"Saiki... What the heck is that?"

The boy stared flatly at Kyoka across the dining table, woodenly shovelling breakfast into his mouth. "I don't know what you mean."

Kyoka's eyes flicked to the other figure directly in her vision. The pink haired girl happily sitting on Saiki's knee eating her own breakfast of dry cereal and chopped fruit. She was dressed, technically. Even if her tanktop straps had fallen low enough she was giving the others at the table an eyeful of cleavage and just a hint of one nipple.

"Yeah, no, this is totally normal," Kyoka agreed in the driest voice she could manage. "Don't know what I was thinking."

Saiki looked to his right to the living room area where Melissa was sitting on Kaminari's knee in much the same fashion. The blonde and the blond giggling as they exchanged playfully affectionate gestures.

Momo, also watching that display, pouted. "I wanted to do that with Saiki today..."

"Snooze you lose," Mei taunted. Not intentionally, but it was just her understanding of the situation that she was informing Momo on. Mei got there first so Momo lost out. It wasn't knowingly taunting, but there was no way anyone could take it any other way.

And yet. "I see!" Momo, true to her nature, resolved to get up earlier in the future to get more Saiki cuddle time. "I won't lose next time!"

"Look," the resigned boy sighed out, "I don't even know, okay? We had some fun one night, I got her to take regular showers and now she's... Well, like this." He gestured at the girl who wasn't paying his words much attention. Finishing her cereal, she looked his way, ducking her head. He stroked her hair for a couple of seconds, then kissed her on the forehead. "Good girl."

Mei preened, pushing her empty bowl away from her as she hopped out of her seat.

"Ah!" he called after her and she froze in her tracks. "Wash these!"

"It's fine! I can use them again later–" Her jaw snapped shut as he raised his eyebrow still holding the bowl and spoon. "Fiiiine..." With a frowning pout like washing a single bowl was the most arduous and laborious task she had ever been asked to undertake, she took it into the kitchen area to wash up.

"Is she... Um..." Kyoka struggled for the right word to use.

"You think I know?" Saiki asked, knowing what she was getting at. "I'm not a doctor. Either way I'm pretty sure she's just never had anyone set boundaries for her before. Not ones they were willing to follow through on anyway. I think she's realised someone getting her to shower and eat regularly... Among other things... Is actually helping her work flow. And since that's the only thing she really cares about..."

"She's latched on to you because of it," Momo concluded. "But couldn't she just do those things on her own now that she knows it's better for her and let me have my cuddle time?"

Saiki and Kyoka stared at her.

"... Did I say that last part out loud?"

"Come here," he offered, smiling. The wealthy girl didn't waste any time once she had permission. Not quite running as she rounded the table to sit in her boyfriend's lap. Kyoka passing her breakfast across the table so Momo might do exactly what Mei had been doing minutes prior. "And no. Habits are hard to break naturally. It'd almost be easier for her to continue as she had been, even knowing it'd be less effective. Change is hard." He noticed Momo's chopsticks hovering with a piece of food between them, the girl herself unsure whether to ask permission. He decided to be the good boyfriend and let the pretty girl feed him, a joyous blush rising to her cheeks because of it. Ah, the sacrifices he made to be considerate. True hardship like none had ever seen before.

Kyoka frowned. "So she's a hopeless case who doesn't know how to take care of herself."

"Right."

"And you've taken it on yourself to keep her in line. Fed, clean, well behaved?"

Well, he hadn't done that intentionally. But the sex was great so... "I guess?"

"Congratulations, Saiki," the punk smirked at him. "You got yourself a pet. Make sure to get her declawed if she starts scratching up the furniture and take her on walks so she gets plenty of exercise." The smirk fell as she noticed Saiki's contemplative expression, a lewd smile coming to his face. "No. You're thinking dirty thoughts. You're thinking dirty thoughts when I'm trying to make fun of you. Stop it."

"I like walks," Momo piped up. "We can walk her together!"

Neither her boyfriend nor her girlfriend knew if she understood what she was proposing. But in truth, all three of them were thinking of Saiki and Momo with Mei on all fours in a collar and lead and not much else.

"You're a terrible influence," Kyoka concluded.

Saiki shrugged, taking another proffered bite from Momo's chopsticks. "I'm pretty sure this is as much her as it is me."

"I'm going to the development studio!" Mei declared as she emerged from the kitchen.

"Ah! Not before me!" Melissa called after her, escaping Kaminari's grasp to vault over the sofa, one engineer chasing another. Even after taking a shoe to the face, Kaminari reclined in his seat wearing a big grin, humming to himself.

