Captain Titus Invictus - I enjoy surprising my readers :P

TheGreatBubbaJ - Aye.

Naruto30 - Oh, yeah, Garaki would have people queque up to him for some quality torture time lol

Detrametal - It was certainly a very American mistake lol xD And yeah, I live to deny expectations :V

Matt - Not quite mecha, just on life support for the rest of forever (which won't be long tbh).

Darkpaladin89 - Telling Re-Destro to not celebrate so quickly really misfired, eh? :V

Codeninja676 - Sorry, but I don't write 'overpowered MC' stuff, I hate power fantasies xD

(***)

Yagi Toshinori is, in general, a calm man. He knows that sometimes anger is useful, especially if it's the 'righteous anger' thing. But in general, letting yourself be driven by wrath is a bad idea.

He has self-control. He trained it a lot, because he knew exactly what sort of manipulative bastard All for One was. He wasn't ready to risk losing everything that he spent decades working on because he let All for One stick a verbal needle somewhere where it made him act stupid.

He saw him try that with Nana before Gran Torino fled with him in tow. He knew the drill. He prepared accordingly for their eventual rematch.

Even without the training, he was ultimately a level headed man when anger was involved.

Sure, Thunderbolt's 'situation' seemed to claim otherwise, but even then he has decided to do that calmly and rationally. Letting his wrath flow only when he decided to let it flow. Only when he knew that it wouldn't endanger anyone.

However, that training was now the only reason why he didn't start his part of that talk by emptying his rifle's magazine into the All for One's corpse, before pushing several grenades into the resulting holes.

While laughing maniacally.

Oh and he'd also push one grenade down the throat. Because while half of All for One's mouth was missing, there was still at least 50% too much of it for Toshinori's taste.

He'd do all of that while still laughing maniacally, no doubt about it.

His grenades doubled as remotely operated explosives. They needed to have their pin pulled AND get an electronic activation order to come into effect. So he can pull several of them there and then detonate them at once.

(Mei Hatsume was such a delightful person to know. David Shield was All Might's personal tech-support, but Bulletstorm decided to give the new generation a chance to shine. And he wasn't regretting it in the slightest.)

For now, however, they'll remain unused. Now, hopefully, it will last for a few minutes at most.

Thus, All Might takes a few deep breathes, runs a few murder scenarios in his head to satisfy his raging metaphorical (and emotional) murderboner for a moment at least, then replies.

"Oh, absolutely." He says, glaring at the corpse with the subjective lifetime of pent-up desire for some extraordinary brutal murders. "I haven't murdered you even once during the last six years. Absolutely horrible, let me tell you that much. Really looking forward to resetting that clock."

"Well, likewise, Toshinori." All for One replies, his tone (despite being slightly mismatched), almost cheerful. "I didn't make any of your family members or people otherwise emotionally close to you beg me for mercy before I extinguished their lives slowly in a very, very long time. I must be getting old."

"Seeing as the last person truly close to me that you managed to kill was my mentor…" Yagi isn't provoked in the slightest. "... and seeing as I already avenged her, your pathetic attempt at stabbing me with your words is more powerless than your physical body is now. What next? Are you going to try to strangle me with the cables? Do I have to sit down and don't move for it to work, or do you need me to strangle myself for you?"

"Laughing at a man's disability, how very heroic of you, All Might." All for One shoots back.

"I disabled you, and I'm ready to do it again." Yagi replies dryly. "Also, it's Bulletstorm now. How the fuck are you even alive? Did Satan decide that you need some additional worldly punishment and ended up sentencing you for a lifetime on life-support in Garaki's basement?"

"Ah, a fascinating question." All for One replies. Once again, he sounds vaguely cheerful about it. "Unfortunately, the answer is 'I'm not alive'. Or, at least, it barely fits the definition of 'alive' as understood by most people out there."

"Unfortunately for you." Yagi retorts. "For me it's a reason to celebrate. So, care to elaborate? You sound oddly talkative, especially for a corpse. Being irrelevant must have been very harmful to a man with an ego that's so big that it probably has its own gravity field."

"Well, you see, I realized that things are going to go very, very bad the second you lept at me." All for One ignores that particular insult. But Yagi knows that it connected. "Two blows in I knew that, to be frank, I fucked up. Slaughtering your predecessors, including your beloved Nana, was so easy and enjoyable that it must have made me a bit… complacent." Yagi's face remains unmoved. "But I wasn't without a plan B."

"If that's your plan B…" Yagi cuts in. "... then I can only say that you've truly fucked up."

All for One sighs loudly.

