Chapter Text
When the vote came out in favor of not bringing Tomura in, Izuku fought past a nauseating mixture of relief and dread. His brother– no, not brother—Villain, something in Izuku corrected, even though he knew Tomura was his brother, right? All he knew for sure was that he wouldn’t have to share his family.
Tomura would be safe.
The unnoticed knot in his stomach had loosened, but the ache in his heart stung worse. He didn’t want to be alone. But was he alone? He had his family. His family was always there for him.
In the end, Izuku couldn’t keep his brother-villain Tomura safe. Like in everything, Izuku failed.
Yoichi was unwilling to accept inaction. “Either way, my big brother can’t have him. That means we either take Tomura by adopting him into the family or by killing him.”
Izuku had been devastated hearing that, his stomach lurching. And he wasn’t the only one upset. Hikage had, in that quiet, frustrated voice of his, protested. But Yoichi’s word was law. A revote would be required, but to give time to think, he was allowing a one day waiting period.
An entire day of Izuku agonizing over what to do about Tomura.
He couldn’t let Tomura die. He couldn’t.
Protect your family.
But he didn’t want Tomura with him here. His new family was so painfully nice to Izuku, but somehow, a voice screaming inside told him that Tomura wouldn’t want this. So, what to do?
For the time being, the family was taking a quiet break to think and reevaluate. Dad had put him down for once, letting Izuku play a game of Uno with Hikage and Banjo while Nana and All Smite talked.
Izuku still had handcuffs on. It was fitting punishment since En was dead. But he managed to hold his cards close to his chest, and when it was his turn, awkwardly place down his cards.
Banjo idly spun his cards with his tendrils of blackwhip. He looked unbothered and carefree except for the furrow in his brow and the squinting of his eyes. “Draw one,” he said, flipping a blue +1 card onto the stack.
Izuku sighed and transferred his cards to one hand, allowing him to use his other hand to grab a card off the top.
“Here,” Hikage said, picking a card off the top of the stack and handing it to Izuku.
“Thanks,” Izuku said, taking the card. It was a red 5. Not too bad, considering he had several in that color. His chances weren’t great, but there was still the possibility of winning.
Banjo cleared his throat, “Hey, kid. Why did you vote no? On bringing Sandman in, that is.”
The room fell silent, conversations not stopping but suddenly becoming quieter as if the listeners wanted to hear what Izuku had to say. His palms went slick, and he tightened his grasp on his cards. What did he say?
“I want…” Izuku began, “I want to protect my family. That’s why.”
Banjo’s eyes softened, “Alright then,” he said, his voice gruff from holding back emotion. “Alright then, kid.”
The conversation in the room rose to its normal level, but Izuku saw All Smite sending him a fond glance from across the room.
Hikage spoke up, “I believe it’s my turn-”
A knock sounded at the door. The family stiffened, eyes turning to Izuku, who sat numb with confusion. A knock? It obviously wasn’t for him. The last time someone had visited was that old friend of Nana, which was weeks ago.
“Hello, this is Pizza-La, Kamino store.”
Confused silence reigned over the room. Second turned an irritated eye on the family. “Alright, who ordered pizza?!”
But he didn’t get an answer as a loud crumbling, ripping noise sounded from the back wall. Izuku spun around as he watched the wall the couch rested against crumble into dust, the remnants torn away.
Wind rushed by him, and a force wrapped around Izuku. A second later, he realized it was the arms of his dad, All Smite.
The final portion of the wall fell away with a limb-shaking crash, revealing a large man floating in mid-air, a dark coat billowing around him like the wings of a fallen angel. A blue and red face mask covered most of his lower face, but Izuku recognized those sharp, crimson eyes.
Words choked in Izuku’s mouth as he found himself unable to speak the hero’s name, but Yoichi had no such issues, his mouth curling in a snarl. “The great hero All for One.”
“Yoichi,” All for One (that was Izuku’s DAD, his dad was here), the villain said. “You and your family have destroyed the lives of innocent people for too long. You have trampled those who could not protect themselves. But we are here today for them.” He spread his arms wide, and as Izuku glanced behind him, he noticed the rows of black police cars, officers holding guns, and heroes waiting.
They were here.
Finally.
Yoichi bared his teeth. “How lovely. But unfortunately, I have a family of my own more than capable of dealing with your motley lot.” He flashed Second a brief glance. “NOW!”
Izuku screamed at the sounds he hoped never to hear again.
The sounds of bombs exploding, instantly followed by smoke, dust, and- screamsalwaysscreamshisfaultallhisfault.
“NO!”
He gasped as Dad leapt into the air, arms still wrapped protectively around him, as Izuku’s world became flashing heat, smoke, and deafening noise.
It’s okay. It was okay. These were villains, and Second was doing what he had to do to protect the family.
But he had been good. He did what they said. He didn’t leave. Why were the bombs going off again?
He felt Dad land on the ground, in the alleyway where Izuku had tried to escape on his first night with his family.
Dad was holding him close, fingers carding through his hair as Nana appeared from the cloud of smoke and ash surrounding them. She was saying something, but Izuku couldn’t hear as she gently removed the handcuffs. She kissed Izuku’s forehead and smiled down at him as his ears still rang.
He shifted in Dad’s arms, wrapping his arms around his neck, wishing he could stop shaking, stand up, and help his family.
He could feel Dad’s chest vibrate as he spoke, but he couldn’t hear. But Izuku had a pretty good idea what Dad and Nana were saying as they immediately started down the alleyway.
They needed to run. They needed to get him out of here.
