AN: Today (December 10th, 2019) marks a year since this fic started. Hopefully, those of you who've been here since the beginning and all the rest, find this chapter and the last two or three to be everything you were hoping for. Thanks for sticking around, for reading and all the kind (and critical) words, everyone.
Never expected anyone would actually want to read this, so thank you for enjoying this with me.
The end is relatively near, and in this chapter: a seed I planted all the way back in chapter six finally blooms.
-Black
It was a dingy, old, little hovel near the outskirts of the city. The walls were stained with black streaks, water damage if one were to guess optimistically. It smelled like old, musty leaves and mud, perhaps of rotting meat and fruit. Old drawings made by children remained on the fridge, on yellowed paper left to linger in the sun. Crumpled and flecked with stains of water and soap, splashed over from a sink that was all too close to the fridge. A dishrack and cupboards were filled with wooden bowls and cutlery, ceramic cups with hand painted designs.
Coats with faded color and bits of string at cuff, collar and hem perched on a coat rack that had darkened over many a long winter. The entry way floor was discolored, stained by boots and shoes that had tracked mud, snow and water into the dwelling. Little rooms, three of them, had wooden beds whose mattresses were old, cotton and feathery stuffed cots. Quilts were draped over each, pillowcases handmade with uneven, unmatching squares of cloth. The pillows themselves were the same as the mattresses, fluffy and warm.
Furniture was odd and crooked, carved from unwanted and warped bits of wood that might have been the leftovers from cutting down bent and broken trees. The only source of electricity was wiring running from a generator, sitting in the basement carved from the stone of the hill the house was built upon. Tacked and pinned to the walls the wires sat, outlets plugged into bits and pieces of them at various, odd places. When the fireplace wasn't lit, strings of little lights tied around the rafters blanket the house in pleasant, warm illumination.
The house was perched at the end of a small valley, hooked into an alcove that shielded it from all manner of weather. Winters were harsh, in that snow would spill into the little valley and bury whatever was left beneath or near the overhanging hills and rocky outcroppings. A sprawling forest was near enough, oaken trees that shaded and hid anything lurking in that place that nature yet held its dominion. At night, one could hear the wolves howling, or the call of a great bear over the singing insects and frogs.
One's only avenue of approach was the old, winding, stone road that led right to the doorstep. Cars would have all manner of trouble, making it to this place. This was probably why a pair of horses were lodged in an old stable, covered in thick, green vines of ivy. Of course, to feed them, one would need a steady supply of oats and hay which was why the house had no shortage of these things planted about, here and there.
Around the house, behind wooden fences, were little gardens were sprinkled about, lettuce, radishes, leeks and beets. On scarce occasions, there would be strawberries and watermelons growing beneath the apple tree, and the adjacent pear tree. Some distance away, for those who cared to find it, was a little rice field where those who lived in the little house would farm.
Outside, in the rain and with an old, bamboo shovel headed with carved stone, a man was digging. Six feet down, four across at the heads and feet, and eight lengthwise. He wiped sweat and rain from his brow with an arm that was scarred, burned and withered. His skin, in many places, was similarly marked. Neck, chest lower legs, around his mouth and eyes. Pulling himself from the hole, Dabi leaned on the shovel to examine his work.
It would be a suitable grave... not that this was at all a comforting thought.
Wandering back from the woods, a pair of slain deer on her shoulders, Toga's hair was a mop drenched with water and blood of her kills. How and when she'd come to own this place, was a tale she would later tell. But for tonight, there was work to do. "Where is he?" he asked, out of breath.
Swinging the carcasses off her shoulder, she dropped them onto an old, stone table, inside a little shed just by the house. "Seether's bundled up in the basement, wrapped him in an old tarp." Her tone was morose, softly spoken. "Not the best place for him, but it was all I could really do."
Dabi nodded, shaking some mud from himself. "Good, but... I didn't actually mean him."
Realizing who he meant, Toga shrugged. "Not sure, on his way, probably. I hope. Haven't ya heard from him?"
With a shrug, he plunged a hand into his pocket and plucked it out. "No," he replied, "you're terrible at giving directions." his brow furrowed at an odd angle, his lips frowning on one side as his eyes drooped.
With a roll of her eyes, Toga shook her head and shrugged. "Well, I dunno what ya want from me. I always did fine with directions like those."
"Says the woman living by herself in the wilderness like an old witch."
At the insult, Toga gave a toothy, crocodile smile. "That ain't me. She's buried out in the woods, somewhere."
Not sure if she'd intended the unspoken threat he'd heard, Dabi gulped and quietly nodded. "I... see."
When next she spoke, it was with an oddly quiet voice that didn't quite reach him through the rain. "No ya don't, Frankie..." if she hadn't turned away from him to gaze down the old road, he might have heard her.
Further down the road, almost too far to see, a figure dressed in black and red was wandering toward them. Dragging his feet, one arms supporting the massive, purple monstrosity on his back, the other hanging like a soggy, broken wing of a bird left outside a window it had flown into. His bleeding face had been ignored, his flesh still oozing his life essense away, only for the rain to erase its existence from the roads he traveled altogether. In one of his hands was a broken, jagged edged sword, scraping along the stones as he staggered onward. His breathing was raspy, hoarse and heavy; like one who had almost drowned at sea, and blood trickled from his lips in sloshy torrents, here and there. Behind him, another pair of souls traveled along.
A man and woman, she was wrapped in a trench coat she'd stolen along the way, who raised her arm and called to the people in the distance. "Dabi!" Waving side to side. The man was muscular, bruised an scarred, bearing only one eye in his skull. He limped along, looking just a little too laissez faire about everything going on around him, not bothering to pay much of it any mind.
Eventually, the sounds of metal dragging on stone and her voice reached their ears, and Toga -along with Dabi- turned their eyes to those wandering forms, coming up the road. "Uh oh..."
When Dabi thought he might have noticed what she meant, he started running toward his friend and she soon followed. The splashing, muddy sounds of their footsteps reached his ears and Stain might have smiled at any other time. As he was now, his blurry eyes barely noticed them long enough to recognize them. No sooner had he done so, feeling relieved to see friendly faces at long last, when he fell to his knees and then his face with slap, a splash against the stone. Mooney rolled off his back in a limp, burned heap.
"What the hell happened?" Toga demanded, rushing to Ash as Dabi knelt by Stain.
She shrugged, shivering to no small degree. "He- he just-" she sighed, wincing a little and looking at the fallen men with a guilty expression. "Slashed his way through the armored car, said Mooney was too vulnerable to leave in the hands of the authorities. Said if I wanted to live, I'd better come with him."
As his sword clattered away from his hand, Dabi took Stain's hand. "Hey, hey!" With bleary, slow moving eyes, Stain looked at him. "You're okay now, alright? You can rest, we've got you."
Weakly, Stain raised a hand and dropped it on his own chest. "Evidence... in..." he nearly blacked out just saying that. "hide it..."
It was only as he lay there on the road, the rain washing him over, that Dabi noticed his old friend was bleeding from his side. "Toga!"
At his alarmed outcry, she ran over. "God dammit..." she tore open his costume, inspecting the wound as closely as she could. "Oh good, someone shot him..." with a growl, she got to her feet and hauled Mooney onto her back. "Get him inside, Frankie, I'm gonna hafta to do something about that."
Nodding, he scooped him up, not noticing the way Stain reached after his fallen sword. "Is he gonna be okay?"
Toga gave him a look. "Course he is, dummy. It just ain't gonna be pretty puttin him back together... Now come on." She started running toward the house. "We're officially on the clock here!"
