Thank you to everyone who suggested names!

.

Midoriya Hisashi lived and worked overseas, coming home to Japan only rarely. His job had bounced him to every continent, and he'd even been to Antarctic City. It was taxing work, but he enjoyed it, and, most importantly, it allowed him to provide for his beautiful wife and wonderful son, who he loved more than anyone or anything else in the entire world.

That description was true except for one desperately important point: Midoriya Hisashi did not so much have a job as a sprawling criminal empire.

But sprawling criminal empires sure were hard work!

Especially when you had your face literally punched off by your unfortunately-smarter-than-he-looked heroic nemesis. Curse All Might, his entire family line, and the family lines of anyone who happened to succeed him.

It had really been looking like Hisashi had successfully suckered him into dying without passing One for All on, but then his stupid smiles had become more genuine, and he'd started teaching at that stupid school, and well… one thing had led to another, and Hisashi could only reach the conclusion that All Might had picked a successor at the absolute least convenient time for Hisashi. That is, the same year his beloved son, Izuku, started high school at that very same stupid school.

Now, without a quirk, Izuku wasn't going to become a hero. Society as a whole was too bigoted, a fact Hisashi was grateful for. So grateful, in fact, that he only tortured to death those bigots who direcly laid a hand on his son, rather than starting at the top of the refuse heap known as the Hero Commission and working his way down.

However, despite this, Izuku was naturally brilliant enough for even the imbeciles at UA to recognize. Was Hisashi happy with this? Not exactly. It meant that he had to plan around his son while looking for All Might's successor. But if Izuku hadn't been admitted… On some level, it saddened Hisashi that he wouldn't be able to use the plans he'd made for members of the admissions board in the case that they did reject his son.

Anyway, Hisashi could plan around Izuku being in gen ed, or management, or support, or business, or…

Hisashi was, admittedly, somewhat ashamed that he hadn't managed to ask Izuku exactly which of the courses he'd gotten into. He'd been… not sulking. Supervillains did not sulk. He'd been… less than thrilled about Izuku's admission, and he hadn't wanted to ruin Izuku's celebration, so… He just let Izuku ramble on about the hated school in that adorable and endearing way of his, without commenting.

He had not been sulking.

But, secure in the knowledge that Izuku was not in the hero course, Hisashi could simply arrange things so that any attacks on All Might, the hero course, other people at UA that annoyed him, etc., didn't involve any of the non-hero-course first years. So, he sent his minions (Kurogiri, Tomura, others whose names he hadn't bothered to remember) to go find a time that the hero course would be nice and far away from anyone he actually liked (Izuku).

To Hisashi's great cheer, they'd seemingly managed to find the perfect venue for Tomura's debut. A hero course field trip to the USJ with All Might!

But Hisashi had forgotten the incompetence of said minions.

Somehow, they'd confused the hero class with Izuku's class.

Needless to say, Izuku had wiped the floor with Tomura. Tomura, versus Hisashi's son? It wasn't a contest, really.

Hisashi didn't have details about how Izuku had managed it, Tomura had mentioned something about 'green children,' and that one of them had a frog quirk and the other could fly, but neither of those matched Izuku. Unlike the strained phone call from Inko and the brief conversation he'd had with an exhausted Izuku.

After those calls Hisashi had almost decided to kill Tomura, regardless of how much he'd invested in him. How in the world had they managed to mix up the courses like that? Yes, Hisashi hadn't caught the mistake, either, but then he was blind and unable to read the itinerary Tomura had stolen. It was hardly his fault!

So. Yes. Hard work. Hard, stressful work, and he couldn't even go home to complain to his wife about it, because of the aforementioned face-punching-off incident.

Tragic.

Which is why he felt no guilt whatsoever about brushing off the good doctor to answer a call from his home phone number. Not that he would have felt guilt, anyway. It, along with shame, wasn't an emotion he experienced.

… Except with regards to still not knowing exactly which course Izuku was in.

… And, possibly, never being home.

But that was it!

"Midoriya Hisashi speaking," he said, smoothly into the receiver.

.

"Holy crap," said Banjo. "It is him."

"Hey," said En, kicking at and missing Hikage's ankles, "why isn't Danger Sense making Nine freak out?"

