"You may not be responsible for getting knocked down. But you're certainly responsible for getting back up." ~ Wally Amos
Dr Ujiko stood outside of the training room in which All for One and Izuku were. A few weeks had passed since they had taken the boy in, and since day one, they had been impressed by him. Ujiko oversaw the therapy of Izuku so that he could adequately use his synthetic arm. He had seen more people in his over 100 years of experience than he could count struggling to adapt to their new limbs, but Izuku was different. In just two weeks, he had correctly learnt how to regulate how much strength he used. At first, he shattered countless glasses, but after the first week, he could shakily grab them, but there were still a few accidents, and by the second week, it was like his arm was never gone.
The artificial respiratory system Ujiko had first created also limited Izuku quite a lot, as it was nowhere near efficient to what nature had created. Here, another of Izuku's talents manifested itself. After sitting for a week, revising the plans Ujiko had lent him, he managed to create a system four times as efficient as Ujiko's and thrice as compact. It was undoubtedly a groundbreaking advancement.
In the third week, All for One started taking Izuku into the training room, as there was no time to waste. Izuku already had the basics engraved into his head, now he just needed to develop them into another level. A week of training had passed, and things were progressing. As Ujiko waited for their training session to end, he heard as Izuku grunted in pain and then many loud smashes as Izuku was presumably sent flying across the room. Then, there was a blast that shook the entire place, and then, silence.
After a few minutes, the door opened, and a bruised Izuku walked out of the room, trembling while clutching to his side. Ujiko observed him, as it seemed like he would fall to the floor at any moment. When Izuku walked passed him, Ujiko spoke.
"You already know where the medkit is, right?" Ujiko asked him as Izuku merely glanced at him.
"I do," Izuku replied flatly as he continued to walk away.
As Izuku disappeared into one of the rooms, with Ujiko still overseeing him, All for One stepped out of the training room while dusting off his suit. Ujiko turned back to look at his lord.
"You are quite extreme in his training, don't you think?" Ujiko questioned.
"I'm simply doing what must be done for him to survive in the outside world," All for One plainly stated as he began to walk away, Ujiko following him. "Life is cruel, why should the preparation for it be any different?" All for One asked. "Izuku knows this very well, and every time he fails here, he stands back up because Izuku is aware that out there he will only get one chance,"
"You do have a point there," Ujiko pushed his glasses upwards. "But his bruises are getting me worried. We don't want him becoming a total cyborg now, would we?" Ujiko asked.
"Of course not," All for One replied. "I will make sure Izuku gets the proper rest and that his wounds are well treated," All for One firmly stated.
"I've never quite seen you like this," Ujiko said. "Not even with Shigaraki," Ujiko then faintly smiled. "Well, I guess that is to be expected, considering he is your son, after all, right?" All for One continued to walk. "I remember how excited you were when the news of Inko being pregnant reached you. I never really thought you were even capable of feeling joy for something that wasn't seeing your schemes unfold," Ujiko mused. "Are you sure you would be able to do live with yourself if you ended up wounding him badly?"
All for One stopped walking and looked up, and he then audibly sighed. "I was cheated out of my chance of being a proper parent from before he was born," All for One quietly said. "I had to watch from the sidelines as the person who robbed me of my life raised my kid as he if he was his own," All for One said with anger. "I had to see as his life slowly fell apart, while my hands were tied…" All for One stated with regret. "Now, I have the chance of helping my son succeed. Every punch hurts me as much as it hurts him," All for One looked down at his hands. "But progress always requires sacrifice…" All for One then continued to walk. "But the reward will be great in the end, as we will both rule together in the future, not as master and apprentice, but as father, and son… That is my vision,"
In his room, Izuku grabbed the medkit and started placing ointment and bandages over his worst bruised. Many of his injuries hurt quite severely, but it was nothing he couldn't endure, he just needed some rest. Still, it had been a while since he had experienced such pain, as Izumi had refused to train with him in fear of injuring him. He will prove to her that he can handle this pain and thrive through it. Maybe then, Izumi will accept him, and they will be able to go back to how things were, them working together. Oh, how he missed those days…
Izuku fell back on his bed, but he was unable to fall asleep. He spun around the bed, but nothing, he had too much energy, so he decided to do something productive. Izuku grabbed a few books on mechanical engineering, provided by All for One, as he wanted to expand his knowledge. After an hour, though, he got bored, stood up from his bed and walked out of his room.
