"Care to talk?"
Izuku tensed his whole body up as he heard that question, knowing nothing good could come of it. The wide grin that split All for One's face held rows of blinding white teeth that made his face hard to look at, even without the fact that he didn't have eyes to meet and the top of his head was a smooth dome of rough skin. Izuku forced himself to relax, to spare himself the pain from his arm, and kneeled before the Demon Lord. He tried to speak, but his voice came out as just a whispered groan.
"Rendered speechless by my deformed body? Well, you can thank your master for that," All for One said, his grin somehow getting wider. "I doubt he's left you in the dark about who I am."
"All for One," Izuku answered, though he didn't know how he'd suddenly been able to speak so calmly.
"Indeed. I am the creator of the power you currently wield. Though, not in the form you wield it. Isn't that interesting, Izuku Midoriya? You were somehow able to change One for All, when such an evolution hasn't occurred since the creation of the Quirk itself," All for One said, directing his face at Izuku with a small smirk.
Izuku stayed quiet. He just waited for All for One to keep talking, hoping that it would satisfy his ego to have a proper audience. Izuku really didn't want to be in the same room as the Demon Lord for long, but he'd likely have to at least make decent conversation if he wanted to stay alive for a bit longer. He sucked in a breath and prepared to reply. Before he could say anything, though, Izuku was silenced by All for One continuing his monologue.
"Of course, I've already deduced the exact reason behind One for All's rapid evolution as of the transfer from All Might to yourself," All for One said.
"And what's that?" Izuku asked, feeling himself tense.
"Oh, I don't think you're ready for that just yet. Instead, why don't we take a moment to consider our options?" All for One said, his smirk growing into something ominous and dangerous.
"Options?" Izuku aske again.
"I am, of course, referring to the options you and I have in dealing with this little conflict of ours. I want One for All, you want One for All, and so we are at an impasse. You could fight me, but you'd surely lose with that arm of yours. In addition to that, you still aren't able to use all of One for All's power yet, and you've yet to awaken three of the eight Quirks you currently hold," All for One rambled, and Izuku noticed that he'd gotten the number of Quirks within One for All wrong. "With all of that considered, your best chance at survival at this moment would be to run, but that poses a threat to everyone who you ask for help, and you wouldn't want to put anyone else in danger, would you, Hero?" he continued.
Izuku felt like his silence was telling.
"So, your best option, the one you're most likely to take in order to keep everyone you care about safe, is to stay here and chat with me until I become bored of you and simply take One for All and kill you. Those are your options, and I expect you to take the latter one if you want those you care about to live," All for One said, his tone dripping with superiority and power. Izuku wasn't sure it wasn't earned.
"And what about you?" Izuku asked, internally chastising himself for speaking up to the most powerful man in Japan.
"What about me?" All for One asked, tilting his head in an expression of the curiosity and amusement that Izuku was very aware was keeping him alive.
"You said 'our options', and that 'you and I' have them. That means that you have some say in how this happens as well," Izuku clarified, surprised that his voice kept as steady as it did.
"Ah, very good. I do have options. I could just kill you now, though that would serve to delay my plans considerably. I could take One for All and turn you into a Perfect Nomu if that power of yours doesn't budge. I could allow Tomura to reduce you to dust, bit by bit, until you give in and transfer One for All to me. I could do lots of things. But, I'm choosing to talk with you, and that is for a very good reason," All for One said.
"What's that?" Izuku asked. He felt like he was getting a little bit too comfortable talking to All for One, but he pushed that thought out of his mind to listen to what the Demon had to say.
"You're the first user of One for All who understands. You, Izuku Midoriya, truly know how massive the power you hold is. The others used it as a mere strength enhancer, but you brought their Quirks to the forefront of One for All and manifested them when no one else could. All this time, they thought it was an opposite to my own power, but it is truly parallel, complementary to me. We both hold the power to wield multiple Quirks. One for All is less efficient, granted, but it functions the same way. You are the first to comprehend this truth, and so you will be the one to accept the complete reality of One for All! That it belongs with me," All for One went on, his sly smirk spreading into a manic grin as he explained.
