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Waking up in a tub full of ice water was surprisingly normal for Izuku Midoriya. There was no confusion or fear or even conflicting emotions when his body jolted back to consciousness with a huge splash of water and a clattering of ice cubes on the floor. The low temperature was annoying, but ultimately it kept his core low enough, and his blood slow enough, that he could recover with minimal bruising and soreness.
As he slowly hauled his soaking wet body from the tub, Izuku thought about how this all started. The first time was a fluke, bad luck. Wrong place, wrong time. But after he got past the initial panic and terror, it didn’t really bother him much. Besides, they left a nice payday on his bedside table with a gag order. The second time, Izuku walked himself into the waiting hands of the butchers.
They called it the ‘Chop Shop’. That’s all they did - chop and hack and saw and cut - take. Izuku didn’t know who ran the place, but they were shady enough that he had little desire to find out. Thus far the crew working there had been more than happy to take what he offered. They so rarely had a willing client, after all. Especially not one who returned to them time and time again. At this point, Izuku had already ‘donated’ a kidney, part of his liver, two ribs, and his left eye. He’d also given a few skin grafts as well, but those weren’t as valuable as internal organs and bones. His next donation in a month was for bone marrow. He was not looking forward to it, since he’d have to be awake instead of under anesthesia. They’d described the procedure and he knew it would lay him up for at least a week if they didn’t give him any quirk healing. They usually did, but that didn’t stop him from worrying.
Izuku winced as he flicked on the bathroom light. It was piercing to his skull, but he needed to check his bandages and make sure they’d stitched him up at least half decently. The butchers might be good at their job, but they weren’t all medically trained. This time he’d given skin grafts - he usually did that in between larger donations while his body healed. Using the floor length mirror, he trailed his good eye down to the (shockingly not bloody) bandages wrapped tightly around his right thigh. He knew they’d take two larger grafts, so he wasn’t surprised when he found the ragged wounds beneath the wrapping. His skin was already starting to regrow, but quirked healing couldn’t prevent scar tissue from forming. He’d never be able to give those areas as skin grafts again, which was disappointing since it meant he couldn’t get more money from his body.
Izuku had spent months combing through the public access quirk database for anyone with regeneration or reverse quirks to undo or heal the damage from the surgeries. It would be fantastic if one of these days he could wake up with a natural healing quirk. But life was not so kind - especially not to quirkless wastes of air like him.
He wasn’t yet sure how long he’d been unconscious, but given the healing rate of the wounds, he had probably been out upwards of twelve hours. Dr. Shu’s quirk healed over time, and Izuku’s wounds usually closed after about twelve to fourteen hours.
The face staring him back in the mirror was haggard with deep black circles under its eyes. The curls in his once forest green hair were now soft lifeless waves and the color had faded to a muted green, something you might find on a housewife’s kitchen wall.
Izuku sighed deeply and pushed off the sink after he finished re-wrapping his thigh. He leaned over the tub and pulled the drain and tossed a towel over the wet floor to soak up any spilled water. Once done, he grabbed the pile of clothes he’d laid out the night before. Some loose jogging pants, a big t-shirt, and some socks. It was enough to lounge around the house since he’d likely not be walking much for a day or two. His right leg was sore, but not as sore as he knew it should be. Quirked healing was extremely useful, and mix that with the ice bath, and he was barely limping.
A burst of smell hit him as he opened his bedroom door. Someone was cooking meat and veggies in the kitchen. He stood in the doorway, slightly dumbfounded for a moment wondering who was in his apartment, when a purple head of hair peeked around the corner.
“Hey, Zu.” Shinsou greeted with one of his half-cocked smiles.
“Uhh, hey - Toshi. What’re you…doing in my apartment at this hour?”
“Izuku, it’s one in the afternoon. Also, I know where you were last night. I figured you’d need some protein and cuddles today.”
“Don’t you have school - wait - what do you mean you know where I was?”
“It’s Saturday - did they scramble your brain, too? I swear you said this one was just some skin grafts?”
“I- when did I tell you that I…”
Shinsou put down the spatula he’d been holding and wiped his hands on a towel as he walked over to Izuku with a concerned look on his face.
