One for All could not be taken by force, only given. It took years for All for One to accept that bitter truth. Every time he fought a One for All holder, he tried even harder to yank the quirk away. He channeled all his rage and hatred into a battle of wills. He'd sincerely believed that he could steal any quirk. But One for All never even budged. Somewhere, his younger brother was probably laughing at him.
Next he switched to torture, but those who inherited One for All proved stubbornly resistant to pain and difficult to take alive. The very first time All for One saw a hint of panic in the eyes of one of his destined enemies was when he threatened to kill Nana Shimura's husband.
If he'd managed to take the man alive, All for One felt certain he would have won. But despite being a civilian, Nana's husband had fought back viciously all the way to his death and even let his son escape. Then young Kotaro Shimura vanished into foster care too quickly for All for One to find him.
No matter. He killed Nana Shimura with only a small hint of regret. Now, All for One had finally figured out how to obtain One for All: take a hostage. With the next holder, he wouldn't fail.
Unfortunately, Toshinori Yagi showed no interest in romantic relationships during his entire stay in America. If he'd dated around a little, then All for One wouldn't have worried. The centuries-old villain was more than patient enough to wait for the young Eighth holder to settle down and form a family. But even though All for One had tossed multiple beauties of all genders at the young hero and arranged romantic rescues and meet cutes, Toshinori never so much as flirted. His last hired seducer could have melted the habit off a nun. This posed a potential problem.
One disguise quirk later, All for One adopted the identity of David Shield and inserted himself into Toshinori Yagi's life.
Toshinori didn't crack easy. Even after All for One had provided him with support equipment, he remained cautious. But gradually, he opened up, flashing genuine smiles and meeting up to watch anime and hero cartoons. All for One's equipment enabled All Might to make a serious dent into crime in the U.S., but this only allowed the villain to subtly take control of the local underworld. Maybe he'd sabotage All Might's equipment later. His first priority was One for All. A man over a hundred years old knew patience.
It took All for One several years of subtle flirting before he felt confident that the blond moron was completely besotted with him.
One day, after exiting the movie theatre, All for One pasted a faux-nervous look on his face. "Toshi, please know that I'd never, ever want to do anything to threaten our friendship, and if you say no then nothing changes…but I wonder if you'd be interested in seeing our next movie as a date?"
Toshinori flushed completed red to his roots and rubbed his neck in his usual obnoxious way. The longer All for One had known the hero, the more his tics had gotten annoying. Especially that false modesty. What did someone so powerful have to be nervous about?
Finally, Toshinori stammered, "David, I'd love to, but I have to tell you something first. I'm asexual." He paused, then vomited forth a flood of words. "Different people who identify as asexual have very different boundaries, but in my case, that means absolutely no sex, and I wanted to be clear about that, because it's caused problems in the past, and I value our friendship every bit as much as you do, I'd never want to mess it up…"
This explained a lot about the past seduction failures. Honestly, All for One felt a surge of relief. He'd been willing to sleep with All Might once, just for the novelty of nailing the hero to the mattress and then lording it over him after the inevitable reveal. But he had no interest in making a habit of it. This would be much easier than slipping impotence drugs into All Might's food. It would allow him to continue the fake relationship much longer so All Might would grow even more attached.
All for One smiled widely. "I'm rather neutral about sex, could take it or leave it. I've always wondered if I might be on the asexual spectrum." This was a lie. All for One discreetly had his needs taken care of by prostitutes. He saw no reason to change this, since All Might was far too trusting to ever check his partner's phone or ask why he'd gotten home late.
"Oh," Toshinori breathed, his eyes wide. "I-I even thought about offering an open relationship…because you're so important to me…are you sure…?"
"There's no need at all." Because All for One would find it far more satisfying to cheat, then taunt All Might about it later after the inevitable reveal.
Toshinori threw his arms around All for One in a crushing hug. The villain realized that although he'd fortunately dodged the risk of the blond oaf slobbering all over him, he still had to put up with this. Ugh.
