The scenario had a disturbing amount of familiarity to it. A familiar room, expensive tea, and Izuku wondering what to say to All for One sitting across from him.

He'd rehearsed for this. First, when he daydreamed about the chance to ask All for One what the hell he'd been thinking, and recently once he found out that Hisashi was All for One, but he couldn't quite remember what he wanted to say.

"Well, Izuku, I'm here," All for One said mildly. "How are you planning to deal with me?"

Izuku sighed. "I haven't decided."

"Oh?"

Izuku placed his teacup on the table. He hadn't drank from it. "I have a lot of questions."

"Fair." All for One inclined his head. "What do you want to ask?"

"You'll answer them? Honestly?" Izuku wasn't sure if he'd trust All for One's answers. But the fact that All for One was apparently offering was… nice.

"My answers so far have been entirely honest, Izuku. There were lies by omission, false implications, and questions I've deflected, but I've tried to hold myself to the literal truth; it's the least you deserve from me. And since my greatest secret is out I have little reason to deflect questions any more. Yes, I will answer honestly."

"The truth? Really? You left because Mom and I were threatened by… by you?" Izuku said bitterly.

"You'll note that I allowed you to imagine the identity of the enemies in question for yourself, and let the facts I gave you support the idea." All for One shrugged, sipping his tea. "The enemy I spoke of was All Might, and the threat to yourself was real enough."

"He wouldn't hurt me," Izuku retorted belligerently.

"Maybe not. But you would have been taken from me at least, and potentially used as a hostage to bring me in line. Your reputation in society would have been permanently ruined before you even lived a decade, had the truth come out. As an adult, Inko would have been under suspicion of assisting in my activities - entirely unwarranted, I assure you. Your lives would have been destroyed due to my presence. At worst, if All Might tracked me to my home, you both might have been caught in the crossfire of the resulting battle. It would hardly be the first time civilians have been unfortunate casualties of our fights, and not all are entirely my fault. All Might was incapable of holding back against me. The buildings around us - and their occupants - sometimes suffered the consequences."

"So you're still saying you left for our sake?" It was hard to believe. "It's not like you're known for caring about people."

"Obviously. I wouldn't have bothered to get married if I didn't care," All for One said, annoyed. "Especially under my real name, with regular provisions of income. It's not like I don't have a plethora of options involving less personal investment if I should want women or offspring, or anything less permanent. No, Izuku, I would not have chosen to leave for any reason but necessity."

Izuku nearly asked him why he even got married if that was the case, but stopped himself. No, there was an order to this, and he needed to follow it.

"I know what I want from you," Izuku said. "I want your story."

"Will it change anything?"

Good question. "Probably not. But I want to know what's under the mask anyway."

"It's a long story," All for One said.

"I have time. Well, I'll make time."

All for One nodded, and took another sip of tea. Izuku picked up his own teacup.

"I'll still condense. I've had over 200 years of life experience, Izuku; that would be too much to cover in one afternoon. When you asked about my motivation previously, I told you it was spite toward the government and heroes. Accurate, but I didn't start with spite.

"The history books are fond of glossing over the time when quirks first appeared, so allow me to paint a small picture of the world as it was then. The government at the time was perfectly within their rights to declare a state of emergency, I'm afraid. The witch hunts were astonishingly brutal. My own parents were casualties of one such hunt; for my own reasons I didn't find them worthy of mourning, but it likely influenced my brother's unkind attitude toward quirks. In some areas there was even a religious element to the persecution - children with quirks were considered ill omens, or evil spirits themselves. Despite the state of emergency, the government proved completely inadequate to deal with the unrest.

"Even so, I had a fascination with quirks from an early age and was more than delighted to discover my own. The exchanges I made were at first merely an opportunity to put my quirk to use. I didn't have to sell my services. People sought me out to have quirks removed or to obtain the power I offered. But it was a dangerous time, and the help I was offered by the grateful beneficiaries seemed like a beacon of hope. I barely had to ask for loyalty or favors; they were freely offered by those who saw me as a savior. If I'd said the word, some would have worshipped me as a god."

