28/12/2021
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The Emperor's Dragon
Fledgling 33
"What would you like to do tonight, my Little Dragon?" All For One asked his son.
It was Izuku's birthday. Usually they'd spend the day together but this year, Izuku had spent the day in Tsu with his friends. It wasn't quite the party he'd promised his son, with all his friends present but it was the best he could do, and Izuku had apparently had fun. He'd been regaled with all the details earlier.
Izuku gave him a smile but it looked kind of sleepy. "I like spending time with you," he murmured.
That was touching. Hisashi knew most people did not want to spend any time with him. Fighting back the rage he felt at All Might was second nature now. He should be able to go flying with Izuku. He should be able to actually do things with his son, instead he was still trapped to a support system. The Number One hero would never be broken enough for him.
"Well then, shall I tell you a story?" Hisashi offered. After his day out, Izuku probably wasn't interested in doing something physical.
"A story?" Izuku was curious.
"About your uncle," All For One said and watched as Izuku's interest rose. He had made no secret of the fact that Izuku had an uncle but he hadn't offered many details.
"My uncle?" His son was still tired from his day out but was definitely wanting to know more.
Hisashi smiled and gestured to his son. Izuku came over to him and sat down beside him before leaning into his side. It was nice but All For One wondered how long it would last. He was fully aware that Izuku was thirteen now. He expected his son to show some rebellion soon. Something.
It would cost him something. He knew that but he didn't think Izuku would betray him completely. No. His son wouldn't.
A memory came to him. For an instant he was in that white place again. He heard his brother's voice. I wonder if my nephew can make a difference.
No. That was a dream caused by drugs and his injuries. Even though his brother had never said that to him in reality, it was just a dream. It wasn't a message. Izuku was going to make a difference. His son was going to achieve his desire. It would no longer be at his side, but Izuku's place was at the forefront of the change. Tomura would create instability, Izuku would capitalise on it.
His son knew that and that was the difference he would make. He would make this world just.
"Yes, your uncle," All For One confirmed. "It's your birthday so it's a day for family," he explained. Izuku said nothing, so he took that as a request to continue. "Your uncle would have loved you, my Little Dragon. Never doubt that.
"He was like you in many ways."
"Did he love quirks?"
Hisashi chuckled. "No, but you must remember, my Little Dragon, there were no quirks to love then, so I think we can forgive him that. He wanted to see the best in people," All For One explained. "He wanted to believe that the facade people present to the world was real."
"Oh," Izuku said. There was a note of sad understanding there.
"The world was different then, my Little Dragon. It was bloody and violent and there was no place for fantasy." All For One took a deep breath of the oxygen that was always being fed to him.
"How did he betray you?"
That was a surprisingly strong wording for his son. "Are you sure you want to hear about that for your birthday?" All For One asked.
He felt his son nod as he leaned into his side.
"All right," Hisashi agreed. He sighed audibly. "Things were different then, my Little Dragon, and in some ways, I think it was my fault. I protected my brother from the reality of the world.
"When my parents brought him home from the hospital, he was always a bit weak, always a bit fragile, and so growing up, I got used to protecting my brother. I looked after him when our parents were at work. I made sure he went to school and that no one bothered him.
"Quirks were just beginning to come into the population," All For One began describing things for his son. "I didn't know I had a quirk then," he added.
"Really?" Izuku was surprised.
"Really," Hisashi confirmed. "There were no other people with quirks in the area, so I had no way of knowing that I had one. Quirks weren't important then anyway. Taking care of my brother was.
"Then the war came to us."
"War?"
"Your history classes would have called it civil unrest," All For One told his son. "It was a war, between those with quirks and those without them. When it came to our suburb I protected my brother. We didn't have quirks. We thought we'd be okay but then a group of people with quirks came through." He allowed himself to snort. "And then I found out I had a quirk," he summarised that time. All For One shivered at the memory.
Izuku leaned into him more, offering what comfort he could.
"The first use of my quirk was an accident but it was to protect my brother so I was okay with it. But then, I realised how I could help people."
"Back then, my Little Dragon people didn't want their quirks. If they had a quirk, they were abnormal and people with quirks were bullied and attacked. Some were even murdered."
"No!"
"It happened, my Little Dragon. It is not nice to think about but it did happen. I helped many people then by taking their quirks. They were thankful. They sought me out. But, while I was happy to help, it was difficult to hide that I had a quirk."
"What happened?" Izuku asked.