"Indeed I did." He surprises Bulletstorm with a sudden bout of honesty. "My plan B was a preservation of my ego, personality and memories for the interim period between my own death and Doctor Garaki providing me with a replacement body. Unfortunately, something went wrong."

Silence. He wants Yagi to speak. Make a theory about what went wrong just so that he can then demolish the logic. Ugh. All for One at his normal behavior. Dying, it seems, did nothing to change him. Even in the slightest.

He spends a few seconds theorizing in his head before coming to an answer. One that's HOPEFULLY true.

"So, were you damaged by my attacks before the upload finished and thus Garaki was unable to transfer you fully?" He then asks. For him, it seems to be the most likely explanation.

"Partially correct answer." All for One replies. With a hint of sarcasm. And a lot of looking down on Yagi. "Either the upload was interrupted or I misinterpreted the finer details of the quirk in question… which, honestly, wouldn't be the first time. My mind does reside within the computer. I have my memories and personality intact… despite their biological container being all but annihilated. However, this state exists only for as long as the quirk remains active. So, for as long as my heart continues to beat."

"And how does it continue to beat, despite you missing your head?" Yagi then asks. "Although, I have to admit that you look much better that way. You should have let that happen to you ages ago."

"Oh, that's actually quite simple." All for One, once again, ignores the insult. "In my final moment I called for two quirks. Net-Upload and Life Support. You didn't check for my heartbeat before looking for medical attention, which was honestly a major mistake on your side even if I was missing my head. You then assumed that I died without finding my body, because the building collapsed on me. Except, before that happened, Doctor Garaki used his early version of Recall Noumu to summon me out of there." He sighs. "Can you at least guess what's the problem now?"

"I think I can." Yagi remains steadfast. "Your body is damaged so badly that you can't call for a third quirk - for example some variant of Hyper Regeneration. If you deactivate Life Support, your heart will stop and you'll die before being able to call for it. If you deactivate Net-Upload, there won't be a mind left to call for that quirk. Leaving you stuck in that form."

There is silence. Surprisingly long one.

"Full marks, Toshinori." All for One says and Yagi decides against telling him to stop calling him that way. It'd only make him do that twice as strongly. "That's exactly what happened, indeed. Our son's quirk expertise must be rubbing onto you nowadays." He adds, his voice sounding almost delighted.

"Izuku's MY son." Yagi replies angrily. Shit, he let All for One provoke him again. "And just so we're clear, Asa and Aiko are MY children as well. You have a horrible streak when your family members are involved, did you notice that? Everyone's either leaving you behind and preferring me as their father or has attempted to murder you."

Okay, the last one was just Yoichi but damn if it didn't leave a mark on the world. Two centuries later and that particular murder attempt was still on-going, having shaped the history of Japan more than probably any other conflict ever.

Although… it was about to end for real.

"I did, indeed." All for One sounds almost bitter for a second. "Speaking of family… how's Inko doing? Still so wonderfully flexible?"

… what now? Is he seriously thinking that a reminder that Inko slept with him is going to make him suffer, he was clearly deluding himself. Yagi knew that from the day one and gave absolutely zero fucks about that. Especially as…

"And still wonderfully happy that you're gone." Yagi strikes back immediately. "Just like the kids are."

"How terrific." All for One replies. Yagi's danger sensor perks up. Something's up. Too many ignored insults that met with no retaliation whatsoever. AFO was heading towards something, it was all just a build-up. "Do you want to be let in on a small family secret, Toshinori?"

Ah, yes. Here it comes.

"Nothing I could say can persuade you otherwise." Bulletstorm replies dryly. "And I've already decided to postpone your second death for a moment longer just so I could visually engorge myself with the perfect view on your utterly broken body.. So go on."

"Do you know that Nana disappeared for a few months… soon after I killed her husband and she gave Kotarou up for adoption?" All for One says. Toshinori, slightly against himself, nods. It was before they met, but he knew about it from Gran Torino. "Did she ever tell any of you that she did that because when her husband died… she was pregnant for the second time?"

"... what?" Yagi, against himself, lets his shock become visible on his face.

"She hoped that she would manage to keep it hidden from me." All for One chuckles. "Oh, how stupid that woman was. I knew about the location of both of her children by the time she met you. The rest… was all about me arranging something truly beautiful out of it. And let me tell you, I put twice as much effort into this once I discovered just how pitifully diligent you were during your retreat to America, working by the clock to avenge that woman." All for One chuckles once more.. "I was looking forward to seeing your face when you'd discover what happened. Oh, it would be glorious."

