Pooling Resources

It turned out that when incidents like this happened at the school, there was a lot of paperwork involved. As the first teacher on the scene, Toshinori had to write an in-depth report about the confrontation between young Togata and the 1-A students.

Logically, Toshinori knew that this was also usually part of hero work too, but there had always been someone back at Might Tower who did it for him, making occasional calls as necessary to answer questions. This allowed him to rush off to the next place he was needed without interruption.

Since Sasaki had made the process sound like such a minor, simple thing, Toshinori had never really questioned other staff since about just how much work it was.

Toshinori frowned at the thought of his only Sidekick since his return to Japan. It had been such an awful departure but he refused to step down as All Might. Especially because of a painful death the likes of which he had honestly long expected up to that point, anyway. In all honesty, although he'd never told Sasaki, he'd requested that the other man never look at his future because of that, specifically.

With the grim fates of most One for All Wielders, Toshinori had known what he was getting into. Foresight had just killed his hopes that defeating All for One was enough to escape that end. Hopes that had barely had time to make themselves known to him but that had germinated within, nonetheless.

Maybe if Toshinori had explained that particular aspect of the responsibility of being a One for All holder to Sasaki earlier, the other man would have understood better; both why he shouldn't ever look and what Toshinori's mindset was on the whole situation. Maybe things wouldn't have ended the way they had.

Ironically, it had happened in part because, at the time of their partnership, Toshinori had feared that if Sasaki had known about his expectations, he might have insisted he try to avoid that fate or left when he caught on to Toshinori's mindset.

Thus, looking into his future without knowing what Toshinori did , Sasaki was caught off guard and pushed to act just the way he'd been trying to avoid. And since then, they hadn't been able to rebuild their relationship.

In fact, their one major interaction afterward—when Toshinori had told him about choosing young Midoriya—had only seemed to make things worse. The other man had been furious at his choice of a quirkless boy as his successor.

He wondered how the other would react if he knew Toshinori had the same type of powerless origins. It was one of the things Sasaki hadn't been able to glean through his quirk. Nor had he used his investigative skills to find out about Toshinori's past, out of respect for his wishes and faith in him as All Might, as he hinted he had things in his past he'd rather be left alone.

Toshinori sighed and finished with the report, ready to turn in to Nezu in the morning, when the door from the back of the building to the shared living room/kitchenette space opened. He had been expecting Aizawa to come fin through the doorway opposite that one, which was connected to the main dorm. Most teachers preferred to pass through the front door to get to this space, just so that the students knew they were there if needed before going to their space.

He supposed it made sense that Eraserhead would choose the more private entry, as he preferred to fade into the background when he wasn't teaching.

As Eraser came in, he gave the forms with a knowing look that might've even been sympathetic.

"I just finished them," Toshinori declared.

"There was a running bet in the main staff lounge on who would be filling them out first, you know. Many bets have been lost because our coworkers made them on me."

"You sound really broken up over that."

"They'll be so disappointed when they hear the news." Aizawa's lips twitched up slightly for an instant before he changed the subject, "There's a couple things I need to talk to you about."

"Did I do something wrong this evening?"

"No, nothing like that…but there are a couple things. First, I want to set up a meeting so that everyone who knows about your and Midoriya's situation can meet and talk face to face. Sooner rather than later. And I would like a chance to speak with some of them to over the phone even before that."

Toshinori sighed and said, "In all honesty, there's some people I still need to call and tell about you, anyway. If I don't do it soon, I'll probably try to put it off. You want to do it now or wait for—"

"I want to discuss something else with you, too. And, since Tsukachi is on the list of people who know, I think we ought to call him in first and place him on speaker phone for it. I don't think he'll be able to say as much as I will, due to the discrepancies in the rules and laws for the police force and that of heroes, but he'll definitely start cutting through the red tape if he hasn't already. We were working a set of cases together that I think will interest you. They might give you an idea of some of the things that All for One had been doing in the interim between your last two fights. And who knows, maybe you might be able to give us some information that would allow us to make some progress."

Toshinori leaned forward, suddenly serious. "What makes you think he had something to do with your cases?"

"Because a major part of it involved harvesting of people for their quirks. We thought it was for a villain factory; then, more recently, for the studies in order to make Nomu but I'm willing to bet if we investigate the disappearances related to them, some of the victims will have quirks that match the ones All for One was using against you in Kamino Ward. It also involved a set of events related to both the Egg and the Nakahura Lock Down."

Toshinori recognized both events and grit his teeth at the mention of the latter. An alternate name that he knew was whispered for it was "The Night Without All Might." He couldn't help but think about the evening after Izuku's encounter with Shigaraki at the mall and how the boy had asked about people he couldn't reach. That incident was one that had immediately popped into mind, the sting still all too fresh. It was one of his greatest failures.

To hear that All for One might have influenced it, using plans that left a trail of stripped quirks, twisted and tortured victims and who knew how many corpses in its wake made his skin crawl. And…thinking back to the Egg, that he had fought at least a few of said victims and finished them off himself made his skin crawl.

Toshinori clenched his fists as he pictured all the people who suffered for his unknowing failures, for all the things One for All's worst enemy had done as he'd slithered in the dark, beyond his detection. And now, here was Aizawa to pull back the rug under which everything had been swept for him to see.