Another round of hurried nodding and he started after her, Stain limping bobbing in his arms as Ash picked up the sword. All he would remember after that, as they rushed inside, was the moon peering through the stormy clouds up above. Stain had always liked the full moon...
Thursday, August 16th, 2255...
Whatever time it was, she had no earthly idea. She hadn't gone to sleep in her own room, where the curtains weren't so thick as to entirely block out the sun. For a moment Kyoka was worried, waking up in a strange place, but the arm wrapped around her reminded her of where she was. In bed, with him, safe and warm. Of course, much to her embarrassment, she and he were still very naked and she blushed, hiding her face against his chest. In his sleep, he hummed, arm coiling just a little tighter around her, his face nestling against her hair.
Unable to fight back the smile that followed, she slid one of her arms around him, running her hand up and down his back, slowly. His breath felt warm, soothing almost, as it pushed through her hair. If she closed her eyes again, she wasn't sure if she could manage to stay awake but she closed them anyways. Fragments of time replayed before her eyes, just moments, memories of this strange man she'd fallen in love with.
When they'd first met, back when she'd heard him falling to the unforgiving surface of that alleyway, all she'd thought was 'what is this idiot doing? He didn't hurt himself, did he?'. Then he'd sunk his teeth into her neck and that had rapidly shifted to 'WHAT THE FUCK!?' followed by '...who the hell is he?' after he'd protected her. Weeks later, she couldn't remember exactly how long it was, he'd shown up again in the classroom of 1A and she couldn't believe it. That strange, clumsy boy who'd bitten her in the alleyway wanted to be a hero. What was stranger was that he was suffering such a similar ordeal as she had, back some years ago, even then at UA.
Seeing Bakugo treat him like that... that might have been the moment her heart had opened up to him. When she was really curious, interested enough to find out just who he was. As things would eventually turn out, he was just this sweet, gentle boy who had turned into a creature of the night. A fanboy who'd been born quirkless, living under the oppressive treatment of a bully given free reign to do as he pleased.
They'd saved each other's lives at the USJ, barely kept their friendship going the weeks that followed thanks to her; then he'd been her shoulder to cry on, her support at the sport's festival. He spent two years fixing her Zune for her, when she'd carelessly thrown it into his arms. So much more, of course, could be said about all these moments and more that followed, but really? These were the ones that she'd been surprised to find herself cherishing above the others, spent with other people she cared for. Her mind, her heart, lingered on them, mulling them over, analyzing them and trying see if there was anything there that might have hinted at something more. It was only later, a year or two later, that she realized 'oh... I've got a thing for him...'.
Now here she was, here they were, and she really wanted to kiss him. Funny, what a simple thought will do to one's mood.
A soft hum, some sluggish stirring of his body, and his eyes started blinking themselves open. After he'd noticed her arm around him, her body snuggled up to his, he leaned back with red on his cheeks.
She smiled, warmly. "Hey, you."
He gulped, nervously smiling with her. "H-hey."
"How are you feeling?"
It took him a moment to answer that. "Groggy, nice, like I'm thinking in slow motion."
She nodded, still blushing a little bit too. "Me too. I think that's normal though, after um..." she couldn't say it.
"Y-yeah, I mean, we uh... it was, um..." Neither could he, so he cleared his throat instead." Probably..."
His arms went to squeeze her, but she leaned up, pressing her lips to his with a murmuring hum. When she didn't pull back after a few seconds, he closed his eyes and just relaxed. It only lasted a few seconds longer and when it was done, she tickled the tip of his nose with hers. "So... How are you feeling emotionally?"
A little, tired sigh was his only reply for a moment or two. Hands started petting at her back, slowly, careful not to push the blankets off of her. The power was probably still out, meaning it was more than likely a little chilly. "Like I don't know what to begin processing first."
So much had happened, as it seemed to go with them and theirs. The secrets of Eri's past and how they'd been covered up, Ingenium and Iida, Endeavor somehow being worse than they'd expected. Aizawa nearly letting his own student decapitate him.
Stain...
"I know what you mean," she mumbled, nestling a little closer to him and freeing him from his thoughts. "can't stop my head from spinning every time I start thinking about any of it..."
He squeezed her, she nestled her face against his chest again, both relaxed a little. "Aside from Iida... everyone's okay, right?"
She nodded. "Momo just needs rest, get the dust out of her lungs, but yeah. Aside from being upset about Sten, they're all okay." When she felt him deflate at his name, her arms squeezed him. "...are you okay?"
A halfhearted gesture between shrugging and shaking his head, then he mumbled. "Not really..."
Frowning, she held on tighter. "Okay. That's okay."
Sighing, he pressed his mouth and nose into her hair, breathing in her scent. "Is, um... this how you felt about Toga?"
She gave a breathy little scoff. "Probably... yeah. I still do. I was kind of hoping you had some other idea than 'try and stop them, hope for the best'. Kinda all I've got right now..."
That was probably as good an idea as they were going to come up with. "Sorry..."
She kissed his sternum. "Can't really blame you. It's not like there's really much else we can do, yeah?"
"Sadly, yeah."
The sad reality of it all was, they were still just students. No resources or real connections that could do much of anything. Any such time where they could really influence decisions like that, the fate of people gone horribly astray, was years down the road. When they were heroes, when they had money and real authority to speak with... what a dangerous and scary thought, that they might one day influence things like this.
"Hey, Kyo?"
His turn to pull her from a darker headspace. "Hmm?"
With a slight gesture of his head, he whispered. "Hold still..."
She did not, in fact, hold still. Instead she looked where he'd gestured, seeing what had him worried. Coming down from the ceiling, on a thin line of silk, was a familiar looking spider. "Little Seven." Kyoka smiled. "Long time no see." She reached out, slowly, her fingers extended and the seven-legged black widow reached for her fingertips.
His hand trailed up to hers, careful not to startle either of them. "Please be careful..."
With a smirk, she rolled her eyes. "Relax, she's not going to bite. She's probably just cold..." Seven crawled into her palm, nestling there and cleaning herself. "Spiders don't handle cold well, their blood -it's not actually blood, by the way- can't actually freeze, but when winter rolls around? They turtle up and enter this sort of suspended animation, until it warms up again." Looking at the way seven huddled into her hand, her smile took on a sadder tinge. "I don't they like being cold..."
Uncharacteristically, he reached toward the spider without the slightest hint of fear, and let her crawl into his hand instead of hers. "You sure know a lot about them..."
Smiling at his sudden 'bravery', Kyoka shrugged. "Watched a couple documentaries with the family, a few summers ago." She looked at his face, pleasantly surprised to see he was calm as ever, holding the spider, where once he would have been terrified. Perhaps it was acceptance, of a sort, she gathered; so it was with the spider as it was with himself, or so she hoped. "Mom didn't like them, but dad I couldn't stop watching."
To her further surprise, he even slowly reached out with his other hand to stroke along the arachnid's body. "Have you always liked creepy little monsters?"
Still smiling she glared at him, playfully. "Are we still talking about spiders?"
Sheepishly, he looked away from her. "Y-yeah..." The way she arched her eyebrows, giving him that skeptical look, soon had him caving. "...No." he quietly admitted.
"Good boy." She would never get tired of his reaction to being called that. "Neither of you are creepy monsters, Izu." She ran her hand up his arm, her palm cupping the back of his hand as he cradled Seven. "You're both just a little misunderstood..."
He didn't say anything, he just lay there with her in his arms, cradling the spider for a little while longer. Such heavy things, painful things loomed like shadows over them. Things from the past, recent or otherwise, things undoubtedly about to happen. Quietly, he wondered what mom would think of her, of Kyoka. He knew she'd like her, she always liked girls like her in movies, books, what have you. She'd spent a week fangirling over Lisbeth Salander, once she'd discovered those books. Kyoka, in a way or two, was fairly similar. ...God, he missed her.