"This power will never belong with you," Izuku said, his voice clear and strong.
All for One simply smiled a wide grin at that. It was almost a little too wide, stretching the skin of his face, or what was left of it, strangely and making Izuku wonder how exactly it felt to exist as he did. It must have been painful. Izuku wasn't about to sympathize with All for One, though, so let himself be guided away from those thoughts when the Boogeyman spoke up next.
"Oh, I disagree. I created One for All, so how could it not belong to me? It certainly isn't yours. This power was intended for Yoichi, and in his absence, it should pass to myself. I wasn't certain that giving Yoichi the stockpiling Quirk would end the way it did, but I had my theories. It ended up being a thorn in my side, sure, but I couldn't just let my beloved brother waste away into nothing when I could've given him the strength to stand above all the common folk who were beneath us," All for One admitted.
"You're well aware that Yoichi hated the man you turned into. You're delusional if you thought he would stand with you after all you'd done to kill and enslave both Quirked and Quirkless people all that time ago. Even now, with Tenko, you're still doing the things he condemned you for. You can do what you want, but at least be honest about it. You didn't love your brother, you loved how he loved you. You wanted another lackey, but this one happened to fight back when you forced him to submit. Now, we're here, and you hate that you still can't take One for All," Izuku said, keeping his gaze on the skin over where All for One's eyes should have been.
"And why can't I?" All for One asked, leaning forward on his throne and allowing a kind of pressure to radiate from him in waves, almost making Izuku gasp for air as it washed over him.
"You would've done it by now if you could," Izuku said, completely confident in his answer.
All for One's smirk slowly dropped into a sneer, pulling on the scar tissue of his face slightly. Izuku expected a reaction like raucous laughter, a snide remark or even just violence, but this was even scarier, because now Izuku knew that he had All for One's complete attention. All this time, he suspected that All for One was only giving Izuku half his attention at any one time, and that he was using some combination of Quirks to check in on Shigaraki and the Vanguard, or to see someone else, probably whatever the Heroes were doing to coordinate a rescue effort for him, because if Izuku knew his friends, they were probably adamant that an effort be made and involved in that effort themselves. Now, though, it felt like every bit of intent that All for One had was being pointed at Izuku, and he found himself squirming under it like a child being scolded for breaking something while playing.
"I've heard the stories. You're persistent, and you get what you want without waiting, even for a moment. If you had the power to steal One for All from me, you would've done it the second you warped me here. The fact that you haven't taken One for All tells me that you can't. You still need a willing transfer, and you know I'm not going to give it to you, so can we skip the niceties and get to the point?" Izuku said. He was well aware that he was digging his own grave with this stuff, but it was extending the conversation, and his life by proxy.
"You wish to get to the point? Very well. I've brought you here for a very specific reason, Izuku Midoriya. To be honest, you being in possession of One for All is a happy coincidence. This was always going to happen," All for One said, his glaring grin splitting his face once more.
"What?" Izuku breathed, shocked out of his confidence. How could that be? What was so special about him that All for One had been planning this even if he hadn't gotten One for All? He'd lived a low-key life until he'd met All Might, and even then he didn't exactly meet a lot of new people after that point. So, what the hell was All for One talking about?
"Yes, you are a very special young man. But, we will get to that in time. First, tell me. Do you know what Meta Quirks are?" All for One asked.
"Quirks that affect other Quirks. Like yours," Izuku thought out loud.
