Chapter Six:

All Might had changed into a black coat with spikes on the shoulders. His obsidian belt gleamed. A starkly white skeleton had been drawn on his costume from his neck all the way down his black pants. His half-mask resembled a skull. A wicked smile transformed his face into something villainous. Reluctantly, Hisashi had to admit All Might looked somewhat cool.

Planting his feet on the grassy field, All Might roared, "Come at me, little heroes!" His teeth sparkled.

A boy with half-red, half-white hair and a scar on his face moved first, sending forth a wave of ice.

All Might easily smashed the wall with one fist. "Is this all the next generation of heroes has?" He spread his arms dramatically. "You'll never be able to avenge your dead father at this rate."

The scarred boy paused. "You're going to kill my father?" His tone became hopeful. "Give me a moment, I can write down the Todoroki family home address for you. I advise attacking on a Saturday, when he's always exhausted from a week of patrols."

A girl with a long, black ponytail hissed, "Shouto, he's acting in-character." She dragged her classmate away before All Might grabbed him. "I've been wondering this for a while, what's up with you and your father?"

"You want to hear my history, Momo?" Shouto perked up. "It all started the day I was born—"

"Not now!" all of Class 1-A shrieked as their teacher came at them.

All Might knocked half the students away with merely the wind spreading from his punch. Momo created a syringe off her arm to throw at him. Shouto summoned a wave of ice. A giant shadow sprang from the bird-headed boy. Six arms grew from another boy. Steam rose off the engines on the legs of the boy with glasses as he kicked.

Spinning in a circle, All Might generated a wave knocking them all backward. He didn't even need to touch them.

Hisashi clucked his tongue. "They shouldn't have all come at him at once. They made it too easy for him to target all of them at the same time."

Behind him, Izuku's footsteps approached. "I agree. They should have bought time for the others to get up. Also, if they'd attacked him in rapid succession, they could have tried to tire him out."

Hisashi grinned. He liked Izuku even more. "That's exactly what I was thinking."

Izuku's green costume looked handmade. And what was with those ear-like protrusions? His son deserved better. Hisashi ought to start making money as soon as possible. Perhaps he could find a place to pawn a few pieces of jewelry.

Yoichi waved a flag he'd made from a napkin and a toothpick, shouting, "Go All Might! Go All Might!"

Lying upside-down, the many-armed boy complained, "We're supposed to be the good guys, little boy."

"All Might provides my comic books," Yoichi said without shame.

Within minutes, all the students lay at All Might's feet. Hisashi was impressed by how he'd subdued them all without even injuring them. That took serious skill.

All Might cried, "Now I have you where I want you! Oh, how long I've waited for this moment. The time of my revenge!"

The spikey-haired blond student bounced up and down. "The extras had their shot, now it's my team's turn. Clear the field, nerds."

All Might frowned. "But…my ten page long villainous backstory…I spent all of last night creating it." He pulled out a wreath of paper.

From the ground, Shouto said, "It's very rude to interrupt someone else while they're monologuing."

"Shut up, Half-and-Half!" The blond boy shot forth explosions to encourage his classmates to vacate the field as soon as possible.

"I'm up. I have to go," Izuku said.

Yoichi said, "This time, I'll cheer you on, Izuku."

Hisashi took out a notepad and a pencil, even more interested in analyzing this fight.

The battle between All Might and the second team of Class 1-A wasn't going well. Izuku had tried to tell everyone his plan, but then Katsuki had charged straight into battle and Kirishima had followed him and Mina had followed both of them and soon it had turned into another battle royale.

They couldn't win like this. Izuku knew it. But he couldn't do it alone.

Hiding behind a tree next to Izuku, Ochaco said, "I wanted to hear your plan."

Izuku said, "Thank you, but I really needed Kacchan for it to work." He paused, considering. "I didn't necessarily need his voluntary cooperation. Do you think you could help me with that?"

Ochaco winced as a stray rock struck their tree. "Sure. We'd better act fast. It's a massacre out there."

Izuku quickly told her his new plan.

"On it!" Ochaco leapt out from behind the tree.

Numerous students already lay on the ground or had been blasted out of range. Katsuki punched and kicked at All Might, flames dancing from his gauntlets.

