Chapter Seven:

That night, Izuku had another dream that was actually a memory.

The Shigaraki family mother stormed through the iron gates of a graveyard, dragging Yoichi after her. Hisashi trailed along behind them. The mother wore a black kimono, with her sons both in black suits. Mascara and tears dripped down her face.

"How dare those women show their faces as his funeral?" The mother's fingers dug tighter into Yoichi's arm, making him yelp. "As if I don't know their relationship to my husband!"

Izuku remembered how Hisashi had told him about his father's mistresses crashing his funeral. The boy had been stone-faced except for a slight sardonic twitch to his lips as he'd told the story. He had the same expression on his face now.

"Let go of Yoichi's arm," Hisashi said coldly. "You're hurting him."

"Of course I'm not." The mother stopped and dropped to her knees before Yoichi. "You're fine, right, my angel?"

Yoichi looked uncomfortable. "It's not a big deal," he whispered. "Let's just go home." He tucked a stray lock of hair behind his ear.

"Stop." His mother grabbed his wrist. "Don't move your hair. You have to hide your eye, see?" She flattened Yoichi's hair over his left eye, the one with the scar. "This eye is pretty." She tapped the right eye. "But this eye is ugly." She traced a long, red-painted nail down the side of Yoichi's face. The nail just kept inching closer to his left eye until Izuku nearly screamed.

Hisashi yanked his brother backward. "Does looking at my brother's scar remind you what a worthless coward you were that day? How you helped your husband cover it up? That's your fault, not Yoichi's. You're the one who should feel bad. I've got two good eyes over here if you want to pick on someone closer to your own size."

But Hisashi wasn't even close to his mother's size—he was still a child who looked no older than eight or nine, and Izuku's heart nearly broke to see him staring up at the adult who should have protected him with defiance. If only he could fight his way through these shadows. If only this wasn't all a memory of the past, with no way he could help.

"Give him back!" the mother screamed, a guttural sound. Her much-stronger arms wrenched Yoichi away from his older brother. She wrapped around her youngest child as if trying to completely cover him with her body. Rocking him back and forth, she crooned, "You'll never leave me, isn't that right, my angel? Your father left me. But you'll always stay by my side. We'll be together forever."

"I won't leave you, Mom, I promise." Yoichi's voice came out muffled. "Hisashi and I will both help you out now that Dad is gone."

"No! I don't need Hisashi," the mother cried. "Only you!"

Yoichi sounded on the verge of tears. "Please, don't say mean things about big brother."

"It's okay." Hisashi sneered. "Mommy isn't exactly my favorite person, either."

Mother and son stared at each other with a coldness that sent chills down Izuku's spine. No mother should look at her own child that way. No child should have that expression on his face at all.

In spite of their mutual hatred, or perhaps because of it, in that moment, their faces looked very much alike.

Shadows rose up around Izuku. The dream blurred and shifted. Now Izuku stood in a child's room. Yoichi sat on the bed, with his mother kneeling in front of him. There was no trace of Hisashi this time. So he'd obtained memories from both brothers? Interesting.

"Just a sip." The mother held a bottle up to Yoichi's face.

"I don't want to. That medicine always makes me feel sick." Yoichi's hair fell forward, obscuring his expression. His voice held a stubborn note.

His mother lifted up his chin and tilted it to force their eyes to meet. "Hisashi always speaks to me in that defiant tone. I wonder if he's taught you bad habits."

"Leave big brother out of this." Fear leaked into Yoichi's voice.

"Now that your father is gone, it's much more difficult to afford your brother's school fees. I don't see why he needs an expensive school for the gifted. He certainly doesn't need so many books and clothing. I wonder how much money I could get for them?"

"Stop it." Yoichi sobbed before he regained control of himself. "I'll drink my medicine."

"And you won't tell Hisashi."

"I won't tell big brother." Yoichi grabbed the bottle.

