Izuku was only three years old when he first asked his mom the question she had been dreading.
"Mommy, how come Kachan and the other kids have dads but I don't."
She paused thinking over how to answer without telling him too much or outright lying.
"Well, you do have a dad, but he lives far away."
His eyebrows scrunched together in concentration. "Oh, can we go find him and bring him back?"
She gave him a big hug "I'm sorry little guy. He's a very good person but a lot of people don't like him, so it's not safe for us to see him."
"Oh…"
Personally, she didn't care about all of that. She would have followed him across the world as he became the number one hero. But he didn't want to put her in danger and was afraid of losing her like his predecessor lost her husband. So he ran away to the other side of the world to fight crime in the U.S. while he left her here with their child.
Part of her hoped that her son never figured out who his father was. Maybe it was petty of her, but in her opinion he lost the chance to be a father. She planned on telling her son the truth once he was 18 and could make his own decisions. But until then all she had to do was not cry when her son dressed up as All Might because of course that's his favorite hero.
Like father, like son, her little boy loved heroes with all his heart and swore he would be the number one hero who would save everyone. With a smile that matched the sun, she believed it. That is, until his quirk came in.
Izuku was at the playground when Kachan was being mean and punched another of the kids during recess. He didn't care that he didn't have his quirk yet and Kachan already had his. He would protect anyone in danger just like All Might. So he stepped in between the two and told his friend to stop.
The only thing that changed was that the tiny explosions stopped being pointed at the other boy and were now coming at him. As tiny fists and explosions came down upon him he felt something weird. It was like he could feel Kachan's quirk. It was like a ball of fire inside his friend that wanted to get out.
The explosions weren't very powerful, but they still hurt and he wanted them to stop.
His friend had become so mean when he got his quirk.
He just wanted that quirk to go away so he could have his nice friend back.
Izuku didn't really know what he was doing, but it felt right when he reached forward and pulled.
It was like what he saw his mommy do when she pulled things with her quirk. But he wasn't pulling on Kachan, he was pulling on the little ball of fire inside Kachan. Then the explosions stopped.
Now the little ball of fire wasn't in Kachan anymore, it was in him.
"Deku! What did you do to me!?"
He panicked and held up his hands in defense. But this time the explosion came out of his hands, not Kachan's.
"You took my quirk! Give it back!"
He nodded. He didn't mean to take it, he just wanted to stop getting hurt.
He tried to push it back, but nothing happened. After a few more tries it wasn't hard to see his quirk was like his mom's, he could pull things but he couldn't push them.
He couldn't give it back.
Izuku and Inko sat in a doctor's office to prove what they already knew, Bakugou was quirkless now and Izuku couldn't do anything to change that.
The doctor turned and spoke to Inko.
"Now, I can see how your quirk influenced this, with the ability to attract objects, but I'm unsure as to why he attracts quirks of all things. Can you tell me about his father's quirk?"
"I'm not sure. I simply met him at a bar and things went from there. So I'm afraid I don't know very much about him."
She was used to telling this lie, because it kept people from asking questions or trying to find out who the father was or that she knew what his quirk was. But it was unpleasant to say every time. She knew and loved that man, but she needed to pretend that he was a drunken one night stand in order to keep herself and her son safe from the dangerous life he lived.
She most certainly did know the father's quirk, in fact, she was one of the very few who did. At first glance there was no relation between All Might's strength and her son's quirk, but it made sense if you knew his real quirk. The power to transfer a quirk combined with the power to pull things to yourself mixed into pulling quirks.
He nodded. "I see. Well, I'll make sure the quirk registry is updated to show his original quirk along with the explosion quirk he now has as well. He won't get in any trouble for this since he couldn't have known what his quirk would be before it activated the first time, but please make sure your son doesn't do something like this again."
It had been about ten years since that day and Izuku was still seen as nothing but a villain. He wanted to be a hero more than anything, but he knew he probably couldn't. Even if he ignored everyone's hatred of him, he refused to use either of the quirks he had. 'Explosion' would always be Kachan's, so he wouldn't use it, it would never be his to use. And for obvious reasons he wouldn't use his original quirk either.
