"This is ridiculous."
"What is ridiculous, Young Midoriya?"
"Everyone in the country is trying to talk to me right now, and Hisashi Midoriya won't pick up his phone. I guess it's not a surprise, it's not like he ever has before."
"I'm sorry, my boy. I know it must be difficult to be so distant from a family member."
"It's not, really. You're more of a father to me than he ever was."
"I - I'm so honored, my boy."
"Yagi-san, are you crying?"
Izuku had definitely fallen into some alternate reality where nothing made sense.
That had to be it. There was no other explanation for this.
"Mom said he owned a business," Izuku gasped faintly.
"She… wasn't wrong," Momo responded, looking and sounding like her soul had left her body and retired to some deserted island. Anything to escape reality. She made a visible effort to pull herself together. "I'll check the regulations involved, but this is a potential solution to our investigation." She flipped through the papers. "You should appoint someone to manage your assets; my family can recommend some lawyers. Your father might have better recommendations than ourselves if all of this is completely aboveboard. I've been unable to find anything obviously against regulations in my initial assessment, though skirting anti-monopoly laws falls in a grey area."
No, that couldn't be right. "This has to be illegal." There was no sensible universe in which Hisashi Midoriya had legally owned essentially half of Japan's corporations, spanning most of Japan's industries, and then gave all of them away to Izuku. Who was currently dictator of Japan. Izuku didn't want to own Japan, he really didn't. It seemed that All for One and Hisashi Midoriya didn't care if he wanted to or not.
"Even if it's illegal, selling even a quarter of these, as would be the minimum necessary to break the monopolies, would crash the economy."
"Why do these things keep happening to me."
Momo eyed where Izuku's head thumped against the desk under the weight of the nonsense he had to deal with, then stood. "I'll investigate these and let you know the results when I find them. I'll also send you a list of lawyers who can help you organize your holdings, and you can sell them a few at a time if you'd like. Don't worry too much, Supreme Overlord Midoriya, we're here to help." She nodded determinedly.
"Not you too," he groaned.
"Oh, sorry, Supreme - Midoriya! Everyone else keeps using it and I -"
"Don't worry about it," he said to the desk.
She left. Izuku contemplated the sweet embrace of death. At least the usual chatterers weren't here to watch Izuku's demise by way of stress, and Gigantomachia was running an errand to Internal Affairs.
The door opened and Izuku heard familiar footsteps. Never mind, Gigantomachia was back.
"Supreme Overlord! Are you hurt? Was there an attack?"
Maybe. He was having a hard time breathing. But mostly he just wanted Gigantomachia to go away. If Izuku ignored him, maybe he would.
"Little Master?" he thought he heard mumbled through the roaring in his ears. Something about that sounded important. Not important enough to deal with now, though.
It worked; the door closed and Izuku was left in blessed silence. For a few minutes, he let his breathing slow and heart rate calm, before the door opened again and Yagi was at his side.
"Young Midoriya! Are you alright?"
"No," Izuku said.
"Can I help?"
"I don't know."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not really. Just… I know you're busy, Yagi-san, but can you stay here? For a few minutes?"
"Whatever you need, my boy."
Arms lifted Izuku out of the desk chair and brought him over to the sofa. Izuku's fingers clenched in Yagi's shirt and didn't let go, and Yagi wrapped an arm around his shoulders, grounding him. Izuku hadn't felt so lost since his mother clung to him crying when he was four, apologizing because he didn't have a quirk. He could feel the same tear tracks against his face just like then -
Oh. Those were his own tears. He was crying.
A familiar hand rubbed his back until the tears slowed to quiet hiccoughs and a tissue box was pressed into his free hand.
"What's wrong, my boy?"
"People keep trying to give me Japan."
"Uh… what?"
Izuku blew his nose and tried again. "Hisashi Midoriya signed over his legal assets to me, which includes a disturbingly high percentage of Japan's corporations spanning most of its industries. Probably close to 50%, from Momo Yaoyorozu's initial estimate."
"Holy shit."
"Yeah."
