Chapter Twenty-Eight:
Hisashi sat in the hard hospital chair, kicking his legs. He'd been brother-less for several hours and was growing increasingly irate. Stupid hospital with its stupid visitation rules!
Toshinori stood before the receptionist desk, having a polite but increasingly heated argument.
Izuku sat in the chair next to Hisashi, writing a postcard. He still wore a hospital gown and bracelet, but he'd been cleared to check out and come home with them. Unfortunately, Yoichi was still unconscious.
Out of the corner of his eye, Hisashi spotted a photograph of Tomura and Kurogiri sitting on the beach poking out of Izuku's notebook. "Are you writing to Tomura?" Hisashi still had a bone to pick with Kurogiri as soon as he could find the former villain. Just because he understood why Kurogiri would run off at the sight of All for One didn't mean he wouldn't extract an extra favor in exchange for this betrayal.
Izuku nodded. "Tomura has been writing me letters and postcards from around the world. There's a P.O. box that Kurogiri checks regularly when I write back. I've been justifying not telling anyone because Tomura has stopped committing crimes. But I'm still trying to persuade him to turn himself in. I think he has a strong case to lighten his sentence because All for One took him at such a young age and brainwashed him. Especially now that we know All for One was planning to steal his body."
Hisashi flinched.
Izuku frowned. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought up such a traumatic topic."
"On the contrary, I wish I'd known sooner! How long has Tomura known about that?"
"Right before he ran away, Tomura found records belonging to Dr. Garaki. It turns out All for One was planning to give Tomura a copy of his quirk, then use it to possess his body. This inspired Tomura's defection."
Hisashi grumbled, "See, that's critical information I could have used sooner. If I'd known…" He still would have had no choice but to accept All for One's offer to take the destructive Rewind/Overhaul mix, because otherwise Yoichi would have died. He didn't know what he could have done differently. "Give me a few weeks and I'll come up with a way I could have saved First!"
Brows raised with concern, Izuku squeezed his arm. "Don't torment yourself like that. Please. I used to do that after unfortunate incidents: go over everything I could have done differently in my mind. Take it from someone who's been down that route, it only gives you anxiety issues."
Hisashi stuck out his lip. "Ridiculous. I don't get anxiety. Excess guilt has never been a problem of mine, either." He sniffled. "I'm perfectly fine." Another sniffle betrayed him.
Izuku put an arm around his shoulder.
Toshinori returned. It was still difficult to get used to how young he looked now, as if still in his twenties. Although his face was less gaunt now, his eyes were shadowed with worry. "I persuaded them to allow us to visit, as long as we keep it quick."
Still trying not to cry, Hisashi nodded. He needed to see his little brother more than anything.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Toshinori knelt down and put his hands on Hisashi's shoulders.
Izuku said, "I accidentally brought up the body theft again. I'm sorry."
"I keep thinking about it, anyway." Hisashi squeezed his eyes shut to chase away the tears.
Toshinori asked, "Izuku, can you go see Yoichi first? I'm going to take a moment to comfort Hisashi."
"Of course." Izuku stood up.
"I'm fine." A sniffle betrayed Hisashi. He didn't try to shake off Toshinori's embrace. After a moment, he said, "When I think about what would have happened if All for One had taken over my body…do you think he would have pretended to be me? He might not have bothered since he had both Izuku and Yoichi already unconscious and at his mercy and a souped-up version of All for One. But…"
Toshinori waited patiently for him to finish.
"I think he would have tried to fake it. Even if he had no tactical reason. That was part of what he wanted—that trust that Izuku and Yoichi had for me. I could see how jealous it made him." Hisashi smiled ironically. "I talked a lot of smack to him about how Yoichi and Izuku preferred me. I wouldn't have done that if I'd known he could possess bodies. I brought this on myself. Back when he first tried to kill me, I don't think he was interested in a child's body."
Toshinori muttered something sounding like, "After you've been through puberty once, you'll understand why no one would want to do that a second time."
"He wanted the version of his little brother who loved him enough to die to save him. He wanted a fresh start with his son. But I bet he would have squandered it, going back to the villainy again. He was too greedy to ever give that up." Hisashi considered. "I don't like to think of what he would have done to get you out of the way, Dad."
