Yoichi Shigaraki hummed the Captain Hero theme song as he walked down the sidewalk. Today he felt like a hero, because he'd successfully snuck out of his house while avoiding his bodyguards, aka his designated babysitters. Yoichi's older brother, Hisashi, insisted that he take bodyguards with him everywhere and had even gotten special permission from Tokyo University to let them sit in on classes. (Apparently Hisashi had a delusion of grandeur because he thought being an ordinary businessman made him important enough for someone to kidnap his relatives.) Hisashi also had forbidden Yoichi from participating in the metahuman rights rally on campus because it was "too dangerous." Since his brother considered him too fragile to protect himself, Yoichi had snuck out. Now he'd returned from a successful protest without any of the million disasters his brother had promised. Who was weak and foolish now?
In Yoichi's distraction, he bumped into a short young man with spiky red hair and small crimson eyes. He stopped. "Oh, I'm sorry."
The stranger grabbed Yoichi's wrist. His gaze burned with the fervor of a saint or a madman. "Listen, I've told you many times before, and you didn't believe me. I don't think you'll believe it until you see it with your own two eyes. Your brother's password is D3m0nK1ng%* and you need to check his computer."
Because the man had spelled it out, it took Yoichi a moment to realize that did sound like a password of Hisashi's. "Why on earth would I violate my brother's privacy like that? Well, besides how he spies on me all the time."
"Because your brother is a villain named All for One." The red-haired man looked around wildly. "I've said too much."
Yoichi snorted. "Yeah, and you've had too much to drink. You should lie down. The world will look less like a comic book in the morning."
The stranger shoved a piece of paper into Yoichi's hand. "That's my number—call me after you access your brother's secret files."
"I'm not going to do either of those things," Yoichi said, sniffing the air. He didn't smell any alcohol or drugs.
"Oh, yes, you will. You've always been curious." The red-haired man smiled, and it transformed his stern face. Yoichi's heart twisted with an ineffable emotion.
Was this weirdo hitting on him? It was a shame, Yoichi might have been interested under other circumstances. He'd always liked muscles, and this man had impressive ones under his tank top and jeans. Unfortunately, a nice body couldn't make up for this amount of stupid. "Ha, this has been interesting, but I have to go. If this was a pickup technique, you need a new one."
As Yoichi turned away, the stranger shouted after him, "Wait, I can tell you more to prove it!" Yoichi walked faster. The man cried, "You can't let All for One find out that you know his name. I'm begging you. Please, you don't know how important this is…how many times I've…"
He sounded sincerely desperate. Yoichi hoped the weirdo slept off his drug trip safely. He kept walking, then tossed the phone number in the trash. There was more written on the note, but he didn't bother to read it.
Hisashi waited for Yoichi outside their front door with his arms crossed.
Up until recently, Yoichi would have felt fear or guilt. But these days, being treated like a child by his big brother increasingly annoyed him.
Coldly, Hisashi asked, "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"
Yoichi rolled his eyes. "No, because I'm not a child and I'm not answerable to you." He started to walk past.
Hisashi reached out and grabbed his arm. "As long as you're living under my roof, you're answerable to me."
"About that," Yoichi said. "A student dropped out of school, and a spot opened up in the dorms."
The thunderclouds on Hisashi's face grew deeper. "I have told you a million times, it's not safe for you to live in the dorms with your ill-health and your obvious mutations."
Yoichi sneered. "Or because you're a villain named All for One?"
He'd expected his brother to look confused at the private joke. Instead, all color drained from Hisashi's face. "Little brother, who have you been talking to behind my back?" Hisashi gripped Yoichi's shoulders, nearly hard enough to bruise. "Did the military approach you?"
"Huh? The military? It was a joke, big brother." Yoichi tried to break free, but his brother's nails dug into the cotton of his shirt. "Something a drunk guy said."
"Who? What did he look like?" Hisashi demanded.
Yoichi hesitated. He remembered the sincere panic in the stranger's eyes, begging him not to tell. He'd never been a snitch. "I dunno, I wasn't paying attention. Why are you taking this so seriously?"
Hisashi hesitated, and Yoichi could tell that his older brother was thinking up a lie.
"Whatever, I don't care." Yoichi shook free and walked into the house, anger making his strides longer. He didn't want to stick around to be lied to yet again. His brother had been lying to him more lately about what business kept him out late at night. Hisashi treated Yoichi like a fool who wouldn't notice. But Yoichi knew all of his brother's tells.
Dinner was a chilly affair. Yoichi had wanted to talk to his brother about moving into the dorms, but he could tell from the glowering that now would not be a good moment. Hisashi dropped a lot of passive-aggressive comments about how hard he worked to put food on the table. It made Yoichi lose his appetite. Yoichi did not ask about All for One again. He knew his brother wasn't a villain like a comic book character, but he also could tell he wouldn't get an honest answer.
