GUYS I'M SORRY, I don't why but I forgot ot post chapters on for a while ;_; Me playing Mass Effect: Legendary Edition several hours a day didn't help my publishing schedule at all. I'm fixing it right now.
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Violetsumire - Babies make everything better :V Okay, maybe aside from angsty fics, too much worry about said babies surviving.
PokeKing Charizard - Just doing my best :v
Onishin Tsukitenshi - Something akin to that is going to happen. Maybe not to the degree you suggest, but Japan will certainly change a lot.
Naruto30 - *posts more fluff* die
TheGreatBubbaJ - heh
InfinityMask - That would be cool, but... I'm afraid that it wouldn't be very realistic. Too much blood on his hands. But, well, let's just say that his live will certainly get better from here on. As for Lady Nagant, she is pretty much a part of the Vigilante but the exact treatment... well, I suspect that there'll be amnesty in exchange for sharing all her knowledge about past misdeamenor of the HPSC. Although, like with Hawks, she'll certainly not return to the business. Also, I like this arc as well, even if I kept crying over it for some reason (lol). And the chances of Toshi's child having a Class 6 quirk are very close to zero, but considering certain... something that he is carrying, strong quirks aren't impossible :P
SmokyGhoul - Superhero ttrpg, huh? Now that sounds interesting :V and thank you
Detrametal - Yeah, Izuku "Let's be Pro-Heroes!" Midoriya has that in his MO xD
AdrianVnz - Yeah, politics are the worst :V I agree with your point on Endeavor. He truly made a long way ever since himself at the beggining on this fic. Hopefully, this will influence more things, because honestly the Japan at the beginning of this fic was a mess. You probably won't see any of the Big Brains classes, I'm afraid, but if you want to read more about the potential end result of those, that'll be Exiting the Stage (and yes, I know you're reading it). Also scary Inko is scary and, as this chapter proves, All Might can be just as scary when he wants to.
odorsloth - Yep
darkpaladin89 - better late than never
Gowithebeat - Fair, in most of the fics (hell, in canon) HPSC practically IS the government and that's dumb.
Koisuna - just like y... uhm
Teancum007 - SORRY FOR THAT and thank you for the reminder I thought that I was only one or two chapters behind the schedule on
(***)
"That reminds me." All Might's plan to go asleep alongside his wife, his mood high from witnessing the downfall of the HPSC and then having probably the best sex in his life, is significantly derailed. Because his better half asks him that.
They are both in their bed - the one that they took from their house and had it moved to their quarters at UA. All Might loves it in more ways than one. Not only does he have a lot of good (wink wink) memories with it, but he also hasn't slept sounder ever since Nana's death.
Having a family is the best thing ever. Although, admittedly, ex acqueo with beating All for One to death with his bare fists while screaming out all the hatred he had for the man.
"Yes?" All Might decides to ask when Inko goes quiet for a bit too long. It's suspicious.
"How exactly did you persuade Thunderbolt to retire?" Oh, no. Not this question. His wife is looking at him with a questioning look on her face. And he knows, just knows, that he can't bullshit his way out of it this time. "I'm not buying what you told Eraserhead."
Yeah. Hawks just offered a completely different version of the threat than what he told Eraserhead. It makes sense for her to grow curious.
"Well, I was… maybe a tiny bit angry." All Might decides to admit. "So I visited him personally. With Chiyo Shuzenji."
(***)
18 months earlier
"You're going to retire, Thunderbolt." All Might says. They are in a back alley, right next to Thunderbolt's agency. Yagi grabbed Toyoda when he was walking through the street. They need some space.
"Or what, All Might?" Thunderbolt isn't wearing his hero costume. Good. He doesn't deserve it. Plus it would make the physical violence feel much more… controversial. All Might finds beating up heroes in the alleyways much less emotionally problematic for a Symbol of Peace when they aren't wearing their hero uniforms.
"Or I'm going to beat you to death." All Might replies. On his face, the standard smile of the Symbol of Peace.
