"MIDORIYA!" Mirio screamed.
He lunged for his friend, wrapping his arms around where Midoriya's body should be, where it had disappeared under a thick layer of sludge. His grip closed on nothing, and he was left clutching at air and black slime. It splattered away from him and vanished, like he had tried to hug a stream of water just as the faucet had been turned off.
Midoriya was gone.
"NO!" Mirio shouted furiously, whirling to the television, but the screen had already gone dark. He stormed over to it and picked up the camera.
"Give him back!" he demanded, shaking the little device as though that would make it deliver his message. "Take me instead! I'm the one you want!"
The camera stared back at him, impassive. The red light was no longer blinking. All for One wasn't watching.
"Master's made his decision," said the raspy voice of Tomura Shigaraki. "Damn it, that means I won't get my answer."
It could only have been Shigaraki. He matched Midoriya's description of the villain perfectly, and Mirio had caught glimpses of him on the news. Dimly Mirio remembered that his real name was Tenko Shimura, and that he was practically All Might's family, but Mirio wasn't inclined to think of him as anything but a villain right now.
Mirio stalked over to Shigaraki and took him by the front of the shirt. Shigaraki's hands grasped at Mirio's wrists, but Mirio made only the few square inches where he would have touched intangible, so his fingers passed right through. He lifted Shigaraki up off his feet, then slammed him against the wall next to the door.
"Tell me where All for One took Midoriya," he said, low and dangerous.
"Somewhere private," Shigaraki replied vaguely. "Master thinks he's special, calls him number nine. He's probably going to kill him."
Fear spiked through Mirio but he clamped it down. "Tell me where they are!"
"Like I would tell you!" Shigaraki spat, swiping at Mirio's face and making a frustrated sound when he couldn't connect. "You'd just get in the way, stupid hero brat! Master says-"
"I don't care what your master says!" Mirio ground out, shaking Shigaraki a little. "Don't you get that he's using you?!"
"I don't expect a hero to understand," Shigaraki scoffed. His hands went to grasp at Mirio's arms further up, and though Permeation stopped him from hurting Mirio's flesh, the sleeves of his jacket and shirt were rapidly decayed.
"You're the one who doesn't understand!" Mirio shot back. "All for One only chose you so he could hurt All Might! He only cares about his revenge, not about you!"
Shigaraki froze, lifting his thumbs so that the shirt sleeves stopped fraying away. "What?"
"You're the grandson of All Might's mentor," Mirio said, shaking him a little once again. "Your master turned you into a villain to defile that legacy! Everything he did was because of them, not because of you! You're just a pawn to him!"
"That's not true," Shigaraki said, but he sounded unsure. His one visible eye was wide and searching. "Master saved me. I was alone before him!"
Mirio decided to give him what he was searching for.
"Your real name is Tenko Shimura," he explained gravely. "Your grandmother put your father in foster care as a child to prevent All for One from killing him. When All for One killed your grandmother he found your family and killed them so you would be alone. Then he took you in and twisted you into something your grandmother and the people in her life would hate, so that you would clash with them when you grew up. He did it so he could reveal who they had really been fighting and hurt them. That's all you are to him. A dramatic reveal."
"No!" Shigaraki said weakly, closing his eyes against what Mirio was saying. He grabbed at Mirio's face again, but again was unsuccessful. "I don't like this! Stop saying it!"
"It was never about you, Tenko," Mirio insisted. "It was always about All Might. All for One never cared about you as a person, only how he could use you to hurt the people who should have been your family. Everything All for One did . . . it was never about you."
Shigaraki went limp in Mirio's hold. He was trembling. "Where did All for One take Midoriya?" Mirio demanded.
"There's a Nomu factory," Shigaraki said softly. "Five kilometers East. I don't know the address, but I'd wager you'll hear the commotion from at least a kilometer away."
Mirio dropped Shigaraki, and he crumpled to the ground.
"I'm going to get Midoriya," Mirio said, turning to the other two. "Get out the back door and then-"
"Shigaraki?" called a voice, and Mirio whirled to face the door. Footstep out in the hall accompanied the speaker, and they were getting closer. "I heard yelling-"
A man came into view in the doorway, and Mirio nearly recoiled at the sight of him. Midoriya had described the fire villain's face as 'patchwork,' but nothing could have prepared him for literal patches of skin, some burned beyond all recognition as such, loosely held together with gleaming metal staples. The villain, for his part, looked just as shocked and horrified to see Mirio as Mirio was to see him, and he immediately turned toward the stairs.
"Down here!" he yelled, seeming impossibly loud in the confined space. "Help! We got company!"
"Touya!" Todoroki said, trying to attract the villain's attention and be quiet at once. "Please, they're my friends! They can get you out of here!"
The villain -- Touya -- opened his mouth to respond, but before he could say anything a shape made of black mist materialized next to Shigaraki. It quickly resolved itself into a man, or something like a man, made of dark smoke and wearing a sharply tailored suit. As Midoriya had promised, there was a prominent piece of armor around his neck and upper chest.
"Tomura Shigaraki," said Kurogiri, placing himself in front of his fallen leader and squaring off against Mirio. "You must get up. Are you hurt?"
Shigaraki, who had not yet moved and didn't look ready to do so now, didn't answer him.
"Tomura?" repeated Kurogiri, with real concern in his voice.
"Toga!" cried Shinsou.
Mirio glanced at the door, expecting to see a girl in a school uniform, but there was no one there. Touya turned to look as well, staring in bemusement but not saying anything.
"What?" Tomura said as though in surprise, craning his head to look for Toga.