Using excessive homework as an excuse, Yoichi retired to his room early. He googled All for One on his phone. The first entries were related to The Three Musketeers. But on the second page, someone on a discussion board mentioned rumors of a metahuman who could make other people stop being metahuman. Yoichi frowned, because that sounded weirdly like his brother's ability.
The rumors around this All for One fellow were shady. Some people talked about him as if he was a savior. Others spoke of him as a deadly killer trying to overthrow the government. Yoichi couldn't imagine his brother killing anyone. But honestly, he could imagine his brother getting involved in some shady business. Tension spiked behind his temples. Just what had Hisashi been up to that kept him out late at night? How many business meetings took place after midnight?
Yoichi went down to the kitchen for a glass of water. That was all he'd wanted. But his brother's laptop lay on the kitchen table, screen glowing. It wouldn't hurt to try. Probably nothing would happen. Yoichi typed in "D3m0nK1ng%*" and the password worked.
Behind him, Hisashi said, "So someone did approach you."
Yoichi whirled around. Big brother's eyes glowed red in the dim light. He approached with his hand outstretched, and seconds before he grabbed Yoichi's forehead, a crackle of energy ran between them. Darkness filled Yoichi's eyes.
Yoichi Shigaraki hummed the Captain Hero theme song as he walked down the sidewalk.
Red hair sticking out in all directions, a stranger leapt in front of Yoichi and wailed, "You threw out my number!"
"Um, have we met?" Yoichi had gotten quite a few phone numbers slipped to him in the past, but he didn't recall this particular man hitting on him. With those muscles, this one might have had a chance at getting a call. Too bad about the crazy eyes.
The stranger clutched his spiky hair. "Usually I can at least get you to take my phone number…I'm doing worse, not better…I think I'm losing my mind…"
"You've already lost it," Yoichi observed. Only his curiosity (and those hot muscles) kept him from walking away.
"And you must have gotten yourself vaulted again." The stranger glared accusingly.
"Vault is a noun, not a verb."
"I mean your brother locked you up. He probably doesn't have a bank vault, not this early." The stranger exhaled and ran his fingers through his hair to straighten it, with little success.
"Excuse me?" Yoichi recoiled. "My brother would never lock me up! He's a bit overprotective, but not that bad."
The stranger gazed at Yoichi with such pity that it made him flinch. "Okay, that does it. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I just have to get you away from him." The stranger moved too fast for Yoichi to react, slamming a sweet-smelling cloth over his mouth. Yoichi inhaled, then it was too late.
Yoichi came awake in bits and pieces. He glimpsed white walls and felt something rough rub against his wrists.
"Are you awake?" an anxious voice asked. "Can I get you a drink of water? I won't hurt you, I promise."
Yoichi forced his eyes all the way open. He'd been tied to a wooden chair with rope around his wrists. He appeared to be in a basement bedroom with blackout curtains hanging over the high window. An open laptop rested on the dining table. The red-haired stranger held out a glass of water with a straw.
The kidnapper had moved Yoichi to another location. This was bad, very bad. Yoichi was in a whole lot of trouble. Was this man a stalker? Or was this about his brother's business? Was he being held for ransom or by a business rival? Hisashi would be absolutely insufferable if proven right about Yoichi getting kidnapped as soon as he went outside without his bodyguards. He would never let his little brother live this down. Just thinking about it made Yoichi tremble with fury.
"No water? It's not drugged." The red-haired man took a sip to prove it. Yoichi just stared. "No? Okay. I have a PowerPoint about All for One to show you." He gestured at his laptop. "I won't hurt you, and I'll let you go when I'm done."
Yoichi gaped. "All for One as in the slogan of the Three Musketeers? You had better not have kidnapped me to critique your French literature homework."
"Sometimes there's a fine line between a kidnapping and a rescue." The stranger smiled as if enjoying an inside joke.
Yoichi didn't find it funny one bit. Sheer rage let him stand up, wrenching the back of the flimsy wooden chair out of the seat. The wooden bars dangled from his bound wrists.
"Oh, no, please calm down." The stranger backed away, holding up his palms. "We don't have to fight. I just want to show you something, then I'll untie you."
Yoichi flipped his arms over his head so they were in the front. Then he used his bound hands to swing the chair bars, slamming into his kidnapper's side.
The stranger reeled from the blow. "Please stop, I don't want to fight you, I don't want to hurt you."
"We'll see who hurts who," Yoichi growled. He swung the chair again. The wood shattered on the man's shoulder. Dropping the useless weapon, Yoichi pounced and knocked the stranger on his back to the floor. As the kidnapper brought up his hands to protect himself, Yoichi bit his forearm.
"Ow! Ow!" The stranger wailed. "How did I forget that you're like this? It's much funnier when you're doing it to someone else." He kept trying to squirm away, moving gently as if afraid to hit Yoichi. This infuriated Yoichi, who bit down harder. "I'm sorry!" the stranger wailed.