“Izuku - you told me about your donations months ago. We’ve been doing this dance every time since then. You spend the night in the chop shop and I make you breakfast and give you cuddles. This is, however, the first time you’ve managed to forget that in the last six months.”
“Uhm.” Izuku rubbed a hand along the side of his head. Something that Shinsou said made him panic slightly. He turned tail and limped back into his room to look for the envelope he knew he’d find on the bedside table. It was there, indeed, but it was a bit thicker than it should have been for just a couple skin grafts. “Fuck.”
“Zu?” Shinsou called from the doorway.
“Toshi - there’s too much here.”
“A bonus?”
“No, each item you donate has a set price - there’s no negotiating, no bonuses, ever. I don’t-... I don’t know what the hell is going on.”
“What do you remember?” Shinsou was getting more worried, his eyebrows scrunching in such an adorable way that Izuku couldn’t resist reaching his hand out and trying to press the creases flat.
“Well, apparently our morning routine. Wait, did you move in?”
“Yeah, Zu. We’ve been dating for the last three months. We both agreed it would be easier if I moved in after we started dating, since I already spent so much time here. Do you… do you have any memory of us?”
“Honestly? Not really. Do you think they hit me with a quirk while I was out, maybe?”
“Possibly. Hang on - let’s use mine. Izuku? ”
“Yes, Toshi?”
Izuku’s eyes fogged over, his mind going blank as his body went statuesque. Shinsou had a mind control quirk called Brainwashing. If someone replied verbally to his questions, he could take control of their mind and body.
“ Did someone use a quirk on you last night? ”
“Before I was put under, one of the men touched my arm. I remember thinking his grin was sinister. My arm tingled from the touch. He whispered ‘It’s time for you to remember, but you have to forget something else first.’. Then I passed out.”
Izuku’s eyes faded back to reality as his body jerked sideways. Shinsou grabbed him to keep him upright and they both ended up sitting down on the bed. Izuku had to take a few breaths to calm himself down from that great revelation and Shinsou was patient enough to let it happen. The purple haired man just calmly brushed his fingers through Izuku’s hair.
“You can’t keep doing this, Izuku. Clearly these assholes have ulterior motives. Now we have proof, and now you’ve-... you’ve forgotten me, us, our time together. The last year of our lives as friends, lovers, boyfriends? Do you remember any of it?”
“Of course, Toshi. I remember when we met, and… and being friends and all the times we spent talking late into the night on old rooftops until the sun came up.”
“But your memory cuts out six months ago when you told me about how you make money?”
“I guess so, yeah. I’m sorry, Toshi. I never meant for this to go this far. I just… I had no other way to survive. No one would hire a quirkless nobody like me and it’s not like I have any family left to fall on. What have I even told you about my life?”
Shinsou sighed and tangled their hands together in his lap. Izuku was more than happy to lean forward until his forehead sat on the other man’s shoulder.
“A lot - and nothing - at the same time. I know you’re quirkless. I know your father left when you were diagnosed. I know your mother was an abusive bitch and you left when you turned eighteen. But that’s it. I know nothing about your childhood - you are very keen at avoiding that anytime I bring up my own. I know you started donating your own body two years ago when you turned twenty, after you got kidnapped and they hacked out your kidney without your consent.”
Izuku shrunk a little. “Uhm, yeah. Well, they paid me hush money and after countless refusals from employers and having to lie my ass off just to get this apartment and most of the things I have now, I realized this was likely the easiest way to make a good income.”
“I get it, Izuku. I do. I was kicked out of homes and schools all because of my damn ‘villainous’ quirk. I understand the lying and scrounging to get anything just to survive, I’ve been there - hell, I’m still there most days. But you need to think about what this is doing to you. You’re literally cutting your body to pieces, what’s going to be left when they’re done with you? When you have nothing left to give?”
