I do not own My Hero Academia it is owned by Horikoshi


Chapter 29 - End of an Era


Kamino Ward (Air):

'That was too close,' thought Hawks, carrying Midoriya under one arm, 'If I had been a second slower Izuku and I would have been goners.' The only warning he'd gotten was Midoriya suddenly tensing up, almost on the verge of panic. 'It isn't foolproof, but that 6th sense of his was a lifesaver just now.'

"Sir, are you okay?"

"I'm fine Deku," replied Hawks switching over to being fully professional, watching All for One warp in his subordinates, Bakugo, and finally Kota whom in Hawks estimation even at a distance, looked rather worse for wear, "Okay Deku, if you can sneak in, your objective is there. I'll try to draw attention." He then noticed Wolfram as Midoriya snuck off, 'Shit, I forgot someone busted that asshole out.'


Kota coughed out what was left of whatever that goop was and he immediately tried curling up into a ball the wind causing him to shiver uncontrollably. Pieces of rock or at least he thought it was pieces of rock were cutting into him.

"Apologies Kota," came an unsettling voice, "I didn't think of your state when I warped you here." A sudden chill went down Kota's spine, 'Wait I...this is the same guy that was suggesting to those others what to do to me.' The same calculating voice, extremely polite yet it made the cruelty all the more frightening. If he had anything in his stomach he would have thrown up right there. He didn't know where he was because the duck tape was still over his eyes, there were too many strong smells to figure out who was near him. "Hello Keigo Takami, fancy meeting you here? Are you here to try your hand, Hawks? See if you can do better than Best Jeanist?" Kota tried to stay as still as possible, 'Did he take out the Number 4 Pro?' he wondered.

"I actually have some questions..." said Hawks dryly, truthfully he was stalling. Meanwhile he could see Midoriya darting from rubble mound to rubble mound. He noticed that one of the villains, the one with the Gecko quirk had noticed Midoriya but was pointedly ignoring him.

"Oh? Where are my manners, how is you shoulder, and your Apprentice, the one who lost his mother... so tragic, did you decide to leave him behind at the last moment?"

Hawk's eyes widened but didn't respond, 'He knew we were coming?!'

"Excuse me," All for One apologized before directing his attention to blocking All Might, "It was about time that you showed up, All Might." The backwash from All Might's punch sent Kota and Hawks tumbling end over end, the former towards Midoriya's hiding place. Mustard ran after Kota to secure the boy, only for Midoriya to rocket out of his hiding place. Before Mustard could react he was kicked away by the 9th Holder's roundhouse kick, sending the young villain flying into Twice. Midoriya didn't stop to assess his handiwork he bolted towards Kota and scooped him up, then started to run, pausing only long enough to kick away a knife Toga threw at him.

Kota struggled briefly, "It's okay Kota, I've got you!"

"M-Midoriya?" he struggled to reply.

"It's okay, I'm here to save you!"

'Well that's just, swell the one we wanted to use the brat as leverage on and ultimately break, manages to critically succeed on his stealth check, what the hell?!' thought Tomura as Wolfram used his quirk to start to launch metal rods, made from steel girders, at the fleeing hero student and his charge only to get blasted from a force attack, and his attack missed by a good margin.

"Sorry about that, but I can't let you hurt them," said Koichi hovering in mid-air before dropping to the ground with a catlike grace, showing a remarkable level of growth from when he first went to the United States, "I'm your opponent."


Kamino Ward (Some distance from ground zero):

Midoriya finally stopped where there was a crowd of people gathering round.

"Hey what's with the kid?"

Midoriya shouted back, "Someone call an ambulance!" Does anyone know how to pick locks, or have a quirk that can?"

"Izuku, I'm cold..."

"We'll get that taken care of Kota," Midoriya promised, "This may sting a bit, keep your eyes closed." He yanked off the tape and Kota opened his eyes only to yelp and close them again.

"I think I can help with that lock, just keep him still, those shoulders look bad," said a woman who pulled a hair pin out of her hair. Kota nearly freaked having someone so close to him that he didn't know.

"It's okay Kota," said Midoriya trying to calm the boy down, "I've got you."