"What… have… you… done?" Yagi lets out, his hands clenched on his rifle.

"You still didn't connect the dots?" All for One lets out a derisive snort. "Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to remotely manipulate her into meeting you? And then, once you made her pregnant, to separate the two of you without you realizing that I was involved?"

"You… you didn't…" At that very moment, Bulletstorm simply doesn't know what to say. What to think. He spent years training self-control, but what he just heard was beyond his imagination. But then… he snaps back. "You're lying, All for One." He says. "I don't believe…"

"Why would I lie about something like that, when I know that you can confirm that with a simple DNA test?" All for One replies. "Why do you think I never confronted you for so many years, despite meeting and killing your predecessors quickly? I was waiting for those children to grow up under my tutelage. Imagine the results, Toshinori." A second long pause. Not enough for Yagi to cut in. "What sort of face would you make when you'd discover that your long-lost lover was now my wife? That I had children with her? That I had children with NANA'S DAUGHTER? That all her remaining blood relatives were now villains working for me? That you'd have to kill them to avenge your mentor? I've spent years dreaming of this moment, Toshinori. Years imagining your reaction."

"... despite everything that I knew about you, meeting Inko and hearing about your relationship with her made me doubt myself." Yagi replies after a few long seconds. His voice is calm. His mind isn't. "Doubt my own belief that you were just a hilariously pure evil bastard straight from some children cartoon where everything is white and black. Because even Hitler at least liked dogs. But you… you never loved them, even for a second. Didn't you?"

"Of course I didn't, Toshinori." All for One replies, sounding almost proud about it. "In my eyes, the last human died two centuries ago. You're all just faces, names and quirks… toys for my enjoyment and tools for my plans. You should have known me better by now than to suspect that I had a soft spot. It seems that my little game of pretend worked surprisingly well, didn't it? I even managed to fool you."

Yeah. Sometimes, it seems, the world is white and black. And the existence of gray between them doesn't change that fact.

"So I was right all along. You were and are a total monster. Thankfully…" Yagi grins lightly. "... not for long. Any last words, All for One?"

"... do you think that 's all that I've done after you killed me?" All for One replies. Not at all intimidated by the murder threat. "Do you think that I was simply lying on this bed and reading wikipedia entries for the past heroes I killed to kill time?"

"What have you done?" Yagi tries not to sound horrified. He isn't sure if it worked out.

"Naturally, I've decided to prioritize my own resurrection." All for One replies. "But I also decided to make you suffer ten times as much as in my original plan. And I discovered the perfect way of combining those two goals. Because, you see, together with Doctor Garaki I've long ago devised a theoretical way of transfering my own quirk into someone else's body… while simultaneously merging and partially overwriting their personality with my own. And I found a perfect candidate. Your son, Toshinori."

Yagi's eyes shot wide.

"Yes, can you imagine that?" All for One continues his monologue. "You, discovering that your archenemy is back in business… but is now wearing the face of not just Nana's grandson… but also your own son." Hisashi laughs loudly. "Oh, that would be beautiful. But…" He then adds, his cheerfulness suddenly evaporating in an instant. "... it still wasn't enough. For what you did to me, I wanted you to suffer even more. And I found a perfect way to achieve that. The transference process requires a certain emotional and psychological attunement for me to overwrite the target, you see."

"What?" Yagi lets out, surprised by the change of subject.

"I needed Izuku to already think similar to me for it to work." All for One replies. "And thus, I've spent years as a ghost on the internet. On one hand, Izuku's 'internet friend', helping his intellect grow and guiding him to see those forsaken by the system. On another, the internet gray eminence doing his utmost to amplify the discrimination he faced at school. And then, when I realized that he was tethering on the brink, when I realized that all he needs is one last push to fall into the depths of despair that I needed him at… I used my bottomless accounts and old connections to arrange for a certain villain to attack him… while you were patrolling nearby."

"The sludge villain." Yagi replies, his eyes wide. "You didn't…"

"I did!" All for One shouts triumphantly. "If you didn't show up, he'd let him go elsewhere. He was explicitly told to not kill or permanently injure him, as if it didn't work I'd try everything again. But if you did show up… I knew that he would ask you the question. And I knew your answer. The final push he needed to become the villain I needed him to be. I'd prepare him properly before transfering myself into his body… and then I'd tell you the truth. That it was you who broke your own son, that it was you who let me resurrect myself and that it was you who helped me break all Nana's grandchildren…. because we all know that if Izuku would break, so would they. OH, WHAT A FACE YOU WOULD MAKE, TOSHINORI!"