"Precisely. After more than a hundred years of collecting Quirks, you begin to see the mundanity in them. Most Emitters are the same generic elemental control, so I only needed one unique Quirk of each function in order to replicate every Emitter Quirk, as well as the extra Quirks needed to keep them under control for the especially powerful ones. That was what I spent the first seventy to eighty years of my reign procuring. Then, I moved onto Transformation. Those were considerably more valuable, since Transformation Quirks are rarer than Emitters, so I quickly hunted down the ones I wanted and added them to my arsenal. Lastly, I went to Mutant Quirks. I had no use for Quirks that simply change my appearance, such as eye color and fingerprints, so I only hunted down those that increased attributes my other Quirks complemented, such as strength, speed, or durability. That is how I was able to withstand your master's famous strength. But, after decades of hunting, I never found a Quirk that was able to combat my own apart from One for All. I knew that it was One for All's unique resistance against my own Quirk that I found so alluring, and so I began to seek out Quirks that could truly be held up with my own, Quirks that affected Quirks. I thought that those powers may be the ones that would allow me to finally steal One for All, truly allow me to take my place as a god among men, and so I began searching," All for One rambled once more.
"What does this have to do with me?" Izuku asked, pretending that he wasn't interested in the stories a centuries-old man had to tell.
"All in due time. I trust that you're familiar with Eraserhead by now, considering that he's your teacher," All for One replied, chilling Izuku to the core with how casually he admitted how much he knew about the happenings of Izuku's life. "His Quirk was at the top of my list from the moment I read the description. The power to erase the functionality of Quirks by sight alone is quite formidable, and would have proved to be massively influential in the battle against the pests that had become of the One for All wielders after the hermit. So, I sought him out. I organized a few disasters, toppled a few dominoes, and had everything in place. I ended up with the one with the Cloud Quirk, but we put him to use. Kurogiri's a better influence on Tomura than I expected," All for One said.
Izuku reeled at the realization that All for One had unwittingly given him. Aizawa and Mic had spoken about how their friend, Shirakumo, had died in a disaster by sacrificing himself to save a class of schoolchildren during their second year. Had All for One really arranged that? Had the original target of that disaster been Aizawa, and he'd just conveniently not fallen into whatever trap was laid for him? That was insane. That was diabolical. That was … All for One to a tee. Izuku shouldn't have been surprised, but it was just so much to realize that Shirakumo's death had been intended to be Aizawa's. Izuku paused at the thought of death. The way All for One was speaking …
"What are you saying? Shirakumo is Kurogiri?" Izuku asked, disgusted at the words coming out of his own mouth.
"Only the base. I retrieved his body and placed a dummy so that UA had something to bury. Then, I played with his Quirk, gave him one or four more, until I got a close-to-perfect Nomu that would do anything I told it to and raise Tomura in my absence, yet retained an almost free will of its own. Genius, yes?" All for One explained, that sickening grin coming back in full force. Izuku had to admit, only he could've done such a thing. One question remained, though.
"You wanted Eraserhead to babysit?" Izuku asked.
"God, no. I made do with the other one, but it was less than ideal. My plan with Eraserhead was to take his Quirk and use it against All Might. But, Eraserhead eluded me. So, I moved on to other Meta Quirks. Luckily, an old tree of mine was about to bear fruit," All for One said, his tone of voice sounding like he was making some kind of inside joke that Izuku didn't get.
Izuku was still left to feel sorry for Aizawa and Mic, and to make the promise to tell them what had become of their good friend when he was out of this. Izuku knew that it probably wasn't practical to assume he was getting out of this, but he'd been doing it so far and nothing terrible had happened yet. Apart from the top few layers of skin and meat of his arm becoming mush. That was bad. He'd probably die from an infection if he didn't cover it up soon, even if he did get out of this situation.
"When I dueled and killed Nana Shimura, I noticed something. She was the only user of my brother's power to have had a family while in possession of it. That was unique, and a thought that stuck with me after I killed her. So, I got to thinking about whether or not One for All could be passed from a parent to a child with the mere act of conception. Kotaro didn't pan out, even if I did acquire the man's son as a protege," All for One said. So, Tenko Shimura was Nana's grandson? Izuku had a lot to say about what he was learning here.
"You were planning to use Tenko to hurt All Might, weren't you?" Izuku asked, still trying to put the pieces together as All for One went on about his past.