All for One examined his teacup contemplatively. "I was, of course, young and naive. Loyalty that has been paid for is not true loyalty, as I learned later. But the fact remains that it was a heady feeling to a youth who'd never experienced care and protection. I had an army of people who would do anything for me, should I say the word. I began to dream of a world where those with quirks and those without lived in peace, working together without violence. I had the power, I had the people - why not? I was the only one who could make it happen, after all, with my abilities.

"And I wanted my brother alongside me. I wanted him to live in a world at peace, where we weren't separated by the societal rift quirks had created. He'd experienced the same parental neglect as I had, and I wanted him to experience the same joy when people looked to me as their salvation. My brother disagreed, and things… escalated."

"You locked him in a vault, tried to persuade him, and gave him a quirk in a bid to convince him of the benefits of quirks," Izuku summed up. He decided to ignore the part about ruling together for now; that cut dangerously close to the current situation, and Izuku wanted All for One to continue his story.

All for One blinked. "You're remarkably well-informed, aren't you."

"One for All," Izuku said as explanation. "I had some visions a few years ago. They showed me a few things."

"That… is not an effect of that quirk I've heard about before." All for One leaned forward in interest.

Izuku waved him away. "Maybe I'll tell you about it later. Why the vault? You can't have expected to persuade him of your good intentions by locking him up."

"I could hope. But no, there were extenuating circumstances. My name had been leaked, and his safety was… not assured." All for One grimaced. "Certain anti-quirk factions were fond of targeting the families of those with quirks, of which I was Enemy Number One. My brother had previously proven unwilling to listen to warnings regarding his safety. The public violence reached the point where I was no longer assured of my ability to protect him from a distance, as I had before. Giving him a quirk afterward was as much in an attempt to let him protect himself when I released him back into the wild as it was to convince him that quirks weren't the evil he thought they were. It was, perhaps, a hasty decision, and one that perhaps drove the final wedge between us. I chose a different route in my attempt to protect you and your mother, for all the good it did me."

"It failed," Izuku murmured. "All Might found me anyway through sheer coincidence and gave me One for All."

"You ended up recklessly endangering yourself in much the same way, and at odds with me due to my activities," All for One said. "Yes, things ended up much the same as with my brother. However, you have proven more open to discussion than he ever was, and I have had literal centuries to think about my mistakes back then."

All for One lapsed into a meditative silence. Izuku refilled their teacups. All for One shook himself and continued.

"The government instituted the new hero program shortly after that, likely in an attempt to deal with myself. They also instituted the quirk regulations that were in place until recently. My brother joined the program, and the repeated conflicts eventually ended in his death, likely due to his diminishing strength after giving away his quirk. I was left with nothing but an empty ideal, worthless without someone to share it with. At that point it all turned to spite. The government, and my brother, saw quirks as things to be controlled. They'd failed to keep the peace in the first place and chose brute force as the solution only when I presented a genuine, organized threat to their power. It was somewhat hypocritical of me to look down on their use of brute force when it was the main method used by my own followers, but I was angry and grieving and not prone to examining my own logic at the time."

All for One sipped his refilled tea and then placed the cup on the table. "I decided to prove them wrong. I was sure my vision was possible, and I would see it fulfilled."

Izuku wondered when a vision of building a better future had turned into destroying Japan, but he refrained from asking.

"I didn't know about One for All's unique ability to be passed on until the man my brother passed his quirk to showed up at my doorstep, claiming to be my brother's successor. Quirks tend to change form when passed between users, but I was well experienced with the common mutations and recognized it quickly. The quirk was relatively weak then," All for One mused. "I chose the stockpiling quirk specifically because it was gentle enough for my weak brother to use without injury. It's much the opposite now. It wasn't a threat, and so I mostly ignored the continuing chain of One for All wielders who popped up every so often. If they made themselves a problem I'd deal with them, but otherwise they weren't worth the bother of putting an end to them. They were mild annoyances and I had more important things to worry about.

"After I finally admitted to the failure of my initial methods, I turned to study. Government, history, politics, social psychology. Many of the notes I left you were written during that time. I've made a habit of revisiting and updating them over the years."

