The air was heavy.
How could it not be with what had happened recently?
No one in the room dared to break the tension, worried that the silent beast sitting next to them would hurt them.
"We… we need to talk about what happened." All Might bit the bullet.
Sitting together in a large quiet office were most of the heroes that were present as guards for what was supposed to be the sports festival sitting around a table. All of them had a dark look over their faces, most of them were intact, only Endeavor and Mountain Lady with a few bandages while Midnight was still in the hospital.
Aizawa and Hizashi were both with Midnight while Nezu was… doing something, with UA gone they weren't sure about what that rat had in mind.
Then there were the two visitors.
A shifting and clearly uncomfortable Himiko and a silent glaring Inko.
"What is there to talk about?" Endeavor barked "That villain already confessed to everything, instead of hiding here we should be out there going after that- Ugh!" The hero suddenly stopped as he held his side, a terrible pain making him fold like a chair.
Everyone carefully looked at Inko who simply had a finger raised.
"My son is no villain Endeavor and I would prefer it if you didn't call him that" her voice was cold and sharp as a knife as she let go of the man's kidney with her quirk, a slight warning on her part.
All Might cleared his throat so as to bring the attention back to him worried for his fellow hero, after all hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
"Yes, Young Midoriya has expressed some… outlandish claims but had the evidence to back them so I am obligated to ask…" All Might looked directly at the mother "Is your husband truly All For One?"
Silence reigned once more as everyone kept their eyes on the two of them.
Inko sighed, a dejected look on her face.
"I am not sure" she explained "I did think Hisashi was an extravagant man when we first met but nothing he did made me think he was a villain, no less the worst of them all"
"And now, I haven't even seen or heard of him for more than fifteen years so if it wasn't for the money he sent us, I would have thought he was dead."
"So you didn't know" summarizes Snipe and Inko nods.
"I… I really don't know what we can do with this" Ectoplasm said "UA is gone, Midoriya is somewhere out there and the people are split, this is a situation like no other."
"Let's pretend that the whole 'Being AFO's kid' is a lie, he still attacked a public event, put in danger the life of a hero and even stated that he will cause more damage," Cementoss explained "the kid is already a world class criminal with just that alone."
Everyone fell silent. A storm brewing inside their minds as they tried to think about how to deal with the situation.
"Izuku isn't- he wouldn't…" the heroes looked at the tongue-tight girl with pity. "My brother wouldn't do this. Something must have happened, someone must be doing something to him, he-"
"Himiko" All Might stopped her, pain clear in her eyes "I know this situation is hard for you, it's hard on all of us, but Midoriya has thrown the glove, now it's our turn to answer."
Himiko could only grit her teeth "No, he wouldn't, he isn't a villain!" Her words were shaky, hands curled into tight fists from anger, she couldn't believe that these heroes were talking about her brother like this.
"Dear, it's okay" her mother tried to calm her down, a hand gently placed on her trembling shoulder "We'll find a way to help Izuku and-"
"You don't get it!" She snapped, pushing the hand away and standing up, warm angry tears in her eyes "I promised him that I would protect him! that I wouldn't let this happen!" Her voice bounced around the four walls of the room.
"Himiko, what do you-"
"He's the kindest person I've ever met! He's my hero and my brother," Himiko's eyes glowed gold as her throat burned "so I'm not going to sit here and listen to you talk about him like this! If you're not going to do anything then I will!" The girl then stormed out of the room, All Might and Inko standing up ready to go after her-
Ring Ring
The sound of a phone freezes everyone and they look at the source.
Inko's bag.
She grabbed it only intending to reject the call, but at the sight of the name, her hands froze.
"It's…" she hesitated. "It's Hisashi."
Everyone looked at eachother, panic clear in their faces until Toshinori raised a hand and nodded.
Inko, with shaky fingers, answered the call.
Tomura was screaming something but he didn't hear him, his mind was somewhere else entirely.
For the first time in years, Hisashi was stumped.
He had been listening to UA's obnoxious festival hoping to find a clue on who All Might could have given his quirk to or even find this Glitch character Tomura had raved about for days.
Instead, he is slapped in the face by the reveal that his son is in UA, then a second hit came with the fact that apparently he had a quirk now (multiple of them apparently) and as to finish him off, his son announced both his partnership with him and it's sudden break up while taking the family name with him, all in the span of a few minutes.
"-him! That's Glitch, but what does he mean!? We had a mole in UA!? Since when??? Why did-"
"Silence" his voice cut Tomura's mad rambling "just… just continue with the plan, I'll take care of this."
