Shahryar - You'll find out eventually.

Old Herobrine - Maybe, maybe.

(***)

"We're going to oversee a certain family reunion," Midoriya says to Tsuyu after he returns from a rather emotional reunion with Skeptic. "After that, we're going to start preparing the next move."

Tsuyu raises her head. She was sitting on the couch in their joint quarters, watching something on the TV.

"Elaborate, ribbit."

"On the plan?" Midoriya asks, while putting their house key (more like a keycard, really) on the shelf by the entrance.

"On meeting Skeptic." She replies.

Of course she does.

"Emotional," Midoriya replies scarcely before sitting on the couch next to her. She moves closer to him and snuggles with him closely. "Especially for Trumpet. He thought that he was the last one."

"You're dodging the subject, ribbit." Tsuyu gives him a mildly irritated look.

She was really taking the whole pretend family thing very seriously. Midoriya enjoyed every second of this, despite the 'pretend' part. She wants her boyfriend to be genuinely happy and satisfied, and is ready to stage an intervention when she thinks it's needed.

"It was…" Honestly speaking, Izuku isn't sure how to respond. "... hard for me. I was always closer with Re-Destro and Trumpet than Skeptic or Curious, but the time I spent with the Meta-Liberation Army. was the second time in my life when I felt genuinely happy. In a way, it's wonderful to see him again, on another…" He pauses, looking for the right words. He isn't sure if he has any.

"... it's opening an old wound, ribbit." Tsuyu finds them for him. Yeah. Her emotional maturity was always her strongest asset. "One that you felt was already healed. Or, at least, scared."

Yeah. He would protest about it being healed. It would never heal, that much was certain for him.

"Yes, Tsu," Midoriya says. "I just don't know what to feel about it. So I played it mostly business-like. Trumpet is going to show up to grill my ass about it, he is probably worrying about me almost as much as you do."

Midoriya sighs. Tsuyu looks at him with her big eyes, not saying a word.

"Skeptic was isolated for years, and he has a lot of catching-up before he can take at least some of the load off Trumpet." Midoriya continues. "He'll probably work hard to figure out what changed both in the field of computer technology and the country as a whole, but it'll still take him a while. Hopefully, Hanabata will live long enough to make the transition smooth… or, more likely, to have Skeptic hold the post until Kouta gets there. He… doesn't have charisma or commanding skills, and he knows it."

"Makes sense, ribbit." Tsuyu replies, while snuggling in closer. Then, silence. Midoriya is about to tell her that it's time to move out for the meeting, but that's when she speaks. "When was the first time you were happy?"

"The bus drive to the USJ." Midoriya replies. "You and Kaminari picking on Bakugou. Ashido telling me that she'd like to have me in her hero agency. Kirishima being insensitive but honest about respecting my wits and treating them as an equal of quirks. Then, I saw Hana exiting the warpgate and everything went to hell."

"Ah." Tsuyu ribbits. There is a sadness to it. "I think that was the last time I was happy."

Midoriya says nothing, he just hugs her. He treats this fake family just as seriously as she does.

(***)

Lady Murder agreed to wait a moment longer, with Tsuyu staying behind to entertain her a bit (or to make sure that she doesn't do something stupid) together with Red Fang. Midoriya heads out to have a meeting with a supervillain.

"It's been a while." He says while sitting down on a chair, Uraraka by his side in her villain uniform. He isn't making that meeting without any sort of protection. "You look even worse than you used to, you know."

"And you changed your aesthetic." Hero Killer Stain replies. He is sitting on a chair on the opposite side of the table to Midoriya. Still missing a nose. Also slightly jauntier than he used to be. "You're his heir now?"

"No." Midoriya replies instantly. It's a sore spot for him. "I owe nothing to All for One. I want to have nothing to do with All for One. I'm happy that he's finally gone. There is no man out there whom I loathe more than that damned lich. Even the prime minister only gets close."

"Good." Stain replies dryly. "If you had answered 'yes', I would have killed you even if I had to tear your throat out with my teeth. And even if your bodyguard would kill me right after that."

It felt like a lifetime ago when All for One decided to employ a young former vigilante as the bodyguard slash chauffeur of his family. Midoriya bonded with him a lot, they both respected All Might deeply. It was Izuku that persuaded him to try to make his crusade bloodless in hopes of making himself a popular figure.

