Chapter 36: Into the Woods
Summary:
Summer Camp begins!
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
When the bus stopped, Izuku woke from his nap to the blaring of Danger Sense inside his skull.
Izuku got to his feet as Eraserhead called that they were taking a pit stop, and asked for everyone to leave the bus. Most of the students were complying, but Mei looked Izuku in the eyes.
"Danger Sense going off for you, too?" Mei asked. Several other members of the Ennead turned at that public broadcast.
"Yes. Though in this case, it's probably more like a 'Logical Ruse Sense'. Something's going to happen here," Izuku said. The present members of the Ennead began to alert the others, using JSL to sign out "Be careful" as they exited the bus.
Well, all of them except Nejire did so. Nejire, instead, asked Eri if she wanted to ride on Nejire's shoulders. Eri enthusiastically agreed, and both of their smiles were equally wide.
On the one hand, it melted most of their hearts. On the other hand, their teaching assistant had separated the civilian from the Hero Course students. Not a good sign.
"Well, that's quite a bunch of serious faces you have there, Aizawa!" came a female voice from behind the bus.
For the briefest moment, Izuku's anxiety was overwhelmed by his nerdery as he saw two women in costumes appear, followed by a young boy in a cap who looked simultaneously bored and angry.
"Coming out of nowhere…" The first voice belonging to a brunette woman, Mandalay, began.
"Stingingly cute and catlike…" a blonde woman, Pixie-Bob, followed her up.
"Wild Wild Pussycats!" The two women posed, to the utter bemusement of the child beside them.
Yui looked at them with absolute awe. "These women are living the dream."
Eraserhead was about to introduce them, but was interrupted by Izuku providing a fanboy infodump involuntarily. The class representative was going off until he mentioned that they'd been in operation for twelve years, at which point Danger Sense flared, and he slapped his hand over his mouth as an irate Pixie-Bob charged after him, stopping as she saw him stop talking.
"I'm eighteen at heart, you got it?" she said, with an edge to her voice.
"I'll contact the editorial staff and point out the error," Izuku managed to say.
"Ladies, ribbit, we've trained him well," Tsu said to her girlfriends.
"Perhaps too well," Momo said warily. "She seems a tad too appreciative…"
"I wonder if a new Bond would have been formed if one was open…" Nana teased.
Mandalay pointed to one of the mountains in the distance, "You'll be staying with us at our headquarters. It's at the base of that mountain."
Between Izuku's warnings and their teacher's reputation, it dawned on them how this was going to play out.
"Oh crap," Denki said, just before the ground exploded beneath them, hurling the students off the cliff into the forest below.
Despite being warned, the attack was sudden and came out of nowhere, catching most of the students flat-footed. Some, however, were able to recover more easily.
The Izuku and the five girls who'd reached a Stage 3 Bond were able to recover more easily. Izuku and Ochako in particular, were able to fly above the wave of dirt that threw them around. Ochako managed to grab Toru and Yui, while Izuku snared Fumikage, Itsuka, and Kinoko in Blackwhip before they got out of range. Most of Setsuna got lost in the wave, but she managed to detach her head and send it upwards.
"You have three hours to make it through the Beast's Forest. Quirk use is allowed, since it's all our property," Mandalay called out. "Kittens who don't make it by twelve-thirty won't get lunch!"
There was a brief standoff as the airborne students looked at their peers, then to the group still on the cliff. Eri was looking worried, and Nejire was consoling her. The boy was pointedly not looking at them. Mandalay frowned at their flight, while Pixie-Bob looked excited. Eraserhead, meanwhile, just stared at them.
"We'll touch down," Izuku said. "Eri-chan, everything's going to be all right, this is just what we have to do for school!"
"We'll see you at camp!" Ochako called out, while everyone in their grasp waved at her.
Eraserhead relaxed, not wanting to use his Quirk to drop his students, but willing to teach them the appropriate lesson. Eri finally relaxed, waving back, "Bye, Papa! Bye, Mamas!"
