The day Yoichi died, it felt like the whole world should have stopped. How unimaginable presumptuous of everyone ese to continue living. All for One spent a week locked inside his mansion, trying to take his brother's quirk from his severed hand. It should have worked. He'd always been able to steal quirks from corpses before. Once Yoichi's power lived on inside of him, so would his ghost, so they could be one again. This had been All for One's plan all along (he refused to admit disintegrating his brother had been a mistake. He didn't make mistakes.)
As a child, All for One had named his brother first gift because Yoichi had been his first possession. (And he might have been confused on the kanji but he'd never admit that.) He'd given himself the name All for One because he wanted everyone to live for his sake—especially his one and only brother. Government agencies had spent millions trying to uncover his real name, but All for One was the only name he had. It was only right to him that Yoichi live for his sake since he lived for Yoichi. It seemed impossible that a brief moment of rage, a mistake with a quirk he hadn't used before, had stolen his everything from him.
All for One carried the hand everywhere: to meals, to his office while sending emails to keep his business running, even in the bathroom where it rested on a shelf. Still he could feel nothing, not the faintest spark of something to take.
Yoichi…was gone?
No, that was impossible. All for One's twin, his other half, could not possibly be gone as long as the far more powerful and important part was continued to exist. Yoichi had lived like a parasite on All for One since birth. Whatever sustained All for One, sustained his younger twin. He'd always believed that. He didn't make mistakes.
All for One took the hand to Dr. Garaki, one of the few people he trusted. The doctor ran a few tests and confirmed there was no power inside. Then, before All for One could collapse into a screaming tantrum the laboratory and the doctor would be unlikely to survive, Dr. Garaki dropped the bombshell: a spy among the vigilantes had reported their leader using a second power.
Kudou had Yoichi. That nasty little thief had proven more persistent than expected, like a fly escaping the swatter. All for One left the laboratory with a spring in his step. He finally had hope. He would take his brother's quirk from the thief, then they would be together again.
All for One blasted into the vigilante base. He didn't spot Kudou's spiky head, but no matter. Kudou would come to him. Heroes couldn't help themselves. All for One roamed down the hallways, killing everyone he could find. He used a shielding quirk to block windows and doors, preventing as many people as possible from escaping. He accepted no surrender and asked no questions. This was about sending a message. Kudou would understand more people would die every day he hid away.
Panting, standing atop a mound of corpses, a flash of white caught All for One's eye. He turned.
Yoichi stood in the doorway. He wore the same clothing as the day he'd died. One of his white sleeves fluttered in the wind, missing a hand. His eyes were as dead as a corpse.
"Little brother…" All for One hopped off the dead body staining his boots. For a brief, mad moment, he believed his brother's death had all been a cruel trick. Perhaps one of the vigilantes had an illusion power and had tricked him into thinking he'd killed his own flesh and blood. The violence must have drawn Yoichi out, here to save people as usual. All for One stretched out a hand, too careful (afraid) to use quirks this time, planning to drag his dear little brother back home.
His hand went straight through. At the shoulder where All for One had touched, Yoichi started to disintegrate.
All for One howled. "No! You can't do this again! Noooooooo!" But not a single one of his powers could prevent him from watching his brother fade away into nothing again.
All for One returned to Dr. Garaki's laboratory. Another round of tests confirmed that All for One did not have a new hidden quirk. He hadn't somehow stolen the power from the severed hand and retrieved his brother's ghost. Perhaps what he'd seen had been an enemy's quirk. Perhaps it had been a figment of his imagination, a hallucination born of guilt. The doctor clearly thought so, despite not voicing it. How odd, All for One couldn't recall ever feeling guilt before.
He did not know if he felt relieved or not. At least if the ghost had been real, then he would have seen his brother again. After that, he shut the hand away in a vault. He did not know why he no longer wanted to look at it. Maybe it was no longer good enough. Maybe because it reminded him of…the time he had not made a mistake.
Just like how All for One had learned how to use all his abilities through trial and error, he decided to experiment. Death had brought Yoichi out of hiding last time. Perhaps more bloodshed would do it again. The silly little fool had never been able to resist trying to save people, ever since they'd been children.