"Hey, Izuku?"
Blinking a few times, he sniffed. "Yeah?"
Turning to look at him, she reached up and stroked one of his cheeks. "Why did you want to be a hero?"
Thankful for the distraction, from those thoughts, he gulped back the tension that might've made him sound upset. "I um... I wanted to be happy." Surprised, her expression did a bit of a jump. "Since I was kid that's just... when I was little, after something horrible happened," she wiggled closer, trying to reassure him with her presence, her warmth, "my father said 'if you don't want the people you love to leave you, be something worth loving.' "
Horrified, making no attempt to hide it she mouthed the words 'what the fuck!?' before he went on.
He sighed. "Five year old me heard that and thought... 'I guess being a hero is the only way I can be happy'. ...kind of stupid, right?"
Shaking her head, she turned over and wrapped her arms around him, holding him right. "It's not stupid..." Her face pressed to his shoulder, his neck. "I think... I think that's why I wanted to be a hero too."
He blinked. "Really?"
She nodded. "I wanted to be strong enough to take care of my friends, so I'd never lose anyone the way I lost K and Himiko." She grimaced, trying to hide her face and looking every bit as guilty as she felt. "If you're stupid because of why you want to be a hero, what does that make me?"
Looking over he shoulder, he reached over and placed Seven on the radiator before he squeezed her back. "A wonderful, caring person who anyone would be lucky to have calling them a loved one?"
Blushing, now she was hiding her face for a very different reason. "Idiot..." she muttered, shoving her face entirely from view as he smiled. "I didn't say that so you could be all... like that..."
"Yeah, but it just seemed like the thing to be anyway."
Still embarrassed, she turned and looked at him again, not quite able to look him in the eyes. "How screwed up are we?"
He shrugged. "More than we should be, less than we could be."
Hard to argue with that, mostly because it was vague. "Very non-specific, Green."
Another shrug and then he tried again. "About... as much as the Skywalkers?"
She rolled her eyes. "My god, you're such a fucking geek..."
He stuck out his tongue. "Says the woman who knew enough about I was talking about to have that reaction... and to quote Star Trek at me."
Glare at him though she tried to, there was that hint of a smile on her lips that gave her away. "I don't like that you're a match for me, mister Midoriya."
He smiled, making no attempt to hide how he felt. "And why's that?"
With an air of haughtiness, she looked away from him. "In case you hadn't noticed..." she said, lazily inspecting her nails. "I like em a little submissive."
"I am a little submissive." That smile, she couldn't hide. "No one says I can't tease you back while I'm submitting."
She shrugged with her eyebrows, smirking a little. "Fair point." And she went back to using his shoulder as a pillow. "...I really don't want to get up."
He reached up, stroking at her hair. "Me neither."
Trailing fingers up his chest, lazily drawing patterns over his skin with her fingertips, she murmured. "Probably going to have to deal with fallout from yesterday..."
"In some way or another..."
Pouting, she managed to force herself to sit up, stretching as she did. "Can't be helped, then." She noticed his eyes roaming over her body as she stretched, deciding not to tease him for it, lest the mood go back to something less than what they needed it to be to get ready. "Can I use your shower?"
Nodding, he went to sit up. "I still haven't unpacked yet, so there wont be any towels in there. Gimme a sec, I'll get you one."
"Such a gentleman." She ran fingers through his hair as she sauntered off to the shower, with an intentionally tempting sway of her hips.
It took a few seconds to reset his brain enough to go digging through his luggage, after that... He exhaled through one corner of tight lips, puffing up one of his cheeks after she'd closed the door to his bathroom.
Right. Towels. Should, probably... He cleared his throat, hearing the shower spring to life and Kyoka cursing at how cold the water was.
Somewhere off to his right, a phone started ringing. It wasn't Kyoka's. After a second, he went and fished his phone out of his coat. When he saw the unknown number, he considered ignoring it, but answered it instead. "Hello?"
"Finally awake." Izuku's heart almost stopped at the sound of The Nameless One's angry voice. "To my office. Now."
Izuku gulped. "Yes, sir." And the line closed. Finding himself now in a hurry, he grabbed those towels for his girlfriend and knocked on the door.
She hummed a little laugh. "Izuku, you can come in."
For a moment, he wondered why she laughed, until his memories reminded him that they had -in fact- had sex last night. "R-right." he walked in, towels in hand, seeing her silhouette through the curtain. "I uh... got summoned. Hero stuff."
She stopped moving. "You're afraid."
Was his heartbeat really that loud? Yes, actually, it was. "Ever heard of 'The Nameless One'?"
She was silent for a moment. "Once or twice..." she said suspiciously. "Supposedly the CEO of Philanthropy. Why?"
Another, semi-audible gulp. "Long story." He paused, "He's the one who just called." The water switched off, she yanked the curtain aside and grabbed a towel. Blinking, faltering at her as she strode passed him, furiously scrubbing herself dry he stammered. "Uh, Kyo, wh-what are-?"
"Remember when Vanessa pulled me aside? In Tartarus?" She was busy pulling her legs into her clothes, not really looking at him.
"Yeah?"
Grabbing his boxers, she tossed them to him. "She took a few minutes to warn me about being with you, with a vampire. Said it wasn't the kind of thing most people could really handle, but I told her I wasn't most people."
Understatement of the century, my love... He thought, rubbing the back of his head.
Pulling her bra straps up her arms, she set to fussing with the clasp. "When she decided that wasn't enough to scare me off? She told me everything." Izuku suddenly, froze, looking her in the eyes like a frightened rabbit. "I know what he is. What he had to done to people like you. I'm going with you."
He laughed, more out of nerves than anything else. "Kyo, he's not gonna-"
Still mostly topless as she was, when she stood up and stared up into his eyes, he knew to stop arguing. "I'm going with you, Izuku."
Again, he gulped. "Yes ma'am."
"Good," she said quietly, "it's very sweet that you and her worry about me, but I can handle myself, Izu." she leaned up, giving him a kiss before wandering to the door. "I gotta go take my meds... shoulda taken em last night. Back in a sec." Clawing into her shirt, she didn't bother with her socks or boots just yet. When she pulled the door open, she closed it quickly behind herself, lest anyone else see him naked.
Climbing into an outfit that wasn't very different from the last few days, Izuku muttered. "I have a knack for getting very close to scary people..." and he quietly got dressed.
Blackness, pain everywhere, dizzy...
Where was he? He remembered walking a long, long time but not where he was going. Somewhere up a winding road, an old road in the forest outside the city. Familiar faces, someone on his back, being carried under the full moon... All just vague concepts and shapes, nothing was really clear. When he winced at the pain in his face, his brain, his entire skull along with his nose started crying out in agony. His face contorted, and he screamed silently as his hands slowly went to his mutilated face.
Bandages, thick bandages winding around most of his head, something hard pressing against either side of his his eyes finally opened, he chanced a look around the room he was in. Not one thing about the place looked familiar, not the way the walls and support beams for the roof all looked hand built, the smell not the old, green teakettle quietly rocking back and forth on the stove, not the christmas lights strung up everywhere. The only thing that did look familiar, wasn't a thing at all: it was Toga, humming to herself at the round dining table, reading an old, dusty book with the evidence box in front of her.
With a series of pained groans, Stain sat up. "Mornin, sleepin beauty." Toga chirped, not looking up from her book, as Stain looked at his new clothes. "Ya had us worried sick for most of the night, surprised yer even movin yet."