"Still weird as hell that that happened," Kyoka muttered. "How did Zappy McDerp end up with a smart and pretty foreign girl?"

"From what I saw, he learned from the best," Saiki shrugged with a grin that he knew full well made Kyoka want to sock him in the mouth. "Anyway," he continued, giving Momo a peck on the cheek, "I'm gonna go get my stuff and get changed for training." He lifted Momo like she weighed nothing at all and left her in his seat, giving her a last kiss. "I was thinking about going shopping later if you wanna come with?"

"I'd like that!" she answered while beaming at him.

"See you in training." He circled the table, forcing some public affection on Kyoka as well even as she pretended not to appreciate it. "You wanna come too?"

"Pass," she answered shaking her head while also trying to suppress her blush. "I'm gonna be in the development studio later. I'm working on portable support item ideas with Melissa."

"Right, don't wanna get caught with your pants down. Except in the fun way."

"Pfft, shut up."

"You love it." He winked at her, kissing her forehead only making her blush brighten as he turned for the stairs.

"You're blushing," Momo called out, wearing a dreamy smile, holding out another morsel of food across the table.

"You can shut up too," the punk grumbled. Her eyes followed the chopsticks as Momo teasingly weaved them about in a blatant offer. She glanced about, checking no one else was watching. Quickly, she leaned over and closed her mouth over the offered food to her more outwardly affectionate girlfriend's delight.

"Oh, Saiki!" Izuku said with startled surprise as she met him at the foot of the stairs. "Wow, that's good timing."

"It is?"

"Yeah, I just got a call from..." She looked around, seeing the scattered classmates in the common area. "From somebody important. He wanted to talk to you. He said it was important. Do you have some time?"

"Izuku," he spoke quietly for her sake. "You know pretty much everyone knows by now, right?"

"That doesn't mean I can just... Come on, can you come or not?"

"Sure." He could spare a little training time, run some heavier drills after hours or something. "Where to?"

-(-)-

"And here I was thinking it'd be some clandestine meeting place or whatever," Saiki wondered aloud as Izuku led him into the school faculty office, two familiar faces waiting for them. He expected the emaciated face of All Might. But the other, "Officer... Tsukamachi? Right?" he tried to remember.

"Tsukauchi," the detective corrected.

"Right, sorry, and uh," he bit the inside of his cheek, "Sorry for being an asshole before. I mean it was still justified since I didn't know who the hell you were besides being some cop asking questions I didn't want to answer. But–"

"It's fine, really," Tsukauchi insisted. "Water under the bridge."

"Thanks."

"As for why here," All Might continued, "It's safe enough. Most of the teachers know the basics. And I didn't exactly keep my taking young Midoriya under my wing a secret. Or at least I didn't keep it well. It's safe to talk here."

"Cool. So... What's this about? Don't think I've got anything else to say about All for One. You already know everything I do."

"We know a little more than you at this point, unfortunate as that is to say," Tsukauchi answered cryptically. "You deserve to know, and we also need your help on top of that."

"Young Saisei," All Might carried on, "Right before you were rescued. All for One attempted to steal your quirk."

"Right," the student confirmed. "But it didn't work. I guess... Well, because of how Ragdoll said my quirk works, it might be it was such a horrible situation that it made my quirk's strengthening effect way stronger. Since there was only one thing I wanted right then, it made my quirk strong enough to resist him trying to take it." He bit the inside of his cheek. "Too much of that is guessing. Especially since I've never been able to actually make my quirk strengthen itself before, but I think that's what happened."

Tsukauchi nodded. "Given what we know now, it's the version of events that fits the outcome best. But if that's what happened, I'm sorry to tell you the resistance your quirk put up wasn't as strong as we first thought."

"Young Saisei, it seems while your quirk was strong enough to prevent you losing it, it wasn't strong enough to prevent All for One taking it. All for One now has a duplicate of your quirk."

The words of the retired hero took a moment to register in the student's mind. For them to fully click into place as a fact he understood. "How?" He asked the question, but immediately came to his own answer. "He damaged mine. Was that how?"

"That's our best guess," the detective confirmed. "For lack of better understanding, when he tried to steal your quirk, he was only able to take a piece of it. But because of the nature of your quirk, it was able to recover and regenerate to become fully intact once again."

"And on top of that... You saw the state of him at Kamino. That was from a battle he and I engaged in years ago when I thought I put him out of commission for good." All Might shook his head, casting away his own regrets of failure. "He has collected plenty of regeneration quirks over the decades. He is effectively immortal. But he couldn't recover from the wounds I dealt him, until now."

