In response to Reptil's comment, yes the posture that Kenji used to give Ragdoll her Quirk back was inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra.
Of course, unlike my other MHA self-insert story, "AHA:OOT", So I'm All for One, So What? won't be told from a First-Person perspective, so I/he won't always go into reference about his jokes. He told All Might and Naomasa Tsukauchi flat-out about Dragonball Z, but only alluded to the Mass Effect trilogy.
And to
Thefallenjedi66, while I could've used- "The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world." -, given at-the-time they were talking about Reincarnation (choosing between keeping A) Original Memories, or B) Meta-Knowledge), Mordin Solus' line seemed more-directly-relevant to the conversation at hand. While he was "the right man in the wrong place", given it's a world about Superheroes, I think people by-default would think that about anyone whose Quirk was uniquely-suited to handle a given situation at hand.
MadMadMaud: Has he thanked All Might for not punching AFO in the dick yet? Because he should.
Re: Kenji's in so-much pain in that beat-up body, even if All Might had punched All for One in the dick, the new tenant might not've noticed.
To (Lucas Oliveira), while it's tempting, remember that until Kurogiri is captured, Shigaraki has unrestrained [Warp Gate] access, and as I might've elucidated before, they don't need Kenji's consciousness intact to use [All for One]; they can easily turn him into some kind of flesh robot.
Depending on how much people want to see him appear in other movies and such, he might go out to take "enthusiastic walks", but for the time being he has to get used to the beat-up cadaver "hand-me-down" that All for One… donated~
To Houndmom91, Kenji can't really trust [All for One] to anyone else. While it's tempting to give All Might the wheels in an epic twist of irony, the tradeoff is he'd be trapped in a beat-up cadaver that's equally worse-off, and even if he has two working eyes, he'd have no stomach anymore.
Maybe he'll body-swap for laughs, but I won't say why…~
Also, he's trying to not make it seem like he'd go "walkabouts" with whatever body catches his eye. The public is still rightfully scared of him since he DID take out an "SS-Rank" Supervillain.
To skinnydude911, yes, part of the whole "All Might pajamas" thing was to be non-threatening, but another was that All Might enjoys a certain irony.
But yes, a coffee table would be the Nemesis to any blind person getting used to a new house.
*SIAFO,SW?*
When word had truly spread that the No.32-ranked Hero, Ragdoll, All for One's latest victim had gotten her Quirk back, it was a media explosion of unparalleled proportions. That she and the rest of the Wild, Wild Pussycats were in top form in the "Kamino Sinkhole" had only further exacerbated what had happened, giving true credence to the rumors and eventual news reveal that a man with a body-swapping Quirk had taken the reigns from the SS-Rank Villain that All Might had fought in his final battle.
That the ultimate cost of this act was the death of his own birth-body, was reserved largely for fluff pieces and philosophical debates among experts and people who called themselves "experts".
As a result of such, news outlets from across the country once more found themselves camping outside the Yuuei Barrier to get a glimpse or a quote or anything from Kenji Sato. Though of course, they were forced to keep a more-respectable distance than they had prior to the USJ Incident, because now the school sported turret-mounted perimeter defenses.
One ambitious reporter though they were just a front and attempted to climb the fence, only to get electrocuted and then punted off the wall with a manipulator arm equipped with a tasteful boot on the end.
Suffice it to say, the press would not be getting onto Yuuei grounds again quite that easily.
When Yuuei staff said that the new boarding school would be sufficiently defended, they meant it.
What Yuuei staff would not say, is that some of the perimeter defenses mistook the Principal for run-of-the-mill vermin and zapped him when he got too close to the perimeter defenses on one of his morning walks.
For the chimeric principal, it was always an uphill battle being treated as an "equal" among Humans, and the fewer known incidents that "dehumanized" him, the better.
*SIAFO,SW?*
"Principal Nezu, you wanted to see me?" All Might asked as he stepped into the principal's office.