Izuku leapt forward, instinctively trying to dash the poison from his hand. But the shadows caught him and carried him away again.

In the new vision, Hisashi opened the door to Yoichi's bedroom. "Look what I got you."

Yoichi squirmed to look, swinging a leg in a cast over the side of the bed. "Ooo, is that the last volume of the Hero and the Demon King?"

"Lie back down. Don't jostle your leg. The doctor said you broke it in three places." Hisashi pushed his brother back down. "If you promise you'll sit still, I'll let you read it first."

"Whoa," Yoichi breathed, clearly impressed by this level of sibling sacrifice. He clutched the book to his chest. "I'm going to read it right now. I'll finish as quickly as possible so you can have a turn next."

Hisashi smiled. "You can have it as long as you need."

But as soon as Hisashi stepped out of the room, the smile dropped off his face. He headed straight to his mother's bedroom, where she sat before a mirror doing her hair.

Enunciating each word, Hisashi asked, "How did Yoichi break his leg?"

His mother turned around. "He fainted at the top of the stairs and fell. I tried to catch him."

"Funny how it was just the two of you there at the time."

"I don't know what you're implying."

Hisashi's eyes narrowed. "Yoichi has been getting sick again. You promised to stop doing that."

His mother laughed. "Who are you going to tell? Your father is dead." Poison dripped off each word.

"There's no one to tell, so there's also no point in lying to me, is there? I found traces of blood on the wall at the top of the stairs. The first broken bone happened before you even pushed Yoichi down the stairs. You hit him."

The mother shuddered. "Don't say such crude things."

"You can't bring yourself to hear it, but you can actually do it."

"Be honest. You didn't want Yoichi to go on his school field trip either. It was an overnight stay! He's too young! It's too dangerous!"

A muscle clenched in Hisashi's jaw. "I'm starting to think this house is less safe for him than anywhere else."

"You like looking after him when he's sick, too. I can tell." Her eyes gleamed in the dull light. "We can share him."

Hisashi snorted. "Now I know you're lying. That's the one thing you can't do. You think I haven't heard you calling boarding schools looking for one inexpensive enough to send me? I've been recording all your phone calls." A device gleamed in his hand. "Like I recorded our conversation just now. I think you said enough. If you make one more move on Yoichi, I'm sending all the evidence to our uncle."

"You don't want to deal with that man. He's full of bitterness about the money he thinks he should have inherited instead of your father. He could care less about his nephews."

"I don't want to, but I will if I have no other choice."

"You're a monster," the mother hissed.

Hisashi's face became a mask. "It takes one to know one."

One more time, the scene shifted. Izuku looked over a dingy alleyway. Snow covered the tops of trashcans. Yoichi shivered in a cardboard box. Hisashi rooted through a trash bag. With a triumphant cry, he held up a red bean bun. "Look, it's still in its wrapper."

"It smells terrible." Yoichi buried his face in his knees and coughed. "I don't want to eat trash."

Hisashi knelt down beside his little brother. "Come on, please. You have to eat something."

"I want to go home."

Hisashi's face became increasingly strained. "It's not our home any longer. It's our uncle's."

"He stole it!"

"Technically, we ran away." A sardonic smile crossed Hisashi's lips. "In practice, if we ever went back, he'd call the Metahuman Relocation Patrol on us again."

"We don't even have powers!"

"With our hair color, and uncle's bribes, they wouldn't care."

Yoichi coughed again. "All this happened because our uncle locked Mom in that asylum. It's his fault that she's dead."

A flash of guilt crossed Hisashi's face. "I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry?" Yoichi tilted his head. "It's not your fault."

"That's right. I didn't do anything." Hisashi bit his lip.

Izuku wanted to scream at him to just tell the truth, it would only be worse if it all came out later and without the full story. But instead, he woke up.