All Might cried, "You have no idea what you're up against. My victory was assured from the moment you—"

Ochaco leapt forward. All Might moved to stop her, but she'd hadn't been aiming for him. She tapped the back of Katsuki's neck.

As Katsuki floated up in the air, he shouted, "The hell was that for?" Angry flames rose off his body.

Ochaco had no time for any sort of answer, because All Might picked her up and tossed her (lightly) off the field.

With All Might's back turned, Izuku flicked his finger and unleashed a Smash.

The shockwaves rolled off All Might. He merely grunted. Leaping forward, he ripped away the tree protecting Izuku.

Izuku was already running. Just a little more to the right…he was almost in position…

But of course it wouldn't be so easy. All Might seized the back of his shirt. "Let's see what's hiding under that mask, young hero."

Izuku gritted his teeth and grabbed the dirt. With all his strength, he dragged All Might forward just a few more inches. A hand fasted around his green mask.

From the other side of the field, Ochaco put her fingers together, canceling her quirk.

Katsuki Bakugo dropped from the sky like an angry, screaming missile. He landed on All Might's head.

"Ah! Hot!" All Might danced around, putting out the flames in his hair. He still managed to catch Katsuki before the boy hit the ground.

"I'll kill all of you!" Katsuki screamed.

"Now, now, young Bakugo, the fight is over." All Might set Katsuki on the ground. "I promised you only had to land one hit on me, and I've been thoroughly hit." His teeth gleamed in his usual heroic smile. "Pizza for everyone!"

The entirety of Class 1-A cheered, both those watching and those lying on the ground.

All Might stuck out his hands as if wearing invisible handcuffs. He monologued, "Little do you all know that my seeming defeat was merely part of my larger master plan."

Most of the class couldn't hear him over their cheering, but Izuku laughed. All Might winked at him.

Katsuki stomped over. "I'm not your sidekick, your stepping stone, or your personal human missile, you shitty nerd!"

Izuku raised his hands. "We won, didn't we? You did a great job setting All Might's hair on fire."

"ARE YOU MOCKING ME, DEKU?"

"No, I meant it."

Katsuki grabbed for Izuku's collar.

Hisashi appeared between them in a flash. "Izuku, I wanted to show you the notes I took." Something hard and dangerous lurked in the child's eyes.

Maybe Izuku had imagined it, because Kacchan certainly didn't seem to notice. He bellowed, "I wasn't done."

"Excuse me, are you threatening my descendant?" Yoichi crossed his arms and glared. He had a toothpick between his teeth like an old-fashioned cowboy. "Move along before I make you." He spat out the toothpick and made a fist.

Katsuki's brow pinched. Even he didn't want to get into a fight with an eight-year-old, especially not in front of All Might. He stomped off, tossing over his shoulder, "This isn't over, shithead."

Izuku had noticed that Katsuki's insults had more of an edge to them lately, but he didn't think that was necessarily a bad thing. Kacchan was inching closer to acknowledging Izuku as a true threat—or a true rival. How Katsuki would react to eventually reaching this conclusion was outside Izuku's control. But he remained hopeful that maybe, just maybe, they could work through some stuff from the past.

Izuku had already decided to wait and see.

As soon as the loudmouth was out of sight, Hisashi handed Izuku his notebook. "These are my thoughts on your team's fight with All Might. You can tell everyone that these are your ideas."

Izuku flipped through the pages. "You even made suggestions on how everyone should use their quirks? I'm impressed." He looked up. "But I can't pretend I came up with this. That would be dishonest."

Hisashi widened his eyes. He let his lip wobble. "I'm afraid no one will take the suggestions seriously if they come from me. Worse, my classmates used to bully me over my notebooks. They called me smarty-pants and other names."

This was a lie. Hisashi's classmates had never bullied him, because of the same danger instinct that taught children from a young age not to put their hands on a heated stovetop. Yoichi, on the other hand…Hisashi had needed to get rid of a few problems on behalf of his younger brother. Since Yoichi didn't like to admit he was being picked on, Hisashi had gotten skilled at recognizing the signs.

Izuku's face softened. "I know what that's like. I don't think anyone in Class 1-A would call you names…well, uh, except for…you know what? If you want me to give the others your suggestions without mentioning your name, then I can do that."