Toshinori blinked. "Oh, so that was what Sir Nighteye saw? That explains a lot."
"Say what?" Hisashi glared. "Is this more information you kept from me?"
Toshinori looked sheepish. "Sir Nighteye saw a vision of you killing me, but I knew from the beginning that couldn't possibly be true. If you ever did something like that, it could only be because I'd been such a terrible parent that I deserved it. I didn't want you to feel guilty about some vision of the future when you had no control over it. Now it's obvious that Sir Nighteye saw All for One possessing your body."
"What?" Hisashi screeched. This explained so much about Sir Nighteye's shift in attitude toward him. "We have to tell Sir Nighteye immediately to clear my name."
"I will, I promise." Toshinori patted Hisashi's head.
"Wait." Hisashi stared. "You were prophesized to die if you adopted me? You knew that all along?"
"I'm sorry I kept it from you. I didn't want to worry you."
"Are you crazy? I could have gone to America to hide from All for One! There's a difference between being heroic and suicidal!"
"You were predicted to die if I didn't adopt you, remember?"
"Oh." Hisashi froze. Toshinori had seriously picked Hisashi's life over his own? It touched him to the core. For the first time, he had a proper parent who truly loved him.
Not that he'd ever let Toshinori die, of course.
"Next time, tell me these things." Hisashi pointed a finger at his father. "Then I'll be able to protect you."
"We'll see." Toshinori smiled in a way that wasn't particularly reassuring. Before Hisashi could lecture him further, he added, "We should go visit Yoichi."
"Of course," Hisashi said. His little brother was more important than anything.
Yoichi lay in a hospital bed with an IV attached. The sight made Hisashi's heart clench.
There wasn't that much the three of them could do, alone with a comatose person. They ended up staring at each other awkwardly. Toshinori placed some flowers they'd brought in a vase. Izuku brushed a stray hair off Yoichi's forehead.
As soon as he did this, the Second One for All user appeared. "Thank goodness, I've been trying to make contact with you for some time now." His face was cold and he spoke in a grimly factual fashion. "It seems like the resonation between One for All and Yoichi's quirk allowed me to manifest. We're not sure how any of this works. Being able to appear in the real world is completely new to all of us."
Toshinori stared. "You…I've seen a picture of you. You're the Second user?"
Second inclined his head. "Eighth. Please tell the doctors to stop worrying. Yoichi massively overstrained himself putting a large chunk of city back together, but there's nothing wrong with his body except exhaustion. He'll wake up on his own, so they can stop prodding him."
"That's such a relief," Toshinori whispered. Hisashi felt the exact same way.
"Yoichi's original quirk is still inside him," Second said. "Rewind is completely gone—I hope that little girl doesn't want her quirk back."
Hisashi didn't think he imagined the note of accusation there, but he deserved it. He hung his head.
Second turned toward Izuku. "Nineth, you still have One for All's power. But without First, the quirk can't be passed along any longer."
"I'll be the last holder?" Izuku sounded intimidated.
"That's for the best. One for All has grown so powerful it threatens the bodies of anyone who uses it. Quirkless people can handle it better than most, but those are vanishing. Fortunately, the purpose of One for All is over. Our mission was fulfilled with All for One's death. None of us will have any regrets about fading away when the time comes. Although we'd like to see what you become, Nineth. Hisashi and Yoichi as well. Of course, Nana wants to watch over Tomura."
"Nana…" Toshinori whispered.
"She'd like to speak to you at least once, especially since we're not certain if our new ability to interact with the living world will last." Second looked down at his hazy arms. "Perhaps you should step outside and talk to her. She can appear as long as you're touching Izuku. I would like a moment to speak to Hisashi alone."
Toshinori glanced at him. "Hisashi?"
Hisashi nodded. "I'd like to hear what he has to say."
As they left the room, Izuku whispered to Hisashi, "If he says anything mean to you, let me know, and I'll talk to him later."
Once alone, Hisashi stared at Second. "Are you here to yell at me?"
"No. I just need to inspect you for any trace of possession." The words were curt. Without asking for permission, Second stuck his hand through Hisashi's chest.
Hisashi flinched, though he barely even felt a trace of cold at the touch.