"And that brought… this on?" Yagi gestured to Izuku, who finally remembered to loosen his hand from Yagi's shirt.
"I've been barely holding Japan together, and now…"
"Ah. Well, if it's any comfort, Young Midoriya, I can think of no other person I'd choose to handle such responsibilities." Yagi rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. "I gave you my quirk because I knew you could handle the power and the burdens that came with it. It wouldn't surprise me if others see the same thing in you that I saw - a desire to help people with everything you're given, without losing sight of that goal."
"I can't imagine that's why All for One gave me Japan." That was more likely to be a sudden act of insanity than a product of belief in Izuku's goodness.
"Neither can I," Yagi said, "but whatever reasons he had, I'm glad you're the one he chose. Just remember you're not alone, my boy."
That helped some, but… "What if it's not enough?"
Yagi paused. "You do what you can with what you have, and then a little more. Plus Ultra," he said finally.
Izuku managed a wobbly smile. "Plus Ultra." He pushed himself up. "Well, I'd better get back to work, then."
The businesses were entirely legal. As was Izuku's ownership of them.
Additionally, Hisashi Midoriya was the missing link between the businesses that had been preternaturally prepared for All for One's takeover and the resulting chaos, as well as most of the businesses with the strict anti-quirk-discrimination policies. Momo discovered a few more businesses that fit both categories from the list of Izuku's new holdings.
One more common factor quickly became obvious: it was impossible to trace when many of these businesses came into Hisashi's hands. Trying to track the document trail of previous ownership was how Izuku and Momo discovered a fire that had swept several government vaults twenty years ago, along with a very aggressive virus in the government's computer system at the same time, destroying hundreds of records in the process. The government had covered it up, the lost records and documents adding more nails to the previous government's coffin and to Izuku's headache.
Hisashi Midoriya was unlikely to be the source of the anti-discrimination policies. Many of the businesses that had been in existence for a century or more had such policies extending back almost as far. If he wasn't the source, though, he had certainly ensured that the recent startups had adopted those policies immediately, and updated the policies to account for modern changes in regulations. The more alarming part was that Hisashi - or his businesses - had some forewarning of the crisis that had rocked Japan, and Izuku needed to know how he knew. He would also appreciate knowing how Hisashi hid the fact that he was the richest man in Japan - possibly in the world - from just about everyone.
Then there was the fact that All for One had given Izuku Japan, and then in rolled Hisashi effectively doing something similar. Izuku recalled the business advice so helpfully included in All for One's database. There were too many linking factors to let this be a coincidence. Izuku really hoped this was behind-the-scenes manipulation by All for One, and that he was not about to find out that his father was working for a supervillain.
As much as Izuku didn't want to, he needed to talk to Hisashi.
Getting ahold of the man was the difficult part. Izuku got his phone number from Inko, but he never picked up when Izuku rang. He didn't respond to emails. Izuku was contemplating telling Bakugou to drag the man to the National Diet building by force at this point.
He complained to Yagi, which turned into another crying session when Izuku made an offhand comment about how Yagi was a better father figure than the very absent Hisashi Midoriya.
"I would never want to presume, Young Midoriya," Yagi said once his tears stopped. "Nor is it right for me to take you away from your real family. But I would call any parent lucky to have such a son."
"It's not taking me away if he was never there," Izuku muttered sullenly. "But that's not how it works, Yagi-san. You're family now, too, whether you like it or not." He was. Even before Izuku brought him to his and his mother's home to hide from All for One's rampaging; even before Izuku had gone from thinking of him as All Might to thinking of him as Yagi, his mentor and the kindly, awkward man so much quieter and more fragile compared to All Might. In a way, they'd been family since All Might chose Izuku to inherit his quirk and One for All bonded them together in purpose and strength, but that had solidified through the years with Yagi's mentorship and trust.
Izuku wasn't sure what a father was supposed to be like, but he thought it was probably something like the quiet support and strength and care as Yagi helped raise him from a skinny, awkward child to the hero he was now.
"Don't make me cry again, my boy. You do that enough for both of us."
Izuku gave a watery smile.