"Ah, yes. I wanted to introduce the new live-in maid who applied for the position," Nezu stated, gesturing with his paw to the woman who had been sitting across from him.
The applicant in question hastily bowing, All Might took note of the fact that she was a young woman, maybe in her mid-20s with brown eyes and shoulder-length hair of the same color. She was pretty for certain, pretty-enough she could've starred in tasteful magazines, but what caught All Might's attention were the scars littering both her legs, visible between the end of her skirt and the top of her boots.
All Might felt like he knew this woman, it was niggling at the back of his mind, but he just couldn't put his finger on it…
"A-All Might! I-I never got the opportunity, but… thank you… Thank you so much…!" the woman sobbed as her eyes began to water.
Hearing her voice and seeing the way twin waterfalls of tears rolled down her cheeks, like a bolt of lightning, All Might suddenly realized who this woman was.
"Ah, I see the last horse has crossed the finish line~" Nezu chirped merrily. "All Might, I'd like to introduce you to Moko Tamashi. The last woman you ever saved."
"Y-Young miss, are you sure you should be up so soon?!" the former-No.1 Hero panicked, coughing up blood in the process.
"D-D-Don't worry about it, Recovery Girl helped me get back on my feet once Tiger and the others rescued me," the woman said waving her hands frantically in front of her.
"Erm, Nezu, what is this about a live-in maid?" All Might blinked.
"There's actually quite a fascinating story about that~" Nezu chuckled. "Miss Tamashi, if you'd be so inclined to explain. Once you're done, All Might will escort you to your new place of residence."
"O-O-Of course, sir," the woman replied with a hasty bow before walking over to the sofas in the middle of the room. She moved in to help All Might down into his seat, but the man waved her off; he wasn't that decrepit quite yet.
"So, what made you want to apply for the position?" All Might inquired as his thoughts raced.
While Kenji's on-call caretaker was one of Recovery Girl's former students, who specialized in physical rehabilitation and long-term care of those who suffered grievous injuries (most-notably from those that suffered Villain-related injuries), the position of live-in maid to keep the place clean or just generally help him around the house was one that had yet to be filled. For obvious reason, intensive screening had to be done to make sure the Villains didn't play them for a bunch of suckers again by slipping someone unscrupulous onto Yuuei grounds, so Nezu must've chosen this woman, after such a short amount of time, for a very good reason.
" . . . After I saw the news of what happened, I realized, I recognized him. Or at least, his original body," Moko began, twitting her thumbs nervously. "Back before… what happened… Mr. Sato and I worked across the street from one another. We didn't speak to one another, not actively, but on a few occasions, our two companies would have drinking companies at the same bar. On our first meeting, I thought he was pretty cute, I even thought about asking him out, but when I found out he was Quirkless…"
At this, a look of intense shame and regret came to her features, and she could no longer look All Might in the eye.
"As soon as I learned that… I was such a horrible person to him…! I treated him like a diseased animal, like he were something less than human…! I called him names, I flaunted my Quirk at him, poured my drink over his head… Sure, I was drunk, we all were, but that was no excuse for how I treated him!" she said cupping her eyes with her hands as fresh tears flowed. "So when I realized it was him that taunted All for One away from the two of us… How he gave up his body to save everyone… gave up his body to save me…!" she hiccupped. "When I saw the posting, learned where he was going to be living…"
"Miss Tamashi, I'm aware that you feel like you might owe him for how you treated him in the past," All Might hummed, having in part experienced a lesser form of discrimination back before everything changed, "but don't you still have a career to worry about?"
"She doesn't, actually, and this is the most-delicious part~" Nezu chuckled as his tea cup rattled in his paw, the demonic laugh that gave him the title 'Murder Mouse' sounding through the office before he comported himself.
" . . . After things began to settle down from the Kamino Nightmare… when I applied for a transfer to a different branch in another city, the higher-ups at the company I worked at… They blamed All Might's retirement on me, used me as some kind of scapegoat and blacklisted me…!" Moko choked out. "Maybe it was just a coincidence… but if there really is a God out there, he might've used that as a form of payback… For how I treated Kenji back then…!"
