Midoriya, honestly, suspected this to be Tsuyu Asui's version of preparing an assassination attempt. Somehow she feels like the type to openly ask you to send your bodyguard away before trying to stab you.

If she tried it, she would discover that she lost her first and last occasion to kill him when Tokoyami restrained her in her temporary house. He didn't realize how much faster she got. Now that he knew it, he … took precautions.

Of course, Tsuyu being Tsuyu, she still managed to surprise him. Mostly with her bluntness. Midoriya was busy sipping some Gold Tips Imperial when she suddenly unleashed the bomb.

"Are you sleeping with Ochaco?"

Naturally, he almost ended up choking on the tea. Goddamnit, Tsuyu. So many years of successfully avoiding heroes, and you almost killed me with a question. Ugh.

"N… no, I don't." He says once he stops choking. She looked concerned for a moment and it felt like she was about to jump over the coffee table to help him (or stab him), but he gestured at her to stop. And somehow (if her plan was to stab him), she listened.

"Why?" What the heck is with this line of questioning?! She looks both determined and genuinely interested in hearing the answer. It's probably the part of her investigating how far he was ready to go. In order to make sure if she wants to stab him or not.

"Tsuyu…"

"Call me Tsu." She reminds him.

"Fine then. Tsu." He once again remembers freaking out when she told him to refer to her that way years ago. Good times. He misses them. They were all innocent back then. "Do you know why, despite all the years that passed, she is still acting like she did back then?"

She tilts her head a bit, and looks at him quizzically.

"It's because I want her to act like that." He says and realizes immediately that he phrased it wrongly. Time to fix that. "Her personality… it's like a white board for me to write on. She acts like she used back then when we all were hero trainees, because that's what I want from her. Because that's how I told her to act. Because she believes that acting that way makes me happy."

"You mean that…" Tsuyu looks vaguely horrified. Izuku isn't surprised.

"I had a crush on her back then, you know." He replies. His eyes are on the wall in front of him.

That crush… it was probably unsurprising. He still remembers Uraraka trying to help him when he almost tripped in front of the exam, only for it to turn out to be for naught because he was enough of a gymnast to avoid squashing his nose in.

The two of them then chatting on the way to the theoretical exam. Him, for some reason, mumbling out that he is quirkless. Uraraka not reacting like he expected to, but instead saying that she'll be keeping her fingers crossed for him.

The Izuku today wouldn't particularly care. His 'quirklessness' no longer really mattered to him. But for the Izuku back then, her words meant the world.

"And I think… no, I know… that by the time the Training Camp happened, she reciprocated those feelings." He did ask her, much later. Her personality wasn't the same anymore, but the memories were still there. "But then everything went to hell. By the time I met her again, she was… this thing."

"This thing?" Tsu looks as if she wasn't sure if she should be angry at that or confused at the whole subject.

"Her memories are still there, but personality… as I said, it's completely fluid." He continues, his voice more and more bitter with every word. "If I tell her to think something, she will. All these years and I'm not even sure if she can be considered a living human being rather than a corpse of one, or a tool that talks. I wouldn't wish that to happen to my worst enemy."

He's lying. He has a long list of people that he would like this to happen to. It's just that Uraraka wasn't on it.

"So I could, like, try to ask her out." He says, still not looking at Tsuyu. "And she would agree. But that's the problem. Because she can't say no. And the only way for her to be able to say no is if I'll tell her to do that." He sighs. "Even if I tell her to answer in any way she wishes, she'll still feel compelled to answer in a way that pleases me. She has that hardcoded." He sighs again, even more painfully. "And while I might have killed a lot of people, I'm not a rapist."

Nor a necrophile. Doing that would have some shades of that as well.

"Have you tried to help her, ribbit?" Tsuyu asks. When Midoriya looks at her, she reads the answer from his face. "Of course you did."

Even Eri failed to help Uraraka. Uraraka had a Hyper-Regeneration quirk that read Eri's quirk as an attack. So it resisted any changes. And Eri wasn't strong enough to force her way through the block and push Uraraka back before the Hyper-Regeneration was given to her.