Stain tried to be a public agitator on the streets before, attacking the negative sides of the hero society. No one listened to him. But if he became a supervillain who would be doing the 'hero-killing' in a more metaphorical way, if he drew the public's attention to him and his message that way…

It all went up in flames when the Commission killed Ingenium and blamed Stain for his death, ruining his image forever. Stain responded in kind and began to kill.

Stain knew All for One. They shared their opinion on him.

"You're still taking up his banner." Stain says, his eyes - with all their ferocity - on him.. "If your mother was here…"

"But she isn't." Midoriya cuts in. "I know that she would tell me to stop. I know that she would be horrified by all the things I did after Deika. But I also know whom to blame for the fact that she'll never pull my ear and give me a Very Serious Talk about it. And neither me nor Aiko can live with the fact that the people who did that to her are still out there. Living happily, while we can't."

Stain lets out some of his… intimidating air. Neither Midoriya nor Uraraka are particularly fazed by that.

"So it's all about revenge?" Stain asks. "That's your goal?"

So many years of imprisonment. Yet that one thing hasn't changed. Stain still had beliefs. It was… reassuring, in a way. Something didn't change for the worse.

Deep inside, he was probably as lost as the rest of the rescued captives. Midoriya knew that those who were going to try to strike the living out on their own were mostly going to be rounded up by the heroes sooner rather than later. So many things have changed nowadays. The world was alien to them.

Stain was smart enough to know that. Despite that, he had to test Midoriya. To see what sort of group the PLF actually was.

"Yes… and no," Midoriya replies. "Revenge is one hell of a motivation. But there is more. I hate what the heroics have become, uncle Akaguro. You know that, in a very twisted way, you succeeded?"

"What?" Stain didn't see that coming.

"Everyone is treating the 'what does it mean to be a good pro-hero' question super seriously, nowadays," Midoriya replies. "Everyone's killing each other over this, in fact. You follow the orders of the government and do something mean to a discriminated group or simply try not to stick out too much to make a living and maintain your family, bam, the NVA is going to kill you. You show too much independence and become tagged as a potential traitor, or leak the information about the soon-to-be raid against some discriminated group and the heroes walk into an ambush, bam, the government is going to kill you. You simply exist…" Midoriya grins. "... and the PLF is going to kill you."

Stain's eyes narrow. Midoriya ignores this fact and continues speaking. He has an ideology and the reasoning behind to lay bare in front of the Hero Killer.

"You had a good idea, and in a better world, it would work." He says. "In our, it's over. There is nothing of value to save in the industry. The true heroes all died out during the Paranormal Liberation Front, or with the Table of Rejects and the Underground Hero Network. What's left are those too meek to call out the government on its bullshit. Those who prefer to look the other way. The New Vigilante Alliance?" He chuckles. "Oh, please. Even Crawler, the eternal cinnamon roll, kills people nowadays. He is way above the NVA average in that he's still treating this as a last resort, and avoids collateral damage. The name 'Four Natural Disasters' didn't come from nowhere, after all. All Might would have rounded them all up as villains, and we both know that."

"So your answer to that…" Stain replies calmly. "... is to destroy everything?"

"Yes." Midoriya replies, without blinking for a millisecond. "By the time we're done with it, there'll be no government and no pro-heroes left. Maybe the foreign countries will intervene and restore the country, with new pro-heroes worthy of the name. Maybe the PLF will triumph and the MLA will get to realize its dream while giving some concessions to the remaining sub organizations. What's certain…" Midoriya smiles. "... is that we won't have to see All Might's legacy being stepped on anymore."

"He would have rounded you up as well." Stain says. "And we both know that."

"I know, uncle Akaguro." Midoriya gives him a pained smile. "Trust me, I know that better than you can possibly imagine. Did you expect me to claim that I'm the good guy? There are no good guys left in Japan, merely various brands of villains. The Paranormal Liberation Front is the only group conscious and honest enough to not pretend otherwise."

"I… don't see Asa anywhere." Stain says. Midoriya has no idea if his words are getting through or not. The Hero Killer clearly worked on his poker face.

Does he suspect that Asa left Izuku over the idea to start the Second Liberation War? Does he expect to get a second opinion out of someone in the Midoriya household?