Izuku began to wander around the place. He had never really seen much of the hideout. Izuku had only ever been in his room, the training room, and sometimes in Dr Ujiko's office. Occasionally he heard voices that belonged neither to All for One nor Ujiko, so he assumed other people were inside the building too, probably lackeys, Izuku thought.
Izuku didn't find any particularly interesting when he looked around the hideout. Everything was straightforward and boring. "Maybe this was a bad idea," Izuku thought as he felt his eyes closing down from the boredom. "I'll go back," Izuku thought while yawning and turning back.
Suddenly, he felt as all his senses screamed to him in an alert. Izuku turned around and dodged a hand that tried to grab him. Izuku jumped back, but whoever had just attacked he continued to press us. Izuku escaped the hands as they tried to catch him. Izuku stepped to the side to avoid an attack, and he saw as when the person held a vase behind him, it started to disintegrate. Izuku tensed and jumped back, trying to put as much distance between him and this mysterious person. Still, that wasn't enough, as in a fraction of a second, the person had reached him. Izuku ducked under one of the attacks and punched the person away with his metal hand, not caring to regulate his strength. Izuku heard as something cracked on impact, and then the person fell back, grunting in pain.
Izuku was surprised by something though, as the grunt was made by a female voice. Izuku eyed the downed person carefully. They were wearing a long black dress, had long light-blue hair, and their face was pale and seemed to be dehydrated.
Izuku was then startled by a door suddenly opening. Izuku turned around and saw All for One stepping out of a room. All for One looked at the scene in the hall and sighed. "I should have known this would happen," All for One stated and shook his head slightly. "Well, at least now we can be sure your training is starting to pay off,"
Izuku blinked. It was right if he hadn't been training with All for One, he wasn't sure if he would have dodged that last attack after the charge. The speed of that woman was remarkably fast.
"Ugh," The woman grunted as she grabbed her stomach and sat up. "Master," The woman's rough voice spoke. "Who the hell is this brat? I don't think I like him," The woman stated as she glared and growled at Izuku.
"Trust me, the feeling seems mutual," Izuku replied, glaring back at her.
"Now, now, Nana," All for One said as he stepped between them to prevent them from attacking each other. "You are both my apprentices, so you should try to get along well," All for One declared.
"What?!" They both shouted.
"You never told me about this, master!" Nana cried out as she stood up. Her hands were curled into fists, and they were shaking with rage. "I thought I was supposed to be your only apprentice!"
"I don't really mind," Izuku said as he observed Nana with a bored expression. "But, I don't know for how long I will be able to keep myself from plumbing this crybaby back into the ground," Izuku stated.
"Oh you wish, you damn broccoli boi!" Nana shouted back. "You were just lucky, that's it! Next time, I will disintegrate your ass, you hear me?!"
"Try me, you mummy-looking hag," Izuku replied as he narrowed his eyes.
All for One sighed, it was time for him to place his foot down, literally. All for One stomped the ground, and the shockwave it caused was enough to startle Izuku and Nana.
"I will not be dealing with these temper tantrums, do you understand me?" All for One stated in a commanding voice that was enough to shut Izuku and Nana up. They both frantically nodded. "Very well," All for One said, now calmer. "Now, I want you to shake hands and introduce yourselves," All for One looked at Nana, and while Nana couldn't see his face, she knew that All for One had an expression that screamed 'try anything, I dare you.'
Nana sighed and extended her hand, her pinky was raised away from her other fingers. "I'm Nana Shigaraki," Nana said in a bored voice. "My quirk is decay. If I touch anything with my 5 fingers, it will start to decay, and I can't control it's spread,"
Izuku eyed Nana carefully before replying, as shaking the hand of someone who can be disintegrating you just by touching you, and after that same person just tried to kill you may not be a good idea. Izuku sighed, she wouldn't dare to do anything with All for One standing right there, would she?
Izuku extended his metal hand and shook Nana's. "I'm Izuku Midoriya. I'm quirkless," Izuku stated,
Nana scoffed. "Well, I guess you are not half-bad for being a normie," Nana said. "Still, you were just lucky,"
Izuku rolled his eyes. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, corpse-lady," Izuku replied.
All for One quickly stepped in between them to prevent another fight. "Alright," All for One said. "I'm glad to see everything is fixed now,"
"As fixed as the middle east after an American intervention," Izuku said.
