Jpx0999 - Well, shit indeed

Shahryar - yeah, he isn't the person to show up to an actual battle

(***)

The situation is bad.

Midoriya is alone. He has no idea what happened to the police officers stationed outside of his room - there is a high chance that All for One arrived with some false (or not at all) permission to be there from, say, the Prime Minister, so they let him through.

Best case scenario is Aizawa and the others thinking about it on their own and keeping at least a single person that knows how All for One looks like around at all times. If that's the truth, then a silent alarm is already on, and the heroes and the police reinforcements are heading to his location.

Can he be certain of it? No.

Is Eclipse - probably asleep - in the room next door, waiting to be taken as a hostage if the worst case scenario occurs? Very likely.

Is All for One alone? Probably not, if Izuku had so many enemies he wouldn't be showing anywhere without at least a handful of highly competent bodyguards.

How much did Izuku recover? He feels alright, if you exclude his right arm being in pieces. He doesn't need it, yes, but he genuinely suspects that 90% of his 'feels alright' is a sudden adrenaline rush caused by recognizing the person in front of him.

In short, this is… probably not the worst way in which the meeting could occur, but certainly not far from it.

Midoriya realizes that things are worse than he thought when their eyes lock and he can feel his body going limp, refusing to move.

That explains how he got people like the Prime Minister under the brainwashing. Face-to-face meeting, a brief eye contact, sudden paralysis, and poof. No way of resisting, no way of calling for help.

How long does the brainwashing take? If it's a few seconds, then, yeah, that explains everything.

Something breaks, deep inside him. The strength returns to his limbs. One For All must have repelled the influence. It must be a derivative of a mind control quirk, enough for the built-in resistances to kick in.

Not yet.

"Well, it doesn't really matter since you won't remember anything." All for One replies, looking elsewhere for a moment while standing up from his chair and approaching him. It looks like it doesn't require continuous eye contact to take hold. "But I must say that you looked rather impressive during your fight with the Overhaul. A shame I didn't get his power."

Ding dong, Aizawa was constructively paranoid about him rather than just paranoid.

"As for yours…" All for One sighs, while leaning over Midoriya. "... I promise I'll give it back in a moment. But I really enjoy finding out how powerful powers feel, you see."

His hand lands on Midoriya's forehead. His fingers, he can feel them deep inside, grabbing onto the place where Force rested. But then… something slapped the hand, pushing it back.

"What…" All for One's eyes go wide. This is the moment.

Midoriya ignites, One for All flowing through him. He doesn't have the time to be picky about his choices here, he has to conserve energy (he doesn't know how many enemies are left outside of the room), so this is no time for wall slams.

He breaks All for One's neck.

Or, he tries.

His head twists to the side, but not enough to break the neck. And, a moment later, his head returns to the right position, All for One taking a step back from the hospital bed, the chair he was sitting in when Izuku woke up pushed backward.

Shit.

Quirk-resistance quirk. A perfect counter to when you want to brainwash someone whose quirk can kill you instantly. Something to downscale any foreign quirk influencing your body to, what, a single percent?

It had to be installed into him directly. If it was someone's natural quirk, it would refuse to be stolen by All for One.

Yoichi, you asshole, did you have to make your brother into a monster before leaving him to your son to deal with?

"Close." All for One is back to his confident mode. No screaming, no calling for help. He doesn't register Defiant as a threat. Hisashi, it seems, is an idiot. "And you've even managed to manipulate me into supporting the creation of the Hero Association. What's left of the Moderates got smarter, it seems."

"You think I'm one of them?" Midoriya gives him back a death stare, the upper half of his body raised up (his arm is still in the cast, and shit if it doesn't hurt to move). Then he chuckles bitterly. "They tried to manipulate me into working with them, so I told them to screw off."

"I'm supposed to believe that?" All for One looks down on him. "I recognize the power you bear. The other one. The one I gave him. He must have given himself a power that he could transfer to someone else and had them merged. And let me guess, he named it One For All, didn't he?"

"Yes." Midoriya replies. "Yes, he did."

Leave yourself exposed, uncle. I just need a second or two.

"The same melodramatic buffoon as ever." All for One replies before a theatrical sigh. "Well, it'll be a lot of work to get One For All out of you, but it's a matter of personal prestige for me to get it back. I assume that you understand that much."

"Right." Midoriya stares daggers at him. "You killed your brother, now you're going to torture your nephew. Truly the best person to rule the world."

All for One's eyes shot wide. He is connecting the dots, like how damnably thin the person in front of him is, how despite being a hero he clearly didn't physically train a lot. That was the distraction Midoriya needed.

Shigaraki was powerful, but how much experience in combat did he really have? He was a politician who ascended into a wannabe shadow overlord of Earth, he was simply too busy to put in a lot of genuine combat training.

