would do my
best to kill you if you ever tried. Thank you. For
making. Everything. Worse.”

“You’re welcome,” All for One answered like a

king forgiving one of his subjects.

Todoroki clapped his hands, the sound not

managing to break the tension between the
holder of All for One and the holder of One for
All but it certainly drew everyone’s attention to
him.

“The heroes and the police have been arresting

suspected members of Anyone. What do we do
about that?”

[They are in good hands,] Nagisa typed under

the spider. [You would be surprised by how
many family members of crooks and people in
prison we helped. They have no problem
protecting the kids and the civilians arrested
until our pro bono lawyers can get them out.]

“Pro Bono?” Izuku repeated.

He expected to pay their time out of his pocket.

Not that he would hesitate one second because

people needed to be paid what they were worth.

[I was also surprised by that. Apparently,

helping people who just wanted to do good is
excellent for one’s reputation and a good way
to stay in our good graces if they ever want
favors. It was also a good call to let their
associations on the site.]

Just like Izuku had allowed Ao to use his platform

to help spouses trapped in bad situations, other
people used Anyone as a way to promote
(vetoed) associations whose cause was dear to
them.

It should have made him feel lighter but for some

reason, the headache that had been visiting his
skull since Random Guy had tried to rob Todoroki
and him came back in full force.

Maybe it was because a human brain wasn’t

supposed to handle the strain caused by three
quirks.

Maybe it was because he hadn’t drank enough

coffee.

As if he could read his mind – or just guess his

slight amount of bloodlust he was giving off -,
Todoroki got up, disappeared behind the bar and
brought him his fourth cup of coffee in a hour.
Izuku thanked him with all the gratitude in the
world, noticing just like always that Todoroki
didn’t grab the mug by the handle like everyone
but grabbed the whole thing with his left hand,
half of his body resistant to the heat to a certain
extent.

“Maybe you should slow down-“ Kurogiri tried to

say but All for One grabbed the pot of sugar and
dumped a generous amount into Izuku’s cup.

“You don’t want to deal with someone in full

caffeine withdrawal,” the super villain warned
before pushing the mug towards Izuku.

The teenager entertained his previous thought of

using it as a weapon but he realized that he could
steal quirks, burn down buildings, beat up
heroes, and generally use a healthy amount of
violence to solve his problems but he drew the
line at wasting perfectly good coffee.

[I wouldn’t mind seeing that.] the spider said,

the letters somehow conveying an impressive
amount of glee.

“You’re only saying that because you wouldn’t be

around to deal with the consequences,” Kurogiri
accused her.

[I plead guilty.]

“What are the odds of my head exploding

because of too many quirks?” Izuku interrupted
their antics.

It wasn’t like the lack of caffeine would turn him

into a mass murderer or something.

All for One considered the question, his eyes

gleaming with the glint they gained every time he
was talking about quirks.

“Two is usually fine if it fits the person’s vestigial

mutations, most people can’t handle three, and
the most anyone who wasn’t me has ever been
able to handle was seven…”

He didn’t quite pause.

Odds are that Izuku wouldn’t have noticed

anything amiss if he hadn’t been living with him
for so long. Hell, he might not have noticed it if
Kurogiri hadn’t gotten slightly still.

Both All for One and Kurogiri realized something

at the same time.

And they didn’t want Izuku or the Todoroki

brothers to notice it.

“… but his original quirk was Endurance so he

was a special case,” All for One said, unaware
that Izuku knew he had a secret.

He sipped his coffee, wondering what the villains

had remembered. It had to be about something
that had happened before All for One had been
sent to prison.

“So if I wanted a telekinetic quirk…” Dabi asked.

“It depends,” All for One shrugged. “If Blue

Flame and Heat Resistance have merged
together, you might be able to handle a third
quirk. If they didn’t… Your brain would probably
turn into something with the consistency of a
mushy vegetable.”

Todoroki winced.

[Not that I am not interested in those lovely

considerations but do we have a solution for
our hero problem?] Nagisa interrupted some
very interesting quirk talk.

Izuku put his mug down.

“This isn’t a hero problem, this is a PR problem,”

he explained. “Anyone has always been illegal
and people on the server know it. The problem is
that I will lose a lot of support if they think that
Anyone tried to hurt All Might. Fortunately, we
can tell them the truth: an operation of the Hero
Commission to arrest me went to hell in a
handbasket when a villain joined the party.”

All for One winked at him.

“Will they even believe the truth?” Todoroki

asked.

“My truth will still be better than whatever the

Hero Commission will tell them,” Izuku smiled. It
wasn’t a nice smile. “And since they tried to jump
over All Might to get to me, I doubt he will help
them get out of this mess.”

After all, they had destroyed one impressive

chance for All Might to recover One for All.

“I’m in no state to write an announcement about

what happened at the harbor and I don’t want to
delay it. Gwen, can you take care of it?”

[I would like to nominate Dabi for that. He

already has something planned.]

Everyone looked at the most dramatic member of

the Todoroki family who was now glaring daggers
at the tablet.

On the screen, the spider blew him a kiss, with a

little heart flying to the edge of the screen.

“I did write something,” Dabi growled. “But it’s a

first draft and it was in a private channel so how
can you even know-“

Izuku’s phone pinged with a message from

Nagisa and a screenshot from Dabi’s conversation
with Todoroki. It started with insults as they had
been arguing quite fiercely about something,
until Todoroki had admitted that he was worried
about the Anyone community and Dabi had
suggested some kind of press release to explain
what had happened and offered examples.

Izuku read them.

He didn’t expect to be tackled by the sheer

realization that all this time, he had access to
someone who had missed his true vocation as a
theater kid and who could summon mountains of
drama that people would just eat up, and he had
done nothing with it.

It was dramatic, it manipulated the narrative

without lying, and it was exactly what he needed:
delegating all the public relationship problems to
someone who wasn’t him.

“Dabi, you are now my PR man,” he

commanded.

His new PR didn’t seem impressed by the

promotion.

“Are you about to pay me with the satisfaction of

a job well-done or will I get actual money out of
it?”

“Money,” Izuku almost sang.

“I will follow you to the end of the world, boss,”

All for One’s spy said without realizing the sheer
irony of those words.

Izuku was quite sure of that since he had just

mentally put Dabi on every robbery for this
month. His budget seemed to have the life
expectancy of a snowball in hell these days and
he was about to put Dabi and Hawks on
contribution.

Argh, Hawks…

He needed to take care of him. But not today. He

didn’t want to deal with any pro heroes today. He
had earned his rest.

“Todoroki,” the teenager asked, “there are

several heroes we have been helping as
informants. Could you send them a message
explaining that we are unable to assist them
further for now as we do not believe that we can
sustain the safety of our agents as long as the
Hero Commission is targeting us?”

He could already hear the shrieks of rage this

specific decision would cause but if he had pro
heroes cursing at the Hero Commission from
messing up with their informants, all the better.

He wouldn’t cut those access from them for too

long, though. Not when so many underground
heroes needed them to investigate the
disappearance of the people society didn’t really
care about.

Before creating Anyone, he had no idea that

Midnight and her Midnight boys dealt in finding
runaways and alternatives that didn’t involve
placing them back with their abusive parents.

“Of course,” Todoroki said without pointing out

that this should be Dabi’s job. Unfortunately, Dabi
might be good but he was still All for One’s mole
and Izuku didn’t feel the need to tell him which
hero trusted Anyone. “But what are you going to
do?”

Izuku made an innocent face.

“Oh, I have a letter to deliver.”

Izuku was fully aware that it was highly suspicious

for All for One not to protest when he left the bar
and he was certain that it had something to do
with this ominous pause during their conversation
about multiquirked individuals.

However, since Izuku had no intention to remind

All for One that he had a vault ready to welcome
him, he passed into Kurogiri’s armory and
smuggled a blow torch that he would leave in All
for One’s brand new guest room, then asked
Kurogiri if he could warp him to the mall.

Dabi offered him to drive him there.

Izuku wasn’t aware Dabi had a car but since he

had an PR disaster to solve, he didn’t ask where
Dabi had obtained it. After all, he wanted to deal
with this business trip as fast as possible and a
warp gate would always be faster than any car, so
he thanked Dabi for his offer and waved at
Todoroki and him when they left, presumably to
go home in said car.

With hindsight, Izuku readily admitted that he

should have asked.

Many people had learned about the harbor

disaster through the news and even more of them
had learned about it from social media but
Hawks, who had been investigating the people
who had freed the villain known as Oguro
Kousuke, had learned through a message, sent
even before All Might and the rest of the heroes
had made a strategic retreat to UA.

Anyone:

[What’s the use of having a spy who doesn’t

warn me when the Hero Commission decides to
fuck around and find out?]

The number 3 hero still shuddered every time he

thought about it. There was no word to describe
what kind of dread those words had caused in
him when they had appeared on his phone,
without any context.

However, one thing was certain: said context had

not made things better.

Hawks had been trying to contact Anyone ever

since but the server had shut down the
communications with most heroes and the fact
that he had managed to get close to the inner
circle hadn’t spared him. Even Dabi, who would
usually use any opportunity to mock him, had
strongly implied that it was better for Hawks to
be forgotten for a couple of weeks.

If the conditioning hadn’t been so strong, Hawks

would have screamed in frustration every time he
thought about it. He should have suspected
something when he had talked with Hanabata.
And now, Anyone had cut all communication with
him, without even giving him a chance to explain
that he was after the one responsible for the
noumu attacks and that he couldn’t have learned
about the ambush in time to warn them.

Hawks tried to ignore the bad feeling that was

pulsating inside his throat, pushing it away with
an ease grown from a lifetime of being forced to
not get himself sick over what he couldn’t control.

He finally arrived to the black roof of his agency,

and he landed lightly.

His feet touched the roof.

Black mist ate them.

His wings spread once again, trying to get him

out of here but the mist spread up, swallowing
him in one gulp and the next thing he knew, he
was hovering in the bar. Kurogiri, the bartender
and taxi of Anyone, was behind the counter and
All for One, the one who had fought All Might
and gotten out of the fight none for wear, was
sitting on a stool. Both of them were smoking,
their cigarettes orientated in the direction of a
warp gate since there was no window down
there.

And none of them paid attention to Hawks.

“Are we even supposed to leave him… outside

for so long?” Kurogiri was saying, obviously
agitated.

“He can hunt to feed himself,” All for One

shrugged with a finality that would have made
even the fiercest opponents to outdoor cats shut
up. “I am more worried about how we are going
to find him now.”

For a crazy moment, Hawks wondered if they had

abducted them here because they needed
someone to find their pet.

“He must have places where he likes to be!”

Kurogiri added.

Not that Hawks would complain about it. Since

Yami was nowhere to be seen and he had been
the number 1 deterrent preventing All for One
from giving himself a nice pair of wings, he was
more than willing to search the country to find a
lost kitty.

“And if he hears my voice, he should come

running,” All for One said before stabbing his
cigarette stump in the ashtray and turning to look
at Hawks, grey eyes piercing into his very soul in
a definitely inhumane way.

Hawks didn’t know if it was because All for One

was starting to get old enough that people didn’t
register as persons but more as fleeting guests or
if it was because he was only seeing quirks that
could be taken but there was something about
All for One that made him clear that he was not
normal.

But this was hardly something he could say to his

face.

“You smoke?” he asked instead, affecting the

tone of someone having a pleasant conversation
with coworkers instead of a hero being abducted
by villains.

“From time to time,” Kurogiri admitted, with the

look of someone who wasn’t proud of it.

All for One looked at the cigarette stub he was

still holding, grinding it to nothing in the ashtray.

“I started when I was a teenager but I had to stop

quickly because my little brother’s health made it
too dangerous. After his death… Well, there was
no more reason not to. I had to stop again almost
two decades ago but sometimes, I still crave it.”

What happened twenty years ago for him to stop

smoking? Hawks immediately thought. Did it
have ill effects on his health? Should I ask the
Commission to look into the disappearance of
someone with a quirk to erase lung cancer?

All for One put a hand above the ashtray, his

fingers making a beckoning gesture and Hawks
could see that the cigarette wasn’t completely
snuffed, a red dot of fire still lighting it.

“Don’t worry, Hawks, I won’t take too much of

your time.”

It failed to reassure the winged hero.

“Take all the time you need,” Hawks said in a

friendly way, his smile so fake that it was
downright painful. “After all, we are all part of the
Anyone family, aren’t we?”

Even though you’re not part of the organization

and just placated by Anyone and barely tolerated
by Yami.

“Well, thank you,” All for One smiled. “But there

is no need for a long conversation as I am already
aware that the Hero Commission isn’t one happy
family and that some of its members won’t
hesitate to put into jeopardy missions involving
pro heroes if it means they can gain just a little
more power. Anyone would be quite the prize for
a new hero sponsored by your masters.”

Well, someone knew the Commission pretty well.

“This is why I feel the need to remind them of

why it’s dangerous for several persons to act
independently in the same organization.”

Hawks was rarely the slowest one in a fight but

after All for One had already proved he could
move faster than the so-called fastest hero could
react, he had learned not to wait for the first
blow.

Hawks moved before All for One ever had the

chance to, feathers flinging a table at him to give
him the time to fly up the stairs and out of the
bar.

AFO’s smile went from shark-like to truly amused.

He moved long after Hawks.

All for One was holding him by the collar of his

shirt, Hawks’ feet way above the ground, and half
blind not because his quirk had been taken from
him again but because all of his feathers had
been reduced to cinders.

“Be a dear and do remind them of how much

they have invested in you and what a shame it
would be to lose the number 3 hero over some
petty power grab,” the Symbol of Evil gently told
him before dropping him.

He should have landed on the wooden floor of

the bar but black mist once again enveloped him,
dropping him in the middle of a dusty road, the
sun blazing down on him.

Hawks stayed on the ground a moment,

meditating on why he had even bothered getting
out of bed this morning. In the end, he took out
his phone, only for his GPS to inform him he was
in the middle of nowhere.

He didn’t have enough feathers to fly home. He

would have to walk to the nearest town.

Hawks had no intention to take even one step.

The number 3 hero, top hero, the pride of the

Hero Commission, and someone who kept being
bullied by an organization of vigilantes and their
scary fairy quirk-stealing godfather dragged
himself to the shade of a tree and called Anyone
to the rescue.

“Dabi, come and pick me up.”

“Why?”

“Because I know you have a car now. Because I

am in costume and I don’t want any of my fans to
see me while I look like a rotisserie chicken. And
because if you don’t, I will call Hanabata and give
her your address.”

Half an hour later, a black car with blue flames on

the side stopped in front of Hawks, who had
dropped the aviator jacket and was eating berries
directly from the bushes, because that was now
what he was reduced to.

“One of those days, uh?” Dabi mocked with a

stupid smile, wearing a dark blue suit that was
highlighting his eyes.

Hawks simply stared at him.

Something in his eyes must have clued Dabi in

the fact that he was in no mood for any kind of
teasing and the fire user promptly shut up and
produced a box of twenty chicken nuggets that
he put between Hawks and him.

Hawks snatched it out of his hand and went to

eat them on the passenger seat.

Aizawa Shouta didn’t consider himself a petty

man but he could admit that the moment where
Hanabata Mika, blood-sucking-demon that
preyed on people’s hopes and dreams that she
was, discovered that her car had disappeared
from UA, he couldn’t quite contain some dark
glee in the empty spot where his heart used to be
before dealing with the school administration had
obliterated it.

Despite all his efforts, as he had stepped

between Powerloader and her and informed her
that UA couldn’t be responsible for the loss of her
insured vehicle after it had been stolen by a
villain, he hadn’t been able to suppress his grin.
He was, of course, deeply ashamed of it.

He didn’t know which student had done this

criminal act. His only certitude was that Shinsou
hadn’t been the one to do it.

Something he knew because, immediately after

Hanabata had stomped off out of Shouta’s
school, he had called the principal and ordered
him not to tell him which student had graduated
from student to thief, unless it was Shinsou, in
which case he was willing to give him extra credit.

Inferno more inferyes:

[Greetings,

On XX/XX/XXXX, a member of this server known

as @tootiredforthismeow called Anyone for help
with the explicit intent of luring the member who
stopped Stain and saved many lives in Hosu in a
secluded location and to arrest him. This
operation was planned by the Hero Public Safety
Commission. One hero student and a top hero
were waiting for our agent.

The agent had come under the assumption that

someone was in danger and had to react to the
new situation. They did what they had to do in
order not to be arrested by the government. The
top hero was injured in the fight that ensued and
so was the other hero who intervened. As the
Commission realized that they were losing control
of the situation, more heroes were called and
they had to be dealt with.

Our agents aren’t trained professionals.

Vigilantes, by definition, act outside the law and
do not have access to the same privileges pro
heroes take for granted. They, however, are
unrivaled when it comes to the sum of their
extremely varied experiences and it might explain
why two agents from Anyone (as a colleague was
immediately sent to try to extract the first one on
the scene from an explosive situation) managed
not to be arrested by one top hero, two pro
heroes and one hero student.

We confirm that the situation degenerated so

much that All Might was called on the scene but
before he could arrest our agents, a villain took
advantage of the chaos to attack him.

Our first priority is, and always will be to protect

lives, so our agents helped the very people who
ambushed them to get to safety then tried to
interrupt the fight. One of our agents, the very
one who was lured into a trap, was already
injured at the time and such actions only
worsened said wounds. They are currently being
treated and we don’t know when, or if, they will
come back.

Some of the damage inflicted to the harbor was

indeed done by our agents.

Anyone doesn’t only caution their actions but

fully stand by them. We will not apologize, as
none of this would have happened if the Hero
Commission hadn’t targeted us, if our agents
hadn’t been forced to act in self-defense, and we
guarantee that if they hadn’t used their quirks,
lives would have been lost that day.

We never lied to you. Anyone is not a legal

organization. It can’t be. Not as long as the anti-
quirk laws prevent people from using their quirks
in public places or without a license.

We help those left behind. It’s a sad truth that

heroes can’t reach everyone and Anyone does it
best to solve this problem.

However, we also have a responsibility towards

our members. Several people were arrested for
their affiliation with Anyone. Their lawyer fees will
be paid by us because we refuse to let them deal
with it on their own.

But you must be aware of the risk.

We are not a legal organization.

And now, the Hero Commission targets us

because circumstances forced us to step into the
lights, where only pro heroes are tolerated.

This is why, from now on, unverified members of

the server cannot call for help anymore.

We regret it, as we are perfectly aware that

emergencies do not tolerate delays. However, we
cannot allow our members to fall into traps. We
hope that the situation will change and that we
will be able to go back to our previous mode of
operation.

Stay safe.]

[@ping ]

Snowdrift

[It’s really well done.]

Inferno more Inferyes

[Can you believe he made me rewrite it

three times???]

Snowdrift

[I am sure your writing skills will get better

with time.]

Anyone

[We have the utmost respect for All Might

and the work done by the other heroes. They risk
their lives in order to protect people and we do
not blame them for doing their job.
I will ask you not to blame the hero student who
was used to ambush one of our agents. He is, by
definition, a child, and the experience was
traumatic.

However, we do blame the Hero Commission for

endangering so many lives.]

Running was something Hitoshi hated with the

passion of a thousand suns but it was a necessary
part of his training if he wanted to keep himself in
shape. It was especially important since he had
started his internship with the Hero Commission,
as he missed a lot of training at school. So he
tried to run every evening through the park near
his apartment, always taking the same path so he
didn’t need to pay attention to his surroundings
as he ran through them.

When the first notification made his phone

vibrate, he didn’t pay attention to it. The horror
podcast he was listening to was more interesting
and the pain in his legs was a more pressing
matter.

His phone almost exploding under the number of

notifications unfortunately rose through his rank
of priorities, becoming the undefeated number 1
as about everyone in the Clamor server the
Commission had made him join decided to DM
him.

He had to pause, leaning against a tree, panting

because of the run but the warmth the exercise
had brought him quickly disappeared as he read
through the messages.

A mod had exposed what had happened and

people reacted to it.

He expected the curses and the threats.

He didn’t expect the stories. So many people

telling him how they had been in bad situations,
how they had been in danger, and Anyone had
answered their calls for help in minutes.

So many of them with “bad” quirks, the kind of

quirks people assumed you could handle
whatever was thrown at you, when they didn’t
outright suspect you were the perpetrator.

And they told him how terrified they were for

non-active members of the server, the ones who
would learn about it in the next few days, joined
the server in a moment of emergency, and
realized that no one would come because Hitoshi
had cried wolf and this would now have
consequences on everyone.

On anyone who desperately needed help.

By the time Hitoshi stumbled into his apartment,

the app was uninstalled because his phone was
so hot he couldn’t hold it in his hand without fear
of being burned and he was genuinely worried it
might explode. He threw it on the table, hoping it
would cool down, and he grabbed the house
phone, about to call Hanabata or UA.

Right until he saw his mug on the counter, next to

the sink.

When he was six, he had fallen into complete

adoration in front of this mug covered in sparkly
cats and he had shrieked with joy when his mum
had presented it to him the next day. No one else
in his home had ever touched it, not because it
wasn’t allowed but because they knew it was his.

This morning, Hitoshi had used this mug, cleaned

it, wiped it, and put it back in the cupboard.

Between the moment he had gone for a run and

the moment he had come back, someone had
drunk from his mug, carefully washed it in the
sink, and placed it upside down on the counter to
let it dry.

His fingers immediately found a kitchen knife in

one of the drawers of the kitchen.

His heart was beating so fast he felt nauseous. If

the Hosu vigilante was in his home, the knife
wouldn’t stop him, not when his quirk had
allowed him to juggle with cars and cranes alike
but it might allow Hitoshi to last long enough to
use his quirk on him.

And then Hitoshi would run like hell, because

their last meeting at the harbor had taught him
that some people could break out of his quirk.

He looked around, the knife hidden behind his

leg, the noises of his sneakers on the ground so
loud that every step almost made him flinch.

The door of his bedroom was half opened and so

was his window, even though he was in the habit
of closing both of them.

A postcard was waiting on one of his pillows.

There were cats on it.

Hitoshi didn’t put down the knife but he did relax

ever so slightly because if the intruder had
wanted to meet him face to face, he wouldn’t
have bothered leaving a message.

And yet, his fingers were oh so slightly trembling

where he took hold of the postcard.

Dear Shinsou Hitoshi,

Forgiveness is, I think, a virtue which ought to

be cultivated each time an occasion is
presented to us. Mistakes are an important
part of the learning process and I wouldn’t
deny someone the chance to learn from their
experience. This is why I assure you that there
will be no retaliation against you despite your
attack on my organization.

However, I must inform you that I only forgive

once.

Too often, the gift of forgiveness is taken for

granted and it would be a detriment, both for
you and I, to let you think such a thing.

Do not test my patience.

With love,

Anyone

Gangorca4ever

Was anyone going to tell me that there is an

organization made of very efficient vigilantes
running around or was I supposed to find out
about it from memes with Anyone puns???

#anyone organization #anyone #harbor disaster

Firemommy

Me just waiting for Tumblr to ban the Anyone tag

after all of you wore it down so now, the heroes
have no way to find this organization again.

#anyone #harbor disaster

Dustball

Anyone is a dumb name for a vigilante group

because it’s way too confusing.

#I have no idea if it’s just the word or the actual

word #I am too easily confused to deal with this
#anyone

Silveraspentree

No offense to OP but Anyone is an AMAZING

name for a vigilante group precisely because of
how confusing it is.

It’s literally a pun on “It could be anyone!” How

can you not like that name?

#anyone

Undeuxtrois

[Picture of a cat holding a fork and a knife and

waiting before starting to eat.]

Tumblr shitposters waiting for the moment it’s

confirmed that there was no casualty to start
posting their dumb memes.

#harbor disaster

42istheperfectnumber

You guys waited for the no casualty confirmation

before you started posting your memes???

Alienfromearth

Hero Commission: All Might fought an extremely

powerful villain and that’s why the harbor was
destroyed.

Me:

[ID: Image of the harbor that is now a mass of

rubbles, molten metal, and flames, with a crane
laying in the middle of the whole mess.]

Can we all agree that someone opened a gate to

Hell and that All Might was sent there to fight its
legions?

#All Might fought the devil #harbor disaster

Redowlfromhell

WHO THE FUCK DECIDE TO LURE A

DANGEROUS VIGILANTE IN A PLACE
CONTAINING SO MUCH EXPENSIVE SHIT???

#harbor disaster

Steponme

Can someone explain to me what the hell

happened and why I am not receiving my Star
and Stripe merch until I am dying of old age?

#I tried to look it up but I’m only finding memes

#harbor disaster

DefinitelytherealAllMight

But of course. An organization now known as

Anyone is created who knows when, being a
giant network of people doing each other favors
through using their quirks. It also involves some
pretty illegal activities and a bunch of vigilantes
that can be called when a member of the server
needs help. Most people didn’t know its
existence until the Hosu attack, where a bunch of
villains with their brains out attacked the city and
when someone who was definitely not a hero
kicked the crap out of the Hero Killer.

So yesterday, what is known as the harbor

disaster happened. Just… a whole freaking
harbor obliterated during a villain fight. All Might
apologizes because and I quote “Not only did I
fail to help the Hero Commission reach its goal
but I wasn’t able to arrest the villain responsible
for such destruction. As the number 1 hero, I
apologize for my shortcomings.” Which is a
pretty elegant way to say “Go ask the Hero
Commission, I am too tired to deal with this.”

And the Hero Commission is “You know what?

We will tell you later about it.” except that
someone else from the Hero Commission
confirmed that there is a pretty good chance the
villain who went toe to toe with All Might was the
urban legend they confirmed to be real back
during the USJ attack.

Then, what I assume to be an especially petty

mod on the Anyone server (which is a Clamor
server, something I still can’t believe) drops a wall
of text where they start by apologizing as the
vigilante will now be slower to react to call for
help since heroes are trying to arrest him then
drop the tea on how the Hero Commission tried
to arrest the Hosu vigilante and how everything
went to hell because of it.

The message was reposted everywhere (link

HERE because good luck finding anything with
the anyone tag on this hellsite)

So here is what we know: the Hero Commission

asked someone who is a hero student (probably a
third year from UA or Shiketsu) to make an
account weeks ago and to lure a vigilante from
Anyone in an isolated location. A top hero was
there to help apprehend them.

Everything went to hell as someone who was

strongly suspected to be the Hosu vigilante failed
to cooperate with their plan. Another hero who
was near the scene intervened. Then the situation
degenerated enough for a call for help to be
sent, which ended with freaking All Might rushing
there, and just as he was about to arrest
everyone, All for fucking One decided to show
up.

#Also it’s pretty much implied that the Hosu

vigilante walked out in a better shape than the
other heroes #They might want to just give him a
license at this point #harbor disaster

Number1heroEndeavor

Also, there is the fact that all of Tumblr is trying to

find out which top hero was there so we have
been tracking the sightings in order to find out
who looks injured/slightly scorched/just tired/not
there.

#My bet is on Endeavor #because fire #harbor

disaster

Izuku was sitting on the beach, his fingers under

the first layers of sand, the cold ones that hadn’t
been warmed up by the sun.

He focused on his breathing, keeping it slow and

steady, visualizing a green flame that was growing
every time he breathed out and shrinking every
time he breathed in.

The sun was shining brightly in the sky and the

sunlight was warming his skin in a pleasant way.

It was a nice decor that should have been perfect

for relaxation, and yet, Izuku couldn’t get rid of
the near-certitude that visualizing shoving a
specific quirk into a wood chipper, with blood
pouring everywhere, somehow, would have been
far better for his mental balance.

His ears picked up familiar steps but he didn’t

turn to greet Todoroki, simply slightly nodding to
acknowledge his presence.

The silence gained a curious note and even

though Izuku’s eyes were still closed, he could
guess that his friend was looking around.

“He isn’t here,” Izuku informed him,

understanding why Todoroki would be surprised
that All for One wasn’t breathing down his neck.