"You are both integral parts of this organisation," All for One continued, ignoring Izuku's comment. "We can't have you killing each other, so I don't think I will see you fighting again, right?"
"Keyword: see," Both Nana and Izuku thought.
Izuku's light bulb then turned on. "Excuse me, I never really asked, but of what organisation are we exactly a part of?" Izuku asked as he tilted his head.
All for One looked at Izuku and then chuckled lowly. "I didn't, my bad then," All for One extended his hands to his side. "Welcome to the League of Villains!" All for One exclaimed.
Izuku was unimpressed. "You seem to be lacking some personnel on the creativity department,"
All for One looked down at Izuku. "Quite the cynical now, are you?" All for One asked as he lowered his arms.
"Having a mustachio man yell at you constantly while you are trying to relearn almost everything can be quite taxing on your emotional state," Izuku replied. "Not quite as taxing as the government, but close enough,"
"Oh, trust me, boy, I know that feeling," All for One replied. "Now, as part of you now officially being a member of the League of Villains, we will have to give you a small change of name," All for One brought his hand to his mask's chin and hummed for a few seconds. "From now on, Izuku Midoriya is no more, you will now be, Izuku Shigaraki!"
"What?!" Nana shouted from the background.
Izuku raised an eyebrow. "Shigaraki?" Izuku asked. "Why name me after the unmoist crybaby?"
"Listen here, you-!" Nana was cut off by All for One's laughter.
"Silly boy," All for One said. "I did not name you after her," All for One began. "I named you after me," All for One said as he pointed towards himself.
This actually surprised Izuku. Izuku blinked a few times before replying. "Excuse me?" Izuku asked, still processing what All for One had just said.
All for One chuckled. "Yes, Shigaraki is my last name!" All for One exclaimed. "And, as my apprentices, I believe it is the proper name for you to have," All for One said.
Izuku thought for a second. As far as he was concerned, everyone who knew him thought he was lost, if not dead, so he would be in trouble if someone discovered his actual name. "Very well then," Izuku said. "I´ll just have to get used to it,"
"Oh, I'm sure that with time, you will grow fond of it," All for One replied. All for One then placed a hand on Nana's and Izuku's shoulders. "We will accomplish great things. From now on, we are one, and together, we shall become the gods of the new world order…"
Meanwhile, at the Yagi household…
The house had been different for the past few days. It was like a void, a dark void. It was a never-ending dark void that consumes everything, so there is nothing. Empty, that's how the Yagi household felt. Izumi walked around the house, with loneliness at the vice of her heart, squeezing with just enough pressure to be a constant pain. Still, as time went on, the loneliness felt more like solitude, for one finds a way to cope. Yet to have the real company of someone you appreciate, that would be what she desires the most. Solitude is what comes when the pain of loneliness gives way to calm confidence, self-reliance, and a realisation that when you take good care of yourself, you can take good care of others, and that is precisely what she plans to do.
Izumi walked to Toshinori's room. Toshinori had been a mess for the last few weeks, it was honestly sad seeing who once was such a might hero fall so low. Izumi knocked, but when there was no response, she simply walked in. There All Might laid in his bed, a broken man, a remnant of the once-great hero.
"Dad?" Izumi asked as she walked into the messy room. There were shirts, and other clothes piled on the ground and wraps of various unhealthy foods. "May I talk to you about something?" Izumi walked and stood near the edge of Toshinor's bed.
Toshinori perked up and sat upon his bed. "Will you choose another career path?" Toshinori asked with a glint of hope in his voice.
"No," Izumi replied, shaking her head.
"But-" Toshinori tried to continue, but Izumi raised her hand in a stop sign.
"Dad, we already talked about this," Izumi stated firmly. "I'm not changing career paths, and that is that," Izumi replied and then sighed when she saw the look of sadness in her father's eyes. "Look, I know being a hero is a dangerous job, but I want to do it," Izumi replied. "I want to help people, and this is the only career that allows me to use my abilities to their fullest," Izumi said as she looked down at her hands before clenching them. "I also want to honour Izuku, and change the world, so that what happened to him doesn't happen again," Izumi breathed in and looked at her father with determination. "That is why, despite my previous stance on it, and after careful consideration, I would like to take you up on the One for All offer," Izumi said.
This caused Toshinori to beam with happiness, but before he could say anything, Izumi stopped him.