"They really are almost two hundred years old," Izuku said in quiet awe. "Several lifetimes of work." Maybe the notes were created by a supervillain, but there was still something awe-inspiring about it.

"They are. As you might imagine, my study illuminated many of my mistakes. For example, my failure to control my own followers resulted in a loss of opportunities to solve problems through diplomacy, thereby losing potential allies. I tried many different methods of fulfilling my dream over the years. In my first attempts I used quirks to change my face, got a new identity, and ran for political positions several times. I discovered the government corruption through my misadventures as a cog in the machine. I quickly gave up on changing things from the inside, and moved on to business ownership."

All for One smiled grimly. "Money talks, and it was a more successful endeavor than politics. Why be a politician when I could exploit the corruption and buy politicians? It was a relatively more successful endeavor. I was able to make a significant dent in the unemployment of discrimination victims - my businesses have always been safe havens for such people. It's hardly complete societal change, but they were microcosms of how my dream was supposed to work. Hence why it's my longest-running project." All for One sighed contentedly.

Izuku nearly felt vertigo at the pride in All for One's voice. All for One had spent so long building his business empire, and then had given it to Izuku. Had spent so long trying to take over the government, and then given it to Izuku. Why?

"It was only with time and practice that I learned the art of a subtler touch, and the government never trusted my existence. It was often easy to sympathize with the dregs of society, beaten down and scorned until they rose up to fight the heroes who saw them as nothing but villains. Heroes were the brutish enforcers of an abusive system. I was all too happy to turn my abilities against them in defense of such people."

"Even when they threatened and murdered innocent people?" Izuku asked with fake nonchalance.

"I've never been particularly strong in the ethics department, I'll admit," All for One said. "I would say that they served as sacrifices, showcasing the failings of the pathetic system they were supposed to be protected by, but I doubt you'll be persuaded by such philosophical drivel. It's difficult to care when people die every day without my involvement. I was raised in a world of violence, and so it has continued ever since." He shrugged. "Protecting everyone was an idealistic goal I ditched in my childhood. I've chosen to focus my energies on the few I thought worthy of it. Considering my success in those endeavors, protection is obviously not my strong suit."

Izuku resisted the urge to facepalm. He'd have a far easier time protecting people if he didn't go around murdering and making enemies.

"But back to my story. My existence was always a thorn in the government's side, though it was rare that I resorted to violence myself. It was mostly a side project - I'd offer my support to those who had the greatest capability to annoy the government and its heroes, while I focused on my primary projects of trying to maneuver myself into enough power to enact the changes I sought. I would rather have done so without violence; my studies made it obvious that dictators who took power through force have historically been the targets of revolutions themselves."

Something had changed, something relatively recent. "Then All Might actually started being a problem, right?"

"Very perceptive. Yes; All Might was the first to prove any sort of challenge to me," All for One said. "In retrospect I should have taken the time to wipe out One for All before it became a problem, given its nature as a stockpiling quirk and the obvious growth in power over time. I still don't know why it turned into such a powerhouse with All Might; perhaps it's because the energy was directly accessed, rather than being partially used to boost another quirk."

If this conversation went well, Izuku very much wanted to have a discussion with him about One for All's unique properties. For now… "You changed your methods when All Might became a nuisance that wasn't so easily squashed, didn't you?"

All for One nodded. "There's only so far that subtlety will get you when the delicate web you've woven is easily smashed by an overwhelming amount of brute force. For all my dislike of him, I must admit that All Might was persistent and terrifyingly good at tracking down my operations. I lost a large portion of my supporters through my lack of success at suppressing a single hero. It was infuriating. One of my vices has always been pettiness; it's been a luxury I've generally been able to afford. I chose to demonstrate that I was fully capable of as much violence as he delivered, rather than doing the sensible thing and taking him out in his sleep or using other, cleaner methods of dealing with him."

Now Izuku did facepalm. "Really? You let things go on as long as they did over… over a dick measuring contest? Didn't you tell me yourself those were idiotic?"

All for One looked sheepish. It was difficult to associate the expression with a supervillain, though Izuku had seen it before on Hisashi.

