Chapter 37: Coronation of Evil

Hitoshi Shinso woke up from his hospital bed in a panic.

The last thing he remembered was that he was doing that stupid Test of Courage with Kodai, when he confronted her about being Megethos. And then… those Villains showed up! The two of them had to hide, she pulled out a phone, and then… she knocked him out.

That could only mean that Kodai really was a member of the League. She was Megethos, the crazy masked woman who fought Hitoshi, and then alongside UA on I-Island.

Kodai didn't deny it… but she also knew that the others couldn't find out.

How long was he unconscious? What had happened to everyone else? Were they okay? Questions for later. He needed to get out of this bed, and warn everyone about Kodai –

"Shinso! Calm down! You're only going to strain yourself!"

The purple-haired teen turned around to see Yaoyorozu. "You're here?"

"Yes, I woke up just a half-hour ago from Mustard's gas attack," she said, only making Hitoshi even more confused. Who the fuck was Mustard? "Everyone else has already left –"

He didn't have time for this. "KODAI! Where is she?!"

"The League of Villains has both her and Aizawa-sensei," Yaoyorozu said, as she picked up a nearby remote and turned on the TV in his room. "See, it's been all over the news –"

"The scene below is straight out of a nightmare! Half of Kamino Ward demolished in a single horrifying instant! All Might is currently fighting All For One, who caused the blast! I can't believe it… He's holding his own against the Symbol of Peace! IS EVERYONE SEEING THIS?!"

No… Hitoshi's eyes widened at what he saw on the screen. Those people down there… They were the Villains, the Heroes, his classmates, All Might… and Kodai. I'm too late…

"...It's been, what? Oh, now I remember? SIX YEARS."

Ochako Uraraka had no idea what was going on anymore.

Oh, she thought she understood. She thought that All For One was supposed to be a man decades, maybe even centuries, old, who simply did what he did because he was a power-hungry sadist. She also thought that her best friend was, while quiet, a good person deep down. She also thought that All Might would be the Hero that would always allow good to win.

But now, All For One was a teenager her age, one that was not only masquerading around as a member of the Business Course of UA, but one that All Might seemingly knew back from… his fight that resulted in his weakened form. Not only that, but Yui-chan also knew who he truly was, caring for him enough that she called out to him when All Might punched him into the ground.

Could this somehow get any worse?

"Deku…?"

Spoke too soon. Ochako mentally berated herself, as she turned around towards where Katsuki was, to see his face was stricken with white. As if seeing a ghost. Which, given what he had told Ochako about his "missing friend," it suddenly made a lot more sense, when the big bad boss Villain that had been antagonizing them for the last few months was said "missing friend."

Katsuki's face looking… so utterly blank. As if he had just seen his family get murdered. No, it was worse than that. There would have been sadness, or anger, but there was just… nothing.

He looked… completely broken.

The brown-haired girl tried to rationalize all of this new information. The logical part of her brain was telling her that this "Deku" Katsuki used to bully, the one with a late-blooming Quirk that was so terrifying that kids switched from mocking him as weak to a future Villain, was standing in front of her, and that her own childhood best friend, Yui-chan, was working with him.

But her emotions were in a slurry. Her heart was screaming at her that this couldn't be right. This was Yui-chan they were talking about! She was quiet, and a little bit weird, but nice! She was nice to Ochako when they were kids! She helped train with them for UA. This was wrong…

"Izuku…"

Ochako looked towards her best friend. She knew who All For One truly was. This didn't make any sense. Ochako needed her to explain. She had to have been blackmailed, she'd never do this willingly! She could tell UA, they could offer her and her family safety!

She could always tell Ochako, they were in this together! Always and forever!

"Hey… Yui-chan… what's going on…?"

The black-haired girl stood up, and didn't even look at her. "I'm sorry… Occhan."

THWIP!

And that's when she threw her knife… right towards her best friend.

The world seemed to have slowed down for Ochako right then and there. Danger Sense had already told her what was going to happen. The Quirk had warned her that Yui-chan was no longer their friend, but as the knife flew across the air towards her chest, she didn't move.

She had ignored the evidence, she had ignored her Quirk, she didn't want to believe that the first person outside her parents that cared for her would do… this… and yet…

…the knife to her chest was about to prove otherwise.