Izuku was ready to stake out his own house when he finally received an email reply from Hisashi Midoriya. It gave him a set of times that he'd be available for a chat, on the condition that it was completely private. Izuku picked the first available time slot and sent back a terse agreement. After some deliberation, Izuku chose to meet the man at the Tokyo Imperial Palace. For the moment, it was closed - but the National Diet Building was overflowing with people and the Imperial Palace was currently disused, except for a few guards Izuku had sent over to keep looters out of the place. As an afterthought, he asked the janitorial crew to clean a room and the areas leading to it for the appointment. There was some groaning, but no actual arguments.
He didn't really have memories of the man. He had some indistinct recollections, but Izuku wasn't sure if they were genuine or simply a product of childish imaginings about what his father would be like. Hisashi left when he was nearly four, and hadn't been home since.
Izuku found himself increasingly nervous as the time drew near. His anxiety ramped up when he reached the building and found that the janitorial crew had chosen the same room as All for One did for tea and the fateful discussion so many weeks ago.
"Why this room?" Izuku asked when Kaminari escorted him to the room. It was a big palace; there were plenty of better rooms.
"It was already the cleanest, and it's got a great view of the gardens. Why, is there a problem with it?" Kaminari peered around worriedly.
"No, this is fine."
"Are you sure you don't want someone with you, man?"
"Don't you start, too, I barely convinced Gigantomachia to wait in the garden." Izuku was used to his massive shadow by now, enough to forget the former villain was lurking nearby sometimes, but something about Hisashi's request for privacy made him take it seriously.
"Call if you need us."
"I will."
Kaminari left. Izuku took a deep breath, let it out, and anxiously straightened his vest. He was about to meet the elusive Hisashi Midoriya, his own father, and he had no clue what to expect.
Izuku ended up meeting Hisashi at the gate rather than trying to direct the man to the room by email. It wouldn't do for him to get lost in the Imperial Palace trying to find the right place.
Hisashi Midoriya was surprisingly… normal. Short white curly hair, plain looking, broad-shouldered but not overly so. He looked younger than Izuku thought he should, though perhaps he just had one of those faces that was almost ageless. The business suit he wore was equally normal, tie neatly knotted at his throat - wait, no, Izuku realized after another glance, that was a clip-on tie. Hisashi's most notable feature was his height. He was almost as tall as Yagi in his old muscled form. Izuku found himself wishing he'd inherited his father's height rather than his mother's.
After briefly staring at each other - Izuku still wasn't quite sure what to say, and apparently neither was Hisashi - they shook hands. Izuku could easily imagine that it was a simple business meeting rather than a meeting between estranged father and son.
Izuku invited Hisashi to follow him, but there were no other words spoken until they were seated in comfortable chairs with cups of tea Izuku poured. Hisashi made no effort to speak, though Izuku caught the frequent glances in his direction, bordering on open staring.
"So, Hisashi," Izuku began. "What have you been up to all these years? From looking at your assets I doubt you were overseas the entire time."
Hisashi grimaced and took a long sip of tea in lieu of answering immediately. When he put the cup down, it was still almost full. Such an obvious stalling tactic. "I suppose it would be pointless to lie about it. I'm afraid that one thing led to another and, well, I ended up staying away for much too long."
"Fifteen years."
The man seemed to shrink into the chair. "I suppose so."
The silence hung in the room, an almost visible weight pressing in on Izuku.
"And now you're back. No apologies, no explanations. You don't just disappear for most of my life, come waltzing back, and brush it off with 'one thing led to another.' You left Mom alone and I want to know why."
"I can't imagine that's why you invited me here."
"Maybe not, but since you're here, I'm asking."
Hisashi hesitated, then nodded. He set his teacup down carefully, then straightened in the chair, finally meeting Izuku's eyes.