The Symbol of Evil tended to get clingy every

time Izuku put One for All in danger but he had
sighed in relief when Izuku had informed him he
intended to use the beach house in order to
experiment with the Sixth’s quirk. It was slightly
insulting that All for One was so convinced that
playing with a quirk was so engrossing for Izuku
that it was a sure way to keep him out of trouble.

Todoroki sat next to him in the sand, before

scooting backwards, presumably because he had
gotten too close to the shore and the salt water
had threatened to touch his sneakers. The tide
was rising. Izuku ought to imitate him.

He didn’t move.

“What are you doing?” Todoroki asked.

I am wasting my time.

“I didn’t manage to activate my new quirk

despite using several emotional triggers so I am
now meditating in order to be calm and to see if
peace of mind is the trigger to this electricity
quirk,” Izuku explained. “I at least want to know
how to activate it so I know how not to use it.”

He had meant to say that he didn’t want to

accidentally activate it but the words he had used
were closer to what he truly believed and he saw
no point in lying to Todoroki.

“It’s alright for you not to want to train with this

quirk because you’re scared of lightning quirks,”
Todoroki told him.

Izuku opened his eyes but he didn’t look at his

friend. Instead, he focused on the horizon.

“It’s not alright. It’s hypocritical of me not to want

to use this quirk because of my personal history
after I bullied you into using your flames. It’s…”

He stopped, unable to continue, not because he

didn’t want to but because words weren’t
enough. How could mere words describe what it
felt like to be electrocuted? To have this memory
burned into his flesh?

“You didn’t bully me,” Todoroki mocked. “You

just made this grand speech about how this was
my power. And threw me through trash. And hit
me in the face. And made me think you were
dead. But in a friendly way.”

And just like that, all of Izuku’s guilt disappeared.

“None of this would have happened if you had

sat down to look at the PowerPoint,” Izuku
reminded him. “It was an excellent Powerpoint.
We could have eaten ice cream while looking at
it. But nooo, you wanted to fight.”

“Coming from someone who flees every time I try

to show him my Powerpoint…”

Izuku smiled. It wasn’t the laugh (or pterodactyl

screeching) this kind of teasing would have
usually gotten out of him but that was something.

“Doesn’t trauma sometimes prevent people from

using their quirks?” Todoroki asked. “I remember
a sidekick at my father’s agency who had to retire
because she was trapped in a burning building
for too long.”

Izuku nodded.

There was a psychological component in how

quirks functioned. The same way strong emotions
could make a quirk be stronger, trauma could
absolutely mess up with one’s ability to use their
power and he had considered it. He had almost
died because of a similar quirk and if he never
had any problem looking at a lightning quirk,
there was a world between analyzing a quirk and
using one.

As a quirk counselor, Izuku was aware that he

couldn’t force things through in such situations.

But he just didn’t care.

“Could you ask the vestige with the lightning

quirk to explain to you how the quirk works?”
Todoroki asked. “I know they are not big fans of
yours but maybe you can convince them.”

Izuku was not morally against grabbing a vestige

by the ankles and shaking them until they handed
the secrets of their quirks but…

“The dreams are apparently a one-way-

communication,” he sighed. “I took a nap earlier
and tried to contact them but I couldn't access
the dreamscape. I think I need to be in some kind
of daze for it to happen. And meditation isn’t
cutting in.”

“A daze?” Todoroki repeated.

“The first time was when I was recovering from

Nightmare’s quirk, the second time was when I
was brainwashed by Shinsou Hitoshi, and the
third time was when I was…”

Izuku paused.

He fished out of his pocket the vial of painkillers

that Todoroki had grabbed for him when they
were fleeing the vault. He hadn’t taken anything
because he preferred for his mind to be sharp
while he was dealing with quirks strengthened by
the most powerful power in the world, but odds
were that this kind of medicine might be what he
needed in order to access his subconscious in
such way that he could have an actual
conversation with the vestiges.

Izuku looked at the vial of painkillers.

Something strange happened.

Some unknown force rose through the depths of

his psyche and did the psychic equivalent of
slapping him on the back of the head as the
realization of how much of a bad idea it would be
to take a bunch of painkillers beyond the
prescribed dose would be.

The teenager blinked, disorientated.

In his defense, it had been a while since he had a

visit from his common sense.

He put the painkillers back in his pocket and

considered his options, ultimately choosing
something that sounded less lethal than messing
with painkillers to see what would happen.

But for that, he would need his phone, which had

been put as far away as he could place it while
still hearing his notifications because Sixth’s quirk
had shut it down during the fight at the harbor.

A strand of dark energy grabbed the device and

yanked it to his hand.

Izuku frowned when he saw that two hours had

passed since he had started experimenting.

Kurogiri seemed almost relieved to warp them to

the bar. He might have thought that they were
less likely to get in trouble here and they failed to
inform him of their intention, waving at him with
innocent faces as he left.

As soon as the bartender disappeared, Todoroki

and Izuku ran behind the bar to select a strong
drink. After all, liquor had always been the most
used way to get into a daze quickly and with a
minimum of side effects.

Since they had no resistance whatsoever, the

teenagers quickly determined that they had to
choose something strong so they wouldn’t have
to drink much of it. Wine was ignored because it
was expensive, vodka was briefly considered but
the smell made Todoroki’s nose wrinkle in disgust,
and finally, Izuku located All for One’s cognac.

Todoroki was necessary to this scientific

endeavor… scientific process as they obviously
needed to see the difference that alcohol
absorption would make between someone semi-
normal and someone who had seven ghosts
living inside his quirk, so Izuku poured two
glasses, placing one in front of his friend.

They toasted and drank the content of their

respective glass at once.

Now, Izuku was no drinker but he had assumed,

from the time where All for One, Kurogiri, Dabi
and even Hawks that one time, had reached for
cocktail with the same fervor with which Izuku
reached for the chocolate after a bad day that it
ought to be good. Maybe not tasty but at least
something a normal human being could
somewhat appreciate.

He. Was. Wrong.

Alcohol tasted like trash. Fiery hot trash that

assaulted his senses, leaving them a wreck, and
the tiniest amount that managed to get down his
throat almost made him gag. His tongue more or
less refused to drink anymore of whatever this is
and most of the alcohol stayed in the glass.

The gulping sound next to him indicated that

Todoroki hadn’t shared this wisdom and to Izuku’s
horror, he saw that the glass of his friend’s was
empty.

And the intense look of regret on Todoroki’s face.

“That was… a mistake,” Izuku’s best friend

confirmed before putting his face on the counter.

Izuku stayed still, horrified at the idea he had

caused the death of his best friend. Now, he
wouldn’t only have All Might hunting for him but
also Endeavor, who was the best tracker of the
two. Something that the All Might fan that he was
would never admit out loud, especially when he
was spending so much time with two of
Endeavor’s most ardent anti-fans.

Focus!!! the lizard living in his brain shrieked.

After patting Shouto’s back, who still wasn’t

moving, he ran outside the bar and into Kurogiri’s
armory, straight to the mini fridge containing the
strawberry milk. Todoroki and Izuku had come to
the realization that hiding the snack stash from
Dabi was necessary to keep the peace and the
never thought to look behind the smoke
grenades.

When he ran back to the bar, All for One was

there.

The super villain was standing in the center of the

room, taking in the spectacle of Todoroki’s
poisoning, the many alcohol bottles on the bar,
and the two glasses of cognac. He had the most
incredible look on his face, pure surprise hitting
someone who was old enough to have seen
everything.

“I take my eyes from you for one second and you

start drinking???”

“It was for science!” Izuku defended himself as he

reached Todoroki in no time, his brusque
deceleration just before he hit the counter
leaving traces on the wooden floor, something he
would have to blame All for One for.

He gave the box of strawberry milk to his friend

but instead of drinking it and feeling better,
Todoroki clutched it against him, like a dragon
would hold its gold.

Not knowing what to do, Izuku kinda patted his

back like his mother used to do when he felt sick.

“Shouto, I know Izuku has no sense but I expect

better of you,” All for One reprimanded him,
locating and sitting on the nearest chair because,
judging from the way his shoulders were shaking,
the fiend was laughing at them.

“I’m sorry,” Shouto said, his voice muffled

because his face was still on the counter.

“I was trying to talk to the ghosts living within

me,” Izuku explained, hoping to distract him with
quirks. “Apparently, I can’t hear them unless I am
in a special state. Alcohol seemed slightly less
dangerous than oxycodone.”

“You mean you can’t make them shut up unless

you’re in a special state… Did you make shots
out of a cognac that is half my age? My cognac?”

Argh.

“It was like that when we arrived,” Izuku lied

shamelessly.

For a moment, All for One seemed torn apart

between acting like a reasonable adult and
chastising them or talking about quirks.

The quirk talk won.

“I would give an arm to have your kind of

problem,” All for One sighed, but knowing him,
he wasn’t talking about his arm. “People can get
driven insane by the incessant chatter of the
vestiges. Just two days ago, I was startled from
my sleep by the most horrific sound you could
ever imagine.”

And just like that, Shimura Nana was forgiven for

her impromptu one-woman concert.

All for One seemed to think about something

else but unfortunately, unlike Izuku, he kept his
mumbling internal.

“I suggest you find a plan B that doesn’t involve

either of you poisoning yourself,” he finally said.

“Since you are so generous with advice today,

may I ask you how the Sixth’s quirk worked?”
Izuku asked.

All for One gave him a blank look, which annoyed

Izuku because how many people had he killed for
him not to remember them?

And then, he remembered who he was talking to.

“Which one was the Sixth again?” All for One

asked.

“Short man with black hair, was probably wearing

a blue coat and a high collar when you killed
him…” The absolute absence of recognition in
All for One’s eyes gave him chills. “Electricity
quirk. The guy with an electricity quirk.”

Immediate recognition flashed into his eyes.

“Ah yes, that one. He couldn’t create much more

than sparks so he had to be close to make actual
damage but he was good at breaking electrical
things. I don’t know anything else about it. It
wasn’t a very interesting quirk, even after One for
All strengthened it, and I already had half a dozen
of lightning quirks at the time.”

Izuku facepalmed.

“Is it too soon to tell you that it’s your power?”

Shouto asked.

“It’s hardly my power,” Izuku protested. “The

quirk is haunted and the ghosts hate me.”

“You did kidnap them.”

Todoroki insisted that he wasn’t drunk and that he

just had a headache but that didn’t prevent Izuku
from bringing him home – and having to hide in a
closet for twenty minutes because Shouto’s sister
had come back home sooner than expected –
and he left him in his bed, with a water bottle and
two ibuprofens next to his futon.

Todoroki fell asleep as soon as his head hit the

pillow, clutching the box of strawberry milk like
children would hold teddy bears.

Izuku’s smile disappeared as soon as he left the

Todoroki house.

He stayed on the beach for a long time, his

phone in his hands, solving problems.

People had been arrested because they might be

part of Anyone and Izuku made sure that the
lawyers on the server got them out of custody by
the end of the day. Alibis were provided, excuses
for worried parents were given, some people
were bribed, others were blackmailed.

Izuku changed lives this day, with just one phone

and without needing to use any of his quirks.

At some point, All for One, who had been

watching him from the window of the kitchen,
walked out of the beach house and told him that
dinner was ready.

Izuku thanked him and explained to him that he

wasn’t hungry.

All for One came back with a blanket. He put it

on Izuku’s shoulders but apart from that, he didn’t
touch him. No hug. No intrusive hand messing
with his curls.

If Izuku hadn’t been so focused on fixing the

problems in Anyone, on making sure everyone he
cared about was alright, he would have thanked
him for understanding that he wasn’t in the mood
for tolerating any of those.

All for One left.

“Stop trying to be a villain ,” Izuku had said to a

thief today. “You’re in over your head. You are
going to get yourself killed, if you're lucky. So
please, stop while you still can. ”

The sun had set for a while when Izuku stood up,
leaving the blanket behind him as he left the
beach. His muscles groaned in pain, the cold of
the night and the forced immobility hardly
agreeing with them, let alone the beatdown
Gang Orca had inflicted, but Izuku ignored them.

Full Cowl.

He didn’t stop running until he reached the

forest, the kind that was so deep that was left
untouched by human presence. They were but
guests here.

Izuku stayed there for a moment, a palm on the

bark of a tree, breathing heavily because of the
run.

Fury rising from his chest, choking up his throat

because they had come after him. They had
come after his people.

He had hoped that physical exhaustion would be

enough to extinguish it, just one more day. Izuku
had been willing to run, to exhaust himself every
day if it meant not exploding.

Instead, the exhaustion muted everything but the

anger.

One for All begged to be left out, to be

unleashed, for his strength to pulverize inanimate
objects until the pain stopped.

Instead, Izuku screamed into the night because

he was angry and in pain and it was unfair and
everything was his fault. He screamed until his
throat hurt and he tasted blood in his mouth. And
then he collapses, sobbing like a child because
he felt trapped, he was scared, and he didn’t
know what to do.

He didn’t know how long he stayed on the

ground but it was long enough for the cold to slip
inside his bones and leave him trembling despite
the fact that Summer was here and the
temperatures were more than moderate.

At some point, he slowly rose to his feet, his head

aching because of all the tears. He wiped his face
with his shirt, reached inside himself until the
power of One for All was coursing through him,
and he left.

He wouldn’t stop.

He would keep going.

He had no other choice.

Notes:
1. Me, juggling with crystal
spheres representing Izuku’s
mental health: “Well, there goes
half of them…”
2. Was AFO telling the truth about
not remembering En? You decide!
3. RIP to Shouto who skipped the
whole “being drunk” process and
somehow went straight to
hangover territory.
4. Izuku was completely aware of
what he was doing when he
revealed Shinsou’s user name,
setting him up for (some limited)
doxing and when he went to his
place.
5. Before anyone asks, yes, Shouto
stole Hanabata’s car so his brother
would shut up about Izuku
stealing it from him.
6. Fair warning: the next chapter
will be an odd one, full of OCs
and the main cast won’t really be
there. Don’t expect anything from
it.

Many thanks to Hoodiemanic for

this beautiful fanart of Uncle Yoichi
and his gremlin of a nephew!

CHAPTER 35
Notes:
This chapter was cut in two
because I refused to have another
10K chapter again.

Warning for bullying and

eventually, some violence on this
chapter and the next. It's start
from "Back in Japan".
It's completely okay not to read
this chapter and the next. You will
still understand the story.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Ao didn’t hear Izuku walk into Ava’s apartment,

something he guessed from the way she went
from lounging on the couch, her head on her
girlfriend’s lap, to jumping out of it in a way eerily
reminiscent of a pissed off cat.

“No!” she scowled at him, which wasn’t as

intimidating as usual since she had traded her
leathers for comfy blue pajamas. “Vade retro
Satanas! You are not welcome here!”

“Don’t worry, babe,” Ava laughed, putting a

hand on Ao’s back. “I am the one who invited him
in.”

Ao immediately relaxed, not because of words

she didn’t seem to register before her first cup of
coffee – Izuku could relate – but thanks to Ava’s
touch. She leaned into it, her half eyes closed,
and after throwing an unimpressed glance at
Izuku, she went back to the couch, put a pillow
over her face, and in the next moment, she was
completely gone.

“I apologize for coming so early,” Izuku bowed

slightly..

“Don’t worry about it,” Ava waved it off before

indicating to him to sit on one of the chairs
surrounding the massive mahogany table she had
found at a flea market… before calling Izuku so
he could help her carry it to her new home. “I
was the one who told you I wasn’t available
yesterday and you can hardly delay your flight,
can you?”

Izuku certainly couldn’t since All for One had

been the one to break into his email account,
pretend to be him to ask his mom if she didn’t
mind Izuku visiting her for two weeks in Dubai
since there was a special offer making plane
tickets especially cheap, before booking the flight
himself.

All for One had argued that Izuku both needed

the vacation and that it would be better for Izuku
to go to his mother than for his mother to come
back to her home and to realize there had been
slight changes since her departure.

Izuku sat on the chair and leaned forwards, his

head hanging low, so Ava would have easy
access to his hair. Her hands found the white curls
he couldn’t bring with him to Dubai and she used
her quirk on them, bringing the original color
back in an instant.

The teenager waited for her to signal him that it

was over, so he could stand without accidentally
headbutting her in the chin.

“Uh,” his favorite anthropomorphic wolf said

instead.

Izuku didn’t like the sound of that. He didn’t like it

at all. For a horrifying moment, he tried to
remember when was the last time he had washed
his hair before calming down when he
remembered that it had been yesterday. Then he
freaked out again at the idea that his hair had
become horribly greasy in a day, before not quite
reassuring himself but sternly reminding himself
that he needed to calm the hell down.

“Is there a problem?” he managed to ask with an

even voice, proving that despite what Dabi was
claiming, he could act really well.

“Nothing, don’t worry,” she lied to him. “I just

need my phone. Just stay here. Don’t move.”

Izuku stayed where he was, not sure he wanted to

know what was happening, which left the time for
Ao to sit down on the couch and to take a look at
whatever was happening to him.

“Wasn’t his hair darker a year ago?”

Izuku didn’t like the sound of that either.

“It was but it’s completely normal for hair color to

change, especially during puberty!” Ava
frantically explained. “But since Yami is going to
see his mom, we are going to give him his
original hair color. It’s alright, I always make sure
to take photos the first time I color a client’s hair.”

Izuku looked around to see if there was coffee

around here. He could use a cup.

“Yes, completely normal,” Ao said, her voice

dripping with sarcasm. “It’s not like anything
stressful happened to you lately, Yami?”

“Nothing comes to mind,” Izuku answered

absentmindedly.

Shouto was training in the garden when his best

friend climbed over the high wall protecting his
home and more or less broke into the house of
the number 2 hero, which was starting to be a
common occurrence.

Fortunately, Shouto was the first one to wake up

in this house, and he was up even earlier than
usual so he could train before having all of his
day eaten by the medical physical examination
that UA insisted on putting his students through
once a year. No one would know Midoriya had
ever set foot here.

Hanging on to the coffee that explained how he

could function despite the early hour, Midoriya
walked to him, hair as green as the day when
they first met… Shouto frowned.

“Your hair isn’t the exact same shade of green,”

he greeted his best friend.

Midoriya froze, then informed Shouto that even if

this was the case, it was close enough.

They talked about how to handle the server while

Anyone was in another country and checked the
schedule Nagisa had made since Midoriya would
be unavailable for two weeks because he would
be with his mom and Shouto would be
unavailable the next week because of the
Summer Camp.

They asked each other to be careful since it

would be the first time, since they had met, that
they couldn’t have each other’s back.

And after one hug, Shouto said goodbye to his

best friend.

“Uh,” Todoroki Enji said from behind his mug of

green tea as he was looking through the window.

The green-haired-boy he didn’t know because he

had certainly never been introduced to him
finished hugging his son, then left.

The number 2 hero finished his tea and looked at

the list of First Years, then Second Years, who had
participated in the Sport Festival but he found no
one in the hero course corresponding to the
description of the boy who seemed quite familiar
with his house.

It meant that his son probably wasn’t dating

someone in the hero course. He hoped the boy
was in Gen Ed. In his experience, people working
in the Support department were insane.

Izuku was warped directly to the airport, where

the bane of his existence was waiting for him with
his luggage and a bag packed to the brim with
snacks and notebooks.

Fifteen minutes later, Izuku was still standing in

front of the gates because he was trapped both
by a very unwanted hug and by the societal
expectation of not using his quirk in the middle of
an airport to escape said hug.

“I am going to miss my plane,” Izuku informed All

for One, his words coming out muffled because
he was being smothered by a two-meters-tall
cuddly white cat from hell.

All for One didn’t seem to hear him but again, he

was excellent at pretending he couldn’t hear
people’s complaints or see them freak out, which
he had proven five minutes earlier when he had
sent a flight attendant running when she had the
audacity of telling him he was delaying
everyone’s flight.

“You’re the one who booked the ticket,” Izuku

informed him. “You’re literally the one who
wanted to get rid of me.”

The teenager wasn’t heartless. He understood

that for a person who had such serious mental
problems, the perspective of saying goodbye to
someone on which he had made such an
incredibly annoying mental transfer could be
upsetting. But he had his limits.

“I am going to miss your birthday,” All for One

said in the tone of someone starting to consider
following him to another country.

Okay, enough is enough.

Izuku smacked All for One in the face with his bag
until he let go of him.

There were many things Aizawa Shouta disliked

about heroism today: people’s expectations, the
flashiness and the theatrics, being nice to people,
the Hero Commission, hero students who
thought that heroism was one beautiful path of
happiness as they were completely unaware of
how dangerous the profession really was, having
to teach students, caring about his students, the
Hero Commission, the hero ranking, the rampant
irrationality saturating every fiber of society, the
Hero Commission, being kicked around by a child
while trying to rescue another child who had
picked a fight with the first one, and so on.
However, what currently stood number 1 at the
top of his list of grievances was the annual check-
up every hero students and pro heroes had to
undergo.

“Alright, students!” he said from his sleeping

bag. “It’s no different from the physical
examinations you had in middle school. Follow
your class presidents and don’t give me a reason
to intervene.”

One of the tests during the check-up was a quirk

assessment exam to make sure that no one was
being hurt by their quirks. Shouta was the one in
charge of making sure no one went overboard.

He admitted that this was more of a problem for

people in Gen Ed, in Management Class or in the
Support department as they weren’t used to
wielding their quirks but it never hurt to warn his
class. Last time he had assumed one of them
would be fine, said student had walked into a
harbor and poked someone who threw cranes
around for fun.

Ashido raised her hand.

“Sir, what if we hate needles with the passion of a

thousand suns?”

“This is one of those cases where heroes must go

beyond their discomfort, Ashido,” the homeroom
teacher told her. “Your health isn’t only important,
it is vital for your career as a hero.”

Shouta failed to mention that when he had to do

his own annual check-up, a week ago along with
the rest of the pro heroes in activity, Mic had
shoulder slammed him into submission long
enough for Midnight to make him go to sleep.

He didn’t think that his perfectly logical distaste

at the idea of being stabbed with a needle would
be useful to his students.

“It’s too bad Akatani couldn’t make it to the

physical examination,” Hebisuga frowned as she
looked at her phone. “Do you think it would be
alright if I texted him to ask if he is alright? I know
his health isn’t the best but he also really doesn’t
like it when we mention it.”

Yuuto immediately had a pretty vivid flashback of

that time where he had seen Akatani changing in
his PE uniform, revealing muscles that had made
him self-conscious, six-pack included.

He then remembered that time when the vending

machine had refused to give him the bag of
M&Ms he had paid for so Akatani had slapped
the machine so hard two bags of M&Ms had
come out.

“Don’t bother,” he told her. “I am sure he’s fine.”

Izuku didn’t sleep as much as he passed out from

exhaustion from the moment he sat down in the
plane. For the first time in months, he didn’t have
to deal with his very illegal but necessary
organization or a supervillain who kept mistaking
him for a plushie and he hadn’t realized how
much energy he had expended trying to keep
both of those things from exploding.

The passenger next to him gently touched his

shoulder to wake him up once the plane landed.
Izuku was confused for a moment, then moved,
to see that one of the flight attendants had put a
blanket on him. Smiling, he grabbed his bag,
helped three other people get their own bags,
then walked out the plane.

After waiting in line for what seemed to be

forever, he finally emerged into a beautiful
airport.

His mother was waiting for him.

An arm raised to her chest in an anxious gesture,

she was looking around, trying to find him. She
looked positively radiant, her green hair was cut
into a bob cut, which was longer than the last
time Izuku had seen her. She was wearing dark
grey pants and a pink sleeveless blouse that was
exposing the muscles on her arms.

For a moment, Izuku stayed frozen, not daring to

move. The brand new quirk and the new scars he
had collected over the last months seemed to
burn within him, proof that he had changed,
evidence that his mother had to notice.

But instead, she saw him and smiled, both of

them feeling the exact same joy tainted with
relief.

Despite Izuku’s best efforts, tears started to well

in his eyes, but at least, he wasn’t the only one
this was happening to.

Izuku ran to his mother and jumped into her

arms, crying like a child.

First hadn’t been able to contain his excitement

since Izuku had boarded the plane but he was of
the opinion that he ought to be excused. After
all, it wasn’t every day that one met his in-laws.

“This is it!” he rounded up a bunch of just as

curious vestiges. “We are finally going to see who
managed to marry my brother!”

“What if she is another supervillain?” Second

asked, letting himself be manhandled by First,
which was nothing new.

“At this point, will it really change anything?”

Third asked.

“What if she is an undercover hero?” Fourth

proposed, already munching on popcorn.

No one answered him as the mother of the only

villain who had ever managed to steal One for All
arrived in sight, only for said sight to be blurred
by a torrent of tears, to the intense relief of First,
who had always been good at remembering
faces.

He prayed that no one else had noticed that

something was amiss.

But alas, Fifth had to open his mouth. “Does

anyone think that she looks strangely familiar?”

Sixth, who was the only one who had met Nana’s
husband among them, was still as a statue.

Next to him, Seventh calmly stood up, walked

away from the giant screen they used to spy on
the boy who had abducted them, and she left
until a door appeared in front of her, leading to
one of the rooms they went into when they were
sick of seeing each other’s face. Perfectly sound-
proof, impossible to access unless someone had
the authorization of whoever was using them, and
the only absolute privacy they had in this shared
dream.

“My baby,” his mother was crying. “My adorable

baby. You didn’t change at all.”

It was a filthy lie since Izuku used to be shorter

than her the last time she had been in Japan but
he was too busy crying to remind her of that
detail.

For a second, his sobs calmed down, as he had

the impression of hearing something. Probably a
consequence of the change of pressure in the
plane but if he had focused, he would have
noticed this sounded like a scream at a very low
volume.

More exactly, like the anguished scream of

someone who was having their soul ripped apart.

But since people from the airport came and

begged them to stop crying because the
Midoriya family was starting to flood the entire
floor, Izuku promptly forgot and never thought
about it again.

Back in Japan

Sorano Naru lingered on the threshold of her

classroom, her heart beating madly in her chest
as the dread was rising from her stomach. These
days, going to school was exhausting but she
usually managed to juggle her unease in
seconds.

Come on, she encouraged herself. A strange

habit, she admitted it, but no one was going to
do it for her. You are going to be a hero. You have
to be brave.

She opened the door, ducking under the

doorframe because her school wasn’t used to
people being 190 centimeters tall, let alone
female students.

Nothing happened.

That was the problem.

Naru would have loved to be greeted by silence.

The noises of conversations stopping would have
been an acknowledgement, something she was
craving despite knowing how pathetic it was. But
instead, no one looked at her, not even when she
managed to whisper a greeting and she stalked
to her chair, feeling too big, too clumsy, too much
and not enough at the same time.

For two months now, no one in the hero course

had talked to her.

When she tried to go to her classmates and start

a conversation, it died in less than a minute and
she was left standing in front of people looking at
her with pity in their eyes.

Her hands found her phone and she quickly

scrolled through Tumblr, trying to think about
something else than the crushing loneliness that
was slowly driving her insane. Unfortunately, her
body reacted to her turmoil and to her horror, a
transparent substance started to leak from her
fingers. She looked left and right, making sure
that no one had noticed it, and casually (or so she
tried) wiped it on the inside of her skirt. It would
dry without leaving a stain but it might take a
while and she didn’t want people laughing at her
for having an “accident”.

She went back to her phone, looking at the

Anyone memes saturating her dash. She could be
calm. This was a quirk week, where the hero
course exclusively trained their quirks and their
physical aptitude. She might suck at socializing
but she knew her quirk wasn’t too bad and she
had the best grades in PE. Having a mutation
quirk that made her look like a giant bipedal eel
(tail included) had its advantages.

Someone glanced at her.

Naru was so used to being ignored that she

immediately noticed, her head turning to see
who had broken the taboo of this class… only to
see a girl with long pale blue hair and dark eyes
looking at her from her desk.

Inazuma Raika.