He stared at the dark ceiling of his bedroom. This second dream felt like an even deeper intrusion into the brothers' privacy. He wasn't sure if he should tell All Might. Last time, All Might had needed to know about the poisoning. This situation felt more grey. And the lies between the brothers felt like a ticking time bomb.

As soon as Hisashi laid eyes on the dream-vision of his adult self, he charged forward, screaming, "I can't believe you attacked a street kid!"

"I did what now? I expected you to have a rather more personal gripe with me after you figured out my identity." All for One raised an eyebrow. "I've attacked a lot of people. You'll need to narrow it down for me."

Hisashi snarled, "You shouldn't have touched any of the homeless! Don't you remember the code? People who live on the streets look out for each other! Back when Yoichi and I first got thrown out of our home, we never would have survived if other homeless people hadn't helped us. You've forgotten your roots!"

All for One snorted. "You can't possibly be serious. Who are you putting on this act for? It's just the two of us here. I know that the first time a homeless man showed you a place to sleep, you pickpocketed him."

Hisashi winced. "Well. That was for Yoichi's sake. Of course I'd be willing to sell out as many strangers as it took to keep him fed. But you had plenty of wealth already. You didn't need to do it." He paused, remembering his conversation with All Might. "A rich villain beating up homeless children and taking what little they have doesn't look cool. It's a banal and petty kind of evil."

"I don't even remember this incident." All for One shrugged. "It was probably some minion of mine."

"You lost the part of yourself that wanted to be a cool villain someday." Hisashi glared. "We were supposed to get off the streets so we could live a better life, protect our little brother, and do something to change the world. It seems to me that you only did the money-making part, and that was the least important. How's your brother doing these days?"

The blow landed. All for One flinched and dodged the question. "Do you think you can protect Yoichi as you currently are? Do you want me to teach you how to use those quirks you stole from me?"

"No."

"You didn't even hear my offer."

"You'd probably try to trick me into blowing my own head off." Hisashi sneered. "Or you'd pump me for information in exchange. Nice try. You're not getting jackshit."

"Despite the surface of peace, this time period is still dangerous." All for One's voice took on a coaxing note. "You won't be able to protect yourself or Yoichi. But I can—"

"It's too late to offer me a rule together deal." Hisashi laughed. "You already tried—and failed—to kill me. I know you'll do it again at the first opportunity. No reassurance you could offer would be good enough."

"You would have done the same thing in my place."

Hisashi stared at this loon spouting nonsense. "No, if I'd known about you before the near-murder incident, I would have gone to you for help protecting my little brother."

"That shows you're weak and stupid."

"I'm starting to see why no one likes you. I'm you, so you're only insulting your own intelligence. Though I have to admit, my opinion of my own potential has gone down after meeting you. Want to know why you shouldn't attack street kids? You had a chance to get All Might on your side, and you blew it."

"Now that I don't believe."

"You—or your people—attacked him when he was a homeless kid." Hisashi glared. "If you hadn't done that, then maybe he would have joined you—"

"I almost killed All Might when he was a child?" All for One scowled. "A missed opportunity indeed."

"It would have been smarter to make him into an ally. Just look at him now!" Hisashi slapped his forehead in an exaggerated fashion. "I wonder, did Nana Shimura have a better eye for talent than you or did she simply save so many people eventually one of them turned out to be a future powerhouse? Hmm, maybe I should focus on saving people whenever I can in case one of them turns out to be unexpectedly useful later."

"Please. I couldn't see All Moron ever being interested in becoming a villain. He's the poster boy for brainless heroism. Besides, he's too stupid for me to tolerate his presence."

"I don't think you know All Might as well as you think you do." Hisashi raised an eyebrow. "I must have lost several brain cells in the future if the only tactic I could think of to deal with All Might was getting into a fist fight with him. His guilt and kindness would have made useful levers to work out a deal with him. I bet he would have been extremely useful. He's far from stupid. I like him."

