Sorahiko grumbled as he tapped his foot waiting for the microwave to finish cooking his dang fish, he swore the thing was taking longer because he kicked it last night for not heating the soup up right... well it might just be faulty after ten years but Sorahiko would personally swear that the machine had a mind of its own after all this time.
A happy little beep came a moment later and he took the plate and wandered over to the living room to eat up, he lazily flipped through the newspaper he got when he went to town and scowled seeing an article about that brain-dead zygote, apparently Toshinori was once again pushing himself well over his limits in Bangkok.
"That boy never knows when to stop." he tutted under his breath.
A soft knock made him frown, he sure as hell wasn't expecting any deliveries and he didn't have any friends that would be coming by without calling first.
Carefully Sorahiko stood and opened the door just a crack, he frowned staring at the white mammal on the other side of the door "Torino-San?" Nezu called tilted his head.
Sorahiko sighed and closed the door to unlock the door before opening it fully "What do ya want rat?" he questioned walking back to the couch and sitting down.
He might not be active anymore but he kept up with hero news and politics so he knew quite well who this animal was at his door, Toshinori had worked with the rat a few times and nearly slipped up almost telling the mammal about All For One once, Sorahiko had encouraged the stupid kid to get some advice from Nezu but it would probably take Nana raising from the grave to knock some sense into the boy these days.
"Ah, you know of me then Torino-San. Then introductions shall not be necessary, correct?" Nezu chirped as he walked inside, beady little eyes scrolling over everything before solely focusing back on himself.
The predatory glint in them was unnerving but hardly anything compared to All For One's death gaze "Yeah, yeah. Get on with it Nezu, I don't have time to fool around with any social calls." he spat back, which was a total lie, since retiring from an active field role and Toshinori defeating the big bastard he had been going stir crazy from all of his free time.
Nezu stared at him for a second then merely sat himself on a small box Sorahiko hadn't bothered to throw out just yet "Of course Torino-San," Nezu commented before turning to him "You are quite a hard man to find after all, even by my standards." the rat said off-handedly.
Sorahiko felt a small puff of pride hearing that, he had started living off the grid so All For One couldn't track himself and the kid down and he damn well hoped he was still good enough to give those in the intelligence circles a run for their money "Yes I am, so just what on earth made you seek me out to this hellhole rat?" he asked.
Nezu gave a small hum. "Well you see it has recently come to my attention that a high profile investigation of mine might have some cross over with a case of yours Torino-San." the mammal explained.
Sorahiko scowled "I don't see how, most of the villains I dealt with would be six feet under or rotting away in nursing homes at this point Nezu, is one of their brats kicking up a fuss or something?" he replied with a dismissive wave of the hand.
"I'm afraid not, the reason I'm here is for a far more delicate situation. Tell me, do you still have your hero log in?" Nezu inquired and Sorahiko scoffed.
"I might not be out there but I wouldn't let those things expire just yet." Sorahiko responded, if by chance that zygote pulled himself together and admitted when he needed help he wasn't going to let some legal eggheads get in his way.
"Then you've heard of Deku-Sensei yes?" Nezu guessed.
"Yep, the broker seems to be making most of the undergrounders lose their shit, as if we haven't had infuriating info brokers before." Sorahiko chuckled, most of the info gatherers and underground were pissed with this Deku-Sensei since they haven't found anyone willing to out the broker.
"Indeed, however recently one of my colleagues proposed a connection to a villain, though I've not been able to find much in verified information of said villain, hence why I was hoping you would read me in on them." Nezu elaborated.
Sorahiko raised an eyebrow "What villain?" he questioned.
"Well, Tsukauchi-San referred to them as All For One. I believe you know of this villain from what he told me yes?" Nezu inquired tilting his head.
Sorahiko shot up and glared down at the rodent "What does that bastard have to do with this?" he growled, momentarily fearing that Nezu was about to tell him that All For One, somehow survived when Toshinori bashed his damn brains in.
"Sir Nighteye believes that Deku-Sensei could possibly be a descendant of All For One who is following in the man's footsteps now that the man is dead, Tsukauchi-San had asked for my opinion on the theory... unfortunately, I don't know much about All For One and how he ran his operations so I can't say if All For One is or isn't connected to Deku-Sensei." Nezu answered.
Sorahiko took a deep breath as he leaned back into the couch dragging a hand down his face, of course that bastard wouldn't just stop be a problem after dying and would have kids running around.
"Right of course it would be the kid that would go to you, he was the only one with the brain cells to do so. Greenie would too if he didn't listen to the damn Zygote." Sorahiko commented shaking his head, scowling as he thought of Sasaki, of course the man would only grow a spine when it came to Toshinori being on his deathbed.
He still had a bone or two to pick with that uppity brat, first Greenie bullied his way in, only to dip the second shit got real and Toshinori actually needed the brat by his side.
