Answering the Call is starting. Who would have thought, ehh?

(***)

Japan as a country was… in an interesting state nowadays, Nedzu has to admit. Almost too interesting, and that's the chaos rodent who was thinking that. It meant a lot.

It's not because of his schemes, even! He might have a grudge (maybe, it might be just boredom) towards a lot of people, but there are also two-legs that he grew somewhat attached to. So, it's not like the generally chaotic state of affairs in the country is HIS fault, for once!

No, he blames All for One. The boogeyman of Japan and its government, and an unfortunate roadblock to Nedzu's great plans that might or not exist and might or might not include becoming a minister of education in order to shape the future generations of two-legs to his fancy.

The rodent (technically a rat/stoat/otter hybrid, but that one's a secret to others, let them try to figure it out themselves) knew that All for One was thriving on division and chaos, the two things that Nedzu disliked.

Worst of all, he knew that All for One was the power behind the Creature Rejection Clan. That made things personal to Nedzu.

He desired to commit an… unpleasantness upon All for One. The last time he did such a thing it was about the head researcher of a certain project that secretly attempted to clone Nedzu for some nefarious purposes. They still didn't find all of the body parts.

But then, All for One vanished. He was clearly not doing well in the war against Nedzu ever since All Might returned from America, and then, out of nowhere, he vanished. With a few square kilometers of cityscape, but that's mostly beside the point.

Nobody knew what happened to him, but it was rather clear that he died. All Might was beside himself in anger. All for One's empire mostly collapsed on its own, with several pretenders to the throne battling it out.

Things were hardly 'calm'. In fact, if anything, there were somehow more villains than before. They never realized how many powerful villains All for One robbed of their quirks once he deemed them unsuitable for his long-term plans. But without All for One to guide them, the villains spent most of the time battling it out between each other.

So Nedzu is free to focus on his teaching career (which totally isn't a part of his long term plan to take over the society, also screw you HPSC president for figuring it out and trying to stop it in favor of taking over the society yourself), and on drinking tea.

He is doing that in his office, thinking about the All Might's offer to become a teacher (the man has to do something with himself now that his archnemesis vanished on him), when the time comes.

He has a meeting scheduled with some journalist. It's nothing important, really, but sometimes the rat has to do the things that rat has to do. So he puts down the cup of tea on his desk, and waits patiently until his secretary lets Mr. Mikumo inside.

"Welcome to my humble office, Mr. Miku…" Nedzu says while the door closes behind his guest. That's when the visitor suddenly deactivates some sort of identity concealing quirk.

All for One.

It's All for One. In flesh. Tall, wearing an exquisite suit (really, where is he getting those?), white hair. Look of denigration and slight anger on his face. Somehow, just SOMEHOW he has managed to fool all the sensors, all the security measures that changed UA into a fortress.

"Oh." Nedzu comments while picking the cup up. He can't let the tea get wasted like that, now can he? "So this is how I die." He adds after the cup is empty. All for One has remained silent all this time, though he did move over to the seat on the other side of Nedzu's desk.

"Tempting." All for One replies calmly. "But I have to refuse. I'm here to deliver my demands. And some explanations."

Oh dear, Nedzu decides. So he might actually survive the day? He pushes the panic button again, calling the silent alarm off. Eraserhead was his best bet on survival, but perhaps it's best not to aggravate the situation into an all-out brawl? Nedzu really isn't a tough specimen.

"I assume that the explanations are about your… disappearance?" Nedzu replies with a question. And pours some tea for his guest. It's, naturally, poisoned. But All for One uses some sort of antidote quirk on it and then calmly sips it.

Oh, well. There goes another anti-All for One plan. He has a quirk to render poisons inert. Nedzu just lost a bet with Sir Nighteye. Mirai Sasaki suspected that he had that quirk, not just the poison-resistance and poison-detection ones like Nedzu thought.

"I have two centuries of experience in making people disappear." All for One replies. "I can make myself disappear as well. Also, your taste in tea is significantly better than your taste in co-workers."

"I see." Nedzu nods calmly. Time for plan C. "Thank you for your compliment."

"I've also deactivated the bomb in my chair with a technopathic quirk." All for One adds, equally calmly. Plan D it is. "I've come to your office at least partially to announce that I retired as a villain. I'm even paying taxes nowadays, can you believe that?"