A suspicion solidified into a certainty. Katsuki Bakugo had bullied Izuku. Hisashi had no idea why his older self had let this outrage stand, but he certainly wouldn't. Time to come up with a plan.

It took a while for Izuku to get All Might alone. He'd been taking his two new foster children with him everywhere. Eventually, All Might left Yoichi and Hisashi at a cafeteria table while he went to buy lunch. Izuku made an excuse to follow.

Izuku stopped All Might before he reached the food line. "Can I have a word? In private? It's very important."

All Might looked up and caught the serious expression on his face. "Of course. Shall we go to my office?"

Sitting in a chair across from All Might, Izuku poured out the entire story he'd seen in his vision last night. The Shigaraki family mother poisoning Yoichi and using Hisashi to persuade him to take the so-called medicine. Then Hisashi catching her, and the mother threating to blame him for all her own crimes to silence him.

All Might's face became grimmer with each word. "Factitious disorder imposed on another. It's a rare form of child abuse, but I've heard of such cases before."

"Why would a parent ever do such a horrible thing?"

"Usually for attention. Sometimes an abusive parent will deliberately sicken a child as an excuse to fundraise for money." All Might frowned, his gaze distant. "In this case, it sounds like the mother believed she could use her younger son's artificial illness to force a husband who was cheating on her to come home."

Izuku nodded. "I got the impression she also thought this would prevent her son from ever leaving her like her husband did."

"She even used Hisashi to poison his own younger brother." All Might shuddered. "That takes a special kind of evil. She started him out giving his brother poison when he was too young to know better, then she shifted the blame onto him after he found out the truth. A classic manipulation tactic. I'll have to speak to a child psychologist about how to reveal the truth to Yoichi without damaging the bond between the brothers and how to help Hisashi handle his guilt in a healthy way."

"I'm glad." Izuku looked at his hands. "I felt bad about even seeing those memories and intruding on Hisashi's privacy, but I thought you needed to know."

"I did need to know." All Might put a hand on Izuku's shoulder. "The doctor couldn't figure out what was wrong with Yoichi's lungs. Now that we knew there must have been long-term damage from poison, we'll be able to plan how to treat him. You did the right thing. I promise I'll help both boys recover from this." All Might's gaze turned distant. "I wonder who canceled the doctor's appointment after all…both of them might have reason to be scared of medical treatment…perhaps I should just forget about punishment and have cake all around." He scratched his head. "Although parenting books also said I shouldn't be too permissive. Another reason to consult a child psychologist."

"What about a doctor's visit?" Izuku asked.

"Yoichi told me that he'd canceled his doctor's appointment this morning behind my back, but now I wonder if he might have been covering for his older brother. If so, then Hisashi is more tricky than he's been letting on." All Might didn't sound upset about this, only pensive. "He would need to be, to have survived. I'm extremely certain they were living on the streets before they ended up in this time period. No wonder they're so protective of each other. I'm less concerned with assigning blame and more concerned that both boys get the help they need."

"He's definitely a very smart kid," Izuku said. He decided not to mention Hisashi's analysis notes, because he'd promised. "We had a discussion on quirks earlier, and he's amazingly insightful."

"That he is." All Might smiled proudly. "I bet he'll become something special. I'd better hurry and buy lunch. Hisashi and Yoichi must be hungry."

Hisashi and Yoichi sat at a cafeteria table with two other students.

The boy with glasses said, "My name is Tenya Iida. As class president, I will make certain to watch over you on behalf of All Might."

The girl with the adorable bob said, "I'm Ochaco Uraraka. Nice to meet you."

Hisashi could care less. He just wished that Izuku would return. He'd wanted to talk more with his technically-older-than-him son. Leaving aside getting to know each other, he hadn't yet been done pumping Izuku for information about his older self.

Yoichi crept one hand sideways, stealing a French fry off Tenya's tray.

Tenya barked, "Theft is a crime!"

"What theft?" Yoichi swallowed the French fry.

"False accusations are also a crime," Hisashi said. "Do you have any proof of my brother's alleged theft?"

"Well, I—" Tenya sputtered as Yoichi grabbed anther handful of French fries. "He did it again!"