"But Sensei-"
"I have given you an order Tomura, " AFO spoke, his voice cold. " you will follow it."
Shigaraki flinched and reluctantly nodded as the video cut off.
Hisashi took a deep breath, there was only one thing to do but he wasn't sure if he was strong enough to do it.
Slowly, he pulled to him the phone in his room and by heart dialed a number he hasn't called in years.
The phone rang once.
Twice.
Thrice.
And he was scared that she wouldn't answer.
(Scared.)
(It's fitting that his wife is the one to remind him how that feels.)
The call goes through.
…
Silence comes from both sides, each of the adults waiting for the other to start.
"I-Inko…" he swings and misses as his words get caught in his throat.
"Hisashi" she coldy greets him back, which, he will admit, deserves.
"Have you… watched the uh, news lately?" What is wrong with him?
"Everyone on the planet has seen the news dear" she jabs back "so, do you have something to say?"
Okay, so she is angry and she is in all of her right to be, this news would rattle even the greatest of saints, so what does he do?
"I can hear you think from over here, don't even try lying because so help me god I will find you myself and drag you all the way here to explain." It may sound like an empty threat but for Hisashi, it was a very real and dangerous promise.
She could very easily steal the declaration of independence of she so put her mind to it.
"..." He didn't want to answer, god, he wishes he could just lie. Tell her that it's fine, that it's a misunderstanding, to reassure her.
But he can't.
Even through her anger, he can still hear the motherly worry she had for their son.
His facade had been suddenly smashed to pieces by his son and it had left him vulnerable, floundering around like a fish.
"... I'm sorry"
And that was all he could say.
"You…" He could hear how she grinded her teeth "what did you do?"
"I didn't do anything, I have no clue how Izuku even found out about me." He attempted to explain himself but Inko's anger was a bright fire that wouldn't be put out easily.
"But he does, and he even has your quirk, so congratulations, you always said how you wanted him to be more like you!"
"This isn't what I wanted!"
"Well this is now! Whatever it is that you are doing as the legendary boogie man has placed both of our children in extreme danger!"
"I- wait, did you say children? As in plural?" Last time he checked, he only had Izuku, although that was when he was born so it's not a good measure.
Inko huffed "Yes, plural, we have a daughter. I told you this in my voicemails."
"..."
"Have you not been listening to my voicemails!?"
He quickly checked and- Good god!
"You have 4858 missed messages"
"God, I did not know it could count that high."
"I've been calling you almost daily and you've never heard a single one of them!?" Inko barked at him.
"I've been busy!"
"Busy controlling the underworld I bet!"
"This is getting us nowhere" Hisashi huffed, trying to bring the conversation back "I… I'm sorry." He apologized, it's all he could do now. "I didn't want any of this, I wanted so badly to be a family with you and Izuku but that bastard All Might ruined it all."
"I just… I wish things didn't have to be like this." When was the last time he was this vulnerable? When was it that he had last thought about his family? When did he lose himself? "We could have been happy…"
With the truth now in the air none of them spoke, so much happened and if it was in any other situation they could have been able to sit down and talk but it was hard coming to terms with something like this.
"We interrupt this scheduled program to inform you of urgent news about Remnant"
The sudden news broadcast caught everyone off guard and at the same time, while in the completely opposite sides of the city, mother and father let out a heavy sigh.
"Izuku, no."
Tartarus is a lot bigger than Izuku imagined. He never really got the chance to see it in person before it was torn apart and knowing that it had even more levels underneath the ground only made it that more of an impressive prison.
Sadly for them, Izuku is here for someone and their little guns are not going to stop him.
"Again, we could be saving so much time if we just blew the place up" his father unhelpfully added.
"For the last time, we aren't blowing the max security prison open!" First answered.
"Oh come on, it's a good plan, I did it and it worked perfectly!"
Izuku ignored the two bickering brothers and focused on the prison. The front door was a thick metal door, guarding it were a platoon worth of guards, some holding guns while others had their hands free most likely people whose quirks are better than weapons.
"Do we have any stealth quirks?" He asked AFO.
His copy mimicked flipping through a book "Hmm, sadly we don't, neither do we have any appearance changing ones, best we have is Smokescreen"
That complicates things, he can't use too much of his strength since he doesn't want to actually break the place and let the people inside out but if he doesn't deal with the guards then his way in and out will be even more troublesome.
"Guess there's only one thing left to do" Standing up from his crouching position, he stretched his back and wiggled his legs.
