Author's Note: Hikage Shinomori doesn't have a canon birthday, but that won't stop me. Sanzou is my name for the Third One for All user.

Sanzou Bruce ached all over. His joints hurt, his throat felt sore from lack of water, a thousand cuts and bruises littered his body, and he barely had the strength to keep going. Grief had settled even deeper into his bones, whispering to him that there was no need to keep fighting. The two people he loved most in the world were dead. The resistance had fallen. The government had decided to focus on minor villains while ignoring the ones they didn't have the nerve to fight. For all intents and purposes, All for One had won. (Although perhaps the bastard didn't see it that way, if he'd cared at all about the younger brother he'd murdered.) No one else remained to stop All for One's domination, and Sanzou couldn't do it alone.

Only spite and One for All kept Sanzou going. He'd inherited this power from his leader, making a promise to protect it and pass down the stockpile to future generations, until someone could finally stop All for One. Two people had died for this. (Perhaps three would soon.) It had to be worth it.

If Sanzou had already passed on his power, then he would have laid down on the ruins of All for One's laboratory and died. Here, the few surviving vigilantes had made a stand to rescue the prisoners All for One subjected to human experimentation. The lab had been rigged to explode, and the trap had killed both the vigilantes and the people they'd wanted to rescue. As the leader of this mission, Sanzou ought to have died too. But he had to live long enough to pass on One for All. Even though he no longer had anyone left willing to fight All for One.

Staggering around a broken pillar, Sanzou stumbled toward the forest. He needed to get out of here before All for One returned. Falling splinters of wood cut into his arm, but he kept going.

When Sanzou stepped over a metal trapdoor, he heard a sound like a whimper inside.

Sanzou froze. He had no time to save anyone. Preserving One for All remained more important. But he knew the last two holders of One for All would never have walked away.

The explosion had already damaged the door. Sanzou was able to use a broken board to leverage it open.

Inside, a small white-haired boy crouched in a metal room. It looked exactly like the vault where Sanzou and his leader had rescued Yoichi, albeit better furnished. For a brief, heart-stopping moment, Sanzou thought this might be Yoichi, somehow captured and deaged. Then the boy looked up. His green eyes did not have white pupils, and his face was clearly different. He clamped a hand over his mouth to stop his cries as tears poured down his cheeks.

No matter who this might be, Sanzou couldn't leave another person trapped in a bank vault. He climbed down the stairs and picked up the child.

The boy thrashed. "I'm here to save you," Sanzou said. He had no time for more reassurances or arguments. Carrying the boy, he ran for the forest where his truck was hidden.

Hikage's father told him that the outside world was full of terrifying monsters who wanted to kill him, just like they'd killed his uncle. Hikage was only safe inside his room. In his room, he had toys and plenty of food. Dad visited a lot and gave him loads of hugs, though he wasn't around as frequently as Hikage would have liked.

The strange explosions had made the whole room shake and Hikage throw up. He'd silently begged for his dad to come save him.

When the man with blue-gray hair busted in, Hikage had been shocked at how normal he looked. Not like a monster with claws or pointed teeth. He did have a slightly spiky ponytail, and Dad said people with spiky hair were all evil. This man didn't give him the tingly feeling that Dad always gave off. Did that make him bad? (Although Hikage had never been entirely comfortable with the tingles.)

Hikage tried to back away, but there was nowhere to run. He'd punched and kicked and cried for help, but the man was too strong. As they reached the truck, Hikage screamed, "No, no, no! Take me back to my room."

The man with a ponytail got in and strapped Hikage into the passenger seat. "That wasn't a room. It was a bank vault." He started the truck.

"So what? Dad says bank vaults are awesome." Hikage removed his seat belt.

"Your dad, huh?" Ponytail murmured as if confirming a suspicion of his.

Hikage threw open the door and tried to jump out of the moving truck.

Ponytail grabbed the back of his shirt to stop him. The truck screeched to a halt. Wearily, Ponytail demanded, "Kid, do you want to die?"

"I want to go back to my dad!" Hikage wailed.

For a long moment, Ponytail looked at the boy's teary face. Then he let go. "It's your choice. Return to that cold dark vault, or come with me."

Hikage gazed at his captor with suspicion. "Are you tricking me?"

Ponytail sighed deeply. "No. If I had more resources, if I had any friends at all, if they lived…then I would take you away from this place and deprogram you from All for One's brainwashing. He's been abusing you, even if you can't see it yet. But I don't have the ability to watch you all the time by myself, and I don't even know how to make you see the truth. I think it would be an awful shame if you lived your entire life in a metal box without ever leaving. Yoichi would want me to take you away from that horrible place. But if you come with me, you might die. I can't even protect myself right now, much less anyone else. So I reckon it's gotta be your choice. You're too young to be put in that position…but at least a choice is more than All for One ever gave you."

Hikage stared, confused by some of those big words and concepts. Why had this man said his uncle's name? Did they know each other? He had many questions. But, afraid this window of opportunity to escape might close, he leapt out of the truck and ran.

In his room, Hikage only wore socks. The twigs crunched under his feet, making him go "Ouch!" He slowed down.

As he walked slower, he took in the forest. It had a deep, earthy smell. Hikage didn't even have the word for the smell, since he'd only ever smelled his food and the stale air of the vault. But it was…interesting?

Trees fascinated Hikage. They'd looked so small in his books, but here they towered far above his head. Needles fell down, one hitting his arm. It didn't hurt. He looked at it, then picked it up and sniffed it. Ahh, more new smells!

The forest was full of sounds. A humming of insects, leaves rustling, chirping from the birds agitated by the explosion. His room had always been quiet. Hikage found he liked the sounds. His head kept jerking around, trying to spot the birds making the noises.

A ray of sunlight fell through a gap in the trees. Hikage stopped, awe-struck, to watch the light play across his skin. It was different from the florescent lights of his room. This felt warm.

If Hikage went back, he would never see sunlight again.

Dad always said he had everything he needed in his room. According to Dad, everything outside was ugly and dangerous. But Hikage had only been out for a few minutes and already seen more beauty than he'd ever in this entire life.

Hikage turned around and walked back to the truck.

The sound of the engine running was easy to follow. Ponytail had not moved from the same spot, as if waiting and hoping Hikage would change his mind.

Hikage said, "Dad kept me away from the sun. That was bad. I want to see sun every day for the rest of my life."

Ponytail's face crumbled, looking a strange combination of happy and sad. "I'll do everything in my power to keep you in the sunlight, kid. Hop in."

The truck carried them away from the vault.

OMAKE TIME!

All for One: I have another cute and adorable relative I don't want to lose, so I'll buy a new bank vault. Yoichi loved his bank vault.

Sanzou: Yoichi is too busy screaming incoherently to reply, so I will instead. You fool, you have no ability to learn from your mistakes. If you'd at least made the door look different then I might not have known how to bust in.

#

Hikage: My power gives me strange tingles around my dad. He always said it measured how much I loved people. I got bad headaches around him. But I feel fine around you even though you saved me and I love you.

Sanzou: …Kid, that's a danger detection ability.

#

Sanzou: Take this quirk so you have the means to defend yourself from your crazy dad.

Hikage: Can you get rid of my Danger Sense while you're at it? I'm tired of the constant anxiety.

Sanzou: Sorry, it's not a swap. I recommend living in a forest. All the better to avoid a certain villain. I'll teach you how to set traps.

#

All for One: If you hate people so much that you became a hermit, then why didn't you stay in my nice isolating bank vault?

Hikage: I hate humans—I love sunlight.

All for One: I could have gotten you a sunlamp.