Nezu off to the side chortled at both the irony and un-irony of the whole thing, but Moko continued.
"I don't know if Kenji will recognize me or not… But even if he doesn't, if he doesn't know or even care that he saved my life back then too…" Moko said as she got her sobbing out of control. "I owe him. I owe him so much, and I'll never be able to pay that debt back, but if I don't at least try… I'll never be able to look myself in the mirror again."
"But what if he finds out and rebukes you?" All Might inquired curiously.
"Then it'll be exactly what I deserve," the brunette admitted self-deprecatingly. "I barely use my Quirk outside of home or even the break room to reach the top shelf, and I certainly couldn't have become a Hero with a Quirk like that..." she said in a tone that told Nezu as well as All Might that she'd tried and failed on that front; not an uncommon story in the slightest. "But back then… Back then I was such a disgusting person, mocking him for not having a power few of us even get to use anyway," she said as she clenched her fists. "That's why I'll work hard! I'll work weekends, unpaid overtime, clean windows, whatever you need! Whatever he needs! Because this… This is the only way I can apologize to him! Bow my head and tell him how sorry I am for what I did, and what I said all those times!"
"Wait, you mean that happened more than once?!" All Might gawped incredulously.
"I'm not proud of it… I should never have been proud of it…" she said somberly, unable to look the former No.1 Hero in the eye. And why would he? All Might was a paragon of virtue while she herself was practically the opposite. "That's why I applied. And even if he rebukes me, sends me out onto the street… Even if he takes my Quirk as penance, I have to at least try and make this right with him. Otherwise, what's even the point of this life that he, that he and you saved?"
"There are certainly far worse motivators to become a live-in maid~" Nezu chuckled from off to the side. "You have the job, Ms. Tamashi. For however long Mr. Sato will put up with you that is~"
"Nezu, please don't torment this poor girl..." All Might said as the young woman curled in on herself, unable to look the chimera in the eye.
"And why would I need to? She's doing a good-enough job all on her own~"
"Let's just go," All Might said offering his elbow to the young woman, hoping she wouldn't lead him out of the room like an infirmed grandfather.
Even if it was his "Cloak of Invisibility" for so many years...
*SIAFO,SW?*
With Nezu's parting words fresh in their minds, the young woman and the former No.1 Hero made their way through Yuuei's campus grounds. Alliance Heights was coming along nicely, and in a few days more the Yuuei staff would have either the permission or refusal to bring those they had been preparing for the future under their care. As a matter of fact, All Might was to join Eraserhead on the morrow to visit the parents of Class 1-A and try to convince them to entrust the welfare of their children to an institution which had failed them on so many occasions.
Oh, and also to let their children near the body of an SS-Rank Supervillain. But the entire point of the transparency surrounding Kenji Sato and his "Quirk", was to get the point across that it wasn't All for One being given some kind of pardon.
"All Might…" Moko said as Kenji Sato's residence became visible off in the distance. "If Kenji… If Mr. Sato doesn't recognize me right away…"
"I won't say a word. That's a hurdle that only you and you alone can overcome," All Might replied somberly, wondering if all of this lining up was part of the universe's sick sense of humor.
Like Tomura Shigaraki being Nana Shimura's grandson.
" . . . Thank you. I'm… I'm sorry you had to waste your power on such a despicable person like me," she said, still unable to meet him in the eye.
"Every life is worth saving," All Might said in answer. "And every person is capable of change. If they weren't, there wouldn't be much point in doing what we do."
Moko could only nod her head at this.
If Kenji Sato hadn't had that body-swapping Quirk he'd kept to himself, if he really had died back then, she'd have never been able to apologize to him. But Kenji Sato was still alive, so even if he didn't accept her apology, even if he chose to cast her out, Quirk or no Quirk, she'd at the least still be able to apologize for what she had done.