Izuku sighed and buried his face in Shinsou’s neck, whimpering softly. He knew Shinsou was right, he did, honestly. He knew there was only so much he could give before his body would start to fail, before his organs were too weak to function from the stress being put on them from the parts he’d had cut out. He was covered in scars - and while most of them were from his childhood abusers, it was clear which ones were surgery wounds. He wasn’t ashamed of them, of course, but he still rarely wore short sleeves outside of the house.
“I know, Toshi.” He agreed. “Look, I’m not under any contract, or any agreement - not even verbal. They knew there would be a cut off at some point. I knew going into this that eventually they’d probably want to kill me to get the rest of my organs. Honestly, I don’t even know why they didn’t the first time. I mean why spend all this money on me when they could just kill me and use all of me at once?”
Shinsou put a hand to the back of his neck and pulled him up. Izuku tilted his chin up only for Shinsou’s lips to gently press into his. Izuku’s eyes went wide, a blush pinking his cheeks as he realized this was their first kiss. Well, it was the first kiss he could remember. A whimper echoed from the back of his throat.
“I’d never let that happen, Zuzu. I’d never let them kill you.”
“I know, Toshi. Look - give me a minute to make a call and- wait, did you turn the stove off?”
“Shit!” Shinsou jumped off the bed while Izuku burst into giggles. He heard Shinsou cussing profusely from the kitchen and the sink going off, likely to stop whatever he’d made from burning any further or starting a fire.
When he got over the giggle fit, Izuku took out his burner phone and hit speed dial three, the chop shop. It rang three times, like always, before someone answered.
“Speak.”
“This is Izuku - cancel my appointments.”
There was dead air for fifteen seconds - Izuku counted.
“Are you done?”
“Yeah. I’m done. Silence is bought and paid for. I leave you with permission to harvest me if and when I do die.”
“Noted. Lose this number.”
The line went dead. Izuku sighed and held the phone over his trash can while snapping it in half. He made sure to take out the sim card and snap that as well. He only used that phone for a few numbers he didn’t want found, he had other burners he could use.
“Izuku!” Shinsou called from the kitchen.
Izuku washed off his hands quickly and made his way back out of his room.
“Alright, it’s all done. But you have to make me a promise.”
“What?” Shinsou looked up from the sink where he was scrubbing a rather burnt dish.
“When I die, they get what’s left of me. That’s how I buy them off my back. I will myself to them when I die. My own silence has been bought many times over, they know that. I have to give them something to keep them off my back for now. They know as a quirkless person I won’t live past thirty anyway, and right now, if they want any of my organs to be worth it - I need to heal.”
Shinsou’s scrubbing hand had dramatically slowed as Izuku spoke. As it came to a stop, Izuku found this odd look on his face he couldn’t decipher. So, he gave a questioning look right back at his boyfriend. Eventually, Shinsou caught on to what he meant.
“Izuku - what do you mean you won’t live past thirty?”
Oh.
“Shinsou - quirkless life expectancy is only about forty to fifty. With all that I have given, my own has lowered dramatically. I knew that going into this. If I make it to thirty-five, I’ll be lucky.”
“I didn’t know that quirkless people had…”
“A shorter life span? Huh, I thought it was common knowledge. I mean the hate crimes and suicide rates alone skew us down terribly. But - some of those myths about us being weaker are true. We do have a half-life.”
“Damn.”
“It’s fine, Toshi. I’ve known since I was a kid. I accepted it a long time ago.”
Shinsou frowned, as if accepting something so morbid was a cruel idea. He knew it was, but that didn’t mean it bothered him - not anymore.
Izuku slid into the kitchen counter stool. He took out his regular cell phone, the one where Shinsou’s number was saved - not a burner. He had a few calls and text messages, but he could get to those later. First, he checked a few of the programs he had running, which gave him a few bits of information he’d missed out on while unconscious. There was a big arrest last night. Five villains were caught in a bank robbery thanks to some new heroes on the scene. New heroes were always a problem. They were over achievers and didn’t understand the fragile balance between the light and dark sides of this world. Last night tipped the balance in favor of the heroes, and that annoyed Izuku.
“What’s that look for?” Shinsou asked.