Which meant people thought of him as both a villain and useless, and that was the worst combination to have. Kachan was determined to become the first quirkless hero and few were brave enough to tell him he couldn't. And those that did tell him to give up were generally punched repeatedly.
And since everyone knew that heroes fought villains, no one did anything when Izuku was beaten over and over by his quirkless tormentor. But he refused to fight back. The school was waiting for even the slightest show of violence for him so they could expel him. Because it was absolutely no secret that the teachers didn't want him there.
It certainly didn't help that many saw Kachan as the real victim who was just getting revenge for his stolen quirk. So, in short, his life was a nightmare and he had no one to blame except his four year old self who didn't know what he was doing until it was too late.
"If you want to be a hero so bad, why don't you take a swan dive off the roof and hope to be one in your next life."
Those words echoed in his head as he walked home with his head hung low. But he couldn't think about it for too long since there was suddenly sludge wrapping around his body, and this person made it clear that they were planning on killing him.
He didn't know what to do and just panicked, thrashing against the powerful slime until he heard a familiar "DETROIT SMASH''. After a day of one shitty thing after another he needed to know if this man thought he could be a hero without using his quirk(s).
Which led him to where he was now. Standing on a roof with a skeletal looking All Might telling him to be realistic.
"You need a quirk to survive as a hero, and if you don't feel comfortable using yours then no, I don't think you'll be able to make it as a hero"
He had gotten down from the building and walked down the street when he heard a huge fight happening nearby. Izuku ran towards the sound, and was horrified at what he found. The sludge villain that had just tried to kill him was now fighting heroes again. The heroes seemed completely overwhelmed and outclassed by this villain who wasn't affected by any of their punches or other physical attacks.
Then he saw it.
The hostage he had heard a few people mention.
Kachan was trapped in sludge and suffocating to death.
None of the heroes were able to do anything and he must be running out of air.
He locked eyes with him and it seemed like he was calling out for help.
His quirk had ruined his friend's life, but maybe it could save it too.
So he took a deep breath and raised his hand and focused on that slimy and slippery quirk.
"Don't worry Kachan, it'll be ok." At those words his bully and former friend looked both horrified and relieved since he knew exactly what was about to happen.
Then, for the first time in a decade, he pulled.
The sludge quickly shrunk in size and he began to shift from the dark green color to a more pale hue. But something went wrong. As sludge, he had been spread out and twisted in shapes impossible for a human body. But the worst issue was that he wasn't all in one place. Throughout the fight, parts of sludge had been knocked away in an attempt to get Kachan out. And now, instead of a being of living slime that can put itself back together, he was a normal man with half of his head resting on the ground ten feet away from him and nearly every bone was twisted and broken in a macabre pile.
But as he saw Kachan take a deep breath of air it was all worth it. He knew it would always haunt him, but if he had to choose between a child killer and Kachan, then he knew what he would regret the least. He couldn't bring himself to worry as All Might placed cuffs around his wrists and arrested him for vigilantism. Kachan would live, and even if this is the price he had to pay for that, he would do it again in an instant. Even if his life was ruined, at least he was able to save one person, able to do one good thing with his accursed
It wasn't until they had nearly reached the police station did it really sink in of what he'd just done.
He killed a man.
Oh god.
Everyone was right, he was a villain.
All he wanted to do was help people.
He just wanted to save Kachan.
Now a man was dead and he would be going to jail
They led him inside and placed him in a holding cell to sit with his thoughts and wearing quirk suppressing cuffs so he couldn't break out and hurt more people.
Toshinori was nervous.
A civilian saw his true form. Not good but manageable. Then that same civilian used his quirk to save a friend that was dying. Also not good. So, we already have a kid who's ok with vigilantism and knows his secret. Very not good.
To make matters worse, he accidentally(?) kills said villain. Even worse.
Then to really top it off, he has the same quirk as the man who killed his mentor and nearly killed him. This is way past bad and all the way to a fucking nightmare.
