22

Tomura could not sit still. The recruitment effort had been an undeniable success with the introduction of Toga, Dabi, and Kusari into the fold. With those three, himself, Kurogiri and Spinner, they were already at six. A few more heavies and a Nomu to round out the party were all they needed before taking any action, and Tomura would admit to being excited at the prospect.

With that said, excitement wasn't all he was feeling. The young man had an itch that begged to be scratched, one that his sensei wouldn't help with. In fact, his sensei would rather him scratch the itch by reducing it to bloody dust.

The cause of Tomura's itch was Player 2, otherwise known as Izuku Midoriya. There had to have been a reason for Sensei's fixation on the boy alongside All Might, and Tomura was fed up with being kept in the dark. If Sensei wouldn't tell him, then he'd have to figure it out himself, and he was prepared to flip the world on its ass to get the answer. Luckily, Sensei was out taking care of an important errand, and Tomura knew just the person to help him with his task; it was time for some networking.

That led him to his current station at his computer. He contacted an acquaintance that he met on an old gaming forum years prior when the forum hadn't yet been taken over by 6/6 deniers and the CRC. He only knew her by her screen name, PwrOfLuv, but he had gotten to know the clingy poster enough to learn that she was a very capable hacker. When he sent her a name alongside a picture of a bloody, freckled teen with fluffy, green hair from the UA Sports Festival, finding his quirk registration and family tree was child's play for her.

Why she already had backdoors into the networks of several government agencies, he didn't know, and he felt that it wasn't his business, anyway.

He thought about extending her an invitation to the League, but she was apparently preoccupied with some weirdo vlogger she had an obsession with. Expecting them to be a package deal should he extend any invites, he held off for the moment and decided to keep it to being business partners. Having a hacker on retainer would be pretty useful down the line even if she wouldn't be an official member of the League.

Parsing through the records she sent him was the next step. The first thing he noticed was a note that the HPSC attached to his quirk registration labeling the teen as a mid-level priority to be monitored. That definitely surprised him; it seemed a little excessive for just being a kid that Stain respected. Maybe there was more going on there?

Opting to make a mental note of that and move right along, he looked through the boy's family tree and found that his only living relative was his mother, Inko Midoriya, whose maiden name was Akatani via adoption. Said Akatani parents died of natural causes, but beyond having been decently wealthy, they were not very remarkable otherwise. They certainly weren't remarkable enough to be on Sensei's radar, and he hadn't remembered the man ever mentioning anyone of that name.

That meant that unless the connection came from the father's side, Tomura had to look a little deeper into Inko Midoriya. Luckily, PwrOfLuv was very thorough with her search, and she dug up the woman's adoption records, as well as any other pertinent information from the foster home the woman was at. As it happened, her true maiden name was Shimura.

Huh.

Tomura wasn't exactly sure why the name bothered him as much as it did. Wasn't that the name of All Might's old mentor that Sensei killed? Nana Shimura, or something like that? That would explain why the surname was familiar to him, but it didn't explain why the name resonated with him so deeply. Deciding to look a little further into the records he was sent, he discovered that she wasn't there alone. She had an older brother named…

"What the fuck…" Tomura's breath hitched, and his hands instinctively traveled to his neck at the picture of the young boy on the screen beside the name "Kotaro Shimura." He was struck by a sudden wave of anxiety and fear, and he couldn't rip his eyes away from the pictured boy's own eyes. He had no earthly idea why he felt that way until a stabbing pain shot through his head, and he was inundated with bleary flashes of days long forgotten.

The one consolation for those who failed the practical portion of their final exams would be the I-Expo set to take place just before training camp, provided they received invitations to go. Unfortunately, Ashido, Kaminari, Sato, Kirishima, and Sero did not receive invitations to go, so they were effectively shit out of luck on both fronts.

"It was a logical ruse. You're all attending training camp."

Well, perhaps not.

Aizawa flared his quirk to quiet down the predictable storm of chatter that his announcement brewed. "Fortunately, you all passed the written tests, and failing those was the only way you would've been barred from training camp. Unfortunately, for the two teams who didn't pass and the one student that was incapacitated while your partner escaped, you'll be receiving supplementary education during what would normally be your downtime between your regular training sessions at camp."

The mentioned students completely deflated at that, but they took solace in the fact that they at least still got to go.

"Now, as some of you may be aware, the I-Expo at I-Island is happening very soon, and Principal Nezu was made aware that the winner of the UA Sports Festival was extended an invitation."

Several eyes in class widened, and Bakugo looked to be a mixture of intrigued and annoyed.

"As such, training camp will be held immediately after the I-Expo, so you'll all have at least a week to prepare as best as you can," Aizawa continued. "Bakugo, if you plan on going, be on your best behavior. Not only are you representing UA, but you're representing yourself as a future pro hero. Do not act out of character just because you're in a new and unfamiliar environment."

Bakugo grunted in response, not really seeing why he was hammering in the point so hard. The hell was so special about I-Island, anyway? It was just a bunch of eggheads on a floating city. What trouble was there to cause?

"I don't believe I heard you," Aizawa followed up with narrowed eyes that were glowing red.

"Yes, sir," Bakugo finally relented.

"Good," the teacher nodded. "That goes for any of you that find yourself attending. Don't find any trouble, don't make any trouble, and don't hurt yourself too badly before training camp. You're free to do whatever before your first class begins."

At the dismissal, the class broke into their own pockets of conversation until Aizawa spoke up once again.

"Oh, one last thing. Midoriya, Iida, Principal Nezu wants to see you two during lunch," he said before turning away once again and leaving the room with his sleeping bag in hand.