"NO!"

BOOM!

The brown-haired girl snapped back to reality, as the knife was deflected by one of Katsuki's explosions. He… he had managed to snap out of his funk when the second shit went down; he jumped back into the fray and blocked the knife coming right for her. So why…?

"URARAKA!" Todoroki shouted. "Snap out of it! We can deal with this later! Right now –"

As the One For All wielder tuned out her other friends, she focused back on Yui-chan. After throwing the knife, she had used her acrobatics (Megethos used those acrobatics) to jump away from the Heroes, flipping her way towards the green-haired teenager's (All For One's) side.

"It appears that my cover has been blown," Yui said.

"Ehh, it was getting too risky for you," the green-eyed teen said, as he leaned in… and kissed her. "Could you please take care of the bigger Hero while I take care of All Might?"

Yui smiled. "With pleasure."

Yui tried to do her homework, but there were too many thoughts going through her head.

The letter she and Izuku found was addressed to her mother. It also referenced her in the letter, along with sending her mother money, and references to being tied down.

Yui wasn't stupid. She knew what such connotations meant. That was the reason why she and Izuku knew that it would probably be best to not mention that letter.

Her father's letter.

Her mother was in contact with her father, but for some reason, her father never wanted to see her. Or, more accurately, he cares more about some dream than his own family. Was Yui being selfish for wanting to see her father? She wanted to ask him so many questions. Why did he leave? Did he not love her mother? Was she the problem?

Suddenly, something swirled at the other side of her room. It was black, with a purple mist surrounding it. The black-haired girl remained motionless, as her breath hitched. Her mind was going a million miles an hour, wondering what was going on, when suddenly…

PLOP!

Out came a man, or more accurately, a man who was tied up and gagged was tossed through the portal. He was squirming around on Yui's floor, his muffled screams easily heard.

"Mmph! Mmmph! MMMMPH!"

By the time Yui's mother slammed open the door, the portal was already gone.

"Yui! Are you all right? What was that noise… Oh my goodness, Atsuhiro!"

Immediately, Yui's eyes widened. That was the name in the letter. Which meant…

"Daddy?"

Yui Kodai remembered that memory vividly. The day her little family was reunited and whole, all thanks to the diligent efforts of a single boy. No longer would the other kids in her class whisper behind her back about being fatherless or a bastard child, all thanks to him.

All thanks to Izuku.

Naturally, Yui confronted him about it. Izuku came clean to her about everything: From the fact that his father was the former Symbol of Evil, to what happened with All Might all those years ago, and the fact that he was responsible for what was now called "the Deika City Massacre".

Yui took it pretty well, actually. She figured that her green-haired friend dabbled in not-very-legal things, given how he basically orchestrated her father's abduction. But she still cared about her friend, and would always be grateful to him for bringing her father home, and being her friend.

And while it was true that Yui was now basically a member of the League of Villains (and later, Izu-kun's girlfriend), she still had a life to live. And lucky for her, her newfound desires of evil aligned with her original plan in life: Heroics. While it was true that Izu-kun had recently acquired a UA spy, he figured that a second one wouldn't hurt, and his assessment was correct.

And it was all thanks to a certain One For All wielder.

It all began when she woke up early over a year and a half ago, when her father entered the house and her mom started arguing with him about what he was doing all night long. Yui's mom actually didn't know about her dad's secret double life as the Villain known as Mr. Compress.

As Yui's dad tried to figure out how to lie his way out of this one, the black-haired girl decided that if she wasn't going to go back to sleep, she might as well go for a run. After all, she still needed to train her body, not just her Quirk and mind.

Jogging through the streets of Musutafu, she saw a familiar bob of brown hair and her mind immediately realized that it was her honorary cousin: Occhan! She couldn't believe that she was back in town, and decided to follow her, and sneak up on her when she least expected it.

That was always fun.

Unfortunately, the fun all but died on her when she saw, from behind the mountains of trash, All Might, the man who murdered Izu-kun's father, training Occhan of all people.

When she reported all of this to her beloved, it didn't take a genius to figure out that Occhan was gonna be the newest wielder of One For All. And given Yui's past as her best friend, she was the perfect spy to keep tabs on her, and by extension, All Might. Sure, there would have been other spies, Izuku included, but Class 1-A and all those in it were her domain.