"Himiko Toga, please-" Kurogiri said without looking at the door, then stopped. His eyes, once glowing yellow, had turned white and vacant.
"You got him?" Todoroki asked in obvious amazement.
"Kurogiri and Shigaraki," Shinsou said, eyes fixed on the two villains.
Mirio glanced at Shigaraki, to see that his one visible eye had also gone blank white. Both villains were under Shinsou's control.
Todoroki turned back to Touya. "Please," he begged, pressing his palms together imploringly. "Please Touya. I can save you."
"Dabi!" came a voice from outside, but it sounded like it was farther away, as though the speaker might have been closer to the top of the stairs. "What's going on down there?"
Touya hesitated, head turned toward the voice. For a moment they all held their breath, waiting for his decision. Then Touya turned back to Todoroki.
"You can't," he said, and Mirio's heart sank. Then Touya went on. "But I can save you."
Touya ducked back into the hall and faced the stairway. "There's too many of them!" he shouted, sounding breathless and agitated. "We have to get out! Everyone scatter!"
There were footsteps on the stairs, but they were most definitely going up. Touya watched for a moment, making sure they were retreating, then stepped back into the room.
"Can you hold those two?" he asked Shinsou.
"For as long as I need," Shinsou replied easily, not taking his eyes off his captives. "They're not fighting too hard."
"Shouto," Touya said urgently, turning to Todoroki. "Seal yourselves into this room with ice. I'm gonna torch the place, make sure all of them run."
"What about you?" Todoroki asked fearfully.
"I'll figure it out," Touya said, cupping Todoroki's scarred cheek. "I'll see you again pipsqueak."
For all that Touya must have been much older, they were almost exactly the same height. Touya lifted his chin and Todoroki lowered his head, and then older brother pressed a kiss to younger brother's forehead. Then Touya went back out into the hall.
"I can't hold them back!" he called, one hand already burning with blue fire as he made his way back toward the stairs. "Everybody out!"
Todoroki looked after his brother with wet eyes, then turned to Mirio. "Go," he said. "I can protect Hitoshi and he can hold Shigaraki and Kurogiri. We'll be fine here."
Mirio didn't need telling twice. He summoned up One for All and shot through the door, pinballing down the hall and out into the warm night air. Jumping from wall to wall he got out onto the roof, then took a flying leap and landed inelegantly on the next building over. It was five kilometers to the Nomu factory where Midoriya was facing All for One. He could get there fastest, but he didn't know if he could win, so as he ran he pulled out his phone.
They needed All Might.
"It's good to finally meet you, Izuku Midoriya," said All for One, stepping fully out of the shadows and into the light. He was wearing a crisp black suit, and coupled with his black helmet he seemed almost like a shadow himself, one that the spotlight couldn't banish.
Izuku said nothing. He couldn't think of a single thing to say. He could barely hear what was being said to him over the blood roaring in his ears. He was still kneeling on the ground looking up at All for One, but he made no move to stand. He didn't think his legs would hold him.
"Or should I say Dekiru?" All for One went on conversationally. "That is your hero name, isn't it? Quite the bold declaration, but then again I'm used to your kind announcing your presence with a certain degree of fanfare."
"My kind?" Izuku asked stupidly. His voice didn't tremble or break, but that might have been because the question was so short.
"The wielders of that quirk you have," All for One clarified. "Or are you going to deny it now that you have to face you opponent head on?"
Should he deny it? That didn't seem very heroic. It seemed like something a coward would do. Even if he wasn't really the successor, he thought he could at least be heroic enough to complete his mission. He could hold the line. For Toogata.
"I'm not going to deny it," he said, and again his voice didn't shake, but it was a near thing.
"I must admit I'm impressed with what you've already accomplished," All for One continued, and he sounded for all the world like he genuinely meant it. "You've undone every one of Tomura's plans, and that was with all the help I could provide. From thwarting the USJ attack, to upstaging him in Hosu, to preventing him from acquiring his target at the training camp. You've been a busy
little hero, Dekiru."
"I'm All Might's successor," Izuku said, with all the firmness he could muster. "I've got a lot to live up to."
"So you do," All for One agreed. "However, I've been able to obtain very little data on how you're adjusting to that new power of yours. Let's test it out, shall we?"
All for One raised an arm, pointing the palm of his hand toward Izuku. His arm began to bulge grotesquely, straining against its sleeve, and red lightning crackled around the extended limb. Izuku realized he had to move. All for One was about to use a quirk, fire some kind of power at him. With how many quirks All for One probably had by now, he did not want to be in the way.
Izuku threw himself to the side, just in time to avoid a massive gust of wind. It roared past him like a hurricane as he rolled over and over, keeping his whole body to the ground so as not to be blown away. Through closed eyes he saw when the bright light of the spotlight gave way to the shadows outside it, but he didn't stop until he hit a wall.
The wind stopped, and Izuku opened his eyes. There had been a wall not far behind him while he was kneeling on the floor, but . . . well, there had been a wall there. Now there was a gaping hole, providing a view of the ruined street beyond. There was a good dent in the building across the way, and the road was pretty torn up, but he didn't see any injured people or overturned cars. He thought briefly of running outside, but didn't dare place himself back in All for One's sights. Instead he pushed himself up and moved forward through the shadows, trying to find somewhere to hide.
"Air Cannon plus Spring-Like Limbs," All for One narrated as Izuku ducked behind a large row of glowing tanks. "I only used one Kinetic Booster and one Strength Enhancer, though I have four and three of those respectively."