"And that would be?" Nana asked with a raised eyebrow.
Izuku, now that he had fully connected with his rebellious quirk, had the knowledge of at least two hundred years so the exact word he needed, one lost to the sands of time, came to him instantly as sparks began flying off him.
"I'm going to speedrun this shit."
…
At the front gate of Tartarus, two guards stood together, one was an old man while the other a younger man.
"Hey," the young man began, "what do you… think about Remnant?"
The old man shivered, just the name of the new villain sent a shiver down his skin, the raw strength he had shown was terrifying. "Why the question?"
"Just… wondering." the young man confesses "What he said, what if… what if he's right?"
"All the bad guys think they're right." the old man shook his head.
"Well it's just, don't we also have some heroes in here too?" the young one continued "Doesn't that mean he's partially right? that even heroes can do wrong? Who's to say that even villains can't be good?"
"Let's… let's not talk about that anymore"
"S-sorry."
The old man stopped him not because he thought he was wrong but because his own thoughts had begun to go the same way, his own ideas of the world were challenged and his position did give him a slight glimpse into the other side of the world, something that he had been trying to ignore.
The thick mist of the night rolled around their ankles and began making it hard to see, it was becoming so thick that one might even call it smoke.
…
…
Wait a second, they are in the middle of the city, how is there-
"All Units, we have an unknown approaching at our six" the message that came through their radios put all of them on edge as they turned to look.
A dark figure slowly walked towards them, the strange smoke following behind them as if they were bringing it. All the soldiers pointed their guns at them and the quirk users got into position.
"Identify yourself, this is your first warning!!"
The figure stopped and so did the mist, except it didn't stop growing.
Like the waves in the ocean pulling back, the smoke only grew more and more in size behind the stranger as if held back by an invisible wall.
"Stop your quirk and identify yourself, last warning!"
Slowly, the stranger raised their hand, the light of the moon making something silver shined on it, and the smoke became more agitated as if excited.
"S-sir.." the young guard stuttered as his hand trembled "I- I know who that is…"
"What?" Only then did the old man notice the boy's eyes shining gold, he had forgotten about his coworker's quirk, it was simply night vision but out of everyone he would be one of the few that could easily see the stranger "Who is it?"
"It's… its…"
"Spit it out lad!"
The stranger closed his hand.
"It's Remnant."
All the smoke surged forward and the soldiers fired, their bullets flying and becoming lost in the thick smoke that rushed in to cover them from head to toe. Orders were coming through the radio on their uniform but with their sight completely lost they soon fell into disarray.
As if it wasn't enough, through the smoke sometimes they could see a faint green light that was soon followed by a scream, the guards all turned to try and find their assailant but it was useless as every second another one of them was taken by something into the smoke.
The old guard had no time to react as two glowing green orbs took over his view and the feeling of a hand on his chest, the next second pain bloomed over his back as Remnant had easily pinned him to the ground and knocked him out.
With now all of them out of the way, the guards were unable to stop the villain from reaching the door and sinking his fingers into ten inches of metal that he easily moved to the side like paper.
…
You know those old, forgotten games that were about running through a bunch of obstacles while collecting coins? that would paint a clear picture of how Izuku is dealing with the small corridors of the prison.
The metal under his shoes skidded across the floor as he turned another corner and he dashed forward, three more guards in front of him.
They fired their guns but Izuku simply jumped onto the wall and bounced onto one of the guards chest, sending them flying down the hall and using Blackwhip to easily deal with the last two before disappearing in a flash.
He needed to make this quick since while he could deal with these guards it would be annoying having to deal with a whole army of heroes while trying to get Nagant out of this place, to his luck she was being kept in the fourth underground floor so he still had a bit more to go.
Any of the villains that saw him take down the guards tried calling out to him to get them out of here but Izuku didn't even give them a glance, he didn't need to get any souvenirs.
The further down he went, the better equipped the guards were, now he was looking at two guards with riot gear and one of them had his hands covered in electricity.
"Wonder how much these guys are paid to work here." Hisashi wondered as he watched Izuku break one of their helmets with a punch.
"To guard the supposedly worst of the worst must be a very well paid job, I don't see anyone doing that without a good nine or even ten digit paycheck" Third answered.
"Well they can use that money to pay for their hospital villains after this." Second added as he glanced at the guy Izuku had made into abstract art on the wall.
Taking a shortcut, Izuku jumped between the space in the stairwell, surprising the guards that were rushing up them. Only a little more and he would reach her.