"Wait, what?!" Mandalay snapped her head towards Eraserhead in shock.
Tokage's head floated above the collected group of non-flying 1-A students, and she cried out, "Okay, everyone who's not dead, sound off!"
There was a chorus of groans as Izuku and Ochako touched down with their classmates and began to help extract everyone who was still recovering. No one was injured, but not everyone was in fighting shape.
"That ruled! Can we do that again?!" Mei said happily.
"Don't ask, I'm sure she'll make it happen," Pony grumbled as she extracted herself on her horns.
"Yo, Midori, you're the hero nerd," Mina said. "Know why the catgirls called this the Beast's Forest?"
"That never came up in anything I've read about them," Izuku shrugged.
"The name makes it sound like this place is en-chanterelle," Kinoko said. "Though, if that's the case, Koda-kun would be a champignon in this place."
Koji blushed at the praise as most of the class groaned at the puns. In response, Koji cleared his throat and let out a call for help from the animals within the woods. It spread out far, particularly after Momo gave him a megaphone.
There was the sound of something large approaching. "That's pretty quick, Koda-bro," Eijiro said. "Though it's pretty big. Do we get brown bears around here?"
Before Koji could answer, the source of the noise appeared. An enormous, eyeless quadrupedal creature with enormous talons and wide jaws filled with sharp teeth.
"Beast, stop, please!" Koji commanded, though the creature didn't respond.
Izuku responded by blasting rapid-fire Laser Discs at it, slicing it apart. "They're not alive! Pixie-Bob must be making them with her Quirk!"
Another beast emerged from the underbrush, about to attack when they were saved.
"Pocket loam!" Kinoko cried out, hurling some soil out of a bag in one of her pockets. As soon as the soil hit the earth creature, myriad species of mushrooms emerged across its body, until the dirt that constituted it dissolved.
Kinoko grinned and pulled out a spray bottle, "Inoculation time, everyone. We're in a dark, warm, humid forest. I'm the queen here…" she said in an unsettlingly cheerful tone.
Most of 1-A was shocked as they gathered to get sprayed. Fumikage and Reiko looked downright envious. Another beast emerged as they were preparing, but that one quickly lost to their other force of nature.
A swarm of rats, squirrels, shrews, moles, rabbits, lizards, snakes, badgers, foxes, and other beasts emerged and ran towards the simulacrum, digging chunks out of it. As they did so, another earthen beast emerged, only to be blocked by an actual animal.
"Huh, so there are brown bears around here, Kiri-bro!" Tetsutetsu stated while their last classmate was sprayed with Kinoko's formula. Koji commanded the animals to disperse as Kinoko began to set off spores, chuckling frighteningly.
"We must make haste if we're to reach the camp by noontime!" Tenya stated, ready to start his engines.
"A hero should strive to be half an hour early, no?" Ibara added.
"Yeah, I don't think we're going to make it on foot," Melissa said. "This is probably meant to be an impossible task."
"I mean, why not just fly over the forest?" Mei said. "We have Yaomomo here," she thumbed over to the class's vice-representative.
"I- Right, my awakening, that's actually feasible now," Momo stated. "Though I don't know any appropriate blueprints for an airplane, a helicopter or any similar conveyance."
Mei and Melissa both cocked their heads in curiosity, "You don't?"
Momo blushed, "It was beyond the scope of my abilities."
"Well, good thing you have us here to provide!" Mei cheered, throwing up Melissa's hand.
Izuku realized a plan was forming, "I'll track our combatants with Danger Sense, but I could use more sets of eyes! Koda-kun, ask your friends to have a warning system for the beasts! Komori-san, you're on destruction duty! Everyone else, clear a space for takeoff! Anyone who's flight capable and highly mobile should fly outside, since… Well, I assume nobody here has a pilot's license or experience piloting aircraft…"
"I actually do have preliminary pilot and helicopter training, but not a full license," Melissa said.