"Most likely because he isn't in any danger."

"Y'know, if this is 'no danger,' I'm shocked that Danger Sense is working for him at all."

.

"HI, Dad!" said Izuku. "Sorry to call at a weird time. You- you aren't busy, are you?"

"Not at all," said Hisashi, ignoring the doctor in front of him and the crime against humanity, science, and reason they were supposed to be animating on the table in-between them. "Today has been unexpectedly slow."

"Oh, good. I was wondering if you could help me with something?"

"Of course," said Hisashi. For a moment, he let himself hope that his son had finally killed that explosive brat, Bakugo. He mentally cycled through quirks that he could use to cover up the deed. "What do you need?"

"It's for school. You know the sports festival is coming up soon."

"Ah, yes," said Hisashi. Some of the best quirk window shopping there was. He'd tried to get Eraserhead's after his performance, but his first attempts hadn't gone well, and he'd been forced to abandon the project. "What do you need? Who needs to be eviscerated?"

.

"No, really, how is this guy not registering as evil?"

.

Izuku giggled. "Well, this year, they're having everybody pick hero names beforehand."

Hisashi felt his heart stop. Using a quirk he had acquired for just such a purpose, he kicked it back on and waved off the doctor. "Everyone?" he asked, desperation expertly masked. "Including the non-hero courses?"

"Ye-yes," said Izuku. "I was wondering- I was wondering if you could help me with figuring one out. I- I mean, my friends gave me lots of good options, but, um."

"I suppose your teachers vetoed Small Might?" Hisashi teased, gently.

"Don't remind me," groaned Izuku. "I didn't even bring it up."

.

"He kind of did, though," said En.

Nana shrugged. "He crossed it out. It hardly counts." Then, undercutting her argument, she mumbled, "All Might is a great name."

The others nodded, some because they agreed, and some because they didn't want to wind up on the same side as All for One.

"If he tries to give Izuku a stupid villain name, I'm going to tear his throat out with my teeth."

"I thought you tried that already," said Hikage.

"Third…"

"Hey! You actually did try to do that!" Third protested from his hiding spot.

"Does it really matter?" asked Nana. "You're a ghost."

"I'll haunt him, then."

"Now, I know we've all tried that one."

.

"Hm," said Hisashi, "why don't you tell me what your classmates came up with, first?"

"Ah, well." There was the sound of shuffling paper. "They had Strawberry, Marimo, Rabbit, Wonder, Augur and Auspex."

Marimo was obvious enough. The others, however… "Strawberry?"

"Because of what I look like when I'm blushing, I think. I'm just glad it isn't tomato or something… Marimo's kind of the same thing. You- you know, my hair?"

"And Wonder is because you're wonderful?"

"Noooo, Dad. Todoroki didn't mean it like that. It's a play on, um. Wonderland. Like, the Rabbit of Wonderland?"

"The one who is always late? I do hope you're getting to school on time."

"Dad! I'm on time. They just think my, um. You know, the All Might antenna on my hood look like rabbit ears. And they think I'm bouncy, I guess?"

So, Izuku was still wearing those awful novelty hoodies. Not that Hisashi had expected otherwise. It was still disappointing.

"And the last two? Augur and Auspex?"

"Those are because of my quirk," said Izuku.

"Your what?"

There were only two possible avenues for a quirkless person to develop a quirk. As Hisashi had decided against repeating the mistake he'd made with his brother, that left one.

One for All.

All Might.

All for One was halfway out of the facility before Izuku answered.

"O-oh! I guess I never talked to you about it, because it manifested at the USJ. Sorry, I was just so exhausted after everything…"

"It isn't your fault, Izuku," said Hisashi. No, it was All Might's. What, was the irresponsible idiot so convinced he was about to be killed by the noumu that he passed the quirk to the closest child? If so, he was even weaker than he'd thought! "What is it like?"

"It, um, it's a stockpile quirk! We think that's why I never could activate it before. It stockpiles danger and releases it as personal levitation. The USJ just… pushed it over into critical mass."

That… wasn't One for All.

Hisashi killed a lab technician who had the misfortune of being close enough to hear part of his conversation and casually dumped them out of their chair so he could drop into it. He'd experienced the phenomenon of having his bones turned to powder before, but now they felt practically liquid.