"Yes, but that's behind me now that I have you," All for One said, his grin widening even more.
"Right, I'm still to understand how this comes back to me," Izuku said, beginning to get genuinely irritated. Who knew that old people got sidetracked so often?
"You are in luck, then, Izuku, because we are almost at the end of our tale. See, when I carried out my little thought experiment with One for All and passing it on like any other Quirk, from parent to child, it came to me. What if I was able to make a variation of my own Quirk through genetic modification? I obviously wasn't able to alter myself, since playing with my own DNA while I was both alive and functioning would've turned even me to soup, but I could create a facsimile, a copy, and alter that while it was gestating in order to see how my Quirk genes would evolve and change. At first I tried to make my Quirk Factor stronger, but that proved impractical for the little good it would do. So, I began changing the function of the Quirks these clones would manifest. First, I tried to create a copy of myself who could take Quirks from afar. My own Quirk has the limitation that I must come into contact with the person whose Quirk I wish to take, but if I could develop a Quirk Factor that could take Quirks from a distance, I could take that and acquire the same ability. Unfortunately, only one of these clones was ever 'born', and even then, it didn't have the Quirk I intended. Instead of being able to pull Quirks from afar, it could only pull small physical objects. So, I threw it away. After that, I had to shut down the project as it had become too costly for the results we were seeing," All for One said, making Izuku feel numb inside as he slowly came to a horrible realization.
All for One had created a person from his project with the ability to pull objects closer to them. This had happened after Nana Shimura was gone. Nana had died when All Might was either seventeen or eighteen. All Might was fifty nine. That was forty two or forty three years ago. Inko Midoriya was forty two years old. She'd been that clone, created to be a stronger version of All for One but had been thrown away when her Quirk was not what he'd been expecting. All for One had never gendered this clone, but it was confirmed for Izuku that he was indeed talking about his own mother when he grinned his awful grin that showed too many teeth to possibly be human, reveling in his realization and soaking up his descent into panic.
"You can't be saying that my mother was one of your creations!" Izuku yelled, standing up for the first time since he'd warped into the room.
"I'm only telling the truth, Izuku. If you think about it rationally, you'll see that I'm right," All for One said, hiding himself in an awfully sweet tone that made Izuku want to throw up.
Izuku couldn't believe this. It had to be wrong. He had to be wrong. This couldn't be happening. He wasn't related to All for One. He wasn't. Izuku felt himself begin hyperventilating, and fell back to his knees as his body became weak at the realization that he couldn't refute anything that All for One was saying. The bastard was right. Izuku looked back up at him and let all the anger he felt at the sick Villain boil over and show through his glare.
"So, what? You're my grandfather? Is that what we are?" Izuku screamed, his voice breaking as he felt a burning in his chest.
"Not quite," All for One said, a darkness seeping into his voice as he chuckled under his breath. "See, Inko was a failure. But, she wasn't useless to me just yet. I was able to recognize the reason that she failed was that she was too much like me. I'm a first generation Quirked person, so my genes aren't exactly modern. My genetic code is a relic of a time when humanity was equal. But, I could still make this project of mine a success. All I needed was for Inko to reproduce with a Meta Quirk user, preferably one with the same function as mine, so that they may naturally produce someone with the Quirk I desired. I didn't know any others, so I invented a persona for myself, who you may know as Hisashi Midoriya," All for One said, his explanation overtaken by mad cackling as he finished talking.
Izuku saw red. He got up from the ground and felt One for All course through him, even though he hadn't willed it. Izuku didn't care what happened now, he just needed to kill All for One. It wasn't even about One for All anymore, the asshole had abandoned his mother, twice. But, hadn't Izuku done the same? No, that had been for the greater good. All for One had simply abused Inko's existence, the entire time he was in her life. It was awful, and it needed to be punished.