"You should be sorry!" Yoichi spat blood out of his mouth. "Because of you, my brother was right about me getting kidnapped! He'll use this as an excuse to have bodyguards follow me into the bathroom for the rest of my life. Even worse, he'll be vindicated and smug!"
"Oh, no, he's the worst when he's smug," the stranger commiserated.
"Don't you dare act sympathetic when you kidnapped me!" Yoichi headbutted the stranger. The man fell backward with a moan, his nose bleeding.
Something banged on the ceiling. An elderly woman's voice cried from above, "Keep that racket down!"
"I'm sorry, ma'am," the stranger called. "Just fooling around with a friend. Please don't make another noise complaint."
Surprise and confusion made Yoichi freeze in place. The stranger took advantage to wriggle out from under him. Yoichi looked around. This basement appeared to be a normal studio apartment with a bed, dresser, and desk. "You…live here? In a shared house? Why would you bring a kidnapping victim back to a shared house, are you crazy?"
"This was supposed to be a very short kidnapping," the stranger said pleadingly. Grabbing two tissues, he applied pressure to his nose and the bleeding bite mark on his arm. "Please, Yoichi, just look at my PowerPoint."
This weirdo knowing his name was hardly the most terrifying thing to happen today. Addressing him by his first name was presumptuous, though. "Did you seriously kidnap me just for help with your homework? There's a free tutoring service at the student center!" At this point Yoichi could scream for help, but he hoped he could get out of this mess on his own without his brother ever realizing he'd been kidnapped. This loser looked incompetent. Yoichi would take a small risk of being murdered over listening to his brother say "I told you so."
"There's so much more going on, and I don't know how to explain it to you. But I can prove that I know you, Yoichi. I know stuff that you've never told anyone else." The stranger wet his lips. "Your brother took his very first metapower, fire breath, protecting you from a guy who tried to kidnap you. The first Captain Hero live action movie was PG-13, but you snuck in to see it at age ten. It scared you so much you had nightmares for a week. Your favorite dessert is strawberry shortcake, but you've been hiding it because you think it's too girly. You won't admit that for another two years. You make this funny wee-wee noise in your sleep, and if anyone tries to wake you up, then you use your elbows." His gaze softened, his eyes overflowing with love. "You feel guilty a lot about your brother taking on the role of your parent as a child, but that's why you decided that you have to be the one to check his behavior, because no one else can. You're brave and reckless and you should have tried to run away from me by now, but you're too curious not to listen. That's why I fell in lo—"
"Ah-ha! I know what's going on!" Yoichi cried.
"You do?" The stranger's eyes lit up. "You were always smart. You figured out about the time loop—"
"My brother hired you to kidnap me! This is all his evil plan to prove that I can't leave the house without bodyguards. How else would you know so much about me?" Faking a kidnapping was definitely something Hisashi would do. Everything made sense—why this kidnapper was so inept and why he seemed scared of hurting Yoichi. Anger rose up under Yoichi's chest, hot and wildly uncontrollable. When he got home, he'd be having words with his brother.
The red-haired stranger pinched the bridge of his nose. "I understand a brother like All for One would drive anyone to paranoia, but that's not it."
"Who the hell is All for One?" Yoichi picked up the chair and waved it threateningly, the rope digging into his wrists.
"Your brother. Hisashi." The stranger flinched away. "Um, you should set that chair down before you give yourself rope burn. I'll untie you if you'll promise to watch my presentation."
Haha, just look at how this kidnapper worried about Yoichi getting injured. He'd definitely been sent by an overprotective big brother. It was also just like Hisashi to tie Yoichi up to make him listen to some lecture. "Nice try!" Yoichi waved the chair even closer. "What is this PowerPoint presentation about anyway: how younger brothers should always obey older ones?"
"No, no, it's about how All for One is evil." The red-haired man scampered over and pressed a button. The title slide popped up on the screen: a bright red background with the words: An Abridged Version of the Crimes of Hisashi Shigaraki, aka All for One, aka the Worst Brother Ever!
Yoichi's gaze went to the slide number at the bottom. "TWO HUNDRED SLIDES? I'm not sitting through two hundred slides on how much my brother sucks."
"But you ate it up before! It was practically like foreplay for you!"
"Look, I get that my brother probably stiffed you on your pay for kidnapping me and you're angry at him. But you should count yourself lucky I'm not calling the police. Untie me before I hit you again." Yoichi banged the chair on the wall for emphasis.
Upstairs, the old lady shrieked, "That's it! I'm calling the cops on you young hooligans."
"I'm sorry!" The stranger shouted at the ceiling. "I'm moving out tomorrow, please give me a break."
Yoichi supposed he couldn't let his brother get in trouble for arranging a kidnapping even if he deserved it. "I'll be quiet," he promised, lowering the chair. "If someone hurries over here and gets these ropes off," he hissed.
Defeated, the red-haired man slouched over and untied Yoichi. "Will you at least take a copy of the PowerPoint to look at later?"
"No." Yoichi massaged his wrists, working out the tingling.