One of the reasons why Midoriya did his best to maintain Entropy's supportive mood towards Overhaul's research was because he hoped that a quirk-erasing drug would knock that block out. Allowing Eri to selectively rewind Uraraka's body and mind, without doing that to her quirk factor.

Of course, Overhaul kicked the bucket before he could get there. And there was no one out there who was smart enough to continue his work. The chain of existential disappointment that made for Midoriya's life grew by one more link.

And yes, he asked Aiko for help as well. She couldn't do much to multiple-quirk bearers. Too complicated of a tangle. So, another disappointment.

"So, instead, I'm just… taking care of her, I guess." He replies. "She is acting as my bodyguard. She gets free weekends to visit her family… which, by the way, doesn't know a thing about the whole Special-End Noumu business."

Urarakas are a part of his support network. They followed their daughter into it. At this point, they were so used to being villains, that they didn't even bat an eye at Uraraka's inclusion into the League of Villains of the new Paranormal Liberation Front.

Of course, they were villains 'technically'. They took care of a handful of kids and did maintenance work. When something broke in one of their safehouses, the caretaker called the Urarakas to fix it. Thus making it less likely for any outsider to notice… oddities.

Uraraka Constructions was also helpful in laundering money for the Network. And a few other things.

Midoriya tries to ignore the guilt whenever his thoughts move onto the subject of 'what would the Uraraka you knew back then think about you if she knew you turned her parents into villains'. Yes, they helped people. Still…

If he could just tell her to go back to her family and live with them full-time, he would do it. But she is supposed to be a bodyguard. If she stays too far from him for too long, things are going to get… bad.

"In the end…" He shakes his head. "... I don't think she can be fixed." If shooting himself in the head would change that, he would do that without a moment of hesitation. Though only after making sure that Eri was safe.

"All for One was a monster." Tsuyu says and Midoriya very much agrees with that sentiment. The hatred in the frog girl's voice is almost palpable now. At least it's (probably) not directed at him.

"He changed after Kamino." He says before biting himself in the tongue. Great job, you idiot. You weren't supposed to say that. How did you manage to stay alive so long when you can easily trip over stuff like that? Sentimentality will be your undoing, Izuku.

"You knew him earlier, ribbit?" He is almost sure that she is ready to attack him if he says something wrong. Almost. This talk is such a rollercoaster of emotions that it's really hard to follow even for him.

"Unfortunately, I did." Midoriya admits. "He had five children, adopted or biological. Five children that he tried to make into villains to equal or surpass him. Entropy and Apocrypha were among them… and so was I."

"And your time on the UA?" Yes, that was a good question. One the answer for which was probably going to decide whether she'll try to kill him or not.

"I guess you might call it a teenage rebellion." He says and tilts her head a bit to look at him quizzically. "I genuinely tried to leave him behind and become a hero. He didn't exactly fight against it. All he did was put me under a quirk that made me unable to betray our 'family secrets' to the heroes, and told me to do my best. I guess… I guess that he knew all along where it would lead me to in the end."

Tsuyu doesn't say anything, instead she continues to observe him. He has no idea how to read the look on her face.

"That or he was genuinely alright with that." He admits. "All for One before Kamino Ward was evil, no doubts about it. But after it… he was worse than that. Brain damage? The feeling of almost dying giving him a new perspective? The desperation of a man on the verge of death that has never managed to realize their life goals, despite living for centuries? I guess that we'll never know for sure."

Still nothing. Part of him suspects that she is planning to catch him off-guard. Let him talk and then, once he focuses on it enough to not be cautious enough, attack him. It wouldn't work, but… she might not be aware of it.

"And I guess that he succeeded." Midoriya decides that if he's in for a penny, he should also be in for a pound. Besides… Tsuyu, of all people, doesn't feel like a security threat. She wants to die and hates the government as much as he does. And with how monitored she is, she can't hope to get a message out. Besides, to whom could she send it if she's this much of a lone wolf? "In the whole 'make them into great villains' scheme. Even too much."

"Too much?" Tsuyu finally decides to speak. So, it's probably not her way of softening the enemy before attacking.