Fussing with the shirt that was clearly too big for him, stitched with big, clumsy stitches, Stain muttered, "I heal quickly..." even as he coughed, and his side cried out in pain. Groaning, his hand clutched at where he'd been shot, feeling stitches through his shirt. "Where are we?"
Toga shrugged, not seeming to care much for her own answer. "House where I grew up, after my folks were killed."
Stain looked around, casually sidestepping the uncomfortably familiar topic. "...you grew up here?" She giggled, he looked at her like she were telling an obvious lie. "This place is too... normal to have spawned something like you."
She blew raspberry at him. "Meanie." Then she went back to her book. "Never judge a household by the way they keep their home lookin." She turned the page. "Dinner should be ready soon, hope ya like venison."
Standing up, he found his legs more than a little shaky. "Only ever ate it raw."
Now it was her turn to look at him like he'd lost his mind. "Riiiiiiight..." she nodded, "well, the rest of the animals are out in the shed, if ya really wanna eat like a caveman."
He rolled his eyes. "Where are the others?"
Toga glanced about, not really looking. "Mooney's off, sulking in the woods somewhere. Prolly eating some wild animal he caught by now." She turned another page. "Frankie and the stripper are prolly fuckin. Somewhere." She shrugged. "I dunno, they just seemed to give that vibe, ya know?"
Not sure what to make of that, Stain nodded. "And we know Mooney will be coming back here how?"
Pointing to the front door, Toga said, "Told him I'd ring the big ol' dinner bell if we needed him home. He'll come runnin, don't worry."
"Right..." staggering a little, he started toward the bathroom. "Who patched me up?"
Toga smiled. "Me. You're welcome."
When he made it to the mirror he just stared. He looked like a mummy and he didn't like it. This just wouldn't do at all, and he started tearing the bandaged off.
Jerking her head toward the source of the noise, Toga slammed her book shut. "Oi!" She yelled, jumping to her feet. "What the heck are you doin!?" He didn't answer, opting instead to just keep tearing at the bandages, for the sake of his dignity. "Yer gonna fuck up yer head again, Puddin!"
When she reached forward to stop him, he just shoved her arms away. "Would you stop calling me that?!"
Crossing her arms, she pouted as she glared at him. "...Sure, Sten."
He sighed, continuing to tear at the bandages, trying to free his face from its constraints. "Why'd you even start calling me that to begin with?"
She shrugged, eyes following the movements of his fingers. "To screw with ya."
Stain didn't even try to suppress the growl that followed. "How endearing..."
Toga sighed, slumping sideways against the wall. "Your temper is so nasty I'd swear you were a wolverine."
That made him quirk an eyebrow at him. "I'm not nearly hairy enough and my bones aren't coated in metal." Shaking his head, he went back to struggling with his clothy prison. "Or did you mean to compare me to a wolf?"
Slowly, she blinked. "I meant the small, fuzzy, very pointy animal called a wolverine." He turned and looked at her like she'd grown a second head. "Native to Canada?" she put forward, only to be met with the same look.
For a few moments, his jaw just hung open, staring at her like she were a woman out of her mind. Eventually, he said, "There's no such thing as a wolverine."
Sighing, Toga shook her head, planting her face in her palm. "Go to the zoo, dude... they're real." Deciding he wasn't going to keep arguing, Stain just went back to what he was doing, and Toga got tired of watching him struggle. "Here," she sighed again, "if you're gonna do that, leave it to someone who knows what they're doin."
Even though he growled, he didn't stop her this time. "...did you look through the evidence?"
Slowly unwrapping the bandages from around his head, she nodded. "Disturbin shit, I'll tell ya that much. See ya found my stashed data too, thank ya."
"I try to keep my promises..."
She gave him an odd look. " 'Try'?"
Expression going a bit grim, he shrugged. "Pretty sure I've broken quite a few, killing Overhaul..."
Toga just smiled. "I knew I liked ya, thanks for killin him for me."
As she finished unwrapping his head, he looked awkwardly away from her. "I didn't do it for you..." mumbling, he turned to the mirror and inspected his face.
There was going to be a nasty scar, going diagonally from his right eyebrow and ending below the furthest corner of his left eye. Looking at how many stitches, band aids along with the metal plates she'd taped on, he was amazed he even still had a nose. The hook shape of it would likely be even more exaggerated when it healed.
Running fingers along the length of his ruined nose made him flinch. "Why didn't you just cut my nose off?"
Shaking her head, Toga rolled her eyes. "Cuz I'm not a lunatic? Just leave it alone, it'll get better, no need to go hackin it off."
Surveying the effort she'd expended just to hold his face together, he wasn't so sure. "It might have been easier."
Leaning close to the mirror, she turned a scrutinizing eye to her work. "Nah, woulda made patching it up even more of a nightmare. Easier just to patch ya up as it was, trust me on that."
There was a metaphor somewhere in there, something about connections between people, he thought.
Once she was satisfied that he wouldn't be mutilating himself, she started walking from the room. Only... "Toga?" She looked over her shoulder. "...Are you human?"
Grinning, she tapped her abnormally long canines with the tip of her fingernails. "Not entirely, Sten." After a moment she gave him an almost sympathetic look. "Guessin yer familiar with the whole 'dead parent' thing, huh?" When he stopped looking at her, her smile faded a bit. "Won't pry. Jus don't think ya gotta haul that baggage alone, yeah? Ya can bitch about it, if ya think it'll help."
Shaking his head, he let out a little sigh. "It never does."
Respectfully, she left it at that. "Get some rest, yeah?" she went back to the table and her book, leaving him there to stare into his own eyes.
Empty, soulless, hollow, colorless and dark. He wasn't sure which descriptor was more fitting. Maybe all of them were... for the people he'd lost these last few days, he wondered if anyone else even knew or cared that they'd died. Twist, Sparky, Seether... Breathing was harder now, his body felt heavier. Moving felt slower, sluggish even and he was cold even with the fire going in the living room. Every time he blinked, his eyes threatened to stay glued shut. Stumbling out, back to the couch, he almost placed himself gingerly onto it when he remembered something.
Seether...
Stumbling to the coat rack, he grabbed one that was about his size and slid into a pair of rain boots. This time, Toga didn't say anything, she just let him go. It was time to bury another old friend...
The towering spire that was the SHROUD loomed over them like an ancient skeleton, strung up in a forgotten museum. It cast long, thick shadows across the city as the rain refused to relent, somewhere inside people were still putting it all together. They weren't going there. They were going to the building just across from it, the offices of Philanthropy and The Nameless One.
Looking up at the pair of towers, hanging ominously over the city, Kyoka somehow felt a little uneasy. "Ego much...?" She murmured, trying not to think about why something about this place felt so wrong.
Izuku didn't reply, instead he just kept walking into the building. Whatever this feeling was, it wasn't worth angering Nameless to puzzle it out. Once inside the lobby, a security guard stopped Kyoka from venturing further into the lone elevator. "I'll be okay." He reassured. "If this was anything to worry about, I doubt we'd see it coming."
She gave him a far less than pleased look. "Comforting..." she muttered, before shaking her head. "I'll be here. If Endeavor starts going on about the family motto, just ignore it. That whole 'remember your roots' thing is nowhere near as poignant or intimidating as he thinks it is." She took a seat in the lobby as security ushered him into the elevator.
When he eventually emerged at the top, he was greeted with an odd sight. It was a very old room, so old it couldn't possibly have belonged in this spire of a building and it didn't. Creaky wooden floors, glass windows so touched by time it had become a murky green. Bookshelves built into the wall sagged at their centers, the tomes thereupon so frayed and decayed that their materials had begun to turn to dust.