"There's nothing." Second's voice filled with relief. "All for One is completely gone."
Tears stung Hisashi's eyes. "At a great cost."
"We're already dead," the Second said flatly.
Hisashi shouted, "How dare you make it sound like his sacrifice meant nothing?"
"How dare you act like you care about him more than me, you little brat? I knew him for over a century!"
"He was my brother!"
They glared at each other. Second pinched his forehead. "I wasn't trying to start an argument. That was an attempt at comforting you."
"Well, you suck at it."
"So he used to tell me." A wistful look entered Second's eyes.
Hisashi was reminded that the person standing before him had cared about First, too. His anger disappeared. "I'm sorry. He died for my sake, and I'm probably not worth it to you. I'm just the younger version of your worst enemy."
"It wasn't my decision, it was his. You were worth it to him." Second's eyes narrowed. "It's up to you to make his sacrifice worthwhile with how you live your life from here on out."
Hisashi looked at his hands. "Do you think I should become a hero? Is that what he would have wanted?"
"Yoichi never would have wanted to force you to live your life in a certain way." Second shook his head. "All Yoichi wanted was for you to be happy and not try to conquer Japan. If you can manage that, then his sacrifice would have been worth it to him."
Hisashi snorted. "At least one of those is easy."
"Please tell me the easy one is not conquering Japan."
"Of course it's that one!"
"Good, because I'd be worried otherwise." A very faint hint of a smile appeared on Second's face. "You've got a lot of good people around you. I think they'll make you happy."
When he said it like that, Hisashi could start to believe it. Maybe someday this aching hole in his chest would start to go away. "I'll make my family happy, too." He made that promise to both First and himself. "Since I obtained this life because of someone else, I have to make it a good one."
Hisashi locked eyes with Second. Something passed between them. A promise. A shared pain. The ghost vanished without another word, but they'd both said what needed to be said.
In the silent hospital room, Hisashi kissed his younger brother's forehead and vowed not to lose this one. He would never, ever let matters turn out like between All for One and First. This time around, Hisashi would become a brother Yoichi could be proud of.
Hisashi lurked in the hallway, totally trying to eavesdrop on Toshinori's conversation with Sir Nighteye. He wanted to hear Sir Nighteye's surprise. He wanted vindication!
He could only dimly make out the voices from the front doorstep. Sir Nighteye said, "Toshinori! What happened to you, you look decades younger—no, that's not important. My vision changed again! The future where you die—it's gone! Does Izuku still have One for All?"
Toshinori said, "He does, but your vision came true, in a sense. I understand what you saw now. The vision was deceptive. All for One is dead."
"Wha…" Sir Nighteye sounded so delightfully shocked. Hisashi had to see this. He crept forward and poked his head around the doorway.
As he'd hoped, Sir Nighteye looked like he might pass out.
Toshinori held out an arm to steady him. "I meant to tell you right away. It's just, one of my kids is in the hospital. A lot happened very fast."
"A large part of the city was wiped out, then returned," Sir Nighteye said. "Your publicity team has been blowing up your phone. They even reached me, trying to find you."
Toshinori scratched the back of his neck. "I turned off my phone in the hospital. I'll come up with a story to tell them. The truth needs to remain between people who know the story of All for One and Hisashi's background. Let me explain to you what we've figured out."
After telling his story, Toshinori finished, "Hisashi was innocent. He only transferred over a piece of One for All to save Yoichi's life. Then you saw a vision of All for One stealing his body then using it to kill me. He'd never have done something like that himself." There was a small hint of smugness in Toshinori's voice, a sentiment Hisashi very much shared.
"Then I was wrong." Sir Nighteye didn't sound thrilled about it. Hisashi smirked.
"You owe Hisashi an apology," Toshinori said sternly.
Hisashi immediately ran back into the living room and sat on the sofa as if he hadn't been eavesdropping.
Sir Nighteye entered. "Young Hisashi." He cleared his throat. "What I said to you…it was wrong." His face became pinched. He sounded like each word had been dragged out of his throat. "I misunderstood my vision and wrongfully accused you. I'm sorry."
This was great! Hisashi just loved that expression twisted in humiliation! His dad had been right—the best revenge was getting people to apologize to you. Immediately, he was tempted to indulge in some gloating and taunting. Or maybe pretend to be so hurt that he never wanted Sir Nighteye to come to Might Tower again.