Did All for One have a son?
Was this his unintentional debut?
How many quirks did he already have?
Now he really wishes he got the kid's name when they were on that rooftop.
But he's out of time for the day, so he has to leave any questions to his friend Tsukachi who will hopefully figure this shit out and give him all the information later on.
After pacing back and forth in his apartment for far too long he finally gets the awaited call.
"Naomasa, what's going on?"
"Calm down. He's not in contact with All for One, doesn't even know who the guy is."
"But they have the same quirk. Hell, it's even worse since he doesn't need physical contact. He just reached out and took it, who knows what the limits are? So, if it isn't All for One what kind of quirks do his parents have?"
"Yeah, that's where it gets dicey. He has no idea who his dad is. Apparently his mom refuses to tell him much more than the fact that dangerous people were after his father, so he stays away from them to keep them safe."
And that brought them right back to being nearly positive they were looking at the super villain's kid.
"Alright, maybe we can salvage this and try and keep him away from villany. Can you tell me about his mother, is she a villain as well?"
"Not from what I can tell. Her name is Inko Midoriya and the only thing that sticks out is just how clean her file is. But I wouldn't rule it out of the question, she already threatened to remove my teeth with her quirk if I didn't let her talk to her son."
"..."
"You ok?"
"...Did you say Inko Midoriya?"
"Yeah, have you heard of her?"
"Oh God… The kid's name. I never even asked… But please, please tell me it isn't Izuku."
He felt like he was going to vomit.
"Yeah, how'd you know?"
"Remember how I told you I had a kid I'd never met. All I knew about him was his name… I left them because I was scared I would put a target on their backs… And we haven't spoken since before he was born… I never knew that's what his quirk was or what he looked like…"
"Toshinori, I need you to calm down and breathe."
It wasn't until he heard that did he realize he was hyperventilating.
"I met my son today. And I told him he couldn't be a hero then I arrested him for defending his friend."
"But… how would your son have that quirk?"
"...The ability to transfer your own quirk mixed with the ability to attract things… You get a boy who can attract quirks."
Tsukachi paused for a moment. "Well, I guess it makes a bit more sense now on why Ms. Midoriya was very, how do I say this, insistent that she speak to you."
Fuck. After all these years, this is how they talk again?
"Alright, let her know I'm on my way."
Inko was kind and friendly whenever possible, but she was also not someone to be trifled with.
She marched into that police station like a woman ready to go to war and defend her little boy. But when she heard that All Might was the one who arrested her son, she was prepared to tear that building to the ground. The man fucks off for fifteen years and decides to come after her child and try to put him in jail over a quirk accident. Oh, that man is going to regret returning to Japan.
As she understood it, the heroes weren't doing their jobs, her little Izuku was watching his friend die and used his quirk out of desperation, which didn't go as planned since that was only the second time he'd ever used his quirk, it's not like he could have practiced with it.
That wasn't a villain, that was a frightened child who needed a hug and some hot coco not a prison cell. Maybe she was biased, but her point stands.
Then after having the fucking audasity to arrest Izuku, All Might decides to up and leave. Again. She was starting to think that Toshinori was allergic to the consequences of his actions, because he sure as hell avoided them like he was.
For some idiotic reason she isn't being allowed to see Izuku yet. She wanted to scream at them that he was a minor and that she would see him now, but she knew that becoming a 'villain' in their eyes meant pretty much all rights disappeared.
So she demanded to speak to All Might. After the fifth time she was told no she decided if he wasn't here in the next hour she'd explain to that head detective exactly how he related to this case and why he needed to get his ass to the station. Or at the very least, tell her where he is so she could drag said ass to the station herself.
She was getting ready to fight every single officer that was in her way when the idiot finally showed up. After basically forcing him into an empty conference room she realized he was steaming.
"Toshi, why the hell is your body smoking, it only does that when you're way over your limit."
His iconic smile dropped and he hung his head. "Please don't freak out."
