Chapter Two:

Over the last couple hours, All Might had reached out to every contact he possessed, both in Japan and abroad. None of them had ever heard of All for One, including the people he'd told about the villain personally. Numerous incidents caused by All for One over the years had simply never happened.

The real shocker had been that David Shield was no longer under house arrest. The crime he'd committed at All for One's instigation had been erased from history. All Might was still in a state of happy shock. This might almost be worth having to live with his archnemesis…almost.

His phone screen froze. As he pressed futilely, it took him a moment to realize that time had stopped again. Yoichi popped up in front of him. "I'm glad I finally caught you alone. This is very important. The Seventh has been missing from the Void—"

"What happened to Nana?" All Might screamed, leaping to his feet.

"No, this may be a good thing. We suspect—"

Hisashi opened the door without knocking. "I noticed everyone else froze, so I thought you might be here, little brother."

"Dreadfully sorry, I'm late for my haircut appointment." Yoichi vanished.

All Might shouted at the empty air, "You're a ghost! Your hair doesn't grow! Cut the crappy excuses!"

"That was rude," Hisashi said.

"Clearly he hates you because you're garbage." All Might was in no mood to bother with subtle insults. "Get out of my room."

The doorbell rang. Inko called, "I'm so glad you could make it for dinner, Mom."

All Might's heart rocketed. His breathing became harder. If All for One's past crimes had been erased…then…could it be…? He leapt to his feet and shot out of the room and downstairs.

After so many years living with his injuries, it felt like a relief to be able to run pain-free. Especially since he was moving faster than he ever had in his entire life.

Nana Shimura stood in the doorway. She looked much older than the day she'd died—her black hair was streaked with white and her wrinkled hand leaned on a cane. But she still had the same sparkle in her eyes.

All Might launched himself at her. "Teacher!" He swept her into a hug that lifted her off his feet. Tears poured from his eyes. She felt warm. Alive. Her hair smelled like her favorite lavender shampoo. He hugged even harder.

She gripped him just as tightly back. "Toshinori. I'm so, so proud of you. I've wanted to tell you for so long."

He tried to reply but only more sobs came out.

"Whoa, you're so attached to your former mother-in-law," Inko said, sounding bemused.

Nana finally released her student. "I'll always love Toshinori like my son." She winked at him.

All Might wiped the tears off his face and tried to compose himself. Nana met the same qualifications as himself and All for One—someone who had held One for All. Which meant she remembered.

Tomura Shigaraki walked into the house.

All Might leapt backward by reflex, to avoid being decayed. But this Tomura looked much different, with clear skin and his hair shaved to a buzz cut. He wore a U.A. school uniform. All Might had to blink and look twice before he believed it.

An older girl followed after him. "Good to see you, Uncle Toshinori," she said, hugging him.

Then Tomura hugged him, too. "Uncle Toshi! Great to see you!"

All Might's brain short-circuited. He looked down at his arm, surprised it was still attached to his shoulder.

Next, Tomura hugged All for One, who stood rigid and shocked. "Great to see you too, Uncle Hisashi."

Hisashi's eyes widened. "Tomura? Is that you? Why did you butcher your hair?"

Tomura glared. "You've been married to Aunt Inko for several years now. Shouldn't you at least remember my name? It's Tenko Shimura." He caught All Might's eye and winked. "This is why you're my favorite uncle, Uncle Toshinori."

Both All Might and All for One choked.

"And I'm Hana!" his older sister said, emphasizing each syllable. "I know you're bad with names, but try to remember this time."

Izuku ran down the stairs. "It's awesome to see you two! Father gave me a dozen new games. We'll have to try as many as possible."

"That's why you're my favorite little brother." Tomura—no, Tenko—glomped onto Izuku in an enthusiastic hug.

Izuku laughed and returned the embrace. "I'm your only little brother."

Hana wrapped her arms around them both. "I have two little brothers, but you're still my favorite, Izuku."