All for One gaped. His calm mask cracked, replaced by a sincere anger. "You can't possibly like him! You must be saying that just to provoke me." He sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

"Why not? I'm not the same as you. Your grudges have nothing to do with me. And I like All Might. He's very soft-hearted, but that part of him reminds me of Yoichi. They both have a lot in common."

"You take that back."

"I've known Yoichi far more recently than you. I'd say I'm a better judge." It was a deliberate provocation. Hisashi knew himself well enough to know that a reminder of his brother's death would be the best way to stab All for One's heart.

All for One's face twisted with malice. "All Might would hate you if he ever found out that you're my younger self."

"Not necessarily. He's more flexible than you think—"

"I killed his teacher, Nana Shimura."

Hisashi froze. He remembered the admiration in All Might's eyes as he'd spoken of Nana. This truly might ruin everything. The fragile confidence and safety Hisashi had started to feel around his new guardian shattered.

All for One laughed. He knew what he'd destroyed.

That laugh infuriated Hisashi beyond all measure. He screamed, "You're a disgrace! I hate that I grew up into you! If you got your hands on Yoichi, I bet you'd only get him killed again! You certainly didn't do any better with Izuku! Yeah, I know about your son! You lost your entire family, you lurk in the shadows running away from heroes, and you don't even have a white tiger!"

The shadows dissolved away as the sheer force of Hisashi's anger woke him up.

As soon as Yoichi laid eyes on his adult self, his lips peeled back into a snarl. "You."

First slouched with his hands in his pockets and a resigned expression. "I'll try to explain better this time. Won't you please listen to me?"

Yoichi almost started swearing, but then he remembered that his big brother had told him to ask his adult self some important questions. "I'll hear you out of you answer all of my questions without lying. How did you die?"

First's lips flattened. "I'm not sure you want to know the answer to that one."

"I'll be the judge of that, you ghostly knock-off. Answer me or I wake up and never speak to you again."

"My older brother killed me."

Yoichi recoiled. "You're lying!"

"Neither of us would lie about that," First said grimly.

Yoichi burst into tears.

First took a step forward. "I'm sorry."

Yoichi batted away the comforting hand. "Shut up! That masked man isn't my real brother. Something went wrong with him. Hisashi and I both agreed not to turn into you two. My big brother would never hurt me." Tears streamed down his cheeks. His chest felt like it might rip in two.

First said, "Maybe you're right. I don't know what to make of a younger version of my brother, either. Maybe he can still change. I wouldn't want to chance it if I was in your place, but I understand why you can't give up so easily. If it makes you feel any better, he wasn't trying to kill me at the time." His lips twisted. "He was just trying to murder my most important person."

Yoichi stopped crying and looked up. "But big brother is our most important person."

First shook his head. He muttered, "It couldn't be more embarrassing if I got a mohawk for my high school yearbook." More loudly, he said, "Try living with Hisashi for a few more years and you'll get tired of him. He manipulates you into thinking he's the only one who matters and isolates you from other people. It's a fake love."

The pity in First's eyes only made it worse. There was no pleasure in his words, only raw pain from a wound that had never healed. He actually believed what he was saying. From the bottom of his heart, with the certainty of someone who had lived through that chain of events, he believed it. That pity scared Yoichi, because it tempted him start to doubt his older brother.

Yoichi kicked First in the crotch.

First doubled over, swearing. Apparently his older self had learned a few new curse words.

Yoichi stood over the adult with his hands on his hips, shouting, "Every time you say something mean about my big brother, I'm going to kick you!"

Gasping with pain, First growled, "Apparently I'm not so easy to live with either. In fact, I appear to be an obnoxious little pain in the ass. I certainly hope I wasn't the one to drive my older brother to villainy."

Yoichi glared. "Do you want to get kicked again or answer my question? Why are you a ghost?"