They got married within six months. All for One successfully convinced Toshinori that they'd known each other for so long, there was no point in waiting. The next step was talking All Might into adopting a child. All for One had considered simply taking "David Shield" hostage, but it would require deft sleight of hand and risked Toshinori noticing something fishy. A child hostage would be far more potent, and after all the time he'd sunk into this masquerade, All for One refused to fail.
Initially, Toshinori had wavered, admitting he loved children but his job took up too much of his time and he feared villains targeting them. All for One waged a brutal war, leaving pictures of adorable kids around their shared apartment and brochures about the tragically low adoption rates for older or disabled children. He promised to do the majority of the child-rearing. He moped around acting depressed. Toshinori's burning need to please eventually got the best of him. For such a strong hero, the man was laughably easy to emotionally manipulate if it came from a loved one.
As Toshinori read through a folder, he said, "The adoption rates are low for disabled children, but they're even lower for quirkless ones. I'd like to adopt a quirkless child."
"What a wonderful idea." All for One could care less.
Toshinori held up a photo of a blond-haired girl with blue eyes. "She's six years old. Her name is Melissa. She was already adopted once, but the couple rejected her after she was diagnosed as quirkless. That means she'll probably have abandonment issues, but I think we're up to the challenge."
"She looks like you," All for One said. "She's perfect." He could already imagine breaking this girl's fingers one by one until All Might handed over One for All.
Toshinori blushed and stammered over what he imagined to be a compliment. "Do you want to be Dad or Papa or something else?"
All for One didn't care. "Dad."
"Do you think Yagi-Shield or Shield-Yagi sounds better? I think Yagi-Shield has a better ring to it, but of course, if you prefer to have your last name come first, then I don't mind."
"I don't care." A note of exasperation had crept into All for One's voice, but he softened it with a smile. "I think you're right, dear, Yagi-Shield sounds better."
"I know, I'm getting ahead of myself." Toshinori wrung his hands. "We'll have to meet her first to see if she connects with us."
All for One already had his phone out, sending out bribes to speed up the adoption process. He didn't think it would take All Might long to get attached. The fool seemed smitten just from a picture. Then they would move on to the much more fun, murderous part of the plan.
Since All for One had promised to be primary caretaker for the sake of All Might's hero career, he was required to look after Melissa. Fortunately, she was a very quiet, very easy child. If All for One actually cared, he'd have taken her to a doctor to check her for muteness. She seemed pathetically happy after the tiniest bit of attention, yet she never complained no longer how long he left her alone. She seemed used to it. After he realized that she wasn't going to tell anyone if he neglected her, he dumped her off in a corner and focused on his own work.
Melissa would trot around after him, but she was too young to understand anything on his computer, so he didn't care. He let her play with a coloring book or dolls.
Melissa left him presents everywhere. She would cut out hearts from her coloring book and tuck them into his lab coat pockets. She broke her cookies in two to share with him. A drawing of Melissa, Toshinori, and David Shield holding hands appeared on his pillow. All for One didn't understand why she bothered, given that he never thanked her, but it wasn't the first time someone had decided to worship him for no apparent reason. He started letting her fetch and carry equipment parts for him, since she was so eager to please.
On Melissa's seventh birthday party, she cried when she saw all the presents, then cried again after she opened them. All for One let Toshinori handle that; he was better at children's emotions.
After the party, Melissa flung her arms around All for One and whispered, "Thank you." Then, in a softer voice, "I love you, Dad."
All for One lied, "I love you, too," because he knew that was the expected response.
Melissa made a choked sound. All for One looked into her eyes, afraid she might be about to start crying all over him again. Instead, she gazed up at him with pure, unconditional adoration.
Even All for One's most devoted followers never looked at him with such complete and total love. Only his younger brother ever had.
When All for One had been a child, he'd never once felt loved by his parents, who had alternated between unreasonable expectations and casual abuse. When his younger brother had first looked at him with those adoring eyes, All for One had believed the universe had granted him a gift in exchange for all his struggles. Those hugs and smiles had become his reason for fighting so hard so that they could both have a better life.