"I never said I wasn't an idiot," All for One muttered. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, Izuku, but while age brings knowledge and time to reflect on the idiocies of one's youth, it does not in fact cure idiocy. But I digress. After several scuffles, I decided to attempt to lose the man by taking up legitimate employment in one of my many businesses for a time. It worked for a while. During that time I met your mother. She's a truly remarkable woman," he sighed dreamily.

Izuku really didn't want to hear about that. His expression must have said as much, because All for One continued after a pause. "I will spare you the details. Suffice to say that it ended up being simple; I fell for a wonderful woman, we married, and you were born. Holding you for the first time was the proudest moment of my life."

Izuku felt vaguely nauseated. He could hear the wonder and delight in All for One's voice.

"All Might, however, refused to give up his search, and finally tracked me down when you were nearly four. I left in an attempt to head him off. I considered dealing with him immediately through one of the more… sensible methods, but I was aware that he passed the information he collected to others and I needed to ensure that they were thoroughly sidetracked before All Might conveniently disappeared. I arranged failsafes. Tenko Shimura made an excellent potential hostage in reserve should you and Inko be discovered, as much as a way to spite All Might.

"There was also the fact that being forced into activity again helped me decide on an issue I'd been unsure about. I might have been content to live peacefully with my family, but from the very beginning my goal was never for the sake of society itself. I had a family again; if there was ever a time to bring about my vision for Japan it was now, when I could give you a better world than I'd had. So I decided to enact one of my more violent plans for government overthrow, since it was likely to be more expedient."

"Didn't you rule out the violent overthrow before?" Izuku said uneasily.

All for One chuckled. "I wouldn't do it personally. There are plenty of historical examples of people bowing to dictators when they present themselves as peace and salvation from societal upheaval. My problem before is that I was presented as one of the causes of that upheaval. But should a more subtle method be taken - should someone else serve as the figurehead of the violence, and should I be the savior where all others failed…"

"That's how Shimura was supposed to be your successor," Izuku realized, eyes widening. "He was supposed to take over Japan in your place - or as close to it as he could manage - and you'd jump in to save the day from someone ridiculously unstable and unpopular. It's the exact same strategy you used to make me a dictator who was popular with the public."

"It's an effective strategy when utilized properly," All for One said. "Not my first plan, though. That was ruined when I ultimately failed in our fight when you were eight. I spent years recovering, desperately scrambling to rearrange my plans to account for my grievously injured state. At that point, subtle quirks were entirely out - the brain injuries left me incapable of using quirks that required any level of fine control. Tenko became an unexpected asset in one of my fallback plans. Everything was nearly back on track, and I sent Tenko to deal with All Might as one of his tests, when it all derailed again."

"Because All Might found me?" Izuku guessed.

"Indeed. It was my brother all over again - you had the same quirk, you'd joined the same abominable system, and in the tradition of One for All wielders I was surely set up as your primary nemesis. You proved remarkably skilled at interfering with Tenko's plans, even as an untrained child with an absurdly damaging quirk you could barely use. Then Kamino Ward happened. You were at a facility you should never have been at, in the path of heroes who were entirely unconcerned about the potential collateral damage of knocking down the building you'd tried to infiltrate. I planned to show up anyway, but I will confess that I panicked. I was already upset about All Might giving you One for All. So I misjudged the situation and lost that fight as well."

All for One's voice grew quiet. "I had a lot of time to think in Tartarus. I felt every bone you broke, every time you nearly died - did die, during what I presume was your fight with Overhaul. I considered escaping several times, but while the quirk suppressants were ineffective, they still diminished my abilities to a dangerous extent until I developed an immunity. The quirks keeping my brain functions fully operational were some of those. My mind wandered, I even heard my brother's voice several times.

"I still planned during my lucid periods. No matter what I thought of, I could see very few ways to stop you from walking in my brother's footsteps and sharing in his fate. It was even more imperative that the hero system was destroyed. Even with me out of the picture, thanks to your penchant for throwing yourself into danger and injury, you'd likely burn yourself out at an early age or get yourself killed against some villain. If I delegated the task of taking over Japan to someone else they'd kill you, or you'd dismantle the plan entirely before it reached fruition.