But, Izuku still couldn't move. It wasn't for a lack of trying, either. All for One had moved his hand into a vague shape one would make while holding a cup of tea, but that little gesture must have activated a Quirk, because Izuku was locked in place where he stood, frozen in the stance he'd slipped into when he'd prepared to launch himself at the Villain before him. He was still overflowing with rage, so began spitting words at All for One in the hopes that it would make him feel better.
"I'll kill you! You're a monster! All Might really should've put you down those years ago!" Izuku said, just letting his mouth do whatever it wanted. He didn't really think these things, but it was the anger that he was forcing out that was compelling him to speak like he thought Bakugo would at a time like this.
"Oh, Izuku. Is that any way to speak to your father?" All for One said, clearly loving getting to say that if his dopey grin was anything to go by.
"You're not my father, even if what you're saying is true. You weren't there for me. You don't love me. Hell, All Might's been more of a father to me in a year than you have in my whole life, so don't you dare call yourself that," Izuku shouted.
"Hmm, whatever you say. But, am I to assume you don't want to hear the rest of the story?" All for One asked, his tone teasing and condescending now that the truth was out.
"Fine. Tell your story, All for One," Izuku spat the name out like it was a curse.
"Very well. After Inko and I had you, I could already sense the Quirk in you. I have a sense for Quirks, and it often tells me at least the basics about what Quirk I'm looking at. I knew you had a Meta Quirk in there, but I couldn't tell exactly what it did until you awakened it. So, until you were four, I stayed with you and Inko," All for One continued.
Izuku felt a rush of vindication. He hadn't manifested a Quirk. That meant that All for One's plan hadn't worked! Izuku laughed in the man's face, and repeated the thought that he'd been cheated out of his perfect Quirk. When the look on All for One's face, a kind of anticipation, didn't change, Izuku frowned and began to worry about what that meant.
"Tell me, do you recall your trip to Dr. Tsubasa's practice?" All for One asked, once again startling Izuku out of his thoughts.
"Tsubasa? What does he have to do with this?" Izuku asked, feeling his heart begin to beat harder in his chest. This couldn't be leading where Izuku feared it was.
"Answer the question," All for One demanded, a pulse of something flowing through Izuku's chest at the order.
"I was about to turn five, and I still hadn't manifested a Quirk. So, Mom took me to Tsubasa's Quirk Clinic. He examined me, he did all the tests, and diagnosed me as Quirkless. He showed me the x-rays and everything. I was powerless," Izuku said, compelled to speak due to what he guessed was a Quirk.
"Yes, indeed he did. Did you ever think that maybe the good doctor wasn't being truthful with you?" All for One asked.
Another shock to Izuku's system in the form of words. What exactly was All for One trying to do? Izuku gritted his teeth and calmed himself. He knew that getting angry was probably exactly what All for One wanted, as he needed something from Izuku, he just didn't know what it was that he wanted. Taking deep breaths, Izuku brought himself back down. He glared back up at All for One, who was sitting on his throne as if he wasn't telling Izuku that his entire state of being for fifteen years was a lie.
"You're saying that he faked the results?" Izuku asked, with a burning in his tone that not even he could identify.
"I'm saying that Tsubasa may have … fibbed in order to pay me back for a favor I'd done him. See, he'd borrowed my services in extracting a dangerous Quirk from a family whose child didn't want it, and in return, he'd figured out exactly what your Quirk was from reading our DNA," All for One said.
"You're … saying I had one?" Izuku asked, tears pooling in his eyes and blurring his vision slightly.
"Izuku, you have a Quirk. You have your whole life," All for One said.
Izuku felt that burning something in his chest overflow, and then the tears started falling. He felt a sob reverberate through him, and the only reason his whole body didn't start shaking was because All for One was holding him still. This couldn't be happening. This was all so much, and he had a feeling that the man wasn't done. Izuku looked at him through the tears and got himself under control, though only barely. The tears were still falling, he couldn't do much about that without moving his hands, and that was a no-go, so he'd just have to be okay with crying through the rest of this conversation.