There was a loud explosion in the distance and Midoriya could see what looked to be an ice ramp in the distance with what looked to be a small meteor separating from what he guessed was Ida and Kirishima before abruptly changing directions. Then he saw a series of flashes which he guessed was Bakugo's quirk, 'Good they made it out.' He glanced back towards the woman that was getting the handcuffs off of Kota, "Hey Miss thank-you?" He glanced around looking for her, 'Kota comes first, don't borrow trouble, trust your teammates.' Someone handed over a blanket which he gratefully accepted and wrapped Kota in it.

Curious separated herself from the crowd, while the young student hero student hadn't recognized her, she certainly recognized him. When he called out for someone that knew how to pick locks or someone with a quirk that could get the young boy out of those handcuffs, instead of just asking for a hero, she decided to help, quite frankly the rest of the crowd was worthless just waiting for a pro-hero to fix things.


The others would meet up with me sometime later, as Kota was being loaded in an Ambulance. I really couldn't be too mad at them for doing what honestly, I would have done. Shoda even commented he got the crazy idea by thinking of what I would come up with. I don't know whether to be flattered or insulted. We got to see a live feed of All for One and All Might duking it out, then All Might hit his limit. I was able to hide it from Kota, but I think I could feel All Might's pain. That said, he managed to push beyond his limits and I felt like I had suddenly run a marathon, but it still looked like he'd lose except the Skycrawler. Koichi Haimawari appeared from seemingly out of nowhere, flying out of a dust cloud, one side of his face covered in blood, and blasted All for One at that critical moment with a Shooty go Kablam, dumb name I know, but a really cool attack.

At that instant, All for One's attention was diverted from All Might whom leveled All for One with a 'United States of Smash,' and like that, the fight was over. I will never forget All Might raising one hand and pointing. "Now it's your turn." I knew at that moment he used up his portion of One for All, it was all up to me. At that the crowd finally allowed the ambulance with Kota, Kacchan, and I inside to leave for the hospital. - Izuku Midoriya


Hero Public Safety Commission Headquarters:

Keito Kurinsumi and Keigo Takami entered the office of the HPSC President. "You wanted to see us Ma'am?"

"Yes, please sit down," she walked over to the tea kettle watching both heroes sit and then she followed, "I wanted to ask what possessed you to let Izuku Midoriya take part in the Kamino Ward Operation."

"He was going to go anyways, short of us pumping him full of tranquilizer, he was going..." sighed Hawks, "I know, it was reckless, but at the same time this was kind of personal for him. The boy was his charge during the villain attack. Also I hate to say this, but if I hadn't brought him, I may have been a goner."

"Explain."

"He seems to have a 6th sense," explained Hawks, "While it isn't foolproof, it gave me enough of a warning that I got airborne when All for One pulled that attack that took out Gang Orca's group."

"I see," she nodded, "I also saw the aftermath of what you pulled to take out Wolfram, got anything to say for yourself."

"Karma's a bitch," replied Rocky unappologetically, causing the HPSC President to actually chuckle at that. "I don't think too many people would complain about me launching my jet-pack into the guy, especially since he was throwing I-Beams at people as lethal weapons. It wasn't like it was a direct hit, so I put the guy in the hospital, big deal, teach him not to try to murder kids."

"Fortunately for you, the media isn't complaining about what you did, I will say you need to stop losing jet-packs, they're expensive."

"So why are we here?"

"Well this little operation of yours kind of swung who would get custody of Midoriya, to a surprising last minute application..."

"May I ask why?"

"A parent has to behave a little differently than a pro-hero giving missions to a subordinate," she explained, "Unlike Ryukyu, whom kept Mineta sidelined, you've put Midoriya in one dangerous situation after another, perfectly acceptable for a hero apprentice, it demonstrates his growth that he's come out of this largely unscathed, but it is not the behavior of a parent; even when both parent and child are in the hero business."

"So..."

"I talked to Mandalay," she answered, "He's still your apprentice, given he got out of there unscathed, she believes you taught him very well thus far. It's U.A. that will need to talk to her about him continuing there." She sipped her tea, "Things are going to get a lot more dangerous with All Might having to retire."

"Yeah," agreed Hawks.

"They should move the boy, this Kota Izumi to U.A. also, he's now a target," spoke up Rocky, "there would be time for them to visit his aunt, but right now until stuff settles down..."

"I'm not the one that needs to be convinced."


Beast Forest's Training Camp: (Two days after Kamino Ward)

"Okay, here you go," Midoriya said lifting the new timber beam.

"Midoriya you don't have to do this," said Tiger hammering the beam into place, "You should be resting, like Kota whom wasn't released from the Hospital till 6 AM this morning."