They needed to be sure he stayed with his family.
Spinner cursed when the bombs went off, sending him flying off of the building he was scaling. With instincts that training and ages of playing video games with Tomura developed, he detached from the wall and twisted his body around in the air.
Even though he was flying blind in the smoke and ash, he transferred his knife to his mouth and angled his body to negotiate his fall.
When he was younger, Spinner’s home village had mocked him and discriminated against him for having a mutant quirk. He tried to stand up for himself and protect other mutant quirks like him through vigilantism. He thought it was the world against those with mutations like his.
He only made things worse. Some agreed with his ideals but not his methods. Others accused him of making things worse. He was so convinced he was right that he dug himself further and further into a hole until he was looking up from the bottom of a pit, no way to climb out.
But All For One had found him when he was at rock bottom, and he had shown him another way. He had taught him not only that he didn’t need to be ashamed of his quirk, but to embrace it.
And the boy, little Izuku Midoriya? He had helped him learn that being cold blooded like a lizard could have his advantages. Such as being able to detect what surfaces were radiating heat to warm his cold blood and which ones were safe to touch, even when he could see nothing.
He outstretched his hands, and the pads of his palms and fingers connected instantly to the cool brick wall he had aimed his body for. His body slammed on impact and it took all his power to keep his hold, but by Kami, he made it!
He scaled down the wall, knife still in mouth, and reached the ground. His comms were fried. Not good. He had to regroup and find where everyone else was. He wasn’t losing another friend after Dabi. He wasn’t letting this kid suffer more after everything the villains had put him through.
A figure appeared out of the smoke, and Spinner warily grabbed his blade.
Brown ponytail, scar across his face. And a wicked-looking blade in his hand. Spinner recognized this villain as Third, the serial killer who had helped take down Ingenium. His eyes were lit with a manic glee as he found Spinner, even if he frowned.
“Here I was hoping for someone like All For One, or another big name,” Third grumbled. “But I took apart lizards when I was a kid. They struggle and squirm, make little chirps but they just don't... scream like people do. Lizards are boring.”
Spinner readied his sword, glaring at the villain.
For Dabi. He would defeat this villain for Dabi, for All For One, and Izuku Midoriya.
Hikage felt Black Whip lift him up to the nearby building, where his gear and sniper rifle were waiting for him. Danger Sense flared around him as he loaded up his rifle, and began scanning for targets amongst the ash and smoke.
He could sense the deadly, burning sense of All For One across the street, no doubt fighting Dad. He could sense someone directly below him, the sensation of nausea and rot rolling off of them, who was running through the alleyway. He could detect several others.
He grinned as he got his rifle into position. After all these years, he didn’t need a scope or a visual to hone into a target’s location so long as they were dangerous. (And everyone worth targeting was at least a little dangerous.) All he needed was his quirk to find his targets. And today… All For One had provided him with no shortage of targets to take out.
This was going to be fun.
He would start with the police and swat officers he could detect evacuating people around the neighborhood. Let the poor civilians fall into chaos like ants in a ruined nest, watching as their saviors were shot down before their very eyes.
Hikage was never the type of villain who reveled in chaos like Dad, or Second-Dad, or Third-Dad. But he did love instigating the chaos his family flourished in.
It was, after all, always the quiet ones you had to watch out for.
Yoichi remained where he stood, even as the entire building shook from Second’s bombs going off. The others scattered as they had drilled before.
Third and Daigoro went to opposite sides of the area and would pick off the stragglers who were thrown off by the explosions. Hikage would get into position to shoot down everyone in the ensuing chaos. Toshinori and Nana’s priority was to get their little fighter out and to safety. Second would set off the other bombs they had planted in the surrounding areas when they first moved into their lovely little home.
And Yoichi? Yoichi was back to where he always belonged.
Facing down his older brother, who had not even been shaken from the explosions.
“Aw, you’ve changed, Big Brother,” he teased. “Not even going to save those poor little sheep who got caught in the bombs?”
“We evacuated the area before striking,” Hisashi replied evenly. “I knew you had some sort of plan up your sleeve.”
Now where was the fun in that? As always, his brother tried to save unimportant lives, and gave Yoichi less toys to play with.
Still, it was proof that his brother was learning after two hundred years.
No matter how much they fought, people got hurt. And while Yoichi couldn’t care less about those people weak enough to die, Hisashi did. It would be so much easier for the man when he stopped caring about the little ants that he tried to protect. If he just realized Yoichi was the only one he could love, because he belonged to Yoichi and Yoichi alone.
“So untrusting,” Yoichi sighed. “And after I spared your pretty little wife.”
“She stabbed you in the back,” Hisashi replied flatly.
“She got lucky!”
“Right,” Hisashi drawled, clearly not believing him.
Yoichi fought not to gnash his teeth at his brother’s taunt. He had a feeling he could threaten Inko all he wanted, but his brother would always think she would have the final laugh.
How was it that his brother looked up to such a weak, insignificant woman, yet still looked down on Yoichi as weak and someone to protect? Time to remind his big brother that he wasn't weak. Time to show him that he always knew exactly where to hurt his older brother. That when he struck, he went straight for the heart.
“Come on then, big brother,” he challenged as he drew his knives. “Let’s finish what we started. Winner gets the little fighter as a prize… oh wait.”
His eyes flashed as he grinned at his older brother.
“I’ve already won then.”
Hisashi faltered for just a split second, and Yoichi took the opportunity to twist the knife.
“That’s right, big brother. Your sweet little stepson is now the new bearer of One for All.”