For a terrifying moment, they made eye contact,

glacial blue eyes staring straight into her soul
until Naru frantically looked away, then down,
staring at her slightly webbed hands on her desk.

Technically, Inazuma had never even raised her

voice at her and she has always been polite but
Naru knew that she didn’t like her. Despite both
having an electricity quirk, they weren’t on the
same level and Inazuma… she was kind of
perfect. She never made any mistakes, she always
had the highest grades, she was beautiful and
popular, and everyone loved her, which was a
problem because she didn’t think much of Naru.

Inazuma’s friends and everyone who wanted to

be friends with her (which was about the entirety
of the school, teachers included) had noticed she
was annoyed at Naru and like true pack animals,
they had followed her lead, then they had gone
beyond. Naru was annoying. In the way.
Unwelcome.

And nothing she did managed to change their

mind.

The game of Capture The Flag was an habitual

exercise in the hero course. The class was divided
in two and the teams had to fight each other so
one of their comrades could grab the flag, and
more importantly, bring it back to their own base.

Naru wasn’t confident in many things but she

knew she had physical strength on her side. She
was running along Suzano, a classmate whose
quirk allowed her to make people lose all sense.
Naru would clear out any obstacle so Suzano
could get to their base and so their team would
win.

As far as she was concerned, Inazuma appeared

from nowhere.

Maybe she had always been there, hidden by a

classmate’s quirk. Maybe Naru hadn’t paid
enough attention to her surroundings. It didn’t
matter. When she saw Inazuma aiming at her with
the strongest lightning quirk of the entire district,
every cell of her body went on high alert.

There was one simple rule with Inazuma, be it for

exercise or for life in general: when she aimed at
someone, that someone better get the hell out of
her way.

Naru’s body moved on its own, slime leaking from

her arm and covering Suzano in a second,
protecting her from the electric shock they were
both about to receive.

But it never came.

Instead, Kizuna, a girl with a quirk allowing her to

turn into a giant fox, took advantage of this
opportunity and snatched the flag from Suzano’s
hand. Naru reacted in the second, knowing that
she could catch her if they didn’t run for too long.
She just had to put a hand on her to give her a
shock, not enough to harm her, just a little under
the voltage a taser would deliver.

Suzano’s scream made her freeze like a deer in

front of the headlights, long before Naru realized
what she was saying.

“SORANO, WHAT THE HELL?” the girl

screamed, her uniform soaked and her black hair
sticking to her skull now. “I AM COVERED IN
THAT STUFF! IT'S DISGUSTING!”

Naru stayed there like an idiot, too surprised to

react, too embarrassed to even think about
saying something. Her classmates were looking at
her. She saw no hint of sympathy or even pity for
her.

Even her homeroom teacher was just

facepalming, as if he couldn’t bear to look at her.

“She must have been worried for you,” Inazuma

said, a hand under her nose.

Naru knew exactly why she was doing that.

“It was obvious you weren’t going to use your

quirk directly on me!” Suzano cursed. “Argh, it
smells! And we lost the flag because of that!
What the hell?”

Naru’s cheeks were burning so hot that she felt

like she was about to catch on fire.

But she didn’t say anything.

There was only one way to save a day like that

and it involved Naru going to her favorite comic
café.

She dragged herself inside, ordered a dessert

with as much chocolate a human organism could
consume without falling into a coma, and picked
the first volume of The Wicked + The Divine,
which was her comfort comic. She had gone
through half of it when she spotted a familiar
regular, a tall white-haired-man who was reading
Once & Future while methodically going through
a lemon meringue pie.

There were two things this comic café was known

for: an impressive collection of vintage comics
and, since most people didn’t know how to
appreciate great things, desserts that were only
delicious but substantial. Naru herself, who ate
about twice as much as a girl her age, never
ordered more than one.

Nisena Hajime ordered about three each time he

visited this café.

She left her seat and walked to his table.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Nisena.” He smiled when

he noticed her and closed his comic, pushing it
aside so there would be nothing between them,
which warmed Naru’s heart. She was rarely
treated like this nowadays. “I hope I’m not
bothering you.”

“Sorano, my dear, you should know that you’re

never bothering me,” the adult chuckled.

The smile naturally came to Naru’s lips. She had

met him a few weeks ago, when he had been
asking recommendations to a waiter for his child,
who didn’t like comics with superheroes
(something for which Naru tried really hard not to
judge this boy she had never met) but the waiter
had been a little bit at loss. Naru hadn’t managed
to stay silent because she had recommendations.

She had all the recommendations.

They had been talking comics ever since. Never

for long. They weren’t friends or anything, that
would have been weird, but Naru was always
happy to see him.

Despite the fact that he was a DC fan, even

though everyone ought to know that Marvel was
better, but once again, she tried not to judge him
too much. That wouldn’t be very heroic of her.

“If you’re still looking for comics to introduce to

your son… Well, I discovered Lazarus from Greg
Rucka and it’s really good,” she tried to play it
cool, like someone who hadn’t read all the issues
of Lazarus, Lazarus Risen and Lazarus X +66 in
one day.

His smile became wider, happiness showing on

his face.

“Everything Greg Rucka does is good,” he said

as if it was an absolute truth in the world.

Oh, so he already knew…

“I read it when I was younger than you,” he

explained. “Thank you for reminding me. You
would be surprised of all the little things you
forget when you’re my age.”

Naru almost asked him how old he was because

he looked a little bit young for someone who had
a son her age but they were only passing
acquaintances who shared a love for comics and
even if they had known each other better, that
seemed a little too rude of a question.

Instead, she simply smiled and wished him a nice

reading. But before she could go back to her
table, he called her, making her pause.

“My dear, I don’t mean to pry but are you alright?

You seem sad.”

For a moment, Naru was completely set aback,

horrified that what she was going through at
school was showing on her face enough to
contaminate the sanctuary that was this comic
shop.

In the next moment, she had plastered a smile on

her face.

“I do? Don’t worry! Everything is alright!”

The next day, Naru was staring at her gym clothes

whose light blue and white fabric was now
saturated with dark ink.

Most of it had the time to dry so she doubted

that she could get rid of the stains no matter how
many times she washed them. She was going to
have to buy another set. However, she was the
only one whose uniform had to be specially
ordered because the school simply didn’t have
her size, not when it was an all-girl high school. It
meant at least four weeks of going to school in
her old gym clothes that were a little too small for
her.

"Sensei, can I wear my hero costume today? I

have a problem with my PE uniform."

"... Be sure to wear your uniform tomorrow. It’s

not fair to your classmates for you to be the only
one with support gear. And clean your hands first.
If you want to be a hero, you ought to do better
than that."

Naru was scrubbing and scrubbing her hand but

the ink didn’t want to leave her skin. She didn’t
even understand how something coming from a
pen could be so tenacious. Had they somehow
managed to acquire that special ink banks used
to mark robbers and stolen cash alike?

She guessed that it was time for the first break

because her ears picked up on the noises of
conversations of 40 girls suddenly being allowed
to stop training. Naru scrubbed harder, her hands
starting to hurt, but her nails were doing a better
job at getting rid of the ink than the soap alone.

Inazuma chose this moment to enter the

bathroom. Perfect from her expensive sneakers to
the top of her head, she advanced to the sink and
filled her empty bottle with tap water. When she
was done, she put some chapstick on.

They didn’t even look at each other the whole

time they stood next to each other, alone for the
first time since they had met each other.

But eventually, Inazuma talked, her eyes fixed on

her own reflection, which she was observing
coldly.

"Do you mind if I give you some advice?"

Naru nodded because what else could she do?

“Having a quirk above average isn’t enough to

be a hero. If that was the case, we wouldn’t have
rankings. At its core, it’s a popularity contest. You
need to be social. You need to know how to
make friends easily. You need to cultivate a
fanbase. If you can’t… That might not be the
right path for you.”

Emotions bubbled inside Naru but she didn’t say

anything. She just stood there, her hands full of
soap and ink.

Inazuma grabbed her water bottle and left.

“Also, maybe invest in some perfume,” she said

on her way out of the bathroom.

Notes:
I apologize for the scene of Izuku
actually putting some effort into
breaking into Shouto’s house. It
was written before a certain
chapter revealed that people
could just walk in the house of the
number 2 hero and not be
noticed.

More seriously, thank you to

anyone who left a comment. I
often reread the comments left on
this fic and it immediately makes
me feel better. ^^

Many thanks to Tealfluff!

Many thanks to Karmauh for their

beautiful work HERE and HERE!

Many thanks to Metaljellyfish for

drawing Random Guy and
Sergeant Whiskers!
 Many thank to Goobshark!

CHAPTER 36
Notes:
Warning for bullying, some
violence and lethal electrocution.
It's completely okay not to read
this chapter. You will still
understand the story.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Inazuma Raika rarely thought about her first

middle school but when she had gotten into a
hero school, several of her former classmates had
immediately reached out on social media, eager
to be close to someone who might become
famous. She had answered them but had also
kept her distance, acting out of politeness instead
of a real desire to reconnect with them. The only
exception had been a girl with a cat quirk whose
mother had remarried with a high executive of
Detnerat.

This girl happened to know all the gossip, which

was very useful to someone like Raika for whom
reputation was everything.

Rin <3: [Have you heard about Mr. Kazuhito?]

Her former homeroom teacher from Aldera had

met a spectacular fall from grace. Rumor had it
that he had not only stolen money from his wife’s
elderly aunt but he had also accidentally sent
pictures of his mistress and him to his wife’s
father. His divorce had been finalized a few weeks
ago.

And then, after his wife had left with the children,
his house had gone up in flames, with him inside.
No one was sure if it was an accident (after all, he
was known to be a heavy smoker) or if he had
ended his life to make his wife regret leaving him.

Raika herself didn’t particularly care.

Me: [I heard about it! It’s awful! I know he made

mistakes but he didn’t deserve that. His poor
children…]

Rin <3: [I so agree with you! What a horrible way

to go!]

Rin <3: [Are you going to the funeral?]

And get contaminated by whatever jinx is

hanging above that place? No, thank you.

Her former PE teacher, the one in charge of the

quirk training, had broken both legs three months
ago and wouldn’t be able to ever walk without
pain again. Matoi had run away and his parents
were beside themselves, claiming that their kid
was as innocent as the newborn lamb, even
though everyone who had ever known him was
aware of his habit of pulling stupid and
dangerous pranks. There was a rumor that the
freaking principal was about to be arrested for
money laundering.

And honestly, Raika didn’t need to keep in touch

with a subpar middle school. If she wanted a
narrative of diamond in the rough emerging from
a shitty school, her high school was adequate
enough.

Not that she would be here next year. She had

several letters of recommendations and an
interview to get into Shiketsu.

Me: [I can’t.]

Me: [I have a quirk week at my hero school and if

I miss even a day, I will be disadvantaged. I regret
it but I know that Mr. Kazuhito wouldn’t have
wanted me to miss this opportunity. He always
believed that I could be a hero.]

Rin <3: [Of course. Don’t blame yourself, school

is important and hero courses are especially
demanding.]

Rin <3: [Love you.]

Me: [Love you too <3 <3 <3 <3 <3]

Suzano hugged Raika from behind just as she was

putting her phone back in her pocket, pressing
her cheek against her shoulder and asking her
what she thought about the latest fun subject of
conversation: Anyone.

An organization of vigilantes, with members

powerful enough to fight pro heroes and even to
escape the number 1 hero. Even if people (well,
nerds) had known about it before the harbor
incident, this name had spread through Japan
like wildfire and everyone was curious about
them.

However, even if people were happy to explain

what Anyone was and to claim that they were
aware of it long before this name had spread
through social media, no one ever admitted
being part of it.

In truth, Raika thought that they were pretty cool.

She was aware that pro heroes were forced to
deal with a lot of paperwork and rules of conduct.
The idea of not having to justify herself to do her
future job appealed to her. However, as a hero
student, she was too smart to admit it, especially
at school.

So she told her friends what she had to say,

explaining how there might be well-meaning
people but pro heroes were the ones who were
trained to handle dangerous situations and that
encouraging vigilantes to do what they wanted
would lead to unrest.

They kept chatting around their lunches, happy

and laid-back.

And as they did, Raika watched Sorano from the

corner of her eyes. The eel girl was eating alone,
wearing an ill-fitting PE uniform. She looked small
and timid.

Raika felt some calm satisfaction at this. In a

sense, she was doing Sorano a favor. Better to
make her quit now, in high school, than for her to
waste years of effort only to realize that she
wasn’t cut out to be a hero.

It wouldn’t take much before Sorano finally

realized the truth.

Not that Raika would do it herself.

After all, she had learned from her mistakes.

The harassment got worse. At first, Naru’s stuff

was displaced, to the point where she really
wondered if the stress and the fatigue wasn’t
messing with her memories. It was only when she
started to find her books trashed and gum at
places where chewing gum had no place to be
that she realized that it wasn’t her brain
dysfunctioning

It was what urged Naru to check social media.

She even created several social media accounts
just for the occasion.

She found several photos of herself online. She

hadn’t noticed when they had been taken, which
wasn’t surprising since everyone in school always
had their phone in hand, but they weren’t
flattering and the comments under them… It
hurt. It made her feel miserable and self-
conscious.

It would have been easier and probably better for

her peace of mind to stop obsessively going
through all of her classmates’ feeds. But she
couldn’t help herself.

And she took screenshots of every photo and

every comment.

“Sorano, why were you late today?”

“No one told me we weren’t training outside but

in the gymnasium, Sensei.”

“Sorano… Can’t you make an effort to get along

with your classmates? You need to know how to
make friends if you want to be a hero.”

“There is this girl at school.”

Mr. Nisena waited for Naru to continue, a hand

on his coffee, relaxed and patient. He didn’t look
distant and vaguely frustrated like her homeroom
teacher when she hinted that something was
wrong with her classmates. He didn’t have this
look of concern and empathy that she imagined
her family members would wear on their faces if
she wasn’t lying to them about school.

No, instead, he looked like the stranger that he

was, someone who wasn’t involved in the
situation.

Maybe it was why it was easier to confide in him

than in anyone else.

“She is simply amazing,” Naru smiled. “She is

beautiful, talented, her quirk is so strong and
everyone loves her. But she just… doesn’t like
me. And I understand that not everyone can get
along, but everyone who loves her follows what
she wants… And school has been really hard.”

She realized she was reducing the paper napkin

she was holding in her hands to shreds. She
stopped before her skirt was covered in paper.

“I thought I could go through high school alone,

without even one friend but… they all hate me. I
can feel it.”

She waited for him to assure her that not

everyone hated her. She waited for him to tell her
to speak to her parents about it, even though it
would worry them and they would feel bad
because they wouldn’t be able to do anything.
She waited for him to advise her to ask help from
his homeroom teacher, as if he wasn’t all too
happy to ignore everything his star student was
doing and probably considered her a bother for
not managing to fit in with the class.

Embarrassment made her blush. She was already

regretting ever opening her mouth. She probably
would have to stop coming to this café now.

But the white-haired-man simply took a sip from

his coffee and thought about it.

“That girl… How do you feel about her?” he

asked.

Naru was so taken aback by that question that for

a moment, she couldn’t say anything, just
stunned.

She knew the answer to his question, of course.

Every time one of Inazuma’s followers pushed her
around, she froze. They thought it was because
she was afraid. But she knew the truth. She knew
what it was.

Pure, raw, white-hot and festering hatred.

She hated every single one of them. This had

gone beyond anger because they hadn’t just
made her life miserable: they had turned her into
someone she didn’t recognize. She used to be
liked, to be the one her classmates relied on. She
used to be a protector. She had never imagined it
was possible for her to be bullied. But now,
because of them, this bright and beautiful being
she had been was just a vague memory.

And every time she had to deal with their bullshit,

every time she was yelled at or ignored or treated
like she was nothing, she stayed still and didn’t
say anything, she kept herself from reacting, kept
this hatred and this frightening need to tear them
apart in check, because the slightest sign of
anger would be used again her to paint her as
someone who couldn’t control herself.

Because bullied people weren't allowed to lose

their cool. Because bullied people weren’t
allowed to fight back, for it would be used to
crucify them.

And it was doubly true for people with

heteromorphic quirks like her.

“I hate her,” she said, and just admitting it made

her feel like herself for the first time in months.
“She has everything. Why does she go out of her
way to make my life miserable? How dare she
torture me like that?”

It was unforgivable.

A light of approbation brightened Mr. Isena’s

piercing grey eyes, as if he was happy that she
sometimes entertained thoughts about snapping
a classmate’s scrawny neck.

“What kind of quirk does she have?” he asked,

once again giving her whiplash.

“Electricity,” she answered anyway.

“You look like an electric eel so I am going to

assume that you also have electricity-based-
powers?

Naru nodded.

“Then, you have your answer. She wants you out

because you’re a threat.” He ignored Naru tilting
her head in pure incomprehension and
continued. “Heroes are dime a dozen and they
shine through their uniqueness. Beautiful heroes
with elemental powers are common.”

“Her voltage is twice as powerful as mine!” Naru

cried out before looking around, embarrassed
because she had raised her voice.

And if it was only that… Inazuma was perfect.

Beautiful, popular, and with the strongest quirk in
the entire hero course.

But Mr. Isena obviously didn’t look impressed.

“… Good for her. It’s still completely useless for a

hero. Fighting villains while using too high of a
voltage will kill them, which was still frowned
upon in the hero industry last time I checked.”

Naru blinked.

“Two students from the same school, both of

them having an electricity quirk. Who do you
think people will recognize more easily?” Mr.
Isena asked. “Who is the physically strongest of
the two, with a quirk actually adapted for hero
work instead of a quirk whose super move stops
hearts?”

He drank more of his coffee while she put into

perspective her entire high school experience.

He’s wrong, isn’t he? He is just saying that

because he doesn’t understand the full situation?

She had never tried to compete with Inazuma. At

first, it was because she wanted her high school
experience to be full of friendship and solidarity.
Then, it had been because she knew she didn’t
stand a chance.

“If you’re reduced to talking with me about your

problems, I can only assume that your teachers
have failed you,” Mr. Isena spoke the truth and
nothing but the truth. “People in authority do
have a tendency to forget their responsibilities
when it’s inconvenient to them. Fortunately, as
someone in the hero course, a place where
people fall in line with the ones who have the
strongest quirk even more than usual, you have a
very simple way to make things better for
yourself.”

“And what is that?” Naru hoped for a real

solution.

“Excel at what you do,” this man had the

audacity to say like it was easy. “Prove that you
aren’t just a victim but someone worth investing
in. People will always compare the two of you
and once they realize that they might have been
backing the wrong horse, they will stop
antagonizing you. It’s human nature at its finest.
Your teacher, especially, won’t want a potential
alumni to badmouth his teaching methods.”

Naru opened her mouth to gently explain to him

that it was easier said than done.

She closed it as she realized that… she hadn’t

exactly been giving her all in her classes until
now. Not when she was investing so much of her
energy into being unnoticeable, in the hopes that
things wouldn’t get worse.

“What if I fail?” she quietly asked.

“Can your situation get any worse?” he asked

back, a note of mockery in his voice.

“… What if they hate me even more?”

Until now, the face of her interlocutor had stayed

pretty neutral. A hint of a smile here, some light
mockery there, a glimmer of interest, but nothing
more. Naru appreciated that. Hesitation, doubt
and the awkwardness of not knowing how to
answer would have paralyzed her.

It was why the pity she saw on his face hurt her so
much, shocking her to the core.

“Oh my dear, they did you a disservice,” he said

softly. “They taught you to be less than you are.”

Naru became eerily still, the words resonating

with something inside her.

“They taught you to shrink so others wouldn’t

feel little. They taught you to muzzle yourself so
others wouldn’t feel threatened. They taught you
to be weak and tame and worse, they lied to you
and claimed that it would make the others accept
you when we both know that it never changed a
thing. It just taught the people who should have
feared you that you are prey. So tell me, Sorano
Naru, why bother to continue?”

Naru couldn’t breathe, pinned down by his sheer

presence and the realization that maybe, just
maybe, she had wasted most of her life trying to
please people who would never accept her.

She tried to think outside of those words, feeling

the sheer force of his man’s will rewriting how she
perceived the world and her life.

Her saving grace came in the form of a waiter

who made a little “Wow” sound as he looked at
the TV in the corner of the café.

In the next moment, the pressure was gone and

they were both looking at the TV that was
showing something happening in Dubai. For that
to be aired on a Japanese news channel, it either
meant that a Japanese hero was involved or that
the situation was really out of the ordinary… Yep,
it was the latter.

Mr. Nisena looked at it for a couple of seconds,

annoyance coming from him in waves. He
apologized to Naru and went outside to make a
phone call but since he let the door open, the
hero student had no trouble picking up on what
he was saying.

“Where are you?”

A small moment passed and whatever he was

hearing, Mr. Isena wasn’t convinced.

“You seriously expect me to believe you are just

chilling at home?” he asked in the tone of a
parent who was done with their child. “It’s better
not be a helicopter I am hearing right behind
you… Do not hang up on me!”

The last sentence was said with an intensity that

made Naru want to curl into a ball and to pretend
that she was invisible. A passerby who got too
close ran in the other direction. Another customer
too close to the door hid behind his comic as if it
was Captain America’s mighty shield.

But apparently, Mr. Nisena’s son was braver than

all the top 5 heroes combined

The terrifying DC fan walked back into the comic

café, paid his bill and said something to the
waiter that sent him running. He then stopped in
front of Naru, apologizing for cutting their
conversation short for he had to go (Naru
assumed he was on his way to ground his son for
the next decade) and gave her his card, insisting
on the fact that if she needed to talk, she was free
to call him whenever she wanted.

Ten minutes later, the waiter was bringing Naru a

tiramisu, ordered and paid by Mr. Nisena in the
hopes of making her feel better, which was
adorable.

Hawks, who had relocated to Dabi’s apartment

while waiting for his feathers to grow back
because his loft was at the very top of the
building and there was no working elevator due
to some necessary sabotage so his handlers
wouldn’t come and bother him at home without a
very good reason, received an alert on his phone.
Lounging on the couch with one chicken tender
in one hand and his phone in the other, he raised
an eyebrow and threw the phone away. It was
way out of the country so there was nothing he
could do.

“I do not envy people in Dubai right now,” the

currently grounded number 3 hero muttered
before swallowing the piece of chicken covered
in hot sauce.

Both Dabi and Shouto stopped arguing at once

(something about how Shouto needed to go
home because Dabi tolerated only one
freeloader in his place – Hawks wasn’t sure of
who he was talking about - and Shouto ignoring
him and arguing about Dabi needing him for
groceries) and they looked at him with almost
identical eyes.

“What?” they both said as one.

Hawks showed them his phone.

“A kaiju is currently attacking Dubai… Why are

you looking at me like that? Who do you know in
Dubai?”

Then it hit him.

One member of the dream team was absent.

The hero student who had jumped head first into

joining a vigilante organization ran to the large TV
bought with Hawks’ money and turned it on,
revealing the news report showing very disturbing
images.

Horrified, Hawks, Dabi and Shouto watched the

news reporting that not only was a giant sea
monster emerging from the sea to attack Dubai
but it was also showing a helicopter not affiliated
with any local hero agency and what suspiciously
looked like someone dangling from a rope to get
closer to the beast.

“It’s not possible,” Dabi whispered. “It has to be

someone else.”

Shouto facepalmed so hard that it was a miracle

he didn’t knock himself out.

Snowdrift

[What did you do?]

Snowdrift

[Answer me, please.]

Snowdrift

[What happened?]

Snowdrift

[Why am I hearing that there is now a

blackout affecting Dubai?]

SmallMight1541

[I discovered how to use the new quirk. :D]

David Shield choked on his orange juice as he

read the news and how a villain had stolen a
device to communicate with quirked animals and
used it to provide a demonstration to his future
buyers by luring a giant electricity-eating sea
beast out of the depths by promising it a meal.
Fortunately, the crisis had been averted, even
though the vigilante who had convinced the
beast to leave peacefully and who had apparently
kicked the villain into a coma was nowhere to be
found (which was surprising as Dubai, like the rest
of most countries in the middle east, had Good
Samaritans laws).

But what left him coughing his lungs out wasn’t

the very interesting technology but the fact that
the villain who had been arrested, Wolfram, had
an uncanny resemblance to the actor he had
hired to steal his prototype.

Good thing I haven’t sent him the plans to break

into I-Island yet…

Inazuma Raika raised her hands to her hair and

pulled it in a high ponytail, the kind that
complimented her height and her face. Then, she
looked at her classmates, both her subjects and
her burdens.

She worked hard to be liked, because her

profession necessitated her to be popular. She
remembered the names of most of the people
she met, she remembered what they liked and
disliked, and she had learned to notice the shifts
in the class dynamics. She paid attention, gave
the impression that she cared about those
people, and in return, they followed her example.

It was why she immediately noticed the slightest

changes.

It wasn’t much, of course. Only a couple of days

had passed, after all. But the hypersensitivity
born from what had happened in high school
confirmed that her classmates were wary. Worse,
she could feel a note of doubt in the more neutral
members of the class.

And this change could be traced back to Sorano

Naru.

She held her head higher. Instead of anxiously

looking around during breaks, hoping for
someone to pay attention to her, she had her eel
nose in her school books. And today, during the
physical assessment test, she not only finished in
first place but also by a huge margin.

It wasn’t surprising for someone with a

heteromorphic quirk, for whom enhanced
strength and athletic abilities were a given, but
last week, Sorano hadn’t been putting so much
effort in her training. She had just tried her best
to be as forgettable as possible.

If only you had shown that kind of ambition

earlier…

After school, Raika once again refused her

classmates’ offer to hang out and she went
straight to an expensive gym that allowed its
members to use their quirks. Unlike the place in
Deika, there was nothing to tell her how much
voltage her strikes accounted for but it wasn’t like
she needed it.

She put the timer on and went to work, lightning

crackling from her fingers and striking the metal
target with such power that it sent it swinging
back and forth under the impact. Raika didn’t wait
for the target to be still again as she aimed and
aimed again, touching it every time.

Raika had always known that she would become a

hero because, no matter how unfair it was, only
heroes could use their quirks and she couldn’t
imagine a life where she wasn’t allowed to use
something that defined her.

She hit two targets fifty two times in one minute,

leaving only traces of fuming metal where the
targets had once stood. Her aim was perfect. Her
power was growing stronger and stronger.

And she was exhausted.

There was a limit to how much electricity she

could produce. She was pushing her limits every
day, making her electricity production more
substantial little by little, but others had access to
more just because of how their quirks worked.

Same thing went for her stamina. She ran every

morning, before school even started. She trained
after school. She invested so much time and
effort into being at peak strength, while knowing
perfectly that she couldn’t compete with people
who didn’t put a tenth of her efforts into growing
stronger.

It was what had enraged Raika when she had first

seen Sorano. A stupid goodie two-shoes who
took her abilities for granted.

Urging her to reconsider her career choice had

been a kindness. Better now that after she had
been injured on the job. If she couldn’t get
through high school, being a hero was out of the
question.

But now, Sorano was waking up too late, trying to

catch up. Worse, her renewed but futile efforts
were a problem because she would be riding on
Raika’s coattails. Her brand would be affected by
another hero student, especially as Sorano’s
appearance alone would catch people’s interest.

They would be compared and that was why Raika

didn’t only need Sorano gone. She needed her to
disappear from the heroic scene. History had
proven that one grain of dust could mess up the
whole thing and she wasn’t taking risks anymore.

She gritted her teeth, pain throbbing in her head

at the memory of Midoriya. There wasn’t a day
she wasn’t regretting what she had done to him.

After all, she had lashed out one time in her life
and it had almost destroyed everything.

The little quirkless freak had latched on this

excuse to suck her whole family dry, blackmailing
them so he wouldn’t pulverize Raika’s chance at
being a hero.

It had taught her to be more careful.

Raika grabbed her phone, unlocking it by

drawing a lightning, and she went to the one
place where she allowed herself to vent. She
went through her lists of online friends, selected
three carefully, and threw the same message to all
of them, like bottles to the sea.