"They had to make sure one of those things that was inside Hagakure wasn't inside him as well, or if there were any other time-bombs left inside him, those tests took time. Anyways, I kind of blew out the side of the building, I should at least help fix it."

"Well it's in place, the thing will be stable till the carpenters get here the day after tomorrow, you and Kota should talk."

"Right, when he wakes up...wait is that a car?" Midoriya jumped down from the ledge along the roof of the class room building that he'd managed to demolish a few nights ago.

"Mr Aizawa, All Might?" said Midoriya as two figures got out of the car.

"Is Mandalay here?" asked Aizawa.

"Yeah she's inside, Kota won't sleep unless someone is with him, he freaks at any strange noise. Though he tries to hide it saying he isn't tired..."

"All Might, could you inside for a minute, I need to talk to Midoriya..."

"Uh sure, try not to kill each other."

The two waited for All Might to walk inside, "I understand why you did what you did, but that was reckless, it was my fault Kota got kidnapped not yours, if I had taken him and let you..."

"I don't blame you, he was my responsibility," Midoriya sighed sitting on a bench, "So what's going to happen to the others."

"Did you know?"

"Not until I saw them through the binoculars, we were on orders for comm silence so we couldn't call it in, I feel like I should have guessed beforehand though."

"Did they actually fight?" Aizawa hated to put Midoriya on the spot like this, but he needed to know if his students had actually broken the law. Only Bakugo and Midoriya really had authorization to fight, and Midoriya's was tentative given who all was involved.

"I didn't see what they did or didn't do, I was too busy getting Kota clear, that was the mission Hawks gave me."

"Fair enough, did you fight?"

"Briefly," Aizawa shot him a look, and Midoriya continued, "I had to, in order to get Kota away from one of the villains."

"Midoriya..."

"All I did was kick the guy out of the way, ran in, and snatched Kota, then ran, oh except for kicking a knife thrown at me. I've already said all this to the police for their report."

"You didn't engage your mother's killer?"

"He was there?!" Midoriya looked up in startlement.

"I'll take that as a no," inwardly Aizawa breathed a sigh of relief, while he should lecture Midoriya for tunnel-vision, that tunnel-vision in this case may have saved him from expulsion given the injuries Wolfram had received, "anyways we're looking to have the students live on campus like we had set up for you and Mineta..."

"How are the others?"

"Don't know, other than they're still alive, you're the first one we're visiting, Nezu submitted it to us this morning, we're visiting the rest of your class tomorrow, your new guardian just so happens to live so out-of-the-way we decided to visit you early," said Aizawa as the two of them walked inside. They found All Might trying to console Ragdoll.

'Yeah this could take a while,' thought Midoriya.


(15 minutes later)

After Pixie-Bob, Tiger, and Ragdoll had left, Aizawa and Toshinori Yagi sat across from Mandalay, a sleepy-eyed, yet wary Kota, and Izuku.

"We're instituting a new policy to have the students live on campus with the teachers also being there to prioritize their safety and prevent something like this from happening again," explained Aizawa, "However, we also want to move Kota there as well for the time being as a precaution, considering he is a target."

"Look as a fellow pro-hero I understand the risks, and if the villains stole Tomoko's quirk, it is next to impossible to hide him," said Mandalay. As soon as Kota heard that, he retreated up against Midoriya.

"Kota calm down," said Midoriya, 'What did they do to you?' Kota had been really close-mouthed about it. 'The only thing he did ask was if Spinner was okay. He was terrified of all of his other captors to varying degrees with exception of Kurogiri and more prominently Spinner.'

"We plan on taking steps to secure Kota's safety," Aizawa promised, "We have Power Loader working on a project specifically to ensure his safety."

"You guys don't have to beg," replied Mandalay, "Right now Kota's safety, along with Izuku's safety is priority one, and neither of them are safe here until the villains have lost interest in both him and Izuku. Speaking of which, why did Rocky say you had a resistance to your quirk being stolen?"

Aizawa put two fingers in the top of his nose, 'Great, this secret is getting harder and harder to keep,' before saying, "You may as well tell her, as your guardian, we can't exactly hide this from her, especially with her quirk, and you're such a horrible liar that you couldn't successfully lie believably if your life depended on it."

"What is Eraser talking about?"