The detective continued. Staring at the hero in training as he laid out the facts of the situation without sugar coating any of it. "We believe this is the reason he was so determined to have you captured, why you were a priority of the villains attacking the training camp. He didn't know if your quirk would do what he needed, but the 'gift' he gave you was probably to test that. When your quirk easily adapted to having another, he knew you had what he needed. A quirk that can regenerate and adapt to anything given time and careful exposure. And now..." Tsukauchi dropped a file on the desk for Saiki to see. A picture of a white haired man staring into the camera, amused.

"Young Saisei, you need to understand that this is not your fault. What All for One–"

"I know," Saiki cut off the great hero before he could offer any more platitudes. "If it wasn't me it'd be something else. He's that kind of supervillain asshole, right? This is all him and his league of goons." He had done enough worrying about whether he did enough. Whether he would ever be strong enough. If he could go back to the villain attack he couldn't think of anything meaningful he would have done differently. "So. What do you need from me?"

"We need a better understanding of what he has at his disposal now," the detective answered. "What Comeback is capable of. He has your quirk, but it doesn't automatically strengthen him to your level, right?"

Saiki snorted. "From what I saw in Kamino, my level would be a downgrade for him. But no. Everything my quirk does is external. It heals, it boosts. The only way anything would carry over was if the quirk boosted itself... Which... I mean I guess if we had a quirk stealing method of our own it wouldn't work on his version either?"

"So it would just be as strong as yours is now, though," Izuku clarified. "Not how it was when you first started using it."

He looked at her, surprised. "I guess, yeah. Good point. I've been working my quirk hard since I first worked it out so it's pretty strong for what it is now. But the fundamentals of it are still the same. It needs stresses the user can't innately overcome. If he's already made himself super strong and durable and everything else with other quirks, he'll have trouble getting anything worthwhile out of mine." He shrugged. "If the guy can take that ridiculous hit you landed and walk under his own power after, there's not much that'll activate Comeback."

"That's somewhat reassuring," All Might admitted. "I'm sure he'll find a way. He always does. But so long as he's in custody it won't do more for him than it has already done."

"That... That is something I'm wondering," Saiki admitted with trepidation. It wasn't particularly heroic but it had to be said. "Why not just deal with him? Permanently."

"Saiki!"

"We can't," Tsukauchi answered.

"Huh?" Izuku uttered, confused that this was even a notion they were entertaining.

"Young Midoriya," All Might said softly, "All for One is a man who has done the most heinous things imaginable. He is immortal. And he's so power-mad he will laugh at the concept of someone trying to redeem or rehabilitate him. When I said I thought I dealt with him for good, what did you think I meant?" Everyone in the room could tell Izuku saw him differently now that it had been spelled out for her. "There are some evils that cannot be allowed to remain in this world. It isn't a line to cross lightly, but for All for One..."

A heavy silence hung in the air. Broken by Tsukauchi to answer the question more fully. "All for One... We can't ignore the suspicion that he's only incarcerated because he chooses to be. Like you said, he took that much punishment from All Might and our methods for keeping him contained don't even come close to that. If he even gets a hint we intend to execute him there's a good chance he walks out of Tartarus under his own power that same day, killing anyone who tries to stop him."

He looked to All Might, expecting the old hero to continue, but there was more going on there that he was dealing with. A mentor/student relationship that had been ever so subtly altered. So the detective continued alone. "As for reasons in our favour, keeping him alive and in custody means we can question him. He's uncooperative, of course. But he presents an opportunity to learn more about what the League are up to. They were important enough that he let them get away while he offered himself up on a platter. He has bigger plans in the works and the League are at the centre of them. If we can use him to stop whatever they're doing, we can ruin his plans. Not to mention every day we keep him contained is another day for others to prepare and get strong enough to defeat him."

Saiki looked at Izuku. He had seen her strength. He was sure she'd be able to, the same as All Might had. But at the same time, this conversation had revealed she might not be able to in the way that mattered. And now, every near defeat was a victory for All for One, only making him stronger. He looked back at Tsukauchi. "Acid."

"I'm sorry?"

"I don't know whether All for One has some other quirk that makes him impervious to it. But the one thing that I could never get any worthwhile resistance to was exposure to extreme pH values. Acid or alkaline. I got some, but not really enough to matter. Unless he has a quirk that gives him a resistance to it, it'll always be his weakness, even with Comeback."

"Young Saisei..." All Might breathed. It was one thing to suggest a reasonable if unpleasant and ethically questionable option. It was entirely another for him to declare one of his own weaknesses in hopes it could be used specifically as an execution method.

Both men looked at him differently after that.

"Thank you," Tsukauchi nodded. "That's useful information and we'll see if we can include that in our precautionary measures."

"Was there anything else?"