With that, the class resumed their chatter. Izuku was left wondering what his mentor could want with him and Iida, but he assumed it had to do with the I-Expo. Had it anything to do with Stain, Shoto surely would've been called as well. Whatever it may have been, he welcomed the distraction.

He hadn't been able to think about anything other than his mother's episode during the practical exam. Someone hurt his mother, and hę w̴̢̕o̸̱̊ṷ̵̐l̴͖͂d̶͚̄ ̸͚̽f̸͖̌u̶̞̐c̵͍͝k̶̪̔i̵̭̔n̴̬̾g̷̹͠ ̴̖̄k̸̖̀ȉ̵̖l̸̬̆l̵̯͊ ̸̪̈́t̵̢͛h̴̯́e̷͚͘m̶̱͑-

No.

He couldn't do that. He wouldn't do that. That was the blackness speaking. He was not a killer. He was a hero.

"Hey, nerd, you're heating up."

Izuku was so thankful for Bakugo's interruption, and he was even more thankful that the blonde had the presence of mind to speak in a hushed tone, though it likely didn't escape the notice of Jiro and Shoji. He'd deal with that another time.

"Thanks," he muttered with a sigh.

"She tell you anything?"

"No. She avoided the subject completely after you left the apartment, and I didn't know how to push the issue."

That was another thing. His mother insisted that Bakugo have dinner with them so that she could cook them a celebratory meal, and he obliged, but there was clearly an elephant in the room the entire evening that the three did their very best to ignore. After Bakugo left, Izuku wanted to broach the subject to his mother, but he didn't know how, and she didn't seem inclined to bring it up herself despite the somewhat awkward tension in the apartment.

He was just glad that the exams all happened simultaneously, so none of his classmates aside from Bakugo were aware that it even happened, and it would stay that way for as long as he lived.

He was grateful for the new distraction that came along in the form of Ochako's encroaching hand, which he aptly dodged and grasped. "You got me once already, and it will not happen again."

"We'll see about that," the brunette giggled. "How did your practical go? I doubt your mom went easy on you two."

"No, she certainly didn't," he answered with a rub of his kidney. "She treated it as my final assessment from her training. I am officially a graduate of the Midoriya Hellspawn Academy."

Izuku took great pleasure in the simultaneous "stop trying to make that a thing" and "the fuck kind of name is that?" from his fellow Academy students. Well, now former fellow Academy students.

Tomura shook in a crouch amongst the destruction in his room. Everything, save for his computer, was reduced to dust or smashed in some way. His fingernails were stained with blood from the scratches on his neck, and his beady, red eyes were wide and unfocused.

'Mother… Hana…'

"I…"

The image of his father's snarl before striking him flashed once more, and it was followed by the man's horror upon seeing Tomura's quirk activation. The image of the young Kotaro overlaid atop adult Kotaro's panic as he wielded the weed clipper.

"I remember…"

Tomura dry heaved. He remembered his family. He remembered the picture of his grandmother. He remembered his father's hatred. He remembered the itching. He remembered desperately reaching out for his sister and mother for help. He remembered his mother still trying to comfort him as she decayed into chunks.

He remembered killing his father and enjoying every second of it because in that brief moment, the itching finally stopped.

He remembered everything.

"Cousin…"

He had a cousin. He had a living cousin and a living aunt. His cousin wanted to be a hero. Heroes were scum and deserved to die with everything else. Was his cousin the same?

Sensei was still out handling that errand. Tomura would find the boy himself.

When Izuku and Iida approached Nezu's office during lunch, Izuku stepped aside and allowed his friend to knock. Not thinking anything of it, Iida reached for the door, but it swung open before his hand could make contact, and they were met with the smiling visage of their animal principal. Izuku had to stifle his laughter at the surprised sputtering from his friend.

"Excellent, you're right on time," the principal chirped. "Please, come in and have a seat."

The two students did so, and the chimera sat behind his desk and offered the two boys tea that Iida knew for certain didn't exist prior to him sitting down. He turned his confused gaze to the other student with him, but he was just calmly sipping the offered beverage as if nothing was amiss.

"I'm certain you're both wondering why I requested the two of you to see me," Nezu began, and they nodded. "It's regarding the upcoming I-Expo."

"I had a feeling," Izuku commented after another sip of his tea. He had to give it to the rodent-marsupial-ursine, the blend in his hands was fantastic.

"What about the I-Expo, sir?" Iida questioned. "I'd be remiss if I didn't inform you that I didn't receive an invitation to attend."

"Not officially," the principal amended the boy's statement, much to Iida's surprise. "Your brother has been invited on the basis of receiving an experimental treatment to heal his condition, and you have the option of attending as his plus-one."

Iida practically gawked at the information. "But… Midoriya already healed him, right? He can move just fine again. He beat both of us in a race… quite handily, I might add."

"You don't have to bring that up," Izuku muttered with a pout.

"Indeed, but the details of his healing were never released to the public," Principal Nezu responded. "The fact that he was healed at all was never released to the public, in fact. There's a reason he hasn't returned to active duty yet despite being perfectly healthy."

"…I had just assumed he wanted to spend time with us before heading back into danger," Iida commented somewhat downcast.

"That's probably the biggest part of it," Izuku interjected, not wanting his friend to take the situation negatively. "But, if I'm reading between the lines correctly, you and Ingenium kept the whole procedure under wraps to keep my role in his recovery a secret."

The chimera nodded with a smile, glad that his student was able to determine that on his own. It would make the following discussion after Iida was to be dismissed much less taxing.