Bluelightning

[There is this person… She could

harm my future career with her
antics. And I know that she will crash
and burn eventually, so technically, I
don’t have to put my foot down.]

[I could just let her end in her

mediocrity but I would have to live
with that for years.]

[Or I could end it in one move, at the

risk of passing for the bad guy.]

[What do you think?]

Since she wasn’t the kind of person who kept

their eyes glued to their screen until someone
answered them, she left her phone and trained
some more, blowing some steam and anger and
sheer annoyance.

When she came back, she had received an

answer and it was from someone who had really
helped her those last couple of months.

Dumas:

[Sometimes, to succeed in life, you

have to be ruthless.]

[Don’t let anyone stand in your way

or you will regret it your whole life.]

Of course, this simple message wasn’t enough to

convince Raika to take a decision. She might vent
and listen to advice, but in the end, she was the
one who decided.

She considered her options as she walked home,

her mind more focused than it had been in the
last week.

She came to the decision on her own: Sorano had

to go. Raika had the means to get rid of her.
Waiting would only lead to more problems in her
life.

She had many friends who could help her, even if

they weren’t fully aware of what she was asking of
them. Suzano, though, wouldn’t hesitate to help
her kick Sorano out of their school.

Her first idea was to frame her for theft. It would

be child’s play to find someone else’s phone or
jewelry in Sorano’s bag.

But theft wasn’t enough to be immediately

expelled.

On Friday, Naru almost had a heart attack as

Inazuma of all people told her that they needed
to talk and asked her if she didn’t mind meeting
her on the roof after classes. Naru explained that
it was her turn to clean the class but Inazuma told
her that she didn’t mind waiting until she was
done.

She spent the rest of the afternoon vaguely

anxious but also hopeful.

Inazuma had been slightly smiling and had talked

to her nicely. The simple fact that she had
stopped ignoring her was already huge in itself.

Wasn’t that the sign that things were getting

better? That maybe, Inazuma wanted to bury the
hatchet?

Raika waited about five minutes before she

admitted to herself that she had no intention of
waiting an hour on the roof with the sun pressing
on her and threatening to make her melt in a
puddle of potential and talent. She fled the sun
and the school altogether, crossed the street,
walked into a store, and bought an ice cream in
order to help her wait.

As she walked out, fighting with the packaging to

get access to the iced treat, she saw the man
going from the opposite direction too late
(despite his height) and they bumped shoulders,
their naked arms brushing against each other and
the ice cream almost escaping her hands.

“Sorry, sir.”

She caught the ice cream in extremis.

“Not, it’s my fault,” the man wearing a fedora

said. “I apologize.”

Raika had just finished her ice cream when she

heard Sorano running up the stairs, so eager to
meet her that walking simply wasn’t enough. She
emerged from the staircase and was still half
running right until she stopped in front of Sorano
like an overeager puppy.

“Sorry for making you wait,” Sorano apologized.

“The other girl that was on cleaning duties got
hurt during training this morning so I told her that
I didn’t need help and it took longer than usual.”

“No problem,” Raika assured her. “I will be quick.

I just had to tell you something.”

Sorano almost stood to attention, which would

have been cute if it hadn’t once again proven that
she didn’t have the shoulders to be a hero.

So she took a single step to breach the distance

between them and she told her the truth no one
had the mercy to offer her until now.

“You’re not hero-material. I hope you would

realize it on your own but someone has to tell
you: you will never become a hero. You’re simply
not worthy.”

Sorano’s nervous smile disappeared and where

Raika had expected some tears or for her to look
like a kicked puppy, she was pleasantly surprised
to see the eel’s eyes turn cold. Tension left her
body as she looked at Raika, something akin to a
warning coming from her.

Raika was almost proud of her.

“That’s not for you to decide,” Sorano said.

But she didn’t leave. She could have walked out

and decided not to pay attention to what Raika
was saying. But either because she knew, deep
down, that it was the truth, or because she wasn’t
strong enough not to listen to someone’s opinion
of her, Sorano Naru stayed.

“You’re right,” Raika said, barely paying attention

to the words coming from her mouth. Some
gleeful energy was coursing through her. It was
about timing. And if Sorano had any kind of
recording device, she would need the right
voltage to destroy it. “It’s for everyone to decide
and anyone who ever looked at you has already
come to the obvious conclusion.”

Because by Monday, Sorano would be expelled

for attacking a classmate.

Sorano looked at her, exhaustion coming from

her.

“Why do you hate me so much, Inazuma?” she

asked, and there was a tiny note of childish hope
that maybe she was wrong, maybe she could fix
herself in order not to be disliked so much.

Raika wasn’t without mercy so she told her the

truth.

“Because you keep standing in my way,” Raika

declared just before her arm lashed at Sorano,
her palm connecting with the girl’s chest a
moment before she called upon her quirk to
shock the eel.

Time stopped as Naru understood what was

going to happen, all the ramifications from
tonight, while being completely powerless to
stop it.

Inazuma’s plan was simple. She was going to

shock her with an electricity quirk that was more
powerful than Naru’s but in the end, Naru would
be fine because of the substance she secreted
during stressful situations. It wasn’t something
she could control, a stress response that worked
to keep her alive, no matter what her decisions
were.

She had a very similar reflex when it comes to the

electricity-producing-part of her quirk. If she was
in danger and someone touched her, she would
shock them.

It wasn’t something she could control.

She had given several static shocks to her friends

in the past, and just because they had startled
her.

But she knew what Inazuma was capable of. She

knew what kind of damage she could inflict. And
Naru’s body was already producing a devastating
charge in an effort to protect itself.

She would strike Inazuma. She would look more

hurt than her (though her resistance to electricity
would protect her from the worst of it). It would
be Naru’s word against her. The element who
disturbed the class would be expelled for
attacking the star student.

And Naru couldn’t do anything to stop it.

Naru’s quirk sprang free, inflicting havoc on a

fellow electric predator under the misguided
hope that it would be enough to break free, to
save itself.

But Inazuma’s own attack never came.

Instead, the blue-haired-girl tried to take a sharp

breath but it never reached her lungs as all her
muscles were locked into place by the electricity
coursing through her, in a way that wasn’t
supposed to happen to people like them. Her
hair stood on end, her hand gripped at Naru’s
chest in a way sure to leave a bruise, and for a
moment, she looked so surprised that it was
almost comical.

But as the slime drenched her uniform and

severed the flow of electricity between them,
Inazuma managed to let go of her. Though it
might not have been the right word, as it didn’t
look like she had decided that on her own.

The girl who had bullied Naru all year dropped to

the ground.

Naru just looked at her, too stunned to do

anything else. She didn’t understand what had
happened. None of what was happening made
any kind of sense and the incongruity of the
situation left her mind blank.

Fortunately, training took over, pushing the panic

back long enough for her to hear the instructions
of her teachers when it came to first aid. She fell
to her knees thanks to Inazuma, touching her
neck to take her pulse. Electricity tried to course
through them once again, the residual charge of
her own attack, but it bounced harmlessly against
her.

Inazuma had no pulse.

Naru’s hand immediately went to her phone. She

had to call the paramedics and start CPR. She
had to call for help. Students were gone but a
teacher might still be here or even a hero. She…

She would lose everything while she did that.

Even if they managed to save Inazuma, no one
would believe it had been an accident… no, a
set-up. She didn’t know the statistics for how
disciplinary hearings ended for people with
heteromorphic quirks but she didn’t need to.
Inazuma’s plan would work, one way or another.

She… She couldn’t think. She could barely

breathe. She didn’t know what to do.

In the end, Naru grabbed her phone and made a

call.

“Calm down and tell me what happened… I see.

Don’t move. Don’t do anything. I am coming.”

Five minutes later, Mr. Nisena found her still

doing CPR on Inazuma. She had felt ribs breaking
under hands but she hadn’t stopped. If Inazuma’s
heart started beating again, she would hardly
complain about a couple of broken ribs.

Actually, she would, Naru acknowledged. She

would be sure to tell everyone how I broke her
ribs after I attacked her unprovoked.

Naru had discovered that it was possible to hate

someone and to still want her to be alive, which
was a novel experience she could have lived
without.

“Unless you plan to put even more of your DNA

on the crime scene, I suggest you stop,” Mr.
Nisena said, completely unbothered by the dead
teenager on the roof and the other one on the
edge of a nervous breakdown.

Naru didn’t stop. If she stopped, it meant

admitting that she had… that she had…

She stopped, looking at her trembling hands,

then at Inazuma’s corpse.

“She’s dead,” she finally admitted. “I… I killed

her.”

Mr. Nisena didn’t say anything. He didn’t even

look like he cared about what was happening,
and part of her wondered about who was the
man she had befriended at that comic café. But
this question currently ranked last in her list of
priorities.

“I… I have to tell someone. I have to call the

police… I have to explain them what happened-”

“If you do that, your life is over.”

Naru gritted her teeth, refusing to admit it.

She wished she had it in her to be horrified about

Inazuma’s death itself. She wasn’t nice, she was
cruel and petty, but it was still a life wasted.

And yet…

“No one will believe in my innocence,” she said

out loud, her voice strangely flat despite the
despair at the sheer unfairness of the situation
raging inside her. “They will think I’m a villain.
Even if I manage to prove my innocence, this will
be in my file. I will never escape the stigma of
what happened. And it will affect my family.”

All because Inazuma had decreed that Naru was

in her way.

In this moment, Naru discovered two things

about herself. Two things she had suspected but
it was only at her lowest point that the realization
fully hit her.

She wasn’t as nice as she thought she was,

something she had suspected because someone
truly good wouldn’t have to make so much effort
in order to be nice.

And she didn’t really mind. Being nice was

exactly what had put her in this situation. If she
hadn’t made so many efforts to appear good and
unthreatening and to try to be accepted, her life
wouldn’t be over.

The heteromorphic girl looked up at Nisena,

studying the face of the man who had answered
his phone call in the second, of someone who
didn’t seem bothered by dead bodies, and that
looked like he was waiting for her to make a
decision.

“What can I do?” Naru asked.

She wasn’t asking what was the right thing to do.

She was asking if he had a solution for her to get
away with what had happened.

The slightest smile lifted up a corner of Nisena’s

mouth and something brightened his gaze.

It was pride.

“You leave right now,” he ordered. “You go

home and you don’t say anything about what
happened tonight. Destroy the clothes you’re
wearing. You don’t have an alibi so if anyone
interrogates you, I suggest you to say that you
were training in order to be a brave little hero.
You will never tell a soul about what happened
tonight. You will pretend you don’t know
anything. I will take care of this.”

Naru didn’t hesitate. She stood up, wiped her

hands on her sweatpants and bowed deeply,
because that seemed like the thing to do, and
she walked to the roof access, ready to follow
faithfully each and every of Nisena’s instructions.

But she paused right in front of the door, her

hand hovering above the doorknob.

She turned and looked at him.

“Who are you?”

Nisena Hajime smiled.

It wasn’t a nice smile but in this moment, Naru

was convinced that this was the realest thing he
had ever shown her.

“You can call me a concerned third party, I

suppose,” the man she didn’t know anything
about told her.

On Monday, Naru came back to school like

nothing had happened. Oh, she was convinced
that from any moment from now on, the police
would come and arrest her but Inazuma had done
a wonderful job when it came to teaching her
how to repress her emotions and she made sure
to use every single one of her lessons.

Two days later, her homeroom teacher told them

that Inazuma was nowhere to be found and that
her family was extremely worried. That if anyone
had any information, they had to tell him or the
police.

She found an excuse to wander on the roof but

she found nothing. No sign that Inazuma had
died there. No sign that the place had been
cleaned. It was as if she had dreamed the whole
thing.

Several days later, Naru received a phone call

from a police officer asking him routine questions.
She made the right noises, staying calm and
collected.

Maybe it was a sign that something was wrong

with her. That something had broken that night
on the roof. But deep down, she did feel guilty
for what she was putting Inazuma’s family
through. The problem was that her relief was
stronger. Now that Inazuma was gone, she could
breathe again.

Once she came back from the summer break,

several classmates started to invite her to hang
out. Now that Inazuma was gone, scurrying for
her favor made no sense. Several of them
apologized. Her homeroom teacher suddenly
found himself more attentive to her needs.

Because what Naru looked like, what she wore,

her social standing, all of this would have
mattered in any other type of setting but she was
in the hero course, which privileged quirks above
all.

And now that Inazuma was gone, no one in the

hero course had a quirk stronger than her.

Naru had come back to the comic café the next

day, though. She has sworn to herself that she
wouldn’t let anything show on her face when she
would see him again.

But no matter how many times she came back

there, she never saw him again.

As if his job was done.

Notes:
1. AFO manipulated both girls
from the start. Him meeting Naru
wasn’t fortuitous and he knew that
Raika would feel threatened by
her. His first plan was to turn Naru
into Raika’s victim but he changed
his mind at some point when she
was earnestly recommending
comics to him for his son. He truly
feel like he made a good action by
making her kill Raika and won’t ask
for a favor down the line.
2. Naru will change school next
year (she will probably get into
Shiketsu) because even if she
suddenly has “friend”, she can’t
forget those people bullied her. If
the hero ranking by the time she
graduates, she will eventually be a
top hero. Despite what she thinks,
she is a good person, it’s just that
she can be merciless with people
who push her too far.
3. No sea monster was harmed in
the making of this chapter.
However, even though he’s aware
of how stupid it is on so many
levels, Izuku couldn’t resist taking
a selfie with the kaiju.
4. Thank you to Pocketramblr for
AFO’s alias in those last two
chapters: Nisena Hajime.

Many thanks to Metealjellyfish for

drawing Naru!

CHAPTER 37
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

First started to lift the blanket under which the

seventh holder of One for All had been seeking
refuge for the last two weeks. The only thing
sticking out of said blanket was her arm, as she
was using Third as her emotional support plushie.

“Nana, are you feeling a little better?”

A high-pitched whine saturated with despair and

disgust answered him.

First promptly let go of the blanket, now afraid of

what sorry state it was hiding.

It reminded of that time where his brother had

called his hero“brother-in-law”, taking advantage
of the vigilante’s brain imploding in white hot
panic as he realized that he was now technically
part of All for One’s family.

If they had learned anything from this experience,

only time allowed them to heal from such a
shock.

All for One was waiting for Izuku at the airport, a

circle of emptiness around him as everyone
seemed keen on giving him as much personal
space as possible. Izuku, walking as fast as he
could without outright running, politely greeted
him and pretended that he wasn’t a ball of stress.

This was quite the challenge as he could hear the

sudden loud noises of conversations and the
sound of people being sent into action behind
the walls hiding the custom services.

All for One asked him if he had enjoyed his trip,

Izuku assured him that those were the best
vacations ever, and they just as politely didn’t
mention the kaiju incident while they were still in
the airport. After all, this conversation would
probably lead to a lot of screaming (All for One
could be hysterical like that) and neither of them
wanted to draw attention.

“Why is your bag so heavy?” All for One

suddenly asked despite the fact he was holding it
with one hand as if it was barely heavier than a
couple of grapes.

Izuku grabbed him by the arm because this was a

conversation they ought to have walking away
from custom. The teenager vaguely noted how
tense All for One was only for the evil white cat to
immediately relax under his touch.

“My mom’s boss offered me a collector All Might

bust and since we got along, he used his quirk to
turn it into gold,” Izuku whispered.

All for One blinked.

“How did you manage to make it past custom

with a giant All Might bust made of solid gold?”

“Mostly through hopes and prayers but also a

touch of super speed at the end,” Izuku
explained as he dragged the supervillain along
before his All Might merch could be confiscated.

All for One laughed.

As soon as All for One warped them home, Izuku

let himself fall on the couch, his body lying down
on its own and his muscles now refusing to move.
After hours on the plane and very little sleep in
the past twenty-four hours, he felt especially
happy on this couch. He would never leave it
again.

He closed his eyes for just a couple of seconds,

only to frown as he opened them to see All for
One about to carry him from his cherished couch.

“Go sleep in your bed, Izuku” All for One told

him.

Izuku shook his head, grabbing his phone and

going straight to the Clamor app.

“In a couple of hours,” the teenager said. “I need

to check that everything is alright with Anyone. I
trust Gwen but I didn’t have a minute to myself to
check on the server while I was -”

A traitorous yawn threatened to dislocate his

jaws.

The even more traitorous villain living under his

roof snatched his phone and threw it in his room,
obviously expecting Izuku to follow it. How
devious. How nefarious. How…

Izuku’s brain was too tired to find another word.

“Go to sleep, Izuku. We have a busy day

tomorrow. Your criminal empire can survive one
more day without your supervision.”

It was extremely late (or early?) when Izuku heard

some scratching sounds at the door. So late, and
with Izuku was so out of it, his body having
reached the point where he either needed coffee
or attempted murder to think like a normal
person, that he just assumed that a cat was
scratching at his front door.

The strange noises at the door continued but it

was only when he heard a click and the sound of
the door being opened, which cats weren’t
supposed to be able to do, that he started to be
concerned. Not even raccoons forced doors, did
they?

He didn’t know enough about raccoons to be

sure.

When he heard someone definitely heavier than a

raccoon take a step in the apartment, he got out
of bed, Full Cowl right under his skin, not quite
awake but he didn’t need to be conscious to fight
for his life.

He opened the door, slamming his hand on the

interrupter, light flooding the place, and the
trespasser groaned, freezing because light was
frying his eyes.

He was dressed in black and wearing a ski mask

on his head, which must have felt awful because
it was summer and there was no AC in the whole
building. The guy had All for One’s fancy jacket in
one hand and All for One’s wallet in the other,
probably distracted by all the money in there,
and there was a gun at his belt.

Where did he even find that one? We’re in Japan!

Izuku didn’t intervene because All for One had

just exited his room – Izuku’s mother’s room -
before Izuku and was already on the move.

The other reason why Izuku didn’t intervene was

because he was facing a robber and he couldn’t
understand for the life of him why he had chosen
this apartment.

There was nothing expensive here.

The TV was as old as Izuku. No jewelry. The most

expensive stuff right there belonged to All for
One and Izuku didn’t feel the need to hurry
unless that thief was an All Might fan who had
eyes on his collection. So he didn’t exactly hurry
out of his room.

With hindsight, he would admit that he had been

very tired and might not have been thinking
clearly.

As Izuku was wearing an All Might pajama, the

thief didn’t register him as a threat. Of course,
since a two-meters-tall pissed man wearing
pajama pants and a Darth Vader shirt, was
walking towards him while giving off I am going
to rip your head off and use your skull as a cup to
drink my coffee vibes, it was completely possible
that he didn’t even see Izuku. After all, in the
same situation, Tartarus guards had not even
registered the teenager’s presence.

The thief fumbled to grab the gun, the wallet and

the jacket falling to the ground, and to his credit,
he actually managed to get it out.

Right before All for One broke his arm in two

places, the bones sticking out.

Izuku only had the time to blink and the thief’s

horrible scream was cut short because All for One
grabbed him by the throat, his other hand
grabbing the belt, and he carried the poor moron
horizontally through the apartment, as if he didn’t
weigh anything.

Carrying him all the way to the large window, left

opened because, again, it was Summer and they
were desperate for some fresh air.

All for One, cool as a cucumber, threw the

squirming thief by the window like he was trash.

The sociopath was turning around like a man who

considered his job done and was about to go
back to sleep like he hadn’t just thrown a whole
man from the sixth floor and he had the gall to
look surprised when Izuku Full Cowled past him,
Black Whip bursting from his arm and catching
the guy before he got brutally acquainted with
the ground.

At the last second, Izuku remembered to put

some wiggle into it so the guy wouldn’t stop too
abruptly and snap like raw spaghetti. Alas, since
All for One had thrown him forwards and not
downwards, the thief kind of swung and hit the
wall, the shock going up the black tendrils and in
Izuku’s arms.

Well, at least, the imbecile had stopped

screaming.

As if this night wasn’t complicated enough,

someone chose this specific moment to
vehemently knock on the door.

Why? What did I do to deserve this?

“WHAT. IS. HAPPENING. HERE?” Izuku’s

neighbor screeched.

It was stealing One for All, wasn’t it?

All for One went and opened the door,

confirming that there was always a way for things
to get worse.

“I would love to know that,” he barked at Ms.

Takahashi, the elderly neighbor that was
supposed to keep an eye on Izuku for his mother
and that he hadn’t seen in months. Izuku hadn’t
been heartbroken about it. “Why are you
banging at my door in the middle of the night?”

She probably wasn’t expecting an adult man to

answer the door because there was suddenly
silence, and Izuku could almost hear her furiously
wondering about how she had missed that Izuku’s
father was back and Izuku would have cringed if
he wasn’t busy slowly lengthening the tendrils of
shadows that Black Whip created.

There was a reason why it was called Whip and

not Rope, by the way. Tendrils of dark energy
were absolutely not stable.

“I heard screaming…” she said in a little voice,

and wasn’t that funny how she was never so quiet
nor polite with Izuku and his mom?

Actually, now that he was thinking about it, she

was more about judgmental looks and telling his
mom what to do while Izuku’s mom was smiling
and making polite noises, ignoring whatever was
said.

Funny how you realize some things with time.

“So did I,” All for One said, starting to give Izuku
a heart attack. “Probably someone turning their
TV on without realizing how loud the sound was.
That doesn’t give you the right to come here in
the middle of the night.”

The rest was a little blurry because half of Izuku’s

torso was outside the window, he was in pain,
and in the background, he could hear All for One
unleashing his inner Karen on his unsuspected
neighbor, pretty much implying that she was
being nosy and a horrible old crone that was
willing to blame an isolated kid for anything
wrong, at an ungodly hour in the night.

I think he is low enough for me to drop him

without injuring him further, right?

Right after he did, Izuku discovered that judging

distance, at night, was far more difficult than
expected. Whoops.

On the good side, a new scream confirmed that

the thief was actually alive.

Mostly.

“What was that?” Ms. Takahashi asked sharply.

“What was what?” All for One answered,

annoyance and exasperation saturating his every
word.

“That scream! Just now!”

A long silence ensued, where All for One

managed to heavily imply that she was a senile
old bat without even uttering a word. Izuku was
honestly impressed. And wondering if he ought
to take notes.

“Good night,” All for One finally said, closing the

door on Izuku’s neighbor.

Hi Mom! A strange man answering the door

instead of me, you say? How strange… Ms.
Takahashi insisted that she had seen that villain-
looking-man? Well, you know Mom, at her age, I
am not surprised that she is getting confused.

All for One came back and stared at Izuku.

“What?” Izuku asked.

“You are a chaos magnet,” All for One sighed. “I

spent two weeks enjoying boredom and as soon
as you come back, crime finds me.”

“I don’t see what you’re talking about,” Izuku lied

while keeping a straight face. That was starting to
become a habit. “My life was calm and peaceful
before you barged into it. And now, you’re
ruining my good relationship with my neighbors!”

The supervillain looked at the door he had closed

on Ms.Takahashi, pouring so much disdain in that
glance that it was a miracle said door didn’t burst
in tears.

“You should thank me for ruining that kind of

relationship.”

Izuku smiled. He couldn’t help it.

“I suggest you go to sleep. We have a busy

schedule tomorrow.”

Izuku doubted that he could just go to sleep after

someone had broken into his home. He would
have to replace the lock on the door, in such a
way that his mother would never find out about it,
check on the thief to see if had managed to walk
away on his own or if he needed an ambulance,
and probably found a way to annoy All for One
so the teenager could sleep soundly.

“What’s happening tomorrow?” he asked instead.

All for One showed his teeth in what he believed

to be a smile.

“We are celebrating your birthday.”

Despite being positively exhausted, Izuku made

an effort and forced himself to wake up and be
somewhat nice despite the homicidal thoughts
that invariably filled his mind every day before his
first coffee in the morning.

The truth was that Izuku didn’t like celebrating his

birthday. Birthdays were the day where Izuku felt
the most alone. Through the years, he had
learned not to expect anything from July 15th.
When he wasn’t with his mom, he didn’t bother
to celebrate. Even Todoroki didn’t know when his
birthday was.

But when someone was enthusiastic at the idea

of celebrating his birthday, he was thankful for the
attention and acted the part of someone who
enjoyed pretending that life was special on the
day of one’s birth. He did that with his mom. And
he would do that with All for One.

At exactly 8 AM, the supervillain knocked at his

door, brought him coffee and a pile of gifts.

Izuku didn’t open them in his room. Instead, they

went to the kitchen table and he methodically
unwrapped the green and white paper, which
seemed to surprise All for One.

“I expected you to tear them to shreds,” he

explained.

It made Izuku laugh because there was indeed a

time where he did just that, turning gift wrap into
confetti.

“I stopped doing that when I was six,” he

remembered. Before All for One had mentioned
it, the memory had been completely occulted,
like so many moments from his past. “Did your
brother also do that?”

It seemed to surprise All for One, as if he hadn’t

even thought about his brother at that moment.

“No, Yoichi was meticulous like you are now,” the

villain explained. “I was the one who never had
much patience when it came to unwrapping
gifts.”

Izuku could have been surprised that All for One

wasn’t constantly comparing to his little brother
(to be fair, he didn’t have many other points of
references when it came to people Izuku’s age)
but the teenager preferred to put his greedy
hands on not one, not two but three sets of
comics.

Something Is Killing the Children, Die, and

Wytches.

Izuku loved horror. For someone like All for One

who was pathologically allergic to All Might
merch, this was the best gift one could offer to
him.

“Thank you so much,” Izuku smiled. “I can’t wait

to read them.”

All for One, smug like the cat who had just
caught the canary, then leaned forward.

Izuku didn’t exactly accept the hug but he spent a

little too much time debating if he ought to show
his gratitude by not squirming away or if it was a
bad idea to let All for One think that he was
allowed to breach people’s personal space as
long as he gave them stuff first before and when
All for One let go, it became a moot point.

“Not yet,” the supervillain informed Izuku. “We

have a schedule to respect.”

Going to the cinema was an experience that went

beyond simply watching a movie. It was an
experience, a way to immerse oneself fully into a
story through one’s eyes and ears and for Yasu, it
was the only way not to be distracted by what he
was hearing outside his apartment.

Of course, even the environment of a cinema

didn’t prevent him from picking up every noise
around him. However, it allowed him to focus on
what people were saying about the film, like a
running commentary or even live reactions,
instead of the sound of people eating popcorn,
of doors and seats creaking, or even on the
sound of people breathing.

He was aware that his hobby of listening in to

people’s conversation was morally complicated
but in his defense, he was probably the only
person in the world not to mind people talking
during movies.

It was why today should have been a good day.

The cinema had organized a day dedicated to old
horror movies, which always caused good
reactions, and there were few enough people for
him not to have to follow too many conversations
at once.

At least, it would have been the case if Yasu

hadn’t picked on a conversation that had made
him sweat in fear for the last hour.

“Uh,” a man who was going to haunt his

nightmares tonight commented when he saw
someone get brutally attacked. “This is not the
sound a man dying from a stab wound to the
chest would make.”

He was a very tall man, white haired, wearing a

black shirt that cost more than Yasu’s entire outfit,
black slacks, and probably expensive shoes. He
was eating an ice cream, the second one since
the movie had started, even though there was
nowhere around here selling those and Yasu had
no idea of where he kept finding those, and the
cotton candies, and the special edition chips, and
the food that kept appearing in his hands.

Not only was he watching an absolutely terrifying

movie like it was a Disney but Yasu was also
convinced that this man knew from experience
what was wrong with the gory deaths appearing
in the movie.

On the big screen, the serial killer defenestrated

the US marine.

“And that’s not how someone breaks his legs

after falling from the fifth floor,” the teenager
next to him commented.

He was wearing a green hooded tee-shirt with

bunny ears. He was eating cotton candy and
drinking soda from an actual glass.

He also hadn’t even flinched once since the

movie had started.