“Hmm? Oh, sorry. There was a bank robbery last night, some new flashy heroes, probably recent graduates, caught five villains. I only knew a few of them, but this should have been an in and out job. I’m not sure how they got caught. I didn’t help them plan it, but I did see the plan, and it wasn’t half baked in the least. Codex had been working on it for months.”
“That’s rare for Codex to make a mistake like this - you think his lawyers can get him off?”
“Likely. He has the best paid lawyers in the region.”
“Who made the arrest, anyway?”
“Hmm, let’s see.” Izuku pulled up a news article to check since his own coded apps only told him the police details and it wasn’t flashy - just facts. So, he went to the media, the source of all flashiness. “Looks like three new heroes: Red Riot, Chargebolt, and-”
Izuku felt the blood drain from every cell in his body when he read the last name listed in the article. It even included a short interview, which he couldn’t even bring himself to read.
“Zu?”
“Hmm?” Izuku looked up, knowing there was genuine fear and hurt in his eyes, along with un-shed tears.
“Izuku, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” He clipped.
“Because I can't read your bullshit from a mile away, come on, talk to me.”
Izuku sighed, handing his phone over, “The last hero - Ground Zero. I know him. Or, well, I did - when we were kids. We grew up together. His name is Katsuki Bakugo. Our mothers went to college together. We were raised almost like brothers - until his quirk came in, and mine didn’t.”
Izuku didn’t have to say what came next - Shinsou knew. Everyone could piece that short puzzle together. No one cared about quirkless people these days. Well, most people didn’t. Instead, they shunned them, abused them, and hated them. Izuku was no different minus the select few people in his life that were expectations to that rule. Shinsou was busy watching the recordings from the arrest but after a minute, he tossed the phone back on the counter almost like it had stung him.
“The starbursts on your arms and torso.” Izuku knew his boyfriend would work it out. He was far too smart for his own good. “His quirk, it looks exactly like this… Izuku - please. Please tell me it wasn’t him.”
“I wish I could, Toshi.”
They were both silent for a long moment. There was nothing further they could say on the subject. Shinsou now knew a large part of his childhood, a part that left the largest swath of scars across his body. Shinsou knew there would be no use in arguing over how Izuku should have tried harder to report the abuse because they both knew no one would have listened. Maybe now-a-days someone would have taken it seriously after the last few years of protests and reform, but now there wasn’t any reason to dredge up the past - unless Izuku wanted to run Katsuki’s name through the mud. There was a strong temptation to do so, but that’s not who Izuku was as a person. He might be morally gray, but he wasn’t a full villain - not yet - no matter how hard the League was trying to convince him to join them.
Shinsou grabbed some leftover take out from the fridge and started to microwave them each a bowl of noodles and fried pork. They were both still in thoughtful silence. It wasn’t uncomfortable at all. Izuku put his chin in his hand and watched his boyfriend’s back for a while. It took until now for him to finally realize that even if he didn’t remember that Shinsou was his boyfriend - even if he lacked the last six months of memories with Shinsou, he still loved the man without doubt, without question. This soft domestic moment of warming up food felt so safe, and happy, Izuku couldn’t help but smile.
Something in the atmosphere shifted, the skin on Izuku’s arms stood up like the room was full of static electricity. The whole room thickened with an overbearing present that Izuku couldn’t explain. It somehow simultaneously weighed down his whole body and made him feel like he could float off into the stratosphere.
Suddenly, the microwave beeped at the exact same time a heavy knock came to the door. Both Izuku and Shinsou jumped - Izuku into a fighting stance, and Shinsou already unwinding his capture scarf from his neck. They stared at each other. The microwave beeped again, but just a short reminder it was done, and a second knock came to the door. No one should be at their door. No one - not even Izuku’s closest allies - knew where he lived. Izuku liked his privacy, more than life itself. But he didn’t want to wait for a third knock. He felt like that would be a mistake. So, after a nod to his boyfriend, Izuku moved to the door and unlocked all four locks.
Whatever Izuku had been expecting, it was not a seven and a half foot tall businessman in one of the finest - and clearly custom - suits he’d ever laid eyes on. He was also not expecting Kurogiri of all people to be at the side of whomever this man was. Something was so…familiar about him, though. Something in the back of his head itched and burned but Izuku ignored it in lieu of not taking his eyes off the stranger.
