Author's Note: This fic is part of my series writing a fic on the birthday of different BNHA characters. I'll let the reader figure out who is the lucky birthday character today.
Number Eleven's first memory was of steel plated walls surrounding him on all sides. After what felt like an eternity of darkness, the door opened. When the light fell on Eleven's body, he skirted away. Eleven was nothing but a shadow lying flat on the floor, and the light hurt.
A bipedal creature entered. His torso was grey but his face and hands were pale. He had red eyes and curly white hair. His feet looked especially strange, made of some black and shiny material that clanged on the metal floor.
On instinct, Eleven sat up and tried to mold his shadows into a similar shape. He managed a rough outline of arms and legs. Eyes were difficult. No matter how Eleven tried, his sockets kept collapsing.
The stranger laughed. "It can shapeshift! Amazing. The good doctor has truly outdone himself this time."
Eleven had never been complimented before, and he found he liked it. He tried to laugh just like the stranger. A scratchy sound emerged from the general area of his nebulous head.
The stranger crouched down with his hands dangling loosely. "I'm All for One, but you can call me Master. Number Eleven, you have a very important task. You're going to help me bring my brother back to life."
Eleven did not understand the concepts of brother or life, but this sounded important. He tried to laugh again. This time the sound came out a bit more musical.
"Such a good copier." All for One patted the insubstantial shadows, his hand going through. "Do you think you can look like this man?" All for One stuck his hand into his own body (how shocking!) and pulled out a picture of a scrawny white-haired man with green eyes. The man sat in a wheelchair and glared at the camera.
Eleven wanted to earn more praise. He concentrated very, very hard. Something white sprouted from the top of his blob-like head. He tried to make his skin into blue-and-white striped softness like the picture.
"You don't need to duplicate his clothing," All for One said.
"Clothing?" Eleven asked.
"This isn't part of my body." All for One pulled up his sleeve to reveal lightly haired arm underneath. "See?"
Eleven gasped. Layers! This person had layers! How amazing! This explained where the picture had come from.
All for One said, "Focus on the face. I'd love to see his face again." Something hungry glinted in his eyes.
Eleven concentrated. His shadowy tendrils wavered. He tried his hardest to form the same gaunt cheekbones and soft skin. Eyes continued to be a struggle. There were so many different colors in those lovely eyes. Eleven wasn't good at colors. He tried so hard that, with a pop, his head exploded. Shadows oozed across the ground. Eleven cowered in the corner, afraid he'd upset the only other person who existed in his world.
All for One only smiled. "That was a very good first try. I shouldn't have pushed you so hard. I haven't even obtained One for All yet. You have plenty of time to get it right."
Scraping his head off the ground, Eleven tried to form his shadows into a smile in return.
There were other numbers in the building. From that point onward, Eleven was allowed out of the metal box to attend classes and play games with them. Time passed. Children came and went. The children adored All for One. Whenever he arrived, they fell all over themselves showing off their abilities to him. But All for One ignored them to focus on Eleven, always asking him to shapeshift into his little brother. As Eleven's imitations got better, All for One would hug him and hand-feed him treats. The other children became jealous.
Matters came to a head when Number Six stabbed Eleven in the chest. As the doctor dragged him away, Six screamed, "The master only wants to use you to bring back his dead brother! He's going to take his brother's quirk ghost and implant it inside you! Then you'll cease to exist!"
Eleven froze up, both in shock from the stabbing and the cruel words. He didn't even bother to reform his chest. Shadows oozed out. The doctor took him away for testing and repair.
As Eleven lay on a slab, he overheard a whispered conversation between All for One and the doctor. All for One said, "I need my brother's new body to be durable. He shouldn't collapse the first time he gets stabbed. This sensitivity to light troubles me as well."
The doctor replied, "I'm working on implanting new types of cells. It's a little risky, but if this one breaks, I'll make you another one."
Eleven didn't like the sound of that.
All for One entered the room and patted Eleven's blob-like forehead. "My poor, dear child. How are you feeling? Are you in any pain?"