Izuku blinked, "I stand corrected. Still, we'd be better off with a vanguard in case anything goes wrong. Everyone who's neither flight capable or specializes in mobility, you'll be in the craft. Everyone who's highly mobile but not flight capable?"
Izuku grinned, "Thanks to me and Occhan, you can be."
Eraserhead was a little worried.
Not for his class. No, that pack of monsters could take a day trip into Hell and come out singing. He was worried about the little girl still on the bus.
He wasn't good with kids. Or adults, to be fair, but especially not kids. Hell, he only became a teacher thanks to Nemuri's coercion and only remained one because Nezu, for some inexplicable reason, chose not to fire him. Of course, he also took pride in making sure that his students would have the training required to be safe, so that he wouldn't see their names in the obituaries, so that they would never be crushed underneath-
Eraserhead moved hastily away from that line of thinking. Yeah, he wouldn't keep his students safe. Which had made learning that Izuku saw him as a threat, not merely because of his position as a teacher but because of actions he committed, such a harsh blow to him. And now, once again, he'd screwed up.
Because, of course Eri had to be there. Her condition required observation and they were the only ones qualified. And of course, seeing someone attack people she loved, including the first person who ever made her feel safe, made Eri anxious.
"Eri-chan," Nejire said, "I'm sorry. We should have let you know. We didn't mean to scare you. We only did that to help train them to be Heroes."
"That's what Grandma Inko said when Grandpa Might tested Papa and Mama Ochako! They're already heroes! When can you stop? Why do they need to keep getting hurt…" Eri asked.
And Eri's expression was asking a different question. She wanted to know, could she trust that she was safe if this kept happening?
Eraserhead thought carefully as he said, "They are all Heroes. As they are now, they could even match up to a number of pros that I've met. They could be decent Heroes even if we don't test them. But none of them wants to be a decent hero, someone who's just good enough, they want to be great heroes. The best heroes. The ultimate heroes," Eraserhead said, using Izuku's epithet deliberately. "If you want to be the kind of hero that makes everyone feel safe, you need to keep growing. And they've gotten so good that the only way they can grow is if we push them. Your Papas and Mamas know that, and that's why they're here. To keep getting better. You're the first person that Kyuseishu and Lemillion saved. They need to keep growing if they're going to save a million."
Eri looked at him, considering, before nodding. She was so brave.
It was a shame she had to be.
As they reached the camp, they saw Mandalay, Pixie-Bob, and the kid they were with arriving on a moving platform of earth.
"Um, Aizawa-san? What the heck?" Mandalay asked, pointing up into the sky.
Eraserhead looked where she was pointing and was simultaneously both proud and extremely tired.
A futuristic helicopter, painted in the same bright blue and white as the U.A. P.E. uniform, made its way towards the camp.
At the forefront of the vanguard was Izuku, flying backwards to ensure his classmates were fine, Blackwhip at the ready in case anything happened to the students in the vehicle. Toru, and Mei were flying near him, seemingly carried by his Zero-Gravity enhanced Float. Tsu as well, though she was trying to use her new gliding membranes to aid her in the flight. Ochako was bringing up the rear.
Tenya and Fumikage both seemed to be flying under their own power. Ochako must have removed their gravity, so Tenya's engines were able to propel him through the air and Dark Shadow was able to wrap her body around Fumikage, forming makeshift wings that let him easily soar.
Additionally, four of Pony's horns had been enlarged to the size of motorcycles, and the horse-like girl was flying herself, Yui, Momo, and Kinoko on them like a flying, female motorcycle gang.
Every so often, one of Pixie-Bob's constructs would attempt to attack them. Sometimes, they would be torn through by Tenya, Fumikage, or Izuku. Most of the time, though, Momo and Kinoko were coordinating for this, where Momo would create an orb of appropriate substrate, Kinoko would fill it with the spores, and Momo would launch them at the construct with an air cannon. Upon contact, the construct would disintegrate as it was ripped apart by the growth of mushrooms.