"Your brother's password is D3m0nK1ng%* and if you look on his laptop, then you'll find out who All for One is. I know this particular time loop is probably a total loss, but please try."
"Time loop?" Yoichi blinked. Yeah, the weirdo kidnapper had said something about that earlier. "Funny, if big brother wanted you to pretend that you're in a time loop, then why didn't he give you our codes?"
"Codes?"
"Yeah, when we were preteens, me and my brother came up with all kinds of code words using Captain Hero-based situations. We were just fooling around, not expecting to ever use them. Or at least I was fooling around. My brother has always been a chuunibyou. Captain Hero got trapped in a time loop in episode three of the third season, so '33' is our code word meaning 'Help I'm stuck in a time loop.' If you'd claimed that I'd told you that code in a previous loop, then I might have taken you seriously for half a minute."
"You have a SPECIFIC CODE WORD FOR TIME LOOPS?" the stranger shrieked. "Why did you never tell me this before? Why are you telling me this now?"
"I'm telling you because you work for my brother, and he could just give you the number if he wanted to mess with me." But of course Yoichi wouldn't be fooled now that he'd told the hot muscled weirdo the code word personally.
The red-haired man walked to the wall and slammed his forehead into it.
"What are you doing?" Yoichi asked, more curious than concerned. "It's none of my business, but you don't seem like you could afford to lose any more brain cells. Cherish the few remaining ones keeping you breathing."
The stranger groaned, "You have no idea how many times I've been through today. No idea at all." He hit his head again. "And all along the key to getting you to give me a code word to make you believe me was to pretend to be working for All for One?! The one idea I never would have struck on in another hundred loops!" He slammed his forehead down even harder.
"Yeah, I'm just going to leave now." As he walked away, Yoichi glanced over his shoulder. The red-haired man was crying silently. His crimson eyes held such grief and pain that it shook Yoichi. "Look, uh, I'll talk to my brother so that you don't have to flee town over this failed kidnapping. I hope that you recover from whatever is wrong with you. As Captain Hero once said, we all make fools of ourselves sometimes, but a true hero keeps trying."
"No, please don't tell All for One about me!" The red-haired man's head shot up. "He can't know. Please."
"Then my brother isn't why you're fleeing town tomorrow?" Yoichi asked, confused.
"He is, sort of. I was hoping to persuade you to come with me." The stranger went to his end table and pulled out two plane tickets abroad. "Ugh, I forgot to tell you last time: when you find out that your brother is evil, you need to take your passport before leaving the house."
Yoichi stared at the plane tickets in confused disgust. "Are you asking me to elope with you?"
The stranger actually blushed, as crimson as his hair. (It was kinda cute.) He stammered, "Uh, we're already married, but I would marry you again in this timeline in a heartbeat. I will always say yes to you, no matter the reality. I love you."
"That was sarcasm," Yoichi said. No amount of cute was worth this crazy. "You're a stalker, and you should see a shrink about that. Just to be clear, I'm completely uninterested and nothing you could do would salvage the situation after you kidnapped me. I won't tell my brother that you hit on me—you seem to have enough problems already. Goodbye, let's never meet again."
For some reason, the devastated look on the kidnapper's face almost made Yoichi feel bad. But that didn't stop him from walking up the stairs. He ignored a little old lady making faces at him from a rocking chair and exited the front door. When he stepped outside, he was on an ordinary city street full of townhouses in a row and a convenience store on the corner. The sun felt hot against his face. His phone and wallet were still in his pocket. That had been a truly bizarre kidnapping. Only his demented brother would do something so weird. The creepy marriage part probably hadn't been his brother's idea, but Yoichi couldn't help it if he was that charming.
Yoichi hailed a ride on his phone and headed home. Arms crossed, Hisashi waited outside their front door.
"Don't even start," Yoichi grumbled, pushing past. "I'm in no mood for your bullshit after you arranged a fake kidnapping."
"WHAT?!" Hisashi shrieked. "Are you saying someone tried to kidnap you?"
The panic in his older brother's eyes was too real to be faked. Yoichi rapidly reevaluated the situation. "No, I meant that you made me so paranoid about kidnappings, I accidentally German suplexed some guy who put his hand on my shoulder." Yoichi didn't know why he was covering for a stalker kidnapper, except that the stranger had seemed so sad. This could very well backfire on him if the stalker targeted him again. He was probably an idiot.
Hisashi's eyes narrowed. "If you're hiding something, I have ways of finding out."
Yoichi rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, you're a jumped-up sketchy businessman who thinks he's a demon king."
Hisashi chuckled. "You have no idea, little brother."
A chill inched down Yoichi's spine. He didn't like his brother's smug tone. Maybe the hot weirdo had made him paranoid.
Yeah, it had to be just paranoia. Nevertheless, Yoichi's attention kept drifting over dinner and their argument about moving to the dorms. Nevertheless, he looked up All for One online afterward. Nevertheless, he went to his brother's laptop and tried the password. It worked.