A desk at the center of it all fared no better. Meticulously dusted and maintained though it all had been, the makings and furnishings -to the threadbare, moth eaten curtains, lounge chairs and couch- were on their way out. It was from a house that had once belonged to a humble family, farmers at the border of Edo. Now, the last living descendant was a man in his fifties, the last inheritor of an ancient legacy. When his grandfather had built this place he'd gone to the decrepit family home and salvaged one room: the study.
He sat at the desk, tapping his finger impatiently as he stared at his computer screen. "I am not pleased, boy." Uncertain what he was expected to say, Izuku just walked in front of the desk and waited patiently. With an exceedingly irritated sigh, Nameless showed him the clip from yesterday's fight with Muscular and Mooney. "Of all the things you could have said... why that one?"
Taking a moment to compose himself, suddenly afraid, Izuku shrugged. "It was all I could think of, Sir."
Nameless stared with eyes that bored into his very soul. "People are already talking." He said with a twitching upper lip, as he stood. "Comparing you to him, calling you the next symbol of peace. All because you managed to fell one opponent you two had in common and say one particular phrase." Izuku gulped, but otherwise didn't give away how nervous he was. "You are aware of how viciously people tear into even the most benign things we say, yes? How much the masses can pull from a simple phrase if the story seems sensational enough."
He nodded. "Aizawa's taught us a fair bit, Sir."
Nameless laughed, smiling sarcastically. "Yes, well, pardon me if that doesn't instill confidence. His solution has always been to avoid attention, rather than handle it gracefully." He sat back down and swiveled the monitor back around. "Can you live up to that expectation, boy?"
Izuku blinked. "Sir?"
Nameless looked at him with as much patience as he could muster. "Do you think. That you could be. The next Symbol of Peace?"
Despite the fact that his jaw dropped for a split second, it didn't take long for him to recover. "I- I'll do my best, sir!" He only hoped his voice wasn't too shaky.
With a shake of his head and a long sigh, Nameless spun his chair around toward the window. "You understand... we have little choice in this regard; you must. The nation cannot afford to be so disheartened again, you've seen the results so far. Chaos, fire in the streets. Imagine if our second Symbol failed before his career even began... it would upset everything my family was worked for over the last hundred and fifty years."
Another gulp, and he nodded. "I understand, sir."
"Good", Said Nameless, "there is one other thing." He raised his cigar, indicating the importance of the question. "Stendhal: we hear he has the perfected serum that Overhaul was working on. Would have any idea where he is?"
Wincing, Izuku lowered his head. "I wish I did, sir..." his fists clenched, expression lost and hopeless. "He's... I don't think he's himself anymore."
"Sadly, I think you may be right..." with a sigh, Nameless flicked his fingers over the arm of his chair. "Leave... I have better things to do than comfort a monster masquerading as a child."
Flinching at that particular comment, Izuku bowed and turned around. Had he not raised his eyes so high, had he not seen on thing in particular, perhaps all that would follow in the next few days would not have come to pass. One, simple piece of information, left hiding in plain sight as hung above the door, would give rise to the harrowing events to come yet. There, in the old wood, stained with time, was a phrase engraved above the door.
Remember your roots.
His jaw dropped, eyes wide and he stopped moving. For a few moments, his heartbeat was all that he could hear, until the elevator door slid open and Endeavor stepped through. As Izuku blinked, 'Nameless' sighed with impatience. "Is something on your mind, monster?"
Thinking quickly, he went with the first thing that came to mind. "Why don't you have a name?" At this, Nameless actually spun around, perplexed as he and the vampire faced each other. "It's just... odd. You'd think somebody who runs Philanthropy would want their name known."
Blinking a few times, 'Nameless' was slow to smile. "There's a bit of a story there, around a century and half ago. Three... musketeers, lets call them, who cast aside their names to play their parts to rebuild a world in shambles. Of course... they'd never predicted that their initial plan would be so fragile, things went in a far different direction than they hoped, but I'd like to think it turned out for the best." Reaching into his desk, he grabbed and lit an expensive looking cigar. "You already met one of them: All For One. The others were, One for All and then..." he pointed the cigar at Izuku.
"...The Nameless One."
The old man smiled. "Correct. I don't have a name any longer because someone has to keep playing their original part. That and... names are rather useless, when you think about it." He took a long drag from his cigar, letting the smoke fill his lungs before slowly letting it out. "Your woman is waiting for you, monster."
Nodding, Izuku started to walk away. "Thank you for indulging me, Sir." When Endeavor and he passed each other, he managed to keep a straight face. What followed was the longest elevator ride of his life.
Endeavor stood, hands in his pockets, staring at the elevator. "...Why did you tell him that?"
Spinning the chair around, the old man let another cloud of smoke free of his lungs. "Because it was the truth, and the next Symbol of Peace ought to know that bit of history, don't you think?"
With a low growl, Endeavor turned and faced him. "I was going to be the next symbol of peace."
The old man smiled. "Considering what happened yesterday, I think that is long out of our hands, and it would do you no good to try and change it now."
Sighing, Endeavor walked to the window. "Did he know where his friend went to?"
"No," Said the old man, "no, I imagine if he did he'd be there right now, by his side."
Scoffing, the 'Hero' leaned against the glass, staring out at the SHROUD. "Such loyalty... no surprise it goes both ways. Decent way to manipulate people."
The old man sighed again. "I don't think that boy is pretending to feel anything he expresses."
Endeavor smiled. "Precisely why you are, once again, the figure head. Do not make another decision without my knowledge."
"Your father knew it was important that I do such things." The old man took another long drag of his cigar. "If Philanthropy always operated in alignment with his goals and visions, it wouldn't be long before anyone began to suspect who was really running the show."
With a roll of his eyes, Endeavor turned around with crossed arms. "Is that why I was forbidden to fill the shoes of my father until recently? To get that idea into my head."
"No," said the old man, "that was to allow you to learn that anger and violence are not things you can solve every problem with." So the man's 'marriage' might have taught him, if he'd cared at all about the woman he was with. "Tell me... if you'd been at the helm of Philanthropy, back when that boy defied you at the sports festival, would he still be alive?" Endeavor's knuckles cracked, fingers going white beneath his gloves. "I thought not, which was precisely why I waited until you had better control of yourself to let you assume the mantle, as per your father's dying wish."
Scoffing, Endeavor shook his head. "Really? You're telling me my father cared at all for me? Were that the case, perhaps he might have given me more of his time; trained me how to be a better hero, a better leader."
"He was busy trying to give you the best world he could." The old man frowned. "Were you not born, I don't think he'd have panicked when he discovered Vampires were real. The misguided fears he expressed about them spreading and delving this world into chaos would not have been there if you weren't around."
Endeavor rolled his eyes. "Misguided fears you went along with."
With great slowness, the old man gave a sad, sad smile. "My childhood friend was worried about his son. You also forget: when he learned the error of his ways... he did let the last of them live."
"A mistake if ever he made one..." grumbled the 'hero, turning back to the window. "Those beasts are too dangerous to be left alive."
Once again, the old man smiled. "Is that your pride, sense of responsibility to the world or your voice as a father talking."
After a few moments, contemplating his own feelings, Endeavor sighed as he gazed out the window, over the city. "Yes..."
The husk of a nightclub, bar or whatever it was had been left to rot in the rain. Even as he stood there, panting, Izuku wasn't sure what he was looking for. "You're sure this is the place?"
Turning over his shoulder, he saw Shoto and Uraraka nod. "Positive," she said, "this is where we went, following that first lead."
Shoto quietly added, "I gathered he had more capable friends here than just... I don't remember her name..."
While he looked a little guilt, Kyoka put a hand on his shoulder. "Green..." she said quietly, "I don't think there's anything left in there to find."