“Who is it, Zu?” Shinsou walked up behind him and stopped dead when he spotted the giant at the door along with the warp villain they both recognized.
Izuku opted not to answer Shinsou’s question, if only because he genuinely didn’t know the answer but he wasn’t about to let this villain know that. His eyes narrowed, his fingers gripping tight on the door as he stared down the neck and chest of the stranger (since he couldn’t actually see their face above the door frame) with his one good eye.
“Izuku, my dear boy, you look…terrible. Anyway, are you going to let Kurogiri and I inside? I do believe it’s about to rain.”
There was no way Izuku would normally allow anyone inside his apartment, but something in his mind told him it would be a very bad idea to refuse anything this man requested.
“Come in.” he offered in short. Then to Shinsou; “Would you warm up another two bowls of lunch, Toshi?”
“Uhh - right. I’ll meet you in the living room.” Izuku would be lying if he said Shinsou didn’t practically run back to the kitchen.
Stepping to the side, he motioned for both Kurogiri and the stranger to come inside. The stranger had to duck almost in half to fit himself into the door frame and Izuku wondered if maybe he should have just let Kurogiri warp him inside. Either way, the man made it inside and Izuku finally caught sight of his face. He was handsome, and more familiar than it should be. For now, he followed them into the living room, where the stranger took the large armchair off to the side. Kurogiri stood behind in a sort of butler-like stance.
“I’d offer a proper welcome, but I’m afraid I can’t recall your name, Sir.” Izuku said quietly.
“Ah, well, isn’t that interesting - I guess the quirk I paid good money for hasn’t completely finished running its course. I wonder, though, what did you lose as tribute for regaining your past?”
A mild panic ran through Izuku’s veins. This stranger is who paid for the quirk that was used on him - which meant this stranger knew about his body donations. That meant this man had been watching and following him for a long time - to the point of knowing where he lived. Izuku went to great lengths to keep his life private. But this man, without Izuku’s knowledge, had intruded his way into Izuku’s life so deeply he got into the operating room of a donation.
“So, you paid someone to get into that operating room at the chop shop to hit me with their quirk. Which means you know about my donations. You know where I live, you know my name. You know enough about me for me to want you dead - but I have the distinct feeling you could kill me without even laying so much as a finger on me.”
The laugh that filled the room made Izuku freeze like a deer in the headlights, raw fear, the desperate need to run, to flee, from the dark thing sitting across from him.
“You’ve grown up so bold, Izuku! I am very pleased to see how you turned out, despite everything that you have been through as a result of your birth. I do apologize for my part in it.”
There was no sincerity in that apology, only apathy.
“But I’ve led you on enough. Let me explain a few things. I am All For One.”
Izuku heard something shatter in the kitchen, likely one of the bowls Shinsou was warming up for their lunch. It took everything inside of himself to stay seated and not grab Shinsou and run out the damn door. Izuku knew the myths, of course. He knew the stories, the legends of the all-powerful, God-like supervillain. Everyone who had two brain cells in the underworld knew the tales - but he’d supposedly vanished decades ago. It was long enough that no one had seen or heard any physical proof of his existence in living memory. Izuku’s instincts were correct, however, if All For One wanted him dead - there would be absolutely nothing he could do about it. Shinsou’s quirk wouldn’t even help in that regard, AFO likely had some way to counter it.
“It’s an honor to meet you, Sir.”
“I sense a ‘but’ at the end there, Izuku.”
“But I can’t, for the life of me, fathom any reason you’d come to my apartment for lunch.”
“Well, I’m not here for lunch, my dear boy. I’m here to visit you. To see how the quirk is progressing, and to open my arms and offer you the world - the whole underworld.”
Izuku scoffed. “I know who and what you are, of course. But you’ve been out of the public eye for decades. There’s no living proof of you in recent memory. I don’t mean to be crude but how can you offer me the world, Sir?”
“No proof of me in recent memory? Well, what do you think the League is?”
“The League of Villains.”