First straightened, combing his fingers to un-muss his hair. "To make a long story short: my older brother forced a stockpiling quirk on me, I turned out to have a hidden quirk that lets me pass along quirks so I gave it to someone else, it stockpiled my memories and personality, so now I'm living inside the quirk with all the other past holders."

Yoichi held up a hand to stop the flow of information. "That's a lot. Our big brother can give people quirks?"

First looked worried. "You didn't know that? I could have sworn he'd already found out at this point. How old are you?"

Yoichi stared, considering.

"Surely you can give me such a small piece of information!"

"I'm eight."

"Then you must have been transported through time shortly before he found out." First closed his one visible eye and cursed. "I suppose it would do no good to ask you not to tell your brother about this. Not even if I begged?"

Yoichi sneered. "Not a chance, boomer."

"I'm from the same generation as you."

"You're a boomer in spirit!" Yoichi delivered this like the worst possible insult.

"I think it's this old man's turn to talk." First gave him a serious look. "Hisashi has been poisoning you, just like our mother did. Even if you refuse to listen to me, I'm implore you to at least seek medical treatment."

Yoichi felt uneasy. He remembered all those horrible-tasting bottles his brother had coaxed him to drink. "Hisashi didn't know. Mom lied to him, just like she lied to me."

"Maybe he didn't know at first, but he kept on making us sick later. He didn't have the means to do it when you lived on the streets, but he'll start up again later." First's face aged with each word. "I was never sure if he knew what was in our mother's bottles back in the early days. He lied so often, how could I know when he was telling the truth?"

"He didn't know!" Yoichi was nearly shouting. "I don't care what your evil brother did, but mine never knowingly hurt me."

"This isn't the debate I wanted to have with you. It doesn't matter." First shook his head. "You need to tell All Might the truth about your connection to All for One, so he'll be able to protect you."

Yoichi glared. "Toshinori already knows about the skull-mask guy targeting us. It won't make any extra difference if he knows why. You're just trying to get me to betray my brother. Nice try, but I grew up with Hisashi. I know weasel-talk when I hear it."

"All Might doesn't understand just how persistent All for One is going to be. Also, he doesn't know that All for One has a door into the head of his younger self, just like I do with you. If he persuades your brother to help him—"

"He won't. We both agreed we won't listen to our adult selves."

First's face collapsed. His gaze became sad. "I wish I could trust that. I wish I could believe that you won't be betrayed like I was."

"Then try a little harder," Yoichi said coldly. "My brother is eleven years old. Aren't you a little embarrassed to be treating him like a threat? If you're me, then you ought to care about him and want to protect him. If I met a version of my brother even younger than me, I'd do anything to keep him safe."

Something odd lurked in First's eyes. An emotion difficult to describe. "You don't know the lives that were lost while I was still trying to save my brother instead of save the world from him. The regrets and guilt that I carry." His shoulders sagged. "And I know there's no way I can persuade you, because nothing would have persuaded me back then."

"If you realize that, then you may be smarter than you look, boomer." Yoichi crossed his arms. "I don't know what happened between you and your brother or why you gave up on him. And I don't want to know. I don't like your future, so I'm going to make my own. A dead man doesn't need to interfere."

The force of his rejection made the dream world fade away.

Hisashi woke up to find his younger brother had entered his room. Yoichi's breathing filled the silence.

After a moment, Yoichi spoke into the darkness. "I met my adult self again and asked him the questions you wanted. He lied to me about how he died so I didn't get any useful information there. But he told me some other interesting stuff that might or might not be true." He poured out the whole story. When he finished, he asked, "Did you know that Mom was poisoning me? If you say you didn't, then I'll believe you."

Hisashi's rising anxiety turned to relief at the last sentence. Yoichi was honest to a fault. If he said he would believe Hisashi, then he would. All Hisashi had to do was deny everything.

But that was what his adult self had done, and it hadn't worked out so well by the end.