'Yeah, given her quirk is telepathy, I'm surprised she hasn't gotten suspicious already. Here goes nothing,' Midoriya thought taking a deep breath, "It's about my quirk. My quirk isn't a simple strength enhancement, that's just the cover, it's real name is 'One for All' it is an approximately 200 year old power stockpiling quirk that has been passed from one person to another, growing in strength with each new holder, All Might was the 8th Holder, I'm the 9th," said Midoriya turning to Kota, "That's why I freaked and ran off the night before the attack when you said it was my showing off my quirk that got my mom killed."

"Oh," said Kota looking floored, "Wait, so the 'quirkless friend' was really you?!"

"There's more," said Aizawa, "Thing is after the HPSC ran some tests on Midoriya, they discovered signs that Midoriya's original quirk had been stolen well over a decade ago."

"Eraser, did you know all of this when you asked us to host your class for summer camp?"

"About One for All? Yes, just before the first day of classes when I was briefed about Midoriya. About Hagakure, not until after I heard Mineta had been attacked."

"I didn't expect you to know anything about Miss Invasion of the Body Snatchers..." Mandalay muttered.

"There's more, Tomura Shigaraki is apparently the grandson of my mentor, the 7th Holder, she tried to hide her son by putting him in foster care and concealing his identity..." Mandalay turned pale as soon as she heard that. "So changing Kota's identity and hiding him in foster care probably won't work."

"You mean..."

"Don't worry, they're never going to be able to lay a hand on you again, that's a promise," Midoriya's eyes glowed green as he made that remark.

"That hands guy, he said nobody would come for me," said Kota slowly, "but you came you..."

"It's okay Kota, I'll keep you safe, and we'll work out how you can protect yourself so you never feel that helpless again, okay?"

"We'll run Kota and Izuku over to U.A. tomorrow morning, however what about his classes?"

"We have Gen Ed students studying to be teachers, it would do them some good to have an actual student," answered Aizawa.

"Come on, I'll help you pack."

After the two boys were out of earshot, Aizawa leaned forward and asked, "What exactly did the villains do to Kota?"

"Physically, Kota had bumps, bruises, some scrapes, as well as dislocated shoulders, and serious nerve damage in his hands, I was told that is non-permanent. He was also suffering from dehydration, someone with a water quirk like his can get dehydrated fairly easily especially at his age, but that wasn't the worst of it, I know what you're really asking Eraser and the answer is yes," answered Mandalay.

All Might rose to his feet in shock and outrage, "He was... The poor kid, no wonder he's so skittish."

"The worst part is I'm anticipating that once he processes everything he may start lashing out at Izuku," Mandalay shook her head, "Kota isn't stupid, once he starts putting the pieces together, he may blame Izuku. The abuse tapered off when they got distracted by starting to try to turn Bakugo."

"There's more to it isn't there?" asked All Might.

"There was a lot of psychological and emotional abuse, I'm also concerned he might be suffering from the beginnings of Stockholm Syndrome, becoming attached to at least one of his captors, particularly the one called Spinner."

"Does young Midoriya know?" asked All Might.

"No," Mandalay answered, "I've kept Izuku in the dark. The kid doesn't need to beat himself up any more than he already does, and I think Kota doesn't want Izuku to feel disgusted by him, that's common with a lot of rape victims."

"All Might, can you finish up here? I need to talk to them both," Aizawa purposefully got up.

"You can't be serious?!" Mandalay and All Might replied at the same time.

"But I am," replied Aizawa without breaking stride, "I was going to let Hound Dog confront Midoriya about this..."

"What?"

"Midoriya may have gone through something similar to what Kota did, it's probably part of the reason why he was so worried that I might expel Bakugo," answered Aizawa walking towards Kota's room.

All Might's face took on the look of horror, 'Young Midoriya...'


Kota's Room:

"Kota do you need help?" asked Midoriya, as Kota lost his grip on the suitcase he was trying to put on the bed.

"N-no, t-that's o-kay..." Kota stammered, 'My hands, why won't they work?!' He felt so frustrated, his quirk still worked, but it was incredibly painful to activate it he had nearly passed out when he had tried.

"Kota what's wrong?"

"N-nothing."

"Kota?" Midoriya walked over putting his hand on the boy's shoulder only for Kota to violently recoil.

"I SAID IT'S NOTHING!" Kota snarled with a look of rage, that seemed scarily out of place. Midoriya backed away, not sure how to proceed.

"What's going on?" he quietly asked aloud.