She had done everything right to a tee. Well, almost everything. There were a few times her cover could have almost been blown: Her animosity towards Bakugou (that bully deserved it, in her opinion) along with her constant glaring at All Might, in his Hero persona or outside of it, and the fact that so many other Villains were after her (Overhaul's doing, no doubt).

But these things no longer mattered now. Her cover was gone. The Hero student Rule was no more, the mask slipping away for Megethos, the new All For One's favorite blade. That exercise against Occhan and Bakugou was a nice way for her to let loose, as was her fight against Shinso at the USJ, but now… she no longer had a reason to hold back.

Izuku had given her specific instructions to stop the biggest Hero in the area, one who wasn't being accosted by her team already. All Might was already being occupied by her beloved, and while Endeavor and Uravity were both a close second, Occhan wasn't a Hero just yet, and the Flame Hero was still at the bar. Which meant that by biggest… he meant Mount Lady.

Yui could already see the look in her former mentor's eyes: The initial shock, followed by betrayal and anger, and now, a sense of duty. It was nice to know that the Hero she interned under did take her job seriously, but no amount of conviction could prepare her for what was about to happen. Mount Lady had already grown back into her titanic size after getting up from Izuku's first attack, and she was probably thinking she could just catch Yui in her hands.

That would probably be true, under normal circumstances. But after spending her last summer in the Gunga Mountains with the rest of the League, fighting Gigantomachia, not only were her physical abilities now superhuman, but her Quirk had evolved, as well.

Originally, her Size Quirk was only able to alter the size of any non-living thing she touched, nothing alive. But after weeks of constantly fighting against that monster, her Quirk had changed. She could not only change the size of living creatures, but of her own body, as well. As the giant Hero went in to grab her, Yui touched her shoulder, and…

POW!

…proceeded to punch Mount Lady in the face with her own massive fist.

But it wasn't just her fist that was massive, no. It was everything. Her entire body, her clothes, she was now just like a second Mount Lady, only playing on the side of the Villains, and one who knew hand-to-hand combat. It was no secret that Yui loved those old tokusatsu shows, especially the ones where the heroes and monsters became gigantic and fought…

Well… it was now Yui's time to finally embrace her role as the monster.

Ochako and the others watched in silent horror as Yui turned herself into a giant, and proceeded to beat up Mount Lady. The rest of the League of Villains had already gotten back up, and were also engaged with the other Heroes, as the students stood in the middle of the battle.

"We need to get out of here," Iida said. "We're only holding them back."

"He's right," Kendo said. "Let's just grab Eraserhead and go."

They're right. Forcing her legs to move, Ochako thought, We need to leave –

"No."

Danger Sense flared up once more. Looking towards where All Might and All For One were, the brown-haired girl could see that the green-haired Quirk Thief was staring right at them. "You can leave when I say so. And right now, I say it's time for a public announcement."

The freckled teen floated off the ground, looking down on everyone below him. He lifted his hand, and then… silence. Ochako wasn't sure what had happened… until she looked up. The news helicopter that was flying around them a few minutes earlier… its rotor blades had stopped moving. The only thing keeping it in the air was All For One's power.

Slowly, with a small gesture from his fingers, the helicopter got closer to the teenage Villain. One of the side doors slowly opened up, and from where Ochako was, she could see the reporter and the cameraman. "Testing, testing. Can you hear me? Are we getting a good picture?"

As the two reporters slowly nodded, the ninth wielder of One For All now understood what was happening. This was it. The USJ was to show Uravity and All Might that their mission, while not over, was no longer just their fight. Hosu showed the world that the League of Villains meant business… and this… this was the official coronation for the Symbol of Evil.

"My name is Izuku Midoriya," the teenager said, speaking into the camera. "I am the son of Inko Midoriya and Hisashi Shigaraki, known better as the former No. 1 Villain, All For One."

Inko couldn't believe what she was watching.

Mitsuki and Masaru had told her that something big was happening on the TV, so she joined them in the living room to see All Might fighting a Villain… but now…

"My father was the legendary Quirk Thief, a man so terrifying that he was considered an urban legend. Six years ago, he was killed by his arch-nemesis, the Symbol of Peace, All Might. Since then, I have spent the last six years in the shadows, consolidating my power."