"Hopefully…" Midoriya smiles. "... the heroes won't see him either. Aiko is the only member of our family that didn't lose their replacement paternal figure in Deika, uncle Stain."

Tenko instead lost his in Haiboro. Sure, Kurogiri was acting like a father figure to more than just him, but…

"... it wasn't supposed to end like this." Stain says quietly. Midoriya looks at him with understanding.

"I know," He replies. "But it will. I'll see to that."

Silence. Long, awkward and tense. Despite everything that Midoriya knows about the Hero Killer, he can't be sure that he won't attack them out of nowhere. He has a set of rather extreme beliefs, and those make him rather unpredictable.

"Hopefully…" Stain finally says. "... you have a place for an old fossil like me in your organization."

"Are you sure about it?" Midoriya asks cautiously. "You'd make for a fine addition to the new League of Villains, it's just…"

"The only thing I ever wanted…" Stain replies. "... is for the pro-heroes to be worthy of the 'heroes' word in their name. Unlike you, I still believe in them. They might have forgotten what they were supposed to do. They might have turned their back on the virtues that once made them great. But maybe, just maybe, when pushed into the corner, they'll remember. Because sometimes, it's the villains that create the heroes."

Something in Midoriya's heart stirs lightly. Deep inside, he wishes he could still see things like Stain does. He can't and he won't, not after Kamino, Deika, and Haiboro Woods. He lost too much, and most of it to the heroes.

The Hero Killer is, to go by his own words, an old fossil. An old man (maybe not chronologically, but certainly mentally) sticking to the belief in the good old times. Midoriya regrets the fact that they'll never return.

"Eternal idealist," Midoriya replies. "I'm glad to have you on-board. You're going to get your first mission right away, I need you to follow me for a certain meeting," Stain nods. "In the meantime, I think that there is a question I want to…"

"He was a good kid," The Hero Killer replies. Of course he figured it out instantly. "The people he killed were the puppets of the Commission, the same Commission that ruined this country and killed his brother just to frame me. All of them a disgrace to the heroics he and I believed in. He died taking down Scream, one of the worst of the HPSC lackeys. He lived and died trying to make the world a better place, and in a way, succeeded in that. It was the others that failed, he did the right thing, he did his part. That's more…" He looks away. "... that I can tell about a lot of people I know."

"Did he ever talk about me?" Midoriya asks.

"Many times," Stain replies. "Always regretted letting you talk him into becoming the vice-representative. He thought that you deserved more than that. He also felt like he betrayed you by not leaving the school with you. Especially as he knew the anti-discriminatory policies of the Team Idaten, and the treatment you got… he thought of it as an absolutely disgrace."

Silence. Uraraka looks away. He was her friend as well, even if not for long.

"He was a good friend." Midoriya says eventually. "If we had a few hundred more heroes with his moral spine, all of that might have never happened." Izuku still remembers Tenya's doubts about himself after the entrance exam, after he 'misunderstood' the exam with the Rescue Points and froze when Uraraka was in danger, moving only after Izuku yelled at him to come help free her. He grew up a lot between that day and the last stand of Stains' followers in Kyoto. "He deserved better."

They all did. Or, at least, their own version from back then did. Midoriya has a much grimmer outlook on their current selves, with few exceptions like Uraraka and Tsuyu. Very few members of the PLF genuinely regret the things they've done like Tsu does.

(***)

"So, this is the famous Hero Killer." Lady Murder glares at Stain when he leaves the meeting room right after Midoriya. "I thought you would be taller."

"Lady Murder." Stain stares her down. She is taller than Miruko, but not by far. "I heard of you. The new High Warlord, Beast's replacement. You clearly have the… attitude. The ears are different, though. "

Midoriya says nothing. He and Red Fang exchange glances. It might be hilarious, especially as Rini is clearly trying to be subtle about it.

"Yeah." She replies. "Got the attitude after my parents, apparently. Or so is everyone telling me. A bunch of ugly bastards with zero self-control and fucking anger issues. I didn't even get to meet them, unfortunately."

Tsuyu ribbits. It's the amused ribbit. She relocates to Uraraka's side, both of them observing the meeting in silence.

"Parental issues." Stain growls. "Parents not doing their fucking job or dashing away because the grass was greener elsewhere. Root issue of a solid half of the fucking problems we're facing. Your parents sound like jerks, only a bit worse than you though. When you have a child, fucking commit."