"He survived Deika, Tsuyu." She blinks at him a few times in shock. Yes. That's a valid reason for shock. "He warped into safety at the last second. Or so he thought. He didn't expect his five masterpieces to team-up and murder him. I guess we had enough of his bullshit." He sighs. His hand unconsciously ended up on the scars, so he moved it back. "Even Entropy, his right-hand woman, was there. But Aiko left afterwards, then Hana died, and now we're all here." Except for Tenko, whom he is busy sending away. And Asa, in a way.

A true family reunion, all things considered. What's left of it that is.

"I see, ribbit." She suddenly looks a bit more relaxed. Thankfully it's not Tsuyu trying to catch him off-guard. "Do you want to have sex with me?" She asks. Midoriya, thankfully, ran out of tea a bit earlier, so he wasn't at risk of suddenly choking to death.

"... come again." He still decided to clarify that what he heard wasn't a hallucination.

"I want to have sex with you." Tsuyu confirms it. But this doesn't tell him a lot, maybe except for the fact that Tsuyu Asui might have finally lost her marbles. If she even had any left after the Marukane Ward.

"Okaaaay, why?" Because he really is going to need that explained before he decides that she didn't put anything hallucinogenic in his tea.

"Because, as already established, I don't plan to survive this war, ribbit." She replies. With her standard bluntness. "I agreed to join you because I want to die. And I don't want to die as a virgin."

Yes. That's certainly the same Tsuyu Asui that he knew back then. The one that had close to no brain-to-mouth filter. The only subject she clearly was avoid was the one of relationships and sex. Which was probably either due to her wanting to be a role-model for her younger siblings OR being simply too young to seriously bother herself with.

Things, clearly, changed during the past years.

"Wait, you're still…"

"No one interesting at UA." She cuts in. "And the ISP… too rowdy for my taste." Right, those guys had a… reputation, so to speak. Mostly a thing of the past now, just as the Inhuman Supremacy Party as a whole.

"Alright, second question." Midoriya says. Tsuyu is still giving him The Stare. "Are you really offering me that because you don't want to die as a virgin, or because you want to have a better shot at a potential assassination attempt on me?"

"Yes." Tsuyu replies. Huh, Midoriya almost chuckled at that. "Next question?"

She is almost adorable in her approach to assassination. Unless this is some five-dimensional thinking and she is acting that way to make him think that she isn't truly a danger to him.

ISP was known for its ferocity in combat, not five-dimensional thinking and assassinations. But Tsuyu was a smart one. And ISP, to begin with, wasn't known for its members being super smart.

"... actually I wanted to ask some version of 'why me', but then I realized that the 'it's probably so that it's easier to kill you' pretty much explains it." He deadpans. Tsuyu responds in kind. Wow. She's good at it.

"You're handsome, ribbit." Tsuyu decides to surprise him with a compliment. "And smart. That's enough as for 'why'."

"Yeah, except…"

"... is it because of your past?" She interrupts him. Goddamnit, she's on the right track. When emotions are involved, she's probably smarter than he is.

"Am I right in suspecting this question to be a veiled 'are you still a virgin yourself, due to the fact that as a quirkless you probably weren't very popular your whole life?" Midoriya asks. It comes out a bit more bitter than he expected.

"Maybe." She replies, her finger at her lips.

Tsuyu changed a lot, yet somehow stayed Tsuyu. He isn't sure if he can say the same things but most of his remaining classmates.

"I am inexperienced in the matter." He admits. "But not entirely inexperienced." The stare somehow gets more intensive. "Hypothermia. Not for long. It didn't work out."

"Why?"

"Tsu, why are you interrogating me about my… well, I can scarcely call it a 'romantic history', since it's more of an absence of one?" He asks, his brow raised. Tsuyu shrugs. She has an agenda in all that, but somehow he fails to discern it.

Alright, here goes nothing.

"Incompatible personalities, I guess." Midoriya decides to go that way. "Honestly, she is a bit… how should I put it… simpleminded. It just couldn't work out from the start, I believe."

"Quicksilver?" Tsuyu asks. Midoriya finds the whole talk increasingly weird.

"Gay." Midoriya deadpans. "Extremely gay."

"Cloud?" Tsuyu remains

"She is more of a younger sister or an additional daughter to me." Midoriya decides to leave out the part of her age making things much weirder than they would have to. "Tsu, what is it all about?"