Late at night, All for One strode the streets, looking for trouble. He found a group of drunks walking together, and killed them all. It was easy. A blade ability took off most their heads too fast for them to react, and he used his spikes to pierce the few who managed to run. These people had done nothing to him, but those were the best kind of victims to rouse Yoichi's fury and bring him out.
No white-haired specter appeared. The experiment had been a failure. All for One shot home using a power to lend him speed. He did not fear any mere police but it would be easier to avoid trouble.
The next morning, All for One woke up to Yoichi leaning over his bed. This time, his hair had turned as stringy and greasy as in the vault. His cheeks were gaunt from starvation. Filth covered his face and clothing, such that All for One could nearly smell it. But there was no scent at all.
All for One sat up. "Dear little brother, you're as perverse as always. You never show up when I want you, only on your own schedule." He slipped into a tone of mockery by reflex, putting on the face of the demon king that he wore in front of his followers. It was a reaction to being too startled to know what to say.
Yoichi tilted his head sideways. It lolled at an unnatural angle, as if his neck was broken. His hand was still gone. He gazed at All for One with such a look of pure hatred and revulsion that it chilled his heart. Never before had Yoichi looked at All for One with hatred, not even in the vault. There had been plenty of anger, but always accompanied by pleas to mend his ways. Now Yoichi looked at All for One as if at a particularly repugnant insect. Even a hot hatred would have been better, but this was ice-cold. There was no trace of familial feeling in those diamond-hard eyes.
In spite of himself, All for One flinched away. "Why are you looking at me like that? It's not my fault! You ran off with a thief who got you killed. Everything I did was for your sake. All the power I gathered was for the sake of protecting you. I looked after you when we were children, offered you the best of the food and clothing. I saved you from the river. You'd have died just seconds after you were born without me."
In the past, this speech had always made Yoichi feel guilty. Not enough to shut the fool up, but he would look downcast and beg his brother to share a little of that compassion with other people. This time, Yoichi snickered. It was a completely silent sound, but the laughter could clearly be seen on his face and in his shaking shoulders. Gleeful, malicious scorn filled his gaze.
All for One hated the most in the world to be ignored, but being mocked was a close second. He sprang to his feet, shouting, "Stop that! Talk to me! Go away if you won't talk to me!" He couldn't even tell if Yoichi was listening to him or ignoring him. Being ignored was especially infuriating coming from his pathetic little brother. He punched the ghost.
As contrary as always, Yoichi refused to vanish at a touch this time. The fist went straight through him, and he laughed even harder, mocking the futile efforts.
All for One stormed out of the room and slammed the door. The ghost did not follow him. He did not know how to feel about that. Even now his possessiveness craved a ghost as better than nothing—but that thing wasn't the real Yoichi. The doctor said it was probably brought on by not enough sleep. At his desk, All for One worked for an hour before he finally went to check his bedroom. Of course, there was nothing there.
The military sent another hit squad after All for One. Perhaps they'd found out about his random murders, or perhaps it was just their usual foolishness. Nearly fifty soldiers attacked him during a quirk swap. How insulting, for them to send so few.
His two new debtors had been killed in the hail of bullets, but All for One considered that a minimal loss, especially since he'd already gotten the quirk. He darted among the soldiers, deflected bullets with his shields, then stabbing them.
Yoichi appeared standing directly before All for One. This time, he was a mess of blood, dripping from his mouth, ears, and eyes. A fleshy thread dangled from his arm stump. Three of his teeth were missing. His midsection was a mess of blood and spilling guts.
On instinct, All for One stepped forward, stretching out a hand to help, as he'd always helped his brother.
Only his new quirk saved him. When the soldier behind him threw a knife, his new hearing quirk amplified the sound, and he stepped out of the way in time. Stabbing with a spike, he finished off the last solider.
When All for One turned around, Yoichi looked normal and whole again. The fury in his green eyes left All for One convinced that his brother had distracted him in an attempt to get him killed.
The last ghostly encounter haunted All for One late at night. Even at their worst, Yoichi had never actually wanted his older brother dead. Had he?
