(A/N: I meant to get this out yesterday, but I zoned out. Thank you again to Masterx01 for the corrections. This chapter is a little longer than the last one and sets up some critical plot points for later on in the story. I also explained the third skill Izuku had. Please enjoy.)

Chapter Five

Oikogénia

When Hisashi asked to speak to Inko and me, alone, I can honestly say I had no idea what to expect. But even this was a bit out there. Hisashi had me sit down across from him, Inko leaning into his side, and crossed his arms, looking me dead in the eyes. We stared at each other, and as I was about to speak up, he cut off any words I could've said.

"Have you ever heard of a man called All For One?" His voice was quiet, serious, and lacked any of the warmth he had on the way over. I gulped. Whoever this "All For One" character was, he had to be serious. So, I answered honestly.

"No, I haven't. Who is he?" I inquired, curious as to what had a man such as him so… nervous. He was nervous too, you could see it in his hands, which were shaking almost imperceptibly, or the clenching of his teeth and the bead of sweat on his forehead. Actually… he looked frightened, and that scared me more than anything. In the short few hours I had known this man, he didn't seem to fear much of anything and always was composed.

"That man… is my former employer. When I was much younger, more naive, more desperate. He is the boogeyman, the monster in the dark, and the Symbol of Evil. He is the most dangerous man alive. Or at least, he was. As far as I know, All Might took care of him five years prior. It's part of the reason I used to respect him so much. I still do, to an extent." Hisashi ran a hand over his face, fingers lightly caressing the jagged scar lining his cheek.

"What exactly made him so… powerful? What made this man the boogeyman?"

"His quirk was part of his legend. It was his quirk that earned him the moniker All For One. His quirk allowed him to give and take other quirks. But he was also ruthless, cruel, sadistic, manipulative, and… charismatic."

"And you worked for him? Why?" I was concerned that this man, who seemed so kind, could have possibly worked for such a horrid person. It just didn't match his disposition.

"..." Hisashi was silent for a moment, "my mother overdosed when I was a young teen, and I ended up in the streets, eventually being taken in for my ingenuity with machines and quirk analysis. I would make weapons from scrap and support equipment for the gang that took me in. Eventually, the gang caught the attention of a bigger fish. All For One. He took me in, recognizing my intelligence, and offered me a quirk in return for me working for him. You see, I was quirkless like Izuku was. He provided me with all I could've asked for. Research material, resources, an education. All I had to do was make sure my studies on engineering, biology, and quirk-theory benefited him."

"Then he met me."

"Then I met Inko." The two of them smiled at each other, and my heart clenched at the love in their eyes, reminding me of Orion. Inko squeezed Hisashi's hand, and he took another deep breath.

"My world changed, and I fell hard. I wanted to do everything I could for her and started to drift away from All For One. I eventually discovered her mother's symptoms, and I worked on a drug to cure her of her own quirk's affliction. I succeeded. I created a drug that modified her quirk factor to allow her to toggle her quirk, to finally remove the radiation-emitting around her." his voice hitched in anger and frustration.

"Then he took my research and bastardized it!" He yelled, Inko immediately shushing him and calming him down, whispering soothing things to him. He took a few moments, unclenching his fists and exhaling. "He bastardized my research, the quirk drug I designed to help and instead turned it into a steroid. It- I created the baseline for Trigger, one of the worst drugs on the black market to this date. When I discovered what All For One had done, that was the last straw for me, and I gave an anonymous tip to some heroes on many of his major bases, which were later taken down by All Might. I then started my own support company, working to clear my name. I created pharmaceuticals to save people to try to counterbalance the lives I ruined with triggers. Inko and I got married, moved to America, had Izuku, and then we moved back here." Hisashi sighed.

"When Izuku was around six, Hisashi told me All For One was catching onto our location, so he went back to America to protect us. He was gone for five years before we saw him again in person, back when he heard of All For One's defeat at All Might's hands through some of his old colleagues who also cleaned up their acts." Inko chimed in as Hisashi tried to compose himself.

"The reason I brought this up, Artemis, is because of the fact you gave my son something similar to a quirk. You did something that, as far as I knew, could only be done by a supervillain. So I needed to make sure you were genuine. I needed to protect my family."

I was shocked. This whole thing was… a lot. I never knew there was someone like that, and I was deeply touched by the anguish in Hisashi's voice when he spoke of his inadvertent role in creating Trigger. This is a good man who was dealt a bad hand in life and did the best he could. I felt my respect for him go up.

"I- I don't know what to say. I'm sorry you went through that, Hisashi. I truly am. I promise you, I would never hurt Izuku, or Inko, or anyone in this family. I care for Izuku, he is a child in my Familia. He is my family. That makes you all my family too."

"I appreciate that." Hisashi shook his head and grinned, attempting to throw off the heavy atmosphere. "Come on, let's get dinner started."