“When you land feet first like that, the bones of

your leg puncture the insides of your chest and
certainly don’t break at a 90 degrees angle…”

This also sounded like something that was known

from experience.

“Yes, I’m aware,” the adult next to him gently

mocked.

At this point, Yasu was torn between morbid

fascination and the hunch that if they surprised
him spying on them, he might not get home
tonight.

“I am so glad they stopped using CGI in

everything,” the adult (Father? Brother? Uncle?
He seemed a little too young to be the father of a
teenager this age.) “The special effects are better
at withstanding the passage of time.”

This made the college student frown, confusion

overtaking the dull terror coursing through his
veins. People in the cinema industry had gone
back to preferring full special effects about one
hundred and fifty years ago.

Snowdrift

[… I thought that we would celebrate your

birthday with the others, once I’m back.]

SmallMight1541

[I wasn’t planning on celebrating it at all. I

was surprised that All for One was so enthusiastic
about it but it was pretty fun.]

Snowdrift

[Yes, it’s almost as if he has waited a

decade to have the occasion to celebrate this
birthday.]

SmallMight1541

[You think that All for One is the kind of

person to celebrate every occasion?]

[Because it makes sense when one

considers his longevity. He has to find a way for
the days not to all look the same.]

Snowdrift

[…]

[Suddenly, I feel exhausted.]

SmallMight1541

[I am sorry to hear that.]

[As soon as you come back, we will do

something relaxing. If you want. And I will give
your missions for Anyone to Inferno and
Nuggets.]

[How is the UA Summer Camp?]

Snowdrift

[On my very first day, a five-year-old kicked

my class president in the groin.]

SmallMight1541 is typing

Snowdrift

[But cooking is fun!]

Lying in her bed, Himiko was playing with her

knife while watching the ceiling. She had put star-
shaped-stickers last week in order to brighten her
room and in the dark, they were glowing red,
purple and blue.

Her hand was sticking out of the bed and her

knife was dancing between her fingers. Twisting
and whirling, like it had a mind on its own, but
she was its master and had complete control over
it.

She remembered the time where she didn’t have

much coordination, to the point where she had
believed that she would never be good with a
blade. The Himiko from the past could have
never imagined she could become so skilled.

Usually, playing with her favorite knife would have

appeased her but she couldn’t calm down. Her
heart was beating like crazy inside her chest and
she had to focus in order not to bite her lips.

Tomorrow was going to be a good day. An

exciting day.

Himiko hoped she could meet someone cute.

It had been ages since she really had fun with

someone.

Gwen

[Are you sure you don’t mind?]

SmallMight1541

[No, just give me the address.]

Dabi opened the door of his apartment, wearing

black and ripped sweatpants and a white shirt too
big for him, and squinting at Izuku with open
suspicion. Even the bag of groceries Izuku had
placed between his PR supervisor and him wasn’t
enough to deter his glare.

“I come in peace,” the teenager declared.

“Gwen told me that Kurogiri was here?”

Dabi snatched the bag from Izuku’s hand and

stepped away, allowing him to enter his humble
abode.

Hawks, his wings almost fully restored, was sitting

on the back of the couch, which was a surprise
because Dabi tended to throw pillows at Mach
speed when Shouto or Izuku even considered
putting their feet on his couch. The number 3
hero was wearing red shorts, short black leggings
underneath, and a sleeveless white shirt.

He was trimming his black and sharp nails with a

metal file. Izuku had seen several of his model
shoots and had never seen anything indicating
that Hawks had talons instead of regular light
colored nails, which was interesting enough.

“Hello, Yami!” the winged hero warmly greeted

him. “How was Dubai?”

“I have no idea of what you’re talking about…”

Izuku’s voice trailed off as he looked at a life-

sized-statue of Fatgum in the corner, with what
suspiciously looked like a Fatgum hoodie that
could fit the hero.

The fanboy in charge of half of his decision

process understood the need to grab merch from
a hero and could hardly throw them the first
stone on that one. The Anyone part of keeping
him alive was calculating the probability of having
another pro hero with a vendetta against his
organization.

Before he could ask what those animals had done

in his absence, Kurogiri emerged from the room
in the back, wearing jeans, a tee-shirt with a cat
on it, and fuzzy purple cat slippers. His hand
disappeared for a moment and when it
reappeared, it was holding a bottle of orange
juice.

When Nagisa had told Izuku that Kurogiri was at

Dabi’s, he hadn’t realized that just like Hawks, the
barman had practically moved in.

Hawks was here because after All for One had

burned his feathers, the pro hero was literally
grounded until they grew back. And he probably
enjoyed messing with Dabi, hence why he had
decided to stay here instead of in a hotel. But for
the rest…

“What happened to all of you?” the teenager

asked.

“Your roommate,” the three of them answered at

the same time.

Izuku should have seen it coming. When

something went wrong around him, it would
usually be traced back to the immortal mass
murderer that prepared him pancakes.

The actual members from his organization were

unwilling to explain what All for One had done
but fortunately, the mole who intended to destroy
his organization from the inside had more
incentive to be helpful.

“All for One is terrifying and apparently became

worse when you weren’t here to act as a buffer
with common mortals so we all abandoned the
bar and sought refuge here,” Hawks explained.

Izuku considered the fact that All for One had

been so unbearable in his absence that Kurogiri,
who was his closest coworker and almost a friend,
had fled his own bar. He soon decided that it
wasn’t his problem and that trying to understand
what was going through All for One’s head would
finish to drive him insane.

Kurogiri gave him the USB key that Nagisa has

sent Izuku pick up (she didn’t want to bother the
bartender during his day off but she didn’t mind
making Izuku run errands) and retrieved the
generator he had hidden in Dabi’s closet, behind
the water bottles.

“Stop hiding bullshit in my apartment!” Dabi

growled as he finished putting his groceries in the
fridge.

Izuku considered explaining to him that only luck

and faith kept this apartment in one piece and
that bringing supplies was a form of love
language to be sure that Dabi, or any guest (such
as Todoroki), wouldn’t be left without water,
electricity or food on the day said luck ran out.

“No,” the teenager said instead.

Fortunately, he managed to get through

Kurogiri’s warp gate before the flaming pillow
could nail him in the head.

SmallMight1541

[I am here.]

Nagisa didn’t answer his last message, leaving

Izuku standing in front of a residential building.
One of the recent ones, perfectly built to
accommodate any kind of quirks, which indicated
that money wasn’t a problem for whoever Izuku’s
favorite hacker was at.

Maybe it was a family member. The Ginkumos

were specialized in civilian clothes for pro heroes
and anyone who enjoyed bulletproof and mostly
quirk-proofed stylish outfits, making the entire
clan comfortably wealthy.

It was a gated residence with a large courtyard

but jumping over the fence wasn’t a problem for
Izuku. His phone in hand, he started to look for
the apartment whose number Nagisa had sent
him earlier.

“Dango!” someone called. “Dango, come back

here!”

But Izuku, now on his guard and listening intently,

heard the unbridled cavalcade of little legs in the
stairs, and soon, a corgi appeared in his field of
vision. The dog, absolutely adorable, had a big
doggy grin on his face, obviously delighted at his
newfound freedom and not caring one bit about
his master’s desperate cries for him.

Until he noticed Izuku, at least.

Stealing One for All had come with several

inconveniences, such as the Symbol of Peace
probably cursing him every day, the bone-
breaking problem and a stalker fascinated with
his quirk but the most surprising one had been
how animals now deeply distrusted him.

The corgi was no exception and he froze when he

saw Izuku, completely canceling his momentum
and looking at him with open suspicion.

Izuku looked at those adorable brown eyes and

his adorable sausage-shaped-form. His body
moved on his own. The next thing he knew, he
was on one knee and was making pss pss noises
in the vain hope that the dog would accept to be
petted by him.

He could have said that he had lost all dignity but

to be honest, when adorable fluffballs were
involved, he had none.

Big dogs tended to growl at him but small dogs

believed themselves to be invincible so Dango,
obviously aware of his superiority, descended the
stairs and sniffed Izuku’s hand. For a moment, the
teenager could have sworn that he saw confusion
on the dog’s face but all of it was forgotten when
the puppy licked his hand.

Izuku had negotiated some back rubs when the

master of the beast arrived, one foot shoved in a
sneaker, the other still in an All Might-themed-
slipper. He had short white wavy hair, was dressed
in a comfy outfit, and he was familiar.

A moment later, a spider-headed-woman

dragged herself in sight, obviously out of breath
and dressed in black shorts, a magnificent white
lace top with a long train and matching fingerless
gloves.

For Nagisa, this was considered a casual outfit.

“I’m sorry,” she said to the man Izuku had met

during a march. He wasn’t aware that they knew
each other. “I had no idea he would dash out as
soon as I opened the door.”

“Yes, Dango is fast… Don’t I know you?” he

smiled at the teenager.

Izuku found himself returning the smile, truly

delighted.

The teenager had known this man for barely an

hour before he had been forced to flee from the
march. He didn’t even remember his name. But
he did remember how much he had gotten along
with him, even if it had been for the briefest of
times, and meeting someone he hadn’t expected
to ever see again was a beautiful surprise.

“Aww, look at that,” Banjo poked her in the arm,

repeatedly. “Both of your grandsons are
spending time together.”

Nana, seventh holder and grandmother, watched

carefully what was happening.

She wasn’t worried for Tenko. But she committed

every detail to memory.

After all, it has been so long since she had seen

her first grandchild.

Izuku had only planned to give Nagisa the USB

key and to be on his way but he was promptly
invited by Shimura Tenko, adopted by a bunch of
college students who proceeded to feed him,
and somehow, someone shoved a game console
in his hands.

Torn apart between being intimidated by those

young adults, people who were in college and
who had their lives together, and the need not to
look too pitiful in front of them, Izuku did his best
to win at Might Kart.

They destroyed him.

The All Might avatar he had been given was

mercilessly pushed down from all the roads, when
he didn’t drive out there on his own, Izuku having
no idea of what he was doing. He was so
thoroughly obliterated that if anyone from his
organization had seen him, all of his reputation as
a fearsome vigilante and as the villain who had
ended the number 1 hero’s legacy would have
vanished like a snowball stuck in Hell.

However, Tenko soon avenged the All Might

avatar, leaving everyone, even Nagisa, in the
dust. Playing then taking breaks by eating snacks
and drinking soft drinks then playing again while
everyone was laughing and fake-threatening each
other turned out to be extremely fun.

Nagisa was busy being the uncontested queen of

Cheese Land when someone rang at the door.
Since Izuku wasn’t playing, he walked there with
Tenko because apparently, one person was
needed to prevent Dango from dashing through
the door.

This turned out to be an excellent precaution

because Izuku looked away from the dog
sleeping on a pillow, stomach exposed, little legs
in the air, for two seconds and the next thing he
knew, his hands had moved on his own and he
was holding the corgi right above the threshold.

“Oh, nice reflexes, Mikumo! And hi, Gran!”

“Tenko! I didn’t know you were busy today!”

Izuku froze.

First came denial. He couldn’t be so unlucky.

Then, came bargaining, as he thought he had
earned some rest and for the universe to stop
mistaking him for a chew toy. Anger should have
been next but he was holding a puppy, which
tended to drain any feeling of rage out of him.

So he looked at the little old man holding several

boxes of baked goods. He had a cardigan and a
cane. He was the embodiment of the sweet old
man who liked to dote on his grandson.

Last time Izuku had seen him, he had been in his

hero costume and Hosu was burning. The sweet
old man all too happy to share his snacks had
kicked Izuku in the chest so hard he had broken
several of the teenager’s ribs.

“Beat his ass, Sorahiko!”

“Come on! He is right here! One kick and this

nightmare is over.”

“Do not be mean to my nephew!”

“He started it!”

“Do not be mean to my grandson!”

“YOU’RE THE ONE WHO TOLD GRAN TORINO

TO BEAT HIS ASS.”

“I can but you can’t.”

“IT DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY, SHIMURA.”

“She has a point…”

“DO NOT START WITH ME, THIRD.”

“Don’t offer him tayaki! He is the enemy! No, he

isn’t hungry! There is a supervillain that cooks him
breakfast every morning!”

“It’s too late! He got fooled by this angel face!

Why can’t no one look at those chubby cheeks
and see the formidable villain hiding behind
them?”

Dropping by someone’s place unannounced was

generally a breach of etiquette but Sorahiko
hadn’t cared much about politeness when he had
been young and now that he was positively antic,
he cared even less about it. However, he didn’t
expect to find Tenko with company and was
willing to drop the cakes in his fridge and leave
until his friends’ grandson insisted on him staying.

A good man would have shaken his head and

left. But Sorahiko was who he was. Staying
among a group of guilty-looking-college students
who were now scrambling to hide that they had
been drinking alcohol and insulting each other
while playing video games was positively
hilarious.

Those clever kids promptly sacrificed the

youngest member of their little pack (probably
someone’s little brother), throwing him at
Sorahiko so they would have the time to hide the
bottles of beer and anything incriminating. Those
were good friends, so Sorahiko indulged them
and focused on the kid who looked supremely
uncomfortable, hanging on to his glass of iced
tea like it was liquid courage.

“Oh, so you want to become a quirk analyst?”

Sorahiko gently teased the child. “And here I
thought kids your age all wanted to become
heroes!”

To his surprise, Mikumo took some time to

consider the question.

“I wanted to be a hero when I was younger but

this is a difficult career,” he admitted. “There was
a point where I had to think about my future and
to be honest, I couldn’t see myself being a hero.
So I tried to find something else, something that
would make me happier.”

How insightful for a child so young.

“Yes, every hero has to pay a heavy price to do

their job,” Sorahiko confirmed. “Most of them
retire before they’re forty.”

Back when Sorahiko had obtained his license,

heroes were short-lived. They didn’t live long
enough to reach the age of retirement. Now, pro
heroes tended to be shooting stars: they shone
for a couple of years before crashing down as
their bodies stopped working.

When Sorahiko was still a teacher, half of his job

had been to make sure that his students had
good habits and good training so their bodies
wouldn’t break down once they reached the age
of thirty.

Toshinori’s image appeared in his mind.

He hadn’t been the best teacher.

“It’s good that they are children like you.” His

voice was surprisingly soft. “The world needs
more than pro heroes to function.”

Mikumo nodded.

“But honestly, I never thought you were a quirk

analyst when you so obviously work out!”
Sorahiko laughed.

It might not have been visible for someone who

didn’t have a keen eye but the boy moved
extremely well for an awkward teenager and his
clothes didn’t manage to completely hide how fit
he was, in such a way that he could have easily
blended with a crowd of hero students.

Mikumo violently blushed and started to stutter

about how he wasn’t a quirk analyst yet and how
he had a gym membership.

Sorahiko proceeded to ask him if he worked out

to have success with girls.

The boy became an absolute mess and Tenko ran

to them, saving the child from Sorahiko’s teasing.
SmallMight1541

[Did you not do a background check on

him???]

Gwen

[He’s a friend! I don’t do background

checks on friends!]

SmallMight1541

[Can’t you make an exception when they

are related to heroes?]

Gwen

[You’re really ungrateful for someone who

was thanking me just yesterday for once again
preventing his pet sociopath from getting into his
server!]

Izuku’s nerves were positively frayed once he

reached the beach house and he decided to go
for a nap in the vain hope that his brain would
stop screaming in blind terror. He let himself fall
on the bed, too tired to move while his brain was
going through the conversation with Gran Torino
again and again.

Had the old hero noticed his hesitation? He had

briefly thought of telling him that he was past the
age of wanting to be a hero now that he was in a
high school with no hero course but he had
realized that he had no idea what kids his age
felt.

He would have to ask Yuuto and Hebisuga later.

He should have asked earlier. Would it be
suspicious if he distributed surveys to his
classmates in order to know what people his age
thought?

Izuku fell asleep at some point and only emerged

from his slumber when he noticed All for One
hovering by the door. The supervillain said
something to Izuku but the teenager only
managed to grunt some noises back at him, so
All for One put the blanket back on him and left.

Izuku closed his eyes again.

When he opened them, it was pitch black outside

and his phone was doing its best not to implode
under a deluge of notifications.

Slapofjustice

[Summer camp of UA under attack. Please,

send help.]

Son Goku

[Request for help!]

[I don’t know how many villains there are

but some of my classmates are injured!]

Floatmeintospace

[Im a hero student]

[I know you have no reason to trust me but

please we need help]

Biribiri

[HELP]

Poltergeist

[Request for help! It’s not a trap! I swear!]

God of Darkness

[Request for help!]

Carmine

[REQUEST FOR HELP]

Le misérable

[A l’aide!]

Legosi

[under attack]

[we can’t use our quirks]

Shadowman

[Send help, please!]

Lamb

[Request for help!]

Snowdrift

[Don’t come.]

[Stay where you are.]

Notes:
1. The thief was not Random Guy
but just a random moron.

2. Does Kurogiri has an

apartment? Yes. Does he decided
to spend the night at Dabi's when
he didn't want to make a mess at
his own place? Also yes.

CHAPTER 38
Notes:
Warning for violence, limb loss
and Moonfish being his own
warning.

Please, do remember that this fic

is tagged Creator Chose Not To
Use Warning Archive for a reason.
There are dark themes in this fic.
The violence is more intense than
in canon. And I chose this Archive
Warning in order not to use
warnings and not to spoil my story
before you read it.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

The secret to being good at one’s job was to

enjoy it.

Nomura Rokuro was standing at the edge of the

cliff, staring at the building where forty hero
students, six pro heroes and one child were
sleeping. It was 3 AM. Between the intensive
quirk training that lasted the whole day, having to
watch over forty students and the remedial
lessons that ended at 2 AM, all of them were
exhausted and would sleep like the dead.

They should have known better than to leave

themselves so vulnerable. After the attack on the
USJ and even after the noumus had been free to
have fun in that mall, the heroes shouldn’t have
let the children who would succeed them leave
the safety of their school.

Horrible things happened to people who didn’t

know how to protect themselves and their
guardians were left with a lifetime of regret.

He turned towards his ragtag bunch of misfits,

carefully chosen for this mission, be it because of
their quirks or because of their sadistic
predilections. Two of them hadn’t even waited,
preferring to wander and have their own brand of
fun.

Rokuro would have hated to get in the way of

their spontaneity.

“Gentlemen, ladies and esteemed monsters!” he

smiled, adopting the same expression of
someone he used to know and who always
seemed completely in control. “It’s time to do
your worst.”

A little away from the others, someone curled

into fetal position, his hands with bloodied
fingers digging into his mop of purple hair,
started to make a high pitched whine then
begged, just like he did every time something
was expected of him.

“I can’t do it I can’t do it I can’t do it I can’t do

it…”

Rokuro could remind Sorrow (a nickname the

purple-haired-man hated) that he didn’t need his
cooperation but he already knew it.

A good leader didn’t need to dirty his hands,

especially when a bunch of overgrown bullies
with something to prove could do it for him.

5… 4… 3… 2…

A heavy boot kicked Sorrow in the back, sending

him face first into the dirt.

He didn’t stop begging.

“Will you shut the fuck up!?” Steel hissed, the

sharp metallic strands she had for hair hovering
over his limp form, like she could barely restrain
herself from stabbing him.

“Hey there, there is no need to get mad over

this,” Rokuro lazily said but his glance towards
Steel was enough.

She froze, not in fear, but out of careful

consideration for the fact she had just attacked a
member of their team and Rokuro would have
legitimate reasons to break her in half for that.
Meanwhile, Sorrow, finally quiet, moved in
Rokuro’s direction.

Rokuro gave him a hand, hiding his disgust as he

felt how clammy Sorrow’s palm was and helped
him back to his feet, cementing the image of a
just leader who cared about the members of his
team.

“Don’t forget where you come from,” he warned

them, his voice now lower and his smile sharper.
“You might be here to enjoy yourselves but your
targets can’t be each other. Is that clear?”

They didn’t nod but none of the killers he had

brought with him dared to look him in the eyes,
which was good enough of a reaction.

Rokuro waved his hand.

“Go have fun. You know what to do.”

They didn’t need more than that, leaving one by

one, both to get away from him and because
what they were craving for was close.

All of them were killers but just the opportunity of

snuffing the life out of someone wasn’t enough.

It went deeper than that, for they all despised

what they felt that society had done to them.
They resented the fact they had become the
dregs of society and they wanted some payback.

The future elite, the people who had what they

had been deprived of, made for perfect targets

Soon, only three noumus and the one person

who wouldn’t fight tonight stayed with him on the
edge of his cliff.

“I am surprised you’re not calling your new

friend,” Michael said, his long blond hair swirling
around him. His smile showed teeth that made
anyone looking at him feel that they should be
pointy.

That was the thing about Michael. He felt wrong,

in ways hard to perceive. Rokuro, as someone
who had spent years perfecting his “nothing to
see here, completely human and normal”
appearance could pick up on the slightly-off
proportions and the myriad of little details that
elicited the uncanny valley but normal people
seemed unable to notice anything that wasn’t
extraordinarily obvious.

“I don’t mix business and pleasure anymore,”

Rokuro simply answered.

Oh, he was tempted to warn Anyone of what was

going to happen. But he had a job to do and in
any case, inviting that fascinating new player to
the party felt like cheating.

Michael chuckled, his voice kept low but

somehow managing to be incredibly annoying
because of a pitch too high for human ears to
pick on but still perceivable to most people in the
worst ways, and he went to work.

At about three in the morning, forty teenagers

were startled into consciousness as a deafening
noise shattered the silence of the night. Some of
them immediately recognized them as explosions
while others thought it was the sound of thunder
and a few didn’t even try to identify it.

All of them looked by the window and saw the

fire and the smoke starting to rise from the crown
of the trees.

They reacted as one panicked entity. They might

be hero students, they might have been told
what to do during dangerous situations, but this
knowledge hadn’t been drilled into them yet and
they ran outside their rooms, their minds
overwhelmed by the urgency of the situation.

Most of them had the presence of mind to grab

their phones. They took nothing else as the rest
of their stuff was outside the room in which they
were sleeping.

Nothing happened to the first people going

through the door just so the second wave
wouldn’t suspect anything. Students crossing the
threshold never made it to the other side and in
the confusion, the remaining children didn’t
immediately notice it, as they crossed another
door further down the hallway.

When they heard the sound of several massive

explosions detonating at once, the six pro heroes
still in their bed woke up instantly and sprang into
action. They didn’t take the time to change into
their hero costume. They grabbed their shoes
and their support gear and five of them ran to the
students while Mandalay ran to Kouta’s room.

It took them less than fifty seconds to reach those

rooms.

Only to find them completely empty.

Mina was running through the hallway, blindly

reaching behind her to grab Toru’s hand, and in
the next moment, she was in the forest, all alone.
Stones and sticks were digging in her bare feet
and while she wasn’t surrounded by fire, she
could smell smoke.

Her mouth opened on her own, ready to call the

others only to think better of it.

Someone had teleported her out here. It meant

that the fire wasn’t a freak accident but someone
literally trying to smoke them out.

It’s happening again. Just like the USJ.

She only managed to take one careful step

before a bloodcurling scream pierced the silence.
The sheer pain and horror in this sound splashed
her like cold water, leaving her trembling, her
acid begging to be released just so she could
feel safe again.

Who was it? It was gone now and she couldn’t tell
if the scream had come from a boy or from a girl.
She couldn’t tell if it had stopped because they
were safe or if it was because…

The sound of someone babbling reached her.

She lowered herself so she would be hidden by
the trees and the darkness, and she slowly started
to advance, tip toeing so she wouldn’t make a
noise.

She quickly saw him. Not a student but he didn’t

look like a villain either. He looked like a normal
man, kneeling on the ground, his face hidden by
his arms. If she had seen him during the courage
test, she would have bravely screamed “THAT’S
A GHOST!” and ran in the other direction.

Two contradicting thoughts crashed inside her

man. He was either a villain and this was a trap or
he was indeed someone who needed help and
avoiding him meant leaving him at the mercy of
whoever had brought her in the woods, of
whoever had made someone utter this
bloodchilling scream.

He had to be a villain. There was no reason for

him to be here except for that.

But what if I’m wrong?

She was still wrestling with her doubts when she

heard the whoosh sound of something sharp
cutting through something dense, then the sound
of a tree about to fall on her. She jumped on the
side, turning while she was still in the air.

A tall woman wearing dark camos, a black tank

top and combat boots, was standing among what
remained of the trees. Her hair was impossibly
long, each strand metallic and way too sharp to
Mina’s taste.

The tree that could have crushed her fell with a

loud noise, making the sobs of the man in the
middle of the road louder.

The woman winked at her and the thin filaments

that constituted her hair struck at Mina.

The hair was fast but Mina’s reflexes were better

and she had just spent an entire week making her
production of acid faster, better, stronger. She
didn’t leave the villain a chance as she produced
and propelled her acid.

Horrible pain bloomed all over her body. Pain so

intense and so alien that no words could describe
it. She screamed and screamed, her mind
refusing to comprehend what had just happened.

As she was screaming, something pierced the

arm she had raised in front of her face in a futile
and defensive reflex.

This pain was so inconsequential compared to

the rest that she barely noticed it until the hair
hooked and started to drag her towards the
laughing villain.

Minoru was going to die. At the USJ, he had

known this was going to happen, and even if he
had somehow managed to survive, his death had
been predicted that day. Every breath, every dirty
thought, had just been a suspended sentence.

He was walking slowly, afraid that his next step

would bring him to something horrible. He had
one sticky ball in each hand, aware that it
wouldn’t protect him. He wasn’t like Todoroki and
Bakugou or even like the rest of the boys in the
class.

He didn’t defeat bad guys. He just barely

survived them.

In the end, Minoru was right.

His next step did lead him to something horrible.

Minoru didn’t immediately understand what he

was looking at. He saw the blood, of course. He
saw the villain that looked like he had emerged
from a horror movie or at least from the
nightmare of someone deeply disturbed. But he
kept looking and looking, following the sneaker
he was seeing, the bloodied leg, and couldn’t see
which unfortunate classmate had just stumbled in
front of a villain.

When he realized that he was looking at a cut off

leg, Minoru didn’t scream but only because all
the air in his lungs was frozen solid. Still, he raised
his hands to his mouth, trying to prevent any
sound from escaping it or just to keep himself
from throwing up in abject fear.

The leather-clad-villain grabbed the leg and held

it like it was some kind of treasure.

He was drooling.

Minoru had just managed to hide behind a tree

when he started to hear the noises of mastication.

Neito had four minutes and thirty seconds to find

someone.

He was running at full speed but there were only

trees and various things on which to trip since he
was running in the woods in the middle of the
night. None of his classmates were here. He
didn’t even see anyone from 1-A, even though
this might have been the only time where he
would have been genuinely happy to see them.

Because in four minutes and twenty-five seconds,

the quirks he had borrowed from his classmates
would be gone.

Soon, he would be a sitting duck.

Neito didn’t immediately recognize the still form

standing among the trees as a person. He almost
ran into him, carried by his momentum, but some
atavistic instinct made him freeze before his brain
could fully register what he was seeing.

Crimson leathery skin strung out on monstrous

muscles that would put Shishida to shame. A
head that had dropped any pretense that it
belonged to something from this era, looking like
what a mix between something feline and the
most vicious velociraptor Neito could have
imagined. Impressive talons finished his fingers,
the kind that belonged less to a hawk and more
to something from a horror movie.

Fuck.

The villain smiled at him, revealing a row of teeth

that were the stuff of nightmares.
One moment, Kouta was in his room. The next,
he was throwing himself to the ground as
something huge and dark almost ripped his head
off. Someone screamed in pain or maybe despair.
Someone else screamed, the voice not belonging
to a human voice but still managing to convey
rage.

Blind panic flooded the child’s brain. He had to

run. He had to escape.

“TOKOYAMI! CALM DOWN!” a girl screamed,

more to make herself heard than because she
had lost her cool.

Kouta recognized this voice. It belonge to the

pony-tailed-girl who ate a lot but he couldn’t see
her. The woods were too dark. There wasn’t even
a moon tonight.