"It's a rather long story, and I'm sure you want to discuss other things in this meeting, so I'll keep it short. I've spent most of my life building my assets - some falling into my hands by sheer coincidence, some because I saw an opportunity and bought them, some due to various other circumstances. I've tried to keep them private for various reasons, the foremost being that someone with this much wealth is certain to accrue enemies when it is known. By the time certain dangerous parties became aware of a portion of my holdings it was much too late. I suppose I could've dismantled everything piece-by-piece in order to avoid notice, but that was unlikely to help once the parties in question were already aware of my presence and activities, even if it wouldn't be horribly detrimental to the economy to sell even a decent portion within a small span of time. Additionally, there was no guarantee that any new owners would take the same level of interest in… equal opportunity employment as myself."
"The anti-discrimination policies.". There was something familiar about the way Hisashi spoke, this entire situation, but he couldn't put his finger on it. "Every business you own has them."
"They're a widespread practice at this point, but inconsistently so. I would risk far too many people's livelihoods with such a careless change of ownership. To continue my story - before these dangerous parties became aware of my location, I met and married your mother. I had several delightful years, and then they unfortunately found my trail and started a dogged pursuit. I left in large part because I didn't want you or your mother to become casualties of the malice directed at me. They caught up with me when you were eight."
"That was All for One, wasn't it," Izuku said, piecing the puzzle together. "He probably wanted the profits of your businesses in order to run his criminal empire, since all those funds were conveniently gathered in one place. As well as all the other benefits of having so many of Japan's industries under his control."
Hisashi inclined his head. "Of course, with the injuries he received around that time, he wasn't able to make full use of them afterward. I did finance his operations, and some of his people worked in my businesses for the past few years. In return, I knew of his plans for Japan and was able to prepare my businesses for his… future activities."
Izuku would never let himself be used as a pawn like that - if nothing else, he'd have tried to get a message to the heroes regarding All for One's whereabouts. "I suppose he threatened you?" he said, with a touch of coldness.
"He knew about my family. And do consider where all my wealth would've gone had I died. Everything was left to you and your mother."
"Oh," said Izuku in a small voice. And then All for One's sole attention would have been on Izuku and Inko. At least this explained why All for One seemed to take an interest in Izuku beyond simply being the inheritor of One for All. Izuku was the son of his chief financier and a large part of All for One's leverage. Izuku was worth investigating - and keeping alive.
"Yes, 'oh'," Hisashi replied firmly. "Some things simply aren't worth risking."
Izuku rallied. "That still doesn't explain why you're willing to paint a giant target on my back now. He might've disappeared, but he's still around somewhere."
"He's made it clear that he's done with my businesses," Hisashi responded. "It seems that he has accomplished his goals with them. I would not have risked giving them to you if you were in any way endangered by his attention regarding the transfer of my assets. As for any other interested parties, you're currently one of the most well-guarded men in Japan, as well as one of the most capable of taking them down yourself should they get close. I apologize for increasing your current burden, but now is your best chance to take control of my businesses in safety, while you're surrounded by defenses and capable assistants."
Izuku hated that Hisashi had a point, so he ignored it in favor of something else. "You must know All for One pretty well," Izuku mused. "You sound really confident about how he thinks."
Hisashi shrugged. "I know people. Even supervillains are human, when you look closely."
"It's hard to believe that when they kill and torture innocent people," Izuku shot back, mostly out of reflex. This conversation gave him a lot to think about. He still wanted to be angry at Hisashi, but trying to keep All for One away from one's family was an understandable reason to stay away.
"I'm sure it is. But that doesn't mean they're impossible to read, or that they don't work like everyone else. They have goals, they have plans, they work to accomplish those. It's almost never about being pure evil, though some may give a convincing illusion of it. All part of the mask." Hisashi waved the hand not holding his teacup. "Supervillains almost always have a reason for acting as they do, and once you find that reason, they're as much of an open book as any other person on the planet."
"So do you know All for One's goals?" Izuku leaned forward eagerly. Finally, a decent source of information. Strange how it was his own father, rather than the former League of Villains, who could offer the most helpful data on All for One's thought processes.
"Spite," Hisashi said crisply. "He never liked the government or the heroes - I believe he has some personal reasons in that regard - and wanted to see both taken down. After All Might interfered with his operations, he transferred some of that attention to a more specific target."