*No, no. Focus Sora, you can mentally bash Greenie anytime.* he internally scolded himself shaking his head "Okay rat, what do you need to know? The bastard had his hands in a lot of places." Sorahiko pressed.
"Hm, I suppose I'd like to know what All For One's goals were, his grand plan if you would?" Nezu replied simply.
Sorahiko frowned "Unfortunately, I couldn't say. All For One kept his cards to his chest, most of the plans I do know of were his petty ones, like with the Shimura's." he answered.
"The Shimura's you say? You would not happen to mean the Shimura family massacre, would you?" Nezu guessed and Sorahiko would have to admit he was a touch envious of Nezu's brain power.
"One and the same. Old friend of mine Shimura Nana, got on the wrong side of him, she wasn't the first but unlike most of the folks that bastard targeted, she used to have a husband and kid." Sorahiko confirmed with a nod.
Nezu seemed to be more alert at the name "Ah, I believe you're speaking of the Satellite heroine, Comet?" Nezu correctly surmised.
Sorahiko couldn't help a dry chuckle upon hearing that name "I'm only half surprised you know her," he commented, a swell of memories, good and bad popping to life and he reminded himself he should look through his newspaper cut outs again.
"But you're correct, All For One killed her husband and she tried to keep her son safe by cutting all ties from the boy hoping All For One wouldn't find him... however, that didn't work." Sorahiko elaborated morosely.
Nana had told them not to interfere with the boy and Sorahiko respected that decision even though he personally thought the whole thing was a stupid idea, still it is possible that little Kotaro was better off this way but Sorahiko would have hoped that the poor boy would have lived a slightly better life with him, maybe.
"I apologize, that must have been a difficult thing for you to hear about." Nezu sympathized with him and Sorahiko sighed shaking his head.
"The boy didn't have much chance with All For One gunning for him, just more proof that the bastard is as petty as he is vindictive." Sorahiko said scowling down at the ground.
"I see. If you can, what exactly did Comet do to have gained All For One's ire? I doubt most would get his attention." Nezu inquired with slight hesitation.
Sorahiko took a deep breath then exhaled "She was chosen to carry his brother's quirk." he replied "Don't know his name and the bastard ain't inclined to share but All For One, way back when had a kid brother whose quirk was the opposite of his own, a quirk that could be passed on and never stolen. This quirk has been passed on for a few generations now, with each of the holders being dragged into the fight against that son of a bitch. Nana was the seventh holder, and I'm sure you know her successor seeing how the Zygote's topped the charts for years now." Sorahiko further explained.
"Ah. I was wondering how All Might was involved in this, though I suppose that makes sense in hindsight. The man was quite a bit more paranoid than the average hero today." Nezu mused out-loud.
"Rightfully so, you think I lived in this place for the past fifty years for nothing? The bastard had eyes and ears everywhere on the island, and I wasn't going to take any chances that All For One would wait to get his hands on Toshinori." Sorahiko scoffed jabbing a thumb at the building falling apart around them.
Nezu tilted his head "I suppose that is true. Tell me, Torino-San how extensive do you think All For One's reach truly was?" Nezu pressed.
"Afraid he had his hands everywhere during my day, I was damned convinced the hero safety commission's president was in the bastard's pocket with all those idiotic laws he passed. Knew he had most of the police too since those guys weren't all that helpful back then. Can't be sure if the politicians knew he was their main backer or not, but there's a reason I haven't been to a hospital until this year." Sorahiko responded reaching between the cushions for a bottle of liquor and a shot glass.
Sorahiko raised an eye in question to the mammal, Nezu merely motioned him to go ahead and he poured himself a glass "And as I'm sure anyone with two brain cells would guess, two centuries were more than enough to get damn near every criminal under his rule, couldn't tell you how many times Nana and I got jumped after a difficult patrol." Sorahiko admitted before he took a sip and shook his head at the taste.
"Hm, so gaining power through people is something Deku-Sensei and All For One have in common, I'll have to comb through some records but I believe Deku-Sensei has yet to influence anyone outside other criminals and villains." Nezu commented and Sorahiko raised an eyebrow.
"I wouldn't be so sure, the commission stone-walled you for way too long according to what I saw and if Deku is All For One's bastard child I wouldn't be surprised if he blackballed them into keeping you from looking into him as he got his ducks in a row." Sorahiko pointed out.
Nezu blinked and gave a slight hum "Perhaps." the mammal agreed.
"The reason Info brokers like Deku are so hard to pin down is because they can't be tracked all that easily if their people don't talk, most work on their own through so we could just arrange a meeting or follow a criminal to one, but from what I understand he's got the Vespas playing middleman for him and that is what's causing problems." Sorahiko mentioned.