This felt silly. Of course big brother wasn't some kind of villain. Hisashi would be furious about this invasion of his privacy. Yoichi would lose all his moral high ground to complain about the trackers on his phone. Nevertheless, Yoichi searched for All for One on his brother's computer.
Entirely too many files came up. Yoichi clicked on one at random. It was a list of strong metapowers and notes on how to steal them. Oh, no. This could be hypothetical…right? Hadn't a few of the people on the list gone missing lately?
The next file was a document on plans to attack a military base. This really, really didn't look hypothetical.
From the doorway, Hisashi said, "I received an alarm as soon as you searched for All for One on your phone. Who sent you to break into my computer?"
Slowly, Yoichi turned around. His brother's eyes glowed red, his giant height nearly reaching the top of the doorframe. Yoichi whispered, "Please, big brother, explain this. You're not seriously some kind of villain plotting to take over Japan. You can't be. That's ridiculous." His voice came out high and terrified, a child pleading that the magic wasn't fake and the man behind the curtain wasn't a monster.
Hisashi shook his head. "I should have seen this coming sooner. All this nonsense about moving out…you wouldn't be trying so hard to put distance between us unless you already knew. I'm going to find out who turned you against me."
I should have watched the PowerPoint, Yoichi thought as a glowing hand came down on his face. He tried to bite once, but the darkness took him too fast.
Yoichi Shigaraki hummed the Captain Hero theme song as he walked down the sidewalk.
A handsome red-haired man stepped in front of him. "You're currently trapped in a time loop, and I'm here to save you."
"Say what?" Yoichi sniffed the air for alcohol or drugs.
"The code word is 33."
Yoichi gasped. "You know my code word? How?"
"You told me in another loop." The stranger watched him nervously.
Gripping the bench to keep himself steady, Yoichi sat down. "Whoa. Oh, whoa. Tell me everything."
The stranger slammed his head into a tree. "That worked?!" He hit his head again. "I can't believe that worked!" Face accusing, he whirled on Yoichi. "Why didn't you tell me the first time loop, dammit?"
"I don't know." Yoichi gaped. "I don't completely believe you, by the way. But only me and my older brother know about our Captain Hero code. It's possible this is a prank by Hisashi, but he shouldn't even know that I'm here. He forbade me from attending the rally."
"I'm definitely not working for All for One." The red-haired man shook his head emphatically. "I'm here to tell you that your brother is a villain."
"Nah, this sounds like one of my brother's pranks," Yoichi mumbled. "He always wanted to be a villain as a child."
The stranger grabbed his shoulders. "Focus! I can prove myself. I know quite a few global events that will happen later today and winning lottery tickets. Those convinced you in the past, but it was always too late by the time you read my note. Then All for One caught you."
"Who's All for One?"
Sounding like someone who had said this way too many times before, the stranger groaned, "Your brother."
It was all impossible. But this man did act convincingly like someone stuck in a time loop, and he knew the code. In this strange new world upset by metapowers, anything could happen. Still mostly convinced this would turn out to be a prank from his brother, Yoichi said, "I'll bite. Tell me the current events."
"We don't have much time before All for One sends someone looking for you, based on past experience." The stranger handed him a usb drive. "Here is my list of proof, my phone number, and a PowerPoint about how much All for One sucks. Also based on past experience, you won't believe it until you see it on your brother's computer. I gave you his computer password, but you've gotta be careful. He keeps catching you. I'm certain he's tracking your internet use on your computer and phone. Don't search for anything incriminating. I gave you a program to disable his tracker, but don't use it until you're ready to run. You've tried before to confront him and talk him down. You've tried so many times, please don't try again. If you believe me, then sneak out of your house with your passport and meet me at Tokyo airport. I have two plane tickets for us."
Yoichi snorted. "I'm not eloping with you, no matter how hot you are."
"Heh, I knew you thought I was hot." The stranger laughed.
The sound made Yoichi smile. Then he caught himself and scowled.
The stranger's eyes beat into Yoichi's back as he left. His gaze looked sad and determined. It scared Yoichi, because he could not shake the feeling that this was all real to the stranger. Either the man was crazy, or…or it was all true. The entire trip back home, Yoichi kept tossing and turning ideas around in his mind. He wished he'd asked the stranger for more details about a time travel metapower, because it sounded fascinating. Also, extra information would have helped him figure out if he should believe this crazy story. How could Yoichi have gotten stuck in a time loop? Had Hisashi done it? Big brother had a lot of powers, and that sure sounded like something he'd do in order to keep Yoichi in the dark. How had the stranger remained unaffected, then? Did Hisashi know about the stranger? No, he couldn't.
Blocking the front door, Hisashi crossed his arms. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"
Hisashi did not look like an older brother who'd pulled off a successful prank. He looked pissed off. Although Hisashi could be a good actor, his annoyed older brother face was never fake.
"Why are you staring at me like that?" Hisashi demanded. "Do I have something stuck in my teeth?"