“I CAN’T! RUN!” the bird face answered,

sounding in pain and horrified, terrified at the
idea of hurting her while fists of darkness were
hitting everywhere.

Kouta didn’t know if the black-haired-girl did run.

He didn’t look back. Instead, he crawled, keeping
low, and once he was out of reach, he ran as fast
as his legs could carry him. There were no
thoughts in his brain except the certitude that he
had to hide or something horrible would happen
to him.

Asui and Toru were lying on Uraraka, probably

crushing her but the alternative was worse.

Above them, one of the explosive noumus they

had seen at the mall was perched on a tree,
trying to find a target. But Toru was the perfect
invisible flesh blanket and Asui’s camouflage had
become better in the last few days.

They waited, seconds passing too slowly. Toru

was sweating. She could feel it in her back.

Eventually, after a small eternity, the noumu took

flight. Toru waited thirty seconds, she even
counted them, before she started to get to her
feet and Asui followed her. They were giving a
hand to Uraraka, who was a little red in the face,
when Asui’s head whipped in the opposite
direction that the explosive noumu had taken.

A second explosive noumu was watching them,

his skin already starting to glow.

“Oi, Half and Half, do you have something more

important to do?” Bakugou almost snarled. “A
fucking date to cancel, maybe?”

Shouto quickly finished typing his message but

he didn’t put his phone back in the pocket of his
UA tracksuit pants because of his classmate’s
comment. It was because he was carrying the vice
class representative and with her chest pressed to
his back, he could feel her breathing and her
heartbeat picking up. Yaoyorozu would be waking
up soon and he didn’t want her reading over his
shoulder.

“Mind your own business,” Shouto warned him,

unease starting to rise within him.

It probably said a lot about him that he was more

worried about his best friend who has to be
sleeping soundly in his bed than about his
classmates who were in the middle of a villain
attack.

Because he just knew that Anyone would be

called. They were in the middle of nowhere and
hero students, and even the pro heroes, could do
the math. Calling for back-up would take time.
While there was an organization specialized in
dispatching agents quickly just one app away.

Midoriya might have said that his organization

wouldn’t go to non-verified members of the
server but they would still call for his help
because survival was never about rules.

And Shouto knew Midoriya. He might be able to

lie to himself and convince himself that he could
leave people asking for help alone but Shouto
knew better and so did All for One, Nagisa and
whoever would be needed to sit on him and
prevent him from running to a place full of heroes
who wouldn’t hesitate to arrest him.

But even if Shouto stayed silent, Midoriya would

know that the Summer Camp was attacked and
no one would be able to prevent him from
rushing to Shouto’s unwanted rescue.

So Shouto hoped that, for once in his life, his best

friend would listen to him and believe in him.

“Don’t fucking bother,” Bakugou barked. “No

pro will arrive in time to help us. We’re on our
own.”

“Thank you for your input,” Shouto breathed,

exasperated.

For a moment, he thought that Bakugou was

going to explode right here and there. They had
never been able to stand each other. Bakugou
hated him because he seemed to hate anyone on
principle and Shouto disliked him because he had
tortured his friend for ten years.

Shouto would have given his left arm to be

Midoriya’s childhood friend. To have someone so
loyal, so good, with him during the hell that his
early life had been. And Bakugou Katsuki had
done his best to break him.

But Bakugou simply insulted Shouto quietly and

kept walking, fuming in silence.

The smoke was starting to reach them and the

fire wasn’t far. Shouto was tempted to do
something about it but it would take a lot of ice,
which would leave him exhausted, and with such
lack of visibility, there was a high probability he
would freeze one of his classmates.

Instead, he hoisted Yaoyorozu’s limp form up on

his back because she had slipped in the time he
had needed to send the message. They had
found Aoyama and her, passed out away from the
road, surrounded by the signs of a struggle.

Aoyama, who was slung in a fireman's carry over

Bakugou’s shoulder, started to stir. There was a
dark spot of dry blood in his blond hair. Shouto
doubted that he had knocked himself out against
a tree while running in the dark so someone had
neutralized him. At least, it looked like he would
wake up soon and tell them what had happened.
Or at least walk on his own.

Shouto was quite surprised that Yaoyorozu wasn’t

stirring herself or making any movement
indicating that she was waking up. People who
were asleep or unconscious breathed slowly, their
chest rising fully and descending deeply while
Yaoyorozu’s heartbeat and breathing had been
fast for a while.

Uh.

If he was wrong, he would have to apologize to

Yaoyorozu.

Shouto abruptly removed his arms. If Yaoyozu

had been unconscious, she would have fallen to
the ground and probably thrown several
invectives at him. Instead, her legs circled around
his waist, her right arm around his shoulder and
she hugged him from behind.

“You’re so smart, Todoroki-kun,” she whispered in

his ear, giving him goosebumps.

Something sharp appeared in his field of vision,

so fast that it was blurry enough for Shouto not to
know what it was, but it was aiming for his eye.

His left side burst into flames, eager to get some

personal space and Yaoyozu got the message,
jumping from him with a cry before he badly
burned her.

“HALF AND HALF!”

The vice class representative was still in the air

when Shouto’s ice caught her, trapping her until
only her chest and head weren’t trapped in the
ice. A knife was still in her hand.

“You didn’t even hesitate!” she said, something

dark in her eyes, like he had betrayed her when
he had prevented her from stabbing him. “You
could have burned me alive! And you call yourself
a hero?”

In this moment, Shouto had the confirmation that

this wasn’t Yaoyorozu under a mind manipulation
quirk.

“Like father, like son, right?” she smiled, and

everything about her expression was wrong for
the face of the other recommended student in 1-
A.

Shouto crushed the hint of annoyance those

words gave birth to while Bakugou, a hand now
free so he could use his quirk more easily,
approached.

“What the hell did you do to Ponytail?”

“This one?” she smiled but now she had fangs

that definitely didn’t belong to Yaoyorozu.
“Nothing! She is so cute but we didn’t get to
become friends! I couldn’t even play with the
adorable blond boy! Couldn’t let you two suspect
anything!”

She tilted her head and with the movement,

some goo fell down the ice, revealing another
girl, with blond hair and golden eyes. She shook
herself like a dog out of the rain, literally shaking
off her disguise.

“Todoroki Shouto. Bakugou Katsuki,” she spoke

their name like she was tasting them.

Bakugou and Shouto immediately realized that

they were specifically targeted. They whipped
around, looking for a threat and what looked like
an explosion of thin razor blades surged at them
from the wood.

In less than a second, Bakugou and Shouto had

the time to see a woman with prehensile hair
standing in the woods, holding what looked like a
passed out man by the scruff, while they used
their powers in order not to be skewered.

They used their flames and explosions at the

same time.

There was no pain quite as bad as fire. A burn

refused to leave its victim, biting into them until
they fully healed and even then, a burn could hurt
months later when it was close to a heat source.

Shouto didn’t remember the pain when his face

had been scarred with boiling water. He
remembered being in pain but the sensation itself
had been lost to time and to the fog that came
with long periods of convalescence.

This time, pain didn’t spare him.

This time, he felt every sensation as his own

flames licked his skin, digging into his flesh and
bringing something his mind, too used to
wielding fire as his, couldn’t quite comprehend.

Bakugou’s scream answered his own as his quirk

also turned against him and he saw him falling to
his knees, clutching his broken and burned wrist,
a moment before Shouto crashed to the ground,
his body seizing.

Hisashi was starting to believe that bad luck was

contagious. More exactly, he was starting to
believe that Izuku’s trouble magnet tendencies
had rubbed on him, making the simplest plan a
mess.

He was hovering in the sky, watching quite an

impressive fire forest. More exactly, someone had
set off multiple fires to create an approximative
circle of flames that was slowly but surely
trapping everyone inside.

Including a pro hero with an extremely useful

quirk that he had intended to visit tonight.
Somehow, Hisashi doubted that she would be
kind enough to stay sleeping in her bed during
an attack, so he would have to find her before her
quirk was lost to the flames.

I am definitely going to get blamed for that new

attack, he sighed.

Kurogiri, who was hovering next to him as a dark

cloud, started to make concerned noises that
Hisashi had learned to associate with one
teenage villain about to make his life more
difficult.

“Yes?” Hisashi calmly enquired.

Get on with it, was left unsaid.

“Yami wants to be warped to the Summer

Camp,” his warper said as he looked at his
phone. Whatever Izuku was typing, it was leaving
a trail of notifications. “One of the students must
have asked for Anyone’s help.”

Of course they would. Heroes were so eager to

decry Anyone when he was eclipsing them but so
prompt to ask for his help as soon as they
realized they were out of their depths.

“Things would get needlessly complicated if he

saw us here,” Hisashi reminded Kurogiri. “He
does tend to jump to conclusions when I am
concerned.”

Kurogiri nodded. “Yes, he is now asking where

you are. And promising consequences if we both
are at Snowdrift’s summer camp.”

Of course he would.

“Warp him far away from the camp so that we

have the time to find Ragdoll. And keep an eye
out for Snowdrift. Yami would be intolerable if he
lost that one.”

Kurogiri gave him a glance.

“Have you noticed you often talk about Yami like

he is a toddler who can only be pacified with the
right toys?”

“And such an approach never failed me so far.”

Kurogiri chuckled, only for the quiet laugh to stop

abruptly. He tilted his head, considering
something, before nodding.

“Don’t wait for me,” he said before disappearing.

Hisashi blinked, feeling vaguely abandoned.

Then he remembered which pro heroes were at

the camp and that if those new villains had any
sense, they would put the priorities on
neutralizing them.

Kouta only stopped running when he reached his

hiding place, deep in the mountains. Here, he
was safe. Here, no one would find him.

But then it hit him.

He was the only one to be safe. Aunt Shino, Aunt

Ryuko, Aunt Tomoko and Uncle Yawara… Even
the stupid hero students, they were all in the
forest and maybe… Maybe…

“Kouta?” Mandalay’s voice lifted him from the

panic in which he was drowning. “If you are near
the camp, go back! I can’t come to you!”

Deep down, he wanted to curl into a ball, to hide

and not move until someone found him. He had
to force himself to move, urging his legs to take
one step at a time, until he reached the edge of
the cliff and looked at the forest.

Any hope of going back was dashed by the vision

of a circle of fire spreading through the forest,
cutting him from the camp. Worse, it was
trapping the people who, unlike Kouta, didn’t
have the time to flee the incandescent perimeter,
inside the inferno.

“If you’re too far, find a student and stay with

them! They will protect you!”

“They couldn’t wait for me?”

Kouta almost jumped out of his skin as he heard

the deep voice and he turned to see a large
figure wearing a dark cloak, looking at the blaze
with what could only be qualified as
exasperation.

“How am I supposed to get back in there, now?”

the man rolled his eyes, his hood falling back to
reveal a mask. But Kouta didn’t need to see his
face. He knew his voice, even though he had only
heard it distorted through videos.

He had been laughing. He had been laughing

and saying how he regretted how weak they
were.

Kouta took a step back.

'' … You hear me, Kouta?'' Mandalay's voice

kept ringing inside his head. ''I am so sorry,
Kouta, I don't know where you are. If you’re
near the camp, go back! If you’re not, hide
until you find a student and stay with them!''

Muscular, the man who had killed his parents,

tranquilly followed him.

“It’s a nice hat you got there! Would you trade it

for this lame mask?”

Kouta couldn’t run.

No one was coming to save him.

Someone fell from the sky.

Whoever they were, they just appeared from a

dark fog, looking very startled about the absence
of solid ground under their feet. A “Fuuuuuuu-”
sound reached Kouta. Muscular, startled, kinda
raised his arms.

The newcomer landed in the arms of the man

who had killed Kouta’s parents.

The child couldn’t say which of them looked the

most surprised about it. There was an awkward
moment where they looked at each other,
puzzled and obviously wondering how to react,
then the hoodie-wearing-creep jumped out of
Muscular’s arms.

The vigilante from Anyone (because Kouta

watched the news and could recognize their
stupid uniform) promptly pretended that nothing
embarrassing had happened and looked around.

“You wouldn’t know where I can find the UA

summer camp, would you? Full of hero students?
Maybe with some villains here and there?”

Muscular and Kouta slowly pointed in the

direction of the Summer Camp. The vigilante
turned his head and looked at the forest fire that
was impossible to breach unless one had the
quirk for it or a firefighter gear.

The vigilante muttered something that sounded

suspiciously like “I’m going to kill that warper.”

Notes:
Author is very very very very very
very very tired.

If you left a comment, thank you. I

reread them all the times. I am
sorry I am too tired to answer
them all but please, know that
they help a lot.

Many thanks to Redoaktreehill for

drawing a meme about AFO's
naked chest. You decided I
needed this in my life. I guess.

Many thanks to Melony for the

very cool cover of Anyone!

Many thanks to Karmauh for

drawing the hilarious father and
son duo and Izuku acting like a
teenager!

Many thanks to Six-Petal-Daisy for

the very cool sketches of Izuku!

Many thanks to Hellaxix for

drawing Hebisuga and Izuku!

Many thanks to Hoodiemanic for

this beautiful fanart of Uncle Yoichi
and his gremlin of a nephew!

Many thanks to Irr97ame for the

very cool cover!

CHAPTER 39
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Rokuro tried not to judge people when they were

at their most pathetic. He really did. But “try” was
apparently the key word because he always
failed.

Of course, there was the distinct possibility that

he wasn’t trying very hard.

“Hey, Eraserhead, I was wondering… Do you

ever plan to do something to compensate for
your very obvious weakness? Or are you just
going to hope for the best and get your head
bashed in every time you have to fight someone
slightly stronger than you?”

The Erasure hero failed to answer as the bomber

noumu had created a crater in the dirt with his
scarred hobo face. His scarf was around the
noumu’s neck. Rokuro had put it there himself,
both to insult Eraserhead and to see if he would
fight to the bitter end, if he would try even
though he had to know it wouldn’t save him.

But to his delight, Eraserhead managed to

surprise him.

The crack his shoulder made as he let the noumu

dislocate it pushed aside the song of the flames
and the chorus of panicked screams further away.
Eraserhead managed to jump out of the surprised
noumu’s hands, his other arm finding its way to
the hunting knife at his belt.

The knife pierced through Rokuro’s ribcage and

the hilt almost caved it in, pushed by the weight
and the momentum of the teacher. Eraserhead
slumped over him, his heart beating madly
against the villain while Rokuro’s wasn’t beating at
all.

But Rokuro didn’t fall, supporting both of their

weight. He hadn’t even taken a step back. It hurt,
horribly, but he didn’t care.

Eraserhead looked up at him and something

close between shock, horror and despair passed
over his face when he saw Rokuro’s smile.

“Now, you’re trying,” the villain purred.

His flesh climbed up the knife, swallowing the

blade then the hilt, Eraserhead’s fingers barely
escaping it. The erasure hero stumbled back, too
many blows to the head affecting his balance,
and the noumu grabbed him again. Rokuro, the
knife now in his hand, made a sign and the
noumu kept Eraserhead on his feet, a hand
clenched in the hero’s hair so his face would be
kept upright.

“I wonder… If I take your eyes, will I get your

quirk?” Rokuro asked, already knowing the
answer.

Eraserhead didn’t say a thing, only glaring at him

as Rokuro passed a hand over the hero’s face.
Scarred like his.

The hero didn’t say a word as the knife slowly

breached the distance leading to Eraser’s eye. He
didn’t beg. He didn’t rage.

One only knew what a man was made of at the

time of their death. Rokuro had killed many
people in his life. Strong heroes and ruthless
heroes were no different when they realized the
end was near and so many times, he had enjoyed
watching them devolve into sobbing messes,
begging for mercy. He had also seen cowards
and weaklings dying as heroes, protecting
someone or facing death with dignity.

Rokuro was proud of Eraserhead for being worthy

of his title of hero.

He would make sure to keep those eyes just to

never forget this moment.

The faintest drop of blood appeared on

Eraserhead’s face as the knife barely poked the
skin under his left eye. At the same time, the
knife felt in the dirt.

So did Rokuro’s hand.

Overclock granted Rokuro perfect mastery over

his own time. Almost no one could compete with
him when it came to time reaction. Rokuro could
strike between two thoughts. A second lasted an
eternity for him.

But no matter how fast a speedster could get, the

very nature of their power made them slower
than a teleporter.

Rokuro fell to the ground, cut in two pieces by a

black warp gate that had appeared through his
midsection.

Fuck.

Shouta’s vision was blurry and red with blood,

which was starting to feel familiar, but it was still
good enough to detect movements. He fell,
almost saw the noumu being cut to pieces, and
he felt hands taking hold of him right before he
faceplanted into the dirt, holding him like he was
precious and fragile.

The asshole, now half the man he used to be,

refused to do a favor to the universe and die.
Instead, he planted his hand and stump into the
ground, two additional arms growing from his
back, and he crawled like a spider so quickly that
he became a blur.

His legs were the only thing he left behind, still

twitching, heels digging into the ground.

It took a moment for Shouta to realize that they

were trying to get back up. The one who had
rescued him must have come to the same
conclusion because more black mist appeared
through the limbs, cutting them into additional
pieces.

Shouta knew who he was.

He remembered that black mist from that insane

day at the harbor.

He opened his mouth to ask what the hell was

Anyone doing here, if the small demon was
around, and whose student he had to give a
sticker to for having the good idea of calling for
the fastest help available.

“You’re under arrest,” he somehow said instead

to the villain.

He couldn’t be sure with all the black mist but he

had a keen suspicion that, just before he passed
out, the villain rolled his yellow eyes.

Izuku was still looking at the fire raging in the

forest when the villain moved, power saturating
his every movement. But he didn’t attack him,
even though he made a perfect target as he was
literally standing at the edge of a cliff.

He aimed for the child.

Izuku’s body moved on its own. In the next

heartbeat, the child was in his arms. In the next
moment, they had jumped back, away from the
crater the villain had left where the child had
been.

Visions of what would have happened to a tiny

human body danced in front of the teenager’s
eyes.

“Hey you,” the villain said. “You’re pretty strong,

aren’t you?”

He smiled, the expression half belonging to a

child about to open Christmas presents and half
to a predator who had smelled blood.

“I was promised that I would get to meet strong

people only to be ordered to murder a bunch of
kids! Can you imagine how disappointed I was?
But there you are! You’re a vigilante, aren’t you?
Not one of those kids who live by the rules but
someone who actually got to enjoy a real fight
before?”

Izuku was surprised not to be recognized as an

Anyone member. He had thought that All for
One’s stunt at the harbor had obliterated any
chance of anonymity for his organization.

“I am Mus-“

“I know who you are,” Izuku said. “A-ranked-

villain Muscular. A quirk that allows you to
manipulate and amplify your muscle fibers to
grant you additional speed, strength and
durability. You killed civilians. You killed pro
heroes. Among them, Ice Princess, Rock Titan,
the Water Hose…”

In his arms, the child became very still.

“… and others.”

Izuku loved heroes and couldn’t help but to

obsess about them. It wouldn’t make sense for
him not to know someone who loved killing them
so much.

He also knew that a fight was inevitable. Muscular

didn’t only kill heroes: he killed athletes, he killed
powerful criminals, he killed masters of their craft,
really, anyone who seemed strong.

He couldn’t be reasoned with.

Still, Izuku tried, because he had to. It felt

important.

“We do not have to fight. I am not a hero. We

could just both walk away.”

Muscular giggled, which just felt wrong for a man

his size but there was no other word to describe
such a manic sound. He raised his arm, raw fiber
muscles already appearing on it, and he pointed
at the child Izuku was still holding.

The child who was barely older than Eri.

“This child… Whatever happens, I am going to

kill him,” Muscular promised. “If you leave, I will
chase him and he will die. If you fight to protect
him, after I kill you, he will be next.”

Kouta had been furious when the Anyone

member had offered Muscular to just leave. This
was the man who had killed his parents! What
was the point of having a strong quirk and being
so eager to use it if he couldn’t kill that monster
so no one else would have to lose the people
they loved the most and never see their world
shatter?

That anger, bigger than him, shed its skin and

molted into terror as he realized that Muscular
was going to use him as bait to kill the vigilante.

That was how heroes died. They sacrificed

themselves for others, throwing their lives away in
a senseless and never ending fight.

The vigilante gently put him down on his feet.

“Everything will be alright,” he said like every

hero would. “I won’t let him hurt you. But I need
you to leave. Find somewhere safe.”

And then, he looked at Muscular, something cold

emanating from him.

“I won’t let him kill me either,” he promised.

Kouta had heard many empty promises in his life.

Adults simply excelled at making them.

This wasn’t one of them.

Muscular’s punch almost took Izuku’s head off but

it was just a feint, a cheap way to distract him as
his other arm almost blew a hole through the
teenager’s torso. A trap Izuku pretty much fell for,
and if he hadn’t avoided it by the skin of his
teeth, he would be incapacitated, then dead
because Muscular wouldn’t have stopped
punching him until he was a red meaty puddle on
the side of the mountain.

The truth was simple: Muscular was better at

hand-to-hand fighting than Izuku. He had fought
for longer than him. Worse, he had experience
fighting people this way while Izuku was more
specialized in identifying people’s quirks and
making strategies to end the fight quickly.

“Come on! Dance faster!”

Unlike Muscular, the teenager couldn’t walk away

from one of those punches. It would break him.
Being incapacitated meant death.

Electricity surged under his skin, begging to be

used, and despite Izuku’s utter repugnance at
electrocuting a human being, he knew this was
the best course of action. But the conditions
weren’t right and he couldn’t use the quirk for
now.

So he did what Muscular asked from him and

danced around him, punching and kicking when
it was safe to and every time he did, Muscular
laughed and hit back, never where Izuku
expected it. He mocked him, announcing to the
world that he was telegraphing his moves and
was utterly predictable.

Frustration bit into Izuku and Muscular saw it,

mocking him even more for it. He started playing
with him, slapping him around, and even if no
blow came into direct contact with Izuku, he now
perfectly understood why Todoroki was making
that kind of face every time he was hit by an Air
Blast.

Muscular moved in for the kill or at least for

something extremely painful.

He didn’t expect whips of pure darkness

grabbing and blocking his arm.

Izuku was faster than him, both because

Muscular’s quirk couldn’t stand the comparison
with One for All and because he simply had less
mass to move around. He used the half second of
immobility to jump on Muscular’s back, Blackwhip
wrapped around the killer’s throat, strangling him.

Such an interesting quirk. A muscle enhancer that

didn’t hide any other secret, or Izuku would have
seen them during their sparring, but which was
used magnificently. However, it came with a price:
the more muscles one had, the more they burned
through oxygen.

Izuku wasn’t all that great when it came to hand-

to-hand fighting. He was however excellent at
identifying people’s quirks and finding their
weaknesses.

Muscular had a fighting instinct comparable to

Katsuki’s and immediately fought against it,
muscles growing on his neck to try to fight
Blackwhip and to keep it just away enough for
him to breath but Izuku didn’t have only
Blackwhip.

He. Was. Strong.

He anchored his feet on Muscular’s back,

throwing himself back with all his strength, so
sheer physics made the tendril slowly but surely
cut through the layers and layers on Muscular’s
throat.

The villain roared, now more a ball of squirming

muscles than anything vaguely humanoid and he
trashed, trying to grab Izuku but the teenager
was moving too fast, ripping his legs from the
muscles trying to grab him, blood spraying
around. He tried to make Izuku fall, then threw
himself into the mountain side, trying to crush
Izuku, not caring that he had to hurt himself in the
process.

But Izuku hung on because he knew what would

happen if he let go.

Muscular would kill him then he would kill the

child. The simple fact that he had delayed him
might mean someone from UA had already died.

Maybe one of the people who had begged for

his help despite knowing that Anyone wouldn’t
intervene.

Maybe Todoroki himself.

Izuku also knew that he couldn’t incapacitate

Muscular. All Might could. All for One could but
wouldn’t.

Soon enough, Muscular would pass out but when

Izuku would stop strangling him, it wouldn’t take
that much time for him to regain consciousness.
He would walk out and find another target.

Muscular was getting weaker, his muscle fibers

breaking more easily under Izuku, but he wasn’t
less ferocious, on the contrary. The perspective of
losing had made him more dangerous and Izuku
knew that if he let go, if he didn’t stop putting all
his strength in Blackwhip, Muscular would free
himself and kill him.

Joy was emanating from Muscular, for he was

grateful that Izuku was giving him a good fight
and the teenager had no doubt that once he
stood over his cooling corpse, before he chased
the child again, he would still be grateful to Izuku.

It felt so strange to observe, for Izuku didn’t feel

anything close to it.

Instead, his world was cold and simple.

Izuku twisted the whips in his hands with all of his

strength.

Bones crunched with a dry pop .

Muscular went limp and fell facedown, his head

jutting at an odd angle.

Izuku stumbled forwards as his body reacclimated

himself to the lack of strain. He took a couple of
steps back to better circle around Muscular,
looking at his face that looked strangely
surprised.

The teenager grabbed Muscular’s corpse by the

back of his cape and dragged him to the edge of
the cliff, where a blazing inferno was waiting.

It became Muscular’s pyre.

Anyone found Kouta with such ease that it was

confirmation that his hiding spot wouldn’t have
stopped Muscular from finding him. Anyone (and
the child knew that he was Anyone because who
else would be strong enough to take Muscular
down?), knelt, one knee in the dirt, but didn’t
approach.

“You’re safe. I called the police and told them

where you are. They will come and pick you up
soon enough.”

Kouta didn’t move from his hiding spot, in the

hollow place of a tree.

“Is he dead?” he asked instead.

Anyone hesitated. Nodded.

Kouta wasn’t sure how he felt about that. He

ought to be happy. But instead, he just felt small
and would have wanted nothing more but to hide
in his aunts and uncle’s arms. And he also felt
something about the vigilante being here, in front
of him, but he didn’t know how to begin to
explain it.

But he needed to say something and his family

and even the other idiots were still trapped there,
with people wanting to kill him, so he spoke
anyway.

“Are you going to kill the other villains too?”

It wasn’t the thing to say. He saw it in the way

Anyone didn’t exactly flinch but that obviously
made him sad. Stupid of him.

“I don’t want to kill them. I am just here to rescue

the people trapped in the fire,” Anyone said and
he didn’t actually sound sad. More pensive.
“That’s why I’m here. Do you know those
mountains? Do you know a quick way to get to
the camp?”

Those mountains were Kouta’s playground. Of

course he knew. He explained it, forcing the
vigilante to repeat what he had said to make sure
he wouldn’t get lost on his way to rescue
everyone. It was the only thing he could do to
help so he had to do it right.

The vigilante started to leave.

Kouta couldn’t let him go. The moment he had

seen him coming back from the fight with
Muscular…. He had felt grateful. Grateful that
Anyone hadn’t thrown away his life for him.
Grateful that he wouldn’t have to leave with that,
grateful that he had been saved anyway, and
grateful that Muscular could be stopped.

He pushed the words out, even if he didn’t really

know how to express those feelings.

It showed.

“Thank you for not dying! Keep doing that!”

It probably said a lot about him that despite the

threats to his loved ones and the fact that he had
almost been killed by Muscular, that he still had
the energy to cringe.

Anyone paused, looked back at him, and said “I

will do my best”, then left.

The child was excellent at giving directions but

Izuku quickly realized that the wind had been
working against him and the fire had spread too
quickly and in his direction, cutting off any way to
access the camp.

Standing over the edge of the cliff, he

contemplated the fire that was climbing up the
high trees. Izuku himself was high enough to see
beyond the fire, and that despite the smoke, and
the part definitely not on fire where Todoroki
would be. And all of the other people too.

And potentially Kurogiri and All for One. Better

not forget about them. He would need to take
care of both of them soon enough.

Despite the flames, the trees were still standing

tall. They were old and robust, refusing to
surrender quietly to the blaze.

With One for All, it was potentially possible for

Izuku to jump from what was left of their crown.
Maybe.