He was still going to murder All Might, though. Just not right now.

"That might be why I'm so anxious, too- I can feel the stockpile when it gets bigger."

"Fascinating," said Hisashi. He could see how it might come about. All for One was, technically speaking, a stockpile quirk, and both personal levitation and Attract would be telekinesis type quirks… And since Hisashi was a first generation quirk user, odd quirk mutations were to be expected. "I recall your mother mentioning that her biological mother had a quirk like that. Something to do with flying."

"Grandma's quirk is Green Thumb, though," said Izuku.

"Your grandmother's, yes," said Hisashi, shuddering at the memory of that formidable woman. The fact that he couldn't kill her without upsetting his wife was criminal.

Well. So was he, but, really, what was the point of being a being of ultimate evil if you couldn't be a hypocrite, too?

Not that he was a being of ultimate evil. Yet. It was a work in progress. There were some travesties he hadn't stooped to, yet. Like taunting All Might with Shimura's grandson. Oh, and sexual crimes, he supposed, but those didn't seem fun at all, so he was inclined to skip them.

"But," continued Hisashi, "your mother was adopted. She only has her biological parents' general quirk and medical history." Hisashi could have uncovered more, of course, but if Inko didn't care, neither did he.

Although, with such a strange quirk manifestation from Izuku, maybe he should. Just in case.

"Oh," said Izuku, quietly. "I didn't know that."

"Ah," said Hisashi. "Perhaps… don't mention this to your mother?"

That earned Hisashi a faint but genuine chuckle. "I won't tell if you don't." Izuku paused. "Assuming she isn't listening in on the line."

.

"On one level, I'm surprised that Nine's mom would do that," said Nana, "on the other, she did marry this bastard, so…"

"Speaking of Mrs. Midoriya's family," said Hikage, "don't you think it's an interesting coincidence that her mother has a quirk similar to yours?"

"Yeah, that's pretty convenient, isn't it? I was half convinced we were screwed the minute Nine picked up the phone to dial."

Focused as Nana was on the conversation, she did not notice Banjo wrapping Hikage in Blackwhip and dragging him away.

.

"You think she might do that?" asked Hisashi, nervously. He nudged the cooling body of the technician with his toe.

"I think you offered to kill people for us too many times, or something," said Izuku. "She said she wanted to make sure you weren't giving me the wrong idea about things."

Hisashi remembered that conversation, come to think about it, but it was more about Hisashi's rather… vocal distaste for heroes than killing people. Alas, that Izuku took neither talking point seriously.

"I see," said Hisashi. "You've gotten a quirk counselor, I hope?" Oh, how Hisashi wished he could guide Izuku himself! Maybe take the quirk for a test drive. He'd give it back, of course, it would just be a minute…

"Mhm, my teacher has a license!"

Hisashi shook himself out of the fantasy. "Good, good. Now, you wanted help with names." The only way he'd get through this is if he considered them to be villain names, not hero names. "In keeping with the theme of the last two, might I suggest Omen?"

"That sounds more like a villain name."

Drat. Izuku was always too smart for games like that. "If you want something undeniably heroic, how about Skywalker?"

"Would that make you Darth Vader?" joked Izuku.

"Please, I would be far more successful!" Especially on the 'living forever with one's loved ones' front, although he supposed he could take a loss in the 'tempted one's children to evil' category.

"Considering Anakin Skywalker, I think it's a bit tainted, anyway."

.

"He's not even hiding it!" complained En. "He's basically stating that he's evil outright!"

"This is why we didn't want this kid as our ninth," said Third.

"Shut up," growled Yoichi. "You don't get to talk, since you turned me into a folktale postmortem."

"Maybe you should have done more actually cool things when you were alive, then!"

Yoichi gasped, offended.

"Like, seriously, what kind of moron manages to miss this kind of evil metaphorically punching them in the face? Even if it is a family member?"

Yoichi gasped, offended.

"Oh," said Third, belatedly remembering who he was talking to. "Oops."

"Can you guys be quiet?" snapped Nana. "This is important!"

.

"Ah, well," said Hisashi. "It was worth a try. Continuing with fortune telling, Tarot?"