She was about to ask why she would freak out when he deflated into a skeleton of a man.
Inko had been familiar with his quirk and knew that he had both an 'All Might' form and his 'Yagi Toshinori' form, but it was nothing like this. The shift between the two forms was slight and more like flexing than anything else.
Nearly all of her rage melted away into concern when she looked at his disheveled body "Oh God Toshi. What happened to you?" She wanted to stay angry, but she couldn't just make herself not care about the oaf.
He sighed and lifted up his shirt, showing his old wound. "I got hurt really badly six years ago, I lost a lung and my stomach and now I'm only All Might for three hours a day."
"You idiot. Only you are stupid and stubborn enough to not retire after getting your organs ripped out."
"I couldn't stop being the symbol of peace."
She sighed deeply, "We can argue about this later, or maybe never. Your choices aren't my business anymore and haven't been for a long time. What's important is that my little boy is locked up and no one will let me even talk to him. So what you need to do is go out there, give them a heroic smile, and get me into that fucking room because he just went through something really traumatizing and needs his mom."
"Um, yeah. I can do that. I probably won't be able to get you in there alone, but I'll make it work."
He went back into his hero form and within moments of leaving the room Detective Tsukachi ran up to them with a panicked look on his face and gasping for breath like he had sprinted to them.
"He's gone. Someone with a warping quirk just teleported him out of his cell."
Izuku was barely aware of his surroundings as his thoughts continued to spiral, thinking about everything that just happened.
He had been sitting in the cell at the police station, then there was purple mist, and now he was in a warehouse of sorts. But it was still a significant struggle to get out of his own head and pay attention to what was going on.
"-I believe it is reasonable for him to be so out of sorts, from what I understand that was his first kill."
The cuffs were taken off of him and he looked up at his rescuers. A man made of purple mist and wore a nice suit, another who was wearing a black helmet with weird tubes on it and a younger man with a hand on his face.
"W-who are you?"
The man with the helmet spoke up "We are the League of Villains, you may call me Sensei, these are my associates, Shigaraki and Kurogiri."
"But… I'm not a villain."
Two of them laughed a little while the smoke man stayed quiet. "I don't mean to be rude, but what do you consider a person who kills someone else on live television?"
"I… I just wanted to save my friend…"
"I understand. Unfortunately the law sees little difference between villains, vigilantes, and anything in between. However, that's not the main reason I brought you here. You see, I've been alive a long, long time, and you are the first person I've found with nearly the same quirk, so you can imagine my intrigue."
Izuku paused as he processed what the odd man was saying.
"You have a quirk like mine?"
"Yes, although I require physical contact to take a quirk and I can give the taken quirks to those without one, from what I read in your file it seems like you can only take."
Everything started to make sense. He's wondered for pretty much his entire life who his father was, and his mom gave him barely any information on him.
However, through little things here and there he had pieced together a few facts that were suddenly very relevant. First was what she had told him years ago, that it was dangerous to be a family and people were after his father. Dangerous enough that she would tell everyone that it was a drunken one night stand even though that was obviously a lie and she knew his father very well.
Secondly, he figured he had a quirk that would logically create his own when mixed with his mother's since she didn't seem particularly confused at what his power ended up being. This was the most important one since it's a pretty unique quirk that he hadn't heard of anyone else having and his mom's reaction proved it wasn't just a totally random mutation.
Third, his mom had let slip once that his father was incredibly tall, but not because of a quirk mutation, and that he had very light hair. (The hair thing didn't help right now because of the helmet, but it was good to keep in mind)
And now he was talking to a villain who had a near identical quirk and seemed to be at least seven feet tall.
"Are you my dad?"
All for One was having a great day.
He had been bored watching the news with a quirk that let him interface with screens when he saw footage of a boy stealing a man's quirk, resulting in a fatality by pure bad luck. Within minutes he had found his identity and quirk registration and decided that he either needed this boy to join them or die, because he knew firsthand just how powerful/dangerous that quirk can be. The last thing he needed was to be challenged by someone who could actually match his strength.