"Is this a joke?" Thunderbolt asks. Yes, one can clearly misunderstand the situation. And for some reason the Number Three Hero finds it hard to believe in death threats from a Number One Hero.
All Might might have been slightly influenced by Gran Torino. So, in order to make Thunderbolt understand that this isn't a joke, Yagi Toshinori promptly breaks his left leg right beneath the knee.
"WHAT THE F…" Thunderbolt yells while falling to the ground.
Now, let's put things in perspective. From a purely business perspective, All Might respects Thunderbolt. That man possesses an incredibly powerful instant acceleration and deceleration quirk that he trained with for years. Many, many years.
He might lack All Might's power and endurance, but in a straight line, the Number One Hero was waaaay slower. Thunderbolt also had incredible reaction speed - he would have dodged the attack easily if it wasn't All Might.
He didn't expect it to be an attack.
Of course, All Might could still cave his head in with a punch or two, too fast for him to dodge, at least at this distance. But he had to punch him way slower than that to avoid splattering the man on the wall.
And now, with a broken leg, he is all but immobilized. If he tried to dash away, he would lose balance and ram into something at mach speed.
"Shhh, Thunderbolt." All Might announces, his hand pinning the 'hero's face into the pavement. "I'm going to be the one talking right now."
"You don't think that…" Thunderbolt tries again, but his arm is close enough. So, All Might uses his other hand to promptly break it. Thunderbolt cries out in pain, and then promptly shuts up.
"You played on your phone while kids were being beaten to death." All Might announces. He doesn't smile anymore. "You're no hero to me anymore. You, Thunderbolt, are a villain. The type I hate the most. I'd find a way to ruin you, you sick fuck, for that alone."
"I…" Thunderbolt tries to struggle, but All Might's grip on his head grows in strength. Painfully. This shuts him up properly.
"Instead… let me ask you a question. Do you know what was my greatest achievement in life, Thunderbolt?" All Might asks.
"B-becoming the Number One Hero?" Thunderbolt asks, his voice betraying clear horror. Good.
"Nope." All Might replies. "It was the day when I cornered the villain that killed my mentor. My, by all intents and purposes, adoptive mother. I didn't bother to play nice, you know. I beat him up until his face stopped resembling a face. And then until he stopped having it entirely. And then until he stopped having a head. I had his brain all over my fist." All Might sighs with a smile on his face. It's such a good memory, even if he was also about to die from his injuries. "I worked on achieving that ever since I graduated from the UA. And it happened six years ago. So, practically my whole life."
Thunderbolt gets to see the smile on his face. It somehow makes All Might thrice as intimidating as it would be without it.
"And guess what, Thunderbolt." All Might doesn't let the man start vocalizing his horror. "You remember the green-haired kid? The one that you tried to attack before Mr. Compress… yes, I know you recognized him… stopped you? It was my son." Thunderbolt's eyes grow wider. "You tried to KILL my son. If you as much as hurt him, we wouldn't be having that talk. I would simply punch your face off your head."
"Y-you're lying." Thunderbolt tries to wiggle. "You're the Number One Hero, you wouldn't…"
"Are you stupid or what?" All Might doesn't bother being nice. "It's not a murder if no one finds the body. Wouldn't be my first rodeo, although you would be the first guy to get that treatment while technically being a hero."
The war against All for One was … grim. It wasn't time for half-measures. Sometimes, he had to do bad things. All while maintaining his image as the soon-to-be Symbol of Peace. He doesn't regret any of it, but… it's still rather distasteful.
Thunderbolt, judging from the frozen look of horror on his face, believed in All Might's sincerity. Good.
"So you've managed to avoid harming my son during an attempt to kill him… which, together with what you were doing to the other kids, would make me murder you." All Might continues. "You also managed to not kill my son, which is EXTREMELY good for you. Because then I'd break your spine, burn your face off, cut out your tongue, tear off your fingers, smuggle you out of the country and then hire the most abusive and neglectful caretakers I could find to take care of you in secret. So that I could amuse myself by watching videos of you shitting yourself because there was no one there to change your diapers. Or of your quote unquote caretakers putting out their cigarettes on you because you were crying too loud."