This couldn't be right. Her baby boy loved Heroes. And was what he was saying about Hisashi true? Ever since she woke up and learned of what had happened to her family, Inko had hoped and prayed she could see her son again, but… not like this…

Izuku… my baby…

"I am the one responsible for the Deika City Massacre."

As the rest of the UA staff watched All For One confess to his numerous crimes, Nedzu's brain was going a hundred miles an hour. Everything was now making so much more sense!

No wonder All For One's latest exploits seemed out of character, it wasn't All For One! It had been this boy masquerading as him! A boy who had the foresight and resources to take on not just UA, but the Hero Commission and One For All's inner circle.

"I am the founder and the leader of the League of Villains, and I orchestrated the attack on the USJ. I managed to infiltrate UA, and even managed to participate in their Sports Festival, while my comrades stole the Hero Commission's dirtiest secrets, and posted them online."

Mikumo Akatani, one of the students in the Business Course. They were nothing more than a lie, a cover, a disguise, for this new All For One to sneak into UA alongside Kodai, to get a sense of their defenses, to taunt the Heroes, view the Quirks of every Hero student!

It would also definitely explain what Recovery Girl had reported…

But that just revealed a bigger question to Nedzu: What was this boy's end goal?

"And tonight… I am ready to step out of the shadows, and crown myself as the new emperor of the Japanese underworld!" the green-haired teenager said, with a sickening smile.

Emi could only watch in silent horror. This monster… he was at UA. He was in her class, sitting next to all of her students! He interacted with her husband's students, with the staff –

"Izuku-nii…?"

Emi looked over towards the living room door. "Eri, what are you doing up…?"

"I heard the TV," the little girl told her mother. "It's… it's Izuku-nii's voice…"

The green-haired woman was confused, before she looked back at the TV. Slowly, Emi's head remembered what had happened so long ago… the person Eri had described that sent her to Shouta and Emi… a boy with matching green hair and eyes… and freckles.

It was him. It was All For One.

"My name is All For One… THE NEW SYMBOL OF EVIL!"

How ironic, Toshinori thought bitterly. He had searched for years for this boy, to save him from this sort of fate, only for the child to embrace it long ago. He had taunted the blond Hero back at the USJ, and now, he would exact his revenge for everything All Might had ever done.

As the boy's arm began to expand, green lightning crackling all around it, Toshinori could see how this would end. Using whatever combination of Quirks the boy was, he would strike down where the blond was standing. Fine. All Might would not run. He would not back off.

The Symbol of Peace would face his end with a smile on his face; not one to fool himself that he did a good job, but to reassure the millions watching now, that no matter what, everything would be all right. As Izuku kept stacking Quirks on top of each other, Toshinori remembered the past.

He remembered what had happened after he faced off against the real All For One…

"It's reckless, Toshinori," Mirai spoke, in a serious tone. "You should retire."

Within the halls of the hospital where the Symbol of Peace was staying, the two of them, along with Recovery Girl, Gran Torino, and Nedzu, were having a serious discussion.

"I have to…" Toshinori grunted, trying to walk.

"If you keep being a Hero in that body, it'll just make everyone suffer," his Sidekick said. "You should just pass down One For All to someone cheerful, strong and approachable –"

"I have to find that child!"

"I understand, that as the Symbol of Peace, you would do such a thing, and I hold it in great esteem, but if you continue your Hero activities like this, I will not support you. I can't."

"..."

"..."

"What did you see with your Foresight?"

"All Might!" Nighteye barked, ignoring the question. "What I saw cannot be changed, you know that! I'm here because I wanted to do something to help you! All Might! PLEASE!"

However, the No. 1 Hero ignored him, and kept walking forward. Until…

"ALL MIGHT! IF YOU CONTINUE LIKE THIS…"

"..."

"YOU'LL FACE OFF AGAINST ALL FOR ONE'S CHILD, AND DIE AN UNSPEAKABLY GRUESOME DEATH! HE'LL KILL YOU AS REVENGE FOR HIS FATHER!"

Toshinori wondered if there was truly nothing that could have been done to change the outcome. Perhaps everything he had done to alter his destiny only sealed it, like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Perhaps the future was absolute, and it truly didn't matter what he did.