Izuku didn't say anything, hoping All for One didn't know where he was. He couldn't survive a blast like that. He doubted anyone but All Might could.
"I thought I'd go easy on you for your first test," All for One said, almost placatingly, as Izuku fought to control his breathing, to make as little noise as possible. "If you're just going to run and hide though, I might as well finish this a bit more quickly. Do come out from behind those Nomu; it would be a shame to waste them just to get at you."
Through the haze of his fear, Izuku's eyes focused on the tank, and suddenly he realized that floating just in front of his face was the face of a Nomu. Its mouth was slack and open, its eyes bulging and vacant, and if Izuku wasn't already so afraid he thought his heart might have broken straight through his rubs. Glancing to the side he could see more Nomu in the other tanks, staring at him with their sightless eyes.
Izuku put a hand over his mouth to stop himself from screaming. The Nomu were all that stood between him and the most dangerous villain who had ever lived, and that barrier would only last as long as All for One's patience did. Then he would blast Izuku with everything he had, and there was no way Izuku could take that hit and live.
What am I doing here? he thought as All for One waited silently for him to make a decision. Why did I think I could do this? What did I think I could accomplish? What's going to happen to Toogata when I fail? Will Shouto and Hitoshi be able to get away? What will my Mom think? What will Mic say when he realizes I-
A speck of black caught Izuku's eye, a shape in the glowing water of the tank. He blinked, and
realized it was part of his reflection. He adjusted his perspective until he was focused on the glass instead of what was beyond it, on the image mirrored back at him. The black speck, the shape he had seen, was the heart Hitoshi had drawn on his cheek.
Just imagine that heart is the hearts of everyone who's rooting for you, Mic had said. Don't wanna mess it up, do you?
It's the hearts of everyone cheering for us, Izuku had told Hitoshi at the final exam. As long as that heart's still there, I'll keep fighting.
This heart means everything is going to be OK, he had assured Kouta. As long as I have this heart, I promise everything's going to be fine.
Izuku reached into the pocket of his hoodie and gripped his force lance. He would need it if he was going to fight. He didn't have time to cry. He didn't have time to feel sad or scared. He needed a plan, and he needed to execute it now. He took a breath, and went over everything he knew about All for One. First and foremost was that he was powerful, and he didn't care at all about collateral damage. He scoffed in the face of the destruction he wreaked on others, and he had blown a hole in his own base just to attack Izuku at something approximating his full strength. How many holes would he blow before he realized there was nothing holding up the roof?
"If you're just going to hide from me, I can spare the Nomu," All for One said, and Izuku darted out from behind the tank on the other side.
"Who's hiding?!" he demanded, loud and almost hysterical, but with a reckless sort of confidence. "If you want to go up against me, I'll give you the fight you're looking for and then some!"
"Done playing hide and seek?" asked All for One, extending his arm and powering up his wind attack again. "Splendid, let's get back to it then."
The wind came again, as loud and as strong as a tornado ripping through a city, and Izuku dove out of the way. He ended up behind a row of metal tables, the first of which was warped into scrap and then blown away by the gale, but several of which remained in place. They seemed to be bolted to the floor, and he crawled underneath the nearest one that looked like it would hold, which helped when a large chunk of the building came down directly on top of him. It hit the table and crumbled, but didn't even leave a dent.
Careful of the debris, Izuku crawled out and took stock. The building next door had a sizeable piece missing, and a few people who had been in rooms that were affected were scrambling for the doors, but he didn't see any bodies or anyone trapped by the wreckage. In his own building most of the tables around him had lost their lighter glass containers to shatter on the wall, but the heavier equipment had remained. One table farther away held something covered by a sheet. Judging by the bumps in it, the something was human, or once had been.
"What's the matter?" All for One said as Izuku approached the table with the sheet, careful to stay in the shadows. "Aren't you going to attack me?"
Izuku pulled back the sheet, then put a hand to his mouth. Ragdoll was laying motionless on the table, her eyes and mouth open but her face slack and lifeless. Her hero costume had been taken, and she looked like nothing more than a fresh cadaver. Immediately Izuku put two fingers to her neck and found her pulse. It was weak, but present. She was alive.
"You're despicable," Izuku growled as he tucked the sheet around Ragdoll and lifted her up. It was a bit difficult, but she was slight and he was strong. "I'll see you use every one of your quirks
before I beat you, so you'll know there was nothing you could have done."
He knelt down, then placed her gently beneath the table, making sure it covered her completely. He couldn't take her with him, but he couldn't abort his plan now. He would have to hope the sturdy metal would be enough to protect her from the rubble.
"If you're so sure," All for One said mockingly as Izuku stood to face him. "Multiplier. Hypertrophy. Rivets. Air Walk. Spearlike Bones."
As he spoke his right arm swelled, eventually ripping through his suit as it became more and more mutated. The flesh twisted, the hand and arm seeming to duplicate as the limb got larger and larger, and the flesh began to sprout growths like rock and metal and what might or might not have been bone.
Izuku ran, wanting to divert the attack away from Ragdoll, so he was already in motion as the attack came down. This one was a punch, not a fired blast, so Izuku knew he would have to get to higher ground. There was a catwalk above him, level with what he expected was the second story of the other buildings on this street, as if this building were some kind of factory; likely it was, for manufacturing Nomu. As All for One came at him he pulled out his force lance and jammed it into the ground, then extended it and hung on for dear life. He got out of the way just in time, soaring up and over All for One's attack, then landed on the catwalk and called the other end of the force lance back. There was a jerk as the end of it caught the edge of the strike, and when it was back to baton length he examined the bottom.