And in all likelihood, coming out even was the best the young woman could hope for.
Assuming she could get over the fact that Kenji now inhabited the body of the man that had killed so many, that had pushed All Might to the brink and beyond that, there was no way he'd reciprocate even if she attempted to form a romantic interest in him. Because at the end of her day, the first impression she made with him was that she was a Quirkist bitch, and any attempt at anything more than an apology, would simply be seen as her sucking up to him only because he had "a strong Quirk".
A part of her truly regretted the way she'd treated him, and in the back of her mind, she idly wondered what sort of turn her life would've taken had she not let the Quirk he "didn't have" influence his value in her eyes. Would they have gotten married? Given her parents the grandbabies they always pestered her about? Would she have even been in Kamino Ward at all when the Nightmare happened?
Of course, there was no way she could truly take back the things she'd said, the things she'd done. And even if he did accept her apology, if he might've hypothetically accepted her into his life if she chose to court him… she didn't deserve it.
Making his life just a little bit easier… That was the most she could do for him until she gathered up the courage to say she was sorry.
*SIAFO,SW?*
Stepping up to the impressive-looking quasi-mansion and ringing the doorbell-
"A visitor is here!"
"Ugh, whyyyyyy…?" All Might groaned as that embarrassing tone sounded.
"You… recorded doorbell chimes?" Moko blinked, trying to stifle a giggle.
"And ringtones, which in hindsight were both embarrassing…" All Might admitted as he rubbed the back of his head.
He hoped no-one would call him at that exact moment...
The door coming open from the inside, any fear Moko might've felt from being so close to the body of the SS-Rank Supervillain that almost killed her, was almost immediately quashed by the fact that he was clad head to toe in All Might paraphernalia. Covering up his scarred-over eye sockets were a pair of All Might-brand sunglasses, a pair of plastic hair tufts helping distract from the scar-covered scalp, taking the edge off of having to look at him in the non-eyes.
"All Might, that's you, right?" Kenji asked squinting in his direction; if one could even call it that without working eyes. "I'm trying to get the hang of 'Potato Man's' sensory Quirks, so I'm not 100% sure."
All Might had to stifle a chuckle at the former Office Man calling the most-evil Villain of all time "Potato Man".
"It's me. Can you tell me how many fingers I'm holding up?"
"Two, which is the same number of people on my doorstep."
"Did your [Infared] tell you that?"
"No. Right now I'm working on [Echolocation]."
"Ah, I see."
"So… who's this?" Kenji asked gesturing to the lady standing to All Might's right.
"This is the new live-in maid. She'll be helping you around the house."
"I see…" Kenji hummed. "Nezu didn't put her in a maid outfit or anything, did he? Because like I said earlier, even if he did, I wouldn't be able to notice."
"Do you… Do you like maid outfits?" Moko inquired curiously, trying to break the ice.
"No, of course not," Kenji said dismissively. "I didn't have the legs for it then, and, I don't have the legs for it now."
"Heh. Heheheh…" Moko found herself chuckling.
"Well, come on in. No sense in you sitting on the doorstep all day," Kenji said wheeling away.
"So… you seem to be in better spirits," All Might hummed as Kenji wheeled over to the radio, noticing him sitting up a bit straighter in his chair.
"Hm? Oh, yeah. I found a [Pain Dampening] Quirk swimming around in here somewhere, so I'm using it to take the edge off," he said twirling a finger next to his head.
"Well, I guess it helps not feeling like you got run over by a bus or anything," All Might hummed, wondering just how many Quirks All for One had left behind.
And if Kenji Sato truly did Reincarnate, like in the old manga and LNs that he used to read, then a Quirk like [All for One] was practically tailor made for someone with the perspective of an "Other Worlder". Because if there was one thing an Isekai Protagonist had going for them, even if it wasn't a "Cheat Ability", it was the Perspective of being from a completely different world. And oftentimes it was that same perspective that let a man go from "Commonplace" to "The World's Strongest".
