All the Stars in the Sea: Chapter 4 – All For One
AN: Groovy, baby! I'm in such a good mood, that I want to push out another chapter! I feel like I've got a really good plan as to the direction I want to take this story in, and I just really cannot wait to have it all written out. Review, constructively criticize, or just comment, talk to me and let me know what you think so far and maybe what you would like to see thrown in! Thanks, also, for the encouraging comments, as they really make me want to keep adding to the story. Without further ado, let's ride!
P.S. Music credit for this chapter: Angels in the Architecture by Frank Ticheli
I do not own My Hero Academia or any of its characters.
Aizawa was a tired man. Any person that knew of the Erasure Hero would give the roughly same description of the man: bags under his eyes the size of golf balls, disheveled hair, and an attitude that screamed I would rather be asleep than dealing with whatever problem you want me to fix.
Aizawa did not, however, slack off on any of his assignments. What he provided was cold, often harsh logic in situations where most people tended to panic and a surprising level of agility for someone who seemed to be deprived of sleep at all times. "If they looked underneath the underneath, maybe someone would realize that I put up this constantly tired disposition as a ruse to surprise any would-be attacker. In the event where I am caught off guard, at least I can return the favor to them." Eraser Head completed every case he had efficiently and thoroughly.
If this week had proved anything to Shouta, though, it was that he was long overdue an actual vacation from his hero work.
The training camp was an absolute disaster. Being ambushed by villains once more along with the kidnapping of one of the students added up to a major PR and media nightmare that Aizawa had to deal with. Being one of the lead figures at the camp, he had no choice but to answer a majority of the questions being hurled at UA, ranging from the legitimacy of the institution and questioning his ability to safely lead the next generation of heroes into the limelight.
Tiring would not begin to describe just how much he had to deal with. Not only handling the questions coming left and right from every news outlet in Japan, but secretly preparing a counterattack against the League of Villains and their new members had proven to drain more life out of Shouta than every other event he dealt with in his life. And that included the lobster incident.
He never thought of the lobster incident. No one involved did.
Even with the rescue of Bakugo from the League's clutches, the problems kept piling up. A small, minuscule, practically nonexistent portion of his mind was thankful for the presence of some of his students at the battle site, using the unexpected against the villains to give the heroes any chance they got to ease their load was undoubtedly helpful. The other, much larger portion of his mind was furious with them.
"Using only limited information and a smaller task force against a much larger and better-equipped enemy in their home territory without notifying anyone was more than a foolish and rookie mistake. To believe that some of my students were even aware of this and had not thought to contact me or any other hero about this almost gives me enough reason to expel the lot of them. If they believe this is how the world of heroes works, then they are sorely mistaken. To believe themselves able to handle actual villains independently and with no backup plans was idiotic at best. The attack at the USJ must have instilled a false sense of ability in them to handle threats above them. I have enough reason to expel them, I SHOULD expel them. But, without them, we might not have got Bakugo out of the League's clutches. This is so troubling. And concerning troubling people…"
Aizawa's thoughts drifted to the one green-haired student in his current class. As per usual, Midoriya seemed to be the one who got the most injured in each battle he went into. While Aizawa was silently impressed with the leaps and bounds Midoriya was making with improving the use of his quirk, every fight he went into had to involve one broken thing or another. "The medical bill that kid would rack up must be atrocious if he had to shoulder all of it financially." Thankfully, a good portion of the government-mandated hero budget was allocated towards covering medical complications in the line of work, a grace that was extended to all intending hero students.
Directly confronting what had to have been one of the most powerful villains he had and ever would see, Aizawa would almost believe that his student was suicidal if he knew nothing of his student's character. Oddly enough, going up against such a figure netted Midoriya the least amount of injuries he has ever had. Besides some bruises and small cuts, barring what damage he got from the knockback of All Might's final move, nothing was seriously wrong with Midoriya physically.
That was until he heard what had happened with one doctor Naoko. The preliminary report listed that the man had entered the room for approximately five minutes to review and document the vitals of Midoriya, but was found screaming and twisting in pain on the floor of Midoriya's hospital room with Midoriya unconscious.
Test results revealed nothing outwardly wrong with Naoko until they ran bloodwork and quirk factor tests. It was extremely uncommon, but sudden mutations of one's quirk could occur at untimely moments, and with a quirk that could manipulate blood such as Centrifuge, some mutations could be more harmful than others. The results stunned the receiving medical team to the point that they demanded a second trial of tests to be done. When the results were consistent with those before, the team listed what they had found
Quirk factor mutations: none
Quirk factor level: 0%
There was no logical basis for the tests to provide the results that they did. If they were correct, then Naoko was quirkless. That, however, was impossible, as many people knew of and could attest to Naoko's useful quirk in medical laboratories, often put on-call to attend various clinics to speed up blood work tests when there was a backlog of requests.