"I didna do nushin," Yoichi mumbled with his mouth full.

Hisashi steepled his fingers. "Mere hearsay. Not admittable in court." Yoichi passed his older brother a French fry.

Ochaco laughed. "You're a youngest child, aren't you, Tenya?"

"Yes," he admitted.

"I'm an only child, but I have loads and loads of younger cousins. They'll walk all over you if you let them." She regarded Hisashi with amused eyes. "I know you two must be hungry. If I give you half my sandwich, will you share your lunch with me after All Might returns?"

Hisashi considered. "I don't think a mere peanut butter and jelly sandwich is fair trade for a hot lunch. Can you sweeten the deal with a few coins?"

"Not a chance. I'm saving my money," Ochaco said. "My family doesn't have a single yen to spare. I need to become a hero as quickly as possible so I can give my parents a comfortable life."

"Strong family values? I admire that." Hisashi looked at the older girl with renewed interest. "I have a few ideas to make some cash myself, and I could use help from an older partner."

Ochaco raised an eyebrow. "Illegal ideas?"

"Not all of them—" Hisashi stopped as he saw All Might returning, balancing three trays of food. "Just give me your phone number, and I'll share my lunch with you. Even the dessert! All you have to do is hear me out."

He managed to wrangle the number just before All Might arrived, although he suspected that the older girl was only indulging him.

As soon as All Might sat down, Tenya said, "Sir, your children appear to be planning crimes."

All Might laughed. "They must get it from my villainous alter-ego."

Hisashi was a little surprised by the lack of concern from a hero. He'd initially marked All Might as extremely gullible and self-righteous, as well as someone who would throw Hisashi out immediately if he ever found out that he grew up to be a villain. But he'd seen a different side of the hero at the practice battle today. This bore further examination.

Lunch looked like typical cafeteria fare: two slices of pizza each, some wilted broccoli, an apple, and a pudding cup.

As usual, Hisashi scooped the whipped cream off his brother's pudding cup and added it to his own.

"Hisashi!" All Might said sternly.

"It's okay," Yoichi said, his mouth full. "He knows I don't like whipped cream."

"But I love it," Hisashi said.

"Oh, then that's fine. Don't talk with your mouth full, Yoichi." All Might dabbed a bit of tomato sauce off Yoichi's lip. "You can have my whipped cream too, Hisashi."

Hisashi's opinion of his guardian rose another few notches. (He was easily bribed.)

Out of the corner of his eye, Hisashi noticed Yoichi pocket an apple. He could understand the impulse. Even though food seemed plentiful now, who knew if that might change? But he could have told his younger brother that it was fine to eat his entire lunch. Hisashi had already snuck down the kitchen and pilfered some emergency supplies to hide under their beds.

All Might placed another apple down on Yoichi's tray. "Future heroes should eat their fruits so they grow up big and strong."

Yoichi flushed. "I…uh…" His hand crept to his pocket.

Gently, All Might said, "You can take food to your bedroom, as long as you store it properly so as not to attract insects. I'll add a minifridge and cupboard tonight." He looked at Hisashi as he spoke, and Hisashi became quite certain that his secret stash was not-so-secret.

It had been done so diplomatically Hisashi didn't feel humiliated, but he did feel off-guard and pensive. His new guardian was not as gullible as he'd first assumed and would require more careful handling in the future.

Afternoon classes had finished. Yoichi sat on top of a desk skimming a comic book. Izuku, Tenya, and Ochaco worked on their homework together. The trio had been asked to keep an eye on Hisashi and Yoichi. Meanwhile, All Might was meeting with Nezu about arranging home tutors. As far as Yoichi was concerned, he would be happy to never attend school again, but he realized the unlikeliness of this wish ever coming to fruition.

Ochaco asked, "Would anyone like to play monopoly?"

This got groans from Izuku and Tenya. Izuku said, "You just want to wipe the floor with all of us again."

Tenya pushed up his glasses. "I must say with frankness that you frighten me as a Monopoly opponent."

Hisashi said, "I love Monopoly, but surely we wouldn't have time to finish."

Izuku snorted. "You'd be surprised. Ochaco always cleans us out of all our money in less than an hour."