"The government came for me. This was not like the hero raid, this was the military, and they would have executed me on sight," All For One said frankly. "There was an official order to kill anyone with a quirk."
"What? No one says that in school!"
"That's because there were a variety of responses around the world, and even in Japan the level of response varied. Most governments wanted to control those with quirks, so the order to kill was quickly rescinded. But as you can imagine, it had an impact."
He felt Izuku nod his understanding.
"And the damage was done. Not everyone agreed with the change in law. The world became chaotic. All through that time, I tried to protect my brother but then our parents found out I had a quirk." He took a deep breath. He had not been the man he was now when that happened, and so it was hard to relate to his son, the sheer sense of chaos, of absolute uncertainty that had pervaded everything in that time.
"One of the reasons I will always support you, Izuku, is that I know what it is like to be abandoned. That's why I took you away from Inko, because I could see what would happen. I've seen it before. It happened to me. When my parents found out I had a quirk, they abandoned me. They forced me to leave."
"I'm sorry, Daddy," Izuku said.
"What are you sorry for, my Little Dragon?" All For One asked.
"They shouldn't have done that," his son said.
"It's all right my Little Dragon. It was a long time ago," he replied. It really was and he had gotten over it in the meantime. So much had happened since.
"They still shouldn't have done it," Izuku insisted.
"I will never abandon you," All For One repeated his earlier sentiment before he sighed heavily. "My brother came with me when we were thrown out of our house," Hisashi continued his story.
"To ensure that we could live, I had to take payments for my services then. Interestingly, while some people wanted to be rid of their quirks, there were others who wanted quirks, or skills as they were known then. I took quirks from those who didn't want them for a small fee and gave them to those who did for some more. I had to eat. I had to have the money to feed my brother. He was still sickly though, he was still weak and moving around, and the uncertainty of then didn't help him.
"Eventually we saved enough to get a small apartment. We were happy there, for a while. Those I helped were sworn to secrecy and they kept my secret. But, there were always others," All For One said. "The world was still coping with the emergence of quirks. There was still chaos. No one really knew what to do or what it meant but, it had been a few years now, since the first one had occurred and all that was certain was that they were still occurring.
"That meant that the governments of the world were becoming more organised. It meant that we had people using their quirks to help others - like the heroes from the comic books. But it also meant there were villains, again like the old comic books. It was chaos, my Little Dragon. It's hard to really tell you how chaotic it was.
"I was building a network of people who didn't care about power, who were more interested in people. I worked with those who had skills, and those who didn't. I helped those who wanted a skill, and those who didn't want their skill. I was helping as many as I could."
"What about my uncle?"
"And I was taking care of your uncle, my brother. I kept that apartment. There was always food, and mostly power because the bills were paid. I kept him safe. I made sure that there were never any rumours about people having skills there. It kept the government away. It kept vigilantes away. It kept trouble away. I made it as safe as I could for him.
"But what I didn't know was that my brother was keeping track of me. I knew what I was doing with my organisation but-" All For One sighed again. "It was the reverse of heroism, my Little Dragon."
"What do you mean?"
"From the outside, Heroism looks to be good, doesn't it? The Heroes go out and save people? The media never tells you about those they don't save. It never mentions the causes they do not work on, and how they all seek to gain popularity for an increase in pay."
"That's true," Izuku agreed.
"What my brother saw was the reverse. He thought my organisation was hurting people. That I was taking quirks from those who wanted to keep them, and that I was profiteering from the action. I told you, my Little Dragon, and I tried to tell him, I was taking a little payment, because I had to pay for the apartment, our food and bills and all that sort of thing. And you know what, my Little Dragon, where someone couldn't pay me, I didn't take money. They could pay me in goods, or in services. I remember there was a restaurant owner, and she didn't have a lot of money. So I didn't ask for money. I just asked her to feed my brother and I once a week. That's fair, isn't it?"
Izuku nodded.
"We worked it out that time. I wasn't disappointed in my brother. I know what it looked like so I know why he would have thought that. That was just a misunderstanding. I loved… I still love my brother," All For One corrected. "And these things happened. It was then that I gave him a quirk. I told him what I was doing. The quirk was meant to help him. It was meant to make him a bit stronger. It was a stockpiling quirk that would allow him to gather strength, so he wouldn't be so sickly. It was one of those powers no one really wanted. Not even it's original owner."