Silence, the last words still ringing in Yagi's ears. But then, All for One speaks again. Once again, calmly.

"And it worked… for a few minutes." Hisashi says, this time sounding almost bitter. "He had enough of it, he finally came around… but then, you met him again. And you changed your answer. You met his family. I was so close, but I didn't, I couldn't foresee you screwing up and letting the Sludge Villain run away. I couldn't foresee Izuku dashing towards the scene out of guilt for letting him escape." He sighs loudly. "And then all my attempts backfired. Because he began to separate himself from his internet contacts out of guilt for what happened. I attempted to reignite our relationship by saving him from Liberator and Mechanist, but… Kamino made me realize that he was a lost cause. Because despite my help, he still didn't trust me enough to make me aware of what he was planning. So I switched to plan B."

"That being?" Yagi asks. Against himself, he asks.

"Overhaul." All for One replies. "I didn't know about little Eri's quirk back then because Izuku was always completely tight-lipped about his siblings. I only realized that something was amiss after Ingenium was healed by someone with a connection to the Hero Killer. The rest was a matter of connecting the dots." He sighs. "If I knew about her then, the attempt to kidnap her would have played out vastly differently. But I couldn't simply ask Overhaul for help, because he knew that if he ever got too close to his dream world without quirks, I'd end him. He would murder me rather than help me return. It was too risky, so…I decided to get rid of the part of him that could betray me."

"... so you had Nemesis kidnap him." Yagi cuts in. "And then planned to have him steal Chisaki's superior form of his own quirk, so that you two could merge, discard surplus flesh and become one, reborn All for One. But it didn't work."

"Yes, indeed." All for One concedes the point. "The plan was, once again, perfect. But neither I nor Re-Destro foresaw that particular development. No one could. So my plan B went up in Shoto Todoroki's flames." He sighs painfully. "Once again, Izuku was involved. Truly, irony's a bitch. Isn't it, Toshinori?" Yagi doesn't answer. "Unfortunately, Re-Destro never really wanted me back, even if it was just my inferior clone. He killed Kyudai, and with him, all my chances of plan C, namely Eri, working out. So… I decided that if it's my last day, I can at least see you suffer as much as possible before finally dying."

"Suffer." Yagi glares at him. "You think that all of that made me suffer, All for One?"

"Well, didn't it?" All for One replies cheerfully. "You've just discovered some pretty horrible things. You've just discovered that your little family dream is all thanks to me. And… you know that your precious successor's smarts are all thanks to me. So each time he stops a villain… it'll be thanks to me just as much as it is thanks to you. Sounds like something to really ruin your quality of life, hmm?"

After a few long seconds of silence, Yagi breaks into laughter. Loud. Honest. Cheerful. To All for One, surprising.

"What?" Hisashi asks. For the first time ever in their joint history, he sounds genuinely surprised, even through the weird variant of Text-To-Speech Device that he was speaking through.

"You stupid fuck!" Yagi replies, barely speaking through his laughter. "Even after all those decades, those CENTURIES, you still can't comprehend good, can't you? You can't factor love into your plans, because you can't even imagine something you never felt. You think I give a shit about what you just said? I have a family that I love, I don't care HOW it happened. And if it was because of you, then I'm fucking GRATEFUL to you, you son of a bitch. Izuku is going to be a brilliant hero, and you contributing to that makes it even BETTER. Because each time I'll see him outthink and jail a villain, I'll laugh on the inside knowing that you're rolling in your grave, you stupid bastard. And you think that's all?"

He spreads his arms around.

"Look around you, All for One!" He then says. "You're stuck on a life-support in a basement of some old guy that had an unhealthy obsession over you his whole life and is thus the only person that's not willing to pull the plug on you. Japan thinks you are dead, at least the part of it that even knew you existed. Your last followers are currently being rounded by the heroes outside because that Re-Destro guy outgambited you WITHOUT KNOWING THAT YOU'RE STILL ALIVE. And the majority of your 'grand final plan' was grooming a teenager on the internet into a villain and you ROLLED A FUCKING NAT ONE ON THAT. Can you even get more pathetic?"

"YOU…" All for One tries to shout back, but Yagi doesn't let him.

"The answer is, you can." He continues. "And not even because you spent years plotting from your deathbed just so you would feel relevant once more… just to have the one last boner that you probably get from ruining the lives of others, the one and only way that you can make yourself feel like you still exist… before completely and utterly FAILING at that. You want to know what exactly makes all of that more pathetic that you can possibly imagine? One for All stockpiled its users as well the whole time. Your brother? He is still here."

