"How is he?" All For One asked, standing at the foot of the rickety hospital bed.

Shigaraki looked unnaturally pale, his hair longer than it had been in years. He looked muscular, at least, the only somewhat healthy thing about him. The color had been leached from his hair as well. The upgrades and enhancements that Ujiko had made to Shigaraki had taken a toll on the young man's body. The stress of the procedures had left him exhausted and drained.

Doctor Ujiko looked up from the test results he had been reading. His eyes flitted from All For One and back to Shigaraki.

"In making him stronger, I have left him weak. He will need time to recover. And then we can move on to the final stage."

All For One nodded. "Good. Now, have we heard any word about the boy? The analyst?

"Deku? Yes. He is doing well, it seems. The informant says he has been putting those analytical skills to work. I have some documents and notes for you to review on the matter."

"That is good to hear. And the girl. What was her name?"

"Toga? I don't see her as being very useful. Her quirk may be something you would be interested in giving to a more… worthy wielder."

"Hmm, yes, perhaps that is best. Once I have collected her quirk, I can hand her off to Tomura for some well deserved revenge. He has been needing to blow off some steam. Perhaps he can test his enhanced quirk on her." All For One paused, still facing Shigaraki. "Any other news I should be aware of?"

"Well, Master, if you recall, When Deku and Toga deserted the League, they stole something from Overhaul," Doctor Ujiko waited until All For One had turned his head towards him before continuing. "It was a girl. A girl with an… interesting quirk. It took some time before my contact was able to get all of the information and get it to me safely without it being intercepted. This girl has a quirk that can rewind the human body, while leaving the mental facilities intact. It's volatile, and she can't control it yet. She has rewound people out of existence before, but in other cases, she has reverted individuals to their peak health, erasing their injuries, no matter how old."

All For one went incredibly still, only for a smile to break out across his face. "Perhaps, I should have a conversation with this child."

Ujiko nodded, also smiling. "Yes, I think that would be wise. Should I wait to prepare Tomura for the final step of his treatment?"

"If this girl is as powerful as you say, then we may not need to complete his transformation. His usefulness may have finally run its course."

--

Izuku knew there was something going on that he wasn't being told about. From what he could find, each of the people that Nighteye had mentioned to him had had a major power boost later in life. Each one had trained the next after them, and each had died. The Commission wiped any trace of most of them, the only one left being All Might. Izuku still hadn't been able to access All Might's file, but what he read in Shimura's file was that she had trained All Might. But any mention of his quirk was blacked out of her file with a note to review All Might's. Some valuable information that Izuku found though was that Shimura had given up her child for adoption after the death of her husband. The Commission seemed to have lost track of the boy after he had grown up, but it did mention that the boy had gotten married and had children. There were no mentions of the Shimura grandchildren's names, and there was a note in the file stating that Gran Torino and All Might were to not have contact with them.

From what Izuku could tell, something was happening to these people's quirks and he was pretty sure they were doing it to each other. Meaning whatever was going on with Mirio's quirk had to do with All Might.

As these people were triggering the quirk enhancements in each other though, the enhancements got stronger with each generation. With how powerful All Might is, along with the quirk singularity theory, which was looking more likely by the day, Izuku guessed that Mirio's body simply couldn't handle the power of his own quirk.

So he wrote notes. He drafted workout regimes. He thought back over his past analysis of All Might's power and found ways that Mirio could apply it. After a couple weeks, Mirio was making progress. He still wasn't as strong or as fast as All Might, but he wasn't hurting himself anymore. He even found that he could move small objects with him when he permeated through things, which hadn't been able to do before. He had to activate the lightning on his body at the same time to do it, but it was a start.

One night, while Izuku was writing more notes on Mirio, he heard a knock at his bedroom door.

"Come in," he called, tucking the notebook away.

The door opened to reveal Mic and Aizawa, both of whom looked nervous.

"Hey, kiddo," Mic said, giving him a shaky smile. "Could you come out here to have a talk with us? Nothing is wrong and you aren't in any trouble, we just want to talk about some things with you."