Not a scratch.
I really gotta get Hatsume a nice present for this, he thought, sighing in relief.
The attack had carved a chunk out of the wall, and into the adjoining room of the building next door, but thankfully everyone in that building seemed to have evacuated and there were no people visible. Izuku stood and began to make his way along the catwalk, looking for where to go next. All for One had put a hole in one wall and two holes in another. From Izuku's original position most of the back wall was intact, but the left wall was all but gone, only the corners holding the roof over their heads. If Izuku could get All for One to take out just one more wall . . .
Suddenly there was a presence beside him, and Izuku jerked back against the thin metal railing of the walkway. All for One was standing in midair beside the catwalk. Thankfully Izuku had already shoved his force lance into his pocket, hoping to hide it for as long as he could, and All for One didn't seem to have seen it.
"Nice jump," All for One praised as Izuku darted away, looking for another place to run. "But I want you to use your power on me. Perhaps I need to use a different quirk to get your attention."
There was another level to the catwalk, suspended several feet above his head, and as his eyes traced along the length it passed by a window in the exterior wall. A way out. Izuku ran for it, pulling out his force lance, uncaring of whether All for One saw, and extended the bottom of it up toward the catwalk. It struck the catwalk and grabbed, and Izuku shortened it so that it pulled him off his feet.
Behind him came a blast like an explosion going off, then a loud crash, and Izuku grabbed the edge of the catwalk. He pulled himself up, then glanced back. The chains holding up the other catwalk had been severed, sending the whole thing to the floor. All for One's right hand was still morphed into a massive gauntlet, but that time his unaltered left hand had been extended.
An explosion from a bare hand . . .
"I know that quirk!" Izuku shouted, staring at All for One in horror. "That's Explosion!"
"Yes," All for One said, and his cruel smile was audible in his voice. "I took it from that young blonde boy some weeks ago. Or was it months? He came to me looking for work, but he was rather loud and combative, and I could see right away he was far less useful than his quirk. So I took it from him."
"What did you do with Bakugou?!" Izuku demanded.
"I left him where I found him," All for One gave an exaggerated shrug, ridiculous with his one gargantuan arm. "What became of him from there, who can say? It was a bad neighborhood though, so I wouldn't put money on his odds being left there unconscious."
Izuku grit his teeth and and tried to control his feelings. He hadn't thought about Bakugou in months, and now wasn't the time to worry or to grieve. The window was behind him, just a few long strides and he'd be within jumping range. He had to make All for One attack again, using a quirk that would bring the building down on his head.
"If you're using weak quirks to bait me, you must not have much power left," Izuku taunted venomously. "I guess kids like me should be more careful not to tire old people out."
There was no visible change in his demeanor, but Izuku got the idea that he'd hit a nerve. Red lightning crackled over All for One's body, not just along one limb this time, and he pulled back his massive arm of mashed-together quirks for a swing. Izuku turned and began sprinting for the window, his footsteps eating up the distance as he felt the power building behind him. He leaped forward, crossing his arms over his head as he dove through the window so that his elbows took the brunt of the hit. Glass shattered around him, raking along his body, but a moment later he was laying on his back on the roof of the neighboring building. There was a noise like a car crash as the fist came down, but he flatted himself to the roof and the shockwave passed harmlessly over his head.
Then the roof of the factory came down.
It was cacophonous. Metal shrieked and stone knocked against stone as the building caved in and collapsed upon itself. Brick crumbled as the walls gave, electricity crackled as wires snapped, and a cloud of dust like a sandstorm engulfed the whole area. For a moment all Izuku could do was listen and try not to breathe. Eventually he had to inhale, but he couldn't get his shirt over his nose fast enough and he ended up coughing uncontrollably for a few moments.
When Izuku could breathe again he crawled over to the edge of the roof and looked down. It was like the foot of some massive creature had come down, flattening the building and taking a piece out of the one next door. All that was left of the Nomu factory was a pile of rubble.
There was no sign of All for One. "Ragdoll," Izuku coughed.
He pushed himself shakily to his knees and then to his feet, then held the force lance out over the edge of the roof. It extended until the end clinked to the ground and dug in, and Izuku wrapped himself around the upper end and lowered himself to the ground. His clothes were torn from the glass window, and his body was weak with relief, but he forced himself to keep going. He clambered over the wreckage, falling to his knees a few times on the uneven ground, until he
reached approximately where he had left her. There was a mountain of rubble on top, and Izuku prayed the table would hold as he began digging.
Behind him there was a loud crack.
Izuku whirled around, and his weak legs went out from under him, causing him to land hard on his rump. A section in the middle of the destroyed building was moving, the debris rising and falling as something shifted beneath it. Something at the bottom of the pile was pushing its way to the top.
No , Izuku thought to himself. Please, no!
A huge slab of ceiling split down the center and flew apart, revealing a hole as though some tunneling creature had dug its way to the surface. Out of the hole rose the top of a bald head, surrounded by a wreath of twisted metal. Then an eyeless face emerged, and the metal revealed itself to be the ruined remains of a helmet.
"No," Izuku whispered.
"Yes," said All for One patiently.
He rose fully out of the ground, levitating like he had next to the catwalk, but as soon as he was free he moved a few feet toward Izuku and touched down. The unevenness of the ground didn't seem to phase him, and the rubble didn't shift under his feet. He was covered in dust, his helmet was busted, his suit was torn in several places and his arm was back to normal in its ripped up sleeve.