All Might can be scary if he wants to. The face that Thunderbolt is now seeing is something that only All for One and a select few of his close compatriots ever got to see. Together with the words, it's probably not surprising that he seems to have lost control of his bladder.
"But guess what, Thunderbolt." All Might switches back to a normal Symbol of Peace-patterned smile. "You haven't done any of that. But I'm still INCREDIBLY pissed off at you, for what you tried to do to my son and those kids. So if you try to remain a hero instead of retiring IMMEDIATELY, or if you dare to tell anyone that I have a family OR that I have personal ties with Mr. Compress… I'm going to do one of those two things to you. I don't know which one, so I guess I'll be throwing a coin to decide. Do you feel lucky, Thunderbolt? Hmmm? Do you think that the HPSC can save you from that?"
The sad part is that Thunderbolt would have probably guessed that the connections that All Might had with Izuku were closer than what would be expected from a son of his PA. The worst case scenario, he or the HPSC would come to an idea that Izuku is his illegitimate son.
It was best to have Thunderbolt realize that he wasn't supposed to mention that part. The man has been just returning to his agency from the… incident, so he probably didn't have the time to blabber it out.
"I… I won't tell anyone!" Thunderbolt finally realizes that All Might actually means it. And after some quick calculations realizes that the HPSC probably can't save him from that. "I'll retire, I promise!"
"Good, good." All Might nods. "Chiyo, I know that asking you to kiss that pile of turd is a lot, but… I think that we need to fix his limbs or someone gets suspicious."
The small recovery hero pops up from behind him.
"I'll do it." Recovery Girl announces. "Give me a moment to set his bones straight."
She does it. Thunderbolt stays silent but visibly trembling under All Might's grasp. When his healing is over, All Might lifts him up to the standing position. Except that's the moment when Recovery Girl suddenly swings her cane.
She might be small. But she is a hero. She trained her body for most of her life. And she knows where and how to hit for maximum pain. With Thunderbolt being too terrified to move, he fails to block the attack. So he is promptly hit with the cane where it hurts.
Where it REALLY hurts. With the maximum strength that her small body could muster.
So he promptly falls to the ground, crying out in pain again.
"I'm not healing that, and I truly hope that the damage is permanent. Bitch." Recovery Girl announces before spitting at the curled up Top Hero in front of her. She would probably kick him again, but this time he has hands on it so it wouldn't hurt as much.
"Right." All Might chuckles. "I almost forgot whom your family was." She gives him a death glare and All Might promptly decides to withdraw.
Alright, alright. Saying something like 'your family was yakuza so it makes sense for you to be occasionally violent' in front of Thunderbolt would be… bad. Besides, her parents left their clan, although under amicable circumstances. But All Might remembers Chiyo off-handedly mentioning how the training and tips she got from her mysterious 'uncles' helped her during the self-defense classes when she was attending the hero school.
It's an ancient past, and she managed to become an outstanding hero thanks to having a great healing quirk. Let's leave it at that.
"And stop goddamn T-posing over him." Chiyo interrupts his thoughts while slamming her cane into his leg. Where it MOSTLY doesn't hurt. "I swear, you're like a very buff five-year old child, All Might." Well, so much about All Might asserting his dominance over the crying mess that used to be Thunderbolt, the Number Three Hero.
(***)
Now
"Oh." Inko actually blinks at him a few times. "That's… honestly a lot. You really did all of that? And… you would really do that if something happened to Izuku?"
"In all honesty, the fact that the shitsmear was also a disgrace to the heroics and might have allowed other people to die because they had bad quirks also contributed to the decision." All Might sees no reason to sugarcoat it. Heroics are incredibly important to him. "But him doing that AND trying to harm my family… I'd do all of what I promised to him. And, probably, more."
"Now that's an awesome husband to have." She snuggles closer to him and hugs him. He reciprocates. Yes, this is happiness.