"Hey!" Tenko protested with mock-anger.

Hana waggled her finger. "Not a word out of you. I know who ate my chocolate stash yesterday."

Tenko laughed.

Bending over, Nana kissed all three of them on the tops of their heads. "All my grandchildren are my favorite grandchildren, and I have enough lollipops for all of you."

"Yay!" Izuku grabbed a grape lollipop.

"I'm too old for this," Tenko said, then promptly elbowed Hana aside to get the strawberry lollipop first.

"Such low-level bribery. At least offer them a car or a computer." Hisashi sighed.

Nana Shimura fixed All for One with a glare of uncharacteristic hatred. He actually flinched. Her lips peeled back into a mad dog's smile. "It's been a while since I've last seen you, Hishy-chan."

"Hishy-chan?" Hisashi shrieked.

"That's what I call my adorable son-in-law." The malice had vanished off Nana's face. She now looked like an innocent old lady. "Don't you like my affectionate nickname?" A malicious undertone lurked in her fake-hurt voice.

"I'll give you a nickname, you failed corpse—"

Izuku asked, "Dad? Is something wrong? You and Grandma Nana always get along so well."

Hisashi's face froze. His jaw clenched. "Of course we do. We're just playing around."

"That's good." Izuku smiled. "I've always appreciated how well Dad gets along with Mom's side of the family even after the divorce. Then you integrated into the family equally well. That's why Dad didn't mind when I started calling you Father. Even though lots of fathers wouldn't have been able to accept their son treating his stepdad like part of his family. I wouldn't have ever called you Father if it had hurt his feelings."

All Might wondered if he imagined the implied threat lurking in that statement. Izuku's green eyes sparkled so innocently. It had to be his imagination.

The red in Hisashi's eyes darkened to nearly black. "How…very…generous." He took a deep breath. "I'll always be your family, no matter who tries to stop me."

All Might definitely hadn't imagined the threat that time.

While Inko was making dinner and the children were playing video games, Nana drew All Might aside. "Did the First explain to you about the wish?"

All Might nodded. "The world has completely changed. The villain All for One never even existed."

"There's more. This world is…malleable." Nana tapped the mole on her chin. "Did you see how I pretended that I'd always called the bastard Hishy-chan? And Izuku and the rest of the family believed me?"

"The look on his face was priceless." All Might laughed, deeply and from the belly.

"I don't think time has been truly rewritten. It's more like the present world was altered to suit Izuku's wish, even going as far as to bring the dead back to life. As a result, everyone but us has holes in their memories. The fake past isn't fixed. There's just a big hazy area. Huge parts of Japanese history don't make any sense now because All for One interfered too much. If either of us starts filling in background information, then as long as it makes logical sense, the world will shift to accommodate our stories."

"You mean we can literally rewrite the past." An unpleasant suspicion occurred to All Might. "Does All for One have the same power?"

"Yes, unfortunately. But there's two of us and one of him." Nana grinned in her trademark way. "I believe if we both agree on the same set of facts, we'll be able to overpower him. I plan to test my theory over dinner."

All Might's grin was identical to hers. "Sounds like fun, Teacher."

A delicious smell filled the room as Inko placed a mac-and-cheese casserole on the table.

Nana leaned on her elbow and smirked. "Hishy-chan, how has your business been going? Don't you sell cat litter?"

Hisashi spat out his water. "Excuse me? I must certainly do not."

"Ah, I remember now, you also sell litter boxes and poop scoopers," All Might said. "With pet ownership in Japan on the rise, no wonder you've been raking in the money lately. Raking? Get it?"

The air in the room became heavy. All Might could almost feel the moment when his and his teacher's wills overpowered All for One.

Inko smiled. "I confess I thought it a little strange the first time Hisashi told me what he did for a living. But it's a necessary part of society."

"Someone has to clean up cat and dog waste," Nana agreed. "Your husband built his business from the ground up, starting out walking dogs—and cleaning up after them—before he moved up to a door-to-door cat litter salesman. Now he owns his own company! I respect that."