"Why keep that a secret, if you don't mind me asking?" Iida questioned with a raised eyebrow. "Don't you want the credit for such a great feat, Midoriya?"

Nezu chose to answer the boy's question in place of Izuku. "Healing quirks in general are rare, and quirks that can repair damage on that level are even rarer. A quirk like that would be a hot commodity on its own, but combined with all of the other facets of Young Izuku's quirk, it would be much safer for him to stay out of the spotlight. Experimental treatment at I-Island is believable enough to not raise much of a fuss since such procedures do already exist at an extremely exorbitant cost."

Iida nodded at that explanation, and Izuku sipped his tea in acceptance. He idly wondered if there was more to it than what the principal was saying; he wouldn't put it past the chimera.

"Now, then, am I correct to assume that you will be attending alongside your brother for the 'procedure?'" Nezu asked Iida. "Do not worry about the situation seeming underhanded; it has already been squared away with all parties on I-Island."

"Yes, I shall certainly attend!" Iida was practically vibrating with excitement. "Thank you so much, sir!"

"Excellent, you are dismissed. Stay behind, young Izuku," Nezu instructed, and the taller boy gratefully bowed before leaving.

"How did you manage to set that little ruse up on I-Island of all places?" Izuku questioned with a smirk.

"Nothing too taxing, just a little bit of blackmail," Nezu waved off. "Would I also be correct to assume that All Might extended you an invitation as well?"

"Yes," he confirmed. "He has two plus-one invites, though. I was gonna ask my mom, but she hates flying, so I'm not expecting a 'yes' from her."

"It wouldn't be the best time for her to be traveling, anyway," Nezu nodded, causing Izuku's brow to furrow. "Yes, I'm well aware of what happened during your practical exam. You did a splendid job with helping calm her down."

Izuku hesitantly nodded, and the principal continued. "I will need her here on campus for an important meeting while you'll be on I-Island, and it concerns why I asked for you to stay behind."

"I had an inkling that the explanation you gave Iida wasn't your only reason. Things are never that simple with you," Izuku commented, and the principal nodded.

"Indeed. Keeping the specifics of your quirk out of public knowledge is only part of it. There are undoubtedly people who would come for you if they knew about that aspect of your quirk, though I'm confident that you could handle yourself just fine against most of them."

"Most?" Izuku questioned.

"We'll circle back to that," Nezu responded before taking a sip of his tea. "The real party we are keeping it from is the HPSC."

Izuku furrowed his brow and put his cup down. He knew that the Commission wasn't particularly ecstatic about the Stain video, and he was already giving the bare minimum on his quirk registration to keep their eyes away from him at his mother's request.

"They've begun sniffing," Nezu continued. "The Commission taking a closer interest in you and Young Todoroki will only make your lives much more difficult. This trip to I-Island and the following training camp gets you away for a bit while also throwing the scent off your trail. Meanwhile, I will be making preparations for the road to come."

"What exactly does that entail?" Izuku hesitantly questioned, and the chimera gave him a chilling smile.

"If all goes well, a very difficult road ahead for the HPSC's continued existence," he answered cryptically.

Izuku sighed with a chuckle. "Sometimes, I feel like you're always prepping for war. Like, the entrance exam is just an excuse to manufacture an army of giant death-bots, and the stage for my final exam was just one part of a massive network of tunnels under the building in case of an invasion."

Izuku looked up at his principal to laugh along with him at the comical thought, but Nezu's smile did not falter for a second. He merely continued smiling and gazing at the teen, and Izuku slowly began to pale.

"Right, um," Izuku coughed into his hand and nervously tried to move on to another subject. "You said that I'd be able to handle most people who came after my healing abilities. Why only most?"

"I'm certain you've heard of the Quirk Thief," Nezu answered, his smile disappearing.

"He's pretty much an urban legend," Izuku responded with his face set into the same frown that Nezu's was. "Are you saying that he's real?"

"He was the one responsible for All Might's current condition," Nezu answered, and any blood that hadn't left Izuku's face when he accidentally stumbled on Nezu's war plans made a swift exit.

"Then… he's…" Izuku stammered, and his eyes slowly traveled down to the desk, but he wasn't really seeing anything in particular.

'He killed Grandma Nana… He tore my mother's family apart…'

Izuku's eyes hardened, and Nezu didn't miss the brief spark of black in the boy's green pupils. "What happened to him?"

Nezu did not respond immediately, instead taking a sip of his tea. Izuku knew what that meant, but he waited for the creature's reply, nonetheless.

"We have our suspicions that he may be the puppet master behind the League of Villains," Nezu answered.

Izuku's face set into a scowl. "Can All Might put him down for good?"

"For all of our sakes, I sincerely hope so."

The rest of the day proceeded on as normal. His classmates all decided that they'd go to the mall together that weekend to shop for all the stuff they needed to prepare for a week out in the forest, with the exceptions of Shoto (who visited his mom on his off days) and Bakugo (who decided to do literally anything else). Izuku agreed to tag along since he needed to get a suit for the I-Expo, anyway, and he was struck with an idea at the thought of the event.

At the end of the day, he directly went to the Development Studio. To his surprise, the person he was looking for was being wheeled out of the lab in a restraint chair right as he got there.

"Come on, just 15 minutes!" Mei whined from the chair that wouldn't budge no matter how hard she fought.

"No, Hatsume," Power Loader sighed. "If I let you in there, you will spend the entirety of your summer break in the lab. Go home."

