Second Difference

The Emperor of Japan's, and many other countries, Underworld could not resist the urge to rub his eyes when a familiar portal appeared before him.

"What is it, Kurogiri?" He asked tiredly, though he was positive he already knew.

"I'm sorry Master, the usual," the black mist replied. It was still swirling, meaning that the portal hadn't fully formed. Kurogiri was always polite. He could just let the Warp Gate deal with the issue but… That went against his earlier instructions.

"Send them through," the super villain known as All For One instructed, pulling his hand down and settling himself more comfortably in his chair.

Kurogiri flared wider for a moment before the misty villain condensed again, taking form behind the two children he had delivered into the office.

All For One was silent as he examined them.

Tomura looked at him defiantly but he was uneasy while Izuku was studying the carpet.

All For One heaved a theatrical sigh. He much preferred dealing with adults, where he could be completely logical. Children were emotional and once again he reminded himself that these two were an investment. If he wanted absolutely loyal followers, raising them gave the best results. At least while letting them keep their minds. For now, he had enough mindless followers.

"We've gone over this, haven't we?" The Unseen Emperor asked softly.

He saw Izuku gulp but instead of apologising, he remained stubbornly silent. That was new. He shifted his gaze to Tomura. Gold eyes stared back but quickly faltered.

Tomura turned to the other, younger child. "I'm sorry, Izuku," he said softly. Even All For One could hear the note of resentment in his tone but the words were what was needed. Tomura lifted one gloved hand to his neck and scratched. The gloves were designed to negate his quirk. They were double layered and left his forefinger and little finger exposed. That way he couldn't complete the circuit that activated his quirk.

Still, Tomura knew better than to offer Izuku his hand.

"You're not."

The white haired man felt his eyebrows threaten to rise. It appeared Izuku was in a mood.

"I am!" Tomura's cry was plaintive.

"Izuku," All For One murmured softly.

"He's not sorry!" Izuku objected. "He just wants his quirk back!"

"Of course I do! It's mine." It might have been better if Tomura remained silent, but the fine art of tact eluded most nine year olds, and the boy was no different.

"Izuku he has apologised," All For One reminded his son.

Izuku looked up at him, eyes wide and quivering with unshed tears but he was holding his ground. "He didn't mean it." The almost five year old said stubbornly.

At that, All For One let one eyebrow raise in obvious question. Children were as much attuned to body language as they were words and it was just as easy to use that. That's why they could be harder to fool than adults. You could say one thing but your body said another, and while the child might not know the lie, they would know that something wasn't right. Adult's convinced themselves of what they wanted to believe.

"I'm sorry," Tomura repeated. It was slightly more sincere sounding this time. He was getting better with his acting.

There was a pause while they waited for Izuku to answer. Eventually the smaller boy huffed. "I'm sorry too," he murmured, completing the ritual. The two boys had to apologise to each other. "Daddy, can you give Tomura his quirk back?" Izuku asked softly, taking a few steps forward so that All For One could reach out and touch his forehead.

Tomura moved to his other side.

The man currently known as Hisashi Midoriya reached out and placed his large hand on his son's small forehead. He stretched out with his quirk, extending his senses to find the spark that was Tomura's quirk. Izuku wasn't like himself with hundreds of quirks all tightly held to him. He had his own, which glowed green to All For One's quirk senses and Tomura's quirk, which was a dull grey. He latched on to it, and pulled it into himself. He knew from experience that while he could latch on to Izuku's quirk, that version of All For One that was so like his but so different, it would not budge from its host.

Quickly, the white haired man transferred Tomura's quirk back to him. The older boy flexed his fingers, looking down at his hand. He had described the sensation as if his quirk was settling back into his body. All For One knew, vaguely, what it was like. There was always a bit of oddity when he took a new quirk, like it was fighting for a position within him. It certainly wouldn't be fighting him.

Kurogiri took a step forward as Tomura retreated. "Izuku, please stay," All For One murmured as Kurogiri expanded again. Tomura stepped through after giving him a questioning glance. "I'll speak to you tomorrow, Tomura," he promised.

The grey haired boy nodded before Kurogiri disappeared.

Izuku remained standing where he was and All For One removed his hand after ruffling his son's hair. He let the silence hang between them for a few moments before he sighed and lifted Izuku into his lap, spinning his chair so that they were facing the window.

Night lights from the city greeted his vision. Bright and dazzling. He could imagine that every light was a quirk he had yet to sample but it was an indulgence he couldn't feel for long. Izuku demanded his attention.

"What happened?" All For One asked gently.

The first time Izuku had taken Tomura's quirk had been a surprise. That's when they'd discovered that the green haired boy's version was not exactly the same as his. He knew it wasn't. He'd known that since he'd been unable to take it - it appeared Izuku had inherited that part of his quirk from his long lost uncle - but there were other differences. Izuku could take quirks without touching anyone, so long as they were close enough and it appeared, at least for the moment, that Izuku couldn't give back the quirks he took. All For One wasn't sure if that was going to be a permanent feature of Izuku's quirk or if it was just Izuku not understanding exactly what to do yet.

"He's not sorry," Izuku said firmly, or as firmly as an almost five year old could say.

"Oh?" All For One asked, humouring him.

"He's not," Izuku insisted.

"How do you know?"

Izuku looked at him with wide green eyes. "He never is," he said seriously.

