Izuku groaned as he woke up, trying to bring his hands to rub his eyes.
Hands that were bound.
And then the memories of last night rushed in.
He opened his eyes with a snap, looking around to see that he was tied up on some sort of metal slab fixed to the wall.
He grunted, filling his limbs with One for all at 40% to rip off his bindings, only to scream in pain before stopping.
He blinked the star out of his eyes, turning slowly to see the bands holding his body had a familiar green glow to them.
'isn't sea-prism supposed to be rare?' he complained to himself.
'It was pretty common in my time actually' Shanks commented in his head.
'Can't say I saw I ever saw it in' Banjo said idly while Choso agreed with the fifth user.
'Why are we not freaking out?'
'cuz he already tried to take us from you like thrice yesterday, and clearly it didn't work.'
'he as in…All for One?'
'yep.'
"Have you woken up, Izuku Midoriya?" Izuku heard a voice as cold as ice say from in front of him.
He squinted, his passive ability to see through the dark working despite the sea-prism.
"Who are you!?" he demanded, though he was pretty sure he knew.
"Surely a boy as sharp as you has it figured out?" the voice let out a hollow chuckle "I am your greatest enemy. The man who blew out a hole in your mentor, and has killed every single one of your predecessors. I am All for One."
Before Izuku could respond, he was forced to let out a scream of pain as the bindings around his arm suddenly doubled in pressure, forcing the sea-prism band's jagged edge to pierce into his skin.
"Forgive my colleague's…forceful methods" All for One said as an old doctor wearing glasses walked out of the shadows "it's just that a quirk like yours is so rare! Honestly, if I'd had this before I fought All Might all those years ago, I'd have won!"
"good thing you'll never have it then" Izuku said through gritted teeth as the doctor climbed up a tiny ledge to make incisions into Izuku's left arm with a sea-prism scalpel, taking samples of his blood as well as skin tissue.
"still so fascinating" the doctor muttered as Izuku's skin still managed to pull itself back together the moment the scalpel lost contact with it.
As the doctor hobbled away, the binding loosened up a bit, allowing Izuku to see the lines running down his arm, covering the cut but still having a deep imprint.
"those scars won't fade for a long time I'm afraid" the man chuckled "just like the one in your back. I must admit, Toga has performed wonderfully."
"Is that the blonde one?" he asked, wincing as he understood what that throbbing sensation in the upper area of his back was "she had one of those chipping knives, like Stain did?"
"the man who makes those is one of mine, so it was easy enough to procure" All for One said "your ability to access red-hair's power won't matter either right now I'm afraid."
Izuku froze.
"oh yes, you don't think I failed to notice your use of his Haki during the sports festival, do you?"
"it was quite a surprise you know? I knew that my little brother's power had grown by a big margin, but to see it reach singularity? Even I didn't see that coming!"
"Not to mention the fact that he's still alive" the doctor muttered as he glanced at the pair while putting things into a computer "the sheer power should have destroyed his body."
Izuku blinked, remembering the feeling of uncontainable power he'd felt throughout his body when he first tried to use one for all.
"wait so…I could have died if I didn't get it under control!?"
"not could my dear boy, should! The only reason All Might's vessel was able to contain it was the lack of a quirk beforehand. All of you who held multiple quirks aren't me after all! And with how strong it got with each transfer, I was fully expecting All Might to be the last user. And so, that brings me to the real reason I asked the doctor to wake you."
Izuku paled as he realized what that meant.
"you…drugged me?" he whispered.
"of course" All for One let out a mirthless chuckle " I've dealt with enough of your type to know you'd start scheming the moment you were up. I'd have kept you sleeping for years if I could, letting the sea-prism poison your insides and then take back my brother."
"but, time seems to be short. I will get straight to the point, Midoriya. Give me One for All willingly."
Izuku blinked.
And then, somehow, he managed to laugh.
"You can't be serious?" Izuku got out between laughs "there's no way that wasn't like a joke or something right?"
All for One was not amused.
"I am being deadly serious, boy." He said, finally getting up from his seat to step into the little light the doctor's screen threw into the room to show the life support mask he had on "because even if I don't kill you today, that power will kill you long before I need to."
"and what if my body has already absorbed it?" Izuku grunted "what if the reason you're asking, is that you're afraid that reaching singularity means it's stable in my body?"
Both All for One and the doctor froze.
"How…did you even come to that conclusion?" the doctor was baffled "how would you even think that the ocean of power even reach stability inside the little glass that is your body?"