"..earlier last night there was an attack by a mysterious assailant on a group of students. Luckily, no one was harmed, however, this is the third incident by the same group of villains attacking people in the last month. They appear to be a winged woman with razor-sharp bird claws instead of feet. If you see someone matching this description, please notify the police as soon as possib-" The television was shut off by a pale Artemis. I turned towards her, my eyebrows furrowed in confusion. I fell asleep texting Hatsume last night, and when I woke up this morning I decided to watch the news. Artemis looked spooked when they showed some pictures of the villains. They looked like they all had the same quirk.

"Goddess Artemis, are you alright?" I asked, concerned. She looked at me, shook her head, and smiled.

"I'm perfectly alright, I just thought… Well, never mind. How'd you sleep, Izuku?" she asked. I shrugged and said I slept fine before sitting at the table for breakfast, which Mom was cooking. Dad was already at the table, tinkering at what looked like a small swiss army knife.

"Watcha doin'?" I asked. Dad looked up at me and grinned, flipping the knife over in his hands and clicking a previously unseen button. Vwoom. Out came a small plasma blade from the end. He then rotated the button, and the plasma blade turned into a Phillips head screwdriver, another rotation had it into a flat screwdriver, another lead to a corkscrew, and so on.

"It's a swiss army knife." He said, cheekily. I rolled my eyes with a smile. "Okay, okay. I created an artificial copy of a quirk I once saw. They were able to create almost anything out of a force field. I studied the energy, with their permission of course, and now I can successfully generate it myself. Sadly, it's only on a small scale like this, but imagine the possibilities!" he gushed excitedly and I laughed with him. The two of us dissolved into quirk-theory fanboying- at least that's what Mom would call it. We were interrupted by our doorbell.

"Oh, that must be Hatsume! Be right back, Dad!" I went to the entrance of our home and opened the door. Standing in all her grease-stained glory was the pink machine herself. She was wearing something a bit different than her normal grease-monkey outfit though. Instead of a tanktop and oiled pants, she was wearing a button-down white blouse with the ends of the sleeves cuffed up around her mid-bicep. She had her mechanics jacket tied around a pair of shorts with her usual steampunk goggles lying on her forehead. Her usual boots rested on her feet. She looked like she took the time to pick out clean clothes, and she shuffled slightly nervously in the doorway before she saw me and grinned.

"Hey, Green Bean! Miss me?" I snorted and grinned right back, nervously stepping to the side to let her in.

"Sure, Hatsume. Welcome to my humble abode." The two of us meandered back into the house where Mom, Dad, and Artemis were still around the table. Mom was still cooking, and she turned her head to look over her shoulder at us.

"You must be Hatsume! Have you had breakfast?"

"Um… no?"

"Then sit and eat with us, it'll be done in just a minute." Hatsume shrugged and sat down at the table, finally noticing my father, who was still tinkering away. I braced myself.

"Izuku! Is that your Dad? Is that Hisashi Midoriya? Is that the creator of Green Tech Labs?" Hatsume turned to me excitedly and immediately began to gush. My Dad looked up and chuckled.

"I guess you're a fan?"

"I was inspired to be an inventor and support technician by you, sir." The sir shocked me, I have never heard Hatsume use any form of manners. "Your combination of quirk-theory, biology, and engineering to create both pharmaceuticals and support gear that work with the quirk in question is inspiring. I am a fan of everything you've done." She gushed even more and I couldn't help but feel embarrassed. Hatsume turned to me. "Is he the reason you're so good at quirk theory and analysis?"

Before I could answer my dad spoke up. "Actually, no, I'm not. That's all done by him. I would tutor him very rarely, all his notebooks were created by him, and solely him, his research was all him. I guess he was also inspired by me." He chucked to himself and I ducked even lower in my seat, my face bright red from embarrassment. Hatsume had stars in her eyes. Almost literally considering her quirk. Artemis was just sitting quietly, smiling. I coughed.

"Right, so. Hatsume, this is God- Artemis," I cut myself off from calling her Goddess like I usually do, "and my Dad, who you already know, is Hisashi Midoriya. My Mom's name is Inko Midoriya. Family, this is Mei Hatsume. She's my friend who's been helping me clean the beach."

"How's that been going, by the way?" Artemis asked, quirking an eyebrow. I haven't had a status update since the first one when we discussed skills and quirks, so I don't know how far I've grown and neither has she. Now that I have the blessing, my physical growth doesn't show physically until I get an update, my body storing the excellia I generate from working. Normally, I would need to slay monsters to gain excellia, but the skill I have, Iroikí Parémvasi, allows me to generate excellia when I do heroic deeds or work towards it. Artemis assumes that is the reason my cleaning of the beach raised my status. She also assumes the reason I gained it in the first place is that there hasn't been a dungeon in the world for centuries, not since she left with the rest of the gods. I might ask for a status update later…

"Well?" Artemis broke me from my thoughts and I realized I zoned out, mumbling to myself again. Hatsume was looking at me curiously, and I gulped. Did she understand my mumbling?

"What's a blessing? Or excellia? Iroikí Parémvasi?" Well, that confirms it. Somehow, the only other person in the world that could understand my mumbling other than my Dad, was the cute girl next to me.

Just my luck.