That was true. Tomura had been indulged for the last few years. Kurogiri was in charge of keeping the boy contained and the warp gate usually just let him do as he pleased. It didn't lead to much discipline and he was adapting about as well as Izuku was to having a new brother. "Family is always sorry," All For One told his son.

Izuku blinked at his pronouncement, trying to make sense of it. He was intelligent for his age but he was struggling to understand everything.

"But you are still new to each other," he added. It was the truth. Izuku had only been living with Tomura for the last two months. He didn't say anything further, to indicate that Izuku would come to love his older brother. He'd tried that with Tomura, telling the older boy that he'd come to love his younger brother Izuku. Tomura had hissed that Izuku wasn't his brother.

It would take longer for the two of them to get along, and if they didn't, well, he could work with that as well.

"He tried to hurt me," Izuku said finally.

"Hmm, what do you mean?" All For One asked.

"He tried to use his quirk on me."

That didn't surprise him. Not really, although he'd have to remind Tomura that he would be very unhappy if Izuku was hurt by him. At least Izuku had the sense to stop the other boy.

"I'll tell him not to," All For One assured Izuku.

Izuku nodded against him and the white haired man was willing to let it go but he could tell his son wasn't finished speaking yet.

"Daddy?" Izuku's voice was almost inaudible.

"Izuku?"

"When are we going back to Mummy?" The question was a whisper.

He'd been expecting this but he still wasn't sure what to answer. Unlike Tomura, Izuku knew his mother was still there, though she wasn't getting any answers from the Police. He'd seen that the investigation went nowhere and an accidental erasure of files had removed his likeness from their servers. Obviously, it could be replaced, but someone had to be looking at the case to even realise what was missing.

Hisashi Midoriya took a deep measured breath. "We can't Izuku," he said softly. "Do you remember what happened?" He asked. Nothing spectacular had happened but it was important for Izuku to remember on his own. Then he could tie reactions to the memories. He did it all the time with adults, he just had to do it now with Izuku. It would probably take longer though. Izuku loved Inko and would want to return but he was prepared to deal with that. He could have used a memory quirk but they had an unfortunate tendency to break at the most inopportune time. It was best to let Izuku's mind do the work and slowly the love would fade, and so would any desire to return.

Izuku loved Inko. He felt nothing. She had been picked because of her bloodline and quirk. Inko didn't know it but both sides of her family had quirks, right back to when quirks had first been emerging. Most people would look at her and wonder why her quirk was so weak, if her bloodline was so good. What they didn't know was that Attraction of Small Objects was powerful, just untrained. It had been very hard to give it back while Inko was sleeping that time he'd taken it. She was intelligent enough to not completely bore him but there was no romance there. Inko thought there was. It was easier to get her to do what he wanted, like go to Dr Garaki to have Izuku checked, rather than the local clinic, when she thought he had Izuku's best interests at heart.

Which he did. He had Izuku's best interests at heart. They allied with his interests.

"She said she was sorry," Izuku said.

"What was she sorry for?" All For One asked his son.

Izuku's face scrunched up. It was cute. All For One might be ancient, he might not feel much anymore but he knew his son was cute. Izuku couldn't really answer him though. He knew, but at almost five, no matter how precocious he was, he just didn't have the words to describe what Inko had done.

"Why didn't she support you?" Hisashi asked the follow up question.

He wouldn't be able to convince Izuku of Inko's perfidy at the moment but the questions were laying a foundation for Izuku's beliefs. Beliefs he would mould.

He'd never had children before, not really but he'd learned a thing or two in the two hundred years he'd lived. Most people didn't remember much of their childhood. They remembered big events, but that four year old birthday party? No, they didn't remember that. The sun drenched days of summer, the days merging together, that's what they remembered and the schooling they got. But they did take things from childhood. They took morals, values and beliefs. And those, children predominantly took from their parents.

Inko didn't have bad morals but her beliefs would not agree with his plans, and so once Izuku's quirk had been truly confirmed by Dr Garaki, and once he'd established that he really couldn't take it, he'd instead taken Izuku. Besides, it was easier raising Tomura and Izuku together.

If they learned to get along, that was good. If they remained enemies, he could also work with that, so long as they were both loyal to him.

Izuku hadn't answered either of his questions. "Why didn't she support you?" Hisashi asked again. He wasn't mentioning what Inko hadn't supported Izuku in. This desire to be a hero was just a phase.

At least, it better be. It was one of the reasons Tomura didn't like Izuku. Initially, five years ago, Tomura had no reason to specifically dislike Heroes, but he had reason to dislike society. Heroes hadn't specifically failed him. Society had, in thinking ath Heroes would save him. It had taken a while but All For One had harnessed Tomura's dislike of society and attached it to a dislike of Heroes. Obviously if Heroes didn't demand to be relied upon, then society wouldn't have expected them to save him. Then maybe someone would have saved him, or stepped in to make sure he was moved to the right authorities.

They hadn't, and he had stepped in. It had taken a little bit of work to couple Tomura's hatred of society to Heroes but it could be done.

That's why All For One knew that he could couple Izuku's feelings of disappointment, and even grief with his feelings towards his Mother, ensuring that he never wanted to return to her. It would take a bit of time, but it was possible. And as for Izuku's desire to be a Hero, well, that too could be trained away. If coupling his grief and disappointment with Inko's actions didn't sully the desire by default, then there were other ways.

He had time.

Izuku was only five. He had years to mould his son. And he would.

And then… Well, there were a lot of things to discover.