"Hardly." Nedzu replies. He still has the other bombs left, but that's going to destroy the entire room. Okay, building, if he detonates all of it at once. Rat enjoys going Plus Ultra on things from time to time. He had it tied to his heartbeat (it's not like he ever leaves the UA grounds), but what if All for One is here for his quirk? "What, hypothetically, changed your mind about your career?"

"My wife didn't like the way I earned my money." All for One replies and Nedzu finds himself staring at the man in front of him in abject shock. "So, naturally, I had to change a few things. Fake my own death, retire to a countryside cottage with her, start earning money legally, and so on." He sips the tea a bit, before continuing. "I am hearing that recon drone making his way here through the vents, could you please call it off? The buzzing of its engine is irritating."

Nedzu pushes one of the many almost invisible buttons around his desk. Power Loader is remotely told to stand down. Just in case, Nedzu does the same with Eraserhead's attempt to go after the drone.

"Good." All for One clearly heard that as well. "The point is, it turns out that my eldest son inherited my brother's dumbass genes. Honestly, if Yoichi wasn't dead for more than two centuries, I'd make a paternity test." He sighs. "I did my best to teach Izuku how to become a perfect heir to my currently leaderless empire. But I failed. I've done all I could to help him, but he still wants to be a hero. Like All Might."

The laser (Nedzu really likes old spy movies) almost slices All for One apart vertically, but some sort of light refraction quirk (he expected this, how peculiar) bounces it back through the window. There is now a hole in it.

"Before we continue with the subject, I would like to inform you that I have a vibration detecting and pattern deciphering quirk." All for One suddenly says. "I know that you're using the rhythmic taps of your tail to send messages through the vibration detectors in the floor in order to secretly arrange for several heroes to be called to our location. They aren't coming."

"What?" Nedzu blinks at him. "Why?"

"Because I also have a vibration-altering quirk." All for One states dryly. "I altered the vibrations you've sent. Your secretary just received an order from you to invest a significant part of your money into an attempt to put the old Morbius film back into the cinemas while stating it to be 'an ancient superhero movie' and 'your personal favorite.'".

Silence in the office. Nedzu stares in All for One over the table.

"Look, I can understand killing me or stealing my quirk and making me spend the rest of my life as thoughtless animal." Nedzu says coldly. "But this? What have I done to you to deserve that?"

"Nothing, it was a joke." All for One replies dryly. Nedzu breathes a sigh of relief. "But I did have her send details and evidence on one of your secret long-term international psy-ops that you run when you're bored, to me. Just for some additional blackmail."

"Oh, which one?" Nedzu asks curiously.

"The one where you're attempting to pose as an internet hacker and an SSS-Rank villain in Poland known as Szczurzy Król…" All for One says in perfect polish, is that another quirk or just a lot of tongue-twisting exercises?. "... so a 'Rat King', while attempting to manipulate the country's legislative into banning cheese. Thus far unsuccessfully. Why are you even doing that, by the way?"

He actually looks genuinely curious about it. Huh, who would have thought?

"Oh, it's just a field test of my nation-wide psychological manipulations techniques." Nedzu replies cheerfully. "Once I establish what works or what doesn't, I'm going to move over to a final exam of sorts. Namely, an actual psy-ops that's supposed to lead to wine being banned in France." Nedzu replies cheerfully.

All for One stares at him for a solid ten seconds in total silence before answering.

"And I'm the bad guy?" He says, glaring at Nedzu. Who refuses to take that face down.

"I vaguely remember you being a member of the National Diet under a false name while it voted for the establishment of the Hero Commission." Nedzu replies. All for One shivers in his seat.

"Okay, that one's on me. We're both bad guys, fine." He admits. "Also, did you stop trying to kill me? That's almost uncharacteristic of you."

"No, it's just… the only option I have left are the sharks under the floor." Nedzu replies honestly. "But I'm sure you've heard them already, and it just feels like a waste of time. They did take care of those two assassins you sent after me five years ago, you know, the ones that pretended to be Jehova Witnesses here to evangelize."

"I…" All for One says slowy. "... didn't send them."

Silence in the room.

"Well, that's awkward." Nedzu admits. "But they wouldn't die if your existence didn't make me slightly paranoid, so it's still your fault."

