Developments, Scientific and Other

Yagi Toshinori looked at the pin board. It seemed ludicrous that they used such an archaic device to hunt for one of the world's most heinous criminals but the board allowed them to make connections that other tools didn't. There was software which could double as a pin-board but looking at these connections on a screen just didn't feel right. There was something about actually being able to move the pins around, to move the strings that made him feel as if they were making actual connections.

This board was stored at his Agency, in a tactical room only a select few had access to. Yagi knew there were questions about what they were planning in here but being the Number One Hero meant that everyone knew you took on the biggest and the baddest villains. And you didn't always take them head on.

The board was laid out as a timeline. Anyone unfamiliar with All For One would scoff at the fact that the dates began two hundred years ago, at the dawn of quirks. There were a couple of fuzzy images from various archives and then the timeline moved on. After all, all but one of the people alive then was dead now. At seemingly random intervals there were numbers pinned on the board in roman numerals. I was at the beginning. II was not that long after I but III was distant from II. IV and V followed in quick succession before there was again a gap. VI, VII and VIII were on there as well. There was no IX. If you studied the board long enough, you would deduce that the numbers represented major events, but those familiar with history would also know that there were no major events in some of the years the numbers corresponded to. The numbers were for those who were intimately familiar with the case. It said a lot that there were probably only five people in the world who knew exactly what they meant, and one of those people was the villain they were hunting.

The closer the timeline got to the present, the more pins and links there were. There were headshots of various people though some were crossed out. They were known to be dead. A few of the links went to lists and Yagi hated looking at those lists. They were lists of the dead or quirkless. There were a couple of crossed out headshots that were attached to a period of time. They were the people whose identities All For One had stolen. While the villain was more than capable of manufacturing a complete persona from scratch, it was easier to take over someone else's life. The paperwork was more authentic and thus harder to track. And when you were a villain like All For One, making sure the original person didn't claim their identity back wasn't even a chore.

Yagi stared at one of the few clear shots they had of the man. It was the shot Inko Midoriya had supplied. It was good enough to use facial recognition on, and Sir Nighteye had but there was a problem with that. The databases were limited to those who had a criminal record already. All For One was nothing, if not careful. He never took over the identity of anyone with a criminal history. He took their quirks, but he never took their identities. They had traced Hisashi Seki but all that had given them was grave stones. Dead parents, no siblings, no cousins and no leads. Hisashi hadn't spoken to his more distant relatives for years before Inko met him, and he certainly hadn't spoken to them since.

The last few years were traced out on the board, and they were marked with significantly less pins and connections.

"He's gone to ground," Yagi said.

"We don't know that," Mirai replied.

Toshinori understood the reasons. If All For One had gone to ground, it wasn't because of anything they had done, which meant it was part of a plan and that didn't sit right with either of them. The thought that there was anyone or anything else out there who could threaten All For One was laughable.

There were powerful organisations out there and they were still active, but none of them would threaten All For One. Not if they wanted to still exist. He was behind most of them anyway. Not that their members realised it.

"Why would he have gone to ground?" Mirai asked.

Yagi gestured to the photo. It was folded so that Inko and her son couldn't be seen but they both knew what the whole image contained.

"He's never raised children before," Mirai countered, gesturing to the timeline. Throughout his history, All For One had used children - on occasion - but he had never raised them. If he was now then- There was no reason. If Izuku had a quirk that was valuable, then he would have taken it. As far as they knew, he was immortal and thus didn't need an heir. And he had plenty of underlings who were falling over themselves to do his bidding. He didn't need a son.

Yagi took a deep breath. "So why did he take his son?" he asked.

His sidekick looked just as frustrated as he was for a moment. "Experimentation," Mirai replied immediately.

Yagi shook his head. "He's run experiments before but he's never experimented upon himself," he said. They weren't completely sure of that of course, but All For One was not the type of man to put himself at risk. "The only reason he would need his own flesh and blood for experimentation would be- Shit."