But Melissa was not his little brother. All for One had been certain from the beginning that he'd never come to care about her, since she was adopted. He dismissed the nostalgia attack.
All for One stared at a Phillips screwdriver. "Melissa, this isn't what I asked for." He didn't bother hiding the annoyance in his voice because it was just the two of them.
"No, but it's what you need," Melissa said with serene confidence. She stood on her tiptoes to lean over the armor on the work bench. "See? Right here."
All for One stared. She was right. How had this seven-year-old little girl come to understand his equipment so completely just from watching him? Was she a genius? Grudgingly, he admitted, "Good idea."
Melissa beamed. "I learned everything from you, Dad."
All for One didn't remember teaching her much, but obviously being in the presence of his genius would help a lot. When he thought about it like that, her achievements became his own, and that made him feel much better. "Do you have any other suggestions?"
"I do!" This unleashed the floodgates. They spent the next hour discussing improvements to the armor. Some of Melissa's ideas were childishly ridiculous, like birds exploding from the centerpiece, but her suggestions about how to lighten the equipment made a lot of sense.
After the afternoon's work was finished, All for One felt smugly triumphant. "You did a good job, Melissa." For once, he even patted her on the head.
Melissa gasped. Her lower lip trembled. She cried, "I love you more than anyone else in the whole wide world!"
The words went straight to All for One's miniscule heart like a jolt of lightning. She was the second person who'd ever said that to him and meant it. He felt like an addict who'd received his first hit in years. The old need from his childhood to be worshipped and loved unconditionally came rushing back to him.
Like any addict, he made excuses to go back to using.
Melissa was special. Her brilliance and genius proved it. Of course, it was only natural that a child who'd caught his eye couldn't be ordinary. Melissa was a gift to him from the universe. Her love and adoration and everything about her belonged to him, and this time he had no intention of losing it.
"I am here!" Toshinori bellowed as he threw open the door.
Yes, the hero felt the need to shout that even when returning home for dinner, how obnoxious. All for One rolled his eyes, making certain his back was turned away from Toshinori when he did it.
Toshinori strode forward and tousled Melissa's hair. "How's my baby girl? Have you been good for your dad today?"
Melissa nodded. "I helped Dad with his work!"
All for One said, "She's a mechanical genius." He couldn't resist the urge to brag, even when All Might was the only audience he had. "She can rattle off mathematical calculations in her head—we need to get her into a more advanced math class. Her innovativeness outpaces most professionals in the support equipment field."
Toshinori smiled. "Then you certainly earned this gift I picked up for you on my way home." He knelt down and handed Melissa a stuffed tiger.
She gasped and clutched it tightly. "Thank you, Papa! I love you more than anyone else in the whole wide world!"
Toshinori kissed her cheek. "You'd better go wash your hands. It's almost dinner time."
Clutching her toy, Melissa skipped off.
Toshinori straightened to see All for One staring at him.
All for One blurted out, "But she said that she loved me the most just earlier today!"
Toshinori burst out laughing. Tears of mirth streamed down his cheeks. He gasped, "I'm sorry. It's just, that shocked, indignant look on your face…oh, David, she's seven. Her number one person is whoever gave her a present most recently. Don't overthink it. Melissa has plenty of room in her heart for both of her fathers."
But All for One didn't share.
Why had he ever thought it was a good idea to let the quirk thief All Might anywhere near his daughter? He'd made a mistake, and he didn't make those often. If only he could turn back time, then he'd have snatched up Melissa under another identity and let Toshinori adopt some stupid, worthless child. But he'd never found a time-travel quirk (and after his brother's death, he'd looked very hard.) Still, he had no intention of coparenting with the likes of All Might.
He'd have to remove the blond buffoon from his daughter's life.
It did pain All for One to give up on his years-long plan, but Melissa was more important.