"That's slander and you know it." All for One groans. "What else are you going to accuse me of?! Explosion in Aichi seventeen years ago that led to almost fifty heroes dying? The death of the Commissioner General twelve years ago? That brief civil war in Hokkaido seven years ago, the one that started due to a failed military coup that only held ground on that island?

"But… you were behind all of those events." Nedzu stares at him with a slight expression of shock on his face.

"Oh, of course I was behind them." All for One shrugs. "But you have no evidence, so it's just slander."

"What about the fact that you just admitted to being responsible for them?" Nedzu asks. "I have cameras and…" All for One gestures at his computer.

Nedzu checkes the recording of the talk. There is no All for One on the camera. Merely Nedzu, with Mr. Principal busy snorting what looked like cocaine off his desk.

"Seriously?" He asks All for One. "That's the best idea that came to your mind?"

"Look, I could add a student or two doing a striptease before you to spice the recording up." All for One replies dryly. "However, I'm not evil enough for that. I might be have spent most of my life murdering people and plotting the end of the society as I know it but I have to draw a line somewhere."

"... and you draw a line on… errr… remotely pornographic content in your blackmail?" Nedzu blinks at him.

"Yes, pornography is evil." All for One replies dryly. Nedzu has no idea if he is falling for a joke or not. "Look, can we get back to the subject? I don't have the whole day."

Nedzu nods. It's not like it was exactly a question, just a statement pretending to be one.

"So." All for One then speaks. "As I said, my son decided to become a hero."

"That seems to be…"

"Don't mention my brother and any version of 'seem to be running in your family' or I'm going to change this shithole you call school into an even bigger hole, and a radioactive one at that." All for One cuts in. Nedzu swallows his words. "Where was I… right, my son. Well, I decided to be smart about this for a change. Prove that I learned from my mistakes."

"You… let him become a hero?" Nedzu asks cautiously.

"Wha… of course not!" All for One looks horrified by the concept. He then takes a metaphorical step back. "Well, to be honest, it just wasn't my first pick. Instead I decided to let him interact with normal people his age, hoping that their positive influence would make him reconsider his heroic obsession. So, I let him interact with his peers. Heirs and children of the supervillains from this country, be it terrorists, murderers or criminal kingpins, and a choice selection of prospective young villains groomed in my various enterprises throughout the country."

Nedzu really questions All for One's definition of normal people. In the meantime, however, he has to answer a question.

"Wait, you're grooming children to serve you?" Nedzu asks, looking at the man with shock and maybe slight disgust. All for One clears his throat and spreads his hands around. Right. UA. "... touche. I assume something went wrong?"

"Now they all want to be heroes." All for One replies. Nedzu is happy that he had no tea in his hands at that particular moment or he would most certainly spill it. "I could, of course, confront their parents and tell them about what happened in order for them to start trying to unfuck the situation and somehow, just somehow fix that mess before the entire future generation of supervillains starts attending hero schools, but that would require me admitting that I made a mistake in front of them, and we know that it's not an option, right?"

"Oh, absolutely." Nedzu agrees with him. It's one thing to admit that you fucked up to someone that's practically your intellectual equal and your own underling. It's a matter of personal image, after all! "So what did you decide to do?"

He stops trying to use his quirk to calculate the perfect way of detonating the bombs placed around his office in order to injure All for One but let Nedzu survive with minimal wounds and ability to dive into the nearest vent. The talk starts being actually interesting.

"Well, my plan A, namely attacking Might Tower, slaughtering All Might and his lackeys, then obliterating UA, HPSC and finally the government in order to make sure that there was no functional hero school ready to take them in due to the country descending into the state of Hobbesian wilderness was, regretfully, vetoed by my wife." All for One replies. Nedzu immediately decides that his wife was now one of his favorite two-legs and he'd absolutely die for her. " Apparently, this will make my son angry at me instead of making him think that I'm cool and that heroes are dumb. And I don't want to start another inter-family feud. The last one is enough of a problem for me."

"That's perfectly logical, yes." Nedzu nods. "And your plan B resulted in you… showing up here?"

"Yes, I decided to deal with the source of the problem." All for One replies. "UA made All Might. All Might became my son's idol, and thus is a source of the problem. So UA is going to fix the problem."

It's a bit of an insane troll logic, Nedzu decides. Then again, people are calling his thought process with those words every other day. He got used to it.