It wasn’t like he had to do that through the entire

area of the forest. He just had to cross the part
that was on fire.

But even if the fire hadn’t reached the top of all

trees, the heat sadly wasn’t contained to the
flames. He could easily get burned. The crowns
of the tree couldn’t bear his weight in normal
circumstances and they were weakened. And
there was the matter of the smoke.

He took out his phone and googled “How fast do

you need to run in order not to get burned?”

The first page only had results about how fast

someone needed to run in order to catch fire and
how hard you had to punch to ignite air. The
former felt deeply ironic and the latter would
have sent Izuku down a rabbit hole at any other
moment but his favorite quirk lab partner was out
of reach.

Well, Izuku had Blackwhip to propel himself, his

hoodie was fire-resistant and he had always
performed beautifully under pressure.

He cracked his neck. Stretched. Took several

steps back.

He was going to need a running start.

“… Please, tell me he is not seriously thinking

about it.”

“No one is that insane.”

“HE IS! I KNOW WHO HE IS RELATED TO! HE

IS!”

“I am too young to die a second time!”

“SOMEONE GET THAT TEENAGER A QUIRK!”

“He just killed a man! Are we supposed to make

him more powerful right after he tasted blood?”

“YES!”

“To be fair, I am pretty sure it was self-defense.”

“And let’s not forget that if he dies, there is a 50%

chance that he is going to end up as our
roommate.”

“What’s the other option?”

“We all disappear because One for All will be

destroyed in the stupidest way possible. But
honestly, I doubt - OH MY GOD, HE’S DOING
IT!”

“God fucking damn it…”

Izuku put so much power in his jump that a tiny

bit of the mountain might have crumbled under
his red sneakers as he launched himself into the
sky, well above the flames, well above the smoke
itself.

The sheer exhilaration tried to rob him of any

thoughts of the future, trying to make the present
moment the only thing Izuku’s brain could
comprehend but he pushed it back, forcing
himself to prepare to use Blackwhip and for the
sudden heat he was going to be slapped with as
soon as he would start falling.

But he didn’t fall.

He was soaring.

Tomoko’s hands were warm with blood but the

student’s flesh under her fingers was deadly cold.
She had put a tourniquet above his knee, right
where his leg had been cut off, but he had
already been unconscious when she had found
him, and Search was telling her cold hard facts
that she wasn’t willing to listen to.

She once again tried to call for her teammates

but her communicator was dead. So was her
phone. The villains had to be using some kind of
jammer to destroy all means of communication.

Common wisdom said not to try to move

someone injured but common wisdom didn’t
apply to a villain attack and, if that wasn’t
enough, an actual fire destroying a forest she had
spent years protecting. It was why she had tried
to lift the kid when she had realized no one would
come to their help.

If it wasn’t for the knife still stuck in her back, she

would have managed to take more than a couple
of steps before falling, barely managing to
cushion the student’s fall.

Common wisdom also said not to remove sharp

things stuck into you until you were at the
hospital.

She wasn’t so certain it would keep her alive for

long. The other student, the one who had been
hiding among the trees when she had almost
stumbled in front of a cannibal, certainly didn’t
seem to think so. She could still see the way his
face had shown hope and relief then horror, and
finally determination as he had run screaming and
crying to lure the villain away.

Tomoko had never seen someone running so fast

in her life. She had been horrified. But at least,
she could still follow the little man with her quirk
and she knew that he might not be happy but he
was still alive.

She blinked and slowly shook her head. It wasn’t

like her to be all melancholic. It was the shock,
doing things to her brain…

“He won’t make it,” a deep voice told her like he

was talking about the weather. “You know he
won’t.”

… like apparently making her unable to notice a

giant man in a helmet sneaking up on her.

He had startled her and the sudden movement

had made the knife move. Blood spilled from her
lips. It didn’t prevent her from rising, forcing
herself to stay upright. She was a hero. She
wasn’t going to die on her knees, waiting to be
rescued.

“If he isn’t sent to the hospital quickly, the blood

loss will kill him and that’s not even talking about
other complications,” the villain told her like she
didn’t know that. Like Search wasn’t telling her
exactly how much blood he had lost, how he felt
cold despite the fire closing on them, and what
were his exact chances of survival.

But they weren’t zero. That was all that mattered

to Tomoko.

The villain scared her. Despite the fog all over her
mind brought by the pain and the exhaustion,
she could still feel that he was unlike the other
villains running in this forest. The sheer pressure
he was giving off was a clue.

But everyone had a weakness and she was more

than excellent at finding them.

Search locked unto him, looking for his power

level and his weak points.

A sound that could have been a cackle or a sob

escaped from Tomoko’s mouth. She took a step
back. Only one. The only thing that prevented
her from taking more was the fact Shinsou was
still behind her, lying on the ground, defenseless.

“A true hero would give their life to save

someone,” the monster smiled. She could hear it
in his voice. “What are you willing to give me?”

Shouto had regained consciousness just in time

to see Mineta arriving from one side, chased by
the nightmare of a dentist who had seen too
many X-rated-movies and two people from class
B arriving from the other direction, chased by
something sharp and blurry.

The pain… The pain was maddening but he was

strangely detached from it.

He felt that if he just let go, he could plunge back

into the darkness and not have to fully appreciate
what had happened to him when his flames had
turned against him.

There was ice on his right, the cold strangely

painful.

He didn’t remember using his ice. It must have

been his body trying to save him from his fire.

Bakugou was still on the ground, writhing in pain.

His arm… Shouto didn’t manage to see the state
of his arm, as if his brain didn’t want to show it.

Someone with impressive eyebrows was

screaming in his face, which meant he must have
passed out at some point. Someone from 1-B,
whose skin was pure steel. If steel could bleed.

A girl from 1-B, the one who kept hitting

Monoma on the head every time he wanders near
class A, was crouched in front of Bakugou and
Aoyama, the latter still unconscious. One of her
wrists was bruised and purple. Broken.

They weren’t in the middle of the road anymore.

They had taken refuge in the forest. Teeth and
steel tendrils were wildly thrashing around them,
trying to find them and, judging from the way the
trees were falling, they wouldn’t hesitate to
destroy everything in their way to get to them.

Shouto turned his head, which his entire left side

didn’t appreciate, at all. He managed to catch
most of his scream before it could escape his
throat but it still startled Tetsutetsu, which didn’t
help Shouto’s general state. Mineta was there
too, his eyes huge, half bald, and blood dripping
from his hairline and all over his face.

It meant that the one whose quirk had put Shouto

and Bakugou in this state was still here. That was
why the 1-B girl had a broken wrist, why Mineta
looked half scalped, and it meant that if Shouto
used his quirk again, he would either burn or
freeze.

He couldn’t do it again. He couldn’t even push

away the memory of being gnawed on by his own
quirk, even though he knew that repressing it was
the only way for him to hope to function.

But Mineta, Aoyama and him were the only one

who had a long ranged quirk. Aoyama didn’t
show any sign of waking up soon. Mineta’s quirk
couldn’t take those villains out quickly.

Shouto had to do something because no one

else would help.

His thoughts went to Dabi. His brother, who he

had witnessed time and time again using his
flames even though they turned him into
kindling. Shouto had never dared to ask how he
did it. He didn’t feel like he had the right, not
when he had the perfect quirk and certainly not
after he had refused for so long to use half of his
power.

You do it because you have no choice, his

brother’s voice said in his mind. You do it because
the alternative is to disappear.

The pain was rising now and Shouto wanted

nothing but to curl into a ball and to pass out
again. Instead, he followed the swirls of teeth
thrashing around. It took all of his energy not to
let himself be hypnotized by their ravening
rhythm and even more to guess their starting
point.

Maybe it took even more than that.

It didn’t matter.

I know where you are.

Tetsutetsu’s back was almost bare, his tee-shirt

ripped, and despite the steel protecting it, it was
a mess of perforations, still bleeding. Shouto
realized that he had used his body to shield them
while he was unconscious or even before that.

And when Shouto rose, facing the leather-clad

villain, Tetsutetsu also jumped to his feet, putting
himself between Shouto and the other villain.

Ice spread from his right foot, immediately

numbing it.

Fire would have been better to make the villain

flee but Shouto couldn’t afford it. An ice wall, his
usual stalagmites or even his strongest attacks
were almost too much for his body to handle
right now and were at risk of not immediately
neutralizing his opponent.

So instead, a hundred of very thin ice spikes rose

from the ground, scalpel-like in their sharpness.

Many of them were broken by the teeth.

Enough of them went through the villain with a

wet and sickening noise, pinning the villain to
one of the surviving trees. He squirmed, trying to
get free, but be it the shock or the pain, he didn’t
manage to get away.

Shouto spun, both arms outstretched, in the

direction of the other villain. Fellow hero students
were in the way. If he used ice again (if he could),
he would touch them.

Fire could be shot above them.

It was going to hurt.

Shouto accepted it.

But his flames never had the time to emerge.

For a moment, Minoru was convinced that a

meteor had fallen from the sky and landed in the
Summer Camp, which was probably an
improvement for this night.

Someone crashed to the ground, making it

crumble under the impact and the surviving trees
blown away. Green lightning illuminated the
night, showing a familiar figure wearing a dark
hoodie covering his face, kneeling in a crater of
his own making.

The pressure coming from him made Minoru

choke, all of his body wanting to flee from the
energy he could feel crackling from the one he
recognized as the Hosu vigilante, but his brain
kept screaming at him that if he moved, he would
draw his attention and that wasn’t a risk he was
willing to take.

Even the villain that had been trying to stab them

for the past ten minutes had frozen under the
shock, the iron filaments that had been aimed at
Todoroki hovering in the air, completely still.

The vigilante slowly rose to his feet, his gaze –

hidden but whose power was impossible to
ignore – passing over the hero students, from
Bakugou and Kendo who were further away from
Todoroki. The latter was so disorientated that he
walked towards the dangerous vigilante who had
destroyed an entire harbor.

Minoru didn’t know if it was Todoroki having the

misfortune of stepping in his personal space or
something else but the sheer energy of the
vigilante’s quirk changed, now saturated with
pure rage. The air in the hero student’s lungs
froze, so did every muscle in his body, and
images appeared in front of his eyes.

Images of himself, dead from blunt trauma, dead

from being mauled by something that might as
well be an animal, dead from being thrown into
the flames, dead, dead and dead in every
possible way.

It took Minoru a while to be able to breathe again

and even longer to remember the villains that
were still out there. His body was trembling so
badly he could barely see. But eventually, he
managed to turn his head.

Minoru’s eyes couldn’t pierce the darkness of the

forest, especially with the light of the fire behind
him so he didn’t see the villains hidden there.

But the sound of their mad run as they were

fleeing for their lives still reached him.

Shouto stumbled into his direction, both

maddeningly furious that he was here despite his
warnings and so relieved he could have passed
out. His body did the next best thing and he fell
into his best friend’s arms as his legs refused to
carry him any longer.

Midoriya gently caught him and held him, so

warm that Shouto clung closer. He would never
admit it out loud but he knew that now that
Midoriya was here, he was completely and utterly
safe.

“You did great,” his friend whispered in his ear,

his voice almost as cold as the ice that had sunk
its claws into Shouto’s very bones. “I am taking
care of the rest.”

Notes:
Rokuro: “Okay so mutations quirks
aren’t affected by Sorrow’s quirk
but how come you could use
yours with no ill effects?”

Moonfish: “Oh, I was affected.”

Moonfish: “It’s just that I really

enjoy pain.”

Rokuro: “… I am not judging you,

just myself, because I should have
seen it coming.”

Moonfish: “But that quirk did

made my teeth weaker, which
prevented me from eating more
kids.”

-----

Izuku: “Hey, Todoroki, I heard

what happened with Moonfish. If
you want to talk about your first
murder, know that I am in the
same…”

Shouto: “Oh, Moonfish isn’t

dead.”

Izuku: “He isn’t??? You skewered

him!”

Shouto: “Yes, I was pretty

surprised about that but
apparently, it’s pretty hard to kill
someone these days. People from
the third generation and on have
become ridiculously durable. And
since I mostly nailed him in the
limbs and in a not too important
part of the chest, he isn’t dead.”

Shouto: “Sorry, I interrupted you.

What were you saying?”

Izuku: “Nothing important.”

----

Ragdoll: Quick, Search! Find this

villain’s weakness!

Search: Yeah, about that…

---

Once again, thank you for your

support. Your comments were
read and reread and reread.

Many thanks to Karmauh for

drawing my boy.

Many thanks to the one now

known as the Halloween anon who
has been sending me pictures of
their Anyone!Izuku cosplay. You
look incredibly cool and
comforted me in my choice to
make Izuku wear a hoodie for his
villain outfit.

Many thanks to Berrybabana for

drawing scenes of Anyone
involving AFO HERE, HERE and
HERE.

Many thanks to u5an5 for the

beautiful wallpaper.

CHAPTER 40
Notes:
NAGISA: The author was asked to
put a summary because readers
have the time to forget the story
between updates. So, from what I
have been told, the Summer
Camp was attacked by the same
group that attacked the USJ.
Several students were injured,
including Shinsou Hitoshi, who
lost a leg, and Bakugou Katsuki,
who currently cannot use one of
his arms. All for One stole
Ragdoll's quirk. Muscular tried to
kill a toddler, why your guess is as
good as mine, and tripped all on
his own from a mountain, breaking
his neck. Shouto was seriously
injured by a villain's quirk that
cancel the immunity to his own
quirk. Yami rescued him and
stayed calm and composed...
which must be true... since it's
underlined twice."

Nagisa: "..."

NAGISA: "In any case, Yami is now

holding a injured Shouto in his
arms and facing several hero
students, including Bakugou
Katsuki. And he... stayed calm and
professional during the entire
night... Well, if it's written in his
notes, it must be true."
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Katsuki should be Izuku’s priority.

The hero student wasn’t only his former

childhood friend : he knew Izuku since elementary
school. They had grown together, they had
shared hopes and dreams for a time, they had
shared secrets, and even when their relationship
had exploded in a fiery inferno, they had
continued orbiting around each other. Izuku could
have picked Katsuki out of a crowd of a hundred
blond boys with temper issues and with explosion
quirks, in the dark.

If someone could recognize Izuku, it would be

him. But at this moment, Katsuki’s presence
barely registered.

Not with Todoroki in Izuku’s arms, wounded, so

wounded that Izuku wasn’t sure of how to fix it.
He wasn’t even sure Ao could fix that. She could
heal broken bones, internal bleeding and
sometimes head injuries but this… This was
Todoroki’s body not doing its job anymore, his
own quirk fighting him.

Izuku didn’t know if the quirk that had done such

a thing was still active, if Todoroki would keep
burning, from fire or frostbite, every time he tried
to use his quirk. All that he knew was that if he
had arrived earlier, his best friend, his right-hand-
man, the only person who kept him somewhat
sane, wouldn’t be so injured.

Rage pulsed within him, alive and with its own

heartbeat. One for All reacted to it, green sparks
flying around him.

Still holding Todoroki against him, because at this

moment, not even All Might could have managed
to get his best friend away from his grip, Izuku
grabbed his phone with his other hand and called
his second least favorite person right now.

“It’s useless!” the purple-haired-boy shrieked,

blood falling down from his scalp. “Cellphones
don’t work anymore! We can’t call for help!”

Izuku ignored him, letting Electricity reach for the

fuzzy cell reception, making it stronger and
steadier. Unlike actually using electricity, it only
took a fraction of his concentration to manipulate
electric fields this way.

Kurogiri picked up at the first ring. “Yami? I have

been trying to call you but-“

“I need a warp gate to a hospital,” Izuku

interrupted him, not caring about his excuses. He
also made sure to make his voice deeper so
Katsuki wouldn’t find it too familiar. “For four
hero students.”

“Are you…”

“Now.”

Four gates of black mist appeared right behind

him, for Kurogiri used the location given by
Izuku’s phone to pinpoint his position. The leader
of Anyone didn’t know the exact place those
gates were leading to but it would be a hospital
that could fix the students up. Even Todoroki.
Especially Todoroki.

Izuku wanted nothing more than to pass one of

those gates and to make sure that Todoroki was
alright but he had to find out more about the
quirk that had hurt him.

And he couldn’t trust Kurogiri to warp him back.

His own warper had betrayed him and was now
unreliable, something he would have to take care
of later.

Now, Izuku was going to have to do something

that defied all sense and reason: trust someone
else with his best friend’s life.

“Take care of him,” he softly said to the teenager

with iron skin as he transferred Todoroki from his
own arms to his. “That gate will lead you to a
hospital.”

The hero student took Todoroki from Izuku’s arms,

with some difficulty because the teenage villain
had trouble convincing his hands that letting the
only person he fully trusted go with a stranger
(the less injured of the little group) was a good
idea. The hero student looked at the warp gates,
doubt all over his face.

“How do we know…”

“I am Anyone,” Izuku declared, all softness gone

from his voice, his rage spilling in the air. All the
hero students, Katsuki included, flinched. “A
dozen of you hero students called for my help.
Either take it or deal with this mess on your own.”

The one carrying Todoroki passed the warp gate.

Izuku didn’t see if the others did too because he
didn’t care. He had more pressing matters to
attend to.

The girl with the orange ponytail and with a

broken wrist called out to him, trying to tell him
that one of the villains had a quirk that could
make other quirks backfire but Izuku was already
running at full speed with Full Cowl. A wave of
annoyance still had the time to pass through him:
between her broken wrist because the delicate
bones there hadn’t been able to bear the weight
of her giant hand, the state of the small hero
student who had ripped balls from his scalp and
was bleeding because of it and Katsuki’s arm
looking almost as bad as the first time Izuku had
used One for All, that much was obvious.

They must have thought him blind and stupid.

The villains were fast, one of them using the

metallic tendrils coming from her head to both
carry her friend and to propel herself forwards at
high speed.

The tendrils would probably try to skewer anyone

trying to get close.

Izuku looked at the man that was being carried,

curled into a ball and hiding his face, like a child
afraid of the dark.

His target.

One for All couldn’t backfire on him because that

quirk was already ridiculously ill-suited for him.
He had to fight with it at every use so his bones
wouldn’t turn into confetti and that was why he
was able to use Full Cowl right now. Black Whip,
though, would mean having energy tendrils
piercing holes through his skin. He refused to
even consider using Electricity.

His new flight quirk didn’t have any drawbacks

that could be affected by the backfiring quirk.
Taking flight and falling from them from the sky
would allow him to cleanly separate the two
villains and to interrogate the one who interested
him.

Flight superposed itself to Full Cowl.

He became weightless, his feet leaving the
ground under the impulsion of his jump. Pain
unlike anything a human mind could imagine
exploded within his skull.

There was no word to describe what happened to

Izuku.

The closest thing he got was that his brain had

been soaking in a pool full of gasoline and that
today was the time someone had cracked a
match and set the whole thing on fire. An
explosion of white appeared from behind his
eyes. His mouth opened in a silent scream. He
vaguely felt himself lose his footing and colliding
into something at high speed but he didn’t feel
any pain because his fucking brain being set on
fire took precedence.

He stayed curled up in the dirt, tetanized by the

pain. His face was wet. Tears and what he at first
believed to be snot was running down his face,
only to realize through the coppery scent that his
nose was bleeding, even though he hadn’t hit this
area.

Izuku allowed himself an eternity of pain, so

maybe a couple of seconds in the real world. His
fingers were digging into the dirt. Anger got him
back to his feet, whispering to him that using only
Full Cowl would be enough for now. A snarl that
couldn’t come from a human throat somehow
managed to escape from his lips.

The world became red as rage exploded out of

him, drowning any notion of prudence and
planning.

Steel didn’t know who was after her and she

didn’t want to find out.

She hadn’t signed up for whatever was in those

woods, so she ran without looking back, feeling
all too clearly the malevolent presence after
them, her hair grabbing Sorrow both because any
of them being left to be found by a hero would
lead to a catastrophe.

The fact that she could place Sorrow between her

and any attacker was just a bonus.

The new player in this game (A hero that UA had

sent as reinforcement? A vigilante? Another villain
who didn’t like their interference?) chased after
them, incredibly fast even though most speed
quirks came with drawbacks that should have left
him writhing in pain on the ground, at her mercy.

And then, he disappeared.

Steel allowed herself a smile, believing that she

had spoken too soon. The smile was short-lived
as she heard something loud behind her. A
shadow appeared above her, high among the
trees. The shadow of something, falling to land in
front of them and to cut their escape.

Almost half of her hair had been lost to acid. It

meant that she had enough left to stab whoever
had made that jump, and she did it before even
seeing them, on instinct. Steel hair pierced
through something solid and massive and her
neck screamed as something heavier than
expected fell in front of her.

A tree. All in wood, leaves, and all.

Someone had broken a tree, then threw it from

behind them so it would land in front of them.

If Steel had any time to think, she would have

considered exactly how much strength it took to
cut through a tree with something sharp, then
extrapolated it to imagine someone doing the
same thing but with blunt strength alone.

That thought would have been terrifying on a

primal level. It was probably a good thing it
didn’t have the time to bloom in her mind.

Instead, someone’s hand grabbed her by the

back of her skull before she had the time to react
and smashed her face into the nearest tree trunk.
Her nose broke upon the impact and she
screamed, collecting what was left of her hair to
stab at her opponent but he hit her face against
the tree one more time, stunning her.

Her brain desperately tried to hold on to

consciousness like she would have tried to hold
on to a wet soap bar in the shower. If she fainted,
she would die here.

The third time her face crashed into the tree, with
so much force that splinters flew everywhere,
took care of her worries.

The villain fell to the ground with a thud sound.

Izuku looked at her for a moment, eventually
putting her on the side so she wouldn’t choke on
her own blood, then he looked at the purple-
haired-villain. He was on his behind, crawling
backwards to get away from him, heavy tears
rolling down his face.

He realized Izuku was looking at him and stopped

so abruptly that it would have been funny if the
image of Todoroki’s left arm being a mess of
burns that looked like it belonged to Dabi wasn’t
floating in the teenager’s mind.

“It’s not my fault!” the villain cried. “I didn’t want

to do it! I had no choice!”

Izuku’s brain was still brimming with pain. He

didn’t know if the backfiring quirk was still active.
He wasn’t going to use Flight or any other quirk
to find out.

“Your quirk… Can you cancel it?”

Something in his voice apparently made the

villain flinch.

“No…” The villain was uncontrollably shuddering

now, despite the high temperatures. “With
distance, it stops working…”

Does that mean that now that he is at the

hospital, Shouto will be alright? Yes, the burns
and the frostbites would still be here but it… It
shouldn’t get any worse?

Izuku didn’t know what he would do if Shouto’s

state got worse.

“You don’t understand… I don’t have a choice.”

He was wrong. Izuku understood perfectly how

such a quirk would be nothing but a curse in the
quirk society. He was a villain from birth, unlike
Izuku who had chosen to jump head first into this
life.

The teenager held out a finger, wordlessly telling

the purple-haired-adult to wait, and he once
again used Electricity to have some decent cell
reception. He texted Kurogiri, who immediately
made a warp gate appear next to the teenager
and the other villain. The warper was now so fast,
so prompt to respond, so eager to do what Izuku
asked him, and this new work ethic only made
Izuku angrier.

But one thing at a time. He picked the villain by

the back of his shirt, holding him above the
ground. The grown man curled himself into a ball
like a scared kitten.

“Oh... Can you swim?” Izuku suddenly

remembered to ask.

“Yeah… But whyAAAAAH-” he barely had the

time to scream as Izuku casually threw him
through the warp gate.

The villain landed in cold and salty water, and he

swam out of sheer reflex, kicking and hitting the
water, panicking at the idea of being lost at sea,
abandoned to a horrible fate. He screamed until
his voice was hoarse, begging the one who had
neutralized Steel with ease to bring him back, to
not let him die there.

Then he looked up and realized there was a little

island in front of him.

Embarrassed, he looked around, hoping that no

one had heard his desperate pleas, and
awkwardly swam towards the dry land.

“Deku.”

Izuku looked behind him to see that Katsuki was

among the trees, holding his busted arm against
his side and with a face that had never been so
calm.

Katsuki had recognized the nerd from the

moment he had been standing in front of him.
Maybe it was because, since the tall bastard with
glasses had visited, he had been on the look-out,
unconsciously searching for Deku in the crowd,
just to get the confirmation that he was around.
Or maybe it was because he had known Deku
since birth. They weren’t friends, never had been,
but once two people knew each other for so
long, there was a sense of familiarity born from all
those shared experiences that could never
disappear.

He would know. He had spent his entire middle

school years trying to annihilate it.

Deku didn’t react, looking at him like they had

met on the street instead of catching up in the
middle of a freaking villain attack. He held his
head high, having apparently acquired a
backbone since the start of high school, light on
his feet like he was ready to move at a moment’s
notice, and Katsuki couldn’t see his face because
of that stupid mask but he had no doubt his eyes
were full of scorn.

I thought you were dead, Katsuki wanted to tell

him. I thought that for once in my life, you had
listened to me. I was relieved when I heard that
you were in trouble because at least, it meant you
were alive.

The memory of that creek came back to him.

Stupid Deku, looking at him with big eyes, asking
him if he was okay even though he ought to know
better, and his head outstretched towards him.

The revulsion that had seized him that day,

pushing him to slap that damn hand away, was
still present.

There was something else about that day,

something he couldn’t pinpoint but that felt
damn important as he was standing in front of the
nerd.

“All Might is looking for you,” Katsuki said

instead. “What have you done?”

His arm was pulsing with pain, hurting so much

that Katsuki had tears in his eyes. He had taken
one look at it, acknowledged he might never be
able to use his quirk with it again, and moved on
because he had no time to mope.

He needed to find answers. He needed for things

to make sense.

The nerd wasn’t answering. Instead, he was

looking slightly to the left, as if his mind was
focused on something else. Then, he nodded, as
if he had come to a realization, and started to
leave.

Anger flashed inside Katsuki, making the pain

more manageable.

“Are you out of your mind?” he snarled, taking

one step forward. “This is freaking Anyone we’re
talking about! You’re part of a criminal
organization!”

Deku looked back at the exact moment Katsuki’s

foot touched the soon-to-be-scorched ground
and it felt like being punched. His glare had a
physical impact, a promise of unrestrained
violence buckling down, begging for the
permission to roam wild. Or maybe it was his
quirk, the quirk Deku wasn’t supposed to have
but that the Hosu vigilante had shown again and
again, except it didn’t feel like any other kind of
quirk.

It felt malevolent and wrong and no one should

have that power.

“You’re the Exemplar who lied to the Symbol of

the Peace because he didn’t want his background
as a middle school bully, suicide baiter, and being
despicable in general, to be exposed,” Deku
enunciated, for the first time sounding like the
boy Katsuki had known, the one who was always
scribbling down in his notebook and who hid his
anger instead of owning it. “Do you really think I
am the one who has the most to lose?”

The threat was clear and with it, Katsuki’s world

unraveled because Deku had the means to end
his life. If his lie was revealed, it would make him
look incompetent at best and like an accomplice
at worst.

He would never get to be a pro hero.

Hatred at his own powerlessness threatened to

overwhelm him. It wasn’t supposed to happen
this way. He was supposed to be free, he was
supposed to be the best, and he wasn’t
supposed to back down because of that one lie
he had done in middle school and which might
now hinder his entire life.

He could tell himself that retreating was the right

thing to do since he was injured and that he
needed to check that the other morons hadn’t
been warped to a villain lab or something but the
truth was that, right now, Katsuki didn’t know how
to win.

“Leave, Katsuki. Or stay here. It’s not my problem

anymore.”

Deku left.

He didn’t look back.

Katsuki didn’t know how long he stayed there,

unable to process what had just happened, but
eventually, he started moving. Slowly but surely,
he made his way to the warp gate.

He was going to leave this place. He was going

to heal. And then, he would find a way to stop
Deku.

In the future, while the world would remember

the villain attack that happened during the
summer camp of a prestigious hero school, the
inability of UA to protect their students and the
fact they had been once again targeted by a
group of villains would be the first things to come
to mind.