(***)
"I'm not leaving the bed." Eraserhead announces loudly. It's 7am, Monday, two days after the HPSC got what it fucking deserved, and he is supposed to do just that. Leave the bed.
"Sho, stop being fussy." Miss Joke announces. She is wearing her favorite pajama (the one decorated with smiling emojis) and is only in the bed because she decided to take a day off from her Ketsubutsu work.
To celebrate.
Because holy shit if the HPSC falling off the proverbial bicycle and smashing its face on the pavement in public wasn't one of the most enjoyable sights she ever saw in her life. A significant part of the Underground Hero Network was celebrating as well.
The rest were also happy that it happened but the fear of what was going to happen next, now that the heroes were so weakened, managed to strangle their celebratory mood out of them.
"I'm not being fussy." Shouta replies. He is lying on his back, his eyes on the ceiling. "I'm just not leaving the bed."
Emi sighs.
"Sho, you're a teacher. A HERO teacher." Miss Joke replies, using her tone she typically uses to explain something very basic to students that for some reason aren't understanding a thing. "You can't just skip a day of work because you don't feel like leaving your bed."
Silence. Her husband doesn't move at all. Emi sighs again. This is going to be harder than usual.
"How long are you planning on staying in bed?" She decides to ask.
"Until Midoriya graduates." Eraserhead announces, with a look of complete seriousness on his face. "Or until Satan realizes where his spawn is and takes him back to hell. Whatever happens first."
Yes, this is going to be MUCH harder than usual.
"Sho." Miss Joke gives him one of her patented smiles. "You're an adult. Start fucking acting like one, or I'm going to tell everyone that you're wearing All Might pajamas to bed." He doesn't, but it's not like they'll know that.
He shivers visibly under the quilt.
"Emi." Aizawa replies. "My student just overthrew the goddamn government. He is barely past the first half of his first year here. I'm supposed to leave the bed and go teach him. How am I supposed to emotionally deal with that?"
"First of all, the Hero Public Safety Commission wasn't a government." Emi replies. "Regardless of all the delusions of grandeur that its president had. Second of all, stop acting like a little bitch. You fought like a hundred villains during the USJ attack, you can deal with one overly competent student."
"It's an entire class of overly competent students led by an eldritch abomination that's slightly better at pretending to be a human being than his younger sister." Aizawa complains. "The answer is no. This bed is my home now. And I'm becoming a shut-in."
Alright, Emi. You're a teacher, a hero AND a parent. You can deal with a child, even if it happens to be your husband.
"What EXACTLY happened?" Emi asks. "Because I don't think that what Midoriya did was enough to put you in that state."
Of course she realized it.
"Well it started when my last hopes of All Might being helpful in restraining his progeny were brutally cut short." Eraserhead replies.
(***)
The day before
They are watching TV. On it, people are struggling to comprehend the result of what his son did the day before. Yes, Sir Nighteye' executed the plan. Yes, Sir Nighteye reviewed the plan and helped make it truly flawless. But… in the end, it was his son's big day.
All Might listens to words coming from the people displayed on the TV screen. Then, it happens.
What is he supposed to say to Izuku? That's his son. The biggest source of pride in his life nowadays. His successor - but, chief among all, a son. He loves all of his children, of course, but Izuku is also his successor and the sole reason why all of this could happen, so…
He can't say what he has in mind. He can't. Won't it break him? Won't it shatter the confidence that his son built nowadays? Won't it ruin their father-son relationship irreversibly?
Izuku senses something, his head turning towards his father. On his face, an expression of growing fear. He knows. How? Intuition?
No, All Might. You have to be harsh sometimes. You have to be consistent. Sometimes… sometimes you have to be tough. For your children's sake.
He crosses out the final bracket.
"Bingo." He says, looking into his son's eyes. Izuku screams.
"Goddamnit." Stain sighs in the background, putting his printout on the table. "I was literally one thing away from winning. Not even a single one of those idiots tried to blame Dictator for mindcontrolling Hawks into saying all of that, what the fuck are those shitheads thinking?!"