Within ten minutes, the helicopter was landing on a flat surface near the camp. Eraserhead wasn't sure which of the hellspawn he was teaching decided to have the helicopter's speakers blare "Ride of the Valkyries" but he loved and hated them in the same breath.
Once all the students gathered, Mandalay whistled. "Have to say, I wasn't expecting this! Honestly, we would've been surprised if you actually made it by twelve-thirty!"
1-A as a whole looked exasperated, but resigned to their fate by this point.
Pixie-Bob grinned as she stepped forward, "Gotta say, you kids came up with some creative solutions! And some of you performed exceptionally well…" she looked hungrily over at the students, first putting her eyes over at Izuku…
Only to then see that seven of the female students were glaring daggers at her. Hell, she could feel the teaching assistant glaring as well.
She turned away, feeling their glares soften, if only just a bit. She turned her gaze over to Tenya, only to find that the vine-haired girl was now glaring at her. Turning to Fumikage provoked the ghost-looking girl. Looking at Denki enraged the girl with the headphone jacks for earlobes. The two tough shark-toothed boys were currently being fawned over by the pink-skinned girl and the girl who could split herself apart.
Perhaps the quiet, muscular animal lover would be available? Nope, that was the worst decision of all, as the mushroom girl who destroyed her Earth Beasts so easily was looking at her with an evil grin, as if daring her to make a move. Like she wanted Pixie-Bob to try something, to give her an excuse.
Screw it, the other class has to have some eligible bachelors, Pixie-Bob thought as she backed off.
Kota was angry. Nothing terribly new there, but it was another breed of anger than it typically was. It was bad enough his parents were a bunch of suicidal idiots, that the only family he had left were suicidal idiots, but now they had a whole mess of suicidal idiots coming by to start training how to kill themselves in bigger and flashier ways.
Of course, one of the things that made this weirder than he suspected was that there was a girl about his age among them. And she called the green haired guy her dad, which was super weird. Like, to a five year old, a teenager was practically ancient, but even he knew that there was no way he was really her dad.
And speaking of, after going over to the green guy, the white haired girl walked over to him, looking a little scared to be doing so, and asked, "H-hi, my name is Eri. What's yours?"
He wanted to blow her off, but the Wild Wild Pussycats had been informed about Eri before the camp. They impressed upon him two important things. First, that if her horn began to glow, he was to get away and tell someone to help her, because her Quirk was dangerous. And second, that she had been through a lot, and that he should try to be nice to her, and that if he couldn't handle that, he should at least try not to be mean.
Aunt Shino didn't ask much of him, so he supposed he could be somewhat polite. "Kota Izumi," he grumbled out.
The green haired guy talked to Aunt Shino, asking who he was, and then bent down and offered his hand, "Hey, Kota! I'm Izuku Midoriya! Nice to meet you!"
And rage overtook him. Another goddamn Hero trying to weasel in on him! And so, he aimed a punch between Izuku's legs.
And found himself stopped by a thick strand of black energy ropes, that tingled with a warm sort of energy.
"Huh, that wasn't very polite," Izuku said as an understatement.
Aunt Shino went after him and started to yell at him, but he didn't care much about that. Whatever she had to say didn't bother him.
The look on Eri's face, however? The look of confusion and hurt? That bothered him a lot.
Whatever. If the Izuku guy really was her dad and he wanted to be a Hero, she should get used to it.
He was just going to die on her.
After retrieving their luggage and introducing the students to their bunks, as the Pussycats prepared lunch for the class, Eraserhead brought them to the field.
"You managed to circumvent the obstacles we placed on you," Eraserhead said. "That was commendable and I'm proud of all of you. That does mean that, since you have such an early start, we're going to begin our training today instead of tomorrow. Now, I'm going to demonstrate exactly what we intend to do over the course of this camp. Kendo, step forward."