Though Yoichi was an idiot, so it was possible he blamed his own older brother for his death instead of the true culprit (Kudou). Even so, it seemed unlikely that Yoichi would ever wish death on anyone. Yoichi was far too soft-hearted. He got upset even when his big brother killed people who'd been trying to murder them. Yoichi didn't even like to hurt insects.
It would make far more sense if this illusion had been caused by an enemy's quirk. But who? How? Very few people even knew All for One had a brother. Fewer knew how Yoichi had died, so they wouldn't know to imitate the missing hand. Ah-ha, there was the solution! As long as All for One murdered all the vigilantes, there would be no one left who knew how Yoichi had died. The culprit would then be gone (if this had been caused by a quirk).
All for One's entire organization turned to the single purpose of tracking down Kudou. Once he'd regained his brother's quirk, he would finally have the real Yoichi back. Then he'd find out if the ghost he'd been seeing was real or not.
The vigilantes were finally cornered in an abandoned part of town. Dozens of quirks hummed under All for One's skin, desperate to kill. Yet he had a pressing question first: "What did you do with Yoichi?" He needed to see the grave. He needed to dig it up to prove his brother was really dead. He need to prove…something, he didn't know what…about the specter haunting him.
Kudou was the single most infuriating man in existence, he'd already nearly reached that status even before the brother-snatching, yet still he became even more awful when he smiled that vicious little smile and said, "If you're looking for Yoichi, Mister Demon King, you already killed him. You didn't leave enough to bury. We would have cremated him anyway, so you couldn't add the rest of him to your twisted collection of body parts."
All for One lost his mind. He grabbed Kudou, strangling him, slashing at his face, anything to crush that smile. Desperately, he kept trying to steal the quirk, but he felt nothing. Once again, the last remanent of his little brother was already gone.
Yoichi appeared behind Kudou. This time, he looked healthy and well-fed, with two hands. But for once, the ghost did not look at All for One. Instead, Yoichi gazed at Kudou with grief, regret, and an ocean of love in his eyes.
It was maddening. Finally, after so long acting like a mindless horror film ghost, Yoichi showed love—and it was directed at the thief, not his own older brother. As if All for One no longer mattered at all.
The world went white. Something snapped. There was a strange roaring sound in his ears. All for One did not remember what happened next. When he finally came to his senses, he realized Kudou had been long dead and he'd been mutilating the corpse for at least an hour. The pieces of the thief were spread across the battlefield, so small not even a hand was left. The largest bit was the finger stuck between All for One's teeth.
Back home, All for One cleaned off the blood, then brushed his teeth. As he looked into the mirror, Yoichi's ghost appeared behind him. His lips peeled back in an animalistic snarl, his hands twitching as if he longed to wrap his fingers around his big brother's throat and strangle.
Finally, those green eyes were fixed on the right person. All for One smiled, a grin as warped as his twin's. "Ah, dear Yoichi, how kind of you to grace me with your presence. I've just finished cleaning up the mess that hero of yours made with his death. Turns out heroes don't always win!"
Yoichi's mouth opened to scream. He threw himself forward, then—a hand on his shoulder stopped him.
Kudou pulled Yoichi into a hug. His mouth moved, and All for One could read part of the words: …not worth it. They both faded away.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" All for One screamed, lunging, but by the time he turned around, the ghosts were gone. Kudou had stolen his brother a second time.
All for One lost time again. When he came to his senses, his mansion was in ruins. All the staff downstairs were dead. He blamed their deaths on the vigilantes. It would be bad if his employees thought he'd lost his mind.
The appearance of Kudou only left All for One with more questions. If this illusion had been created by an enemy to torment him, why would Kudou appear and stop it? Most of the vigilantes were dead, and most quirk effects vanished after death. Although he hadn't yet found Kudou's second-in-command or quirk named One for All.
If the haunting was real, why would All for One only see Kudou and not the many other people he'd murdered? The count probably reached a thousand by this point, and all of them would have grudges against him.
Perhaps everything was only a figment of his imagination. He could have been so deeply traumatized by the thief stealing his brother that he'd fantasized up a reenactment of that moment. All for One did not know if he preferred that option or not. On the one hand, it would mean that Yoichi had not tried to kill him. He still had the possibility of taking back the real thing living in the quirk, a more lively brother who would speak to him instead of an angry specter. On the other hand, even a silent ghost Yoichi was better than nothing.