Despite this, All for One stood tall.
"Not a bad trick," he said, not sounding the least bit phased by this turn of events. "You're craftier than your predecessors, I'll give you that."
"What does it take to beat you?!" Izuku demanded, blinking back tears. He'd thought he'd been smart enough. He'd thought his plan would work!
"Most power than you have, little one," All for One said condescendingly. "It's a shame though, you were doing so well. Unfortunately, for my victory over All Might to be complete, your story has to end here, when I take One for All from you and leave you broken for him to find. Such a pity you couldn't be more like your siblings."
Izuku blinked, confusion briefly muffling terror. "Siblings?"
"Himiko Toga and Jin Bubaigawara," All for One said. "Two members of Tomura's League of Villains. When Dr. Garaki and I cooked up the scheme to further evolve my quirk by having children, I never dreamed even the byproducts of that experiment could be so useful. Or in your case, such a pest."
"What?" Izuku breathed. This couldn't be right. "You can't mean . . ."
"That's right," All for One said, and his eyeless face seemed to give the impression of satisfaction. "Over the course of twenty-five years I implanted my offspring into women with compatible or unobtrusive quirks, creating over a hundred children. You were one of them."
"Why?!" Izuku demanded. "Why would you do a thing like that?!"
"To create useful quirks," All for One explained. "Many of your half-siblings had quirks that were
redundant to my own, and hence useless to me, so I let them keep their abilities. Jin and Himiko were among these, and what good fortune that they grew into useful game pieces in their own right. Some of my children, however, had abilities that were useful to me, so I farmed those quirks for my own use and Dr. Garaki diagnosed them as quirkless."
"You mean that I had a quirk?" Izuku realized in horror. "You took it from me?"
"No," All for One admitted. "You really were quirkless. I'm a first generation quirk user, so it was a greater risk for me. Several of my children were born without quirks, including you. I'm impressed that you managed to claw your way back into relevance though. Most of your quirkless siblings are dead."
"You're lying!" Izuku insisted, shaking his head. "That can't be true!"
"Can't it?" All for One pressed. "Tell me, what did your mother tell you of how you came to be? Who do you think your father is?"
With a sick feeling in his stomach Izuku thought back on every conversation he and his mother had ever had about his father. He remembered her evasiveness, the vagueness of her information, how quickly she changed the subject. His lack of any memories. The absence of any pictures. Suddenly new information came to mind: how she had no friends, how she wasn't close with her family, how she was smart but had no education even though she had to work to support herself. How she worked so hard to support her son, the only meaningful relationship she had.
"You bastard," Izuku whispered. "How could you do that to her?" "She was useful," All for One shrugged. "So I used her."
"You bastard!" Izuku repeated, pushing himself to his feet so he could square off against All for One. "You ruined her life! So many other lives! You don't even care!"
"They were weak, and I was strong," All for One stated, like a fact, like a truth. "That's how the world should work."
Izuku screamed in rage and ran at All for One. He jumped from one pile of rubble to another, pushing off anything that looked stable to build up speed and pulling out his force lance as he went. He had no plan, no thought in his head other than doing as much damage to his enemy as possible with everything he had. The fury inside him demanded action, as immediate and brutal as possible.
All for One caught him, easy as breathing, stopping him in his tracks with a hand to his chest that knocked the breath out of him. Large fingers closed around his neck, holding him still at arm's length. Izuku screamed again and dug his force lance into All for One's wrist, activating the taser without a care that it would shock him too. Barely a jolt had gone through him when All for One grabbed the weapon with his free hand and yanked it out of Izuku's grip. The anti-disarming feature sparked and crackled, but it seemed to do nothing to him, and when it eventually stopped sputtering All for One tossed it carelessly aside.
"Attacking me with toys now?" All for One tisked as Izuku thrashed in his hold. "If you're not going to use One for All to its fullest potential, I might as well take it from you."
All for One put the hand that had held the force lance to Izuku's face, cupping his cheek like a sick parody of a caress. Izuku went still, trembling and barely holding back tears. There was nothing he could do to hurt this monster. He wasn't strong enough.
"Such a shame you couldn't do anything in the end," All for One said, and peeking through the
remains of the helmet Izuku thought he saw a flash of teeth as All for One smiled. "All you managed to do was serve my final moment of triumph. One more nail in All Might's coffin, along with all the rest."
Izuku grit his teeth and glared up at All for One. He couldn't hurt the villain physically, but there was one thing he could do.
"Before you take my quirk and kill me," he ground out, "there's something you should know." "Oh?" All for One prompted indulgently.
Izuku smiled savagely. "I'm not number nine."
All for One paused, his eyeless face somehow conveying bemusement. "What?"
"You guessed wrong!" Izuku informed him gleefully. "I'm not the successor! We tricked you, and you fell for it: hook, line and sinker!"
All for One said nothing, stunned into silence, and Izuku let out a hysterical little laugh.
"I'm just the decoy!" he said between giggles. "The real successor is long gone by now! While you were focusing on me, she got away!"
He might as well leave Toogata something, if he was about to die. One final piece of protection. "You're bluffing," All for One accused.
"See for yourself," Izuku challenged. "Just try and take my quirk! There's nothing there, just empty space and junk DNA!"
"Why?!" All for One demanded. "Why would you agree to that?! Why be their dupe if you knew I would kill you in the end?!"
"To prove that I could," Izuku spat, "and that's not all. Your whole plan with Tomura Shigaraki? How you planned to reveal to All Might that he was really Tenko Shimura? I figured it all out, and I told All Might myself. You don't get the pleasure of your grand reveal. He already knows!"