It was a special kind of hurt to be told that every bad thing in your life, down to individual days, was because of a lie. One falsehood had determined his fate for the next decade. It had cost Izuku his relationships, his happiness, his safety and, eventually, had separated him and Inko from each other. It was all because of a lie, because of All for One's manipulations. He deserved what was going to happen to him once All Might got his hands on the bastard's potato-looking head.
"What is it?" Izuku asked, regaining his self-control.
"I'm very glad you asked. Your Quirk is a strange one, Izuku. See, the reason I had failed in my first attempt with Inko was because I was among the first wave of Quirked persons. So, my biology, sans Quirk Factor, is indistinguishable from a Quirkless person. I am not of the modern generations, with warped physiologies to compensate for their Quirks. My Quirk genes were recessive, and the inherently malleable nature of my power was taken advantage of in the mutations necessary to give Inko the Quirk she ended up with. That meant that, biologically, both of us were Quirkless, but developed Quirks anyway because of our Quirk Factors. That means that, as a child of the two of us …" All for One trailed off, clearly hoping for Izuku to finish his sentence.
"... the toe joint test wouldn't work on me, because I share that trait," Izuku said, finally putting the pieces together as another tear rolled down his face.
"Exactly. Because of that, you were biologically Quirkless, except you had a Quirk Factor all the same. Your Quirk Factor leaned more toward my side of the genetic soup you were born from, which eventually gave you the Quirk you've had since birth," All for One explained.
"So, what? I have your ideal power? I can steal Quirks?" Izuku asked.
"No. You can't. You have a far more interesting power. You are much like my brother, Yoichi. Your uncle. Where he had what we call an invisible Quirk, so do you. Yoichi had the power to pass on his own Quirk. This eventually snowballed into the collection of Quirks you possess with One for All. But, your natural Quirk is much the same, and invisible power. The ability to have multiple Quirks is the one that you developed, with a side mutation of the inability to have your Quirk stolen by mine due to the mixup of mine and Inko's genes. That is the reason that you were able to bring the stored Quirks of One for All to light, and why I was unable to take your power to determine its exact nature when it manifested. Your unique nature makes you both able to harness the dormant Quirks of One for All and protects those Quirks even further from me. That means now that you've been in possession of the power, your Quirk will be added to the mix, and now I absolutely must get consent from the user to take it. Your Quirk is a blessing to you, but a curse to me, Izuku, which is why you are here. I am asking for One for All, and for you to join your father at his side as a Symbol," All for One explained, ending his explanation by standing for the first time since their conversation had begun.
Izuku was still held still by one of All for One's Quirks, so he had no choice but to stay that way as All for One began to walk toward him, his steps falling heavily on the cement floor as he neared Izuku. He was much taller than Izuku, by at least two feet, so it felt a little like facing down a monster in human clothing, which he supposed was correct either way. Izuku didn't feel anything from Danger Sense, so he knew that All for One wasn't going to hurt him, at least if he said yes, so he was safe for now, as he had probably been the whole time that he'd been in All for One's presence. He didn't want to hurt his … son. What a weird day.
"Izuku, this has all been for this moment. This has all been for you. What do you say?" All for One asked, freeing Izuku's good arm from his control in order to allow him to make the choice by grasping his outstretched hand.
What Izuku did next was the easiest choice of his life.
Author's Note: This chapter had a lot of revelations, so I'm sorry if they don't all make a lot of sense immediately. Basically, All for One created Inko but she was defective, so threw her away and he later saw the chance to make the experiment succeed through mating with her, so did so and created Izuku. He didn't have the Quirk he wanted either, having a silent power that simply let him hold multiple Quirks without dying or becoming a Nomu, which was useless to All for One. This Quirk is how Izuku was able to unlock the powers in One for All, and now All for One wants it even more because of the true nature of One for All as an equal to his own power, not an opposite. To come up with this plot point, I looked at character ages and kind of had a lightbulb moment.