"Not telling you." The froggy decides to be secretive about it. "Maybe you'll figure it out yourself. Anyone else?"

"No." Midoriya lies. More of a white lie, really. Tsuyu looks at him quizzically for a few long seconds, probably looking for a sign of dishonesty. But she clearly finds none. He is good when lying is involved.

"So, what's the answer?" She eventually settles up on continuing the talk.

"Before that, a quick question." Midoriya decides to investigate a bit more. "Three, actually. To start: is this just an offer of sex, or more of a relationship thing?"

"I won't live for long." She replies, before ribbiting with just a hint of sadness in her voice. "So I'm not sure if there is a point in making it into a relationship. But if you aren't sure how to refer to me in front of others, feel free to say that I'm your girlfriend."

That's a … very sad way of putting it, all things considered. Then again, if there is one thing that Tsuyu has in abundance, that's sadness and regrets. That's something that connects them.

"Alright then, question two." He decides to leave the girlfriend part without commenting on it. "Did Uraraka put you up to this?" Tsuyu blinks at him. "She has making me happy or at least healthy practically hardcoded. I wouldn't be surprised if she tried to set you up for that if she decided that I'm not doing well with being lonely."

Bad wording. It makes him sound as if he wasn't doing well with loneliness. He… kind of got used to that, to be honest. People can adapt to the weirdest of things. He had Eri, his daughter. That;s what was really important.

Uraraka helped him a lot with the whole 'lone fatherhood' thing. Although to him she was more of a maid. To Eri, more of a favorite auntie.

"It's more complicated than that, ribbit." Tsuyu replies after a few seconds of thinking it over. "Let's say that we were in agreement on it. Can't you just ask her about it?"

"I could, yes." Midoriya agrees. "But I'm trying to leave her as much space as possible. It might be stupid, but… a part of me hopes that deep inside, Uraraka I knew still exists. And I want her to have at least some degree of freedom and privacy, even if… even if I know that she would agree to share details with me with a smile on her face."

Finger by her lips. Someone's confused. Or deep in thoughts. She is still in them when Midoriya speaks again.

"In the end…" He says. "... I think I just hope that one day she would hide something from me that could endanger me. Or at least inconvenience me seriously. If only because it would make me feel like there is still hope for her."

Silence in the room. Awkward one. Painful one. Neither of them speak because neither of them know what to say. Eventually Tsuyu settles on changing the subject entirely.

"And what's the third question?" She asks. Midoriya sighs.

"Do you have any problems with All Might's memorabilia?" He says and she gives him an odd stare. "I have a… peculiar taste in decor for a villain."

There was a reason why only Eri and Uraraka were allowed into his personal quarters. The office was something else, but his bedroom… he wasn't letting anyone else inside. Tenko knew, but that was the exception confirming the rule.

Aiko never dropped by, but she probably knew what to expect if she did.

Eri's bedroom was included in the deal, at least ever since she grew old enough to redecorate it to her own fancy. Because she inherited the decor taste of her father.

"I used to not like him very much." She replies, before ribbiting sadly. "I felt like he didn't do enough about the discrimination that people like me faced. I realized why he stayed silent on the politics much too late. And I think… I think that if he survived Kamino, my family would still be alive. So no. I don't have any problems with his merchandise."

"That's… great, Tsu." Midoriya says before coming to a decision. "Let's go watch some comedy films. I think I can give you a few recommendations." Mostly thanks to him watching a lot of those with Eri.

Tsuyu stares at him in clear shock. She lets out a very confused ribbit as well.

"Tsu, I know that you won't be around for long, but… if we're going to spend that time together, I want to make you as happy as possible." Which probably isn't going to be much, considering what she went through, but… "So you aren't having your first time while on the verge of tears."

He isn't sure if it'll work, but… it's the best idea that comes to his mind right now.

"Oh." Tsuyu looks down. "I… thank you, Izuku."

(***)

Finally, the last part of the ignition procedure is concluded. The reactor - a rather small one - ignites.

Mei Hatsume claps her hands a few times. Some of the engineers present in the control room join the activity. Yeah, they did something big. The place was in a real state of disrepair.

"Well, we have that done." Mei says to her second in command. "Nothing exploded and… what about the radiation leaks?"