"Well then," Toshinori stated, "if Naosama knows, that should work out well, especially if he and my sensei are still working on their investigation this evening, as he's the other person who I'd consider telling this to." Toshinori said, his apprehensiveness about calling Gran Torino overruled by possible news about their least favorite villain's activities over the last seven years.

Heck, he might even have to call up Sir too, despite how things had ended between them. It was his ability to follow the paper trails that they had finally found All for One in that disastrous fight years ago. Maybe he'd be able to find the bastard's Nomu-making ally and possibly uncover any other secret 'friends' the monster had hidden away.

"Your sensei?" Aizawa asked.

"The man who taught me how to fight as well as my predecessor's best friend. Much like you, he has a distinct displeasure for public attention but is very skilled at coming out of nowhere, beating villains into the ground and vanishing before anyone knows he was there."

"So, are we talking about a hero or a vigilante?"

"There's nothing on record outside of his year as a hero."

"That's not a no for vigilantism," Eraserhead said, although it didn't sound as condescending, as Toshinori would have expected from a trained hero.

"We were the primary targets of Japan's ultimate evil. Sometimes we might have had to ignore few laws in order to stay alive, let alone stand against him."

After a moment of silence, Toshinori glanced back at the other man and asked, "What's wrong?"

"That's one of most un-All Might things I've ever heard you say."

"That's because I'm not speaking from my hero persona. Unlike you, to maintain my privacy, I had to keep that completely separate from my true identity, not even presenting a similar personality. And—" he gestured to his current form "—it's far older than the legend. I was a man on the run for years before I became The Symbol of Peace."

Eraser was watching him appraisingly, as if seeing him for the first time and not knowing what to make of him.

"Not that I have either of those anymore. No running and hiding but no being 'here' for the people, anymore." Toshinori thought of All for One's declaration just the previous day that he could do nothing but 'watch in horror' as events unfolded.

Eraserhead might have just given him a way to undermine the words that Toshinori knew were meant to eat away at him. "You can count on me to do what I can, though. Whatever that might be. I want to tear out the roots he left behind when he was thrown into Tartarus." The last roots of this weed that has plagued hero society since the dawn of quirks.

Naosama growled in frustration. He and Gran Torino had to follow every link they had to tracking down the League of Villains based on recent events. Unfortunately, from the beginning, he suspected that All for One knew someone close to All Might would be doing this. He randomly made comments throughout his days in Tartarus, interspersed between or intertwined with complaints of boredom, loneliness, and the damn itch between his shoulder blades. He talked about the last way too much. And they were stuck listening to hours of him for comments that 'might lead to something.'

None of them had yielded anything. Neither he nor Gran expected them to and that the villain was just toying with everyone, even if he couldn't see them. All for One even confirmed it was on purpose by throwing out backhanded apologies from time-to-time to whomever was stuck listening to him for investigatory purposes. Then he would drop 'hints' that left them with days of footwork and paper filing that, unsurprisingly, led absolutely nowhere.

Sadly, neither the people at the prison nor the Hero Commission cared. They were going to investigate every 'lead' All for One mentioned.

So, they often got pulled off of false flags from seemingly endless phone calls of people who 'definitely saw a member of the League' to listen to Japan's greatest villain whine, complain, monologue, throw out random insults and send them on wild goose chases.

Today had both been better and worse because they were analyzing the villain's conversation with Toshinori. The retired hero was well aware of the fact that anything he had talked about with the Villain would be replayed for investigative purposes.

Even if it probably wouldn't reveal anything. Honestly, everyone was just hoping the monster would slip up and they'd get something real for once.

But yesterday was definitely not that day.

"I hate hearing his voice," Gran Torino stated.

"At least we're almost done for the day."

It was this moment that Naosama's cell phone started buzzing and he checked it to see that Aizawa was calling in.

Recalling last night, Naosama frowned and said, "I need to take this and there's a good chance I'll be putting it on speaker phone for you in a minute, too." He had hoped that All Might would call in before Aizawa did but he guessed he wasn't too surprised. The man tended to be hesitant either in reaching out to his old teacher or working with sensitive information.

Eraserhead had neither problem. The only hesitation he had was the time he took to look before he leapt.

Naosama pressed the button to accept the call and held it up to his ear.

"Hello, detective."

"Good evening, Eraserhead."

I might hate Sir but I will acknowledge that he has some good qualities, just not enough to balance out the bad.

Knowing about how the majority of the past users met horrible deaths, I couldn't help but feel that All Might was always under the expectation that his end would probably be a brutal one, too. For him, Sir Nighteye seeing that would be, in and of itself, a disappointment, more than anything, since he couldn't escape the fate despite (supposedly) killing AFO. I feel that this throws the end of their partnership into a slightly different context from his perspective than it had seemed when the scene first played out.

I am also sure that whatever happens in the finale of the Vigilantes spinoff, the fact that it states All Might wouldn't come means that, once he found out, it would undoubtedly weigh on the hero's mind. I would think that, considering it is implied to have happened close to the beginning of the series means that it is also still fresh in his memory.

I didn't originally know how I was going to start off the second part of this chapter and set up for the other side of the conversation. Then I started considering what type of leads Gran Torino and Tsucachi would have to look at as the investigators for tracking down the League of Villains might be required to follow up in. This idea almost instantly popped into my head. All for One is a controlling, petty supervillain with nothing to do in a prison. I can totally see him doing something like dropping comments that will leave investigators chasing their own tails and wasting time.