"Like the cards? That's kind of far away from what my quirk can actually do."

"Yes, but that can be a good thing. You don't want to be too straightforward." Even if he only wound up using it once. "Risk, then, or Clover? Both reference luck, and Clover again ties back to your appearance."

"I kind of like Clover," said Izuku, "and Risk sounds cool." There was a pause as Izuku wrote something down. "It sounds like you have more?" Izuku's voice tilted up hopefully at the end.

"A few," said Hisashi. "Apollo, a Greek god of prophecy also associated with spaceflight." Izuku made an interested sound. "Comet, a ball of ice and space dust that was considered an omen of ill fortune to come." Hisashi sighed. "Then, if you prefer the rabbit theme-" something Hisashi hoped was not the case; he didn't want his son to have even an obscure homage to All Might in his name, "-Caerbannog or Gyokuto are appropriate."

"... Isn't Caerbannog the man-eating rabbit from that one ancient movie with King Arthur?"

"It may be."

"We aren't allowed to name ourselves after movie villains."

"What's the fun in that?"

Izuku laughed. "You sound like Ashido," he said. "She wanted to name herself Alien Queen."

"She sounds like she has good taste."

"She does," said Izuku. "You've given me a lot to think about."

"I certainly hope so," said Hisashi. "I could also help with assuring your dominance over your enemies. Bakugo Katsuki is in one of the hero courses, yes?"

"I- I'll be- I'll be okay, Dad. Plus, you never take stuff like this seriously."

While Izuku couldn't be blamed for not knowing about Hisashi's less-than-legal activities, the statement still hurt. Hisashi's offers of massacring Izuku's rivals were always serious!

"You told me I should go ahead and break Kacchan's arms to establish superiority when I was eight. Who does that?"

.

"Yes, Ninth," said En. "Who does that indeed?"

"He's so close but so far away," mourned Nana.

.

"He would have recovered."

"There you go again," said Izuku with a slight laugh. "My friends and I are working on a plan to win, don't worry!"

Ah, Izuku was collecting minions. Excellent. UA graduates were often sho-ins for positions of power and importance. Making a network early on would help him later.

"I should probably let you go if you're still at work," said Izuku, a little sadly.

"Mhm," said Hisashi, aware of the need to keep his cover as a normal businessman. "I'll call at the normal time and we can talk more, alright?"

"Okay. I love you, Dad."

"I love you, too. And Izuku?"

"Yeah?"

"You are a wonder. Never let anyone tell you otherwise."

.

Izuku frowned down at the spreadsheet of names and their respective pros and cons in front of him. It was very large.

He sighed. "I'm going to have to sleep on this."

.

Yoichi clapped his hands. "So, are we all in agreement that we cannot let Izuku pick a name my brother came up with?"

"Sure," said En, "but it's not like we can do anything about it."

"We could give him Blackwhip about it," said Banjo. "That would screw up all of his ideas."

"We're not doing that," said Yoichi, serenely. "My plan is to hope we have some influence over Izuku's subconscious and scream at him not to take any of my brother's evil names."

"All night?" asked Nana, resignation carved deep into her face.

"That's what it takes."

"Wouldn't it be better to scream a name we do like at him?" suggested Hikage. "A single, simple, message is more likely to connect."

"I like the way you think," said Yoichi.

"Oh, no," mumbled Nana, "I see what's coming."

"So, what name do we like?" continued Yoichi, oblivious to the coming disaster.

"It can't be Strawberry," said En, quickly. "Ichigo is the wrong number."

"Singularity!" shouted Banjo.

"Nine would be the right number," continued En. "But a hero can't be named suffering…"

"Naming him Nine would be counterproductive in the 'let's not get Ninth murdered by All for One' department," said Nana.

"If it helps," said Yoichi, "I think he's more likely to get vaulted."

"Like a ceiling?" asked Hikage.

"Troubleshoot!" yelled Banjo. "Danger Fist! Harbinger!"

"A ceiling?"

"A vaulted ceiling."

"Reflex! Nemesis!"

"Dude," said En. "Nemesis isn't a very heroic name."

"What," said Yoichi, "do you think vaulted ceilings have to do with this?"

"I don't know," said Hikage. "You brought them up. I thought maybe he had a quirk for them."