First, All for One needed to win against All Might as a parent. (Not that he hadn't been a great dad before, but deep down he knew he hadn't put his full effort into it.) He showered his daughter with attention and private lessons. She blossomed under it. Her skill with inventions grew by leaps and bounds every day, which just went to show what a good teacher he was.
Toshinori was very pleased that Melissa had started talking more. All for One claimed it was because he'd recently switched her to a new child psychiatrist. (One who was on his payroll and could be trusted to assist with certain plans he had for later.)
Meanwhile, Toshinori had gotten increasingly busy handling the rising number of villain attacks in Japan. Melissa missed him, but All for One told her, "Papa doesn't like it when you complain about him being gone for work. His work is very important." She was a good girl. She listened to him.
On Melissa's eighth birthday, Toshinori missed the party because of hero work. All for One had spent weeks arranging for several major crises to hit at once. This also gave him a chance to swap out several of Toshinori's presents for Melissa with a scale and an exercise book.
He caught Melissa later standing on a chair in front of the bathroom mirror and pinching her baby fat. It almost made him feel bad, but even if she developed an eating disorder, he could work on fixing that after All Might have been removed from her life. That incident almost got him caught when Melissa asked Toshinori if she looked fat, but luckily All for One had been present and able to divert the subject before it came out why she'd asked that. Later, Melissa's bribed psychiatrist told her that her papa had only denied thinking she was fat and pretended to be concerned because she'd asked in public.
All for One played nice for several months after that, just to be on the safe side. Then he told Toshinori, "I want a divorce."
Toshinori spat coffee out his nose.
The scene turned extremely tedious, with lots of crying and begging. All for One enjoyed All Might begging, but it got boring after a certain point. So he told Toshinori that it was because of the lack of sex. This directly contradicted what he'd said before, but he knew Toshinori would believe it because deep down Toshinori feared that his asexuality made him unlovable. All for One had encouraged this fear over their relationship by often commenting how lucky the two of them had found each other because no one else would ever want someone not interested in sex.
Toshinori even offered to try sex. All for One was tempted to take the buffoon up on it just for the pleasure of forcing him to do something he obviously didn't want and then afterward telling him he'd been terrible and dumping him anyway. But unfortunately, he needed to maintain a cordial coparenting relationship with Toshinori for his plan to work.
All for One held back his laughter and instead convinced Toshinori that they could still be friends. And they didn't need a formal custody agreement because they were on such good terms.
If Toshinori had the slightest idea what All for One was already doing, he'd go to court demanding full custody. While All for One could kidnap Melissa, she was old enough to notice that. He never, ever wanted Melissa to find out that he was a villain. That was how he'd lost his little brother's love.
That evening, All for One went to Melissa's bedroom and cried to her about how Toshinori had dumped him in order to focus more on work. He painted a tragic picture of long-term spousal neglect and even hinted at emotional abuse. Oh, and for good measure he implied that Toshinori might have cheated with Sir Nighteye, then pretended he hadn't meant to reveal that. He swore her to secrecy about everything he'd told her afterward.
Melissa stared at her birthday cake with nine candles. Her lower lip trembled. "Papa really isn't coming?" she asked, not for the first time.
"I'm afraid not," All for One said, biting his lower lip to prevent himself from smiling.
Melissa kicked the back of her chair. "He promised me that he wouldn't miss my birthday this year! He swore it!"
"I'm sure something very important must have stopped him from coming," All for One said. It was true. He'd personally arranged for the Prime Minister of Japan to be taken hostage by terrorists.
Melissa's eyes overflowed with tears. "I know Papa is busy. It just seems oddly coincidental that 'something important' comes up every single time I have a school event or win an award. I guess I'm a low priority."
A small smile slipped onto All for One's face, but he covered it up with his hand. He'd used Melissa's therapist to point out to her how unlikely it was that Toshinori hadn't been able to attend a single one of her school events. Of course it wasn't a coincidence—All for One had used his influence to created crises that prevented All Might from attending. All for One was letting Toshinori destroy organized crime in Japan, and he didn't care, because he knew Toshinori was losing something far more important.