Not that anyone outside himself, Naomasa, Hawks, the Madam President, and their hand-picked 'Mind Sniffers' knew as such. The measures of "Transparency" they'd operated under had done a remarkable job of convincing the public that Kenji Sato's Quirk was [Body Swap], and that he'd had enough attachment to his own body that he'd refused to use it in anything other than a life-or-death scenario.
"Um, Mr. Sato," Moko spoke up, reaching out to touch him only to draw her hand back. "I uh… Even if it was only indirectly, you saved my life back at Kamino Ward, so I just want to say… Thank you."
"You're giving me a little too much credit," Kenji shrugged in his seat. "By the time I started throwing rocks, I'd already lost so-much blood I could barely see the night sky, let alone anything over Small Might's shoulder."
"S-Small Might?" Moko choked out while All Might felt the void his stomach used to occupy throb.
"I mean, that was the last thing I ever actually saw; 'Potato Man' looming over an emaciated sun-dried tomato in ill-fitting All Might cosplay," he said rubbing at his scarred-over eyes under the tacky shades. "Why'd the last thing I ever saw have to be a couple of old guys? Why couldn't it have been a pretty girl?"
"Well sorry for being some old guy in ill-fitting cosplay," All Might huffed.
Moko for her part wasn't completely sure where she fit into this anymore…
"Anyway, I assume there's a guestroom somewhere in the back, so pick whichever one you want and make yourself at home," Kenji said making himself more-comfortable in front of the radio. " . . . Are we just waiting for your luggage to arrive? I didn't pick anything up with [Echolocation]."
"Oh, um, all my stuff's still buried under fifty tons of concrete," Moko answered awkwardly.
The only clothes she had to her name after leaving the field hospital at the edge of Kamino Ward were all donated pieces from disaster relief. She didn't look bad, but she didn't look great either… and once the other shoe dropped, she was swift to realize who her real friends were and who wasn't.
Which was to say, as soon as she got blacklisted, she didn't have any friends left.
And to make matters worse, their Quirks were barely better than her own!
"Hm. Well, I'm sure the principal will give you an advance on your next paycheck if you need anything."
"I'll keep that in mind, sir. Thank you for welcoming me into your home," Moko said bowing at the waist.
*SIAFO,SW?*
"So, how did the little lady do?" Nezu inquired from behind a cup of tea.
"Well, all my merchandise is definitely serving its purpose…" All Might hummed, having never once in a million years thought an SS-Rank Villain would be using it to disarm… just about anyone who saw him.
"So Kenji doesn't know who she is?"
"According to him, All for One and myself were the last people he ever saw," All Might shrugged. "Not that it actively came up in his interrogation."
"Do you think he's lying?"
"Hard to say. By all accounts, he really was in the process of dying of blood loss, and I saw it myself. A minute after All for One got switched into Kenji's body, *Thbbbbbt*"
And boy was that a sentence.
"Not discounting that he might have a very good 'poker face', on the half of his face that actually is a face... You don't spend two decades hiding a vilified Quirk from the world without being able to square your features and hide your thoughts from everyone around you," Nezu hummed thoughtfully.
"Which reminds me for whatever reason, what's that you've been working on?" All Might asked peeking at Nezu's desk, which at the moment was home to forms that didn't look like what he normally saw the chimera working on.
"A proposal from the HPSC in relation to some budgetary reports from Tartarus," Nezu hummed as he scribbled notes on the paper.
"Budgetary reports from Tartarus... Wait, you don't mean...?"
"Thaaat's right!" Nezu grinned. "Mr. Sato's going to bleed them dry, and I'm getting my 15% straight out the nose~!"
"Sooo... what, you're his agent?"
"The smartest mammal on Earth with the power of two working eyes!"
"I'm almost afraid to ask if what I think I'm thinking is actually what you're thinking..."
"Huhuhuhu...! Yes, beee afraid~ Be verrry afraid~"
"No amount of therapy, will ever make this moment right."