Yoichi shrugged. "I'm gaping in shock that you seriously believe I'll die or get scammed if I step outside without a bodyguard." He'd tacked on "get scammed" at the last moment because if Hisashi had arranged for the red-haired stranger to trick Yoichi, then this would be the perfect moment to cackle like a demon king and reveal that his silly little brother had been completely fooled.
Instead, Hisashi launched into a long lecture about the dangers of modern Japan and how he was a very important man with a lot of enemies. Yoichi had heard it all before. This time, though, he started wondering why his big brother was so convinced he might get targeted by everyone from crime lords to the government. Was it pure arrogance or was Hisashi involved in dirty business?
Yoichi's increasing discomfort must have shown on his face, because Hisashi asked, "Am I getting through to you about your foolishness?"
Yoichi was not as good an actor as his brother. He swallowed, afraid he might give himself away if he continued this conversation. "I don't even want to hear it. I'll eat dinner in my room." He brushed past his brother and ran up the stairs.
Sitting alone in his room, Yoichi watched the clock and read the stranger's list of future predictions. He resisted the urge to google All for One because he remembered the warning about a tracker on his phone. But it shouldn't be suspicious to look up current events.
Over the next hour and a half, the stranger successfully predicted a winning lottery ticket number (Yoichi should have used that!), a mass shooting in America, and a reporter tripping and falling on live television. The last one freaked Yoichi out the most, because he could not think of any way that someone could have obtained advance information about such a small, insignificant incident. (Whereas shootings in the United States weren't exactly rare, that could have been a lucky guess.)
Either Yoichi was trapped in a time loop, or the stranger had precognition. Yoichi did not know why someone with precognition would lie to him to convince him a time loop existed, but the possibility couldn't be completely ruled out. The code word made the time loop more likely. Only Yoichi in the future or Hisashi in the present could have told the stranger to speak the number thirty-three.
Sitting on his bed, Yoichi took deep breaths until his heart rate calmed down. This was a little cool. But mostly terrifying.
Yoichi considered reading through the PowerPoint presentation but it was two-hundred slides long and the first one had some absolute nonsense about his brother locking him up in a bank vault. (Seriously, what? Yoichi added a bit more evidence to the prank theory.) Besides, Yoichi would not believe any ill of his brother until he saw proof with his own two eyes. A stranger's word was not enough.
A password to his brother's computer had been included in the files. Yoichi needed to take a peek, but if the time loop theory could be believed, he'd tried and failed before. He would have to be subtle.
First, Yoichi filled his wallet with all his cash from the tin under his bed. Then he tucked his passport into his pocket. He hadn't decided to believe the stranger. He was just taking precautions. Captain Hero would be prepared for any situation, that was how he'd escaped the time loop in season three episode three.
Walking downstairs, Yoichi said, "Big brother, I'm sorry that we fought."
Looking up from his laptop, Hisashi's eyebrows raised to nearly his hairline. "You certainly should be." But he sounded a little suspicious.
Yoichi said, "I still don't agree with you about my bodyguards, but I know that you love me and you're only trying to protect me." A bit of stubbornness would make his brother believe him more. "I don't want to fight with you any longer. Can we make up? I want to eat popcorn and watch Captain Hero like we used to when we were children."
Hisashi's gaze softened. "Oh, very well, I can spare time from work to watch an episode with you." He closed his laptop and went to the kitchen cabinet. "Ugh, we're out of popcorn."
Yoichi had known that when he'd made his suggestion. "Whatever, let's find a different snack." He also knew that his brother loved to contradict anything he suggested.
Sure enough, Hisashi said, "No, popcorn is our tradition. I'll run out to the grocery store. You find our old DVDs."
"Sure," Yoichi agreed, trying not to look in the direction of his brother's computer.
As soon as his brother was gone, Yoichi opened the laptop and typed in the password. Then he searched for All for One. His eyes widened and his hands trembled with each file he opened.
Holy shit, Hisashi was stealing metapowers.
Holy shit, Hisashi was currently fighting a gang war.
HOLY SHIT, HISASHI HAD PLANS TO CONQUER JAPAN.
Tears trickled down Yoichi's cheek. He buried his face in his hands, but he did not succumb to weeping. He did not have enough time before his brother returned to have a mental breakdown.
Yoichi desperately wanted to confront his brother. He wanted to ask why. He wanted to scream and curse and try to persuade his brother to turn to a different path. But Yoichi did not, because he realized he must have tried to reason with his brother for many time loops already.
Also, Yoichi had seen designs on the computer for an underground bedroom to imprison him "in case of emergencies." The bank vault had gotten a whole lot less funny.
Yoichi had to get out of here. He could not accept what his brother had done, and he desperately feared imprisonment. Although his discoveries were horrifying, they weren't completely surprising. The imprisonment was less shocking than the villainy, actually. Still, it was hard to walk away without a word. Yoichi loved his brother. But he'd already been thinking about putting distance between them. An ocean was a lot more distance than he'd intended, but based on what Yoichi had just read about All for One, it might be barely enough.