Red Fang lets out a chuckle. Rini glances at her, and she promptly acts as if nothing has happened. The Hero Killer still didn't realize.

"Absolute fucking jerks," Rini replies with a nasty grin on her face. "Like you wouldn't believe. Mother at least looked quite nice and left me most of that. You wouldn't believe how fucking ugly my father was."

"Anger issues tend to do that to people." Stain replies. "You pick up fights, you get scars and bruises, and it goes downhill from there. Eventually, you start looking like an ugly potato."

"Yes, you and my father both can say a lot about that." Lady Murder replies. Uraraka manages to restrain herself, but Midoriya still hears the quiet 'pfft'. "I'm fairly certain that the two of you are equally ugly."

"You truly have an attitude." Hero Killer refuses to let himself be provoked by those words. Rini miscalculated - Midoriya knows that he cut his own nose to prove his dedication, and the accusation of ugliness won't work. "Midoriya, weren't you in a hurry for some meeting?"

"I absolutely was," Midoriya replies with a straight face. "But I think that it can wait. Please, continue."

"... I'm starting to grow suspicious." Stain tells him. "I have known you since you were ten years old, even today I can read you like an open book. What is it about?"

Midoriya and Rini exchange glances. She nods. Alright, this is going to be good.

"Doctor Garaki had a bit of a mad science program, back in the day," Midoriya replies. "Well, a lot of those, in fact. But we're talking about one of them. He tried to play quirk eugenics on a microscale and attempted to produce biological children of people with strong quirks, behind their backs, while striving for a synergic effect between their quirks and genetic materials."

"Right, I almost forgot what sort of a fucking dick that guy was." Stain replies dryly. "So, I assume that your mother was Miruko. That clearly explains the bit about zero self-control and anger issues. Who was your father, then?"

Lady Murder grins.

"... you," Midoriya replies. "You're her father."

Silence in the corridor. Stain - with complete emptiness on his face - looks at Midoriya. Finds no signs of him lying on it. Then looks back at Rini, whose grin evolved into a full-blown shit-eating grin.

It's VERY Miruko-like.

"Oh." Hero Killer blinks a few times. "... it's not a joke, right?"

"You have a child with Miruko." Midoriya deadpans. "Do you have the tiniest idea how many people would kill to be in your position? Show some happiness, you lucky fucker."

Uraraka pffffts without attempting to hide it. Tsuyu ribbits with amusement. Red Fang does her best to look neutral. Stain just stands there, staring at Rini in shock.

"Hahahahaha!" Rini, finally, erupts. Seeing the quiet freak out of Stain up close did that to her. "Oh my god, you look fucking hilarious! Fang, you won the bet. He did fucking bluescreened."

"I…" Hero Killer finally speaks. "... have absolutely no fucking clue what to do right now. So yeah, I bluescreened, you little shit."

"Little shit?!" Rini throws her hands around. "Just because you're slightly fucking tall doesn't mean you can call me little, you bastard son of a potato and a potato peeler!"

Midoriya laughs loudly. He immediately stops when Hero Killer gives him a death stare. Tsuyu and Uraraka boldly ignore that fact and keep laughing. Something in him still makes him NOT enjoy antagonizing his uncle too much.

"If you want to bond with her, just fight her in the ring." Midoriya decides to give a tip or two to Stain. He DOES have some parenting experience, even if his parenting was a bit… different. "She's like Miruko, but more pissed off in general. And cage-fighting was Usagiyama's definition of a cool bonding experience."

"As if I want to bond with him!" Rini grins. "You look fucking scrawny, old man."

"Prison diet does that to people." Stain shoots back. "Want to try it for a few years?"

"Oh, please." Lady Murder rolls her eyes around. "I lived in a fucking mutant ghetto. I might have lived at the top of it, but it's not like I had any dieticians and gyms around me to sculpt those muscles. They were all build by hard fucking work and a LOT of fights. Besides…" She grins. "... no way that anyone's arresting me, you walking fossil. I'm better than you."

"Kids." Stain groans. "Always thinking that the world belongs to them."

"Well, how many kids became the undisputed overlords of a ghetto with hundreds of angry beasts living with way too little resources to come around before becoming adults?" Lady Murder shoots back. "Old men, always being a pissy assholes when they realize that the world's no longer theirs."