As the new All For One pushed aside the news helicopter he had in his telekinetic grip, he revealed the monstrosity of an arm he had created. Toshinori himself wasn't sure how many Quirks it took to turn his arm into a weapon like that, but he knew it was gonna hurt.

The rotors of the helicopter came back to life, the vehicle ready to record the end of All Might. But Toshinori was fine with that. He'd lay down his life protecting not just his successor, but his students, his colleagues, and his fellow Heroes. While he did regret he would not be there to scold Uraraka and the others for this bone-headed plan of theirs, he was smiling.

They would all become wonderful Heroes.

All For One pointed the arm down at the Symbol of Peace, and fired –

"NO!"

Ochako was done standing there, dumbfounded.

All For One and Megethos had already made a fool of her and her classmates back at the USJ. She had watched helplessly as All For One shoved her mentor into the dirt. She let Megethos and the other Villains run the show back on I-Island, and to make matters worse, they had the audacity to stand in front of her as her classmates, as Kodai and Akatani.

Well, she was done with it.

Using as much power as she could put into her legs, the final user of One For All blitzed her way through the field, standing in front of All Might, as the blast was unleashed.

"NO!"

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

That was her declaration. That the Symbol of Peace would not be killed like some animal that needed to be put down; he would not go down as an old man full of regrets to some goddamn teenage edgelord! As the winds blew past her, she held firm, but it hurt like hell.

Her fingers were screaming at her to stop. It was like Muscular all over again, only this time, rather than her arms being at the epicenter of this pain, it was her entire body, with her hands taking the brunt of it. All For One's attack was the unstoppable force, destroying everything in its path, and Uravity was the immovable object, protecting everyone behind her.

FWOOO…

When the dust cleared, everyone on the field, and everyone who was looking in front of a screen, bore witness to the brown-haired girl, Uravity, the Sports Festival winner, who had protected the Symbol of Peace, still standing tall, pink lightning emitting off of her body.

But despite the fact that Ochako stood tall, Izuku Midoriya… began to laugh.

"Hehehehe… hahahaha… HAHAHAHA!"

Confused, Ochako's head snapped back, to see that All Might… had shrunk. That was bad. While UA knew the truth, the rest of the world didn't. Well, they did now.

And the new Symbol of Evil reveled in that fact.

"BEHOLD! THE WORLD'S BELOVED SYMBOL OF PEACE!" All For One said, pulling from his speech back at the USJ. "Look at his sunken eyes, his hollow cheeks! This is what happens when you put the weight of the world in a single man, no matter how powerful!"

As much as Ochako wanted to hide All Might from the cameras right now, she knew it was impossible. The helicopter above them was picking up everything,

All For One pointed to the camera. "You did this, and now, the sole pillar of Hero society has collapsed! Society can't stand on a single pillar, it needs an entire foundation!"

We did this. The words rattled through Ochako's mind. All For One was blaming this society for what has happened to All Might. To be reduced from an unstoppable titan that always smiled to an emaciated cripple who could no longer buff up into his Hero persona. But there was more to that, wasn't there? All For One may have announced himself as this world's new antagonist, the evil everyone was to unite against, but he had yet to announce this world's new Heroes.

"THE STUDENTS OF UA'S HERO COURSE!" All For One shouted, his hands up to the heavens. "They are the shining lights that will replace All Might's now extinguished flames!"

There it was. This was All For One's plan. To have people forget about his father, and to have people forget about All Might; to forget about the old guard. The ones representing a rivalry that spanned back since One For All's inception. For when people thought of the word "Villain," his face would now be the one everyone thought of, and on the Hero side of the coin…

"And as for any would-be Villain who even thinks of trying to usurp me… know that the consequences will be far more horrifying than this!" All For One announced.

That… was odd. While the rest of the speech seemed already-prepared, that last part seemed… almost improvised, as if it was just added recently. Was that in response to the so-called Paranormal Liberation Front? Were they that much of a threat?

Then again, he thought Stain needed to be bumped off…

Ochako stopped thinking about that, when a dark portal opened up where All For One was beginning to drop down towards. "Ah, Kurogiri. Perfect timing. It is time for us to leave."

"Yes, master," the living mist said.

"Well, this is All For One, signing off!" the no-longer masked Villain said, waving at the news helicopter, before signaling to the other members of the League that it was time to leave.

