54

Chapter Text

The elevator hummed quietly beneath the four students as it moved upwards. Blue eyes met blue eyes before flicking to meet indigo. Midoriya stood with his back to the others but felt their gazes on him, all the same.

Out of the elevator, Midoriya led the three down a long corridor, stopping at a door near the end that was key locked, as well as protected by a wall-mounted code pad to its right. Wordlessly, he slipped a key ring from his pocket, inserting the key before typing a series of numbers onto the pad. The group standing behind him listened as the inner mechanisms sounded with a loud thunk. Midoriya returned to the key and, turning it, opened the door.

Togata was going to ask what precisely was so special about the room that required all of the extra security when the question died in his throat. While not much larger than the rooms they had as third years, the fully stocked armory cage in the back corner, especially when combined with the workbench beside it, took up any extra space there might have been.

"Uh," Hado pointed at the cage, for once seemingly dumbfounded by the sight, rather than enticed into questions. "What."

Midoriya gave her a small grin. "Well, that is certainly new. You all know that I aid the teachers from time to time. Sometimes Snipe asks me to work on some of the school's armory. Hence, the added security. But all of that," Midoriya gestured to the workstation and extended room, "isn't relevant to what we need to discuss."

Togata's eyes flicked away from the rifles in the cage, the very obvious long-range rifles, and returned his gaze to Midoriya. Amajiki shuffled over to the cage for a closer look and to avoid Midoriya's prying eyes. Hado still looked dumbfounded.

"What do you need to talk about? Something from the president?" Midoriya offered Togata a wiggling gesture with his hand before sitting down at the desk sitting off-center in the middle of the room. He pulled several packets of papers from the filing cabinet next to the desk, and, hovering his hand over a cup as he thought, plucked several pens from it. He handed both the pens and the paperwork over to three.

"NDAs, sign and we can continue." That seemed to shock Hado out of her dumbfounded fugue.

"Why do we need to sign NDAs for this conversation? Is it related to what the president wanted you to tell us? Oooh, is it a government secret like you were talking about with the students earlier? Does it have something to do with the USJ? We're totally one step from full-time heroes, right, so does it have something to do with that?" Midoriya waited a moment for a break in the questions to throw up his hands, stopping the woman short.

"Something like that. Sign and we can talk. You can only discuss what we're about to talk about with parties that have been approved. All of the details are there in the packet. It's a standard non-disclosure agreement, something I'm sure you're all used to. Especially you, Amajiki." Something sharp and dangerous flitted behind Amajiki's eyes before quickly being masked by the nervous, socially shy expression that everyone was used to. A wonderful schooling of his features that was utterly betrayed by his friends' tense statures.

Midoriya waited for them to read through the packet, the atmosphere calm in their silence. When they returned the papers to him, Midoriya looked at the packets for a long moment before letting out a long breath. He placed his cane between his legs and leaned against it from his office chair as he took in the Big Three scattered throughout the room.

"Alright. Who here wants to work for the Hero Commission?" The three looked at each other, baffled. "Confusing statement, isn't it? Hero licenses and, with them, the ability to use your quirks in public are all sanctioned and regulated by the Hero Commission. No one at any hero school teaches anything different, and of course, the only place U.A. mentions it is in the exit counseling that a majority of students will skip, anyway."

"What does this have to do with the NDAs we just signed, Midoriya?" The question from Togata had Midoriya nodding, holding up a hand.

"I'm getting there. So, you have a variety of options that don't involve the Hero Commission. The government is more than happy to accept you into several roles. Underground heroes and freelance heroes are not governed by the Commission, and, in fact, three of our top ten heroes currently do not work with the Commission. Our number five, Edgeshot, seventh, Miruko, and our ninth, Ryukyu."

That had Hado sitting up straighter. She had been aware of the tension between her mentor and the Commission suits that showed up constantly, but she hadn't been aware that her mentor wasn't with the Commission at all.

"Why? I thought Ryukyu had a hero license?" Midoriya looked toward Hado and nodded.

"It's not something they advertise, because, well, why would they? The reason Ryukyu doesn't report to the Commission is irrelevant to this point, but if you want to hear it, just ask her. I'm sure she'd tell you. Though, I would maybe get a drink or two in her first. It's not a pleasant tale."

"What is the point of this, then?" Midoriya sighed.