“Yes. I’m sure you’ve been questioning why Kurogiri is here. He’s a product of my own creation. Of course, I have a doctor who did the hard work, but he’s still mine. Tomura simply… borrows him.”
“I see. So you’re the silent benefactor behind the League. You’re…you’re ‘Sensei’.” He didn’t phrase it like a question, because he now knew it was true.
Izuku sighed as his body sank back into the couch a little. He really felt resigned to whatever fate AFO was going to bring him now.
Shinsou walked out of the kitchen with a tray that held four bowls of noodles and fried pork, plus four glasses of water. Setting it down, he sat next to Izuku, close enough for their legs to touch knee to hip. Izuku could feel him shaking like a leaf. If Izuku had any common sense left, he might have done the same. But his common sense and dignity were thrown out the first time he offered his body up to be butchered.
“Well, yes, that is one of the monikers I have taken over the years. But I am not here as a ‘Sensei’. I’m here as a concerned parent.”
“A what?”
“Izuku, think back. The quirk will help you, I promise. Think back to when you were young, when you’d run around the house in your little cape. Who picked you up off the ground and swung you around so you could fly like a real hero?”
The corner of Izuku’s eye twitched when those words dug at something in the deepest recesses of his mind. But instead of fighting or arguing with the monster sitting across from him, he did as directed. Izuku closed his eyes and thought long and hard about his childhood, before his diagnosis, before the abuse, when he was young and free and could pretend to be a hero.
Normally his early childhood memories were foggy and muddled but they were crystal clear today. He could see the memory AFO spoke of. He was maybe three and running through the house in his All Might pajamas and miniature cape. He was calling out that he was there to save the day. When he ran into the living room, large arms scooped him up and he could remember himself flying across the room. Then he looked down and saw the face of the man holding him, the face of his father.
Izuku opened his eyes and stared into the deep green irises across from him, knowing they were the exact same eyes he saw in his memory. These were the eyes of his father, the stark white hair and confident smile.
“No…” Izuku mumbled.
“Ahhh, there it is. You remember!”
“Remember what?” Shinsou had been silent for so long, Izuku almost forgot he was even there - or he would have if not for the shaking.
“Remember the face of the man who used to pick me up and fly me around the house when I was three. The face of the man sitting across from us right now.”
“What?” Shinsou actually moved away from Izuku while flitting his eyes between the both of them. “You’re joking. You’re seriously fucking with me right now, Zu. You can’t be serious.”
“Unfortunately, I am.”
“Oh he is, indeed, young Shinsou. By the way, it’s a pleasure to meet my son’s boyfriend. You may call me Hisashi, if you like.”
“That’s not your real name, is it - Dad ?” Izuku stressed the title, like it was a poison he could spit out with all the resentment in his gut.
“No. Hisashi Midoriya is not my given name, but it’s one of my favorites.” Hisashi crossed one knee over the other and steepled his fingers in front of his face. “So.” The pregnant pause he left hanging in the air filled Izuku’s gut with even more rage. “Once again, I lay my offer on the table - the whole underworld. You are my son, you shall inherit all that is mine.”
“Why?” Izuku didn’t even need to think about his line of questioning. It came so naturally, it felt like word vomit. “Why now? Why did you leave? Why did you leave me with that woman? Why do you care? You clearly have no genuine familial love for me. I am your son in title only, I can taste the apathy in your voice. I can smell the sociopath in your cologne. So tell me - why should I accept your offer?”
Hisashi sighed deeply, which made the room feel even more oppressive. He lifted a finger and motioned to the misty villain standing behind him.
“Master?” For some reason, Izuku thought Kurogiri might sound raspy the first time he spoke, but he sounded like he always did.
“My briefcase.”
Kurogiri opened a portal above the coffee table which dropped the requested item gently down as the portal vanished. Hisashi leaned over and clicked the locks open as he spun the case around to face the two of them on the couch. Inside was a stack of file folders, two cell phones, and a rather expensive-looking tablet.
“I never intended to have children. I knew it was a risk in this day and age because of my genetics. I was well aware that it was more likely I would produce a quirkless child. Such awareness became reality with you, and while you’re right - I don’t feel any genuine familial bond with you - I am frustrated by such a failed experiment.”