Ochako and the others looked behind them. The Heroes that were with them, Top Heroes, were exhausted and battle-worn. The initial attack All For One sent that destroyed the warehouse had taken a lot out of them, and while All Might was taking on the big boss, the lackeys were chipping away at the Pros. The most evident example of that was Mount Lady, who had been taken down by the super-sized Megethos while All For One was making his speech.

There was nothing the Heroes could do, and Ochako knew it.

Carmilla happily skipped through the portal, while Mustard gave everyone the middle finger. The Icemen duo simply nodded towards Todoroki, before also disappearing along with the Rapper, while Larceny and Punch Drunk laughed at the Heroes who couldn't do anything to stop them.

Yui… no, Megethos, followed the rest of the League, towards the portal, but before she went through, she looked back at her former classmates, and said, "We'll see each other again soon."

All For One was the only one now left. As he walked towards Kurogiri's portal, he stopped, looking back, he pointed towards Ochako, and smiled. "Now, Uravity… it's your turn."

And then… he was gone.

It had now been a few hours since the battle. The press had already begun trying to figure out a name for this nightmare, but what really mattered was the people who were there. Endeavor arrived a few seconds after All For One left, and immediately began the relief effort.

Apparently, multiple Nomus appeared between the secret bar and the battlefield, causing the police and additional Heroes to be delayed from helping out All Might and the others. Even while caught off-guard, it somehow seemed like All For One was always three steps ahead.

Aizawa-sensei and the other Pro Heroes, All Might especially, were sent to the hospital, the same one that admitted the UA students after the camp was attacked. Ironically enough, Ochako had to get admitted there again, after holding off All For One's final attack.

The majority of the damage was on her hands, so she didn't require any sort of full-body intensive care. She was able to have visitors, and while some of her classmates who joined in on the rescue did talk to her for a few minutes, they didn't stay for long. Ochako figured that her parents would also show up, given that they probably saw her show up on TV.

But one last visitor did snap her out of her thoughts.

It was Katsuki. The very same Katsuki whose whole purpose for being a Hero had now been destroyed, now that the friend he promised to find was the leader of the League.

"Hey," he whispered.

"Hey," she said back. "How are you feeling?"

"...I don't know," he admitted.

Ochako couldn't blame him. In some odd way, she felt the same.

Author's Note: I've been planting the seeds of Izuku's evil deeds since the very first chapter, from the destruction of Deika City, to why Mr. Compress was with the League way earlier than he should have been, and it has all paid off!

I'm sure there's more I could say, but for now, I want to read the comments…

EmilMobile: I WILL ALWAYS END ON THE JUICIEST CLIFFHANGERS, I THOUGHT YOU WOULD KNOW THIS BY NOW! But in all seriousness, I'm glad that you enjoyed the reveal, and I hope that this chapter was what you were hoping to see!

DevilJoker: Yeah, no, aside from the fact that All Might has been forcefully retired, this chapter also had Midoriya kinda declare his own version of a war on the world.

Joesgood: Mwahaha! Yes! Your anguish is my nourishment! I'm glad that you also enjoyed how I went with writing this chapter. Originally, I wasn't gonna have any of the flashbacks, but I realized I didn't have enough to write the chapter and have the big reveal happen at the right time, so I took the parts from one of my earlier versions of the story and turned them into flashbacks. But I do have to make one correction, Inko isn't dead, she was just comatose. The way Izuku worded it made it seem like she was dead. But yeah, there was also the reveal of Izuku's Quirk, which is way worse than All For One.

Escaramelo: Causing physical discomfort while also sensing the character's emotions? That's a new one. Let's see if this happens to you again in this chapter…

And now, it's back to the regular old shilling…

This is no surprise by now, but I've made a Twitter account to post my art, so if anyone is interested in checking it out, /ErnaloreProf is the link.

If you want more content, visit my Discord, the link is /3PFYSt8Dqz. You can chat with others, post memes, fanfic recommendations and prompts, role play, fan art, and we even have a writer's corner now! I'll also drop by with announcements and chat with you all every now and then! Also, if you want to add me as a friend, my username is Ernalore#8663! Just please make sure to follow the rules.

Thanks for reading, and once again, see you next time!

- Ernalore