"For the time being, no." The detective reached into his coat, pulling out a card and handing it over. "I'll be here for a few more hours, sorting some things with Principal Nezu. If you think of anything you think might be important, don't hesitate to call."

"Got it." Another question weighed on his mind. One he had to ask now that he had the opportunity. "How are Ragdoll and the Pussycats doing?"

A flash of something crossed Tsukauchi's face. Worry, or maybe empty regret. "They're coping. Ragdoll should be done with observation soon and they'll let her go home. Aside from the obvious, she hasn't shown further adverse effects since she woke up."

Coping. That told him enough. "Thank you. If you'll excuse me." He second guessed himself as to whether he should bow, finally deciding not to and simply leaving.

Izuku followed him. "Saiki, why did you say that?"

"Say what?"

"About the... About the acid." She hesitated for a half second. "I know you're probably feeling hurt after you found out he took your quirk after all. I can't even imagine, but that doesn't–"

He looked around the empty hallway but pulled her along to somewhere he knew people wouldn't be regardless. The 1-A classroom. It was still summer so no classes were ongoing and the students were all in the dorm, training, or elsewhere. He shut the door behind him. Sitting on the front right desk before he even gave her an answer. "Izuku…" She had a mistaken idea of all this and he believed he knew why. "From the way you got your quirk I guess you see things differently to me. Todoroki's hangups probably made that worse. I don't see my quirk the way you and him do. It's not special to me, it's not some integral part of who I am and where I came from, not a legacy to protect or throw away for what it represents. I don't care that All for One has it too, only that he didn't take it away from me. It's a tool. Something I use to get stronger. That's all."

It seemed she didn't like that answer, but even more, she felt confused that her only explanation for his actions wasn't correct. "Then why would you ever–?"

"You wanna know how my old man died?"

She clearly didn't know the right answer to that question, if there even was one. So he continued without one. "It's not a fun story. Took some research long after it happened because I was only... Five? Six? Somewhere around there. No one was gonna tell the preschooler the kind of trash his dad was. He had the boosting half of my quirk but not the regeneration. He loved the high. Loved how it made him feel powerful. He'd fuck himself up in some recoverable way and be a big badass for about five minutes doing some petty villain shit like assault and robbery. He wasn't a complete idiot. He picked his spots to avoid hero patrols. But eventually everyone's luck runs out, right?"

"So one day as he's going about his dumb lowlife shit, he runs afoul of a hero. Not even a big time hero. I think the name was Alphabetica or something. Pretty sure they're retired now. Anyway, my old man, I'm betting while shitting his pants, decides fuck it. Time to double down. So already injured, he does it again. Stabs himself. Gets another bigger boost. It's still not enough. Does it again. In the end, that hero barely had to do anything at all. My dumbass old man fucks himself up so badly he dies of blood loss in the ambulance."

"I'm sorry," the empathetic girl offered, not sure what else to say.

His laughing in response didn't help. "Izuku, think about what I just said. Does anything about that story make you think I'd be better off if he was still in my life?"

"Still, he was your dad."

"Yeah. He was." Saiki conceded the point. No matter how worthless he was, there was nothing that could take that position away from him. "My old man. Left his kid an orphan because he just didn't know how to or didn't care to stop being who he was. That's what I'm trying to tell you, Izuku. Some people... Either they don't have the capacity or they don't have the desire to stop being who they are. I don't want to be like my old man and it took... It took a lot of things to make me realise how close I was to being that. If I want to be better than him, I can't be like him."

"All for One though?" he continued. "Shigaraki? They don't care. They're exactly who they want to be. Shigaraki is a malicious little shit-heel looking to spread violence and fear. All for One is a megalomaniacal creep jerking himself off over how powerful and sinister he is. Neither of them want to change. Hell, how long has All for One been alive? A hundred years? More? He's had more chance to stop being a monster than anyone else in the world. He ran out of second chances a long time ago and by making himself immortal? There's only one way to solve that problem now. He needs to be stopped and it needs to be permanent. He's given us no other option."

"I just... I don't think that's what a hero should be," she admitted.

He looked away. "I know." His eyes returned to hers. "You've been inspiring me for a long time, Izuku. You're part of the reason I want to be better than I was. But I guess we've found the downside of you being such a natural hero." He hopped off his desk perch. "I think the world needs people like you, but... I guess maybe it also needs people like me. Can't decide if that's a good thing or not, but I guess that's something I'll have to figure out." The door slid open, the blue haired hero in training leaving the latest bearer of One for All alone in the classroom to think.

-(-)-

A/N: This chapter seen early by my generous supporters on THE GREAT FORBIDDEN P! Fear the P! Love the P!