He jumped and flipped in the air to land on his hands and used Overhaul to create multiple walls of stone to gain more time from his pursuers, they could break them down but it would take them more than a couple of hours.
He only slowed down as he reached a particular metal door, to its side he could see a hand reader that could most likely only recognize some of the people of higher grade in this prison, definitely a pain to get through.
Izuku used Overhaul and made the door fall apart.
"What the fuck!?" a tall woman with short purple and pink hair cursed as she was startled by his sudden appearance.
"Hello Miss Tsutsumi, came in for a little visit!" he happily greeted her as she looked at him with bewilderment.
"Who- What- Why-" Seeing an unknown child destroy her cell door was a big shock for her and it didn't help that he was acting like they were old friends.
"That's a lot of questions but sadly we don't really have the time for answers" He looked at the trembling wall that he had built, looks like they are really excited to get him, he walked into her cell and she immediately reacted by jumping onto her feet and she gave him a cold and sharp glare, he had no doubt that even with those thick quirk-restraining cuffs she could easily defend herself.
But he's something else entirely.
Before she could blink, he had his hands around the cuffs and with a touch turned them into scrap, again catching her off guard.
"There we go, those must have been really uncomfortable, right?" he smiled at her, amused at her own confusion as she rubbed her sore wrists.
"You, who are you?"
"Right, you guys don't have any connection to the outside, then I'll make it quick" Izuku turned around as the wall he had made finally fell apart and the guards began to rush at them, red glowing lines began to cover his body and ominous green and black sparks jumped off him as he calmly faced the army of guards.
"My name is Izuku Shigaraki but my friends call me Remnant."
Izuku disappeared in a green blur before a guard was suddenly punched into the ground, another was consumed by blue flames and another three turned into a human skewer by a black tentacle.
Kaina could only watch as all the guards were torn apart by what seemed to be an invisible force, the boy moved at an incredible speed that if it wasn't because of her trained eye she wouldn't even be able to see his afterimage.
Before she knew it, it was over and she and a blood covered Izuku were the only ones left in the hallway, he continued to smile at her even as he stretched out a bloody hand.
"I am the son of All For One, and you are the treacherous hero- The lovely Lady Nagant. It's an honor to meet you."
"All For One…" She looked at the red scene before her and recalled the multiple quirks the boy had used. He might not be lying. "There was a time when he was my target." she tested the waters, unsure of what this boy wanted with her.
"Too bad you couldn't get him, it would have made my life easier." the boy lamented. "But that's nor here or now, I wanted to talk to you about a proposal I had"
"I know what it is that you want." his red pupils dug into her as if they already knew her secrets "You've killed heroes all on orders of the then-President of the Public Safety Commission, and then, when you reached your breaking point you killed him in return."
She couldn't stop her eyes from widening, she knew that they had changed the public story and that even if the truth got out after so long it would have been twisted until a thousand different versions existed and yet, this boy managed to get it down to a T.
"You were used as an example so that heroes wouldn't disobey them." A wild smile spread across his face "We share a similar goal, you seek the downfall of hero society but you can't do it alone, so that is where I come in."
"Come with me, and I promise you that we'll deal a death blow to those arrogant heroes." she looked at his hand, if she took it she was sure that in some way she would be selling her soul to the devil, but she had already made that deal with the HPSC so another one wouldn't mean anything.
She took his hand, ignoring the familiar feeling of sticky blood on her skin or the rusty smell of it filling her nose, his smile widened. "I hope you know my services don't come cheap."
"Oh don't worry, I have more than enough to pay you, but first…" Izuku looked at the claustrophobic prison "we'll have to get out of here."
Taking charge he easily picked her up before dashing forward again at a breakneck speed but even so, more guards came their way so Izuk looked at Nagant.
"Think you can take care of them?"
The only answer he got was of three consecutive shots being fired over his shoulder with three guards falling down now with a hole on their heads. He chuckled at her display, perfect accuracy even at this speed, she was the right decision after all.
The duo basically flew through the passages of the prison as the deadliest moving sniper Nagant quickly took care of any guard that tried to approach them with a single shot while Izuku focused on dodging and moving forward, it was a spectacle to die for.
Bursting right back out from the hole he had made, Izuku was glad to see that the people he had knocked out were still on the ground, the bad news were the multiple helicopters above them and the nearing police sirens which no doubt were being followed by heroes.
Kaina clicked her tongue at the bright light "Are we running or taking them down?"
"Let them watch, they need to know who to fear, who to call the bad guy" his words confused him but she couldn't ask any further as he began to run on the air.