It took essentially no effort to find out where he was being kept and he had Kurogiri bring the boy to him. But now he was standing over a very overwhelmed looking child. Which he supposed was reasonable, a lot had happened for him in very little time. He had just killed someone and now would inevitably have to choose between prison and villainy, so he was expecting any number of things. Tears, violence, insults, a mental breakdown, the list goes on.
What he was not expecting was for this panic stricken boy to ask him if he was his father.
"Excuse me?"
The boy responded with nearly incomprehensible mumbling. But with the assistance of his enhanced hearing quirk and a minor mind reading quirk, he understood what the boy was trying to explain.
He had to admit, although the kid didn't know a lot about his absent father, enough things matched up for All for One had to take a moment and ask himself if he had unsafe sex around fifteen years ago.
Tomura and Kurogiri were struck completely silent by the question and had no idea what to do.
"Kurogiri, please take Tomura and yourself to the bar." The man nodded and took Shigaraki away despite his protests.
All for One decided he should simply tell the truth since that would lay a good foundation for having this child remain loyal no matter where this ends up going.
"Well, to be perfectly honest with you, I don't know. I know you wish you had a definitive answer right now, but all I can tell you is that I might be."
"But… How could you not know? It feels like a simple question. My mom's name is Inko Midoriya, she looks a lot like me, ring a bell?"
In response the super villain removes the large and bulky mask revealing a heavily scarred face with sockets that had no eyes. "You see, about six years ago I was in a brutal fight with none other than All Might himself. I nearly had him too, but I got cocky and for that I received his full strength to the head. It is no exaggeration to state that he punched away a good portion of my head, it took quite the combination of quirks just to keep me alive. A consequence of this is that my memories of anything before that are splotchy at best. So, believe me when I say that I truly have no idea and just because I don't remember your mother does not mean I didn't know her."
Izuku nodded slowly, taking in everything.
"But, know this, even if you aren't my son biologically, you will have a place here. I will admit that this is a surprise for me as well, but no matter what the truth is, I'm glad I was able to find you before those idiot heroes locked you up."
At this point the boy was sobbing and his words came out as nearly a whisper "No one's ever wanted me around before, other than mom…"
He gently placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I understand. I truly do. The fear and hatred that people give you when they know your quirk. Society tells everyone that their worth is determined by their quirk, which means people like us terrify them. When I was your age I didn't want to be a villain either, I actually started out more as a freedom fighter against an anti-quirk government, but they decided my very existence was villainous. So, since people refused to let me be anything but a villain, I decided I might as well embrace it."
He had dropped a lot of information on him, so he gave the child a few minutes to process that.
"...I still want to help people. If I can't be a hero, could I at least be a vigilante or something like that?"
All for One smiled. "Of course. I didn't bring you here to force you into anything, if you ever want to leave you can, and if you want to stay you are more than welcome to."
"...I don't really have anywhere else to go. I'll try not to be a bother though."
"If I thought you would be a burden I would not have brought you here. Now, before we move on and get you settled here, I was curious about your quirk, specifically the ones you've taken so far."
"Oh. Um. I only have two, the sludge one from today, and an explosion quirk from when my quirk manifested. It, um, let's me sweat nitroglycerin out of my palms and ignite it. But I won't use the explosion quirk since that belonged to my friend and I didn't mean to take it."
The ancient super villain nodded, "Well, if you ever would like more quirks, I have numerous that I can no longer use due to my current state. For example, Laser Eyes is useless to me for obvious reasons. But that is something that can be handled another day. For now Kurogiri can show you to your room and we can speak further tomorrow, I know there is much we still need to talk about."
This story came into existence because last night I had been pondering Dad Might and what quirks might come out of a mix of OFA and attraction of small things and realized that it could reasonably create a version of All for One. I have no idea if I will write more of this but if you want to read more of this nonsense then you should let me know in the comments. If there is any direction in particular you want this to go, you should also comment that since right now I don't really have a plan for this and I can be easily influenced if your ideas sound cooler.