Crossing her arms, shifting her weight uncomfortably to her other foot, Uraraka frowned. "Why are we even here anyways? This seems a little sudden..."
"Yeah, man." Kaminari shrugged. "This is a bit outta the blue..."
Ashido just scratched her head. "You okay, buddy? Sure you're thinking clearly here?"
In reply, Izuku just threw them his phone, shoving his way into the rubble while Kyoka lurched forward to catch it. "Green!" She hollered, over the din of her growling stomach. After last night, and their rush out the door without breakfast, she was understandably famished. "Be careful, unless you want to go get a new phone..." Shaking her head, she tapped out his password and clicked on the video.
It was a clip of Stendhal threatening Endeavor, taken from the news and it had Shoto alarmed and confused. "Let me see..." he took Izuku's phone, flipping through his various tabs. "Midoriya, why the sudden interest in my father? What's going on?"
"Please just help me look." He moved an exceptionally large section of wall aside, and it crumbled to ashes almost as soon as it settled.
While the others looked a little lost, Uraraka started looking about. That was, until she saw the collapsed mailbox. With some reluctance, she walked over to it and peered inside. "Hey, Green?" She said, earning all their attention. "There's an envelope with Sten's name on it. His real one..."
Half running, half limping his way over Izuku looked at the envelope with some urgency. "What's in it?"
Feeling a little concerned for her friend, Uraraka ripped it open. "...Just a USB?"
When she handed it to Izuku, he almost looked triumphant, worried as he seemed to be. Turning to Shoto he said, "You brought your laptop, right?"
The quartet went and took shelter at a bus-stop, to keep the devices safe from the rain. As they read, their hearts collectively sank. "Green..." Kyoka breathed, "this is from the hard drive... from that place..."
He nodded, continuing to scroll through the sea of text and images. Uraraka looked as if she were going to be sick, Shoto just stared without expression, one hand gently clenched. "There's gotta be something here..." Something that tied the information to Philanthropy.
At the mention of this, Kaminari's face went white. "Wait... that would mean..." he practically doubled over, hands over his face. "Oh god... no, just fuck... ugh... don't tell me I got Sten's friends killed!" Without saying anything, Ashido just leaned over him and hugged him as tight as she could, trying to calm him down.
"Wait," Shoto said, "go back up." Izuku nodded, doing just that, slowly, so Shoto could see what he'd thought he'd caught. "There." he tapped the screen, at a photograph of the mad scribbling inside Mooney's cell. "That's a string of co-ordinates."
Kyoka and Uraraka both stared at the image with increasingly disbelieving faces. "Um..." Uraraka murmured, "that's just a mess of ones and zeroes?"
Looking over, not leaving Kaminari alone, Ashido whispered. "No it's not..."
Shoto shook his head. "Not if you can read binary." Taking out a pen, he looked about for something to write on. Izuku just rolled up a sleeve and gave him his arm. "There," Shoto said, "we should be able to get there no problem." Putting away the laptop, they started away, Kyoka doing her best not to complain about her growling stomach. Kaminari was just trying not to throw up.
By the time he'd stopped shoveling dirt back into the hole, over his friend's body, Stain was thoroughly spent. Dabi stood by his side, looking exceedingly worried. "You really should have let me do that."
Stain shook his head, putting down the shovel. "I owed him this much... at the very least."
Hands in his pockets, Dabi let out a sigh. "You two went back a ways?"
With a nod, leaning on the shovel, Stain breathed heavily. "He's part of the reason I am who I am, one of the few who could every claim to be a positive influence." Sniffling, blaming it on the rain and cold, he added one thing more. "He was a good man. Didn't deserve the place his left threw him into."
Putting his palms together, Dabi bowed to the grave, not saying a word. For a long time, they just stood there and mourned, reflecting on the moments of his life they'd shared with him. "He was an odd man," Dabi finally said, "seemed to have it in his head that I needed guidance, kept trying to convince me that throwing in my lot with Overhaul was a mistake. That I'd be better off anywhere else."
Stain, almost laughed. "He wasn't wrong."
"I know," Dabi toed at a loose bit of dirt, "just... hard to forget that he was a monster, underneath it all."
Then he laughed. "He made no attempt to hide it, Toya."
Dabi... seemed to shrink at at that. "He took me in when I had nowhere to go. After years of being by his side... I didn't want to believe that he was really so apathetic to a child, just like me..." Expression pained, he nodded respectfully to Seether's grave, "he finally got me to a place where I could see it, gently coaxing me along, away from him and how I wanted to see him."
With a smile, Stain clapped Dabi's shoulder. "Seether was good at that. He saw people for who they were, even when they didn't, pushed em along down the paths they were always going to walk down. He... had a way with saying what another was already feeling, to teach them about who they really were."
Nodding, Dabi looked toward the house. "If we're doing this 'wake' thing, I think we need alcohol... I'm too sober to cope with how awful this feels."
Leaving the shovel speared into the ground, Stan squeezed his friend's shoulder. "I missed you, Toya."
"You too."
Slowly, they started slogging back to the house. When they reached the interior, they saw Toga and Ash sipping tea together, huddled by the fire with Mooney curled up behind them. When Stain looked at Ash's neck, he successfully avoided rolling his eyes at the little, red bruise he saw. "Welcome back." Toga chirped, patting a pillow by the fire. The pair of boys shrugged at each other, each taking a seat by the others, though Toya went to sit by Ash. "How ya feelin?"
Stain shrugged. "Lighter, I guess."
Offering him some tea, which he accepted, Toga nodded knowingly. "About how it goes." and she sipped her drink again softly.
Not knowing what to say to that, he reached for the evidence box and started leafing through it. "Is there anything else? Anything you might have about Philanthropy or The Nameless One?"
She nodded, while Dabi just stared lifelessly into the fire. Calmly setting aside her tea, she stepped over the sleeping Mooney. "Gimme." She reached out, her hands waiting for him to grasp them.
After a few failed attempts to stand on his own, he sheepishly let her help him up. "Thanks..."
She shrugged, walking toward the front door. "C'mon." Reluctantly, he followed, not eager to back outside.
Once they'd left the house, going around the corner, it was a simple matter to just wander into the basement. Flicking at a switch, the entire room lit up and Stain nearly laughed. Wall to wall, with bits of string connecting documents and photos that had been tapped and tacked about. "Somehow, I am not surprised."
Toga almost looked offended. "You try keepin track of all this usin just yer head." At the far end of the room was a simple, square, wooden table. Sitting on it was about the oldest looking desktop computer Stain had ever seen.
Sparky would have loved that...
She wasn't there just for the computer though. Reaching into an old, cardboard box, she pulled a projector and a pair of speakers therefrom and plugged them into the computer. "Yer gonna need to see this first... before I explain what all the rest of these things are." she gestured about the room, clicking on a video file she'd saved to the computer.
As the projector struggled to produce images, Stain strained his eyes at the recorded faces. One bore a resemblance to... someone, he couldn't place the face but it made him mad. The other was a tall, blonde who also looked a little familiar. Third, he eventually placed. "...All For One?"
Some hours later, they'd arrived at their destination. A small, square, concrete shed up in the mountains. If it hadn't been for Izuku and Uraraka, they'd never have made it here in as little time as they had. All the same, by the time they'd reached the door, the girls were shivering violently.
Ashido and Kaminari were clinging to each other, mutting and shivering in unison. "Blankets... hot cocoa and puppies... beaches and sunshine..."
With chattering teeth, Kyoka tried to speak. "G-g-g-green? Wh-what the hell are we doing here?" She and the others were huddled as close to Shoto's left arm as they could be without actively pressing against him. Something the heterochrome was not exactly comfortably with, but he didn't talk them out of it.