But he suspected if he reacted in such a way, Sir Nigheye would recognize the manipulation and feel vindicated that even if he'd been wrong in this particular case, he'd still been right about Hisashi. So Hisashi had a better idea. He arranged his facial features into an innocent expression. "I don't blame you at all. Anyone would feel the same way after seeing a vision of me supposedly killing Dad. I hope we can go back to getting along, for Dad's sake."
Sir Nighteye's mouth became even more pinched, but he had no choice but to agree even though he clearly didn't want to. "Of course…young Hisashi."
Inwardly, Hisashi cackled in glee. That expression of suffering! It was perfect! The best revenge really was being good person. Or pretending to be one. Same difference.
In the future, he would have to remember how satisfying it was to lord moral superiority over other people.
Izuku tossed and turned, gripped in the thrall of a nightmare. In his dream, he lay on the scratchy carpet, unable to move. He could only watch as All for One grabbed Hisashi, lifted the child off the floor, and dug glowing fingers into his throat. Hisashi's legs kicked in the air as he gasped desperately.
(This had not been what had happened. Although Izuku had been unconscious at the time, he knew that All for One wouldn't have had any reason to strangle Hisashi while trying to steal his body. Therefore, this must be a dream.)
Izuku leapt to his feet and shoved All for One away. Something bright and tingling hit him. An explosion of pain screamed down his body as the light ate him away.
Pajamas soaked with sweat, Izuku woke up. He supposed it only natural that he'd dream of being able to save First instead of lying like a helpless lump on the floor. He'd carved that into his own mind as his greatest failure. Was that why he'd dreamed of being the one to die instead? A twisted survivor's guilt?
Izuku hated that First had died. A hero shouldn't have allowed it. He'd second-guessed his decision to give First to Hisashi a million times, even though he knew he could have done nothing differently in order for the children to survive. He did not know how to feel about All for One's death. The villain had never been anything like a father to him. There was no sense of loss, just an empty ache. It was tragic that All for One had turned out like that, when young Hisashi proved that he could have been better. Izuku wished he'd had a father he could properly mourn.
Though Izuku closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep, he was interrupted by a nagging sense of something wrong. He'd learned not to ignore such feelings since developing Danger Sense. Although this didn't feel like danger.
With bare feet, he padded out his bedroom and down the hallway. Stopping at the stairs leading up to the brothers' rooms, he heard a very faint, muffled sound.
A sob.
Izuku hesitated for a moment, suspecting Hisashi's pride wouldn't want anyone to notice. But he couldn't ignore someone else's pain either.
He made his footsteps loud coming up the stairs, giving Hisashi ample time to dry his face. Then he knocked on the bedroom door. "Hey, I couldn't sleep. Can I talk to you?"
After a pause, Hisashi said, "Come in."
Izuku pushed open the door. Hisashi lay in bed with Toregene snuggled up to him. He stroked the cat. "Toregene misses Yoichi, so I was comforting her."
Toregene took advantage of his loosening grip to escape and run off behind a chair.
"Uh-huh," Izuku said. He sat down on the bed. "I'm worried about Yoichi too. Even though the vestiges said he'd be fine, it's only natural to be worried until he wakes up." He held out his arms, offering a hug.
"I'm perfectly fine." Hisashi rubbed his face. "I don't need my own son to comfort me."
"I'm sure you don't." Izuku let his arms fall down.
Hisashi looked away. "You shouldn't try to make me feel better. I don't deserve it."
"That's not true. Why would you say that?"
"I'm a horrible person." Hisashi sniffled. "Even though I'm sad that First died, I'm relieved that I'm still alive. I'm relieved that my Yoichi is the one who survived. Do you think that means I'm sick in the head? A normal person wouldn't feel like that."
"You're wrong. That's a completely normal way to feel," Izuku said. "You're supposed to be happy that you're still alive, because that's what the person who sacrificed himself would have wanted."
"You're not just saying that?" Hisashi asked.