"I bring this up because if you do want to work with the Hero Commission, then knowing the information I'm about to tell you might actually end up being a detriment. They aren't part of the government, and they most certainly don't like anyone knowing things unless it is on their own terms. It won't stop you from getting your license, per se, but they will make your life significantly harder for knowing things above your station, as they would put it."

"This has something to do with what you were talking about downstairs." It wasn't a question from Togata but a statement, one that Midoriya could only dip his head in affirmation of. "Why us?" Midoriya looked between the three, and as none of them got up to leave with that new knowledge, continued on.

"Three reasons, really. One, you three are the best of your class and three of the most promising up-and-coming heroes in the country, and that isn't Nedzu blowing smoke. Nedzu expects you three will all make big waves wherever you go after graduation. Two, after the USJ incident, it was made readily apparent to the rat how woefully unprepared for warp quirks U.A's defenses are. And, if we're being honest, there isn't much that we can do to prepare for them. There is a reason that the handful of warp quirks in the world are tightly controlled by the governments they live under. Three, amongst your group, you have the best spread." Midoriya pointed at each of them in turn, beginning with Togata, "Commission," at Hado, "freelance," and finally at Amajiki, "underground."

"The president expects us to take the lead in protecting the non-hero students if something big happens." Midoriya dipped his head again to Togata.

"I suspect that won't be a problem?" The three each gave Midoriya vaguely offended looks that he simply clicked his tongue at. "Yes, obviously, but the question had to be asked."

Midoriya collected a palm-sized bar from his desk before setting it down on the floor. Phoenix, if you'd be so kind as to display Japan. Mark Okinawa, Niigata, and Kanazawa, please. The bar flickered, and the room lit with a holographic display that had Hado jumping up with an expression akin to a giddy child on Christmas morning. Midoriya shot her a look that said to not ask.

"Yes, it's a hologram. Yes, we're almost ready to ship to the public. Please sit down." Midoriya pointed at one of the marked locations on the map. "Okinawa. Japanese territory that is anything but under Japanese control. A class-5 quirk threat, or if you would prefer the commission's way of doing things, an S-Class supervillain known as Laverna has taken up comfortable residence here on the island. An ironic name, as her quirk is that of the mythological figure, the Kitsune."

"You mentioned that before downstairs. Class-3, class-6, classes 1 and 2. What did you mean by that?" The unexpected question had Togata glancing at his shy friend in surprise.

"Ah, yes. It is a classification system used by the government to judge the potential threat of an individual. The commission system judges villains' threat levels by their quirks and the crimes that they can be charged with. Between these two things, they are assigned a letter class based on their threat." Midoriya gave a sharp smile. "As a side note, I'm classified as an F-rank threat, owing to my quirklessness."

"And the government's system?" Another question, or a continuation of the prior question, from Amajiki.

"It takes a greater number of attributes into consideration. That's it. Quirk affects this value still but isn't the major ruling factor. It was created after it was decided that the Commission wasn't to be trusted."

"That statement is a problem in and of itself, Midoriya." Midoriya looked back to Togata and grunted.

"You don't understand just how fucked up the governments of the world are and just how close everyone is to returning to the Urbans. But back to the topic at hand, Laverna is a class-5 threat, yes, but that doesn't mean she is a threat, if that makes sense. To continue the Roman analogy she seems to have going, think of her like a legate. She controls and administers Okinawa for the government, and in return, they leave her to her devices. It's a mess of bureaucracy and rules, but it works for them, and despite some of the ongoings being less than legal, Okinawa is both peaceful and experiencing its best economic boom in centuries."

"So they aren't a villain?" Hado asked in confusion. Midoriya grimaced.

"The first takedown team they sent after her walked into the sea and drowned themselves. Of course, the government could have rousted her out if they'd really wanted to, but it probably would have involved military action, and as she hadn't committed crimes that were totally unacceptable and some of the more Inari-oriented Shinshoku caught wind…" Midoriya let himself trail off. He had made his point. Togata grimaced now.

"Better the devil you know than the one you don't." Midoriya nodded and pointed to the map's west coast region.

"That wonderful phrase brings us to our second supervillain, an individual whose real name is practically lost to time. All for One." Amajiki's head jerked in horror from the map to Midoriya.