Deep inside, he can't believe it.

He can't believe that all those deaths, all that chaos, everything that made the lives of people in Japan so hard for almost two centuries were because of something that pathetic. Because of a certain immortal's boredom. Of a midlife crisis equivalent that resulted in All for One killing thousands of people just to… what?

Feel relevant?

Feel important?

Remind himself that he existed?

Find the meaning of his existence in destroying the meaning of others?

"Wh…" All for One tries to cut in, but Yagi will not let him do that. He still has so many words to say.

"You two fought for more than two centuries, and HE WON." Yagi refuses to let him speak. "And it gets better, you know?. Because Izuku told the Past Holders all the details about all those stupid shit you did to make him consider you a less threatening parental figure. Nana and Yoichi are probably watching the recording of you together right now. The one where you are wearing the PAW PATROL SUITJAMAS. All while laughing their asses at you. And when I die, I'm going to join them. I'm going to meet Nana again. I'm going to see her grandchildren become wonderful heroes. And we're all going to LAUGH AT YOU TOGETHER. Before we all forget that you ever existed."

Silence. A delightful type of silence. Yagi truly loves it.

Was there even a motive somewhere at the beginning, one that the two centuries managed to decay into nothingness… or was it all just due to a single superpowered and genius individual being born with a prime case of pettiness and sadism?

They never talked before, aside from exchanging some words during their past clash. Yagi Toshinori always saw him through the lenses of his lieutenants. The ones that feared his unspoken presence… and followed it for their own gain. The ones that deep inside basically venerated him as some god of evil and villainy.

Now, for the first time ever, Yagi Toshinori has truly faced that god. And discovered that he was a sad joke. One that clung to the shadows because if his followers saw who he truly was, he would be left alone.

Just an old man clinging to his life and the world for way too long, throwing a two-century long tantrum because the world changed and was no longer like it was in the past. The past when the old man actually mattered.

So many deaths. So much suffering. Because of… this?

This realization hurt him more than All for One's words did.

"So, my dear archenemy, you failed." He says, about to conclude his own monologue. "You're a bad dream that Japan's waking up from and your entire legacy is going to consist of your past enemies laughing at you together before you finally drift into nothingness. Before everyone forgets about you, reducing you to a spooky internet creepypasta about some creep stalking children and teenagers in dark alleyways to steal their quirks. You calling me here to tell me about all of that has just made this day into one of the best ones in my life." He chuckles loudly. "So is there anything else you want to add before I blow your body into pieces and go tell all of that to Gran Torino so we can laugh about your stupid ass together?"

Silence. Long. Triumphant. But eventually, All for One speaks again.

"Tenko Shimura's sister is still alive." Yagi's eyes shot open. "I erased his memories of her survival… and hers of him. And I arranged it so that she would become a personal assistant of no one else than Re-Destro. The man that, by all intents and purposes, has just taken over my position of the greatest threat to the hero system in Japan. What sort of face will you make when she and your children will be trying to kill each other in front of you, I wonder?"

"YOU…" Yagi was about to cut in, but he wasn't given the time to do that.

"Family… the true ties that bind." All for One says, his voice sounding almost wistfully. "I hope you get strangled to death by yours, just like I did. Also, I'm not going to give you the satisfaction of killing me again. Goodbye, Toshinori. Hyper Regeneration."

His body contorts, some of the medical equipment falling off. A few seconds later, the monotonous beeps die out as his heart stops.

Yagi Toshinori's rage is only satisfied after three magazines full of exploding bullets and five grenades detonated at once. At the end of it, there is nothing left of All for One but some blood smears and a lot of bullet torn rubble.

(***)

Puts the words about Yagi's mistake 'almost being fatal, but not to Izuku but to himself and the society' in the first chapter in different perspective altogether, now doesn't it?

Also a title drop.

And, also, I feel bad for the TV Tropes page author that mentioned (at least twice) the slightly ridiculous premise of All Might running into his family and All for One being kind of a past part of it as played for laughs and understandable for a mostly comedic story. Ugh. I was smirking a lot each time I reached that point of the TV Tropes page. Yeah, uhm, my bad, but certain changes will be needed :v

Also, I consider it to be second biggest plottwist I could pull on a 'overpowered Izuku borderline crackfic'. The first was the discovery that it wasn't a crackfic (namely, due to Sir Nighteye's revelations about probability warping effects of Class-Six quirks), now it's the discovery that the ridiculous premise wasn't ridiculous the whole time, but actually staged all along.

If there is a third biggest plottwist, it'll be probably in the last chapter :v