"Kota was raped," came Aizawa's voice behind him and Midoriya spun around to see Aizawa in the doorway, "Likely repeatedly, and by multiple individuals."

Midoriya spun back around angrily, "Kota, was it Spinner?"

"N-no!" Kota stammered before finally admitting, "I-I don't know who all... the guy with the Decay Quirk did it first, after the guy with creepy voice suggested it, said I 'should blame All Might's Secret Love Child.'"

"Seriously..."

"You think I'm making it up!?" Kota's face turned red with shame.

"No, I'm just getting sick of people assuming that I'm All Might's Secret Love child..."

"It's your fault!" accused Kota.

"SHUT UP!" Aizawa raised his voice, his quirk activating involuntarily causing Kota to back up. "It's not Midoriya's fault, that said, Midoriya you weren't weren't completely honest with me on the first day of school."

"About what?"

"You were raped, weren't you?" Midoriya froze for a second as soon as Aizawa said that.

"What, you too?" asked Kota.

Midoriya sighed and sat on Kota's bed, "No Mr. Aizawa, I was nearly raped, I got lucky."

"What happened?" asked Aizawa.

"I was 11, I had just started Middle School a few weeks prior, anyways gym was my last period for the day, I wouldn't turn 12 until that July. Anyways, I was running behind, I often got held after getting tasked with putting equipment away, other kids would complain about getting assigned to do it, but I didn't mind, it meant I wasn't there to be bullied. I'd just finished my shower, well that's when it happened in the locker room..." Midoriya began to describe the scene and Kota's face took on more of a empathetic look. "The older boy's quirk was paralysis, it activated if he managed to get both his hands on his victim, the longer the contact, the greater the duration, now it isn't complete paralysis mind you, it doesn't really affect speech or certain other body responses, it also increases one's sensitivity to tactile stimuli..." explained Midoriya.

"You mean one's sense of touch becomes hyper-acute when affected by the quirk," said Aizawa, he saw Midoriya nod, "Continue."

"My first thought was this was some lame prank, but that quickly changed, Midoriya began to break down, as he described in vivid detail what happened, becoming more and more emotionally distraught.

"S-stop," said Kota starting to cry.

"Midoriya continue."

"W-why?"

"Because you need to hear this, also this has been eating into Midoriya for years, now Midoriya continue!"

Midoriya shook, he'd never wanted to talk about this to anyone, reliving the feeling of total helplessness, however Aizawa had said Kota needed to hear this, and Aizawa had a reason. He continued to describe how he had felt until finally, "...He then called me a 'little quirkless cum bitch,' and he was going to 'fill me up!' He unzipped his pants and I knew what was coming next."

"Midoriya, what happened next? asked Aizawa, when Midoriya didn't initially respond, he repeated himself louder, "Midoriya, what happened next?"

"Kacchan happened," Midoriya finally answered, causing Aizawa's eyes to go wide, "He'd accidentally left his phone in his gym locker, he had this bad habit of leaving his phone or his house keys, behind back then. Anyways he saw the older boy over me on the bench, unable to do anything to fight back, and confronted the guy, who then offered that they both could... For a brief moment, especially with how Kacchan had been treating me, I was afraid he would. Instead, well Kacchan kinda lost it, I mean really lost it, he lit into the guy full bore with his quirk. He literally set the guy's pants on fire and made a good attempt at setting his butt on fire in the process. At the end of it all, Kacchan stood over the guy and threatened, that if he ever went near 'Aunty Inko's son' again, he'd fucking castrate them, make them eat their own fucking ball sack, before blowing him to straight to hell."

'That sounds like something Bakugo would say given the expletives,' thought Aizawa, "What happened next?"

"Well I was largely unable to move till the quirk's effects wore off, it was 15 minutes before I could do anything more than cry or talk, Kacchan got my locker combination from me and got into my gym locker and started dressing me, muttering that he wasn't going to sit there 'Staring at your naked ass till the ass-hat's quirk wore off.'"

'That also sounds like Bakugo,' thought Aizawa, "He didn't do anything to you?"

"No," answered Midoriya tearfully looking Aizawa straight in the eye, "He didn't do anything. After I could walk again, he made me follow him to near where both he and I lived, well before mom was... Anyways, for the next two weeks, at least one of his 'extras' as he called them was there in the locker room waiting for me for when I finished putting away equipment, so I wouldn't be caught alone like that again, and I'm guessing it drove home the point that Kacchan was serious."