"I know that name. You aren't telling me he's fucking real?" Everyone looked at Amajiki and, while it had him flushing and his ears twitching, he kept eye contact with Midoriya.

Togata lightly placed his hand on his arm. "Jiki?"

Midoriya sighed. "Quite real, yes." Togata looked between the two men, confused, before asking for elaboration. Amajiki, getting worked up now, stared fixedly at the map, gesturing vaguely to Togata.

"A rumor in the underground. A myth, really." Togata looked back at Midoriya.

"Who is this guy that has Tamaki so worked up?" Midoriya pursed his lips.

"Saint or Satan, it depends on who you ask. He's named after his quirk. Class-5 threat All for One has the ability to take and give quirks. Permanently." Togata's jaw dropped, and Hado reeled back as if she'd been slapped. Amajiki glared at the map as if it held the answers to an unknowable question.

"That's not possible. It goes against everything we know about quirks." The hushed tones of horror in Hado's voice weren't lost on Midoriya.

"Yes, well, in my opinion, quirks are bullshit and can't be understood purely with science. But we aren't getting into that right now. He's quite real, but believe it or not, that isn't why he is considered truly dangerous."

"How is that not dangerous?!" The exclamation from Togata had Midoriya rolling his eyes.

"Take a moment to think about that question. We have somewhere around 168,480,000 people in Japan right now, give or take several tens of thousands because, you know, people who don't want to be censused or want to fuck with the government. You take away the roughly thirty-three and a half million people that are quirkless like me. You still have almost a hundred and thirty-five million people with quirks. Even if he took a couple hundred quirks a day, it would take him thousands of years to take everyone's quirks in Japan."

"That sounds plenty dangerous to me." Togata's hardline stance nearly had Midoriya groaning.

"And what do you think people would be doing in the meantime? Letting it happen? No. The military could put a missile in a tin can if they wanted. With him advertising his position like that, he would be done for. How many quirks do you know that could handle that? Do you think his limit would come before his eradication? I certainly do. The government certainly does. But they don't, because that isn't the threat."

"Then why doesn't the government deal with him?" It was Hado again, perturbed. "If it's so easy to eliminate him, why not do it?" Togata moved to look at Hado, horrified at the blatant willingness to kill a man. Midoriya blew out a breath.

"Because he is damn good with people on top of his personal strength. He controls the underground in his area almost entirely. Fifteen years ago, he fought All Might to a standstill, and both walked away injured. The resulting damage nearly eradicated Niigata."

"So it wasn't the natural disaster the media claimed it was." Amajiki's calm observation had Midoriya snorting as he shook his head.

"Not in the slightest. But guess who was there apologizing in the aftermath? Helping people rebuild? Funding infrastructure and schools? Keeping crime controlled and gangs from murdering innocent people?" Togata could see where this was going, and he didn't like it.

"All for One."

"Yeah. All for One. Niigata to Kanazawa, he spread his underground empire, and rather than risk what had already happened once, happening again—the terrorism, the crime, the destruction— our government struck a deal with him, one that has kept the peace and controls crime in the area, in some ways more effectively than the heroes do."

"Until now. He was the one that attacked U.A. at the USJ, wasn't he?" More hushed tones from Hado. Midoriya was thankful he could shake his head no.

"No, thank the gods for that. It was one of his subordinates, and Nedzu and I both highly doubt All for One knew anything about the attack."

"Things wouldn't have gone as well?"

"Nowhere near. We're hoping we can defuse this situation. If we can't," Midoriya trailed off, letting the three heroes work out the rest for themselves.

"So the president expects us to fight the demon of the underground?"

"No, he wants you all informed so that you know what to expect if this cold war goes hot. This could get ugly real quick. You three are the best bet the civilian students here at U.A. have to get away alive if another attack occurs on school grounds. Nedzu expects that it is All Might's responsibility to fight him, as well as my own, if he shows up here on campus." Three wide sets of eyes locked on Midoriya, and then on his cane.

"Yes, yes. The thing that did this was designed to fight All Might. I came out on top." Midoriya didn't feel the need to mention that it had the intelligence of a rock. "As long as All for One isn't miraculously healed, then All Might and I should be enough to deal with him." Midoriya also didn't feel the need to mention that the confrontation was just as likely to leave the entirety of U.A. a smoking crater and all three of them dead.