Nezu nodded "Correct, from what we can gather Deku-Sensei exclusively works through word of mouth and never meets most of his clients in person. There are no conversations directly between the villains we've managed to catch or the Vespas who meet with them, a few of the telepaths who read their minds didn't have any trace of the man, his voice or his work." Nezu told him.
Sorahiko tsked "Paranoid bugger, but effective. Using a Vespa telephone system makes mind readers useless unless we get someone higher on the chain, and without a phone number to trace or some of his physical work to look at it is no wonder he's been running you guys in circles." he replied.
"Indeed, and while we have a pattern of movement for him, no one has been able to actually find him in person since we don't have any description of how he looks. The most information we've gotten is indirectly." Nezu commented "Nomori Ren, confirmed a gender and his existence as a person who worked with quirks but refused to give us any details once he saw we were trying to catch him." Nezu added.
"Heard about that, fucking shame about the kid and his father having to go through that... but what do you mean about Deku working on quirks? I knew he was re-training folks with their quirks but not on the quirks themselves." Sorahiko questioned.
"Ah, that is part of Sir's theory so you wouldn't find it on the site. Given the drastic improvement of the villains with their quirks Sir Nighteye believes that Deku-Sensei isn't just training them but perhaps using a version of All For One's quirk to make their quirks more powerful in some way." Nezu elaborated for him and Sorahiko couldn't help a sigh.
"Greenie would, he always got a touch paranoid whenever it came to copy quirks or the like. Couldn't blame the brat though, he was right sometimes but he always got hung up on those quirks. And something like this would have definitely brought him to think up something like that." Sorahiko said back before he took another sip.
"I understand, though that is all speculation at this point Torino-San." Nezu pointed out.
"Yeah, but I can see where the kid is coming from. A big name like that going all over the island and "fixing" people's quirks? Sounds a lot like how the bastard began way back when." Sorahiko mused.
"Does it? Interesting. Pray tell, did All For One have any feelings towards heroes? Any favorites?" Nezu asked.
"Sort of, had a big thing for quirks so if a hero had a useful one they tended to get higher capture rates or involved in "accidents" than the average hero, but he generally didn't like them and saw them as pests." Sorahiko answered.
Nezu's ear twitched "Hm, that could probably be the first difference between the two. Deku-Sensei does have preferred heroes, Gang Orca is the first we were made aware of, but Hawks managed to survive an encounter with Raijin due to Deku-Sensei's fondness for him." Nezu said back.
"Hm, wouldn't see the bastard doing that... but ain't a reason to say Greenie's wrong just yet, All For One probably wasn't the best father and I wouldn't doubt that the kid might not be a clean cut copy of his old man if they are related, and the kid could just be more open about the heroes he likes than the bastard... sides, if Deku's picking favorites that means there are ones he doesn't like too." Sorahiko replied.
"That, would be unfortunate if true Torino-San." Nezu told him.
"Probably, any of this helping you?" Sorahiko questioned as he sipped his glass.
"Not quite." Nezu confessed, his tail swishing.
Sorahiko huffed shaking his head "I told that Zygote he should've gone to you back when the Bastard was still around, that quirk of yours would've helped back then and you'd probably have a better idea now of who we're dealing with." Sorahiko gruffly told the mammal, it was probably his fault Toshinori was so paranoid about telling people though.
Toshinori only told Greenie and Tsukauchi about All For One because it was impossible not to when one was a lie detector and the other saw All For One in one of his visions taunting Toshinori.
"I would've been honored to be of aid Torino-San." Nezu replied.
"In that case mind telling me something? Which do you think would be worse? If Deku was All For One's kid or some random person that happened to get a similar quirk?" Sorahiko asked with another sip.
Nezu was quiet for a few moments "I, suppose it would depend on what you mean by worse. Because a random stranger would be a complete unknown entity, whereas a possible child of All For One Deku-Sensei would have any number of quirks at his fingertips and All For One's most loyal followers in his hands." Nezu proposed.
"Damn bastard never makes things easy on us, not even his death." Sorahiko spat before downing the rest of his glass.
My reasons for not having Nezu in on AFO.
1. I legitimately forgot he was there.
For in canon reasons for the story.
1. Nezu's quirk works on the data he can get his hands on, so while he could suspect someone like AFO exists there wouldn't be enough proof for him beyond theory.
2. Nezu's and All Might are in very different heroing circles and Nezu's first year as principal in story is Shouta's first year as a U.A. student and therefore their paths didn't cross often
3. All Might likely slipped and told him about AFO sometime before the big fight and I can easily see this being more of a 50/50 thing about whether that would even happen given how paranoid All Might would be during that point in his life.
4. I could see Sir going behind All Might's back to include Nezu but again that would only be a 50/50 chance that would happen if their relationship was already on the rocks and if he didn't suspect Nezu was one of AFO's experiments.