"You impudent brat!" All for One shouted, grip tightentening on Izuku's throat, shifting the hand on his cheek to grip Izuku's hair and tilt his head back. "How dare you take away my victory! I should have killed you when you were a worthless toddler!"
"You really should have," Izuku agreed carelessly. "Too bad I grew up smarter than you, Pops."
All for One released Izuku's hair and drew back his hand, but didn't drop him just yet. Instead he paused, breathing hard, examining Izuku with whatever senses he had left and whatever quirks made up for his missing eyes. Then he placed his hand back on Izuku's face, the palm covering Izuku's right eye. Dimly, distantly, Izuku was glad that the heart was still visible.
"You think you're so clever, don't you?" All for One asked venomously. "Let's try something new then. Usually the Nomu are all but braindead by the time I've shoved three quirks into their bodies."
The grip on Izuku's face tightened, the fingers digging into his skin, the places they were connected starting to tingle ominously.
"Let's start you off with five," All for One said, and then there was a powerful jolt.
Izuku stood in darkness.
There was no light whatsoever, not even a faint shaft from an open window or the twinkling of distant stars. There was nothing around him he could see, and he could have been surrounded by objects or empty space with no idea which it was. He had no way of telling if his eyes were open or closed, and the blackness pressed on him like it was trying to get inside his skin. He held up a hand, and he couldn't even see his fingers in front of his nose.
Then suddenly he could. It might have just been his eyes adjusting, but he could see his thin fingers, pale against the darkness around him. He looked down at himself, and found he was wearing his school uniform. If his eyes were adjusting though, there had to be some kind of light, and he turned slowly, looking for its source. Once he was facing the opposite direction he saw it: a faint golden glow in the distance, giving off tiny yellow sparks.
He took a step toward it, and found that the action was difficult. There didn't seem to be anything in his path, his foot hadn't hit anything, but it took a great deal of effort to move forward. It was as if something was pushing him back, a force emanating from the light, like two magnets of the same pole pushing each other apart. There was nowhere else to go though, so he took another step.
Over and over he put one foot in front of the other, but after what felt like several minutes the light didn't seem any closer. He felt like he was moving, but he wasn't making any progress. The light pushed on his eyes just as the darkness had, and faint though it was it left and impression that he could see when he closed them.
He opened his eyes again, and there was someone standing in front of him.
It was a boy about his own age, perhaps a little bit older, with dark blue eyes and lighter blue hair that flickered and waved like flames or mist. He was wearing clothes that could only have been a hero uniform, very Japanese in design but not something anyone would wear normally, with a western aviator jacket thrown over it. A gord hung at his waist, there was a bandage across his nose, and on his head was a pair of goggles. He was smiling, as though he were delighted to see Izuku.
"Heya!" he said, voice high and boisterous. "Nice to finally meet you, Midoriya!"
"Who are you?" Izuku asked. The words sounded rude to his ears, but he had the feeling they wouldn't be received as such.
"I'm Oboro Shirakumo," the boy said, not offended in the slightest. "Some people call me Loud Cloud. I'm a big fan of yours!"
"A fan?" Izuku repeated, confused.
"Yeah!" Shirakumo said excitedly. "Sorry we had to meet in a place like this!"
"What is this place?" Izuku asked, looking around. The only feature he could see was the golden light, but he got the feeling there was nothing else here, just empty space.
"This?" Shirakumo gestured vaguely. "This is a kind of in-between space. Somewhere we can talk."
Dimly Izuku remembered the battle he had been fighting moments ago. "Am I dead?"
"No," Shirakumo laughed. "This isn't the afterlife. It's a bridge between your mind and the mind of All for One. The only things that exist here are things and people that reside within one of you."
"How does a person reside within another person?" Izuku wondered.
Shirakumo's smile turned sad. "Well, when you kill someone, a part of them sticks to you. I'm just a piece of Oboro Shirakumo really. The rest of me is somewhere else."
"I'm sorry," Izuku said quietly.
"Don't worry about it," Shirakumo said, smile widening again. "With you here I have hope! Will you help me, Midoriya?"
"I'll do whatever I can," Izuku promised. "Although I'm not sure what I can do for you."
"You know some friends of mine," Shirakumo explained patiently. "Shouta and Hizashi. You know them as Eraserhead and Present Mic."
"Shirakumo!" Izuku realized, eyes going wide. "I remember now! Mic told me about you, you're his friend from school! The one that was like Shouto!"
"That's me!" Shirakumo said, beaming. "Or, well, the person I used to be. I'm kind of a shadow of my former self."
"How can I help you?" Izuku asked.
"You can get back to my friends and tell them where I am," Shirakumo told him. "The rest of me, the part that isn't here."
"Where is it?" Izuku wondered.
Shirakumo looked sad again. "Inside Kurogiri." "What?!" Izuku demanded.
"Kurogiri is a Nomu," Shirakumo explained. "His quirk, Warp Gate, is a combination of my quirk, Cloud, and an individual teleportation quirk. I'm Dr. Garaki's greatest masterpiece, a Nomu that can think. The personality they programmed Kurogiri with isn't mine, but I am still in there. Somewhere."
"Can you be saved?" Izuku asked gently.
"I don't know," Shirakumo admitted. "But my friends can at least try. And if not, they can put what's left of me to rest."
"I'll tell them," Izuku assured him, nodding meaningfully.