Ah, yes, Izuku still vividly remembered the series of visions in which he'd learned about All for One and his brother. He really shouldn't be surprised that the man had carried a chip on his shoulder for several centuries afterward. It even explained why All for One had no use for Japan after he was through with his murder spree; he'd only been interested in the slaughter itself, not the aftermath. But it was strange; All for One had so much power and yet hadn't tried ripping his way through the government until recently…
"He changed his strategies," Izuku guessed. "Once All Might started interfering with his activities, he decided to take a more straightforward, violent approach. He got impatient. Before, he was probably trying to find a more subtle way to bring down the system he didn't like."
"I wouldn't be surprised."
"That makes sense." Izuku nodded. "His notes show a tendency toward manipulation more than mass-murdering terror. I was wondering about that."
Hisashi stared at him.
"What?" Izuku snapped, uncomfortable at the sudden sharp attention.
"One of my greatest regrets, Izuku, will always be not having the opportunity to get to know you better," Hisashi said, transferring his gaze to the teacup.
"Er… thanks, I guess?" Izuku fidgeted with his own teacup.
"Of course. Anyway, now that I've explained what I've been up to for the past few years, I think you had some other reasons to request my presence?"
Izuku had so many things he still wanted to ask Hisashi Midoriya, like if he had an idea about why All for One had given Japan to Izuku specifically. Why All for One had created a database full of notes on running government and businesses, as if he'd anticipated Izuku's need for them. Why Hisashi Midoriya still couldn't pick up the damn phone, if he wasn't worried about All for One's attention any more.
But an idea was forming in his mind that was growing increasingly difficult to ignore. Izuku needed to ask a few more questions to confirm his theory.
"Who managed the legalities of your businesses?" Izuku asked, taking the opportunity to refill both of their teacups from a delicate teapot. "From what I've been hearing from my lawyers and the Department of Commerce, the fact that you've been able to legally own this many corporations while avoiding violations of anti-monopoly laws is pure brilliance. So is whatever method you're using to hide your ownership. I'm assuming that your strategies have been modeled after whoever owned most of your businesses in the past - since many have impossible-to-trace ownership spanning decades - but regulations change over time and you've been able to react to those changes as needed."
"I dabble in business law," Hisashi said modestly.
Izuku's mouth dropped open. "That was you?" He'd half-suspected, but the confirmation still came as a shock.
Hisashi smiled. "Surprised your old man has a brain cell or two?"
Yes, actually, but Izuku refrained from responding with that. "I don't suppose that you're also the one who revised the anti-discrimination policies based on the ammendments to the new regulations about a decade ago…"
"Suppose away, that was also my work. I'm rather proud of it, actually."
Izuku had so many questions.
The resulting conversation let Izuku discover a number of things.
First, Hisashi Midoriya was brilliant. Izuku was no longer quite as surprised that the man had somehow amassed so much of Japan's wealth under his direct control. He had a broad range of interests and knowledge spanning law, economics and psychology. He was also full of information on a variety of other fields - he'd troubled himself to learn about every single industry he owned a business in so he at least had a passing understanding of it.
Second, and more importantly, one of the man's obvious passions was in quirk law. The anti-discrimination policies were merely the tip of the iceberg. Hisashi waxed lyrical when Izuku probed him for his thoughts on how he thought those laws should be implemented. Many of them were uncomfortably reflective of All for One's own statements in his notes, but Izuku probably shouldn't be surprised when his father spent several years in contact with the monster. They also reflected many of Izuku's own thoughts, and that was also important.
Izuku found himself drawn into the conversation completely. He only noticed the time when Hisashi rose and flipped on a lamp. The sun had set while they were talking, and the light through the massive window overlooking the garden had completely faded. That brought him out of the ease he'd sunk into, and he remembered why he'd been testing Hisashi's thoughts in the first place.
"You know," Izuku said slowly, "you're really not what I expected."
"May I ask what you did expect?" Hisashi cocked his head curiously.
"I'm not sure," Izuku said. "I don't really know you, but I've conducted a lot of interviews over the past month and I know what I want to see in the government. Hisashi Midoriya, I never thought I'd be saying this, but I want you to work for me. I still haven't found someone to help me with my quirk law reforms, and I haven't met anyone yet who'd be quite so perfect for the job."