"Coming here…" Eraserhead announces from his seat right next to the Hero Killer." …was a mistake."
"Oh, don't be like that!" Nedzu announces from his own seat. He lost the game, yes. He is brilliantly smart, but this game is based on predicting human behavior. The element of unpredictability is what makes it truly exciting. "It's a day to celebrate! At least before the inevitability of societal upheaval and chaos to come will sour the atmosphere."
"With all due respect, Nedzu…" Lady Nagant comments from the seat opposite to his. "... fuck the societal upheaval, it was loooong overdue." Nedzu nods. They are in agreement on that.
Stagnancy, in Nedzu's opinion, is a precursor to a much worse chaos. Occasional societal upheavals, for as long as they are not devastatingly bad, is what makes the system work in the long-term. Provoking small changes before things grow so bad that you need to blow everything to kingdom come and start building it from zero.
Time will tell if this was going to be devastatingly bad or not. In his opinion, letting the cancer grow unchecked would make things much worse further down the line.
He should have arrested half of the people at the table but they just destroyed HSPC for him so the Rat God is in a benevolent mood.
"Also, I seriously didn't expect you here." Eraserhead turns his head towards the person on his other side. "I thought you were the straightlaced one."
Sir Nighteye corrects his glasses, his bingo chart lying forgotten on the table in front of him Somehow he manages to do that in a moderately threatening manner. Eraserhead is secretly impressed.
"I have an agenda in coming here." He replies. He looks extremely serious while doing so. Mr. Compress chuckles loudly.
"It's about the All Might anniversary poster that he promised to Izuku." The master thief then whispers towards Eraserhead. Sir Nighteye, naturally, hears all of that. "He wouldn't risk mailing it or anything, so it had to be delivered in person. And then he stayed for tea and ended up here."
Sir Nighteye doesn't comment on that. Neither does Gran Torino, who seems to be fighting off his own pent-up anger at something. This is going to boil over soon, but All Might doesn't fear his de facto adoptive father anymore.
Inko will save him. She isn't in the room, but All Might simply has to survive until her arrival.
"So, now that we're free to talk for a few seconds…" Stain turns his head towards Sir Nighteye. "... any chances of including me on the amnesty thing that the Alliance is getting?"
…
"What?" Eraserhead actually asks first. Because Sir Nighteye was busy giving the Hero Killer a very hard to read look. Even Izuku seems to have been shocked out of his small mindbreak caused by losing the game that he felt like he was about to win.
"I want to officially retire from being a villain." Stain replies, clearly unfazed . "I dashed out of that TV station because the deal was for Vigilante Alliance members and I was technically an outsider, but now I want in."
"B-but why?!" Izuku cuts in, looking at his uncle in shock. "You were doing such a great job, why quit now?"
Sir Nighteye, Eraserhead, Gran Torino and, oddly enough, Mr. Compress groan in unison. Yeah, the next Symbol of Peace wasn't supposed to say things like that, even in private. Nedzu ignores it completely and sips some tea from the cup next to him.
Stain, in the meantime, looks at Izuku with a look of disbelief on his face.
"Izuku, how the hell can you be blindingly smart one moment and then a total idiot the next second?" He asks. Stain isn't on Tsuyu level of a lack of brain-to-mouth filter, but he gets pretty close. "What's the point of me staying in the business? Thanks to you, I just WON. My crusade is over, Jerusalem has been taken, time to pick up farming and retire."
"Uhm?" Izuku blinks at him a few times. "What?"
"I believe that Stain's goal was to take down the slightly too… overly embellished image of heroes as untouchable paragons of all virtues." Nedzu decides to help. Stain nods. "The image behind which a lot of, to quote him, 'fakes' were hiding."
"Yeah." The Hero Killer nods. "A lot of shitboots that could do whatever the hell they wanted because unless they did that in front of the cameras, the people would buy their explanation for whatever happened. Because they were heroes. You gave me the idea to promote myself as a man preying on bad heroes. To establish myself as a 'counter-brand' to the heroes. After I 'slew' several bad ones, I became a walking reminder of the fact that there are fakes out there, because otherwise I would have no one to attack."