"How?" As it trailed off, the question left Midoriya tapping his chest.

"Extensive experimental genetic and mechanical augmentation. Not as good as a dozen quirks layered onto each other or All Might's bullshit, but I'll hold my own long enough to make a difference. No," Midoriya preempted the questions he saw at that statement. "I'm not telling you what I meant by that. Don't ask." A long silence permeated the room as the three students absorbed what they had been told that night.

"How likely is it that U.A. will be attacked again?" Midoriya offered Togata a flat stare.

"Practically nonexistent. But it is better to have you informed and you not need the information than vice versa, especially with this level of danger. As such, you'll also probably get roped into security for the first, second, and third-year sports festivals. You three are being trusted by not only Nedzu but the government itself with this information. Don't fuck that up, and don't do anything stupid. That means people have their eyes on you, and that could open a lot of doors for you three. Understood?"

Their confirmations had Midoriya gesturing the trio's dismissal but held Togata back once the other two had left to finish absorbing the new information. There was a conversation he needed to have with just Togata, one that wasn't going to be overly pleasant. The door clicked shut, and Midoriya couldn't help his umpteenth sigh of the night. By the gods, he didn't want to have this conversation.

"Togata. Mirio, do you know why I labeled you as Commission earlier?" Togata blinked at the familiarity but let it go, shrugging.

"I figured it was something Nedzu explained." Midoriya rubbed his eyes briefly.

"Not everything I say is me parroting the president. All the information given tonight was passed along by the president to the students, but the phrasing was my own. So why would I label you as Commission?" Togata narrowed his eyes at Midoriya but thought for a few seconds. He responded slowly.

"I'm not sure. Why?"

"Let me try this another way. The information I'm about to give you is for your ears only. It also doesn't come from the president but my own job as an information broker, so take that as you will. Share it with your friends if you will, but understand the reason why I had them leave the room before I shared this, please." Togata sat up a little straighter in his seat at that admission.

"I'll reserve judgment until the end, then." Midoriya nodded. That's all he could ask for, especially when this part of his plans could seriously come back to bite him in the ass.

"I left out a major part of All for One and All Might's story. A long time ago, All for One had a brother. It's important to understand that when I speak of this, I really mean a long time ago. All for One has been around since the dawn of superhuman abilities. Be it longevity quirks or whatever, he has been around for a very long time." That had Togata sitting as stiff as a board, his eyes blown wide. Quirks had begun their appearance in 2071. Being told that the supervillain was almost three centuries old had to be shocking.

"All for One's little brother was a sickly child, and the two loved each other growing up. I think, at least. I hope there was a time for those two that they cared about each other. Understand, Mirio, that this was a different time than what we have now. You grew up in a time of peace beyond even the Urban Rebellions. But at this point? It was so much worse even than that. Quirks were just starting to appear, and it was chaos with the government scrambling to get ahold of these individuals. Of complete oppression of quirked individuals."

Midoriya let silence reign for a few moments as he swallowed, let Togata process what he'd just been told. He breathed out and continued.

"At some point, and I don't know the reason for it, All for One forced a quirk on his little brother. A stockpiling quirk. I hope it was out of love, out of a misguided attempt to make his brother able to escape the confines of his sickly body, but it could just as easily have been a play for power."

"He expected his brother to help him? With, well, whatever it was he was doing at that point?"

"He was already building the foundations of his empire. Control and favors. But yes, I suspect that could have been it. I don't know, though, not for certain. A lot of what I know is pieced together from what little information survived the Third World War and from bits and pieces I've discovered from people living. Well, maybe not quite living, but that's a story for another time." Togata gave him an odd look, but Midoriya accepted the reaction. He couldn't exactly tell him that he had bugged and overheard All for One telling this to Tomura, nor could he really explain his situation with Shimura. He barely understood it.

"Unknown to All for One, his brother hadn't been born without a quirk. Useless on its own, it combined with the stockpiling quirk, the simple quirk of being able to pass his quirk on. Hence was born the quirk named One for All. I do have to wonder about the brothers and the naming scheme. Maybe they liked Dumas's work. Guess we'll never know. Regardless, the younger brother wasn't strong enough to fight the elder and passed his quirk onto another with the hope that one day, someone would be able to stop his brother." Togata scrunched his nose as he contemplated the tale.