"So that's it," said Aizawa, "That's why you hung around him despite all the abuse... Why you begged for me not expel him..."

"A good part of it, that day, I really had it hammered home of what can happen to a quirkless kid. Come here Kota." The small boy walked up to Midoriya whom hugged the boy before the boy could protest, "I'm not disgusted with you, I am really angry for you, but I'm not mad at you. It wasn't your fault, there are some really evil people in the world, and I promise if they ever come near you again, I will end them!"

Aizawa turned to walk out when he heard Midoriya ask him, "Mr. Aizawa? Sir, how long did you know, that I wasn't telling you the truth, I mean?"

"From when you first told me the story on the first day after class, your explanation of it being about money didn't fit."

"Sorry for lying..."

"You have nothing to be sorry for, you just met me, you had no reason to trust teachers, I figured you'd tell me the truth eventually. Honestly, I was suspecting the situation was worse than it was... Now, if you two are done eavesdropping..." He smiled slightly having caught Mandalay and All Might listening in.

"Young Midoriya..." said All Might as he entered the room.

"I'm sorry..." began Midoriya only to be cut off by All Might who walked up to him and Kota and hugged them both with his good arm. "You have nothing to apologize for, neither one of you did anything wrong." He paused for a moment before he started to ask, "Did the person that tried to..."

"He got arrested a month later for trying to rape a girl that the School Officials actually gave a damn about," said Midoriya sounding somewhat happy and bitter all at the same time, "I never saw him again after that."

"I think Kota needs to get packed, Midoriya's things are mostly already at U.A." said Aizawa, "We need to get going."

"Sir, where are you putting Kota?"

"Currently, I intend for his room to be between Tokoyami's and your room."

"Tokoyami?"

"Yeah he's really cool, his quirk dark shadow is amazing, it actually gets stronger the darker it is out...which makes it harder to control. Anyways, I had him as roommate at Hawk's Agency, and he's really cool, you'd like him."

As All Might and Aizawa left, Midoriya began to help Kota pack, creating a list of what he'd need. It turned out Kota really did need help because his hands weren't working right, while his gross and fine motor control had been noticeably improving, it seemed to Izuku that Kota had hit a plateau. The doctors had said the healing quirk the used on his hands effects would be gradual and had estimated that they would be back to normal by tomorrow, but Midoriya was starting to get worried that the doctors were wrong. He later helped Kota wash up and helped get him to bed. As Midoriya walked toward the small room that he was sleeping in at least for past couple days till he was back at U.A. he found Mandalay waiting outside it. "Yes?"

"Thanks for helping with Kota, and I'm sorry for what Eraser did to you, forcing you to relive that."

"I'm not," replied Midoriya, causing Mandalay's head to shoot up and her eyes to widen, "I was hurt and felt...but Kota needed me to talk about it."

"What?"

"He needed to understand, it wasn't his fault, he didn't do anything wrong, and that he isn't alone. If he looks up to me and knows the same thing nearly happened to me, he knows that when he's ready to talk about it, he can talk about what happened to him with me, and I won't judge him."

"Thanks."

"For what?"

"You haven't been here more than two days and you've already started to be good older brother..."

Midoriya thought of a number of things he could say, he honestly didn't feel like he had done anything other than fail, so he just nodded.

Mandalay walked off thinking about the mess Ragdoll was in and she hadn't been there for her as she walked into the kitchen and sat down.

"How's Kota?"

"Ragdoll, I'm..."

"Shino, It's okay, I understand Kota was also a victim in all of this."


End Notes:

Special thanks to fencer29 on for reading through part of my earlier draft of this chapter, and providing feedback. This was a really hard chapter to write.

If some of the references in this chapter don't make sense, refer back to Chapter 3 of One Small Briefing. You see Midoriya lied to Aizawa about the older student roughing him up for money, the reality was far darker. I had been sitting on that plot thread for a while, and wasn't really sure I was going to actually go down that road, but when Kota was kidnapped, it boiled down to what I think All for One would stoop to and whether or not Tomura Shigaraki was sadistic or enough of a sociopath to actually hurt a kid like that, and sadly the answer is yes, as is Dabi (truth should come out season 6).

As far as telling Kota and Mandalay, there isn't much choice at this point, Kota is a target and needs to understand why. Mandalay is his guardian now so she kind of does need to know, and Midoriya isn't going to be able to conceal One for All from her in any case for much longer.