Mirai paled as he said the word. It had been bad enough when Naomasa had suggested that All For One had arranged to have a child for the chance of duplicating his own quirk. That was still possible but it didn't explain why he hadn't simply taken it and left Izuku with Inko. If that had happened, it would fit with everything they knew.

"What would he be trying to find?" Yagi mused aloud. "A new copy of All For One?"

"No," Mirai said shortly. "One For All," he announced.

"How?"

"We know he wants One For All back," Mirai began explaining after taking a deep breath. "You won't give it to him but you will pass it on at some stage, so he could be grooming his son to be a candidate."

"That would be a long shot," Yagi said. When he chose a successor, he or she would be carefully considered. As much as it disturbed him to think about it, all their connections would be known.

"Perhaps, but it is something he's never tried before. The alternative is that he has some plan to capture you, and then force you to give up One For All."

That was a possibility. They thought it had happened to the Fourth Holder. At this end of history, they couldn't be sure and no one was going to ask the man who knew. Except it appeared the Fourth Holder had already passed on One For All.

"You'll just have to find me before that happens," Yagi murmured. What could you say to the prospect of torture? One For All could not be forcibly taken, it had to be willingly given, but no one wanted to test if that also included given after torture.

Mirai gave him a hard look but said nothing.

"All right," Toshinori sighed. "Let's say it's not the boy," he began. "He's not as active as he was, which means he's planning something but what?"

They didn't even have anything like a cryptic hint and as the silence stretched the two of them looked at the board. They'd been at a stalemate with tracking down All For One for months now.

"Look into the future," Yagi announced, looking at his sidekick.

"What?" Mirai almost choked.

"Look into my future," he clarified. "We need something!" he added the justification.

Mirai would usually have told him no and walked away, and truthfully Yagi knew his sidekick didn't like using his quirk like that. There were too many things that could be misinterpreted.

"Right at the moment, even a bad hint would be something," Toshinori said tiredly.

Mirai sighed, and pushed up his glasses. The gold of the frame flashed in the light. "In a week," he countered. "If Teikyo hasn't come up with anything in a week, I'll do it then."

Yagi nodded. That was better than he expected. He looked at the image again.

One way or another, he was going to find All For One, and end this once and for all.

-ted-

Dear Uraraka,

I wish you could have come to my birthday this year! I got to meet Gargoyle.

Yes, the Hero Gargoyle. If you look him up you'll see he's in Saitama, which is where we've moved to. It was so cool! His quirk is fantastic and has so many aspects! Did you know he can just stand watch, all day, not moving? If a normal person tried that, they'd pass out! Eventually.

It was so great!

Thank you for your card and for the notebook. I wrote about Gargoyle in it! I'm going to make your notebook for Heroes that I meet, so I've also moved Saberwind's entry in there. Did I tell you about her? Dad took me to watch one of her fights when I was five. I got her autograph as well! Then she disappeared. I hope she's okay.

So that notebook may not fill up that quickly because it will be for Heroes that I meet, not just those I see but that makes it special.

Say hello to Minato for me, and Kazuo.

I miss you too! But think of it this way. I'll have more friends I can introduce you to when we meet again!

Izuku.

-ted-

Kyudai Garaki didn't shiver as All For One walked around the liquid filled tube. He sat with Johnny and waited. Hisashi examined the creature that was floating in the tube with a critical eye. It had black skin and was unconscious. Its eyes were exposed, as was its brain. Large corded muscles covered it.

"What quirks does this one have?" Hisashi asked.

"Water gun, smoke screen and spike," Doctor Garaki answered immediately.

Marking the larger prototype had proven more difficult than expected. Johnny had been relatively simple to create but that had been over two years ago. The larger prototype was expected to take longer on account of the size difference but not this long.

"I gather it's as robust as the one in your lap?"

"Yes."

"But?" Hisashi pressed.

"It will not operate independently," Kyudai told All For One. "It can fight and it is tough but it must be ordered to do almost everything. Fetch the plate is something it understands but fight is beyond it."

"Fight is beyond it?" Hisashi drawled.