Itsuka did so, and Eraserhead placed a softball in her hand, "During the Quirk Assessment Test, your score was 705.6 meters, correct?"
"Yes, sensei," Itsuka nodded.
"Try it again, with all the strength you can muster," Eraserhead stepped back, as Itsuka grew her hand as large as it could go, hurling it with all of her strength.
When Aizawa's phone chirped, he showed the results.
"Only a .1 meter increase?!" Itsuka yelled, scarcely believing what she was seeing.
"Indeed. Don't worry, this is quite typical. But now, let's contrast those results with another. Midoriya, you're up," Eraserhead called over. "Your score on the first day was 538.6 meters. Same deal. Throw the ball with as much power as you can safely use."
Izuku took his spot as Itsuka rejoined the class, who as one began to back up. Izuku's body began to light up with green lightning, as Blackwhip extended in his hands to form a structure similar to a jai alai cesta, allowing Izuku to throw the ball with even greater force than if he were simply using his hands. When Izuku hurled the softball, the air was forced back upon the assembled students and their teacher, as if there was a stiff breeze.
It took much longer for Eraserhead's phone to chirp. When it did, it revealed that the ball traveled 3,891.3 meters.
"Almost four kilometers?!" Denki shouted. "Holy crap, dude!"
Kyoka blinked, "Wait, how could Kendo-chan only increase by a tenth of a meter while Green increased his distance almost eight times?!"
"Midoriya, what percentage of your Quirk could you use on the first day of class?" Eraserhead asked.
"Five, maybe five and a half percent," Izuku replied.
"And just now?"
"Umm…" Izuku briefly flashed as he tried to quantify it, "I'd say forty-two percent."
Eraserhead nodded, "Midoriya's a special case, but it's illustrative of our goals for you. He had to train his body so he could access more of his Quirk, but for the rest of you? Your Quirks have room to grow. Quirks are parts of your body, and can be strengthened like any other part. Our focus for this training camp is going to be training your Quirks to bring out the best in them, so that you can bring more raw power to the Provisional License Exam…"
Eraserhead gave them one of his unsettling smiles, "Get enough food in you. Hell training starts afterwards."
"I appreciate the two of you attending this meeting with me, gentlemen. Particularly given that I mentioned who would be in attendance," Nezu said, taking a sip of tea as he looked out at the two men in his office.
All Might and Sir Nighteye looked professional, if a tad uncomfortable around one another. Nighteye spoke, "You said that you wished us to help you analyze the findings of an investigation with you before you moved forward."
"Indeed," Nezu stated. "I always find it good to have a human perspective on these situations, particularly since this matter was one I would have investigated much sooner had I known the situation was unacceptable.
"Ah, so it's the Endeavor case, then," All Might said gravely, causing Nighteye to sputter.
"Indeed," Nezu said. "Honestly, I wish I could have had Midoriya-kun here as well to get his perspective, particularly since he'd been unfortunately dragged into this debacle. Unfortunately, this is time sensitive and he's at the training camp…"
All Might cleared his throat, and he half expected to expel a bit of blood as he did so, "While young Izuku is progressing nicely, I believe that he has enough on his plate for the time being."
"True enough," Nezu sighed.
Nighteye finally interrupted, "So, could you kindly inform me why you're investigating the Number Two Hero at all?"
In lieu of explaining, Nezu simply pushed a button, which caused a screen to rise from his desk facing his guests. After accessing the file, both men watched the confrontation between Izuku and Shouto at the Sports Festival.
Both men had nearly identical reactions. Shocked by Shouto's belief that All Might was Izuku's father, horror at the implications of Endeavor's behavior that only grew when Shouto began to state his past outright, and finally, a hard, determined look. Nezu suspected that if Endeavor walked in at that very second, they would have immediately murdered him.
Nezu could sympathize. He'd been tempted. It would have been relatively easy, he'd planned it out during a late night and three cups of tea. Sometimes he regretted his decision to follow the rules of human society.