After a long moment, Hisashi said, "I didn't know at first. I swear. After I realized, I made her promise to stop doing it or I'd tell Dad. Then after Dad died, she didn't think she had to keep her promise any longer, so she started up again." He swallowed. "I never knowingly gave you poison. I swear it on my life. Please forgive me."

"I believe you, and there's nothing to forgive. You didn't know."

In his relief, Hisashi blurted out the rest of it. "I told our uncle, and he put Mom in the asylum. That was my fault, too!"

"No, it wasn't!" Yoichi squeezed his hand. "Stop blaming yourself for trying to protect me."

Hisashi's shoulders sagged. "I thought for sure you'd be furious about that last one. You were so upset! You blamed our uncle after Mom died!"

"I blamed our uncle because he used Mom's mental illness as an excuse to steal all of our stuff and throw us out on the streets. You were in a completely different situation. It was the only thing you could do." Yoichi sighed. "I'll always love Mom because she was my mom, but I wasn't blind to how badly she treated you. You had the right to protect yourself from her."

Dryly, Hisashi said, "You always seemed blind to how badly she treated you."

"She needed me."

"She hurt you."

"She didn't always know her own strength."

"Since we're both being honest, honesty compels me to point out that our bitch of a mother knew exactly how much strength to use to throw you down a flight of stairs."

Yoichi broke down sobbing.

Hisashi paled. "I'm sorry!" This always seemed to happen whenever he forgot to censor the contents of his head before they left his mouth. "I shouldn't have put it quite like that." Everything had been going so well, then he'd ruined it. "What can I do to make you feel better? I'll give you a quirk, how about that?"

Yoichi stopped crying. "Where did you get a quirk from?"

"I stole a couple off my adult self." And Hisashi had barely gotten a chance to use them. He regretted his offer already. But a promise was a promise. "I'll give you Flexible Fingers. That's the best one."

Yoichi raised an eyebrow. "Then they must all be pretty lame. That's a stupid ability."

"Oh, none of them are anything special," Hisashi said breezily, resolving to hide his other quirks from his brother until he could claim he'd gotten some of them later and avoid admitting he'd pawned off the most useless one on his little brother. "But Flexible Fingers is actually very good. Remember, didn't you think you could use it to escape handcuffs?" Knowing his little brother, he considered that scenario likely to arise sooner or later.

"That's not bad." Yoichi stroked his chin. "Assuming you promise to get me a better one later."

"Of course!" Later, Hisashi intended to have some duplicates. "If we're going to keep switching quirks around, don't let anyone see your current ability yet. We can't let anyone find out what I can do. My jerk adult self seems to have some notoriety. I don't want anything connecting us."

"Agreed." Yoichi held out his hand.

Reluctantly, Hisashi let one of the lights under his skin slip away. His palms glowed red. Should he have used someone else as a guinea pig before his brother? Too late now. At least he could always take the ability back from Yoichi later if it proved dangerous.

"Hey! Look at this!" Yoichi laughed as he bent his fingers all the way backwards. "It's kinda cool. Thank you, big brother."

A knock sounded on the door. All Might called, "I thought I heard someone crying."

"Oh. That was me." Yoichi rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm sorry for waking you up."

"Not at all," All Might said gently. "What's wrong?"

The brothers exchanged glances. Yoichi coughed.

This made up Hisashi's mind. He decided to try honesty one more time, for the sake of getting his little brother better medical care. "I told Yoichi something that I need to tell you, too. Our mother used to give him poison to make him sick. I need you to tell the doctors so they can figure out why his cough hasn't stopped yet. I'm sorry I didn't admit it sooner."

All Might burst through the door and wrapped Hisashi into a hug. "I'm so proud of you! It must have taken great courage to admit that. You're such a good kid! I'm going to buy another cake to celebrate."

Hisashi gaped. "But we haven't even finished the first cake yet!"

"Then we can have two. I'll let you pick whichever cake you'd like."

Whoa, being honest could get you cake? Maybe Hisashi should try it more often.