"You can't hinder ingenuity!" she shouted before noticing Izuku. "Oh, Muscles! Are you here to make some more babies?"

Power Loader rubbed his temples at the speed in which she leaped into conversation with a client as if she wasn't completely restrained.

"Not this time," he chuckled. "I actually came to ask if you were busy next week."

Mei would have placed her hand on her chin had the appendage not been firmly secured to the chair. "Well, Power Loader forbade me from spending summer break in the lab, so I don't have any plans to my knowledge. Why?"

"I got an invite to the I-Expo as a plus-one, and I wanted to know if you wanted the other spot," Izuku answered, and he had to dodge the stars that shot out of her eyes. He certainly wasn't prepared for her to burst out of the restraint chair and damn near tackle him.

"THE I-EXPO?! ON I-ISLAND?! ABSOLUTELY!" she shouted while practically bouncing around him.

Meanwhile, Power Loader's eyes were glued to the remains of the restraint chair, and he was racking the furthest corners of his brain to figure out just how the fuck a short, teenage girl with an ocular quirk tore through a chair that was meant to be able to securely hold even Hound Dog in place.

"Awesome! Let's go find Mr. Yagi. He's the one with the tickets," Izuku excitedly declared, and the two scampered away from the dumbstruck teacher. After a few silent minutes, he gave up and shook his head. He was about to head back into the lab until it occurred to him just what the boy had asked her, and he became as pale as a sheet of paper.

"Hatsume at I-Island?!" he shouted.

The two teens, meanwhile, were bounding through the hallways on a hunt for a skinny blonde that smelled like blood. Mei had never met the man before, so she was relying on Izuku to find him. As luck would have it, they encountered the man in question just as he was exiting one of the offices.

"Mr. Yagi, just the man I was looking for," Izuku spoke with an attempt at a disarming smile. It was not effective, as Toshinori was immediately on guard. He could already feel in his gut that he wanted nothing to do with the chaos that the next few decisions would inevitably cause the world in the future.

"Young Midoriya," he hazarded. "What can I do for you?"

"I've got our other plus-one for the expo," Izuku answered while motioning to the Support Course student beside him. While this was happening, Mei was carefully examining the tall, blonde man. She had never seen him before, yet something about him was profoundly familiar. Her memory when it came to names, faces, and most things not involving technology was admittedly not great, but something about the man staring quizzically at her rang way too many bells for her to ignore. She zoomed in on his face to get a better look at him.

Toshinori, on the other hand, was a little uncomfortable with the prolonged silence. He recognized the girl from the sports festival; it was hard to forget someone who hijacked a match to showcase her support equipment for 10 uninterrupted minutes. He would grant her that she was a very capable inventor, and he could certainly see why the young man would extend the invite to her, but-

"All Might?" Mei finally broke the silence.

Any teachers and students still milling about the building would not be blamed for thinking that Vlad King had unleashed his quirk with the amount of blood Toshinori hacked up.

The Aoyama family was a proud one. The trio of French immigrants could boast a comfortable wealth and decent social standing, and it was only strengthened by the glamor of the family's scion, Yuga, attending the most prestigious hero school in the nation: UA High School. Not only was their son on path to graduate from one of the premier hero institutions on the planet, but he would also go on to become the most magnifique pro hero to ever grace the shores of the Land of the Rising Sun.

It was his destiny.

There was just one little hiccup to their picturesque image, though. It came in the form of a towering man in a black suit and frightening mask with a presence about him that would make the Devil himself sweat.

You see, their son, Yuga, was not born with a quirk. If being a foreigner didn't already make him different enough, being a quirkless foreigner was essentially putting him into a natural isolation chamber. Fitting in was never going to be an option for him no matter how well off he was, and his parents were very worried about what would become of their son's mental health as he grew older. That led them to a decision that they would very quickly end up regretting, and they'd do so for the rest of their lives.

A perverse mixture of love and desperation led them to make a deal with the Devil. Not since the infamous English villain of old, Murderboner, who brutally slaughtered the famous paragon of justice, Napoleon Bonaparte, in single combat did one man incur so much fear in the hearts of the Aoyama parents. The façade of granting their boy a quirk with no strings attached was shattered into thousands of jagged pieces and mixed into their dinner when he returned to collect on the debt, and they had no choice but to swallow the tainted meal without complaint since the alternative was death.

Yuga was to be All For One's spy in UA after hearing whispers of All Might being set to become a teacher at the school. He was to provide All For One's agents with information about his classmates and their activities. He was to expose exploitable security risks to them. He was to loyally serve All For One and assist the League of Villains in bringing about the death of the Symbol of Peace, or else his family would be slaughtered.

That lead them to the current situation at the Aoyama home: two loving parents were tightly clutching their petrified son while keeping him behind them at all times, valiantly trying to protect their progeny despite them shaking in fear themselves. It would have been heartwarming to the centuries-old supervillain if it weren't so hilarious. They could put the entire population of Hong Kong between himself and their son, and it still wouldn't save him when it was time to collect.

However, now wasn't the time for amusement. All For One was there on important business. The pathetic family had served him very well to that point, but the situation was transforming into something he wasn't a fan of. Tomura was beginning to question him and his goals, and while he could certainly kidnap the young man and forcefully pull his loyalties back onto the correct path through reconditioning, he did not wish to resort to that just yet. His chosen successor was not yet lost, but he did want to prepare for such an eventuality if it were to come to pass.

Thus, here he was in the Aoyama home placing a few "contingencies" on the parents and sufficiently acquainting himself with the young boy to ensure that he would never escape Warping if/when it was time to put Plan B into action.