"No pain. It's nice and dark in here." Eleven squirmed. After a moment, he asked, "Master, if you put your brother's ghost inside of me, then what happens?"
All for One said, "My brother will come back to life. Then you'll have pleased me very much, more than any other child here. Doesn't that make you happy?"
"Yes, master," Eleven lied. But at some point, he had stopped being willing to accept his own destruction under the cause of his orders. He wanted to survive. Even if it meant defying his creator.
Eleven crept into a box of supplies being transported out of the laboratory. While the truck rumbled into motion, he stayed very still and quiet. Later he hopped into a different box. There was another journey. The instant the warehouse door cracked open, Eleven scampered outside. But it was too bright. The sunlight hurt. Eleven was driven back into the warehouse.
When men came to unload the boxes, Eleven hid in one of their shadows. That got him out of the warehouse. But the man eventually noticed that something was wrong with his shadow and got upset. He said something about calling a hero. All for One always said that heroes were dangerous. Eleven didn't want attention.
Eleven darted into a sewer grate and hid. There he remained for a very long time. He was too afraid to go out. All for One would be looking for him. Eleven slept.
One day, Eleven heard the sound of crying. He crawled out of the grate. It was late evening, dim enough for the sun not to hurt him.
A little boy with a raven's head sat on the sidewalk bench, wailing and sobbing.
Eleven slid over. "What's wrong?"
The boy looked up. He gasped. "What are you?"
"I'm a shadow," Eleven said. "What are you?"
"I'm a boy. My name is Fumikage Tokoyami."
"Why were you crying?"
Fumikage sniffled. "I don't have a quirk. My head looks different, but that's just a mutation. I told everyone that my quirk was Raven, but since I can't do anything except have a bird's head, they stopped believing me. The other kids said they didn't want to play with someone quirkless."
Eleven considered. There might be an opportunity here for a mutually beneficial exchange. "What if I become your quirk?"
Fumikage's eyes widened. "You can do that?"
The street light had given Fumikage a dim shadow. Eleven crawled into the shadow, molding his body to look like the boy. "See? I'm part of you now. If you hide me, then I'll pretend to be your quirk."
Fumikage tilted his head, watching as the shadow mimicked his motion. "What can you do?"
There had been combat training at the lab. Eleven said, "I'm pretty strong. I can fight anyone who tries to hurt you."
Fumikage clapped his hands. "The other kids will definitely want me to play with them now! Everyone loves heroic quirks. What's your name?"
"I don't have a name, just a number." Eleven didn't want to be a number any longer. "Please give me a name."
With the naming skills of a kindergartner, Fumikage said, "I'll call you Dark Shadow."
Fumikage's parents were delighted that his quirk had manifested. They didn't question that the quirk needed to eat and sleep. Sapient quirks were like that sometimes. Fumikage's quirk was registered as Dark Shadow. Their teachers said it was a wonderfully strong ability and he could become a hero. This made Fumikage very happy.
Dark Shadow was nervous about heroes. All for One had hated them, but he didn't belong to All for One any longer. Mostly, he didn't want to attract attention. But Fumikage wanted it so badly that Dark Shadow couldn't say no. He was a quirk now. Surely it would be fine. No one would notice him.
At the forest training camp, when the League of Villains tried to capture him and his host, Dark Shadow realized that he'd been noticed.
Alone in their room, after Mezo had saved them from Mr. Compress' marble, Fumikage said, "Dark Shadow, I never asked you any questions about where you came from. But villains are targeting us. I need to know now."
Dark Shadow shuddered and hit under the bed.
"Please," Fumikage said. "You can trust me. We're best friends."
Summoning up all his courage, Dark Shadow began to tell his story.
Author's Note: Surprise! This is a birthday gift for Dark Shadow, not Fumikage. Dark Shadow isn't All for One's biological son but rather an artificially created quirk raised by All for One to become a Yoichi vessel. But in previous fics in this series, I've counted adopted children and even Toga as All for One's niece. Close is good enough in fanfiction and hand grenades.