Shirakumo glanced behind himself at the light, then winced. "If you're gonna do this, you're gonna need to protect your eyes. Here-"
He reached up and pulled off the goggles around his head. With slow, cautious movement he wrapped the strap of them around the back of Izuku's head, then settled them over his eyes. The goggles were very solid, for something that belonged to a ghost. Maybe Shirakumo was realer than he thought.
"Thank you," Izuku said, once he was looking at Shirakumo through the goggles.
"No problem," Shirakumo said with a smile, then seemed to remember something. "Oh, and one more thing? Use both hands!"
"What?" Izuku asked, not sure he had heard right, but he blinked and then Shirakumo was gone.
Izuku set off again towards the golden light. It was easier to focus on it now with the goggles. Even though they weren't tinted, they did seem to be protecting him. The force pushing him back was stronger now, more persistent, but he pushed determinedly onwards. The golden light was definitely getting brighter, and as he got closer his resolve grew. He was going to reach the light. He had to, if he was going to keep his promise.
Abruptly the light pulsed, and the resistance he was fighting against redoubled. Izuku actually slid back a few inches before he braced himself. He lifted his foot to take another step, but he couldn't make his leg reach forward. He closed his eyes, gritting his teeth with effort, but it was no good. He wasn't strong enough.
Izuku opened his eyes, to find a woman standing in front of him. Suddenly he found he could stand more easily, as though she were shielding him from the repelling force with her body. She was obviously a hero, wearing a black bodysuit and a white cape, and standing with such a determined stance. More importantly though, Izuku knew her face.
"Nana Shimura," he breathed.
"I see my reputation precedes me," she said with a smile. "Nice to meet you too, Izuku Midoriya."
"Thanks for giving me a break." Izuku peered around her to get a look at his destination. "It's gonna be hard to reach that light, isn't it?"
"Nothing worth doing is easy," Shimura told him.
"I don't know if I can do it," Izuku confessed. "I don't have my weapon, or a quirk to help me."
"I'm surprised you don't have One for All," Shimura said with a raised eyebrow. "I thought for sure Toshinori would give it to another quirkless kid."
"He offered it to me," Izuku assured her. "I said no. I wanted to be a hero for quirkless people, so he gave it to someone else."
Shimura threw back her head and laughed. "You're crazy!" she cried between peals of laughter. "I love it! You remind me of Toshinori when I first met him!"
"Do I?" Izuku asked, feeling a smile spreading over his own face. Shimura's laughter was infectious. "I guess it is kind of crazy-"
"It's the best kind of crazy!" Shimura shouted, spreading her arms wide. "It's just crazy enough to work!"
Izuku laughed. "If you say so."
Shimura put her hands on her hips and looked down at Izuku fondly. "What do you think of my choice?" she wondered. "Toshinori had an impossible dream as a kid. No one thought he could do it. I wasn't even sure myself, but he sure proved me wrong."
"He's the Symbol of Peace," Izuku told her. "Just like he wanted to be."
"Yeah," Shimura said, eyes misty with pleasant nostalgia. "I'm proud of him, and everything he's accomplished. I didn't say it enough, while I was still around."
"I think he knows," Izuku said, then paused. "Well, he did know, before he found out about your grandson."
"I don't blame him for that," Shimura said gently. "He was only keeping his promise to me. I thought I knew best, but All for One was smarter and more twisted than I thought he'd be."
"All Might feels responsible," Izuku told her. "I'm afraid that's my fault. I was the one who insisted we tell him."
"You took a weapon against Toshinori out of All for One's hands," Shimura corrected. "You made sure Toshinori knows who Tenko is, so maybe he can save my grandson. Seems to me what you did only helped things."
"It doesn't feel like it," Izuku admitted.
Shimura put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm proud of you," she said firmly. "I'm proud of Toshinori too. You'll tell him for me, won't you?"
"Of course," Izuku said, nodding.
"You're going to make a great hero someday," Shimura told him, then straightened. "But a hero needs a cape."
Shimura's hands went to the clasp of her own cape, unfastening it and taking it off in a whirl of white fabric. Then she bent and wrapped it around Izuku's shoulders, securing it so that if fluttered behind him, like it had on her.
"I have to go now," she said sadly. "When I'm gone you'll be hit hard, but you have to keep going, alright?"
"I will," Izuku promised. "Got any advice for me?"
Shimura smiled, then put her pointer fingers to the corners of her mouth and forced them up even higher.
"Remember to smile!" she instructed, and then she was gone.
As promised, the wall of force struck Izuku like a jet from a fire hydrant, pushing him back another few inches. Despite this, he forced himself to smile, and found he had the strength to lift his foot and push it forward. He took one large step, then resolutely took another. The cape fluttering behind him somehow made it easier, as though he were cutting through a great wind with an aerodynamic vehicle. Vaguely he thought that might actually be the case, but he didn't dwell on it. He had to keep moving.
The light was much brighter now, and step by step it was getting closer. It was so bright, like a star that had fallen to Earth. Finally he found himself nearing his destination, so close that he thought he could feel the little sparks the light let off, like drops of sunlight on his skin. He tried to take another deliberate, almost painful step, and found that he could not. He reached for the light, but couldn't quite grasp it. It was just barely out of reach.
Briefly he closed his stinging eyes against the glare, and when he opened them again there was someone in front of him. It was a man, young but skinny and frail, like he had been sick for a long
time. His presence offered no protection, as if he were too weak to hold off the pressure pushing Izuku back. He wore plain clothes, almost like hospital scrubs, but they were too short at the wrists and ankles, like his thinness made him wear a size too small. He had white hair the hung down around his face, and looked like it should be obscuring his vision.