"How exactly?" Nedzu asks. "You aren't here for some 'now pay with your life' deal, right?"

"Regretfully, no." All for One replies. "Damn, now your words made me go on a nostalgia trip. I miss the times before my retirement… sometimes. Typically when my wife isn't around. She makes it all worth it."

"She must be a fascinating woman." Nedzu replies.

"She stole my heart during our first meeting." All for One replies. His face is almost dreamy. It's one expression that Nedzu never expected to see on that man's face.

Nedzu, as an animal, has no first-person experience with the human concept of love (and only passable contact with concepts of common decency and empathy), so it's not like he can say anything substantial about it instead of platitudes.

"Sounds romantic." Nedzu replies.

"No, I meant it literally." All for One clarifies. "She freaked out when I showed up out of nowhere and accidentally tore my heart out with her telekinesis quirk." Nedzu stares at him in shock. "Then, when my regeneration quirk kicked in and resurrected me, she made me apologize for scaring her. How could I not fall in love with her at that very moment?!"

Nedzu might be alien to the concept of love, but the concept of existential dread seems to be known to him.

Almost intimately.

Especially right now.

He also notes 'might consider scarousal to be the highest form of arousal' in his mental psychological profile of All for One. Immediately followed by 'that or he enjoys women that don't cower in front of him'.

The words 'All for One might be a bottom' just refuse to be formed, even in his mind.

He isn't sure if it will be ever useful to him, but hey, knowledge is power.

"Anyways." All for One decides to return to the subject. "You are going to create a Villain Rehabilitation Course with a curriculum and the end result of it de facto identical to the Hero Course. Then you are going to enroll my children and all of their friends in it."

"And if I refuse?" Nedzu replies. The aura of intimidation that he gets in return almost makes him drop his cup.

"Let me be honest with you, Nedzu." All for One replies with a mocking calmness on his face. He leans forward a bit, and Nedzu feels like the pressure of his presence alone is pushing him deeper into his seat. "You, All Might and the rest of your little menagerie exist because I want it that way. Ruling the world of villainy and breaking the past Holders of One for All was an entertainment to me. There is a reason why I never make that line die out. I've been holding myself back this whole time. These two centuries, in fact. What you took as waging a war against me was more like a bunch of toddlers trying to wrestle with their father. You do not want me to take my gloves off."

"Oh?" Nedzu might be intimidated, but he is intelligent enough to restrain that. He needs information. "You looked pretty hard-pressed during your last bout with All Might. How exactly can you become much stronger than that?" Nedzu was certain that it was All for One's full power.

"My brother's quirk transfering quirk wasn't the only quirk altering quirk out there." All for One calmly replies. "I've spent two centuries gathering quirks allowing me to empower other quirks. Change their properties. What do you think will happen if I, purely hypothetically, steal Endeavor's quirk tomorrow and enhance it with twenty quirk-strengthening quirks while doing the same thing with some fire-resistance quirk? I should squeeze a tenfold increase in firepower, I believe. While still being able to put up thirteen more quirks at once."

Nedzu can feel blood leaving his face. Well, he doesn't - his body is a bit different than the one of humans - but he believes that this is how he would react if he was a human.

"I'm, in the end, an avid collector of quirks." All for One continues. "I enjoy collecting them. Altering them in a way… it feels like desecrating a masterpiece painting by scrabbling over it with crayons. But if you make me unretire myself, I'll make an exception for you, your school, All Might… and probably half of Tokyo." His eyes narrow. "Did I make myself clear?"

"Crystal clear." Nedzu nods. This is a completely new threat. He has to bide his time to figure out countermeasures for it. And, perhaps, find a confirmation of All for One's words. "So, how many students are we talking about?"

"Thirty in total." All for One replies and Nedzu almost spits his tea. "Some are rather… troublesome, so I believe that three classes with ten students each would make sense. Especially as I happen to have found three perfect homeroom teachers that the UA will greatly benefit from hiring."

"You… want me to hire villains?" Nedzu needs to ask because of the sheer audacity… then again, it's not like he has much of a space to wiggle in, right?

All for One stares at him. For a solid ten seconds.

"Do you want me to st…" He then says. Nedzu quickly sweeps in .

"Don't bother." The rat shakes his head. "Hiring villains is absolutely understandable and I see absolutely no problems with that arrangement."