And especially not against the diverse quirks. Because the Moderates mostly had the leftover artificial quirks, identical to what the Radicals had left.

His assumption that his quirk could protect him from Defiant's One For All-strengthened Force was laughable. It only defended him from instant death attacks.

The upper part of his suit ruptures in a heartbeat. His skin is exposed, his eyes growing wider in shock, his mind needing a moment to realize what was happening.

No trained-in combat instincts. No shouts for his allies to come, no automatic counterattacks with whatever quirks he had on. Just a simple shock, of someone lacking combat experience.

A second later the fabric rearranged itself, the long and slightly rectangular parts of it twisted and entangled into a closest approximation of a hangman's noose that Midoriya was capable of, pulling him up. All for One's feet lose contact with the floor, his hands grasping at the fabric, eyes looking as if they were about to pop out of their sockets.

Looking to the side would have warned him that Izuku is planning to attack him indirectly. He didn't expect something on him could be used that way. But the noose was too fragile for Izuku in his current state to be able to use him to break his neck instantly. But, there were alternatives.

And now, All for One was a bit too busy dying to his own business suit to keep track of his surroundings.

Midoriya's eyes shoot through the room. No one seriously expected All for One to show up here, on the UA, but they had to leave at least something here just in case of…

Several knives arrayed right next to each other on a table by the wall. Whoever remembered to leave them there, Izuku was ready to kiss them for it.

That's when All for One screams.

He is still busy fighting for the slightest amount of oxygen, too busy to be able to let out a sound. It had to be some minor omnidirectional warning quirk, All for One throwing caution and secrecy through the window.

Sudden cannonade of gunfire coming from the outside of the room is a sign that things are about to get hairy.

Worst of all, one of his goons had to be right outside of the door, since they barged in through them, gun in their hand.

Idiot.

Knives temporarily abandoned, Midoriya has another problem to deal with - and change into a boon.

At the last second the mook's arm is bent to the side, the trigger pulled against his will, the pistol firing and the bullet going through All for One's body right beneath the ribcage. What did it go through? Liver, maybe? Midoriya failed to aim it properly, but the next bullet will…

The gun deforms in an instant. A metal manipulation quirk? The mook responded fast, making his weapon unusable to stop Midoriya from killing All for One with it.

Metal control quirk versus telekinesis quirk, an equal fight if he can control his metal when not in direct contact. One for All was there, but he had precious little of it left, he couldn't try to go for a combat of attrition against a well rested enemy.

He waited for the mook to reshape the gun into a short spear before igniting One for All and twisting his head. All for One's eyes somehow grow even wider when the mook's face does a 180 tilt, chin facing upward. The metal manipulator falls limp, the quirk dying with him.

Midoriya almost has enough time to skewer Shigaraki's head with the metal spike when the man raises his hand and points at Izuku.

He has no time to check if that was a bluff. Losing his lifeline sounds like a good moment to go 'fuck it, One For All isn't worth it' and going lethal. He also doesn't have enough quirk juice left to try to tank whatever attack might be incoming.

He propels himself towards the other side of the bed, rolling off it and landing on the floor, his right arm erupting in pain. He loses the grasp on his quirk for a second, the noose dematerializing. But the decision was correct.

Whatever quirk All for One called upon, it immediately burned out a circular hole in the outer wall of the building, right behind him. He can feel it with his ignited senses, there is a half-circular canyon in the bed where he used to lay, if he stayed there, he would die.

In the meantime, the fight is still on.

He can see All for One's boot making contact with the floor on the other side of the bed from his position on the floor.

His legs look perfectly breakable, so that's what he does, slamming the end table on that side of the bed into them, with enough strength for All for One's right leg to bend at an odd angle.

Good.

The fact that All for One starts falling forward towards the bed while making a bit too enthusiastic vertical motion with his right hand is a warning that was only barely heeded in time.

Midoriya propels himself towards the end of the room with his quirk, sliding on the floor and hitting the wall with his back just as some vertical slashing quirk carved a deep hole in the floor. All for One, despite his injuries he is clearly capable of fighting.

How much of this is adrenaline, though?

"Y-you bastard." All for One is glaring at him hatefully, his voice strained by the recent strangling attempt. "I'm going to…"

As if Midoriya cares about his threats.

He grabs the knives again (he ended up near the table where they were lied upon) and propels them at All for One. He isn't sure if he has enough energy left for another dodge, so he can't throw furniture around and…

Energy shield stops the knives.

Shit.

How many quirks can he keep active at once? The quirk resistance one is a must, he doesn't know how much energy Midoriya has left, he has to keep his guard up or the fight will end instantly. That's one slot out.