"I'm not, I promise. It sounds like you've got some survivor's guilt, which is trying to trick you into thinking you're a bad person. I can understand that." Izuku hesitated, looking for the right words. "You're a smart kid, Hisashi, which means you overthink your emotions. It's only natural for you to feel both relief and guilt. Feelings themselves are never evil. But First wouldn't want you to make yourself suffer even more by feeling guilty about your grief. There's no right or wrong way to mourn. You feel what you feel. You'll struggle over those feelings at your own pace. You'll get through this, because you have us as your family and because that's what he would have wanted."
Funny how speaking such comforts to someone else made it easier for Izuku to believe them. A bit of the hard knot in his own heart faded away.
Hisashi sniffled, trying to disguise it as a cough. "Thank you. I'm fine now. You can go." The wobbling in his voice betrayed him.
"I'm still feeling sad, though," Izuku said. "Do you mind if I stay here with you?"
Hisashi tilted his head, considering. "I can let you sleep with me if that would make you feel better."
Izuku tried very hard not to smile. He didn't want to hurt the child's pride. "That would definitely make me feel better, thank you."
Settling down on the bed, Izuku tucked Hisashi's head against his chest. He pretended not to notice the trembling or how tightly the child clung to his arm.
Yoichi dreamt of the Void. He stumbled through the darkness, looking for First. But there was no one. He was all alone. Deep down, Yoichi knew what that meant. But he tried to deny it. "First!" he screamed. "Where are you? Please come out!" His voice cracked and broke. He ran through the shadows even faster, but they had no end. His foot slipped. He fell.
"Little Yoichi?" Second popped up in time to catch him. The larger man lifted him up and set him down on his feet. "I thought I heard you shouting. How are you feeling?"
Second's eyes were red-rimmed. Yoichi knew what that meant. He'd known all along. Even while he'd been trapped in a world of darkness and agony, he'd felt the moment when his other self had vanished. He'd heard First's last words.
"He's gone," Yoichi whispered.
Second looked away. "Yes." He sounded as if he was barely holding himself back from crying again.
"They're both gone." Yoichi wet his lips. In an attempt to comfort the sad adult in front of him, he said, "I think First would have been glad that he finally managed to stop his big brother in the end."
Second's head shot up. "That never should have been his responsibility. He took too much of All for One's sins on himself. He suffered too much for someone else's crimes. It's so unfair, that All for One killed him twice. He deserved to live his own life, free and happy! I hate so much that he went down with the miserable bastard!"
Yoichi flinched away from the loudness echoing around the Void.
Second took a deep breath, visibly composing himself. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have vented at you."
"I'm sorry, too," Yoichi said, recognizing that he'd said the wrong thing. He strained for some better comfort to offer. "Would you like to talk about him? Tell me some more happy stories."
Second shuddered. "Yeah. That would be nice. Give me a moment."
Yoichi extended his hand, and Second took it. They stood like that in silence. Yoichi pretended not to notice Second fighting back tears.
The silence extended too long. Yoichi asked, "Can I do anything to help? Anything at all?"
In a hoarse voice, Second said, "Promise me one thing. Promise that you'll never die to save someone else."
Yoichi gasped. "But I want to become a hero! I can't make a promise like that."
"Even at such a young age, you already place too little value on your own life. Sacrificing yourself in Eri's place was noble, but you shouldn't have done it. Look how that turned out. I don't say this to make you feel bad. But I have to call you out, because no one else in your family of heroes will. You're only eight years old. That's too young to throw yourself into danger."
Yoichi puffed up his cheeks. He wanted to retort, but remembering everything that had happened as a result of his choice, he couldn't. "Is it my fault that First died?"
"No! That's not what I meant. I swear it." Second squeezed Yoichi's hand. "I'd never want you to blame yourself for All for One's actions, like how he did. He had a toxic belief that every crime his older brother committed was somehow his fault. That's why he could never free himself from his brother."
Yoichi said, "I used to feel like that, too. I thought I had a responsibility to make Hisashi behave. But Dad told me that was his job, not mine. My psychiatrist told me that only Hisashi could change himself. They were both right. Hisashi made his own choices to be better, and I'm proud of him. You don't have to worry. I'll never make that mistake again."