The next time All for One clashed with the vigilantes, Yoichi popped up again, a pitiful one-handed ghost drenched in blood.
All for One laughed, half-mad and half-joyous. "Don't try the same trick on me again, little brother." He shot up his spikes, piercing the vigilante who'd been trying to sneak up behind him.
The blue-haired other brother thief died spitting curses and blood, and once again he did not have One for All. It was a bitter disappointment.
However, All for One felt relieved to have Yoichi haunting him again. At least Kudou had not stolen Yoichi's hatred as he'd stolen his love.
The hunt for One for All went poorly. Whoever currently had it did not appear to be a vigilante, and did not even appear interested in using the ability. All for One couldn't find a single trace.
A dozen more times, Yoichi popped up, trying to distract All for One during battle. It got so predictable that All for One could use Yoichi to detect hidden attackers. What a fool.
This strategy backfired horribly when Yoichi appeared sitting on the desk while All for One met with his chief accountant. All for One reacted by reflex, stabbing his accountant through the chest.
Yoichi giggled silently, waved goodbye, then vanished.
All for One had no choice but to kill everyone who'd seen him enter the building, then set it on fire. He couldn't have people wondering why he'd killed one of his most loyal employees. They might lose faith. He'd blame it on the vigilantes…no, they were all dead. He blamed it on the military.
That night, All for One dreamed of a world of shadows. They wrapped around his body, making it hard to move. When he used a light quirk, he could chase them off, but they kept coming back. He hated feeling helpless. It reminded him too much of his childhood.
"What are you doing here?" Yoichi appeared, wearing a white shirt. Both his hands were in his pockets. "Ugh, a connection between us? This is troubling."
All for One grimaced. "Dear little brother, is this a new way to torment me?"
Yoichi cast him a disgusted look. "When have I ever tormented you? You're the one who locked me in a bank vault, then killed me. I suppose you've twisted yourself into the victim somehow." He turned away.
"Oh, this is just a dream. You're a fake." Once again All for One felt a strange mixture of disappointment and relief. "The real Yoichi would be lecturing me about showing compassion right now."
Yoichi whirled around, eyes blazing. His hands came out of his pockets to clench into fists. "Maybe being ripped into pieces so small only my hand remained finally cured me of that delusion. What did you do with the hand anyway? Kudou says you kept it but I really hope not. Ugh, on second thought, I don't want to know."
Speaking to himself, All for One continued, "The real Yoichi would be tormenting me with blood pouring from his eyes. The real Yoichi would spook me in the middle of fights, trying to drag me into death after him. The real Yoichi would punish me for his death."
"Seriously, what the hell are you talking about?" Yoichi demanded, exasperation drawing up his brows. "I can only haunt my successor, except for that one time—never mind, I'm not giving you any information about One for All. Who cares what you think? You're deluding yourself. I don't want to haunt you. I don't want to be around you at all. All I've ever wanted was for you to let me go."
Yoichi turned around and walked away. This was a far worse punishment than anything the other ghost had done, to be abandoned. All for One screamed and clawed at the shadows, trying desperately to follow, until he woke up.
When All for One opened his eyes, a sullen ghost loomed over him, dripping blood from a severed hand.
All for One started laughing. "You're here! You didn't leave me!" He could not touch the ghost, but he soaked in every last detail, including the insubstantial blood drops, with his gaze. For the first time, he completely accepted this ghost as real. Because of course the Yoichi who stayed with him would always be the real one. His other half, who could not be separated from him. "Nothing you do can phase me or make me give up on you. You know why? Because you're mine. You don't get to leave." All for One reached out and hovered his hand over the insubstantial cheek. "I don't care if you're a monster. We can both be monsters together. We're twins, after all."
Life with Yoichi fell into a routine. Since his brother only appeared during violence, All for One made sure to live a life full of carnage. He'd once taken care of his reputation, thinking about his position as future ruler of Japan, but now he threw himself completely into villainy. He needed to be even more horrible in order to provoke a reaction out of Yoichi's lifeless eyes. Somewhat to Garaki and Gigantomachia's exasperation, All for One became a thrill-seeker, recklessly arranging dangerous situations. He did not tell anyone the real reason: that Yoichi appeared whenever he was near death. He did not dream of his brother again, but he did not need to. There was plenty of violence in real life to draw out the ghost.