All Might said, "Just to show how far he's come up in the world, every single box of cat litter he sells has his face pictured on the front."

Hisashi sputtered.

Before he had time to recover, All Might jumped in with the next blow. "Wasn't your favorite hero Wash? He's a colleague of mine. I met him the other day and he was happy to sign all of his merchandise for you."

"This is too far," Hisashi growled. "I don't have a favorite hero."

Nana's eyes widened. "But you used to rant for hours about how much you loved Wash. Did something happen, Hishy-chan?"

"You must have been mistaken. I've never been fond of heroes."

"Even if you've changed your mind, I'll never forget how cute you looked when you dressed up as Wash to take Izuku to a Hero Convention."

Inko pulled out her phone. "Yes, I remember that. I think I still have pictures."

"Even if I took my son to a Hero Convention, I never would have cosplayed as a caped fool," Hisashi said from between clenched teeth.

"That's right, Wash was always your favorite because he didn't wear a cape," All Might said as if just remembering this fact.

Once again, the air felt saturated to the brim with power. All for One was putting up a real struggle against this one. Summoning up all his heroic willpower, All Might kept imagining the picture he hoped Inko would find on her phone. He prayed with an even deeper intensity than any life-or-death battle.

"Got it!" Beaming, Inko held up her phone. The image showed Hisashi bending down with his arm around a middle-school-aged Izuku. Of course, Izuku wore a very convincing All Might costume. Hisashi was dressed up like a washing machine. His head peeping out from the lid even smiled like he was enjoying himself.

"Hahahahahaha!" All Might couldn't help himself. He laughed until tears streamed down his face. "You look so wonderful. Such a convincing costume. It looks handmade. You must have spent weeks constructing it. Really, I can't praise you enough."

"You have so much in common with Izuku, like your shared love of heroics," Nana said.

Inko startled. "Why, yes, I remember how passionately he talked about heroes on our first date." She sounded as if she was struggling a little to form the memory. "It was one of the reasons I knew he'd be compatible with my family."

Hisashi growled, "I've stopped being a fan of Wash, so can we change the subject?" He glared at Nana and All Might.

They beamed at him with identical heroic grins.

At the other end of the table, Izuku, Tenko, and Hana squabbled over the last piece of cornbread.

All for One's scheming was as impeccable as a true villain. He waited until Inko was cleaning up after dinner and Izuku had taken a break from playing video games to fetch a cup of water. He timed his ambush just as his son was walking down the hallway. "Toshinori, I'd like to talk to you."

With Izuku clearly close enough to overhear, All Might couldn't tell his old nemesis to go to hell. "What is it?" He knew it would be a trap of some sort. His eyes darted around the hallway, hoping someone else would come along.

Hisashi said, "I think there's been some tension between us, and I'd like to straighten it out. I'm not sure how it started, but it will only hurt Izuku if we let it continue. I'd like to tell you: I forgive you for all past grudges. Will you tell me the same? Then we can shake hands." The villain held out his hand, which looked entirely normal given it belonged to the incarnation of pure evil.

All Might swallowed. He knew exactly what his enemy was doing. If he refused to shake Hisashi's hand and offer forgiveness, then he'd look petty. It would be easy for Hisashi to brand him as the troublemaker in all their future fights.

But he couldn't bring himself to say it. He just couldn't. Even knowing the trap, the words refused to come out.

It was easy for All for One to mouth words of forgiveness: he was a villain and lied like a fish breathed water. It was different for All Might. He'd personally seen how many people Hisashi had harmed over the years. He'd been inside the labs of human experimentation. He'd watched Nana die. To even pretend to forgive the villain would have felt like betraying all those victims.

All Might was trapped. He could feel Izuku's eyes beating into him. A small, sad sound emerged from his lips.