"You have no idea how glad it makes me to hear that." Second rubbed away his tears with his free arm. "He died to save another person twice. The first time, he died to save me. The second time, to save little Hisashi. No one should ever lay down their life for someone else three times. Please, promise me that you'll never sacrifice yourself. I won't tell you to never put yourself in danger. That would be too controlling, like a certain someone locking you up in a vault. But promise me that you'll never give up on trying to live. Even when you save someone else, you'll still protect your own life, too."
Yoichi thought about it. He could agree to that and still help people. "I promise."
"Thank you." Second knelt down and cupped his cheek. Yoichi hugged him.
They stayed like that for a long moment. Finally, Second asked, "Did I ever tell you about the time we got thrown into jail together? It wasn't for vigilantism—it was for car theft. Not that we stole the car. I suppose I should start at the beginning."
"Please do," Yoichi said, trying to smile. It was still a fake smile. But it was a start.
The next morning, Toshinori took Hisashi aside in the living room and said earnestly, "I know you've been going through a difficult time, so I got something to make you feel better."
"Is it a cake?" Hisashi asked with big, hopeful eyes. Either a sympathy cake or a cake to celebrate All for One's much-deserved demise, either would taste great.
"Err…no, it's not…but how about we get one of those anyway?" Toshinori straightened and smiled. "We'll throw a party to celebrate after Yoichi is released from the hospital. Perhaps a picnic and a barbeque? It's been a long time since I've gotten a break from work, so I haven't been able to leave the city. But the chaos caused by, uh, certain events is finally settling down."
"It's a promise," Hisashi said, determined to lock in the cake. "What's your surprise? Is it a new pet?"
"Uh…"
"I get to pick the pet next time, since Yoichi got to pick last time." As much though he adored Toregene, Hisashi had yet to give up on his dream of a white tiger.
"No, it's not," Toshinori admitted. "But you've been doing a great job feeding and cleaning up after Toregene, so I'm prepared to revisit a second pet soon."
"How about we talk about it after Yoichi gets home?" Hisashi asked, sensing weakness in his father. He had to move fast in order to take advantage of the current sympathy and concern to obtain as much as he could.
"We'll see. Let me show you what I was talking about." Toshinori pulled a hasty retreat before Hisashi could get him to promise anything else.
Hisashi squirmed on the couch, wondering if he was about to get a new bicycle or even a car. Who cared if he couldn't drive? He'd hire someone to drive the car for him.
Toshinori entered the room holding a butsudan. The Buddhist altar was made of real gold with a black lacquer finish on the frame. A picture of All for One (with his face intact) sat inside. The words "wanted" underneath the official picture had been carefully cropped out. The altar also held an incense burner, prayer beads, and a candlestick.
"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh…" emerged from Hisashi's lips.
Toshinori set down the shrine. "Despite all pain and old grudges between myself and All for One, I'm grateful from the bottom of my heart that he died saving Yoichi's life. For that noble sacrifice, I would honor him for the rest of my life."
"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh…"
Toshinori wiped a tear from his eye. "This proves that there's good inside of everyone. In a different life, I'd like to think that the two of us could have been friends."
Hisashi interrupted, "He died trying to steal my body!"
"Well. Yes. What he tried to do to you was terrible. I can never forgive him for that, even though I'm in his debt for saving Yoichi. But I also can't hate him when I think about how he was once just a scared child in need of help." Toshinori shook his head. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories for you. I can move the butsudan to a private location if it bothers you."
"It doesn't bother me," Hisashi said. He'd just gotten his hopes up about a party to celebrate the evil bastard's demise. His foot scuffed the carpet. "If you like it, you can keep it wherever you want."
"I know you must have complicated feelings about All for One's death. Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not really," Hisashi said. He now realized that celebrating All for One's death would probably look bad, but he didn't have it in him to pretend any grief or compassion for the body thief. Dad was way too nice for his own good.
Toshinori twisted his hands. "Perhaps I went about this the wrong way."
"No, I told you, I'm not bothered." Hisashi suspected that Toshinori had switched from seeing All for One as irredeemable because of his affection for Hisashi himself. For that reason, he even saw this foolishness as a little bit sweet. Maybe there wasn't any benefit in pointing out that if All for One hadn't been trying to conduct body theft on Hisashi, then he totally would have unloaded that deadly quirk on some poor random civilian. Sacrifice had never been part of his plans. If Toshinori fully understood how sociopathic All for One had been, then this would only lead to him being more suspicious about Hisashi's own activities. Better to just tolerate the stupid shrine and perhaps encourage his cat to defecate on it.