Then he tilted his head up, and Izuku looked into the kindest eyes he had ever seen. "Hello little nephew," he said softly.
"You're him," Izuku realized, eyes wide. "All for One's younger brother. The first wielder of One for All."
"Please, call me Uncle," the man said. "We are family after all. Admittedly family isn't always blood, and blood isn't always family, but I'd like to claim kinship with you, Izuku."
"Yeah, because I'm All for One's son," Izuku recalled helplessly, feeling dizzy. "Still trying to wrap my brain around that by the way."
"Me too," the man -- his Uncle? -- laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry about him, I really did mean to have him dealt with by now."
"We're working on it," Izuku said with a weak smile.
"You certainly are!" his Uncle said, smiling wide and open. "You're almost there, you only need to make it a little bit further. Can you do that, Izuku?"
"I'll try," Izuku told him uncertainly. "But, I don't have your quirk. I'm not the one who's supposed to defeat him."
"Don't worry so much about supposed to," his Uncle instructed. "I was supposed to be a useless weakling because I didn't have a quirk, but my defiance against my brother created the greatest hero the world has ever seen! Eventually, I mean."
Izuku nodded, then frowned as he considered his Uncle's words. "But, you had a quirk, didn't you? The one that combined with Stockpile to create One for All?"
"Is that what they're saying now?" his Uncle grinned in amusement. "Not the most inspiring of bedtime stories for my little quirkless nephew, was it?"
"Not really," Izuku admitted. "But that's why I want to be a quirkless hero, so there are stories to inspire quirkless kids."
"Oh?" his Uncle said, then leaned in and began to whisper like he was sharing a secret. "Well, here's a story to inspire you. That story about me having a quirk that let me pass on quirks? It's made up. I really was quirkless!"
"Really?!" Izuku demanded. "But then, why did All Might lie?"
"He was lied to," his Uncle dismissed the idea with a wave of his hand. "My brother really went out of his way to convince people I had a quirk all along. He can't conceive of power coming any other way."
"But then, how did Stockpile become One for All?" Izuku wondered. "If it didn't bond with another quirk, what happened?"
"I can't explain everything," his Uncle said apologetically, "but remember this. All for One and One for All are more complicated than anyone thinks. I doubt anyone really understands them, and I don't think anyone should. Not even you, little Izuku."
"I want to understand though," Izuku protested. "I want to help!"
"You want to help, huh?" his Uncle asked, and when Izuku nodded he went on. "Then remember this. Quirks aren't the only thing that matter, and with a strong heart like yours, a door once opened can be stepped through in either direction."
"How do you know my heart is strong enough?" Izuku asked anxiously.
His Uncle smiled. "Because you wear it on your sleeve."
He placed a hand on Izuku's shoulder, then bent down and pecked a kiss to his cheek, just below the corner of his left eye. Izuku closed his eyes, feeling soft hair tickle his face. He wanted to say something, but he didn't know what to say.
"Remember, I love you," whispered his Uncle.
"I love you too!" Izuku said hurriedly, but when he opened his eyes he was alone. Izuku took a breath, grit his teeth, and moved forward.
The light was right in front of him now, just a few more steps and he would be close enough to reach it. Walking forward was painful, like the repelling force was tearing at his flesh, but he kept going. Every step was a test of his resolve, but he held fast, refusing to give up. He could only move forward by a few inches at a time, but he took his progress centimeter by centimeter. Then, after what felt like ages, the light was within arm's reach.
Remembering Shirakumo's advice, he reached out with both hands. The goggles were better protection now, almost like they were his own mirrored sunglasses.
Remembering what Shimura had told him, he forced his face into a triumphant smile. Her cape had made it easier to walk forward, but now it wrapped around him like armor, as sturdy as his leather jacket.
Remembering what his Uncle had said, he pushed his hands through the resistance, through the sparks that burned his skin and the pressure that stole his breath, and remembered that he could do this. The place where the kiss had been tingled, like the heart that adorned the cheek of his herosona.
His hands closed on the light.
It was burning hot, vibrating at a terrible speed, almost impossible to hold onto. It was as if it were a living thing trying to escape his grasp. He held on tight with both hands, gritting his teeth in a rictus grin, and tightened his grip on the light. He knew he couldn't hold onto it forever, he had to find some way to make it stop resisting, but he didn't know how to calm it down. Something inside him said that the light would never listen to him, not until he could make it his own. Not until he could take it into himself.
Izuku shoved the light into his mouth and swallowed.
Izuku opened his eyes. He was standing in the wreckage of the Nomu factory. All for One's hand was still around his throat, but his feet were on the ground. The hand on his face still gripped him tight, but somewhere along the way Izuku had raised his arms and wrapped his fingers around All for One's exposed wrist.
Where his hand touched, the skin sagged and wrinkled. Liver spots crawled up the arm, the flesh withering and turning soft in a wave. All for One yelped and released him, but Izuku kept his feet, continuing to watch as All for One aged rapidly before his eyes.
"What did you do?!" the villain howled, clawing at his own face as it too succumbed to old age in a matter of seconds. "You selfish brat, what did you-"
He choked, and suddenly his knees buckled, sending him sprawling onto the ground. His body convulsed a few times, the movement swiftly devolving into weak twitches. Then All for One drew one last, gasping breath, and went still.
Izuku fell to his knees, then collapsed sideways until he lay on his back. He didn't even feel the pain of his fall, or taste the dust in his mouth as he breathed it in. The last thing he heard before he lost consciousness was the sound of approaching sirens.