"Looking for answers..." he said, grabbing the handle of the enormous, metal door and shoving it open.
Shoto couldn't help but frown slightly. "Why? What triggered all this?"
"Oh, just a revealing conversation with the Nameless one..." he gulped, fighting off a cough at the overwhelming scent of old dust. "Made me wonder if there was something more to Stendhal's investigation."
Once he'd learned the man's true identity, one particular thing fell into place: Someone had been paying Overhaul to make that serum. Someone who had no qualms about small children being hurt and used. Put those two things together, along with the fact that her very existence had been all but erased and Endeavor's true identity, and suddenly Philanthropy was even more terrifying than before. It hadn't surprised him that the underground facility had been Philanthropy's doing, and really that confirmation was all he was looking for: evidence to start trying to put Endeavor away forever.
That news clip, of course Izuku had seen it, the one where Sten had threatened Endeavor just confirmed where he should start looking. That Mooney had taken the time to leave a desperate hint, leading to this place, in his cell? It was just a bonus. Once the others had huddled inside, and he'd flicked on the lights, he saw an old furnace. "Shoto?"
With a nod, he strode over and looked inside. "Gather round." Extending his left hand, he ignited what little there was to burn, throwing more wood and coal inside. It was a matter of seconds before the girls had gathered around it.
At another end of the single room was a small laptop, hooked up to an odd, circular device in the floor. Izuku walked over to it, clicked it on and sighed in relief when it whirred to life. Immediately there was a prompt for a password. "Damn it..."
Noticing her boyfriend's frustration, Kyoka walked over, rubbing at her own shoulders. "What's wrong?" he just showed her the screen. "Ah... maybe... well, it was something written in Mooney's cell that brought us here. Maybe something we read there might be the key?"
Izuku shrugged. "That entire cell had things written on it. Where we would we even start?"
Raising a shaky hand, Ashido suggested, "M-maybe that stuff about the butterfly effect?"
Kyoka frowned, huddling up to Izuku for warmth. "Y-yeah, but which part? He went on and on about all kinds of random things."
Rubbing at his chin, Izuku thought about this. "Wait... there was a name he got wrong... Edward Fish, I think he wrote."
Shivering, teeth chattering to an almost comical degree, Kaminari shrugged. "So?"
Izuku just spread open his hands. "Edward Fish." Everyone just looked at him, not sure what to say. He sighed. "MoonFish." Now them seemed to get it. "Maybe his brain hooked onto that name, or least that part of it, in some desperate attempt to remember as he was going further and further into madness?"
Nodding, Kyoka stepped up to the keyboard. "If I remember right... he dated that day with a name..." She typed in that exact name, Lorenz, and then something happened.
The circular device at the center of the room started flickering light upwards, and at the center was a blue, translucent man. "If you are hearing this... if you have found this place, then I am already dead."
"A hologram?" Mina awed.
By her side, Kaminari beamed. "So cool..."
"Shhh!" Said everyone else.
At the center of the room, R.J. Mooney's holographic recording kept talking. "When this recording is ended, do not take the laptop with you. Just copy the information and run, take it to the most powerful, influential person you can find. The things I have done... have helped Philanthropy to do... I will never erase or repent for my sins... but hopefully this mitigates the damage that will undoubtedly be done..."
Seconds later, another recording started playing. It was a recording of three men, sitting at a table. One of them looked familiar...
Stain stood in awe of what he was witnessing, a piece of forgotten history.
"Tell me, old friend." Said All For One. "What exactly are we doing here, in your home?"
The one that made him angry smiled. Stain decided he was 'the first' of them. "We are here to discus the present and the future, along with our parts to play in it."
The blonde crossed his arms, not sitting down to join them. "I take it you have some idea as to what we should do? You wouldn't summon my brother and I without reason."
The first chuckled. "As you can see... the world is in a state of chaos. This sudden appearance of newfound powers has... unbalanced things."
All For One shrugged. "Your point?"
With a grin, the first went on. "We can fix it." he stood up, circling the room around them. "An old bit of theater I learned from politics, fifty years ago." he held up a finger. "Nothing unites people like having a common enemy."
Intrigued, All For One almost smirked. "And where do you expect we'll find such an enemy?" The first turned and pointed, right at him, prompting All For One to laugh. "I see... and why would I become that enemy?"
"Because," said the first, "When all is said and done, when the ashes and dust finally settle, the world will have order once again!" He clenched his fist. "The three of us will sit on top of an empire as kings, the... heroes who'd ushered our species from an era of darkness! We give them an enemy to rise up and defeat, and from there, from that unity that... collection of Heroes we will rebuild society!"
The blonde nodded, not quite convinced. "And how would we ensure that this continued? If the heroes killed my brother and I this could very easily spiral out of our control."
Again, the first smiled. "That's why, You will be the one to lead the opposition. His rival, if you would."
The two brothers looked at one another, eventually All For One spoke. "You'd... have us trying to kill each other? On opposite sides?"
The blonde shook his head. "Out of the question."
The first came and stood between them. "Can we really let this world continue like this? We are three most capable people." he held his hand between them and a blue flame wreathed his fingers. "We must do something... what if someone else comes along? Trying to snare power for themselves? We can't count on them to be good willed philanthropists like us, gentlemen."
After some time, a long, tense pause, All For One sighed. "So that's it then? We create a war where we control both sides and thus use that to try and unite everyone under one unanimous banner? To save the world from itself?"
"Brother..." the blonde said quietly.
The first grinned again. "Yes."
Slowly, All For One put his hand on the table, between the three of them. "I will be the villain, my brother will not."
The blonde looked as though he might cry. "And will be his enemy, so that no one may kill him." his hand was placed over his brothers.
"And I..." said the first, "Will be the anonymous sponsor, rallying people and resources for the heroes."
Slowly, the now dead villain took in a deep breath. "All For One..." he said.
"And One For All." His brother concurred.
With an approving nod, the first Nameless One smiled. "Then we have an accord..." he turned and looked to the cameraman. "End it." and the recording ended.
Unable to breathe, his heart hammering in his chest, Stain went and looked at the documents covering the walls. What he read, miles and miles away, his friends listened to.
"When I built the Prophet system..." Mooney's voice went on, as the hologram showed a 3D map of a sprawling, underground complex. "I thought I was just making something that would keep Nighteye's quirk alive after he died. A way to predict certain disasters before they happened..."
The sprawling complex was little more than the world's largest sever room. Massive computer towers lined up and all interconnected, calculating in tandem and all leading back to one master control unit at the center, above them all.
"I couldn't have been more wrong," Mooney's voice was so deadened with guilt, the group of young heroes almost wondered if he really was a corpse. "While I was busy programming the machine to perform its primary function, my compatriot, Tobo, was ensuring it would be used for something far more insidious than that..."
Another image, this time of a handful of computer towers glowing green from all around the complex, soon clustered together as a line of text gave their specifications.
"Surveillance." Izuku's eyes fluttered, sharing a worried look with Kyoka. "Of course, the predictions would need input. Variables from the outside world, information on people and their lives."
The image of the sprawling complex that was 'The Prophet System' flickered away, and Mooney was back, dragging a hand down his face.
"I thought we'd be using to prevent disasters... not to ensure them." Files flickered to life all around him, dancing to and fro.
Bank statements for various families, showing at one time enough money to support themselves and live happily. Then the same family names were listed on documents of foreclosed houses, bankruptcy statements, investigations into missing savings that seemingly vanished into thin air.