Toshinori stood up and returned with a second shrine. This one had no photograph, but it had a portrait drawn of a young man with straight white hair falling over one eye. "I gave the artist a picture of Yoichi and asked him to age it up. Did it come out reasonably close?"
"It's perfect," Hisashi said softly. His heart skipped a beat. "This was a wonderful present. Thank you, Dad."
"I'm so glad the second one worked out." Toshinori set the two shrines down on the cabinet next to each other. "I brought food for us to offer, too."
It was a strange ceremony, honoring someone who wouldn't be mourned by anyone else and someone who had been already dead for a long time. Toshinori placed oranges before each shrine, then lit the incense burners and the candles. He clasped his hands together and prayed earnestly.
Hisashi did not pray at the shrine to All for One, and Toshinori didn't comment on it.
Clasping his hands before the shrine for First, Hisashi whispered, "Thank you for saving me. This time, I'm going to be the brother he deserves. I'll live a life you would have been proud to save. I vow it on this second chance that you gave me."
It wasn't until Toshinori put an arm around his shoulder that Hisashi realized he was crying. He didn't try to hide it or suppress it this time. He just wept into his dad's arms.
OMAKE TIME!
Omake: This is a Joke, No Vestige Would Have Celebrated First's Death
In the real world:
Toshinori: I will conduct a memorial service for All for One. No matter what he did in the past, someone's death should never be celebrated.
In the void:
Nana: Woo-hoo! Party time!
Banjo: I brought the music!
En: I'm making snacks!
Hikage: I'm going to get drunk and dance on the table!
#
Omake: Mirio's Recovery Progresses Smoothly
Izuku: I'm glad you're being released from the hospital.
Mirio: Would you like to sign my cast?
Izuku: I can't! No one else has signed it yet! The first person to sign your cast is declaring himself to be your best friend, and if I take that privilege, then Tamaki will attempt to murder me.
Mirio: …Uh, no he won't. He won't care at all. That strange rule doesn't exist.
Izuku: I can't take that risk. I'm one more incident from being banned from hospitals across Musutafu.
#
Omake: Dabi and Tomura's Road Trip
Tomura: Hi, Dabi! Even though we've never met, I'm here to break you out of jail because I need tips on how to be a good big brother. You have three younger siblings, so I assume you're an expert.
Dabi: I dunno. Recently I learned a valuable lesson about not killing your younger brother, but now I'm rethinking that because he's very annoying.
Tomura: Hmmm. Kurogiri, are there any better big brothers currently in jail?
Kurogiri: There's Muscular and Moonfish. I don't know if they have any siblings, they're just the only League of Villains members who made a strong enough impression for me to remember them.
Tomura: Dabi it is! The first rule of the big brother club: no killing your little brother.
Dabi: Can I kill my father? I still want to do that. My youngest brother had some super-good ideas on how to kill our father. I might have to keep him around just for that.
Tomura: Killing fathers is a-okay. I let my little brother kill our father without me, clearly an oversight on my part. This is why I need your help, as a higher-leveled brother. Let our slice of life game begin!
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Omake: If All for One had Won
Izuku: Thank goodness All for One is dead and gone now.
All for One inside Hisashi's Body: Don't be so hard on him. He made a noble sacrifice to save Yoichi's life. I respect and admire him.
Yoichi: Weird of you to say that. I'm the type to be sympathetic over the death of an enemy. You'd be more likely to gloat.
First: I can't help feeling like my brother was up to something in the end. I just can't figure out what.
All for One: All of you are so paranoid! Just relax and enjoy victory.
Later, Yoichi walks in on All for One standing over All Might's dead body.
Yoichi: AHHHHHHHHHHH!
All for One: There's a perfectly good explanation for this. He took the last toilet paper, and he didn't even replace the roll.
Yoichi: YOU TOOK OVER MY BROTHER'S BODY YOU BASTARD!
Author's Note: For readers who enjoy All for One and Yoichi content, I'd like to recommend a lovely and underrated animatic about them, that you can find by searching youtube for "Hero/Villain Duet" - One for All and All for One (BNHA Animatic)."