Even though All for One did so love to see his dear brother's face, he missed Yoichi's voice. So he kept chasing after One for All, hoping to complete his ghost. Perhaps when he had One for All, Yoichi would finally smile occasionally. That would be nice. The malicious silent giggles were not quite the same.
One for All popped up next with the pro hero Daigoro Banjo. But he proved another disappointment, his death barely even provoking Yoichi to sneer. All for One kept tracking the quirk all the way to Nana Shimura. That woman had been very irritating. She'd smiled too much like Kudou when she'd died.
When All for One first tracked down the Shimura family, he'd planned to slaughter them all. But as he approached little Tenko, he saw Yoichi standing behind the boy. A malicious idea forming, he touched the boy and gave him Decay.
Ah-ha, now that was a proper flinch from Yoichi!
The ruins of the Shimura house had been beautiful to see. All for One laughed, but quietly, as he followed Tenko around town. He killed a few people who'd tried to approach the boy to help, leaving only those who turned away. Then All for One swooped in, playing the savior just as he used to back in the old days.
Picking up Tenko in his arms, All for One murmured, "My, you're such a small boy." His fingers brushed white curls. "You look a little like another boy, from a long time ago. I'll make you into my successor. You can join my side, just like he should have. Won't that be nice?"
Over Tenko's shoulder, All for One locked eyes with Yoichi. The ghost opened his mouth and howled. It was the first time he'd ever made a sound. His screams were loud enough to rattle windows, yet Tenko didn't seem to hear anything. All for One slapped on a sound muffling quirk but it did no good. The horrible sound penetrated straight to his eardrums. Yoichi kept howling. Blood poured from his mouth and eyes. His irises had turned jet black. The blood hit the ground and turned into black rats, a hoard of them, nipping at All for One's feet.
It was a good try, but All for One had stopped fearing rats a long time ago. Was the ghost furious at this new and creative evil? Or perhaps jealous at being replaced? How adorable. All for One walked away, cradling Tenko and humming. He felt pleased that after all these years, he'd finally reached low enough depths to provoke Yoichi to speak to him.
All for One was dying. He'd been close enough to death to know it. Rewind burned in his veins, making him ever-smaller. His baby limbs would barely move. He'd already gone past the point of infancy, to the time just before he'd been born. The world had turned blurry.
Two wavering forms stood before him, glowing brightly even as darkness covered his eyes. The Yoichi with two hands said anxiously, "Big brother, please stop. If you surrender now, you'll live. The heroes aren't going to stab a baby to death. You've already lost. Please, end this."
But All for One ignored him, because he knew that Yoichi was fake, perhaps a hallucination from near-death, or a trick by the heroes. He could recognize his real Yoichi. After all, he'd lived alongside Yoichi's shade for centuries. Ghost Yoichi loomed over him, lips twisted in a corpse's smile. His arm stump dripped black goo. The skin peeled back on his face, exposing white bone. His once-beautiful hair hung in patches off his skull. He raised his arms, and shadows rose up around him, seeking to drag All for One down to hell. At long last, Yoichi had seen the moment for his revenge.
"Go away!" All for One screamed, shooting out a spike at the vengeful ghost.
The last of All for One's power left him, and his body collapsed. As Rewind erased him from existence, ghost Yoichi reached out and dragged All for One into the shadows.
The fake Yoichi wept. What a pathetic imitation. All for One knew his little brother would never weep for his death.
Though he had no strength left to fight as the shadows consumed him, All for One didn't even try. This wasn't so bad. At the very end, he was with his little brother. Just as the twins had emerged into the light of the world together, they would go into the darkness again as one. It even made him a little happy that Yoichi wanted to take him with him. This ending felt like destiny.
Author's Note: This is MissRemember's prize for Three Weeks of Trioholders, a very lovely prompt. A million thanks to Gfan97 for brainstorming with me since horror is not my area of expertise. This story fought me but I'm happy with how it turned out.