"But, I'm not doing this because of you," Izumi stated. "I still believe that power should have been given to my brother," Izumi firmly said. "But, to fulfil my goals, I will need every possible advantage I can get,"
"Yes, sure, sure!" Toshinori exclaimed. "I don't care for your motives, as long as you take it!" Toshinori desperately pleaded.
Izumi sighed. "Dad, you do know that One for All won't make me immortal, right?"
"I am aware," Toshinori replied. "But with it, you will be safer, and it will also be like if you are carrying a part of my soul with you wherever you go, and that will put me at ease," Toshinori calmly stated.
Izumi sighed. "Very well, whatever helps you sleep at night, old man,"
Toshinori chuckled and then transformed into his muscle form. "Now for you to gain the mighty powers of One for All, all you must do is to…" All Might cut a strand of his hair from his head. "EAT THIS!"
Izumi was thunderstruck as if a bombshell had just exploded a few metres away from her. Her face was that of a kindergartener being taught quantum physics. Izumi looked at her father, and amidst all the confusion of trying to process the words her father had just uttered, all she could let out, was a faint "what?"
Meanwhile, on the other side of this story, Izuku looked at All for One the same way Izumi looked at All Might. "Excuse me?" Izuku asked.
"As you heard," All for One replied. All for One was currently sitting on his chair. "The path you are heading is one few can turn back from, and few believe to be redeemable. From now on, you will walk in the shadows. But, do not fret, the shadow does not judge, it forgives, it understands, as long as you learn to embrace it, as, at the end of this road, the shadow is all you will have left," All for One explained. "Now," All for One extended a sword and a gun to Izuku. "Kill them…"
Izuku stood in front of a house, it was the middle of the night, and only the bright moon and the pale stars illuminated. It was a lovely house, a small house, but comfy nonetheless. Izuku was wearing a jacket and trousers. His face was covered by a black mask and also wore dark gloves. Inside the house, a family of three resided, and they were currently eating dinner. There was the mother, the father, and the son. The kid is who we are interested in, his name, Mori Katsumoto, quirk: Elastifingers. One of Bakugo's lackeys, and a part of his main tormentors.
Izuku breathed in deep, and he readied the gun he had brought in and walked towards the door. Inside the house, the family was peaceful, but it was all about to change. The booming sound of a gun being fired was heard, and the lock of their door fell down, the door was suddenly kicked open by Izuku, who stormed into the place.
"Stand back!" The father shouted to his kid and wife as he stood up from his chair. "Listen, we can talk," Izuku fired the man on the chest, and he felt his urge to vomit increase. The bullet wound looked nothing like he had expected. Instead of a neat reddened hole, as it was oozing with dark-red blood. The man fell to the ground with a loud thud, and the mother and Mori screamed in terror.
"Please, no! No!" The mother cried in terror as she hugged her son. She continued to plead, but Izuku remained determined, he was given a mission, and he would go through with it. Izuku aimed his gun and shot. The entry wound was dead centre to her neck, perfection, a professional hit, no doubt. The training really paid off. The sound of more blood entering the environment was enough to trigger Izuku's gag reflexes again, though, but he managed to keep his composure.
Mori looked horrified at the dead body of his mother lying right next to him. There were rivers on his face. Mori turned to look at Izuku. "Who are you? Who are you?!" Mori shouted.
Izuku removed his mask, revealing his face to his old aggressor.
"No… no…" Mori shook his head as he looked at Izuku's eyes. "You died… You should be dead!" Mori screamed at the top of his lungs.
"I have returned," Izuku replied before impaling Mori in the stomach, and in such a way that it would take minutes before he died out of blood loss. "And I am a dark phoenix," Izuku said before removing the sword from Mori's stomach and walking away.
Izuku stood in front of Mori's house, and after pouring some gasoline, he had brought outside the house, he threw lit up a matchstick into it. Flames rose into the night as if they challenged the heavens to stop their house consumption and what was once a place of sanctuary. Yet the fire was impatient, and the heavens breathed aeons and moments as if they were one. Meanwhile, the family's bodies were now no more than macabre confetti over the rocky ground, every eye flung wide in a final moment of terror, seeing nothing but blackness despite the lurid light of the fire.
Izuku looked at the flames as they spread, dancing and taking everything they could with them. Izuku turned around and walked away, disappearing into the warmth of the shadow…