"Toshinori? Is something wrong?" Hisashi's hand remained outstretched. His tone sounded nothing but concerned. His teeth gleamed.

Nana appeared out of nowhere, slinging an arm around her former student's neck. "You'll have to forgive Toshinori. He ate too much and now he has a stomach ache. But you had such a wonderful, charming idea. I'd just make one small change."

"That's not—"

Nana spoke over the villain. "Why don't you both say that you accept each other as Izuku's fathers? That's the real heart of your conflict, isn't it?" She sounded so innocent.

Hisashi's smile vanished. He looked nearly frightened. All Might realized that his teacher had turned the tables perfectly: just like he could never say that he forgave All for One, the villain would never be able to say that All Might was Izuku's father.

"I liked my idea more," Hisashi said.

"But I liked my idea more," Nana said brightly. "Toshinori? Tie-breaker vote?"

Izuku stomped down the hallway. "Stop being silly. It doesn't matter what you say." He grabbed Hisashi's hand and used it to shake All Might's hand. "Your fight has been settled. You've made it. I declare it."

As soon as Izuku had left, Hisashi wiped his hand off on his suit pants. Glaring, he hissed, "This isn't over. I'll still beat you."

All Might smiled. For once, he'd figured it out faster than the supposed villainous genius—there was no winning or losing this situation. They were both stuck with each other by Izuku's wish. The correct way to play the game was to try to have fun, realize it could have been worse (much, much worse, whispered his memory of Izuku lying dead on the battlefield), and annoy your opponent as much as possible while keeping within the rules. Yet All for One was too stubborn to ever give up on winning, which meant he'd only continue to self-sabotage and drive himself insane. It was wonderful.

"Why are you smiling like that?" Hisashi growled.

All Might only smiled even wider.

From the living room, Tenko called, "Want to play with us, Uncle Toshinori?"

"Yeah, you should come play too, Dad." Izuku said.

"Coming," All Might shouted, and went to join his son.

OMAKE TIME!

Omake: Meanwhile, Off-Screen

Hisashi: Psst! Tomura! Do you remember anything?

Tenko: What an odd question. I remember many things but the meaning of the universe and the contents of my last math exam escape me. I see you still don't remember my name.

Hisashi: Dammit, I was hoping you were faking it. Where are your parents? Are they still alive?

Tenko: They died in a freak accident when the chicken crossed the road.

Hisashi: Seriously? I had nothing to do with it this time.

Tenko: That was a joke. They both went on anniversary trip to Hawaii. Anyone ever tell you that you're seriously creepy?

Hisashi: So, if I offered you a chance to become a villain, what would you say?

Tenko: Way ahead of you, I'm already running my own League of Villains.

Hisashi: They're still around? That's great news!

Tenko: I'm a hero student, idiot. Got you again! Have you been breathing in the fumes at your cat litter factory?

#

Omake: The Precise Moment When Hisashi's Rage Broke the Fourth Wall the Murder the Author

Hisashi: I know this absurd curse won't permit me to vault Izuku, but I at least want to go sit inside one of my many bank vaults and fantasize about it.

Poor Overworked Employee: Sir, you asked me to purchase a bank vault, but I don't know what that is. I'm so sorry. I've done hours of research. But no such thing seems to exist.

Hisashi: Bank vaults…don't exist? Then where do people keep their money?

Employee: Banks stopped holding onto paper currency decades ago. It's all digital now.

Hisashi: What kind of unholy abomination of an alternate reality is this?

#After that Hisashi's employee got tired of being berated and quit #Hisashi had another meltdown when he realized they could do that and he couldn't murder them for it

#

Omake: Help! If You're Reading This, a Supervillain is Trying to Kill Me!

Hisashi: Stop running away from me. I just want to talk. Your writing has been somewhat hostile toward me and my interests lately. We're going to discuss how I can to incentivize you to make it up to me.

Author: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Author's Note: The more I write, the increasingly certain I become that Izuku does know everything. He's the biggest troll in this whole story.