"For a while, everything was okay. My brother knew what I was doing, and he knew I was doing it to support us. But things kept changing in the world. More and more people with skills were using them against people without them, or using them against those they considered weaker. That led to more chaos and…" All For One shook his head. "To this day, I do not know who spoke to my brother. I don't know how they knew to talk to him. The government used him to get to me. They didn't attack him. They made an offer to me, through him.
"It was one of those offers, Izuku, that appears good but is really a trap. In those days the government were catching people with skills, but they couldn't always hold them. Make no mistake, my Little Dragon, those people were criminals. They were villains, the government had every right to put them in jail, but they just kept using their skills to escape.
"The government approached my brother with a deal for me. They wanted me to take the powers, take the quirks of those they found guilty. It seems like a good thing, doesn't it?"
Hisashi didn't get a response to his question because he knew Izuku was thinking about how it was a trap. "Do you see how?"
"If you were taking away those quirks, then you couldn't be helping others?" Izuku responded with a question.
"That's it exactly! That was the trap. While they would order me to take the quirks from those who were guilty, they wouldn't let me help others. In fact, they would have tried to trap me. They would have sent someone who claimed to want their skill taken, but who then would say that they didn't want it. And then I would have been the one in trouble!
"My brother didn't see that and I don't hate him for that, my Little Dragon. What he was seeing was the security offered by working for the government. He didn't see that the government was setting me up to fail. He didn't see that they were afraid of me, simply because I had the freedom to choose who I helped, the freedom to help those who truly needed it.
"In his own way, my Brother was trying to set me up as a hero, someone everyone could look up to but it wouldn't have worked that way. For a time it would have, my Little Dragon but then, you've seen what happens when one person is considered a hero above all others."
"All Might," Izuku said the name.
"Yes. Society relies on them. They revere them. They stop seeing them as human. I couldn't let that happen to me. So I said no. I told my brother that I would continue to help people as I had been. That I would continue to build my network so that those who needed help, genuinely needed help could come to me for it.
"He didn't see it that way. It's my fault though. Growing up I kept my brother sheltered. I kept him safe. I didn't let him see the way the world really was. That's why, my Little Dragon, as painful as it has been for you, I have encouraged you to see the world. I have made sure you know what people are like.
"They can be good but mostly, if they can get away with it, people will act solely for their own self interest."
"And only a few will ever be family," Izuku whispered.
"Yes, only a few will ever be family," All For One agreed.
"What happened then?" Izuku asked.
"We fought. We yelled at each other, because I would not raise my hand against my brother and then, he left. I wish that was the last time I saw my brother, because the next time I saw him, he was trying to kill me. I do not say that lightly, Izuku. I didn't believe it at first.
"This was my brother. A boy I had raised, and given everything. It was difficult, Izuku but I had to fight back. I couldn't just die, not even for my brother, so I had to fight. I had more experience, Izuku. My brother had been sick for a lot of his life. He hadn't seen the things I had. Hadn't had to fight just to remain alive at times with the chaos of the world.
"I won but I couldn't kill him. I walked away, Izuku. That was the last time I saw my brother. But it was not the last time I saw his quirk."
"His quirk Izuku, was the opposite of mine. I can take and give quirks, my brother could give his quirk away. But there was a difference. I can take quirks from those who don't want me to, but my brother had to be willing to give his away. And when he did, he gave away the stockpiling quirk too. And that's where All Might's quirk was created."
All For One expected some response at that but he didn't get anything. He activated his sight quirk and looked down at his son. Izuku was sitting beside him, leaning into him. His head was resting against his arm. "Oh," Hisashi said.
Izuku was asleep. He cast his mind back to the last response Izuku had given him. He'd heard the important parts of the story.
"Gigantomachia," All For One called softly.
The huge man moved from the shadows. "Take Izuku to his room please," he instructed.
He felt Gigantomachia pick up his sleeping son and All For One nodded to himself. His son didn't need to hear the end, not on his birthday. He'd heard enough and Izuku knew what the world was like.
His son would not betray him.
-ted-
I'm still on holiday so haven't had a chance to reply to comments but I thank you for them!
So AFO has just told Izuku some of his history. Of course, it is history from his POV and he is perfectly justified in his actions. He's told Izuku what happened, but might have glossed over his brother's reasons a bit but isn't that a dad's prerogative?
My discord is on this code: ZX2R5h2cEm FFN will remove links but you should be able to figure that out.
-ted-
Loved it? Hated it? Found a spelling mistake? Let me know please!