"Still, I had to do something. So I escaped from prison with a half-formed idea. I found a quirk to restore my health, beat those who worked for me into a semi-suitable shape to serve in the government, and observed you. In doing so, I finally found a solution to the problem that had been plaguing me."

Izuku shivered as All for One met his eyes.

"I'm not sure you realize how amazing you are, Izuku. You watch and listen far better than most people I've ever met, take the working parts of other people's strategies and make them your own. You care about people for their own sake, but without naivete; you're willing to use people if that's what it takes to accomplish your goals. You use your power as a tool, never letting it go to your head. You're incredibly perceptive. I've seen you in so many situations where I could only see a few outcomes, none of them ideal, yet you found a way to bring about an entirely different outcome that even I couldn't see. I'm a good judge of people, if I may say so, and you had every trait needed to bring about the right sort of change. I'd spent most of my life wanting a better world out of spite; if you chose to create one, it would be with far better motives and understanding.

"So I decided to gamble everything on making you the core of my plans rather than myself. It was the best solution I could come up with, if it worked. I'll admit that it was difficult to trust anyone to such an extent, but I thought that if it was you, then I could try. The very idea was high-risk, high-reward. I decided it was worth the effort to mitigate the potential damages as long as it succeeded.

"And it did." All for One spread his hands, a wide grin stretching across his face. "You've done what I never could, Izuku, in just a few months. It's the best risk I've ever taken. And so I passed along the rest of my work - the parts that succeeded - because I trust you'll do a better job there, as well. My life's work is complete, all thanks to you."

Izuku scrambled to process the information. "You deliberately failed as a leader so I could look better. All that suffering, just so…" He struggled for breath.

The smile faded from All for One's face. "It was effective," he said.

"That doesn't make it right."

All for One shrugged, and Izuku wanted to hit him. He should survive One for All at 50%, right?

"Then you spent the last few months on… stealth publicity stunts and vigilante work?"

"And crochet. I think the blanket I've been working on would be an excellent addition to the sofa in your office. I swear I took great pains to abide by your new laws on all of the above."

"Really? No illegal activities?"

"You… might want to check the National Diet Building for bugs." All for One's eyes were carefully focused on a point behind Izuku. "And get a new phone."

Izuku stared at him. "You invaded my privacy!"

"It's not my fault no one bothered to check the place. Gigantomachia should have noticed, with his telecommunications studies. And I technically did pay for the phone when it was purchased."

"No, you don't get to pawn this off on someone else," Izuku said, making a mental note to yell at Gigantomachia later. "I suppose this is the best behavior I could've expected from you. I can't believe you took up crocheting, of all things."

"What can I say? After all my failed attempts at building a better world, I thought I'd try creating something I could manage for a change," All for One said sourly. "I must say, if I'm to be upstaged, you're the one I'd choose to do it."

Not idle words; he'd literally chosen Izuku to do it, if everything he'd said was correct. Izuku stood and paced to the window, gazing over the garden and focusing on the distant crater where he'd first tried to land a blow on All for One. He felt eyes following him.

All for One was right in the beginning, his story didn't change anything about Izuku's choice regarding how to deal with him. But it did give Izuku an idea of his weaknesses and goals, and that was important.

"You're a danger to society," Izuku said bluntly. "Even if I've fulfilled your goals, that doesn't mean you won't get dissatisfied again. You're immortal, and I can't even guarantee my reforms will last through next year. You've proven willing to go to horrible lengths out of spite." Izuku turned, idly observing how his position cast a shadow across the room.

All for One met his eyes with intense focus.

"You said that supervillains are human. They have goals, and they work to accomplish those just like everyone else. I can believe that. As twisted as you've made it, from what you've said, your goal has always been family." Izuku walked toward him slowly. "And you've failed miserably. You abandoned us, you failed in all your attempts to protect us, we've torn down your plans because you in your own self-righteousness thought you knew what was best for us. What would make us happy. You're as inflexible as your brother was, and because of that you lost everything once. You nearly lost everything again."