"He didn't send any presents either?" Melissa looked at the stack from All for One sitting on the table.
"Maybe he'll send something later," All for One said. He'd thrown every single gift from All Might in the incinerator. "Your papa loves you a lot, but he's a very busy man and can easily make mistakes." He'd stopped saying bad things about Toshinori in order to avoid looking biased. He paid Melissa's psychiatrist to say them instead. "I can ask him about it later."
"Don't. Presents don't count if you have to ask for them," Melissa muttered, another line that her psychiatrist had taught her. She stood up and rubbed her face. "I don't feel well enough to eat. I'm sorry, Dad." She ran upstairs.
Several minutes later, Toshinori knocked on the door. His suit and hair were streaked with dirt. One of his arms hung in a sling. Through a dry throat, he rasped, "I'm so sorry for being late."
All for One's eye twitched. How the hell had the blond fool gotten here so fast? "Oh, don't worry about it. I'll call Melissa. She ran upstairs because she was upset about…well, you already know, I won't make you feel any worse."
All for One went to the stairs and waiting long enough to pretend to have spoken to Melissa. Then he returned to the front door. "I'm afraid she doesn't want to see you. She's too upset. You missed her last birthday too, and it meant a lot to her that you promised to show up for this one."
Toshinori paled. "I'm sorry. Please, just let me talk to her."
"She refused to see you, and I don't think it's a good idea to force her. Maybe you should come back tomorrow when she's calmed down." All for One shifted from foot to foot. "In the meantime, I'll talk to her on your behalf. I'll explain to her that you truly couldn't help it. You had to save the prime minister."
Toshinori sagged. "Thank you, David."
The next day, All for One lied again and said that Melissa was still unwilling to talk to Toshinori.
This lie proved so useful that All for One was able to keep Toshinori away for weeks. Weeks where Melissa grew increasingly depressed about her papa's abandonment. All for One hacked Melissa's phone so that none of Toshinori's increasingly frantic calls and texts arrived.
But All for One knew that at some point, Toshinori would insist on seeing Melissa again. "Give her time" wouldn't keep him away from her forever. So he staged a phone call.
Standing in the hallway, All for One waited until he heard Melissa raiding the fridge for a snack. Then he spoke into his phone, pretending that there was someone else on the other end. "Toshinori, you may have responsibilities to Japan, but you have a responsibility to our daughter, too."
The sound from the kitchen froze. Melissa was eavesdropping.
All for One waited as if listening to a reply, then gasped. "How could you say something like that! You knew that raising a child would be a lot of work when we adopted Melissa. How would it make her feel if she knew that you regretted ever adopting her?"
A gasp came from the kitchen, then a pattering of footsteps up the stairs.
All for One walked up the stairs at a slow rate and knocked on the door. "Melissa? Is something wrong?"
"Nothing," she whispered. Then she muffled her sobs against her pillow.
All for One smiled.
The next time that Toshinori showed up to see Melissa, All for One let them meet. She greeted him coldly with, "Hi, Uncle Toshi."
Afterward, Toshinori cried into All for One's shoulder for nearly an hour. "She called me uncle! She hates me now!"
"I'm sure she doesn't mean it," All for One said, clamping down his lips to suppress gleeful laughter. "It's still very disrespectful. Do you want to punish her?"
"Of course not!" Toshinori sat up, eyes blazing.
All for One sighed. It would have been so much easier if Toshinori had fallen into his trap, but lying had worked for him in the past.
Melissa stared up with wide eyes. "He wants them all back? Even Mr. Stripes?"
"I'm afraid it hurt Toshinori's feelings when you called him 'uncle' so he's demanding that you return every present he ever gave you." All for One faked a look of sadness. "Legally, I have to comply." A child wouldn't know that this was bullshit.