Let's talk about prophecies. Anyone who's ever read a Greek play knows that you can't trust them. Sir Nighteye saw two futures, one where Toshinori adopted Hisashi and one where he didn't. He though the future where Toshinori didn't adopt Hisashi was the good ending, because All Might was alive and All for One didn't have One for All. (Hisashi's death seemed like the only hiccup.) But he didn't see the full picture.
In the future where Hisashi didn't get adopted, he was quickly murdered by his older self. All for One successfully kidnapped by Yoichi and Izuku, then curb stomped Japan. With his quirk enhanced by a brainwashed Yoichi, All for One yoinks First out of One for All and traps his little brother in a mental vault where they can work on their relationship under conditions where All for One had total control. Then All for One erased the rest of One for All with a quirk-destroying bullet and rewound Izuku into a baby. Now All for One has his perfect little family with amnesiac Yoichi and baby Izuku. All for One lets Toshinori live (at least temporarily) so he can seethe in his failure and watch the downfall of Japan. Bad ending.
In the timeline where Toshinori adopted Hisashi, Sir Nighteye saw events play out like last chapter: Hisashi handed over One for All (just the part containing First) to All for One and even thanked him for it. Sir Nighteye didn't understand this was to save Yoichi and interpreted it as a betrayal.
Then All for One possessed Hisashi's body and killed Toshinori. The unexpected twist: both futures were bad endings. Although the future Sir Nighteye mistook for the good ending was actually even more hopeless, because All for One had a complete victory there.
A tiny yet critical difference lead to the future changing one last time. In the future Sir Nighteye saw, Toshinori took Hisashi in because he couldn't bring himself to let a child die, but remained wary of him and the two of them never bonded. In this story, Toshinori truly treated Hisashi as his son.
Toshinori's profound act of forgiveness altered the future in a subtle yet huge way. In the last chapter, Hisashi only avoided getting his body immediately taken over because he didn't want to disappoint his dad, so he rejected All for One's quirks. His resistance gave him a chance to survive. If Hisashi had been his usual quirk-greedy self, then he would have failed to learn anything and jumped straight on the chance to get fishy quirks from a very suspicious old man. Then his body would have been possessed too quickly for First to notice and stop it.
In other words, the future changed because Toshinori and Hisashi came to truly care about each other.
I wanted the change that led to the good ending to be something small and subtle like Hisashi refusing to accept the quirks from All for One, not something big, because I think it's interesting how small changes can alter the future. Also, I'm playing with the idea that Sir Nighteye's prophecies may be self-fulfilling (as Sir Nighteye himself suspects in canon). Toshinori could only get the secret good ending by ignoring the prophecy. Because if Toshinori had mistrusted Hisashi because of the prophecy, then the hidden route to the good ending would have closed off.
Hisashi has not magically transformed into an angel, but there are three moral chains on his behavior from now on: his fear of Toshinori's disappointment, his promise to live his life so that First would be proud of saving it, and his desire not to let his relationship with Yoichi ever end up like All for One and First. These restrictions will prevent him from ever turning into another All for One.
Although this story may seem unsympathetic toward Sir Nighteye, I can understand where he was coming from. He watched Hisashi murder Toshinori. When you know that Hisashi is small All for One, that vision looks very bad. No wonder Sir Nighteye started to think maybe Hisashi deserved the future where he died instead. But that would have led to the worst possible ending.
The moral of this story is that you can't trust prophecies. Seriously, in any legend where someone receives a prophecy instructing them to kill a child, have you ever seen this end well for the would-be child killer? In my opinion, the best way to deal with a prophecy is to just ignore it and be a good person.
Fortunately, All Might is not the kind of person who would harm a child, not even a tiny All for One. I considered writing the alternate bad ending instead of this Author's Note, but I couldn't even write the scene where Toshinori decides to send away Hisashi knowing full well this will lead to his death. It was too out of character. Instead, I wrote an everybody-lives extra good ending that I'll post after finishing this story. Yes, even All for One lives, though it's debatable if that makes an ending happier.
Just one more chapter to go! My profound gratitude to all my readers for sticking with me this long.