"Does that mean that it's still around today? That would make it, what? Nine or ten generations?" Midoriya shrugged.

"Really depends on when they died or passed it on. The early holders of the quirk lasted much longer than the later ones, busier hiding than trying to fight. Currently, the eighth generation holder has the quirk." Togata's head snapped to Midoriya. Midoriya couldn't help but flinch slightly.

"It is still around? The kind of power that would provide after that long would be astronomical. You could change the world with it. You could save so many people." Midoriya gave him a pained smile. He was glad that Togata thought that way.

"Yeah, it really could. Nana Shimura had it before the current holder, and she was one hell of a woman. Strong, kind, idealistic to a fault, but that's what her time needed. The Urbans were a brutal affair, and it was her power that laid much of the foundation for the current system, for the era of peace we are experiencing here in Japan."

Midoriya was thankful that the woman in question wasn't around to hear what he had just said. He didn't lie. He believed his own words, but that didn't mean he was on the best of terms with her now, so long after she had died. He also had no interest in the kind of ego boost that would result from his statements. She was insufferable already. Togata looked as close to starstruck as Midoriya had ever seen from the man.

"I always looked up to Shimura," Togata spoke quietly, reverently. "She saved a lot of lives with her actions, and she didn't do it for prestige like a lot of heroes do now." Well, Midoriya supposed, at least he isn't blind to part of the problem today. Gods save him from this next part.

"Yes, well, let's leave that aside for a second. You know how much Nighteye respects All Might." A statement that had Togata narrowing his eyes and tensing back up with suspicion.

"I'm well aware of my mentor's relationship with All Might." Midoriya braced himself for what he was about to say and the reaction he was going to get.

"Then you're aware of how unhealthy the obsession has become over the last decade or so?" Fire lit in Togata's eyes, and Midoriya could see the knee-jerk reaction to defend his mentor, warring with the knowledge of what his mentor was really like. The man settled for clenched teeth and a seething warning.

"Be very careful of what you say, Midoriya. What does any of this have to do with Sir?" Togata was already pissed, that much was evident. The last time he had spoken with Togata, the topic had ended with him bashing Nighteyes' operational methods, and he could see Togata gearing up to fight with him again.

"Who do you think is the eighth holder, Mirio? Who can change the weather literally with a punch, and who has a quirk that no one knows anything about?" The words were quiet, and Midoriya saw the reaction instantly. Blank eyes and a blank face, a moment of processing before the fire was back with a vengeance.

"You think that Sir is obsessed with All Might because he is the eighth holder of a mythical quirk?" The words hissed at him in fury. "That it can't just be respect?"

"I know he's obsessed with All Might's quirk, because he's spent the better part of several years molding you into a vessel for One for All. It's in his own damn files." If Midoriya thought Togata was burning hot before, then what came next was an explosion of molten rock and expletives.

"Fuck you, Midoriya. Just fuck you. It's no wonder Sir fucking hates you. You fucking deserve it." Togata stood as if to leave, and Midoriya spoke again.

"I'm telling you this because All Might failed to cram the quirk down my throat, almost quite literally. It nearly killed me. With this event, they are going to have to tell All Might that All for One isn't dead like he thinks. That means he's running out of time. I just wanted you to be aware of the history of it when they come to you next, because they sure as hell won't tell you before they expect you to just take it." Togata had paused at the doorway. The last vestiges of courtesy burned out of him as he listened.

"Fuck you, Midoriya." Togata slammed the door behind him, and the reverberation of the slam had Midoriya closing his eyes and rotating his head away from it.

He let out a long sigh as he glanced in the direction of his bed. He was so tired. So fucking done. Why couldn't anything ever just be easy? Midoriya rolled his eyes to the ceiling before taking a deep breath and standing. As much as he wanted to lie down and never get back up, he had a job to do. He had oaths that he had to uphold. Goals and oaths that weren't ever going to get completed if he did what he wanted.

So Midoriya took slow steps over to his bookcase and pulled a thick, leather-bound tome from one of its shelves. It was worn slightly, the silver clasps and binding reinforcement dulled from the hours that he had spent holding it, reading it, transcribing it back into physical form from memory.

He had one more conversation he needed to have tonight. He didn't know if it would be welcome or not, but he had to try. And then maybe he could drug himself into oblivion and finally get a night of peaceful sleep.

Notes:

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