Questioning Naoko was not a possibility as he was rendered completely catatonic after the painful moment he had. The only way Aizawa could get more information was to question the only other person who was present at the event, Midoriya himself.
Given that one of the medical staff was injured while working on a hero, the police force had to involve themselves. Already stretched thin trying to handle the issues in the Kamino Ward, it was difficult to find an available officer to accompany him to question Midoriya. An opportunity arose, though, when he saw one detective Tsukauchi accompanying All Might through the same hospital housing Midoriya.
"Detective, All Might," two heads turned to face Aizawa, "I need your assistance."
To be the bearer of All For One is not to be a cursed individual. To have a power that removes the supposed individuality of others is not a horrifying thing, but a harsh truth. To hold the abilities of All For One as your own is not a burden, but a calling to be one above all others. All For One is the power to be judge, jury, and executioner all in one, to decide who is worthy of holding the power of a quirk and who is not. It is not removing individuality when one takes a quirk, but removing the ability of one to harm others. In the event that one resists the call of their decided fate, then it is the power of One For All to act as the guards who ensure that what punishment is deemed fit is carried out. To bear both All For One and One For All is to be the harbinger of justice against one's actions, the dealer of karma, a living tribunal.
Midoriya awoke with a start, gasping and heaving himself upright in his bed. In turn, he saw three figures jump back in surprise at his sudden uprising. Looking around, Midoriya noted that it was Eraser Head, All Might, and Detective Tsukauchi gathered around him.
"Midoriya, son, how are you feeling? Are you hurt?" All Might asked eagerly.
"Don't push him around too much, Toshinori. You wouldn't want any of the nurses hurting you any more than you have already hurt yourself." Tsukauchi half-joked.
Sheepishly using his non-injured arm to rub the back of his head, All Might showed a toothy grin in response.
"I, no, what are you all doing here? You shouldn't be here, you need to leave."
"We can't do that, Midoriya. We need to talk to you. Something happened with the doctor that came and visited you earlier. Doctor Naoko. Do you remember what happened?" Aizawa pressed.
"N-no no no, you can't b-be here. It's dangerous, I'm dangerous. I-I c-can't control it, can't s-stop it from hurting all of you t-too. Please, please. I don't want to hurt any of you. Please." Tears now threatened to spill from Midoriya's eyes as he looked at the ensemble members with fear in his eyes. Aizawa was quick to note that it was not a fear of what he or All Might or Tsukauchi would do, but a fear of the self.
"Midoriya, you need to breathe. Just breathe slowly. All I need you to do for me right now is clear your head and calm down. Just answer me this: why do we need to leave? What is it that you are afraid of?" Tsukauchi was growing more disturbed the longer he heard Midoriya talk. His quirk only pinged truths from Midoriya the moment he started to talk, so Midoriya fully believed that could hurt him, All Might, and Aizawa.
Midoriya stiffened. "You…y-you all don't k-know? B-but All Might, you were right there. You saw h-him do this to me, make me into a villain. A monster."
"Midoriya, my boy," All Might spoke, "you are no villain, and especially no monster. You never have been, and never will be. I see that you've been hurt by All For One, but I honestly do not know what he did to you, none of us do. We need you to help us so that we can help you. What did he do to you boy? I know that we can fix whatever it was that he did, because I-"
"You can't!" Midoriya shouted, his voice cracking. The tears spilled freely now as the inheritor of One For All sobbed into his chest, drawing his knees close to his frame. All Might immediately went to Midoriya and hugged him tightly, pulling Midoriya into his chest as he tightly gripped the boy.
"You can't you can't you can't. N-no one c-can fix it. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry All Might. All Might please, I'm so sorry." Midoriya choked out through his sobs, grasping at All Might's back as he wept into the man's chest.
"Young Midoriya, I know that it must have been more than difficult to have to go through whatever All For One did, but we want to help you, I want to help you. Please, tell us what All For One did. Let me help you, my boy."
The sobs started to die down as Midoriya pulled back from All Might's grasp, kneeling his head down, part of his hair covering his face.
"A-All Might." Midoriya silently said. "Can I be a hero with a villain's quirk?"
"What do you mean, my boy?"
"All Might, h-he gave it to me, All Might. He gave it to me."
Suddenly, All Might's form went rigid. His hands dropped to the sides as a look of understanding, then pure pain washed over his face, the word "No…" silently passing over his lips.
"All For One. He gave me All For One, All Might. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." And once again, Midoriya burst into tears as he revealed that which was forced onto him.
Post-Chapter AN: The first person to spot my little Marvel reference gets a free cookie or something like that.