The second one is taken by the mind-control. Somehow Midoriya thinks that it'd be too great if he already forced All for One to use that slot for something else. So it's two slots out of the game.

Did he get to use two quirks at once? The alert one, the melting ray, the hand-sword, all were used separately.

Conclusion: Hisashi Shigaraki can use three quirks at once aside from All for One itself. He isn't experienced with combat enough to sandbag it for feint purposes with a gunshot wound in his abdomen, his leg broken and his breathing strained.

Also, he takes some precious time to switch the quirks, otherwise - even with the surprise of being strangled - he would call for help faster. He should really work on making those movements of his more automatic and subconscious.

Also, If he tries attacking again, he'll have to drop the shield. And the metal spear that used to be his goon's gun is still there.

Their eyes meet, All for One still leaning over what's left of Midoriya's hospital bed, his leg too broken to support his weight.

Shit, he knows that just as well as Izuku does. He might lack combat experience and proper training, but he isn't dumb.

If he tries to move his hand again or make any other potentially hostile move towards Midoriya, the superhero would retaliate instantly with the spike. It's like some goddamn Wild West highnoon meeting, both sides ready to draw their gun when the fight starts.

"It looks like…" All for One says slowly. "... superheroes are a lost cause to the Council. I guess that I'll have to see if the supervillains are more… amenable."

"Go suck Destro's dick, my dearest uncle." Midoriya replies as venomously as possible. "And I sincerely hope that you get to join whatever pits of hell Yoichi's burning in right now. Eternity with each other is the worst punishment for the two of you that I can think of."

"Oh my, looks like you're really not affiliated with the unfortunate orphans after my little brother." All for One smiles wryly. His smile is marked with pain, but he isn't letting it go. You need to be built differently from most to rule the entirety of Mankind from the shadows, it seems. "Well, I'm going to borrow your little idea for the Hero System, but… I guess I'll have to replace you and your friends with some people I can trust."

"Start from Doctor Garaki, your precious head of research depart… oh wait, he is dead already." Midoriya smiles. He can't even muster the strength to rise from his current position, half lying and half-sitting, his back on the wall. But All for One doesn't have to know. "You're losing your numerical superiority by the minute, uncle."

The gunfire was still on, but he could clearly hear the slicing sound that Eclipse's quirk made when it cut through things. Someone was awake and, probably, very pissed off. Things really weren't going according to All for One's plan.

"Goons can be replaced… even Wolfram." All for One replies. Wolfram, a name of a metal, so… the metal manipulation guy? Good to know. "For as long as I control the government, I can take you and your friends down one by one, replacing you with people from Destro's little army. How many dead 'true' heroes before the rest of you rebels, letting me round you up as villains in disguise?"

That sounds like something that can work. Well, for as long as he manages to get Destro under his thumb, he can have the MLA run some sort fucked-up 'infiltrate the Hero Association' scheme with government's unconscious backing.

That bastard. He is getting oddly talkative. Is he banking on his remaining bodyguards showing up before Midoriya's reinforcements?

"Bold words for someone so lousy as you, Shigaraki." Midoriya shoots back. He is conserving strength, maybe, just maybe he'll recover some embers of energy if he plays it off long enough, and he is ready to trust his allies to get here. "Did someone tell you you're losing control of your empire? Getting senile, are we?"

"Talking about Mirai Sasaki and his little enterprise?" All for One replies calmly. "Joke's on you, Defiant. I had him under my thumb already, but then I freed him because I needed the slot to rescue one of our regional branches overseas. I assure you that this temporary oversight will be corrected."

Why is he so talkative? Is he truly believing in his bodyguards enough to come save him and…

All for One smirks.

Izuku understands and propels the metal spear at him. But a second before it impales him, All for One suddenly vanishes, the spike lodging itself into the wall.

Fuck.

He was charging up some sort of personal teleportation quirk the whole time.

All for One just successfully used talk no jutsu on Midoriya and he has no idea how to react to that.

Less than four seconds later Hawks barges into the room, a submachine gun in his hands, clearly looking around for trouble. His eyes land on Defiant, who responds with a very faint thumbs-up gesture. Then he finally faints.

This is not the outcome he hoped for.

(***)

"Well." Aizawa says as the recording from the security cameras in the room (audio included) ends. Midoriya is still way too unconscious (out of ANOTHER serious case of quirk exhaustion) to answer questions, so they only have this. "Midoriya is a completely broken character, did I mention it already?"

Mirai Sasaki corrects his glasses.

Judgmentally.

"He was on his last legs, against the enemy that was resistant to quirks, and he improvised a death by hanging with this man's goddamn business suit." Aizawa replies dryly. "If that's not terrifying, nothing is."