"And what did you need help with?" Nighteye asked, in a tone that implied that he was expecting it to be a place to hide the body. And would be sorely disappointed if it wasn't.
"To be clear, everything I've uncovered corroborates Enji Todoroki's abusive behavior towards his youngest son," Nezu explained. "I was fully prepared to do whatever it took to get the boy out of Endeavor's care and into the dorms, and I'm both happy and somewhat disappointed that he was allowed in without a fight. The man has been a terrible father…
"However," Nezu sighed, "what I've uncovered suggests that Shouto-kun was incorrect about a number of other topics he brought up."
The two men blinked as Nezu procured a stack of papers taller than he was.
"I have all the information here, filed by relevant case. Enji Todoroki's marriage to Rei Todoroki, nee Himura, was an omiai marriage. While many Quirk marriages had been called omiai marriages in the past, there was no coercion involved. Family members, friends of Rei, other peers of theirs, in all reports, it was a typical meeting of a potential spouse through a matchmaker. The matchmaker is still in business, has no ties to Quirk traffickers, and doesn't even focus on her clients' Quirks more than usual," Nezu stated.
"People can use legitimate services to process illegal activities while leaving everything under the table," Nighteye said.
Nezu shook his head, "The only action we've found that could reasonably fit the profile of a Quirk marriage is that Endeavor bought his in-laws a house in Okinawa for their retirement. It was long after they actually married and began having children, and the Himuras were pleasantly surprised by the action. Far from the claim that he bought a woman like livestock."
All Might frowned, "What about his children? Even if the marriage itself was amicable, his children do all seem to have been conceived as breeding experiments…" he took out the photographs of the four Todoroki children.
"Not to mention the death of the eldest," Nighteye added.
Nezu's expression was unclear, but his tone was chipper as he said, "Luckily, I have received permission to delve into medical records for this, including the psychiatric notes for Rei Todoroki. As well as security footage from the Todoroki residence. According to all the evidence, Enji, while not overly affectionate, was much less volatile towards his family in his earlier days. He was training Touya-kun to follow in his footsteps, as his flames were more powerful than Enji's. This training was intense, but not abusive…
"The problems began as Touya became more and more injured, as it revealed that he inherited his mother's increased tolerance for colder temperatures and weakness to heat," Nezu shook his head. "It became clear that Touya could not continue training to be a Hero safely. The attempt would be lethal. And the boy took this poorly."
Nighteye frowned, looking at the medical records of burn after burn and tests showing Touya's weakness to his own flames, "I suppose that this would appear as though he was cast aside as a failure."
Nezu nodded, "Things deteriorated from there. The family dynamic got much more tense. Touya rebelled against the perceived abandonment. Enji's demeanor didn't help in the slightest, nor did his mother's attempts to ameliorate the situation. The situation was volatile, but ultimately salvageable. This reached a fever pitch when Shouto was born.
"Shouto-kun's heterochromia made it clear that he had the exact kind of Quirk that Endeavor had been hoping to produce in a child. Touya would be hurt by his flames. Fuyumi didn't wish to become a Hero, and was in a similar state with her Quirk, producing ice with a resistance to heat. Natsuo's Quirk can only charitably be called an emitter Quirk, functioning more like a mutation, heating or cooling himself enough to be comfortable no matter the ambient temperature. Perfect for survival anywhere from the Antarctic to the Sahara, but not terribly useful for a Hero. So, not only was Touya forbidden from becoming a Hero, a new sibling was born who seemed tailor made for it… and thus, at one point, the boy attacked his infant brother, who was still in his mother's arms," Nezu said solemnly.
"... [Fuck]" All Might finally said, in English.
"Indeed," Nezu said.
"What about the boy's death?" Nighteye asked, clearly disturbed.