Hisashi's face went through a complicated series of emotions too quick for Izuku to read. "I want to retire."
"So do I," Izuku replied. From government work, at least. "You could still retire after the government reforms are done, I wouldn't stop you. We have plenty of people who worked for All for One already, what's one more?"
"That's part of the problem, actually. There could be some who recognize me, depending on how close they were to All for One. None of them ever heard my name - not my real one, at least - but it's not worth the risk. No, Izuku, I think it's for the best that Hisashi Midoriya spends his retirement at home and away from villains."
Izuku probably should have considered that his father might not want to see the people who worked for his blackmailer. He wondered, suddenly, if there was more to the threats than simply vague possibilities of endangering his family; if Hisashi Midoriya had suffered from the whims and cruelties of All for One in the decade he'd worked for him. Probably. Izuku should've thought of it before. Hisashi seemed so calm talking about working for All for One, like it was a mildly unpleasant partnership rather than being an unwilling hostage under the close eye of evil incarnate.
All for One had been so close all this time, even before Yagi found Izuku and chose him to carry One for All. All for One had torn apart Izuku's family, had been a threat looming over them for most of Izuku's childhood. Izuku's anger at Hisashi Midoriya trembled and shattered, leaving behind a faint regret for things that could have been.
There was still too much distance between them, that couldn't be erased yet. Yagi was still more of a father figure than Hisashi Midoriya had ever been. This was only one conversation, and who knows what sort of person Izuku would discover underneath the business tycoon. But Izuku wanted to find out.
"I understand," Izuku said. "Then maybe just… a position as a private consultant? It'd give me an excuse to make time in my schedule so I can get to know my father."
Hisashi's smile was incandescent. "Well, I can't say no to that," he murmured.
Izuku nearly forgot to let Gigantomachia know he was done with his appointment, but the villain appeared shortly after Hisashi Midoriya said goodbye at the gate of the Imperial Palace. They returned to the National Diet Building by way of Shirakumo's Warp Gate with Izuku in a daze. He shook himself out of it when he stepped into his office. There was far too much work left neglected thanks to Izuku's talk with Hisashi taking so much time. He tried to focus on the endless amount of paperwork, but found his mind wandering to the conversation.
"Supreme Overlord, are you well?" Gigantomachia asked.
"Just thinking," Izuku said absently. That reminded him. "Oh, I was going to ask you. About a week ago - did I hear you call me Little Master?"
Gigantomachia froze, and looked away. Izuku had quickly learned that Gigantomachia was a terrible liar where Izuku was concerned. "I misspoke." Definitely a lie.
"Really?"
"I apologize. You are the Supreme Overlord. I used the wrong title."
That sounded like the truth. Izuku narrowed his eyes at the villain, who continued to stare determinedly into a corner. Izuku knew he needed to press the issue, but in what direction?
Gigantomachia was saved from further questions when Kaminari bounced in, Jirou following him with an exasperated expression, and Izuku had to turn his attention to the questions about Izuku's "old man" that Kaminari immediately started asking. They were quickly joined by a number of other former Class 1-A students. Most of the busybodies had finished with their work for the day and the appearance of Izuku's unknown parental figure had invited a good amount of curiosity and gossip. Even Shouto put in a rare appearance - he was usually far too busy - with obvious concern for Izuku.
Izuku indulged them for a few minutes before threatening to kick them all out if they kept distracting him from his work. He needed to sleep sometime, and at this rate he'd be pulling another all-nighter. They quieted down but stayed, and Izuku felt himself relaxing surrounded by his trusted friends and the former supervillain shadow he'd picked up.
He still wanted to talk to Yagi about Hisashi Midoriya and his story, but that could wait. Yagi would be devastated to learn that All for One had split apart Izuku's family. Izuku still had to occasionally remind his mentor that the misery wrought by All for One was the fault of the monster, rather than Yagi's fault for not stopping him. Izuku would tell him later.
For now, he had work to do, as always.