OMAKE TIME!

Omake: Inside the Void, Part 6

Nana: First, what's the news from the living world? Have you been able to talk with your younger self again? First?

First: (Sitting among a pile of empty wine bottles.) Hmm? What did you say? Hic.

Nana: Is it even possible for us to get drunk in the Void?

Second: No, it's not. He's just pretending and avoiding answering your questions.

First: No habla Nihonese!

Second: I'll put him to bed.

First: If I drink enough, I might be able to blackout my memories this time! Give me back my bottle!

Later:

Second: Are you feeling better now?

First: I'm okay. Thanks for putting up with me last night.

Second: Anytime.

First: Can I ask you a question? Am I annoying? Like, super-annoying? Have you been secretly resenting being stuck with me in the Void for years? Do I drive you absolutely insane every time I open my mouth? Do you regret ever rescuing me from the vault?

Second: Of course not! What brought this on?

First: I met myself, and I think I hate him.

Second: But he's such an adorable little thing.

First: Ah, so you have bad taste. That explains so much.

#

Omake: Why Hisashi's Mother Did Not Hit Him

Mother: I'm in a bad mood and I'm going to take it out on my least favorite child!

Hisashi: (Stares at her raised hand about to hit him. Just stares at it as she sweats.)

Mother: On second thought, I'm going to go pick on someone weaker than me instead.

Hisashi: That someone had better not be my baby brother.

#Usually the scapegoat is the one who gets kicked around by an abusive parent #But Hisashi was too scary #Of course the "you're a monster" stuff was emotional abuse #Peak parenting here, folks

#

Omake: The Brothers Finally Find Common Ground

First: I hate you, but I have to admit I previously had no idea what you put up with back when I was a child. I used to be such a snot-nosed brat.

All for One: Apparently I used to be the single most insufferable child in existence. I don't know how you resisted smothering me with a pillow. No wonder by the time I matured into someone worth knowing, you were already fed up with me.

#

Omake: The First Time All Might Tried to Get Hisashi Into Therapy

All Might: You and your younger brother have been through a lot. Do you want to talk to someone about it?

Hisashi: What, like a lawyer? All the people who wronged us are from a different century, so I don't think it would do much good. I probably couldn't sue their estates, either, though in the case of my uncle it's rather tempting.

All Might: No, I mean like a therapist.

Hisashi: Pshaw. There's nothing about me that needs to be fixed.

All Might: I didn't mean it like that. I thought you might find it comforting.

Hisashi: I rarely enjoy the babbling of less intelligent people.

All Might: What about your younger brother? Based on your conversation with him, it seems like he's having difficulty coming to terms with the fact that your mother was abusive to him. I think he could use some help. Why don't you set a good example for him as an older brother and volunteer for therapy first?

Hisashi: Do you mean to say that if Yoichi gets therapy, I'll no longer have to listen to him crying about how much he misses that bitch? Let's sign him up!

All Might: Err…I think it would help both of you handle that conversation in a more productive fashion.

Hisashi: No, not for me, I'm perfect as I am. While you're at it, see if you can fix Yoichi's softheartedness and his tendency to hog the blankets at night.

#It definitely wouldn't do Hisashi any good to go after his uncle's descendants #Seeing how All for One took care of the man before he ever had any chance to have any #Needless to say neither the uncle nor his ill-gotten gains survived All for One's rise to power

Author's Note: The dreams contained an abridged version of the brothers' past. The prologue to this fic, Kill What You Love, tells the longer story. Ironically Hisashi later turned a monster like the mother he tried to save his little brother from.

In this AU, here's my backstory for Yoichi's death: while Yoichi tried one last time to reason with his older brother, Hisashi pretended to be listening, then took advantage of the distraction to attack Second. Yoichi died blocking the blow. This left vestige First with a lot of bitterness and regret that he ever tried.

Next stop: The Sports Festival!