"You have quite a fucking attitude, and a nasty tongue." Stain's eyes narrow. "But do you have…"

"... conviction?" Rini rolls her eyes around. She must have done her research, and clearly expected Stain to snap back to his ideology. "You think that I could survive there without an ironclad conviction to live and reign over all those bastards? I could tutor you about conviction, you fucking antique."

"Yeah, you clearly hit it off right off the bat." Midoriya decides to say. "This is so wholesome that I'm on the verge of crying."

"Fuck you, boss!" Rini yells at him.

"Fuck you, Midoriya." Stain tells him.

Then they both look at each other with some VERY complicated expressions on their faces. Red Fang finally loses it and starts giggling in the background together with Uraraka and Tsuyu.

"So, uhm… Inhuman Supremacy Party?" Stain tries to salvage his own image. "I'm not sure if this is, errr, a right crowd."

It's not working.

"Oh my fucking god," Midoriya whispers to Tsuyu (he almost fell right now and he grabbed her to avoid it). "... he is trying to parent her for real."

Tsuyu ribbits with pure, concentrated amusement in her voice. She is clearly enjoying the clusterfuck that the talk is clearly sculpting to be.

"Pfffft!" Surprisingly enough, it's Rini, not Uraraka. "Yes, dad, I fell into a bad crowd. What are you going to do about it? Ground me?"

"... alright, plan A is out of the window." Hero Killer mumbles to himself. "Look, I've just discovered that I have a daughter, I'm at least TRYING to start a talk, could you be slightly less a little piece of shit?"

Stain is clearly trying. Except, it's a very Stain way to do that, Midoriya decides. Especially the last few words.

Then again, he clearly decided to stick around and try to, at least somehow, connect with her. It's… well, Hero Killer said certain words about parents not staying around before discovering that she was his daughter. He was never one to shrink from responsibility or act against his own words.

Wholesome, in a way.

"Well, forgive me, daddy…" Rini winks at the Hero Killer.. "... for I was naughty."

"I didn't have so much fun watching a family drama…" Uraraka whispers to Tsuyu's ear. "... ever since Eri guilt-tripped Izuku into buying her a deluxe set of dolls by pretending that he accidentally threw her favorite doll out during a spring cleaning! And all of that while she had the old doll in her hands, she just changed the outfit and he totally fell for it!"

"Wait, Eri did what?" Midoriya wakes up, while Uraraka adopts a 'omfg I wasn't supposed to say that but this was all so funny that I forgot face'. Tsuyu ribbits, Uraraka clearly isn't the only one who is enjoying the chaos.

"Don't you dare speak to your father like that!" Hero Killer completely ignores them.

"You're not my father, old man." Rini grins. Uraraka in the background spills the beans about the Incident. "Just a sperm donor. Want to change that? Well, if you want me to acknowledge you, you're going to fucking earn it."

"Whom do you want me to kill?" Hero Killer deadpans. "Or do you simply want a round in the ring?"

"Now we're talking!" Rini smiles widely. "Time for the best family bonding experience - no holds barred cage-fight. And it better not be a fucking letdown. But, to avoid you using that as a fucking excuse, I'm going to let you recover a bit from the prison ordeal."

"Piss off." Stain grumbles. "I don't need any additional rest, and I don't make excuses. If you, somehow, defeat me, I'm going to train myself twice as hard and end up going for a rematch. I'm not a fucking loser."

"Congratulations!" Rini grins. "You certainly have bigger balls than most of my fucking lieutenants. Then again, seeing as they are all fucking pussies, it's a not a very big achievement. When and where?"

"Tomorrow." Stain replies. "Wherever you fucking want, just keep it close to the hospital. You're going to fucking need it."

"For what?" Rini laughs. "I'm going to need a few strong fighters to entertain me after the disappointment that the fight with you will be, not a fucking hospital."

"You might want to move it a few days after that." Midoriya decides to interrupt. He has mostly managed to process the revelations, but Eri was still looking forward to a Very Serious Talk once he gets her back. "We have a major operation soon, and I don't want any of you injured. Also, you have another parent to meet today, Rini."

And he is rather certain that it won't play out even nearly as nicely. Judging from the worried frown on her face, she suspects it as well.

(***)

And thus starts the Stain & Rini Little Family Drama/Comedy. It's going to be a fun sideplot. The murderously fun type of fun.