"He'd been training in secret," Nezu responded. "Several times he had been caught and discouraged from continuing. Finally, he attempted to show his father that he was able to live up to his standards, but lost control of his flames. He started a wildfire, and burnt himself to a crisp. Only a part of his jawbone was recoverable, the rest buried in ash."
All Might nodded. Though, after learning about the fate of Tenko Shimura, who was declared dead in a similar form, not to mention All for One surviving what was thought to be a lethal attack, part of him wondered if that was enough.
"And, from there, things somehow got worse," Nezu said. "Rei deteriorated. According to her, she wanted to prevent Shouto-kun from the same fate as his brother. The horrific burns Touya gave himself with his Quirk convinced Endeavor to stop training him. And so, in the middle of a mental breakdown, she poured boiling water on his face, hoping that the burn would stop Endeavor's training, and save the boy's life."
There was a deeply uncomfortable silence.
Nighteye sighed, "Why did you say that your decision was time sensitive?"
"Oh!" Nezu replied cheerfully. "That's because Endeavor wanted to meet with me! He said he wants my advice regarding decisions he wishes to make. He was vague about what those decisions were, but I surmise it has to do with the speech of Midoriya's that I leaked and the public response to it. He'll be here in…" he checked the clock, "Two hours and forty-two minutes."
All for One dreamed of his ideal world.
It wasn't all he was doing at the moment. He could multitask. Particularly with the Quirk Multitasking, which better allowed him to parallel process and plan several things at once. It caused migraines with overuse, but it was incredibly useful, particularly with his suite of Quirks.
And that was the crux of his ideal world. All for One loved Quirks. He desired them above all else. It's true that Quirks were often the means to an end, but he was the only person in the world to whom Quirks were an end in and of themselves.
He would live forever, the world's population a buffet of Quirks for him to take at his whim. Any new Quirk that caught his eye would become his. He could, on occasion, swap a desired Quirk for a less cherished bauble in his collection, or loan one to a flunky (the perks of immortality meant that he could always be patient, let a person have their fun before he reclaimed his property). He could force ideal lineages of Quirks to interbreed, to craft new and exciting Quirks for him to take. All the while, everyone would know and fear him, pray to him in fear of his might. They would do services for him to keep their power, or to borrow one, until such time as he grew tired and took what was rightfully his.
He had that once, or at least the beginnings of it. He started small, slowly growing his collection of powers and his forces of loyal soldiers. Once Meta Abilities grew to the point that the world governments couldn't ignore them, he led his people into open revolt. Once the powerful took their place at the top, he slunk back into the shadows, growing his influence and his collection, operating through catspaws, waiting for the time when he could strike at once without any chance of defeat.
Of course, there was one issue with achieving that goal. His greatest mistake. The thorn in his side and the white rabbit just out of reach. One for All, his idiot brother's Quirk.
He thought that his mistake would be corrected when he finally broke Yoichi, but was shocked to find that the Quirk was gone from his body. The little nerd just laughed, blood dripping from his mouth, and said, "Sorry, brother, but your princess is in another castle."
God it was satisfying to bash in the sickly man's skull. Still brought a smile to his deformed face.
He found the Quirk later, first in those two little terrorists that had fought his forces and broke Yoichi out of his vault. Pathetic little things, a pitiful laser projectile and a charged attack equivalent of a wind-up toy. He briefly saw it in the boy with the alarm system before it dropped off the face of the Earth for a bit after. Then there was the bald tentacle monster, then the living smoke bomb, and the flying girl. All of them frustratingly hard to swat down and infuriatingly immune to his attempts to retrieve his stolen property.
And of course, the biggest setback of them all, All Might. To say the man decimated his power was an understatement. Decimation originally referred to killing one-tenth of a population. After All Might, it would have been generous to say that All for One had one-tenth of his prior resources remaining! Not to mention the grievous injuries that All Might left on his person.
Still, All Might was injured just as grievously as he was. And All for One wasn't dead. All for One still had Doctor Garaki, still had his dragon's hoard of Quirks, still had favors to be owed.