"When a child is born with a quirk we deem 'villainous'..." Mooney's shame and regret were so audible one might have been able to cut through it. "We... Philanthropy would ensure that child would wander down a rotten path, once the prophet system determined that such a thing could be done, by introducing the correct changes. The fabled fluttering of a butterfly's wings..." He stared off into the distance. "We made sure there were always villains for heroes to fight, so that empire those three men had worked so hard build would remain forever standing."
With a heavy heart, having to lean against the wall to avoid falling, Izuku remembered something. He remembered what Shigaraki had said, that day in the USJ.
" 'Powers meant to help, but not kill…' ahhh…What a foolishly naive statement. Tell me... What's a man to do, if a quirk like this," and at the touch of all five fingers to the pen, it turned to dust, "isn't meant to hurt people?" At his mockingly voiced inquiry a swirl of purple energy came into being behind him and people began stepping through it. "Because I'm just not sure."
This... was this what he had been talking about?
"We ruined people's lives," Mooney droned, unable to do much else, "just to keep the people watching heroes and villains fighting each other. 'To make sure the world didn't devolve into utter chaos once again', I'm sure Nameless would say..." With a tired, sigh Mooney reached for his wrist. "Copy the documents on the laptop. Its all the proof you need to end this forever... Though what comes next, I'm afraid to know." Then, with a shake of his head, he added. "Perhaps... the world really would be better off, without quirks, as Kai said... Well, if that's possible, I leave it to him now. Turning that child over to him is... no. It's no less evil than anything else I've done. I just hope its worth it..."
Then, the hologram flickered away.
All around the room, the collected future heroes stood in shocked silence until Izuku slumped to the floor. "Oh god..."
Hand over her heart, slumping back against the table, Kyoka breathed in shock. "That... this is what Himiko was onto..."
"Guys," Kaminari said, reaching out and squeezing Mina's hand, "How fucked are we for knowing this?"
When no one said anything, the silence just let the obvious settle into place. Above it all, Izuku thought he might have heard All For One's last words, echoing in the room. 'From the very first time, the fight you fight for will always be mine...'
Standing at the center of the basement, Stain quivered with too many emotions to stand a hope of processing. "This entire time," he said, slowly turning toward her, "you've known all of this since before the USJ attack?"
Toga, with an uncharacteristically heavy countenance, nodded. "Me, All For One, Shigaraki and Kurogiri."
He looked at her with new eyes, taking one step forward. "When he went crazy... going after Izuku, you split from the group to try and make sure the original mission was complete." Again, she nodded. "Did you know what was going on with Eri before you found her?"
She shook her head. "The bossman did, no doubt. As soon as I pieced enough of it together, Mooney and Philanthropy, I tried to leave it the hands of ol' Kyoka gurl." She reached up, fussing with one of her pigtails. "Regretted that in a heartbeat... once I put all the other pieces together." She smiled, looking as sad as she ever did. "Been hopin she and her boy would just run off together... but I guess they're too stubborn for that."
To describe Stain's expression, the only fitting word would have been 'awe'. "Who are you?"
Grinning that crocodile grin, she shrugged. "You know me... just yer girl, Toga."
Not sure what to say to that, he just went with the first thing in his head. "You're really just doing all this, for her?"
Toga nodded. "She's my best friend. Bout the only I got left..."
He almost looked a little guilty. "Forgive me... for misjudging you."
"Pfft," she batted at the air, "ain't like ya knew any better, considering I had Eri runnin scared, who'd blame ya?" Then she flashed her signature smile again "but I am pretty awesome, ain't I?"
Stain just laughed. "Not how I'd phrase it, but I suppose so." He chanced a look up at the door. "Would you mind doing one more thing for me?"
She shrugged. "Like what?"
Sitting on the stone floor, going cross legged with closed eyes, he said, "make sure I'm left alone for a little while?"
Unsure just what was happening, Toga scratched behind one of her ears. "Uh... sure, but why?"
Stain's expression vanished. "Meditating. I have to talk to the... bossman." He'd expected her to say something to that, to have some sort of comment. But he didn't hear anything. Just silence and eventually he wondered if she'd even heard him. "Toga?"
When he opened his eyes, Stain was no longer in the basement. He was up on a mountain, in a clearing overlooking Musutafu.
"Okay..." he mumbled, "Guess it worked."
Standing up, he looked about. There was craggy path winding down the mountain, with uneven stone steps that looked more than a little slippery. Down below, the world seemed to be completely covered in thick fog, navigating the way down would have been impossible. Turning back around, he saw the steps leading to the summit and thought he might have heard singing coming from that way. Finding himself without weapons, or indeed anything else to defend himself with, he steeled himself before venturing up.
As he drew nearer to the top, he began to recognize the lyrics being sung by All For One.
"Through the glass 20 stories high,
I have watched this city burn.
If everything you just said is true,
there's no hope someday they will learn...
but if I say here with you,
then I will never know the truth...
As I walk through the city streets,
these frightened people watching me pass,
There is an evil that holds them here,
yet they wont try breaking it's grasp...
But if I stay here with you,
then I will leave them to their doom...
Do not say 'this is how it has to be',
you do no better than the fools of this burning city...
You have heard me tell this story...
Many times before you sleep...
No matter how dark this city gets...
Even now there is hope for man..."
Once arrived, Stain began to sing the other part.
"Even here it is not safe...
Even this grave has been defaced...
Someone has written, in some angry hand...
All For One grinned, speaking the rest of that particular verse aloud. "Hope rides alone." Climbing to his feet, the dead villain laughed. "That song always made me think of my brother, and that first Nameless One."
Stain almost rolled his eyes. "So who's protoman, in that song then?"
All For One spread his arms wide open, spinning on his heels. "Couldn't it be me? I can't exactly claim to be the hero singing, as I'm dead and all."
Shaking his head, Stain moved to stand by his side. "Why did you do any of this?" All For One looked at him curiously. "Why go after All Might? Why trying to bring down the world you built over a century ago?"
The dead villain sighed. "I was promised a seat at the top, to rule beside my friend and brother." Looking out at the city below, he gave the ghost of a smile. Fitting, one might suppose. "Instead? I was betrayed, my brother killed and I was doomed to forever be the 'Symbol of Fear'..." Bitterly, he shook his head. "I decided I wasn't going take that sitting down, thought I'd... put the world back the way I found it, if I couldn't rule it as it was. Killing All Might? Was the bare minimum, step one done, before leaving the rest to society at large, to Overhaul and Toga, and now you."
With a groan, Stain rolled his eyes. "Wonderful... at least you're not pretending it was ever for a noble cause anymore."
All For One laughed again. "All the same, I don't expect you'll turn away from this fight."
As the dead villain started walking back to where he'd been sitting, Stain glared after him. "And how's that?"
With a smile, All For One sat back down. "You cant stand pretenders, much less monstrous ones exploiting the weak, hurting the innocent." With a wicked grin, he added, "leaving freshly made orphans to burn, drowning in their family's blood."
Stain drew in a breath, before growling it out. "Who is The Nameless One? His real name."
With a shrug, All For One started to turn to dust before Stain's eyes, from the bottom up. "Let's just say... puzzling it out will be no complicated endeavor for you." And all that was left of him drifted away in the wind.
"Idiot..." Stain muttered, closing his eyes.
When he opened them, he was sitting in the middle of the basement, Toga watching him closely. "Back so soon?"
He nodded, and in that moment, a thought crossed his mind. It would be so easy, for the lot of them to just stay here. This place was isolated, likely unknown to anyone else and was completely self sufficient. The lot of them had been through so much, when you put it all together, no one would have blamed them for just running away from it all and living in peace.
But that, was never something Stain would have allowed himself to do. He suspected Toga couldn't really do it either. "...We've got work to do, my dear."
"As I live there is no evil that will stand,
And I will finish what was started:
The fight of Protoman."