"So, I heard from the grapevine that you all have a training camp coming up," he said with a chilling smile.

The Symbol of Evil's voice felt like acid in the ears of the family, but Yuga could do little more than shakily nod. All For One's smile grew (not that they could see it), and the Aoyama family felt any hope they might have had before that day vanish into the wind.

"Tell me more."

The class' excursion to the mall the next day was supposed to help keep Izuku's brain busy so that he didn't obsess over his mother. It wasn't working by any stretch. Not even the mysterious absence of Aoyama from the group was enough to keep his mind occupied. After everyone agreed to split up and meet back up later, Izuku got everything he needed within a few minutes and offered to get some food while Ochako kept shopping, partially just to be alone with his thoughts to keep her from worrying about him.

He knew that he needed to sit down and ask her about it straight up, and he resolved to do that when he returned home from the mall. However, there was also the issue of his mounting rage surrounding what little he gleamed from the situation. She mentioned someone named Musha in her haze, and while he didn't want to jump to conclusions, the only Musha he knew of was Yoroi Musha, the current No. 10 Pro Hero.

He knew why she hated Endeavor since she told him the whole story after Shoto implored him to ask during their talk at the sports festival. While her reasons for hating the man were very valid, Endeavor never did anything to her specifically, certainly not enough to scar her mentally. That meant that a hero in the Top 10 had potentially hurt his mother badly enough in the past to leave a violent imprint on her psyche, and the piece of fucking shit was still w̵̥͐ạ̷̍l̶̡͛k̵͉̔i̵͇͌ň̵̲g̸͉̈ ̸͘ͅf̶͓̌ṙ̷̰ē̶̡ẹ̶̃-

Izuku silenced that train of thought before it could devolve any further. Exhausted from where his thoughts were taking him, he decided to sit down. He hung his arms over the back of the bench he chose to rest on, and he let loose a long, weary exhale. He didn't move a muscle when someone sat down beside him, not even looking up at the new arrival. He did, however, extend purple flames from his fingertips down the back of the bench to the floor and pointed them upward into spikes underneath. The two sat in uninterrupted silence for half a minute until Izuku rolled his shoulders and stretched the kinks out of his neck.

"So, you're clearly here to talk, otherwise you would have attacked or at least made a halfway threatening gesture by now," Izuku finally addressed the man sitting beside him. "What's on your mind that led you to seek out a hero student in a very public setting, Tomura Shigaraki?"

Tomura did not immediately respond, instead looking down at the floor between his feet. The rough skin of his clasped hands ground together as he slightly shifted and met eyes with the teen through his shaggy hair and hood, and only then did Izuku fully notice the size of the bags under the man's eyes. The young adult looked even more worn emotionally than his already haggard skin would have you believe.

"Why do you want to be a hero?" he asked the student.

Izuku shuffled and leaned his head back in thought while bringing his own hands together. He noted that his voice sounded markedly less gravelly than he remembered from the USJ. It felt more… matured. He could ponder that later, though.

"There's a lot of suffering in this world, and most of it happens in silence," Izuku responded. "With such an abundance of heroes in our country, so many people still feel so alone, abused, and forgotten. Doesn't that kinda piss you off?"

"A bit of an understatement," Tomura growled.

"Well, it doesn't have to be that way. So many people out there feel like they have no one to rely on, no one to reach out to, and no one looking out for or even thinking about them. So many people are being hurt in silence with no resolution. So many people are exploited by the system and then promptly forgotten about or disposed of entirely. So many people are in need with seemingly no one willing to do anything about it.

"At the end of the day, I just want to help people. It doesn't matter who those people are; so long as they can be helped and want to be helped, I want to be there for them. Those people who have been lost in the darkness for so long that they've all but abandoned hope of there ever being a brighter tomorrow, I want to help create that brighter tomorrow for them. I want to help them back into the light and away from their suffering. There are so many people at this very moment that heroes aren't helping, either by lack of ability or just straight up lack of desire."

The teen sighed. "Sorry if I'm rambling; your presence understandably makes me nervous."

The last point really got Tomura's attention. The desire to help people was all well and good, but anyone with a cape and spandex could parrot a nice-sounding sentiment. This, however, was beginning to sound like the teen had reached the root of the issue. "What do you mean by that?"

"About you making me nervous? Have you looked in the mirror?"

"No, you asshole, about heroes having a lack of desire to help people in need."

Izuku closed his eyes and bitterly sighed. He had been toying with these thoughts for a while, especially after the vestiges of One For All relayed the information about the dangers of passing on the quirk.

"We, as a society, have become a little too reliant on All Might. I respect the man and all of the unequivocal good that he has done, but he isn't a god, no matter how obscenely powerful he is. He's just one man, and people have forgotten that. There are so many people that All Might can't do anything for because he just can't be everywhere at once, and hero society is stagnating and failing to pick up that slack because we've gotten way too comfortable. I'm so certain that people who are truly in need are overlooked everyday by anyone with even the smallest ability to help because they're confident that someone more suited to handle the situation will be there eventually."

Tomura silently soaked in everything the boy said. This conversation had only reaffirmed everything he previously thought about the hero student.

"You're not it," Tomura finally declared after the brief silence.

"Hm?"

"All Might's successor. You're not it. Your philosophies are way too different. Any successor to All Might would spout some bullshit about holding up society on their shoulders and maintaining peace with a dumbass smile, like the dumbass smiles that all these people have without even realizing how much danger they're in."