All for One seemed to shrink with every step. He cringed by the time Izuku stood over him.

"You said it yourself, you're an idiot," Izuku continued mercilessly. "You admire me for my ability to listen? You put me in charge of Japan because you thought I'd do a better job than you? Well, let me ask you this, Hisashi. Are you willing to listen?"

"Yes?" All for One said, voice cracking. Izuku barely managed to keep a straight face.

"Do you know what world I wanted to live in when I was a child? One where my father was home. Where my family would tell me that being quirkless wasn't the end of the world. Where Mom didn't cry because her husband was gone, and I didn't have to wonder if my father abandoned us because he was disappointed in me." Izuku jabbed All for One in the chest with a finger. He looked stricken. "Make all the excuses you like, but going around killing people makes you and those close to you targets, so it's your choices that led to All Might targeting you - not his and not the government's."

"I know," the man said in a voice so quiet that Izuku barely heard him.

"No matter what reasons you have, I deserved better, and Mom deserved better." Izuku was starting to rant. "We wanted your presence, not some crazy ideal where we'd rule beside you in some utopia you made. I'd bet your brother would've been happier with that, too."

"It's too late to try that, I suppose."

"Yeah, it is," Izuku confirmed. He took a deep breath and let it out to calm himself. "You really don't deserve any sort of mercy. But I did say it wasn't about forgiveness or deserving; I'd extend my hand to whoever was willing to take it. And I plan to stick by that."

Izuku had never seen a man so gobsmacked. "Really?"

"You said you wanted to retire. So do it. No criminal activity or being an accessory to criminal activity, no plans to fix society, no invasions of privacy. No doing things behind people's backs or against their consent, no matter how much you think it's for their own good. You'll give back whatever quirks you stole that have still-living owners, and you'll fix any other damages you've inflicted on people that you're capable of repairing. If you feel the need to 'fix' something about society and absolutely can't let it go, you come to me. You trusted me with Japan, so I expect you to trust me with that much. In return I'll trust you to abide by your word." It was one of the hardest things he'd ever do, and probably completely stupid, but All for One had demonstrated the benefits of high-risk, high-reward plans. All for One had put an impossible amount of trust in Izuku; it was worth trying the same.

"You're serious."

"You'll also join the Villain Amnesty Program. I'll sponsor you myself. We're starting with a remedial ethics course."

"And if I turn down your generous offer?" All for One said, a challenging note in his voice.

"I don't think you understand, Hisashi." Izuku leaned in, uncomfortably close to the man's face. He hoped it was as uncomfortable for Hisashi as it was for him. "You're definitely powerful, but you've found it impossible to accomplish your own goals with centuries of effort. Reject me now, and you'll have me as your opponent. You could retake Japan and watch it slip through your grasp because of all the reasons you struggled to get it in the first place. You could kill me, proving once and for all that for all your fine thoughts of doing things for family, the only person you ever cared for was yourself. You'd live with that knowledge for the rest of your life as you've lived with your spite so far. You could run, and I'd hunt you down. I'm even more determined and perceptive than All Might, I bet I could manage it. Then you'd be forced to fight me, and watch me succumb to the same fate as your brother. Yet another monument to your incompetence."

Izuku straightened and reached out a hand. "Or you can take the second chance I'm offering. I promise you, it's the best offer a mass-murdering supervillain is likely to get from me. Who knows," Izuku said, with a fierce grin. "Maybe you'll make good enough use of the chance that you can fix something and keep your family, for once."

Hisashi reached for Izuku's hand and wrapped his fingers around it tightly. Izuku ignored the tear trickling its way down the side of Hisashi's face. "I accept," he said softly.

Here's an answer key for Find the All for One Sockuppets

All of the coolmight9xxx accounts

MightyMan787878

allmightforever (he should REALLY be embarrassed forever)

I ❤ Supreme Overlord Deku herofangirl105

Those were the planned ones. However, I kinda like the headcanons that iAmHeRe, Another Hero Fan, and Mount Me Lady are All For One sockpuppets, so you know what? Headcanon away.