"my body IS my quirk" Izuku grinned "it's why even erasing it never gets rid of its passive properties. There's a reason you have to make new cuts to get my blood each time old man. This whole time, my body has been fighting back by healing, even when I was asleep."
All for One grunted, a glowing hand snapping forward to grab Izuku's neck.
"You are clever, I'll give you that. Yes, that is the theory me and the doctor settled on. That your innate power merged with my brother's rather than fight for space withing you. In other words…"
"I've literally become one with One for All" Izuku said, grin not fading despite being choked "and your old man hands aren't strong enough to rip that away"
All for One stepped back, chuckling as he sat back down.
"Who said I planned on being the one to rip it away?"
Izuku didn't like the sound of that.
He liked it even less when the doctor moved away from the computer to take out two syringes, one purple and the other a glowing green.
Before he had a chance to put Izuku under again though, there was a huge crash above them.
All three heads in the room snapped up.
All for One was still for a second be he stood up with a sigh.
"It looks like the heroes got one over us. I didn't think they'd attack a minute after saying they were still searching for us. Doctor, drop everything and return to your secondary location. Use Johnny."
The doctor nodded reluctantly before puking out a grey liquid that warped him away.
"…for a warp, that sure looked gross" Izuku muttered.
"all that time making those Nomu, wasted." All for One sighed as he buttoned up his suit's jacket. "well, time to be a good host."
Without as much as a glance to Izuku, he walked up to an elevator in the back.
.
.
Izuku just let the silence sink in before his brain started thinking again.
'well, that was interesting.' Fifth commented
'Spot on with your deductions, kid.' third said, actually appearing as some sort of red mist.
Beside him, sixth and fifth manifested too.
'so, what's the plan now, Midoriya' Choso queried while Shanks and Banjo looked around.
'Fifth.'
Banjo turned to look at him.
'What's up?'
'those black ropes on my back during the USJ incident, was that your Blackwhip?'
'kind of? You partially manifested all our quirks, like seventh's Float and second's Gearshift along with it, but they went back inside once third's Haki fully came out.'
'So if I forced myself to manifest it now, it'd be a new quirk factor right? This amount of sea-prism should be insufficient to hold me then?'
All three of the vestige's eyes widened.
'That…could work' Shanks said with a hand on his chin 'you're really creative, kid.'
With a thanks, Izuku looked at Banjo again.
'so…how do I use it?'
Banjo had an uneasy expression before he sighed and nodded.
'You've gotta use your emotions, kid. The power will respond to your strong desire to do things. Feelings like 'I want to catch that guy!' would be ideal, but just general anger will send it into a frenzy too since it's grown stronger from my days. Problem is what to do after that to calm you down.'
All of them tensed as another 'BOOM' sound came from above.
'He's started. Mine or Sixth's quirk should be able to hold Ninth down if your power goes on a rampage, right?' Shanks asked.
'…should work long enough. Remember kid, anger to trigger it and Happy memories to push it back down! Do your best!'
'We believe in you.'
'we'll hold you down once you start, so don't worry about hurting the heroes above.
With that, the three disappeared.
Izuku closed his eyes, remembering what had happened on that horrible day.
.
.
9 YEARS AGO, THE DAY OF HISASHI MIDORIYA'S DEATH:
"I'll sweep through the building to ensure no stragglers" Endeavour had said as he went deeper into the building.
"All of you, why don't we get out of here, I'll treat you all to ice-cream." Izuku's dad had said with a smile.
The kids nodded and quietly filed out of the room.
And just as little Izuku reached the exit, his father was shot in the back.
It had been quite an investigation. All the villains had been apprehended after all. The officer on the ceiling had only just left his position when someone had shot Hisashi Midoriya in the back.
At first, the suspects were the police officers in the room.
They were ruled out almost immediately since all of their equipment showed no signs of any shots fired, not to mention that the bullet wasn't the same as the one standard police issued guns used.
None of the Pros were known to carry guns, so that angle wasn't even really explored.
Or it would have been, if it wasn't for Endeavour.
The man had worked day and night, taking the help of Detective Tsukauchi to figure out the shooter.
It wasn't until the day before his friend's funeral that Endeavour was given a file, containing information about the relation between one of the local heroes and the leader of the little group that had kidnapped the children.
A man who had barely spent two months in the Russian army before being kicked out for unruly behaviour that had endangered his comrades. Given a good sum of money by a mysterious man in search of people with good quirks.