In the end, Yoichi left only a three-sentence note: I found out about All for One. You never told me because you knew that would be a dealbreaker for me. Goodbye. He hid the note under his pillow, where it would be eventually found but not right away. On the counter, he left a decoy note claiming that a college friend had called him and asked for urgent help with a flat tire.
First, Yoichi downloaded and activated the program to disable all trackers on his phone. Then he texted the stranger that he was on his way to the airport. Without waiting for a reply, he got into his car and drove away.
Yoichi barely made it through airport security in time for the flight. The stranger waited for him on the other end, grim-faced. They both ran for the plane.
Once they were in air, the stranger breathed a huge sigh of relief. A bit of color returned to his cheeks. A single tear fell from his eye.
Yoichi felt awkward, witnessing such a great display of emotion. Now that he'd accepted the time loop as real, he realized this man must have suffered a great deal to get him out. Why? Who were they to each other? Yoichi wanted to ask, but he didn't think he should around people. Looking around, Yoichi saw no other passengers on the large commercial airplane. "Huh, how did you arrange for us to be alone?"
The stranger said, "I brought every ticket. I won the lottery twice today."
Yoichi laughed. "Clever thinking!" None of the employees were close enough to hear, but he still lowered his voice and asked his most important question: "How did my brother cause the time loop? He can't just reset time to bring me back, right? Because then all of this would be futile. Does he need to touch me first?"
The stranger looked puzzled for a moment, then said, "All for One didn't create this loop. A friend of ours did, to save your life."
"M-my life?" Yoichi paled. "My brother wouldn't kill me."
"You thought that in the future, but he did in the end." The stranger looked away. It took him a moment to speak. "For what it's worth, it was an accident."
Part of Yoichi wanted to ask more, part of him didn't want to know about his own death. He shelved that for later. "I should have realized sooner. Big brother never would have left me alone in the house if he knew about me trying to escape. But, pardon me if this sounds rude, you didn't seem like you controlled the time loop. You seemed trapped."
"I was," the stranger said. "Our friend had the ability to send someone back in time with a particular objective. The loop doesn't end until they complete the objective. When they fail, they restart the day. Also, he could only use his power three times in his entire life. Going back in time doesn't reset his number—that would be the same as getting infinite time loops. He couldn't use his power on himself. He used it once the first time he realized. Once to send me back after you died. Then, after you died again on a different day many times and we realized that preventing your death was hopeless, we used it once again to send me back even further. My objective was to get you away from All for One without him realizing that you knew about his identity. It proved…harder than I'd hoped."
That was a whole lot of information to digest. Yoichi took a moment before he could speak. "My brother killed me more than once?" He felt ashamed of how his voice wavered.
The stranger looked at him with such love and gentleness, it was disconcerting. "All for One is obsessed with you. He used every resource at his disposal to get you back, including threatening innocent people to force you out of hiding. I realized that you'd only be safe if you went somewhere he had no influence. I-I'm sorry, I tricked you into fleeing the country with me."
"Huh?" Yoichi blinked. "You didn't trick me, you told me the truth and I came willingly. Unless there's something that you're not telling me." He glared suspiciously.
"Your future self refused to leave Japan even after dying in fifty time loops. That's…part of why I went further back in time." The stranger hung his head, hiding his face.
"Why would I possibly be so stupid?" Yoichi demanded. "Did my evil brother hit me on the head?"
Softly, the stranger said, "You thought you had a responsibility to stop All for One. Being locked up in the vault really did a number on you. Also, you felt guilty that he hurt people and blamed it on you. You…got very suicidal by the end."
"Oh, I guess that explains it." Yoichi squirmed, uncomfortable to think of his future self suffering so much. "In my present day opinion, if I tried so many times to stop my brother but couldn't, then there was clearly nothing I could do. I want to live. I'm glad that you saved my life. Thank you."
Another tear fell from the stranger's eye. "You don't know what it means to hear you say that." He moved as if to take Yoichi's hand, then stopped himself.
"How many loops did you go through?" Yoichi asked, morbidly curious.
"I don't want to say. Let me put it this way, I didn't try to kidnap you the first hundred times." The stranger full-body twitched. "I'm sorry I let you suffer through so many loops. We picked a day where you didn't have bodyguards. Back then, I naïvely thought it would be easy to convince you. After failing so many times, I was starting to think I'd doomed you. I really regretted picking All for One finding out as the trigger to reset the loop. But I'm currently just an ordinary college student with no resources to rescue you if you get vaulted."
How interesting that he said "currently," implying he'd once had more power. Yoichi realized that this man sitting next to him had given up an entire life in the future to come back in time for him. "Did you sacrifice a lot to save me?"
"I decided not to speak of it." The stranger exhaled sharply. "I picked you, and that's all that matters."
Yoichi did not press a clearly sensitive topic. "Well. Thank you." Hesitantly, he reached out and patted the stranger's hand.