With a slight frown, Izuku got up from his desk and followed Mic out to the dining room table. Eri was out with Midnight, the pair using Midnight's computer to order Eri some clothes, so she was not in her typical spot in the living room, coloring at the coffee table.

"What's this about?" Izuku asked, slowly sitting down. Aizawa sat opposite of him while Mic took the head of the table, between the two.

"So, you remember a few weeks ago, the Bakugou's mentioned that they were interested in fostering or adopting you," Aizawa said.

"Yeah, I remember."

"They decided to attend family counseling and have spoken with Nezu a few times as well. They still want to take you in and have asked that we present you with the paperwork they have filled out. They just need your signature to make it official."

With that, Mic opened a folder he had brought with him and handed Izuku a stack of papers. The folder was still thick, nearly full with other papers. Izuku eyed it carefully.

"Okay. Is that it?"

"No," Mic said, pulling out the rest of the papers. He split them into two stacks, each paper clipped to keep them separate. One paper clip was red while the other was green. Mic set them both on the table and slid them over to Izuku. "We began planning these before the Bakugou's said anything about adopting you."

Izuku picked up the first set, the one with the green paper clip, and started to read it over. He had to read the first paragraph a few times before it set in.

"These are adoption forms."

"Yes."

"For me."

"Yes."

"From you both."

"Yes."

"Why?"

Aizawa gave Izuku a tired smile. "Because we want to adopt you. You and Eri. We decided to talk to you both separately, so neither of you felt pressured. The second set of papers are the adoption forms for Eri. We figured you would want to review those before we showed them to her."

Izuku's round green eyes were flicking back and forth between the men rapidly, as though he were searching for something from them. "That still doesn't answer the question. Why? Why would you want to adopt me? I can barely understand why the Bakugou's want to adopt me and they've known me all my life."

"Kid, listen," Aizawa said, ever so carefully. "We… we care about you. Not what skills you have, not what you can provide to the heroes, not what intel you might be able to give us… we care about you. We care about if you're healthy, if you've eaten, if you've gotten enough sleep. We care if you're happy and whether or not your classmates treat you well. We care about your safety and we genuinely enjoy being around you. We think you're a smart kid, with a bright future, and we want to be a part of your life. We want to help you grow into the young man you're becoming and we… we…"

Mic reached out and put his hand on Aizawa's. "Izuku, we love you. And we want you to be a permanent member of our family. If you aren't comfortable with that, we understand, and we would be willing to foster you until you are 18. Or, if you don't like that option, we can help find you somewhere to live where you do feel comfortable, whether that be with the Bakugou's or with another family. We just want what is best for you."

Tears were starting to form in Izuku's eyes, which he promptly tried to blink away. "But why would you want me ? I'm… I'm just… I'm a Deku."

"No. To us…" Aizawa trailed off, taking a deep breath before continuing. "To us, you're our son. And we love you. We love you and we love Eri and we want to make our family permanent, if you will have us."

A sob was wrenched from Izuku's throat as he started to nod. Mic and Aizawa were out of their seats within seconds. Aizawa dropped to his knees and bundled Izuku into a hug. Mic hovered above the pair, standing on Izuku's other side. He put an arm around them both while Aizawa tucked Izuku's face into his shoulder. Mic ran a hand through Izuku's curls, trying to sooth him.

"It's alright, buddy. Let it out," Mic crooned softly. "We've got you."

"But… I don't understand why you want me," the boy choked out.

Aizawa squeezed him ever so tighter. "Because you're our son, just like Eri is our daughter."

"Will… Will Auntie and Uncle be angry? What about Kacchan?"

Aizawa leaned back, getting Izuku to look at him. "They will not be angry. Bakugou was concerned from the start if you would be comfortable with being a part of their family. All three of them seem to genuinely care about you and your feelings. If we tell them that you have decided you want to stay with us, I am sure they will be fine with it. I have no issue with them visiting, or you visiting them either, if that's something you want."

Izuku nodded, his eyes red rimmed and his face flushed.