"Good." All for One seems vaguely pleased. "Naturally, you are going to make sure that your school is going to become even more of an impenetrable fortress, as we can expect the parents in question to be pissed off beyond compare."

"Sounds fabulous." Nedzu replies dryly.

"Well, judging from the amount of security in your own office, you're on the right path already." All for One replies equally dryly. "Just put the same effort in protecting your students as you do in protecting yourself, and things will be absolutely alright. Also, you're going to start a civil war."

"What?" Nedzu blinks at him. "At least a few years too early for that, I still don't have enough…" All for One stares him down. "... elaborate on the civil war, please." He must have misunderstood something.

"I expect the HPSC to be a bunch of absolute obstructive buffoons about it." All for One replies. "Like the legal and human equivalent of a tribe of constipated chimpanzees."

"That's a harmful comparison." Nedzu replied calmly. "For the chimpanzees."

"Finally, we see eye to eye on something without the threat of me destroying Tokyo over the disagreement!." All for One replies, sounding almost cheerful about it. "We can't exactly make the public unilaterally recognize and respect children of current supervillains, especially not when the HPSC will be trying to ruin the initiative."

"So…" Nedzu leans forward. "... we're going to destroy the HPSC together, and that's what the 'civil war' means?"

"Don't tempt me, you furry succubus, I'm retired." All for One cuts back. "Besides, my wife said something about me sleeping on the couch until I die of old age if I overthrow a government, and she knows about me being immortal, so… yeah, not worth it."

"Shame." Nedzu sighs. Another great man restrained by a woman he loved. "Can I at least suggest which part of Tokyo you should destroy first if you decide to unretire yourself?"

"You don't have to, of course I'll start from the HPSC headquarters." All for One rolls his eyes around. "You'll get to see it burn before I get to destroy you with your school and dance a really awkward victory dance over your grave."

"I knew that there was something good in your heart, All for One!" Nedzu replies with a smile. All for One shivers slightly.

"Now you're just being mean." All for One replies, sounding vaguely displeased about it. "Back to the civil war I mentioned. As I said, we can't make the public love the Villain Rehab Course students. But we can make it fear them."

"You…" Nedzu says, his smile so wide that it made his teeth visible.. "... had me at the 'make the public fear them' part, not gonna lie."

"Of course I did." All for One smiles. "We're going to use my vast collection of quirks and money to launch a massive, hyper-realistic wargame between the Villain Rehab Course and the Hero Course, in order to establish the existential dread in the hearts of the citizens of this country. In order to make them all realize that they can either have those kids as heroes… or villains. And they don't want them as villains."

"Oh, that sounds absolutely delightful." Nedzu immediately establishes his own improvements onto the plan. Such as inviting other hero schools, maybe even pro-heroes if the villains will be sufficiently unstoppable. Something to make the world realize that it's not that the UA hero trainees are weak, it's the 'villain students' that are terrifying - and they, after all, were going to be the UA villain students. "The teachers you mentioned?"

"Supervillains that seem to be, for reasons beyond my understanding, holding heroics in high regard." All for One replies. "Namely, Mr. Compress, Hero Killer Stain and… well, the third is going to be a surprise, especially for some of your present faculty members." He smiles faintly. "Naturally, I made them create fake personalities for themselves, including pro-hero licenses and teaching licenses."

"That's… surprisingly thoughtful." Nedzu nods. He can only wonder how long all of that was being prepared. "So, three classes, ten kids each, yes?" He's already calculating where to put their board houses on the school grounds. And, well, how to break the news to All Might. It's going to be… an adventure.

"Yes." All for One replies. "And one of my children as class president of each of the classes. Putting two of them in one class would just be… unfair." He doesn't specify to whom. Probably the world, as Nedzu realizes a bit later.

"That sounds… doable." Nedzu nods. He doesn't add 'and also a slightly better alternative to All for One changing Tokyo into a crater', because honestly, destroying that megalopolis might be a relief to the environment in Japan and hey! He's an animal, he likes the environment. "What about you?"

"Naturally, I'll be there the whole time to oversee the initiative and make sure you don't corrupt my children… or vice versa." All for One replies, grinning at Nedzu wryly. "As the UA's new Vice-Principal."

Oh, dear. All Might is going to be pissed off, isn't he?