"None thus far." He replies. "But we did check the shielding and the electronic installation several times. This place was built to last, and I'm ready to die on this hill."

"Any idea how All for One built it?" Mei asks. Despite being in the field, she is wearing her business suit and black glasses. Both have a lot of special gimmicks installed in them, enough to make them passable enough as a villain uniform.

"Most of it probably with quirks." He replies. "We're, what? Fifty meters beneath the ground? The entire facility can comfortably fit up to five thousand people, and literally none of it is above the ground. That's a lot of earth and stone to move. But if he got someone with a ground manipulating quirk and then warped the material away, he could do that quietly."

"He probably dug a shaft to the lowest level, established the foundations and the engineering section, then went up." Mei thinks aloud. Her assistant nods. "Damn. Why the hell were we still on the heroes side back then? I would absolutely love to work on this." He shrugs. He has no idea either. "What's the status of the facility?"

She, regretfully, can't work on it full-time. She has so many preparations to make. Ten Million trusted her with the preparations for the war, and she was going to fucking nail it.

"With the reactor on, we can start cleaning the living areas." He replies. "Most of it requires just that, cleaning. The engineering level is almost done, so we have a place to store our tools. It is designed to produce and repair things on-site, so it's actually a blessing for us. The level above it is the main storage area that we're going to start filling once the deliveries start…" He pauses, giving her a questioning stare.

"Not yet." She replies. "If we start vanishing things too early, someone might start asking questions. We're sending things in batches. Raw materials preferably. If we get too much assembled in one of our factories, someone might ask questions."

"Goddamn inspectors." He groans. "You can't even build a good bomb without someone asking what the hell you're doing with all those explosives."

"Right, those guys are the worst." Mei shivers. "Not sure who's worse, government inspectors checking out whether we're producing surplus stuff or the guys that come check if we aren't violating OSHA rules."

"Fuck OSHA." He replies and she smirks at him. That's one thing that they both agree on, yeah.

"What about the satellite facilities?" She asks.

The Overlook is built almost entirely underground. It's not built with surviving a nuclear attack in mind, All for One wasn't THAT paranoid, but you could shell it with conventional ammunition for weeks and nothing significant would happen to the structure.

The main complex was rather wide, being fifty meters deep and a few hundred meters in diameter. There were also several satellite facilities, connected to the main one with tunnels.

They were much more shallow, and built to enlarge the facility's defensive perimeter. Give the defenders some reinforced positions to defend without having to fight on their literal doorstep.

The whole thing was built on an island, too. Mei already inspected the location where ground-to-sea missile batteries were to eventually be installed. In order to deter any landing attempts. Plus the ground-to-air missiles. Even some missile defense lasers, all existing only in the Overlook' plans.

Mei was both incredibly amazed with the scale of All for One's vision and the sheer paranoid insanity that must have been devouring him when he ordered Overlook constructed.

She truly wishes that she was smarter back then. That she threw the lots with the villains much earlier than she did. She could make Overlook so much better with an access to the resources that All for One invested into the fortress. It was brilliant, yes, but could be made so much more.

Today, Hatsume Industries - nay, the entire Paranormal Liberation Front - barely had the resources necessary to make the place livable again. And only after scamming numerous banks for loans in order to buy the materials and tools.

It was sad.

"Well, I'll call Ten Million and tell him that we'll make it for the deadline." Mei says. "I guess that the Second Paranormal Liberation War will start according to schedule."

She was going to prepare Overlook. But it was Midoriya Izuku that was going to fill its barracks, training areas and corridors with people ready to burn, maim and kill for the cause. People that she was going to outfit with Hatsume Industries gear.

Oh, this was going to be beautiful.

(***)

To be honest, if I'm not bulshitting you about Mastery due to some nefarious reasons, the world should be happy that the relationship between Midoriya and Michiko (Hypothermia) didn't work. Let's just say that her quirk is incredibly powerful, and if they scored a Shoto on quirk inheritance... oof. That's all I can say, oof. You'll get to see the true extent of her power eventually.

Also you now know what truly happened to All for One. One more snippet. Unless you missed it out of sad [due to Tsuyu scene] and horror [Mei Hatsume having a nuclear reactor at her fingertips].