"So, that means you want to stay with us?" Mic asked, smiling.

"Yes. Yes, of course. I… I would really like that."

Aizawa gave one of his rare, kind smiles. "We would too."

As the adults retook their seats, Mic's having been scooted closer to Izuku's in case he gets upset again, Aizawa started to speak.

"We'll all have to sign, and there may be a court appearance needed, but we may be able to avoid dragging you along to it."

"You know a lot about the adoption," Izuku said, half laughing as he wiped at his tear stained cheeks. "Did you do a lot of research?"

Mic laughed. "Yeah, we've been researching for years, actually. We've always wanted to adopt in some manner. And then, one day, the two most perfect children were thrown into our lives and ever since, we've wanted to adopt you both."

"Why didn't you pay for someone with a child creation quirk to create one for you guys? Doesn't even hurt, you know. They just have to touch the both of you and then they can create a baby that has both of your DNA."

Aizawa's expression fell for a second, twisting into something sad, almost mournful. He quickly schooled his face into something lighter, more neutral. "We discussed it. A long, long time ago."

"My quirk is a mutant type," Mic said, jumping in quickly. "Had it since birth. My throat, chest, and vocal cords are all slightly different from that of a normal person. As soon as I took my first breath, I was screaming and bursting eardrums. Mutant quirks are considered dominant traits, for the most part, so if we were to have a kid, then there is a high possibility that our child would have my quirk. I like my quirk, don't get me wrong, but I know how hard it was on my parents. They've fully lost their hearing at this point. It was hard on me too, as a kid, having my quirk, so I decided that I don't want to risk passing my quirk on and making my potential child's life more difficult."

"My quirk isn't the most accepted one either," Aizawa said sheepishly.

"When are you guys going to ask Eri?" Izuku asked.

"Tonight. We'll speak with her alone, just like we did you. We don't want her to feel pressured to say yes just because you're there."

Izuku nodded, still wiping tears from his eyes. "You know, once I sign and everything is final, then you guys are stuck with me. Can't get rid of me."

"I think we could live with that," Mic said with a small laugh.

"Yeah," Aizawa said, smiling. "I think so too."

--

"Princess, could you hand me the salt?" Vlad asked, holding his hand out towards Himiko.

There was silence. Not even the sound of movement. Confused, Vlad turned to look over his shoulder.

Himiko was frozen, staring straight ahead at the bowl where she was mixing.

"Himi?"

"You… you called me princess."

"Oh. Do you not like it?" Vlad asked, turning fully to face her. "I, uh… had started calling you that in my head, sorry. Just, we have a King and a Queen in the house, I thought maybe we should have a Princess too."

"But… a Princess is the daughter of the King."

"Right."

"And a Princess is nice."

"I'm still not seeing the issue."

Himiko huffed aggressively, mixing the dough in her bowl. "I'm not nice and I'm not your daughter. I'm just the villain that lives in your guest room."

Frowning, Vlad gently pulled her hands away from the bowl, stopping her frenzied stirring. "Himiko, you are nice. You are a sweet and caring young lady. And you're my foster daughter. Given the chance, I would… I would adopt you. I would make you my daughter. In my mind, you already are. It doesn't matter to me that we aren't blood related, or that I didn't raise you. I love you, kid, and you will always have a place in my home. That room you stay in isn't a guest room. It hasn't been for some time. It is your room. And it always will be."

Tears welled in her yellow eyes as she threw herself forward, wrapping her arms around his middle and burying her face against his chest. Immediately, he wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her tightly. Petting over her messy hair, he whispered softly, "It's okay, Himi. Let it out, it's okay."

"You want me?"she sobbed. "You actually do? Forever?"

"Yes, of course. I would go to the court tomorrow and sign the adoption papers in front of a judge if I thought you would agree."

Choking up again, Himiko nodded. "I want that."

"You… you do? You want to be my daughter?"

"Yes. Yes, please. I do."

"Then… Then dry those tears. We're going to go talk to Nezu. Now. He'll help."