"Now you have my interest." Hisashi raised an eyebrow.

"Don't play with him, he makes it no fun," Yoichi mumbled.

Hisashi elbowed his brother. "You're just a sore loser. I've never once lost at Monopoly."

Ochaco waggled her eyebrows. "Challenge accepted! We can play with just the two of us. I have the game on my tablet." She turned her screen to face Hisashi.

As the two of them got started, Yoichi listened to Izuku and Tenya discuss their history homework. He was quite interested in hearing how the world had changed. Also, monopoly and his brother gave him traumatic flashbacks.

It came as a complete surprise when Hisashi screamed, "How did you even do that?"

"Good game," Ochaco said cheerfully, closing her tablet.

"But…I…" Hisashi stammered.

"Whoa, you lost?" Yoichi smirked with brotherly glee. "Don't be a sore loser, big brother."

"That girl is a money hungry fiend." Hisashi clutched his chest. His face flushed. "I feel strange. There's a hammering under my chest. My head is spinning. I would call this murderousness, but it's closer to admiration than dislike. Why would I have positive feelings toward the enemy who just broke my Monopoly winning streak? Shouldn't I want to destroy her?"

Yoichi considered it his job to redirect his older brother from his worst impulses, so he said, "Congratulations, big brother, you just made a new friend who loves money as much as you do."

Hisashi stared at Ochaco with a dazed expression. Then he shook his head and slapped his cheeks. He held out a hand to her. "Good game. I'm very much looking forward to working with you on my money-making projects."

She shook. "You were the best challenge I've had in a long time. If you're that good, maybe there's some merit to your ideas."

All Might appeared in the doorway. "Thank you for waiting, boys. And I appreciate you three looking after them. Let's head home for dinner."

"Food! I'm hungry!" Yoichi cheered. He pushed his older brother toward the door.

Hisashi glanced over his shoulder at Ochaco. He said, "Seriously, call me later this evening. The two of us? We're going to take Japan's economy by storm."

Hisashi approached All Might after dinner. "That villain costume of yours looked cool."

"Do you really think so?" All Might perked up. "I designed it myself."

"Could I have a costume like that for playing heroes and villains?" At the first sign of a negative reaction, Hisashi was prepared to pretend it had been a whim and he only liked playing hero in make-believe games.

All Might said, "Of course. If you'd like something custom-made, we can add it to your next birthday list. Or do you have a fictional villain you like?"

Cautiously, Hisashi asked, "Wouldn't it be strange to admire a villain?"

"I don't think so. I used to love villains as a kid." All Might smiled. "Maybe that's why I still have fun dressing up as one."

"You WHAT?" Hisashi stared. "But you're…well…you." He gestured at the smiling face of the Number One Hero beaming from billboards across Japan.

"I wasn't always a rich and successful hero. I used to live on the streets, just like you and your brother." All Might's gaze became distant. "I didn't get my quirk until…very late in life. My parents threw me out because they found a quirkless son to be disgraceful."

"I'm sorry," Hisashi said, not faking his sympathy for once. He knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of that.

"When you're at the bottom of society, it's easy to start idolizing villains. When I was a child, I was small, weak, and quirkless, so the other kids would make me pretend to be a villain during games and use it as an excuse to beat me up. After a while, I started to emphasize with the villains on the children's cartoons I watched, because they were always one-sidedly getting beaten up too. My favorite was Red Hood—I saw him as a villain but genuinely trying to make Gotham a better place."

"I like Red Hood too." Hisashi hadn't meant to admit that. "People still watch Batman these days?"

"Not any longer. Shows based on real heroes and focusing on quirks became increasingly popular over time. The very last DC reboot was before I was born, but I had a soft spot for old superhero shows because, well—" All Might shrugged. "I was a quirkless kid. I especially liked Batman because he didn't have superpowers."

"Plus, cool black costume."

"That, too." All Might grinned. "After I became homeless, I started resenting professional heroes because sometimes they would work with the police to break up our encampments or drive us out of town. When you're a street kid, the authorities treat you like a criminal just for being poor and dirty. I was determined not to steal because that would feel like proving them right, but I kept getting increasingly hungry and desperate. At some point, I started thinking that maybe the villains were the right ones. Maybe they were standing up against a screwed-up world. I wanted to make the world better and protect the weak. I thought I could do that if I became a villain."