Melissa clutched her stuffed tiger tightly. It had always been her favorite toy. She'd kept sleeping with it even after All for One had hinted she was too old for it. All for One hated seeing his daughter treasure something All Might had given her. He jerked the tiger away. "I'll buy you a new one." He was going to enjoy throwing this thing in the incinerator.
"But…but…" Melissa stared at the pile of her belongings to be disposed of. Books, art supplies, and even a tablet. She burst into tears.
"My darling girl, I'm so sorry." All for One hugged her. "I'll buy you replacements for everything. New, better ones. Even if he doesn't want you, I still do. How about you just call yourself Melissa Shield from now on? You're still my daughter. I promise that will never change."
Melissa sniffled. "I love you more than anyone in the universe, Dad."
All for One smiled. He felt confident that Melissa hadn't said that to All Might recently.
Before Toshinori showed up for his weekend with Melissa, All for One told her, "He said he'll only take you if you apologize to him."
Melissa's eyes widened. "I have to apologize to him? After what he did?"
All for One said, "I think it's ridiculous too. I'll support you if you decide not to, my dear girl. You don't have to go anywhere. You can stay here, at home."
When Melissa screamed and threw a temper tantrum every time Toshinori tried to pick her up, he eventually left miserable and childless. (All for One would have just forced his daughter if she'd refused to go with him, and he decided that Toshinori's refusal to do so just showed that he didn't love Melissa as much.)
But Toshinori didn't go down without a fight. He sent Melissa emails every single day. None of them ever reached her, of course. Using a tracker on Melissa's new tablet, All for One sent all of them straight to trash without even reading the maudlin contents. He told Melissa that the Number One Hero was too busy to contact her and she shouldn't bother him. He also used a virus to redirect any emails sent to All Might to himself instead.
As expected, Melissa disobeyed him and sent Toshinori several emails, eventually culminating in one very long and desperate apology for the "uncle" thing. All for One deleted all of them except the latter, which he replied to pretending to be Toshinori and telling her that he didn't think of himself as her father anyway.
Yet Toshinori still kept showing up every weekend and trying to pick up Melissa. As it become increasingly obvious that Toshinori wasn't going to simply go away, All for One eventually allowed supervised visits in public. As long as he remained present, he could make sure that nothing was communicated between Toshinori and Melissa that was detrimental to him. With a bit more psychological manipulation, he successfully ensured that Melissa was only civil to Uncle Toshi in his presence so that Toshinori wanted to bring him.
Without Toshinori around to contradict him, All for One was able to parent his daughter in his own way. He withdrew Melissa from public school on the grounds that she was too advanced and needed private tutoring. He filled up her time with inventions, keeping her too busy for hobbies or friendships. She didn't need exposure to the outside world. It was too dangerous. She might meet people who would be bad influences on her, just like his little brother. Melissa would be safest constantly staying by his side. He only ever permitted her to leave the safety of his fortified home if he could accompany her. Besides, he found that the more isolated he kept her, the more excited she acted every time she saw him.
Everything went perfectly until the I-Expo.
When Melissa Shield said, "I'm quirkless," Izuku blurted out, "Me too!"
He immediately tried to recover. "Except not anymore, as you know, ha-ha! But I was quirkless until the start of high school."
"Then you understand," Melissa said, her eyes sparkling.
This lead to the two of them sharing a table in the corner of the ballroom and talking about quirkless discrimination together.
Izuku said, "And then the teacher told me that quirkless people were more fragile so Kacchan hadn't meant to burn me so badly and I couldn't possibly blame him."
"Oh, I got that too back at the orphanage. This one awful girl with a parrot mutation pushed me down the stairs. The caretaker claimed the girl didn't know it would hurt me because she had wings and I didn't." Melissa grabbed a glass and drank. She'd accidentally picked up a glass of wine, then in a fit of rebellion decided to keep it. This was her very first experience underage drinking and even the small amount had already turned her cheeks flushed and loosened her tongue.
Izuku said, "I stopped even bothering to tell the teachers."