The small gesture made the man's entire face light up. "Are you hungry? I brought your favorite snacks." He reached into his backpack and pulled out strawberry pocky, chocolate chip cookies, and potato chips.
Those were, in fact, Yoichi's favorites. He felt uneasy that a total stranger knew him so well. Inadvertently, he flinched.
Face falling, the stranger let his hands drop. "Sorry, this must be strange for you."
"You didn't do anything wrong." Yoichi mustered a smile. "It was very considerate of you to pack my favorites. It feels a bit strange that you know me and I don't know you, but that's not your fault."
"We can get to know each other again slowly. I'll try to move at your pace."
"Who were you to me, in the future?"
A spectacular crimson blush spread across the man's face, as red as his hair. "I was your husband."
"Huh. Future me had amazing taste." Yoichi winked. "Handsome, competent, and ride-or-die. You're the complete package."
The red-haired man laughed. "You haven't changed one bit."
"What's your name? I really ought to know, since we seem to be married."
"I'm—"
OMAKE TIME!
Hisashi: I can't let my brother leave the house or he'll get kidnapped.
Yoichi: Oh, come on! Attending one rally without my bodyguards wouldn't result in me meeting a handsome time-traveler, discovering all your dark secrets, and fleeing to a foreign country.
Hisashi: …That sounds like a suspiciously specific denial.
#
Yoichi: A two-hundred slide PowerPoint? Did you seriously expect me to read all of that?
Second: I tried to narrow it down but your brother has a lot of faults.
#
Second: Why didn't you tell me about your Captain Hero code words in the future?
Yoichi: My brother knew all of them so they were all useless. Why didn't we come up with code words for a time loop in the future?
Second: We did, you forgot all of them!
#
Hisashi: In the original timeline, I kept telling you not to hook up with your kidnapper and you kept insisting the Second didn't kidnap you. This time he definitely kidnaps you and you still hook up with him anyway!
Yoichi: It's the spiky hair. I find it irresistible.
#
Second: How did you get your maniacally protective brother to leave you alone in the house?
Yoichi: Sibling contrariness, his one true weakness.
#
Hisashi: This fic ought to be tagged Bad Ending! It's horrific!
Second: You don't act as happy as you ought to be about your brother living in this universe. I take it you'd rather have him dead than leave you.
All Might: Wait, am I still getting a quirk?
Izuku: I want to know too!
Yoichi: Um…quirkless heroes are awesome.
#
Yoichi: And that's the story of how I met your uncle.
Izuku: Weird, you and Dad disagree about everything but you both think that a kidnapping is a meet cute. I'm worried about what this says about my future destiny.
#
Hisashi: I created my own PowerPoint about why you should dump your boyfriend. It's entitled: "Why Your Boytoy is the Worst and You Should be Single Forever." And I came up with four hundred slides.
Yoichi: I am definitely not sitting through that.
Hisashi: Reason number one: because you are a baby.
Yoichi: Did…you include my baby pictures? Do you understand I am not literally an infant? I'm a college student! A legal adult!
Hisashi: Reason number two: because you're an extension of myself, and I don't consent to you having sex.
Yoichi: Your consent is neither relevant nor wanted. I'll date him even harder to spite you.
Hisashi: We're brothers, we look the same, therefore when you take off your clothes, you are letting someone else see my naked body without my consent.
Yoichi: This isn't even the twins AU!
Hisashi: Reason number three: I stayed single in order to devote my life to looking after you, so you owe me the same.
Yoichi: I never asked for that. In fact, I would encourage you to get a lover. You might be less obnoxious if you were getting laid.
Hisashi: The next fifty slides are all about his ugly spiky hair. You have such beautiful hair, you should demand higher quality from a partner.
Yoichi: Is it really just about the hair? Is that why you don't hate Third nearly as much?
Hisashi: Actually I forgot the other brother thief exists.
Author's Note: Haha, did I catch everyone off-guard including Space_Cryptid? The original prompt called for All for One to be resetting time. Since I've already written All for One trapping Yoichi in a time loop before, I thought it would be fun if someone different started the loop this time.
FYI, Third had the time loop quirk. I still believe that Fa Jin is not a real quirk, it's just One for All. Third lied out of shame because he'd already used up his time loops and had nothing to give Izuku.
Second gave up on stopping All for One and saving Japan for Yoichi's sake, but he's afraid to tell Yoichi that for fear he will insist on turning back. The Yoichi from the future never would have allowed it. Third also agreed to give up everything for Yoichi, so they made plans to meet up in the new future, although Third won't remember anything. In fact, Second picked which country to flee to because Third is currently studying abroad there. This is a happy ending for the trio. But without One for All, the future of Japan looks bleak. Second knows that One for All will never exist because of the changes he's made. Future Yoichi told Second to let him die, after they realized that All for One fell into a depression after his brother's death and this prevented him from conquering Japan. Second betrayed future Yoichi to save past Yoichi. In this universe, Second picked Yoichi over the world.