"Then what changed?" Hisashi asked. In spite of himself, he was genuinely fascinated by this story.

"I met a real villain." All Might snorted. "The first villains I met were nothing like my fantasies. They worked for a criminal mastermind, who had an interest in developing the abandoned building where me and several other children were squatting. They beat us all up and destroyed our meager belongings. I held them off while the other kids ran away. Perhaps I fought back a little too hard, because one of them stabbed me. I would have bled out then and there if a hero hadn't arrived." His eyes took on a bright shine. "Her name was Nana Shimura. My mentor."

Nana sounded like someone important to All Might. Hisashi was good at recognizing people's weak spots and their desires, and he could tell his guardian was practically itching to talk more about her. Encouragingly, Hisashi asked, "What was she like?"

"A radiant and fearless heroine. Most heroes wouldn't even touch the business of that villain mastermind out of fear of him, but she still saved me. She even found a charity specializing in helping the quirkless get off the streets to help me. Nana wasn't the type to leave a job half-done."

In order to pick up a few more brownie points, Hisashi said, "She sounds amazing."

It worked. All Might positively sparkled. "Nana was always my ideal. I tracked her down a few years later and asked her to mentor me. She had no reason to take a quirkless boy seriously, but she still agreed to help me. She gave me…well, let's just say she gave me everything."

"She's the reason you became a hero instead of a villain?"

"Yes, although I wouldn't say she was the only reason. Meeting those villains taught me a valuable truth. I thought I could be a villain who helped people on the bottom, but in retrospect that was naïve. In stories, fictional villains often seem cool, and of course characters on children's shows never actually kill anyone. In real life, most villains aren't interested in helping out the little guy—they're just interested in making money or taking out their rage on innocent people. Heroes are far from perfect, but if you're lying on the dirt bleeding out from a stab wound, a hero is significantly more likely to save you than a villain."

"That sounds accurate to me," Hisashi said. He'd never had any interest in helping people or any expectation of people helping him, so he didn't feel moved by All Might's words, but he could acknowledge the truth in them.

All Might said, "There's nothing wrong with admiring fictional villains, but I wouldn't expect too much from real ones. In my experience, real evil tends to be banal and pathetic. But don't get me wrong—a good deed done by a villain is still good and a bad deed done by a hero is still bad. I've met numerous heroes indistinguishable from villains, and a few villains I could respect."

Hisashi found this conversation genuinely interesting—interesting enough to take a risk. "If I became a villain but I helped people instead of hurting them, would you still be proud of me or would you regret ever taking me in?"

"I'll never regret taking you in, no matter what you make of your life. I promise. As for your question: as long as you never lose that part of yourself that wants to make the world a better place, I'd always be proud of you." All Might smiled.

Hisashi never had a part of himself that wanted to make the world better. He'd just been softening his real question. Still, that had been an interesting and unexpected answer. Perhaps if All Might found out about his adult self, it wouldn't be quite as bad a disaster as he'd assumed. "I was just joking around. I don't have to become a villain to enjoy dressing up like one."

"That you don't! Villains got the better of us in fashion sense. As a teenager, I had a black costume I designed for myself, but everyone told me it looked too spooky and wouldn't reassure civilians, so I had to go with a different one. That's why I had so much fun today."

"Your costume was cool. The second coolest I've seen since the villain who tried to murder me." Hisashi stopped before he accidentally gave something away about his adult self.

A dark look crossed All Might's face. "All for One. He's the worst villain I ever met. He was the mastermind behind the villains who attacked me when I was a child."

"No way." The words left Hisashi's lips before he could stop them. How could his adult self attack street kids? Not cool. He ought to know what it was like to be a homeless child.

All Might nodded. "He's extremely dangerous, but I promise, I'm going to protect you no matter what." He held out his arms. "You can believe in me."

Hisashi accepted the hug, partly to hide the stunned expression on his face. So much for his optimistic hopes—clearly All Might had a long-standing grudge with his adult self and that reveal wouldn't go over well at all. Just his luck.

Fortunately, he was good at keeping secrets.