Melissa sighed. "My first set of adopted parents abandoned me after they realized I was quirkless."
Izuku gasped. "I'm so sorry!"
"I always wondered if that was the reason that Uncle Toshi stopped wanting me too." Melissa stared at the bottom of her glass like it contained the answers to the universe. "I mean, he knew I was quirkless when he adopted me, but sometimes people take on more than they can handle."
"Stopped wanting you?" Izuku stared. "All Might has done nothing but talk about you since we came to this island. He's so proud of your inventions."
Melissa snorted. "Maybe he puts on a show for other people. I know what he said." She drained the dregs of her glass. "He told me that all my important events were lower priority than his work, he used to get me insulting birthday gifts, and the one and only time I lashed out after being treated badly he decided to abandon me. He said I wasn't his daughter any longer. That's why I call him Uncle Toshi now."
Izuku shook his head. "That doesn't sound like All Might."
A tear trickled down Melissa's cheek. "You don't believe me. My psychiatrist always told me that I should never tell anyone what Uncle Toshi did to me because no one would believe anything bad about the Number One Hero."
"No, no!" Izuku waved his hands. "I don't think you're lying. It's just that I spent an entire plane ride listening to All Might rant about how great he thinks you are and how much he loves you. All Might got such a sad look on his face when you called him 'uncle.' Did you hear him tell you not to call him father to your face?"
"Yes! Well, not exactly. He used to say mean stuff about me to Dad behind my back." More tears fell from Melissa's eyes. "You can trust what someone says about you behind your back more than what they say to your face."
"He says nice things about you to me, though," Izuku muttered. "Hey, if you want proof about what All Might really thinks about you, want to steal his phone and go through his old emails?"
Melissa was sufficiently drunk to think this was a good idea.
All for One returned home from the exposition in good spirits. Countless heroes had purchased his equipment, all of which was bugged to fail on his command. Now that Melissa was getting older, All for One had plans to return to world conquest.
Melissa sat in a chair in the living room. He didn't notice her until she cleared her throat. Then he turned on the light. Tear tracts stained her cheeks.
"What's wrong?" All for One frowned. "Did Toshinori say something again?"
Melissa held up a stack of papers. They were printed emails. Hundreds of messages from Toshinori:
How are you feeling today, Melissa? I was on a mission to France today and I picked up a cake at a bakery for you. I saw you've started picking at your food and throwing away half of it. A growing girl needs to eat! Please let me know if it's not to your taste.
I heard that you won the Junior Inventor award. I'm so proud of you! I respected your wishes not to come, because David said you thought it would distract attention from you. But David sent me loads of pictures. I have one on my desk now.
David told me that you didn't want me at your tenth birthday, so I picked out loads of presents instead. I know it may be too late, I know I've said it a million times, but I'm so sorry I missed your last party. I regret it every single day.
In a choked voice, Melissa asked, "Why did I never get any of these emails, Dad?"
All for One's world came tumbling down.
Author's Note: This story continues my tradition of gifting All for One to various characters for their birthday. December 1 is David Shield's birthday, but instead of making All for One into his father, I made David into All for One instead. That's significantly worse than being related to All for One. Poor David doesn't deserve this, and neither does Melissa.
Playing around with new flavors of Dad for One lets me explore different types of bad parenting. Parental alienation is the process through which a child becomes estranged from one parent as the result of the psychological manipulation of another parent.
Melissa still doesn't know that David is All for One, or she would have known better than to confront him in a private location. At least she has All Might and Izuku to rescue her from the inevitable vault.
Even if Melissa hadn't found out, her relationship with All for One still would have gone wrong eventually since Melissa had reached the age of wanting independence and dating. He prefers codependency and only caring about one person at a time. Japan could have solved a lot of problems if All for One could have gotten his unconditional love from a dog instead of a person.
All for One was even worse than usual in this story. He screws up anyone he's related to. The next unfortunate victims with December birthdays will be Eri and Ochaco.