"Oh." Izuku realizes what it's about. "You just succeed in that."
"Aye." Stain nods. "I don't have to go out to strike against another fake hero, using my own counter-popularity as a grimdark crusader of alleyway justice with a no-kill policy to make people consider the option that he actually was a fake and that the evidence wasn't bullshit. With the shitstorm that's happening in the media, both social and not, I just have to release the evidence on the internet, and the next day you'll have a special task force of the police investigating it with the ferocity of a starved wolf in front of a fat sheep. I just made the Hero Killer completely redundant, to be honest."
He doesn't look particularly displeased at the development. He DID win, after all. The war that he expected to last him a lifetime.
"That sounds logical." Sir Nighteye nods. "What are you planning to do next?" He is probably considering the pros and cons of the move. Getting a supervillain out of the supervillainy sounds like a good idea. But if he'll just start doing supervillain stuff again, it might damage the whole deal with the Vigilante Alliance and that would hurt the society in the long-term.
"Well, I thought about obtaining a hero license and staying as a quirkless combat teacher at UA." Stain says. "As, you know, myself. Without the need to hide who I am. The kids I got to teach are all materials for good heroes, and helping them sounds like a good enough way to earn a living."
"You're going to freak the hell out of them." Eraserhead groans. "Your introduction was already bad enough, but if they actually find out that you're THE Hero Killer… we're going to have at least several heart attacks."
"Their fault for being a bunch of pussies." Stain replies with a groan of similar tone. "What sort of logic is 'why are you teaching us quirkless combat, how does that even help us in anything, also you aren't even a hero'? Turns out that after I beat up ten second years at once without using my quirk, everyone suddenly understood that having proper goddamn combat skills to rely on when your quirk can't help you is useful. Why the fuck weren't you teaching them that to begin with?"
He asks Nedzu. Because, honestly, he had a point. A lot of those, in fact.
"Too much of a focus on quirks." Nedzu replies. "Beating people up with a stick wasn't seen as heroic enough when your quirk wasn't about beating people up with a stick. Overreliance on image. People being stupid." Hero Killer groans. "We technically had some proper self-defense training, for the record, just mostly for second and third years. What you're giving them is more of a martial arts training, one focused on effectiveness rather than flashiness and much more… offensive than what we normally did. Not to mention implicitly tailored to fit their varied physique and, if possible, including their quirk for improved effectiveness of certain moves, but without total reliance on the quirk in question. Which I consider an improvement long overdue, especially in times of troubles. I really should have gotten that idea earlier." He then looks back at Stain. "But if someone asks, it's all the HPSC fault."
"Absolutely." Stain nods, with an absolutely serious expression on his face. "Clearly the handywork of those fucks."
"...I'll suggest that to the Prime Minister tomorrow." Sir Nighteye replies. Looks like the Hero Killer will get his amnesty.
(***)
Now
"Do you understand that, Emi?" Eraserhead replies, with an expression of an almost existential horror on his face. "Stain is going to join the faculty permanently. This isn't a temporary arrangement anymore. This also means that there is a fair chance of Mr. Compress continuing his part-timing gig and…"
Emi kicks him off the bed.
"To quote one of my students, git gud." She announces. "I thought that it was something serious, for a moment. Get out of the house right fucking now or I'm going to find an All Might sleeping bag and drag you to your class in it."
Worst of all, their children would probably help her in that. Damn it. Looks like it's time for Eraserhead to face his greatest fears again.
(***)
Plottwist: All Might is keeping his family secret not to protect his family but to protect the poor fools that would do something nasty to those close to him. You didn't think that a person that spent decades trying to find and pummel someone to death is all sunshine and flowers, hmm? Also this is merely the start of the End of an Era aftermath, and it was mostly about Hero Killer tbh. You'll see some major developments in the next 2-3 chapters. Including - surprise - the MLA's reaction to the event. Yes, folks, the MLA leadership finally showsup in person.