After helping them get ready for bed, All Might guided Hisashi and Yoichi upstairs. "Would you two like me to read you a bedtime story?"

"Story! Story!" Yoichi clapped his hands together. "I want the Hero and the Demon King."

"I've never heard of that story," All Might said.

Hisashi said, "You wouldn't have. It was published a century ago. I don't think you'll be able to find that one in a modern bookstore, baby brother."

"But I never got to read the ending." Yoichi drooped.

"I'll see if I can find a copy." All Might plucked a picture book off the bookshelf. "In the meantime, how about this one? It's about heroes, too. In fact, rumor has it the main character is loosely based on me."

"Let's read that one." Yoichi's attention immediately shifted.

Both children settled on Hisashi's bed. All Might opened the book and read. He had a natural flair for theatre, doing the different voices. His villain interpretation made Yoichi giggle. As he reached the end of the story, Yoichi's eyes shut. He yawned. Leaning against his brother's shoulder, his eyes closed.

All Might moved to pick Yoichi up and carry him to his bedroom. Hisashi stiffened.

All Might stopped. He asked, "Do you want to carry him?"

Hisashi hesitated. Yoichi had gotten big enough that he wasn't easy to pick up any longer. Hisashi might accidentally wake his brother up if his arms shook. Eventually, Hisashi said, "You can do it."

All Might smiled, seeming to correctly recognize this as a profound honor. Watching carefully, Hisashi followed All Might as he carried Yoichi across the hallway and to the other bed.

"Good night," All Might said, closing the door. "Sweet dreams."

Hisashi returned to his bed and lay down.

But as soon as he fell asleep, he found himself once again staring straight at his adult self.

OMAKE TIME!

Omake: Sing This to the Tune of the Lion King's "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?"

Hisashi: (Upon seeing Katsuki Bakugo) Can you feel the hate tonight? It can be assumed. His carefree bullying days are history. In short, I'll be murdering you soon.

#An in-joke for readers of my other stories #All for One has a fated hatred with Bakugos

#

Omake: Kleptomania Vs. Egomania

All for One: The cafeteria incident with the French fries proves that my little brother was a thief from a young age. Later, he stole my quirk and my most valuable possession.

First: Leaving aside that you forced that quirk on me, I'm baffled as to what else you think I stole from you. I left the vault with nothing but the clothes on my back!

All for One: You ran off with yourself.

#

Omake: In the Alternative Version of This Chapter, All Might and Izuku Team-up to Wipe the Floor with Everyone

Shouto: I want to hear your villainous backstory even if no one else does, All Might.

All Might: I was going to be Izuku's long-lost father. We were separated at a young age, and now I want revenge on the heroes for raising my son as one of them.

Shouto: Hmm. Conspiracy theory senses tingling…

Katsuki: Why are you pretending to be Deku's Dad? Don't you think you're favoring him too much?

All Might: I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Everyone in Class 1-A had a role in my backstory. For example, young Bakugo, you're the son of my former dogwalker.

Katsuki: Grrr.

All Might: After I ripped off Izuku's mask, I was going to pretend to be super-surprised to see his face, then confess that I was his long-lost father.

Izuku: If only I'd known about this plan, then I would have immediately betrayed Class 1-A and defected to All Might's side.

All for One: You would have? Hey, I have something to tell you.

Izuku: Are you All Might? No, you are not. Go away.

Author's Note: I have a strong desire now to write the alternate version of this chapter where All Might gets a chance to finish his big reveal and Izuku immediately turns coats and joins him in beating up Class 1-A.

I'm playing loose with timing in many ways, such as Izuku still wearing his first costume. This story will most definitely not follow canon, and I have every intention of continuing to reorder events in both minor and major ways whenever convenient. Initially I was writing explanations for all the little changes but at one point I decided to just screw it.

Although All Might went through a lot of hardship and discrimination from a young age, just like All for One, he didn't turn out evil. This, to me, suggests that All Might is a stronger person than All for One, and he always has been.

That said, writing about All Might's past got me imagining an AU of this story where All for One encounters Toshinori back when he's a quirkless kid living on the streets full of anger but no power. This boy reminds him of his little brother, so he decides to take him under his wing and raise him. In other words, a reverse of this story.