One of those favors was paying dividends. The Aoyamas had approached him to give their son a Quirk so that he would fit in with his peers. For an attempt at poetic irony, All for One provided a Quirk given to him by a child whose parents begged him to have it removed. Both because at that time, Quirks were vilified, and because Navel Laser was potentially lethal to its user.
Many of the most powerful first-generation Quirks lacked the bodily adaptations that later Quirks possessed, so Navel Laser came with no associated mutations to deal with the recoil or prevent accidental use. Between that, the stigma associated with having a superpower, the prohibitive expense of any possible prosthetic gear, and the dire state of society, Navel Laser was a death sentence.
Nowadays, though, the technology to mitigate such a flaw was commonly available and could be produced easily. And Navel Laser had been gathering dust for a while. He could give it to the boy for a few decades.
At first, All for One had balked at the secrecy the Franco-Japanese family insisted on providing for their son, and considered denying them as a power play. Now? Honoring that request was paying off. Convincing the Aoyamas to have their boy attend U.A.'s Hero Course was child's play, with no need to intimidate the child. Tomura insisted that he infiltrate U.A. on his own, making a collaborator meaningless. And now, he was leading All for One's forces right to their stronghold completely unaware. He had his mole, and there was no need to fear that the boy would betray him or let information slip to his enemies.
Of course, that did prevent him from tormenting the boy with threats, but All for One had plenty of other outlets for his sadism. One of which would be his protege's attack on U.A.'s training camp.
Tomura had been distressingly quiet since his excursion to the mall. He'd merely asked if there was anyone else who could give Quirks like All for One could. In response, he told his ward about One for All, its history, and how it had been transferred from All Might into the boy Tomura had dubbed Player Two. Since then, the desiccated young man had not spoken to his Sensei for some time, preferring to speak to his new subordinates to hash out a plan of attack, a plan he insisted on not being a part of.
For his part, All for One let the manchild mope. Tomura was always moody, and honestly, a failure might grant more of a tactical advantage than a success. A successful plot would merely achieve the goals they set forward. A failure would drive Tomura to further subsume himself to All for One's will as he failed to get what he wanted. A failure would make Tomura less likely to fight back when All for One inevitably overtook his mind.
For his part, All for One gave explicit instructions to Tomura, that there were three people that he would be encouraged to bring back to him. Receiving any single one of those targets would be enough for All for One to consider the mission a success. More targets would bring better rewards. Under no circumstances should the targets be killed.
The first target was Tomoko Shiretoko, the hero known as Ragdoll. Her Quirk, Search, would be a godsend for him. The ability to sense weakness in a person, to know the location of one of his targets, to track one hundred simultaneous people… and that was before it could interact with one of his myriad other mental Quirks!
Furthermore, it was a Quirk that wouldn't require years of training to master! A Quirk that would mesh well with Tomura once he received All for One, for the brief time where keeping Tomura's consciousness alive was expedient.
The second target was Izuku Midoriya. Of course All for One wanted the opportunity to meet the newest holder of One for All. At the very least, he had to congratulate him for the sheer chutzpah to broadcast the connection with the number of "nine" puns in his name.
Given Tomura's questions, the boy wasn't unaware of All for One's existence. Which meant the child was either suicidally overconfident or had correctly surmised that All for One already knew he was the ninth holder and decided that stealth was a fruitless endeavor.
There was a non-zero chance that he could manipulate the boy into switching sides. The only thing better than having All Might realize that his nemesis had been grooming his mentor's grandson into becoming his enemy was to turn All Might's apprentice against him. Still, that was the long shot. The true intent was, either through coercion or force, regaining One for All from its current vessel.
The last target, however, would be the real prize. A Quirk that would erase so many of his current dilemmas. A goal that would galvanize the flotsam that Tomura brought in. A useful bargaining chip against so many of his enemies.
Yes, if his minions retrieved Eri, then One for All would almost be an afterthought.