Mirai Sasaki corrects his glasses again. This time even more judgmentally.

Alright, time to approach the main subjects.

"Yes, I know that we've fucked up." Aizawa sighs. "All for One showed up from nowhere, we simply didn't expect him to appear at UA of all places. We assumed that he would use his governmental influence to just summon Defiant somewhere for a face-to-face meeting, not that."

"No need to be so self-deprecating." Sasaki sighs. Aizawa would like to have that talk anywhere BUT in that man's office, he's a goddamn Senior Commissioner now. "I'd argue that the security worked extraordinarily well, considering the circumstances."

Someone from the security recognized All for One and slammed the quiet alarm. By the time All for One entered Midoriya's room, the reinforcements were on their way, including a half of the Musutafu Quirk Suppression Unit that was practically camping in the hospital in case of, well, this.

Including Hawks.

No one knew where the remaining heroes were, but you could literally google the present location of Defiant and Eclipse, so if there was a place where the trouble could happen, it was the UA hospital.

Whatever telepathic alert quirk All for One activated started the firefight a bit ahead of schedule, causing the death of four police officers, though not a single of the QSU officers was even hurt.

The Japanese Branch of the Council of Twelve's Threat Elimination Unit was down by seven more members, including Wolfram, its supposed leader and the closest thing that All for One had to a second-in-command.

Sasaki was contacted by Nedzu through a highly secured internet connection and asked for the recording from the fight to 'fine-tune' the MLA preparations. Mirai Sasaki, against himself, sent it.

That's how they found out the TEU name, and the fact that Midoriya flipped its leader's head upside down. They also got the promise of Nedzu telling them how the MLA trap was going to fare in exchange.

And, well, a greater chance of the trap succeeding.

After hearing that he was already mind-controlled once (with option for repetition), Mirai Sasaki was out for blood.

"Sure, the procedures worked, but All for One is still at large, if badly injured." Aizawa replies. What are the chances of Yoichi not weaving some powerful healing quirk for the Council? "And now we need to pray that Destro's clowns managed to take him down."

Mirai Sasaki sighs. The situation is mostly out of his hands by now, he has some political sway but not even nearly enough to influence what the Prime Minister does. He is a lobbyist and information broker, not a secret overlord of Japan. Still, he can advise.

"We should get Midoriya patched-up by Eri first thing in the morning." He says. "The assassination attempt by some 'leftover Overhaul villains' is a good cover-up for moving him and Eclipse out, they just need to stay quiet for a moment, and I think that they would prefer doing that with their loved ones."

Aizawa nods. Their reasoning for not having Midoriya patched-up immediately was sound, except it ended up kicking them in the ass.

Oh, well. It was war. People make mistakes during the war the whole time. You're supposed to learn from them and get better.

"The Hero Association is now an official agenda of the Japanese law enforcement, even if its legal situation is still rather… patchwork." Aizawa replies. "I guess Defiant should focus on that, and he can do it away from the media."

True. Mirai nods to that. He prepared Midoriya some good staff that should keep the Hero Association in a workable condition for now. They really can't do a lot to All for One and his nigh-total control of the Government.

Thankfully, All for One must have realized that the heroes - thanks to Midoriya's victory on the Esuha Bridge - were now the best shot at stabilizing the country and maintaining his control over it. Just calling them the Hero Association initiative off wasn't an option, slow take-over of it, in the meantime… gave them time to counteract.

Small mercies.

(***)

"Defiant had a run-in with All for One." Nedzu announces to Destro. Who, well, doesn't like being woken up, but at least he grabbed his phone and picked the call up before it woke up his wife.

She was… nervous. And being woken up like that would shake her a lot.

"Result?" Destro whispers quietly.

"Defiant knocked out again." Nedzu replies. "All for One warped out after receiving a nasty gunshot wound, having his leg broken completely and almost being strangled to death with an improvised hangman's noose that used to be his own business suit. Which, by the way, I find absolutely hilarious. He also lost Wolfram and, well, I don't think he managed to keep a lot of dignity after the noose thing. But mind-control is still intact."

Good. Not perfect, but, well, passably good. Midoriya must have been still mostly out of it after Esuha Bridge for All for One to escape him.

"I've managed to confirm several combat quirks that Shigaraki used." Nedzu replies. "You'll have final corrections of our plan on your desk tomorrow morning."

"Great." Destro replies. "How much time do you think we have left?"

"With the healers available to the Council and All for One feeling pressured by Defiant's organization…" Nedzu replies. "I estimate that he'll show up in Deika in the next week."

They are almost there.

(***)

Whether Yagi was instructed by AFO to keep Defiant injured and in a hospital for the meeting or not, this certainly wasn't the outcome any of Hisashi's enemies were hoping for.