Tomura cracked a dark smile. "You're right about society being way too comfortable, you know. Even right now, I could crumble 20 or 30 of them before you're able to stop me. Hell, any one of these people could just snap and unleash their quirk on these unsuspecting targets, and so many people could die. And, yet, any successor to All Might would still go on about being able to save everyone as if they're omnipotent, and it would only end up prolonging and exacerbating the suffering of those in the cracks that the new Symbol of Peace would still be blind to."

That was a lot for Izuku to take in. He took a minute to gather his thoughts before responding. "You're not wrong, though I probably wouldn't have phrased it that way. I would also hope people don't see me as All Might's successor after I explicitly denied that I wanted to be."

"You'd be surprised. Sensei is convinced that all your attempts to deny it are some elaborate red herring to throw people off your scent."

"Sensei?"

Tomura gave the teen a long look. He knew that he shouldn't be giving the enemy any details about his master and benefactor, but, honestly, was the brat even an enemy at this point? If this kid, his apparent cousin, was who Sensei wanted him to kill, then was Sensei even an ally?

Izuku didn't interrupt the man's musings. While he was exceptionally tense during the entire encounter, so tense that purple spikes were lying in wait to strike the villain down at the slightest aggressive movement, he wasn't unwilling to hear whatever he had to say. Honestly, as long as no one got hurt, he was content to talk with him as long as he wanted, but he wouldn't push his luck by pressing for details that the man was clearly hesitant to expand on.

"There's a spot in the League for you, you know."

Izuku was caught completely unawares by that curveball. "What? Are you seriously offering me a place in the League of Villains?"

"Figured I'd try it the easy way, first," Tomura shrugged.

Deciding to put that ominous statement aside for the moment, Izuku took some time to gather the words necessary to carefully phrase his response. "Sometimes, you'll end up cracking a few eggs to make an omelette. I get that, and I accept that as a fact of life. That said, I don't know how much good I can do through villainy. I still only want to help people, after all."

"You don't need to be a hero to help people," Tomura challenged. "Vigilantes exist."

"The only difference between a hero and a vigilante is the issue of a license," Izuku argued.

"And isn't that exactly the problem? A bunch of corrupt suits pulling the strings of hero society get to arbitrarily determine who helps people and who doesn't. They determine who gets a license to kill and who's a criminal masquerading as a Good Samaritan. I wonder if those suits know about the kill that you already have under your belt."

Izuku had no answer to that.

"I'll let you mull it over for a little while," he said before standing up and fixing him with a stern glare. "Don't take too long."

Before he turned around to leave, he gave the boy a final appraisal. "Smart idea with the spikes, by the way. You're not so much of an idiot to leave yourself defenseless."

With that, he turned and walked away. Izuku watched him vanish into the sea of civilians with a frown, and the purple spikes dispersed. He really didn't think that letting him walk away unhindered was a good idea, but attempting to apprehend him in the middle of a crowded shopping mall would have resulted in many preventable casualties. He was glad that the man genuinely only wanted to talk, and he would admit that their conversation felt at least somewhat productive, even if he didn't necessarily know what Tomura sought out of it.

What worried him the most was the mention of "Sensei." He could reason that the identity of the sensei was All For One, and that meant that All For One believed him to be the successor of his arch nemesis. That wasn't good; it inherently made him a target for one of the most dangerous supervillains of all time. On top of that, All For One's direct subordinate was offering him a spot in the League of Villains where the man would have direct access to him.

However, maybe that wasn't necessarily a bad thing…

A white flame bloomed in his hair as he began to think. Tomura Shigaraki revealed that All For One believed him to be All Might's successor, meaning that he likely believed him to be the next bearer of One For All. However, Tomura himself clearly didn't believe that to be the case, and he offered him a spot in the League of Villains despite the boy's desire to be a hero. That could either mean that he was laying a trap for the boy to be right in his master's clutches, or there was a genuine disconnect between All For One's desires and Tomura's desires.

That disconnect could potentially be exploited. If All For One's desires and Tomura's desires did not align, and Tomura's desires laid much closer to Izuku's, then Izuku could attempt to build much more common ground between the two. If that was possible, perhaps he could sway him away from the evil mastermind entirely, at least long enough for All Might to take the supervillain down for good.

"A little bold to be using your quirk so blatantly in public like this," came a bored voice from behind him.

Izuku damn near yelped in surprise, and the white flame died as he turned around to face the new arrival. He idly noted the slight headache he had, which was odd considering that he hadn't used his white flames for very long, but he focused on the man before him. The tall, lanky man peered down at him with violet eyes filled with as much boredom as his voice possessed, but Izuku could see the flicker of mirth mixed within, as well. Taking in the man's appearance, he was met with a dark red leather jacket over a black shirt and pants with chin-length crimson hair to match his jacket.

His appearance wasn't what put him on edge, though. It was the fact that the man managed to sneak up on him that made him nervous. Not even Tomura had gone undetected when he approached. He offered the man a sheepish smile when he remembered that the man had said something to kick off the interaction, and the mirth in the man's lackadaisical gaze grew more pronounced.

"Don't fret, I won't report it," the man lightly assured before meandering around the bench to take the empty spot. Izuku noted that his footsteps were totally soundless.

The redhead gave Izuku a considering gaze before closing his eyes and slouching in his spot on the bench. "Frankly, I don't particularly care for how stringent quirk use laws in Japan are. I much prefer the western model where they're a little more liberal about our natural gifts."

"I get that," Izuku noncommittally replied while keeping a wary eye on the man. "It would be a lot more convenient at times."

"You don't have to be so vigilant, little hero," the man nonchalantly commented with a wave of his hand.