But for the ones who were actually there that

night… They would remember the one who ran
through the forest, finding them one by one and
giving them a way out of this scorching trap.

Sometimes, that person sent the villains running

with his mere presence. At other times, he dealt
with them with a brutality that no hero could
rightfully approve of but that suited hero students
who had almost died just fine.

Uraraka Ochako was carrying two of her friends,

dazed and not sure of where she was going,
when Anyone came to her and told her
everything would be alright.

Monoma Neito was semi-unconscious when he

was carried back to safety but he would
remember the sensation of being in the arms of
someone who wouldn’t let anything bad happen
to him all his life.

Tokoyami Fumikage didn’t see Anyone’s smile

behind his hoodie but he still guessed it as the
vigilante congratulated their group for surviving
and saving so many other students, not aware
that Fumikage and Dark Shadow had put their
friends in danger.

Tiger refused to leave as long as he wasn’t sure

that every student was out of his forest and
cursed the vigilante as he tossed him through the
warp gate. It was only when he appeared in the
hospital and saw all the students that were
already there that he dared to hope that maybe,
Anyone could save everyone.

Midoriya Izuku, the one who had designed a plan

to steal the most powerful quirk in the world, a
teenager who had his own organization before he
was out of middle school, took a break in a
burning forest because he couldn’t think straight.

Everything hurt. His lungs didn’t seem to do their

job right because he was panting like he had just
ran a marathon. He had the sneaking conviction
that he just needed to yank his hood down and
to take his mask off in order to feel better but he
was just lucid enough to know that the veil
protecting his eyes and the anti-smoke-mask that
cool girl with the creation quirk had offered him
were the only reason why he hadn’t passed out
from all the smoke around him.

So far, the teenager had evacuated, forty (or was

it thirty-nine?) hero students and one pro hero.
Without counting Kouta who was still stuck
somewhere in the mountains, it meant that there
was potentially one hero student and four pro
heroes trapped inside the fire.

Looking for them would have been far easier if

Izuku had access to the hero whose specialty was
to find people wherever they were.

The hair on the back of his neck stood up.

Izuku managed to notice something sneaking

behind him and that was it. Despite a mind
sharpened by the need to think fast in order to
use barely half of All Might's speed, that was all
he had the time to do before he was hit, his spine
exploding with pain as he was thrown to the
ground.

Right as he was about to land, he threw his hands

forwards, put all of his weight on them as he
touched the ground, forced himself to keep his
balance, and threw what he wanted to be a
lateral kick behind but which only managed to
look like a half botched breakdance move. It
didn’t even get close to his assailant but the
power of Full Cowl did. It cleared the smoke from
the air and from the swear he heard, it sent the
villain backwards.

Izuku jumped to his feet, looking around but only

tall trees and way too much fire greeted him. His
entire back hurt. He had been hit several times in
less than a second.

Strong arms wrapped themselves around him

from behind, his back hitting someone’s solid
chest, his arms now restrained.

"Hi, friend," the speedster he had gotten

acquainted with during the mall incident greeted
him, his tone friendly but his smile feral and
sharp. "Would you believe that I have missed
you?"

Izuku didn’t answer, instead raising his feet and

stomping his sneaker on the speedster’s foot,
startling him. He leaned down to get a better
grip on the teenager and Izuku thanked him for it
by throwing his head back, one, twice, three
times, with all the strength Full Cowl could
provide. The speedster’s face caved in under the
impact, the man grunting in pain, but soon, it felt
like the back of Izuku’s head was hitting some
kind of play dough, and whatever was happening
behind him, it was moving in a way flesh really
wasn’t supposed to.

A shiver of pure revulsion ran down Izuku’s spine

but his voice was even when he spoke.

“You have a Regeneration quirk?”

"So to speak," the speedster purred. "The only

thing you need to know is that you can’t injure
me in any way that matters."

Blackwhip.

Tendrils of pure darkness exploded from Izuku's

bruised back, some of them securing the
speedster so he couldn’t escape, but the majority
went through the villain. Now, Blackwhip wasn’t
exactly made to cut things, but with a little bit of
effort and the crystallized rage that had carried
Izuku through this forest since he had been
forced to send his half dead best friend to the
hospital, it was relatively easy to rip him in two.

Flesh that didn’t feel human was torn apart with a

wet sound, quickly followed by a howl of pain.
The speedster let go of him, his hand reaching
for Izuku's neck but letting go was a mistake.

He should have kept the teenager right where he

was and crushed him with his superhuman
strength.

Taking advantage of this lapse of judgment, Izuku

grabbed his wrists, green lightning dancing all
over him, and broke them, the bones snapping
with a sharp crunch. Izuku then dropped to his
knees and used Blackwhip to throw the speedster
over him.

When he looked up, he saw that the speedster’s

torso was ripped in half. The man with the
ponytail grabbed his shoulder and forced the two
halves to reconnect, flesh knitting itself together
in an obviously painful process.

"FUCK!" he roared. "THAT'S THE SECOND TIME

TODAY!"

Izuku remembered the roof. He couldn’t leave

him the time to catch his breath because that was
exactly what his quirk needed. He couldn’t give
him the time to catch his breath.

His left foot moved slightly, preparing himself for

a jump.

The next thing he knew, the speedster had

grabbed the back of Izuku’s head and his knee
was colliding with Izuku’s forehead. The world
exploded in a sea of white fire.

“I just wanted to talk!” the speedster growled.

“Why do you have to make things so difficult?!”

“Alright,” Izuku wheezed, on the ground. He was

nothing if conciliant. He also didn’t remember
falling. Or when his smoke mask had broken.
“What are you doing here? Why did you attack
hero students? What do you want?”

Either the speedster had a twin or Izuku had a

concussion because he was seeing two of them.

“I am here because I was asked to bring terror

and I excel at it,” the speedster said. “You can
tell Sensei that his time has passed. It’s our time
now.”

A growl escaped Izuku’s throat. He couldn’t

promise anything as he would definitely have
some choice words for the bastard if he got out
of his mess and the speedster would have to wait
for his turn.

“I really wanted for us to have a nice

conversation, you know? We have so much in
common.”

He became a blur but Izuku managed to see the

kick coming. It didn’t allow him to react anyway
and the boots from connecting with his face, pain
exploding once again. He might have lost
consciousness for a second because suddenly, his
face was covered in blood and he had trouble
breathing.

“But I already told you that I hate it when people

touch my face. I guess I will have to teach you this
lesson so you won’t forget it again.”

Once again, Izuku saw what he was doing but he

was too slow to do anything about it.

He let himself fall on Izuku’s chest, sitting on him

and pinning him down. Izuku couldn’t kick him
because he was lying on his back. He couldn’t
punch him because his arms didn’t have the
reach.

The speedster didn’t have this problem and

started hitting him, a smile on his face like he was
truly having fun, a smile soon stained with Izuku’s
own blood as he kept punching him.

Again.
And again.

And again.

Blackwhip wrapped around Izuku’s arms and his

hands just so they wouldn’t be broken but he was
hit with so much speed and strength than
parrying only ended with him punching himself in
the face. Black tendrils spread around his face, his
whole head, then his neck, so his skull wouldn’t
fracture.

He was blind. He could barely breathe. If he

didn’t find a way to escape right now, he would
be beaten to death.

Madly, his mind half fractured by the panic, he

scrambled to find his flight quirk and felt it taking
hold of him, making him weightless, but the
speedster’s sheer weight was pinning him down.

Izuku raised his legs and arms as much as he

could.

Full Cowl. Not all of it but everything available to

him.

Izuku’s feet and hand hit the ground with such

strength that it made the both of them leap in
the air, and suddenly, finally, they were flying.

The speedster immediately saw the danger and

tried to jump while he was still relatively close to
the ground but Blackwhip bound them together.

I am not letting you go, you bastard.

They ascended in the night sky at a speed that

defied all reason, green lightning crackling
around them as One for All was giving everything
it had and Izuku was fueling the whole thing with
his will.

The speedster was now thrashing against him,

hitting him, but Blackwhip, all over Izuku’s body,
was doing a good job at protecting him from the
worst of it. As for the rest… Izuku’s life had taught
him how to keep going despite the pain.

It felt like they were weighing ten tons. The cold

wasn’t only piercing, it was now running in his
veins. Dark spots were appearing in Izuku’s vision
as he was breathing and breathing, filling his
lungs with air but no oxygen was reaching them.

He was going to pass out. It wasn't a possibility

anymore, it was certainty.

But he held on, forcing himself to remain

conscious, despite the pain, despite the
exhaustion and despite the beautiful siren call
that was telling him to let go.

It was only at the very end, as Izuku felt himself

dying and his hold over Blackwhip disappearing,
that he let go of the flight quirk.

Gravity took hold of them again. The weight

Izuku had been carrying disappeared, the
sensation so pleasant that Izuku almost passed
out of sheer relief.

The speedster and him, still bound together by

Blackwhip, plummeted from an altitude that no
one normal could survive.

So… How good is your regeneration? Izuku

smiled with blood-stained teeth.

The speedster's body shifted against him, skin

giving way to what felt like keratin plates, like the
armor of a pangolin. Soon, all trace of humanity
was gone from him as he looked like a being who
might withstand half of the shock he was about to
be subjected to.

Part of Izuku's brain was fascinated because his

quirk wasn’t regeneration, as he had hinted, but a
byproduct of another quirk. However, the rest of
him was flooded with gleeful and dark
anticipation because they knew what was about
to happen.

Even if the speedster survived the impact, fire

killed cells and stopped regeneration quirks. He
would be trapped in an inferno of his own
making, unable to flee, as his own healing factor
would keep him alive long past what a normal
human being could endure. And with that
beautiful speed quirk of his enhancing the speed
of his thought, he couldn’t not be aware of the
agony waiting for him.

The speedster screamed like a mad beast, the

wind robbing him of his voice but the vibrations
still reached the teenager.

They fell past the crowns of the burning trees.

Izuku let go of Blackwhip too and threw the

speedster as far away from him as he could.

Fly.

It was a prayer and an order and his whole being

put into one wish. It was asking for a miracle. It
was begging reality to look away, for just one
moment.

It was fantasy becoming reality.

Izuku’s fall stopped a few centimeters above the

ground, all of the momentum he had
accumulated gone.

The wind caused by his fall had blown away the

heat and the flames for a few seconds but they
were already coming back full force. He needed
to fly away or he would burn to death.

He… just… needed… a second…

Shadows appeared around him, taking hold of

him and making the world disappear. When they
let go of him, he was on the beach, looking at
fancy dress shoes.

Ugh.

Izuku raised his head and saw All for One,

crouching in front of the teenager in order to take
a better look at him. Izuku, floating right above
the beach, dropped on the ground and grabbed
the front of All for One’s shirt to seemingly kneel
in the sand. All for One’s hand immediately found
him, steadying him.

Kurogiri was behind All for One, in retreat, typing

over his phone.

“I have warned Gwen that you’re here,” he told

Izuku. “She was worried.”

Izuku slowly blinked, keeping his face perfectly

neutral. Kurogiri would be dealt with in time. But
now, he had to focus on All for One.

“Did you go to the Summer Camp to take one or

several quirks?” he asked with a flat voice.

A hint of a smile tugged at the corner of All for

One’s mouth. He just couldn’t help himself.

“I believe it was a reasonable deal. I didn’t force

anyone’s hand.”

All of Izuku’s exhaustion was gone now. Who

would have thought that anger was better than
caffeine?

“And did you tell Kurogiri to warp me away from

the camp?” the teenager asked.

All for One didn’t speak, hesitating as he finally

realized that something wasn’t right. But it was
okay. Izuku already knew the answer to his
question.

Izuku’s hand, that was still holding the front of All

for One’s shirt, pulled him towards him and he
headbutted him in the same movement, the
supervillain’s nose exploding under the impact. It
was so sudden that All for One didn’t have the
time to react as Izuku yanked him from his feet
and threw him towards the beach house.

All for One went through one wall, the entire

house shaking under the impact.

Kurogiri jumped in front of Izuku, his arms raised

in appeasement.

Power exploded out of Izuku, all of One for All’s

rage surrounding him. He looked at Kurogiri,
someone he didn’t feel any love for right now,
someone who had betrayed him again and again
for All for One, someone who was responsible for
Shouto’s injuries.

“Out. Of. My. Way,” he warned him, the only

leniency he was willing to give the warper
because there was a time where they used to be
comrades.

Kurogiri froze, not knowing what to do, only

knowing that the promise in Izuku’s eyes was the
truest thing in the world, and it dawned on him
that he was out of his depth. He warped away.

All for One was half embedded in the kitchen

counter and his face was a mask of cold fury. His
eyes contemplated Izuku, trying to find a way out
of this situation, not in a way to excuse what Izuku
had just done, but in a way that would maintain
their current status quo.

Fury and anger and indignation shone in those

calculating eyes.

And just the faintest hint of fear.

“Don’t start something you can’t finish, Izuku,” All

for One snarled.

The teenager raised his hand, feeling his muscles

scream in agony with this simple movement. He
wasn’t that far gone not to notice that he was at
his limits. The adrenaline was already leaving his
system, his body had been put through too much
strain, and nothing about this was a good idea.

He snapped his fingers, the fridge next to which

All for One had landed exploding, electricity
bursting out of it and going straight through the
supervillain, under the order of Electricity. Such
an elegant quirk, unable to create electricity on
its own, but perfectly able to use the one in his
holder’s surroundings.

All for One convulsed, agony coursing through

him. Izuku was all too aware that it felt like
burning from the inside, that one couldn’t scream
because every muscle, including the ones in one’s
throat, was locked in place.

Izuku was in front of him in a heartbeat, not even

knowing if it was only due to Full Cowl or if he
had used Flight too. What he remembered to do
was using the sixth holder’s quirk once again to
pull out all the electricity out of All for One a
moment before his fist connected with his chest.
Nothing broke under his knuckles but the
supervillain got a little more embedded into the
wall, so Izuku punched him again.

This time, his fist stopped right in front of All for

One, all the momentum disappearing. Shock
Absorbtion or Shock Nullification. Followed by a
shockwave he had to jump from in order to avoid,
then a fridge was suddenly flying at him.

He couldn’t stop it but Black Whip surged from

him, diverting the course of the fridge before it
hit the teenager. The next thing he knew, All for
One had grabbed him by the skull, the muscles in
Izuku’s neck screaming under the strain as his feet
weren’t touching the ground anymore, but not for
long, as All for One rammed his everything
through the kitchen counter.

Only a miracle and Blackwhip bursting through

the tattered remains of his hoodie in his back
kept Izuku’s spine from snapping clean. He threw
one leg around All for One’s arm, hanging on like
the most pissed off koala ever, and his other foot
slammed into the villain’s face with the force of a
sledge hammer.

It didn’t even stun All for One, the supervillain

snarling like a pissed off animal. Izuku hit him
again and again, not caring about the pain in his
leg and the bones screaming at him that they
were about to shatter because it was like he was
kicking reinforced concrete. He didn’t care. All
that he cared about was that one of All for One’s
fingers had wandered dangerously close to his
mouth.

His teeth bit it, unable to cut through the skin but
chewing on it like a dog who refused to get his
favorite bone stolen. The teenager bit and bit
until, somehow, despite all of All for One’s quirks,
he soon tasted blood.

The supervillain shook him off, backhanding him

with super strength. Izuku barely got the time to
put a hand in front of his face to protect himself,
which only ended with him slapping himself in
the face with all of All for One’s momentum,
before he was thrown out of the beach house at a
speed that could have rivaled with Apollo 11’s.

Flight.

His brand new quirk canceled some of his speed

before he collided with All for One’s car, sending
it rolling several times. Izuku lost a couple of
seconds there before when his brain started
working again, he was lying between the wheels
and looking at the sky. His fingers dug into the
metal in a mad frenzy before he had even laid
eyes on All for One’s again, creating ammunition
to throw.

All for One, who had been looking at his

bleeding hand, shock all over his face, barely had
the time to avoid the improvised missile. The
second and third were stopped right in front of
him, their impact nullified by the shock
absorption quirk.

Izuku took aim, the next missile landing above All

for One, ricocheting on the sides of the gaping
hole in the wall and landing on him, though at a
speed far too slow to do any real damage.

“Pathetic,” All for One said, his tone final as he

raised his hand.

Move.

Izuku couldn’t. His body wasn’t even hurting

anymore, he had stopped responding altogether,
not bothering to send any pain signal, preferring
instead some strange static noises.

Are you going to let him win? Are you going to

let him do whatever he wants while you can only
watch, powerless?

Izuku growled at this very idea. He couldn’t help

himself, words were beyond him, as only unholy
fury was coursing through him in this moment,
leaving the place for nothing else.

His hands moved on his own, fingers clawing like

they could feel what it would feel like to wrap
around All for One’s throat. He needed to.. stop
him… He needed to… end him… because…

“... I warned you,” Izuku remembered. “Many

times... But you kept pushing…”

Yes, Izuku had warned him, again and again, and

All for One had never taken him seriously. His
promise to kill him if the supervillain crossed the
line had never produced any kind of effect,
because again and again, he had preferred to
play it safe, to keep the peace.

Everything was Izuku’s fault. He had to fix this.

Black tendrils that didn’t belong to him grabbed

his arm. He tried to cling to the car but the force
of All for One’s Quirk Activation was too strong
and the car broke, Izuku still clutching a small part
of it as he was thrown around like a ragdoll. Sand
got into his mouth. Blackwhip flailed weakly, his
rage too exhausted to fuel the quirk.

“You’re no hero to stop me, Izuku,” All for One

said, scorn saturating every word. “You can call
yourself a villain all you want but we both know
what you want to be. And we both know what
you really are. The one who stole a legacy he
can’t begin to understand. A child so desperate
to emulate All Might that he stole his quirk and
destroyed his legacy. The only One for All holder
that wasn’t chosen.”

Izuku could barely see him. His vision was blurry.

He wanted to throw up.

He wanted to cry too. Not because of what All for

One was saying or because of the exhaustion, but
something else, a sadness that wasn’t natural.

Concussion, the part of him that was still vaguely

lucid informed him. You need to go to a hospital.

“Worthless, useless Midoriya Izuku.”

Izuku flinched.

“You have no moral high ground, Izuku. And you

didn’t survive against me because you’re worthy.
You are being indulged. Never forget it.”

The teenager punched the sand, the shock

reverberating up his arm.

He was the quirkless boy who had survived

everything life had thrown at him, even himself.
He might be a thief, he might be stupid, he might
be nothing, but he had one thing, accumulated
through decades of pain: he had rage.

Potent, burning, all-destroying rage because he

was weak and powerless and because no one had
ever protected him. They had destroyed him,
again and again, and he would die before he let
someone destroy what was his.

“That’s a nice speech you got there,” the

teenager mocked, his smile cold and ugly. “Did
you give your brother the same one before you
got him killed?”

All for One froze but his quirk didn’t. Red lines
coursed over his skin and black lightning
crackled around him, his quirk reacting to the
rage he was feeling. This was the first time Izuku
had seen him so affected by something.

For the corner of his eyes, he saw Kurogiri, who

had been warping here and there during his
entire fight with All for One, unable to get close
to any of them, barely able not to become
collateral damage. He was frozen too, but unlike
All for One whose face was a black mask, the
unadulterated horror on his was perfectly visible.

But if All for One was so kind as to remind Izuku

how pathetic the teenager really was, the least
Izuku could do was to return the favor.

“I’m worthless? The only person you ever loved

died hating you! What does that make you, All for
One?!” Izuku roared.

Power surged from All for One, barely controlled

and furious. At the same time, Izuku threw what
he had stolen from the car: the gas tank.

Izuku pointed with two fingers, taking aim. At the

same time, all electricity was drained from his
phone. It wasn’t much. And yet, as blue sparks
appeared around him and burst forth, touching
the gas tank, they went through it just as
expected and exploded, right above All for One’s
head.

Heat, after all, was probably the hardest thing to

block, even for someone with so many quirks.

Izuku barely saw what happened next. His vision

was blurry at best and his head was ringing so
hard that spots of color started to cloud what was
left of his vision.

Nonetheless, All for One staggered.

The flames from the explosion spread around

him, an incandescent aura, then they grew wild,
scorching the beach.

Izuku’s body didn't move on its own. It couldn’t

even move at all. And yet, Izuku forced it to move
all the same.

The teenager was already gone when they

reached the spot where he had been resting.

Kurogiri had tried floating above the fight, ready

to give assistance (to who, he didn’t know yet)
but he had been forced to retreat, away from
their refuge on the beach, as All for One and
Yami had gone to war, and were too focused on
each other to notice any collateral damage.

All for One was an unstoppable force, claiming

the air and landing attacks after attacks, trying to
corner Yami in order to warp him, while the
teenager was an immovable object, refusing to
stand down, refusing to be stopped. All for One
was madness and desolation, his fury toxic,
threatening to make the warper choke. Yami was
green lightning and something other, his
movements jerky and barely human, a broken
doll that kept itself moving out of pure will and
madness.

Some of the terror Kurogiri was feeling was

instinctive. He was a mere mortal hovering near a
battle between gods. The sheer power that came
from those two didn’t feel like something that
should belong to this world and each cell of his
body was aware that they could vaporize him.

They were going to kill each other. More exactly,

All for One was going to kill Yami, because the
boy was exhausted and should have passed out
from the strain a long time ago, and the only way
to stop him was to kill him. And his death would
destroy All for One, for Kurogiri wasn’t blind and
could see how much of his boss’ sanity was
dependent on Yami’s presence.

They wouldn't stop on their own.

Someone had to keep a cool head and find a way

to prevent them from breaking each other
beyond repair.

Kurogiri warped himself away.

In the sky, All for One paused, tilting his head as

he tried to reconcile what the quirk he had stolen
from Ragdoll was telling him and what he was
seeing with his own eyes.

“How can you even stand…” the supervillain

started, right until he finally paid attention to
Izuku’s hand. “Ah, I see.”

Izuku’s entire body was puppeteered by

Blackwhip, moved with each movement of his
fingers.

“Clever boy.”

With a twitch of his fingers, the teenager moved

his body out of the way as liquid shadows tried to
catch him and warp him away.

Kurogiri appeared in Dabi’s loft, not even

bothering to turn the lights on. After two weeks
sharing the space with Dabi (and Hawks), he
perfectly knew the layout.

“Dabi!”

A heavy noise coming from the bedroom, like

someone suddenly jumping out of bed. For a
second, the image of Dabi trying to escape
through the window so he wouldn’t have to be
dragged in another dangerous Anyone mission
flooded Kurogiri’s brain. He warped himself into
the bedroom.

Dabi wasn’t alone in there. A certain pro hero was

leaning against the wall. His hair was more
disheveled than usual and his shirt was very
wrinkled but apart from that, nothing on his face
or his body language could let anyone think that
he had been interrupted in the middle of
something. He conveyed the aura of a pro hero
on patrol, relaxed but ready to answer to any kind
of emergency.

Dabi, shirtless and holding his arm up, like he had

been holding on to something quite large,
conveyed no such a thing. He kept looking at the
emptiness in front of him then at Hawks,
obviously wondering if the pro hero had a
teleporting quirk or something.

Kurogiri didn’t have the time for this.

“All for One and Yami are about to kill each

other!” Kurogiri informed the catatonic Dabi. “I
need your help!”

“All for One is trying to kill Yami?” Hawks paled.

No doubt that he was considering the
ramification for Anyone and how it would affect
society at large.

“… No?” Dabi chose to answer, like he was

personally offended that Kurogiri would even ask
him to keep both of his employers alive.

Truly, Kurogiri found it wonderful how the young

man believed his opinion mattered in any way
during such emergencies.
Despite the high speed at which they were
moving, Izuku and All for One couldn’t not notice
the dark mist that appeared between them.

Neither of them even slowed down, knowing that

Kurogiri would dodge in time. No matter how
much he wanted to stop them, his survival instinct
would activate his quirk on its own just to prevent
his gruesome death.

But Kurogiri wasn’t the one to emerge from the

portal.

Instead, a very spooked, shirtless, half scorched

villain fell from it followed by his bed, right in the
middle of the collision course of two enraged
villains.

Izuku’s best friend’s brother.

All for One’s Heat Resistance quirk.

A coherent thought finally pierced through Izuku’s

mind, fogged by rage. His body reacted before
even fully registering it and he slowed down, in
an attempt to find a way to avoid Dabi while still
breaking All for One’s neck with his own hands.

And because of that slight hesitation, liquid

shadows finally managed to touch Izuku.

One for All roared as he used his flight quirk and

all the speed he had left to escape the warp quirk
but the shadows spread on him, devouring him
whole and spatting him ten meters above any
kind of vaguely stable surface.

Izuku just had the time to see black mist

disappearing before he plummeted and fell into
salted water, then fell some more as the sea tried
to claim him forever.

Move your legs. Swim.

He couldn’t.

You’re going to die. Swim.

Somehow, he broke through the surface. There

was water everywhere, the salt licking his wounds
with scorching tongues, the cold absorbing all of
his body heat and what was left of his strength.

His limbs were as heavy as lead but now that he

didn’t have to carry his own weight, they felt a
little more movable. He summoned his new quirk
but be it because he didn’t have any anchor point
or because he was exhausted, it failed to answer
him. Same thing with Blackwhip.

The teenager made himself float on his back but

his limbs were right under the surface and he
could feel how heavy his body was.

He could either wait here and sink here or wait for

All for One to come and rescue One for All.

Neither option was acceptable.

He started swimming.

Dabi was standing on the beach, in front of

Hawks. He hadn’t needed the damn pigeon to go
through that misty bastard’s warp gate. He had
landed on his own, using his flames to stop his
fall, because he could take care of himself.

And a pro hero shouldn’t bere right now. None of

them should be.

The bloodlust in the air wasn't simply thick, it had

actual solid weight. It prevented them from
breathing, stopped them from thinking logically
because only survival instinct had to remain. But
despite none of them daring to even breathe too
loudly, let alone to speak out or move, the beach
wasn’t quiet.

Instead, the noises of All for One ripping things

apart with his bare hands were overwhelming.
The beach house used to have an annex. Now, it
was ruins and charcoal and All for One was
continuing to go through it, not saying a word,
just disappearing deeper and deeper into it,
destroying everything on his path.

And every time one of the villains moved, they

could feel All for One’s full attention on them,
fury and the need to unleash his rage saturating
the air, a silent promise that what was left of his
sanity would snap and that he would slaughter
them just to quell his rage if they pushed him too
far.

So they stayed here. They didn’t move. And Dabi

stayed in front of Hawks, blocking him from All for
One’s view because the bird was the least
valuable member of Anyone.

By the time Izuku reached the beach, it looked

like a war zone, the fire had been put out and it
was now empty. No lunatic supervillain with a
god complex. No traitorous warper who didn’t
deserve his bar. No collateral damage.

He even managed to walk out of the water. He

dragged himself on the sand, high enough on the
shore so the high tide wouldn’t drown him in the
middle of a revitalizing nap, and he put his hand
in the sand. It was nice and warm and comfy. He
was going to rest for a little while.

Then, in the morning, he would check on Shouto

and if his best friend was dead, he was going to
kill each and everyone of them.

Notes:
Once again, thank you for your
support!

Many thanks to
Sharkbiteoohahahafor for drawing
Izuku and Shouto in the last
chapter.

Many thanks Emptysketchpad for

the Anyone card castle.
Many thanks Bookwalmartav for
Izuku haunting Stain's nightmares.

Notes:
Comments always make me smile
and help me write. :)

Anyone now has a TVTropes page

HERE!

Please don't mention updates in

the comments.
This isn't abandoned but the muse
is fickle.

Series this work belongs to:

Part 1 of ANYONE ● Next Work →

Works inspired by this one:

a tiny drop of chaos by Space_Samurai
Restoration, of a sort by
Anonymous_Nerb
May I have this dance? by Ravelights

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