That was his dangerous tone. Fetch was simple. Fight, while still only a single word was much more involved. It required thinking.

"I believe it has to do with the base material," Garaki said quickly. "This one broke with the second quirk. Physically, it far surpasses human ability," he continued, subtly reminding All For One that he had wanted to see the base physical enhancements in this one. It was so much easier, in a way to work with corpses and All For One knew that. But for true physical enhancement and multiple quirks, working with a live base seemed to be the most reliable way. When that base was suitable.

"Do you have any way of determining samples who won't break?"

"Unfortunately not," he had to admit. It wasn't like he got to test his theories exhaustively but he had several ideas. "I believe the younger generation may be more suitable though, as their quirk factor is enhanced."

"You also told me that children are not large enough," Hisashi reminded him.

That was true. "A teenager would be the best compromise," Garaki said. "But if we can find someone who is about 20, and seventh generation then I believe they may be able to better adapt."

Hisashi took a deep breath and released it. Those used in experiments were those society forgot. They got a place to sleep and regular meals and that was a good deal for them. "Let's test that. Ask Nasutto for some recommendations."

Kyudai nodded. "I do have some in mind," he murmured.

"Oh?" All For One's tone told him to continue.

"Foreign isn't going to be an issue?"

"Of course not," Hisashi scoffed. He'd long ago learned that borders were simply there for the masses. There was no fundamental difference between people. They might eat different things, they might claim to value different things but in the end, they all bleed red. That was enough similarity for him.

"Then China's quirk registry has some interesting possibilities," Garaki informed All For One.

"How do you know?"

Kyudai grinned. "They finally got their centralised database up and running."

Understanding passed across Hisashi's expression. "Is there anything else of interest in the database?"

"I believe you might be interested in this one," Garaki said, spinning his chair and tapping at the keyboard to bring up a display. Hisashi left the tube and walked forward to look at the screen.

"Hiryu Ren, quirk Scale," he read before he read the description of what it did. "Oh, I do like that," he agreed. He'd loved Ryuko Tatsuma's quirk ever since he'd seen it at UA's Sport's Festival but being a hero student of UA, she was a little too public for him to take the quirk from. That usually wouldn't have bothered him but he didn't need that buffoon All Might finding him quite yet. This child was younger and while the transformation wasn't as complete, it was useful.

"Are there any others?"

"Some," Garaki smiled. "The Chinese registry makes it so much easier to find quirks. I don't suppose you could influence anyone to have Japan adopt it?"

Hisashi gave the Doctor a look. He was powerful but not that powerful. Japan wouldn't take something they saw as a copy of a Chinese system. "Who else has good registries?" he asked instead.

"Nicaragua," Garaki replied immediately. Surprisingly they did have a great register for quirks. "Togo." Again, they maintained good records.

"No one more recognised?" Hisashi asked. Countries might not bother him, but they were important to others.

"Luxembourg does, but given their population that is not surprising. Most other countries with similar populations to Japan have the same issues with maintaining quirk registries."

"Pity," All For One muttered, still looking at the screen. "I think a business trip is in order," he announced.

Kyudai chuckled. "I'll give you a shopping list," he murmured. It would take at least a few days to organise and come up with plausible reasons for Hisashi to need to visit China but the list he provided was the key. It would tell All For One where he needed to visit and who he needed to meet.

"Get to work on another prototype. I want it more functional this time," All For One instructed.

"And this one?"

"Is it physically unenhanced?" Hisashi asked for confirmation.

"As requested there are no quirk based physical enhancements," Kyudai confirmed.

"Then test to destruction. Find out its real limits," Hisashi instructed. "I have plans for these things."

Garaki nodded as All For One left. Then he looked at the prototype. With its deficiencies, he wasn't surprised by the instruction but sometimes it would be nice if Hisashi could remember that he was conducting experimental science. Things did not always go to plan. Still, he had learned a thing or two over the years, and knowing how to distract the ancient villain was one of them.

Quirk registries were so useful at times.