The suggestion that they should see if they could get some extra cash in case any of the kids were important had led them to the discovery of Izuku Midoriya and Momo Yaoyorozu's relevance, one for leverage and the other for money.
One of the criminals had his whole operation get indirectly shut down by Hisashi at one point, so he was particularly insistent that he get some payback.
That petty grudge was the only reason those kids weren't already being transported to the villain behind all of it.
The hero's record made it clear what kind of person he was. Only doing the flashy stuff, asking for under the table payments whenever he could and often causing property damage for no reason other than to show off.
There had been no true conspiracy, no deep meaning or case his dad was about to crack.
It was just the mere fact that his presence meant eventual discovery that the hero-no, the villain had shot him
A simple case of convenient timing.
In the end, his father's death was for no real reason.
And it was that, more than anything that filled Izuku's being with rage.
.
.
It was like he was a rowboat in a storm.
Fortunately, he'd broken through the restraints easily enough.
Along with multiple floors of what felt like the deepest basement in the world.
He grit his teeth as black tendrils lashed out from all over his body, trying to strike anything and everything nearby.
He himself hadn't been hit by a stray whip yet, but the sheer volume of power being thrown randomly from his body still hurt.
"Third…hold me down" he let out through his gritted teeth.
His arms erupted in black lightning, and his body was pinned to the crater that used to be the lab's floor.
'Ninth, think of happy memories!' Fifth said frantically as he appeared again 'a good birthday, the day you got your quirk, your first kiss…anything! It doesn't need to be some life-altering event, just something nice!'
One thing stood out from that.
Even in the state Izuku was in, he couldn't help it as his cheeks turned a light pink.
'…is this really the time to get embarrassed?'
'No, we can use this' Third said as his ghost appeared as well 'Izuku, think of a girl kissing you!'
Unbidden, an image of Momo popped up in his head.
He let out a squawk of embarrassment as the Blackwhip all suddenly stopped thrashing, straightening out like they'd all been pulled to max length.
'All right, now think of reeling it all back in, like when you've got a fish on the hook and need to bring it home.'
"I've never been fishing" Izuku muttered weakly as he stood up while Shanks disappeared with a grin.
'…how about slurping up a bunch of ramen?'
Izuku ignored the sound of a woman snickering in his head as he closed his eyes to imagine a big ramen bowl.
He raised his right hand up, and the tendrils all turned before rushing into the hand.
It took a while, and he couldn't help but groan as he felt all that power come back into his body.
'…not what I expected but that works. What you did is basically plugging a charging cord into itself you know?'
"I'll work on it later" Izuku said as he walked up to the busted-up elevator shaft "Sixth, the sea-prism's been purged right?"
'Yes. You should be able to do most of what you're capable of, though I will say you haven't eaten for more than 5 days. You don't have much fuel in the tank.'
"enough for what I need"
With that, Izuku jumped up, grabbing onto the walls with blood manipulation enhanced nails-turned-claws to hold the wall as he prepared for his next jump.
.
.
Momo sighed sadly as she sat with her classmates to look at the TV screen in her hospital room.
There had been a fight earlier, a debate splitting half the class on whether an attempt to rescue Izuku was valid or not.
She had been neutral. Though her heart ached to run to him, she also knew she'd be holding him and the heroes back if she did.
Surprisingly enough, the loudest voice from the side of not rescuing was Katsuki, who made it clear that if anyone tried to go after his friend he'd personally make sure to bring them back with force, and tell Aizawa.
The row between Todoroki and Katsuki had been fierce, and the explosive boy had called the whole class into the biggest hospital room (Momo's) to make sure he'd have his eyes on them.
"I was gonna ask to be on the task force" he grumbled "Momo, you're supposed to be Izuku's vice. Get the extras in line."
She nodded half-heartedly.
He put a hand on her shoulder.
"I know you to go grab the idiot too, but…"
She grabbed his hand, a single tear rolling down her face.
"He'll be alright" he muttered "it's Izuku. He always makes it through."
The two were broken out of their trance as Kaminari and Mineta yelled as they changed the channel to a news helicopter flying above a site of what could only be described as a disaster.
Unconscious heroes sprawled all over the place, including well known heroes like Best Jeanist and Mount Lady.
There was a man wearing an industrial mask, shooting a giant blast of air at a sickly-looking blonde man.
And in front of the man in All Might's costume, was an unmoving Izuku.