The helicopters tried to keep chasing but Izuku's speed easily outmatched them so it wasn't long before they lost them and landed on a nearby rooftop where two figures were waiting.
Kaina immediately pointed her rifle at the suit wearing animal and hobo but Izuku raised a hand "Settle down Kaina, they are with me." with one last glare she pulled her rifle back.
"Looks like you did it." the white rat said while looking at Lady Nagant, Izuku gave him a cocky smile "Were you doubting me?"
"Of course not, I was just surprised at how fast it was."
"She's still glaring at us, are you not going to introduce us?" Aizawa interjected.
"Right," Izuku turned to her once more "like I said, these two are my companions," he pointed at the tired man "this is Aizawa Shouta, otherwise known as Eraserhead"
"A hero?" she asked as her glare got even worse.
"Yes, but I'm on Izuku's side here and I already made a deal to help so I won't tell anyone about you or him." Aizawa explained but he could still feel the animosity from the woman.
Izuku continued trying to change the mood "And this here is Nezu, he is the smartest person alive and was the director of UA."
Kaina knew about UA, when she was younger she had wanted to join like any other kid but 'was'? why in the past?
Izuku could seemingly read the confusion on her face as he signaled Aizawa and the hero pulled out his phone and passed it over to her as an old news broadcast played, her eyes widened in surprise at the reveal of the young villain and the subsequent explosion of what might be a pillar of society.
This showed her that he was serious about taking the heroes down but there was something there that she wanted to ask "You not only mentioned heroes, but villains too, are you really planning to take both sides on?"
Izuku smiled as he took the phone back. "Sure am, after all, no side is truly on the right, both have their pros and cons but neither will give me the ending I want." his eyes turned sharp "So I'll burn my own path and I won't stop no matter what."
Nagant fell silent, she could clearly hear the unbreakable determination in his voice and after what he had shown her in the short amount of time that they had met, she had a feeling that he might actually be able to do it.
"And what happens if I refuse?" she asked, she was out of that prison,something that was thought impossible, she had a new chance.
"Nothing, you could walk away and live your new life." Izuku simply shrugged "But, if we meet each other again and you try to stop me, now that is another story." She knew a threat when she heard one.
She stayed quiet for a while, deliberating on her options.
Before a chuckle escaped her lips
"You really are insane, but I like that." She gave him a confident smile. "I'll introduce myself properly this time. I'm Kaina Tsutsumi, the killer known as Lady Nagant, and it's great to be working with you, Remnant."
Himiko carefully dropped to the ground doing her best to make as little noise as possible as to not wake up her mom, which was hard since she had to hold onto the metallic suitcase that held her hero suit.
The moon was clear in the sky and it had long been after the bitter reunion the heroes had with her and her mom but even Inko Midoriya could not fight against a mountain worth of stress and fell asleep the second she relaxed.
But while Himiko was just as stressed, she couldn't sleep, not until she dragged that white haired idiot back home.
She gave her home one last look as she swallowed her indecision and began to walk into the city determined to go and save her brother, after all, isn't that why she had One For All?
"Where the hell do you think you're going?" a sudden voice startled her and she turned back only to be shocked by the three boys that looked at her.
"Bakugo, what are you guys doing here?" she asked as she looked at the blonde.
"What do you think, Fangs? Same shit as you" he then raised his own metal suitcase, the UA symbol on it, next to him Shinsou and Todoroki did the same. "We're all going after Izuku."
"Wha- why are you guys going after him? He's my idiotic brother." she had convinced herself that she would need to do this all on her own so this had completely caught her off guard.
"He showed me a path to escape my self imposed cage and begin to move on my own without the shackles of my family." Todoroki answered.
"He managed to save me from my abusive home while giving me a better life than I could have ever imagined for myself and even gave me a chance to prove myself as a hero, I owe him my life." Shinsou passionately said.
"And he's my idiot best friend, your excuse ain't any better." Bakugo added.
She was taken aback, these three talked about Izuku with a steel conviction and looked as if they were ready to fight for the opportunity to go after him, in a strange way she felt relieved, she was glad that her brother had managed to make such close friends.
The three were ready to answer back any objections the girl gave them as she looked at them but she gave them a grateful smile "Well, if you're that motivated, then I won't stop you but you better keep up, got it?" she turned around and began to walk.
"The one who needs to keep up is you Cat eyes." Bakugo grinned as he and the others moved next to her, the four of them moved through the night with a newly lit flame inside them, they were going to get their friend back, whether he wanted to or not.