That did not assuage Izuku's wariness at all. "How do you know I'm a hero student?"

"I recognized you from the UA Sports Festival," he yawned. "I'm sure a lot of people here have for other reasons, as well."

Oh, right. He was famous. Triply so, given the interview and the Stain video.

"Can I ask you a question?" the man inquired, and Izuku nodded. "I'd like to hear your opinion on a hypothetical situation involving a villain, heroes, and civilians. Let's say someone like the Sludge Villain attacks and takes a hostage for their quirk; I wonder what happened to him, by the way..."

Izuku did his best not to visibly tense up at the mention of the Sludge Villain, and the lack of notice from the man somewhat eased his mind that he was successful.

"Anyway, let's say the civilian had a destructive quirk that allowed the Sludge Villain to cause widespread damage on his rampage. Meanwhile, the civilian is alive and suffocating, but the pro heroes on scene can't get to them for one reason or another. Maybe their quirks just aren't conducive to the situation, maybe it's incompetence, maybe it's just laziness, the point is that an innocent is dying and nothing is being done about it."

This was a very specific hypothetical, and it did nothing to ease Izuku's nerves about him.

"Now, say a particularly brave, or stupid, civilian decided to step in since no one else would, and it just so happened that his quirk or specific set of skills allowed him to rescue the hostage himself. Or, at the very least, he made it much easier for the heroes to do so. Do you, as a pro hero, punish that man for his actions?"

'That was such a needlessly long way around asking for my opinions on vigilantism,' Izuku thought with a deadpan expression.

"I mean, what he did is technically vigilantism, and that is illegal," Izuku carefully began. "On the same token, I wouldn't begrudge him for doing it, and I wouldn't make much of an effort to apprehend him for it. Granted, I wouldn't be the only hero on-scene, so it would fall out of my hands at some point, but if I couldn't take down the Sludge Villain to rescue a hostage, I'm not that great of a hero."

The man hummed and nodded slightly. "I suppose you do have experience with that."

Izuku was taken aback by that statement, and now, he was really on edge. That comment could've been an innocuous observation based on his rather public interaction with the Hero Killer, but it could have also been a subtle nod to what happened at the USJ. The latter wasn't likely because how the hell would he have known about that? At the same time, why was the hypothetical so focused on the Sludge Villain if he wasn't aware of what happened? It was just too unsettling to be a coincidence.

Izuku's intense gaze bore into the half-lidded, violet eyes slightly obscured by the red hair of the man beside him, and he could swear that he saw even more mirth dancing behind the boredom. It was as if the man was reveling in plausible deniability, and he knew that Izuku knew it. Just who the hell was this guy?

"Your friend is here," he spoke again, and Izuku turned to see Ochako approaching them with a few bags in her hand and curiosity written across her face.

"Izuku? Who's this?" she inquired, none the wiser to their conversation and Izuku's anxiety.

"Just someone who recognized us from the sports festival," he quickly answered before standing up and wrapping a stiff arm around her. "Let's go meet up with the others."

"Erm, o-okay," she stammered as he led her away from the bench.

A small smirk found purchase on Kusari's face as he watched the two teens depart. He could practically taste the boy's discomfort. It wasn't quite fear, but he could feel that the boy knew that he was prey, and his quirk nearly unleashed itself in a frenzy to chase after them.

"Izuku Midoriya," Kusari hummed. "I somewhat see why Curious is so enamored with you. When the time comes, I wonder if you'll be liberated of your shackles or liberated of your life."

"A hero to help those that hero society has failed, huh?" Tomura mused to himself after stepping through the entrance of the bar. "A genuinely noble conviction, who woulda thought? It's too bad that they'll be calling him a villain sympathizer when shit inevitably hits the fan."

"What is it, Tomura?" Kurogiri asked the man

"Just thinking about our person of interest," Tomura lightly replied. "Anything from Giran?"

"He mentioned that he had an acquaintance with a powerful cloning quirk that's willing to work," the misty man answered. "I would expect him to be back sometime this week."

"Might I make a suggestion, Tomura?" came the voice of their sensei from the monitor.

Tomura turned a hesitant eye to the screen in question before nodding. He had a considerable bone to pick with him about what the man knew of his past, but he could swallow it for the moment if only for the sake of self-preservation. "What is it, Sensei?"

"You've done a splendid job at fielding recruits, but I believe you are leaving money on the table, so to speak," the man stated.

"How so?" Tomura slowly questioned, trying to figure out just where his sensei was going.

"You have collected a few that are clearly competent, but they, for the most part, either lack true experience or the raw power to properly capitalize on that experience. Until you can mold them into reliable dragons, it would be prudent to find already battle-tested pawns to hold down the fort."

"Who do you have in mind?"

"I'm so glad you asked, Tomura. I have had my eye on a few that have successfully fought and defeated pro heroes in the past, one even killing a duo of them with relative ease."

"You don't have eye-"

"Yes, I am well aware of that, Tomura Shigaraki. The point remains; that battle-tested acumen would do wonders for the efficacy of the group, even if they stray a little far into wanton violence without reason for your… updated sensibilities."

Tomura would not lash out at the obvious jab. He would not. He probably earned it after the attempted crack at Sensei's lack of eyes. He also had to concede that the man made a good point. If they were going to make a proper impression as an organization, then proper, destructive firepower was exactly what they needed. Some pointless murder and destruction was a small price to pay for the end of All Might's society.

"Gotta crack a few eggs to make an omelette," Tomura muttered, echoing the words he had heard earlier that day.