"For vaulted ceilings?"

"Yes."

"Black Cat! Magpie! Nexus! Versatile!"

"You do remember that the name has to make sense with One for All as it currently is, right?" asked Nana.

"How about Sixth Sense?" said En.

"You just want your number to come up again," accused Banjo.

"My number came up almost as long ago as yours, old man."

"That doesn't even make sense!"

"Okay, so, when I say vaulting I mean bank vaults. Imprisonment. Isolation."

"I see," said Hikage.

Yoichi nodded, then sighed as he realized the other ghosts had dissolved into chaos. "This is going to take a while, isn't it?"

.

"Hi, Mr. Yagi! How are you today?" asked Izuku, having run into his mentor outside the teacher's lounge.

Mr. Yagi took a long, slow sip of coffee. "I had a very strange dream about people yelling at me to change my hero name."

"Huh," said Izuku. "What did they want you to change it to?"

"Either Troubleshoot or Troubleshot. It was… strange." He shook himself. "But what brings you here so early in the morning, my boy?"

"I was hoping to talk to Ms. Kayama," said Izuku. "I think I've got my hero name pinned down, but I'd like to talk to her about it, first!" He held up the paperwork for submitting his hero name.

"Oh! That's wonderful," said Mr. Yagi. "May I see?"

"Sure!" said Izuku, turning the paper around so Mr. Yagi could see it.

He fluffed Izuku's hair. "I think that suits you very well, young Midoriya! I'll go see if Ms. Kayama is here, alright?"

.

Unfortunately, the past users of One for All were not listening to the conversation. This was less because they had worn themselves out from shouting, and more because Izuku's choice of name had shown that all their efforts to communicate were useless and they were wallowing in self-pity. It was a whole thing.

.

Kurogiri's wounds had healed acceptably, with the doctor none the wiser. So, as usual when he wasn't rescuing Tomura from trouble, helping the doctor in the lab, engaging in miscellaneous criminal activities, or giving random small-time villains alcohol poisoning, he was doing housework, tidying up the hideout.

It quickly became apparent that Kurogiri wasn't very good at tidying. Cleaning in general, really.

It was equally obvious that Kurogiri was also the only one that even tried to clean the hideout.

(In the back of his mind, Kurogiri thought it… odd… that these two thoughts felt so newly discovered. He and Tomura had been here for years. He should have already known this.)

Yes, he couldn't expect his master to clean, that was ridiculous, and the doctor was rarely here. But Tomura… No, no, not Tomura. But Kurogiri wasn't the only minion to ever inhabit this place. Most of the others were dead now, but even when Kurogiri had been alive he'd helped with classroom cleaning and kept the apartment clean.

Wait, what?

Regardless, this was no place to raise a child. Not that Tomura was a child anymore, nor was Kurogiri, which…

Kurogiri had never been a child.

In the context of sanitation, the hideout was wretched. That was the point of this.

Dispirited, Kurogiri wrung out the mop, nearly black water drizzling into the small plastic bucket he'd scrounged up. Maybe he'd be better at cleaning if he had better supplies. It was like they wanted Tomura to grow up in soul-crushing squalor.

They who?

It would be better for Tomura to have grown up somewhere else, somewhere safe, away from them.

Kurogiri pressed a hand to his head, and then his neck. No.

It wasn't too late-

Kurogiri slammed his hand against the corner of the hall, where two off the walls came together. There was a satisfying, agonizing click in his wrist and some of the paint on the wall flaked off, revealing a metal bracket. Kurogiri breathed shallowly, listening. The only sound in the hideout was the faint music from one of Tomura's games.

It was Kurogiri's job to protect and nurture Tomura, to help him carry out his goals. Yes. And to do that…

Kurogiri leaned the mop against the wall. Tomura couldn't carry out his goals alone. His goals which were… His goals. Defeating All Might. That was at least a goal.

Tomura would need allies.

Kurogiri teleported himself up to the bar. Allies. He would need- The nomu were right there, weren't they?

They weren't enough, though, they weren't right. Had Tomura ever had friends? He must have. Even if they were just online friends. He mustn't have. Sensei would never allow it.

It troubled Kurogiri that he couldn't remember.

He'd get some friends for Tomura.