"Precisely, Tomura," All For One commented with an unseen grin. "And, courtesy of our ever loyal informant, I know just where to begin making the omelette."

Izuku closed the front door of the apartment behind him. He promised himself that he would address the subject with his mother when he returned home, and he would do so. His mother was in pain, and not a goddamn soul would stop him from rectifying that.

He stepped into the living room and found his mother watching TV with a cup of tea in hand. She sent him a warm smile when she noticed him, and he gave her a shaky one in return. Her smile somewhat dimmed at that, and she moved over and beckoned for him to sit down beside her.

"How was your trip to the mall?" she asked him while softly running her hand through his hair, and he instinctively slumped and leaned into her touch despite being taller than her.

"It was…" he began before pausing to consider how eventful the simple mall trip ended up being, "...enlightening, I suppose."

"Oh?" his mother replied with curiosity brimming in her gaze. "How so?"

"I'll tell you later," he deflected, deciding to get right to the meat and potatoes.

Inko's brow furrowed, and she curiously regarded her son who was looking anywhere but at her for a few moments.

"Mom," he softly began, and he finally brought his gaze up to meet hers. "What happened?"

Inko's eyes briefly widened, and then she deflated with a sigh before looking back at her son with the most tired gaze that he had ever seen her sport. "I knew this was coming eventually. I just hoped that I could continue ignoring it for a little while longer."

Izuku remained silent while she continued rubbing circles on his scalp with a small, sad smile.

"I never told you why I lost hope in heroics," she remarked softly, and another silence followed in which she continued her ministrations and the energy continued to leave her.

Izuku did not like seeing his mother so… defeated.

"When I was still a student, I interned with Yoroi Musha," she began in a sullen tone that betrayed the smile she tried to maintain for her son. "He taught me quite a bit. He refined my fighting style with a decent repertoire of martial arts that he helped me make my own and create a personalized style out of. Afterward, I did work study with his agency whenever I could."

Her sad smile became a bit wistful. "He showed a bright-eyed teenage girl who just wanted to help people the glamorous bits of hero society, and he trained me to take on the world and serve the people the best I could. I really enjoyed my time with him."

Then, her smile vanished. "And then, I didn't."

When she didn't elaborate, Izuku tried to reign in his bubbling rage. He could feel the ever-so-familiar heat shoot through his soul and fight to overtake his being. He was then drawn into a warm, firm hug from his mother, and the rage slowly drained away in her embrace.

"I'll spare you the details," she finally said, neither party breaking the embrace. "Just know that he wasn't unique in that regard, and neither was I. When I graduated and started interacting with heroes a lot more, I very quickly learned that he and so many others are only in it for the fame and wealth."

She paused to amend her thought and shifted without breaking the hug. "Well, those that survive in the business long enough to afford to indulge are in it for those things, anyway. It's why I decided to go underground. People are usually on the up and up down there, although you do have the few who use it to get into the drug and trigger trades."

The two sat in the embrace for another lengthy silence. Inko resumed her rubbing of her son's scalp, and he returned the affection by rubbing her back.

"Did you ever report it?" Izuku asked after another minute in the hug.

She sighed again, and Izuku already didn't like what the answer would be. "That's the thing about making accusations against someone in a position of power when the government agency that it inevitably falls to has an implicit stake in maintaining the status quo."

"So, nothing was ever done about it, then."

"Like I said, I'm not a unique case."

"That doesn't make it okay!" Izuku actually shouted, pulling away from the hug. "He hurt you and who knows how many others! He hurt you! He shouldn't just get to continue life with impunity!"

"No, it's not okay," Inko calmly answered without backing down from her incensed son. "But, it isn't your revenge to take."

Whatever reply Izuku would have uttered died in his throat when he processed what she said. Inko watched the sparks of black that had briefly returned when he shouted fade away once more.

"I know that look, Izuku," she began, and he couldn't meet her gaze anymore. "I had it for years. It was all I could think about. It bled into my work. I vented all of that hatred, that rage, that disgust, and that disappointment in myself; I poured it all out onto criminals. I pistol-whipped a mugger until he cried, Izuku."

Izuku minutely perked up at the mention of that, as he remembered Jiro telling him that same story.

"I was so filled with hatred that it even cost me a friendship," she continued. "That wasn't the person I wanted to be, but it was the person I became. I wouldn't let it be the hero I was, too."

"So, that's why you retired…" Izuku surmised.

"I was no longer living up to my desire to help people," she confirmed. "I was just coping by hurting others. For those fleeting moments, I felt in control again. This is the reality that I wanted to shield you from. You don't deserve to have it beat you down, too."

Izuku remained silent, and his gaze fell away from his mother once again. The more he learned about the state of heroics, the less he enjoyed the thought of participating in the system.

"Besides," she continued, "Musha is just one of many Commission flunkies to take down. Some are much dirtier than others. They'll all get what's coming to them in due time, and I'll be right there to watch the bastard burn."

"…What exactly do you mean by that?" Izuku hesitantly questioned.

"The Rat works in mysterious ways," she cryptically answered with a smile, and Izuku sighed knowing that was the best answer he would get. Then, he felt his mother wrap him into another, even warmer hug.

"You truly are my greatest achievement, Izuku. If everything that happened over the course of my life was necessary in order to have you, I wouldn't change a thing."

Izuku didn't fight the tears that welled up and trailed down his freckled cheeks at that statement, and he buried himself in her embrace with equal fervor.

All the while, he was hard at work ignoring the growing sensation deep within him. It was a dark, flaming abyss that yearned for retribution.