Izuku snorted. Of course Izuku was nothing more than a failed experiment to his own father.
“I left because domesticity simply doesn’t suit me. I also had to prepare for the eventual end of my own life as a result of that blonde idiot refusing to die and give me back that damn quirk.” The growl he released made Shinsou shiver so hard that Izuku's body shivered right along with it. “But, I digress, I need your skills. You are - by blood - my son, but more than that you are a brilliant informant who could bring this country to its knees if you had the resources you needed at your fingertips. I have those resources, and I want you to do just that; bring this country to its knees with me, for me.”
The offer was tempting. Dangerously so. But Izuku already lived in a world where nothing was free, and he refused to be indebted to anyone. He was now absolutely sure that mentality came directly from his father. What a damn surprise.
“What will this cost me?”
“Izuku!” Shinsou grabbed his elbow, yanking them both up and out of the living room and back into the kitchen. Izuku blinked a few times, shocked that Shinsou had enough strength left in his shaking legs to cart them both away from the beast lounging in the armchair.
“What?”
“You can’t seriously be considering his offer. He’s a cataclysm ranked super villain. I don’t care if the man donated his sperm cells to create you - it’s clear he doesn’t give a shit about you. He called you an experiment. A failed experiment, at that. You’ve never wanted to be a villain, you’ve told me that multiple times. So why this? Why now?”
“Toshi, I know he doesn’t care about me. I’m not considering this because I think I could gain some kind of father figure, I don’t need nor want one. But you have to think about this with my eyes, Toshi.”
“Eye.”
“What?”
“Eye, singular… you-... nevermind, poor joke.”
Izuku smirked and rolled his eyes. “I love you, Toshi. But please, think about this from my perspective.”
“In what way, Zu? This doesn’t make sense to me.”
“Power. Leverage. Information. Access. It’s everything I have ever needed and wanted in a tight little bow - I just need to know what it will cost me before I agree to anything.”
“It’s going to cost your life, Izuku - your whole life. There’s no way he can offer you the world without you giving up all that you are and all that you have. I can’t lose you, Zu. I can’t. Please, don’t walk away from us just for a taste of power.”
Izuku sighed and leaned against the counter, both hands splayed across the countertop. He knew Shinsou was right. This would likely ruin everything Izuku was. It would destroy him, break him down, root out his darkness and bring it to light and show it off to the whole world. It would crack the very foundation of his psyche. He took a few steadying breaths and looked up across the countertop and into the living room. Hisashi was watching him. Shinsou was pacing behind him, he could feel the tension wafting off his purple haired boyfriend.
“What. Will. It. Cost.” He emphasized each word while glaring at his own father, the monster he came from. Did that make him a monster, too? He had to think perhaps it did, on some level.
“Your boyfriend is right, Izuku. It will cost you everything, but not in the way you think. It will cost everything to become my heir. Because you will eventually have to become me. I need to prepare you for what that means. What that will do to you. You will become the ruling class monstrosity, just like me. It will alter everything about you. But, cost in terms of payment for this offer? You will be subjected to experiments, tests, medical examinations - every horrible thing you can think of. I will break you down and rebuild you in my image. So you will be ready when the time comes for me to pass on my quirk - to you.”
“Excuse me?” Shinsou barked. He was out of the kitchen before Izuku could catch him. “You plan to shove your eldritch horror of a quirk into Izuku? He’s missing half his organs! It will tear him apart. If you had any fucks to give for your own son, you could have stepped in before he started selling his own body like scrap metal at a junkyard. But you didn’t. You knew, and you still did nothing. Now, you walk in here like you own the place and assume Izuku is gonna roll over and let you make him into some science experiment just so you can have an heir, because why? Are you dying? Is the underworld losing its boogyman? Because if so, I don’t see how that’s a bad thing.”
Shinsou was practically in Hisashi’s face. Izuku was too frozen to move. He knew he should move. If he didn’t move, the man he loved might die at the hands of his father. But he couldn’t bring himself to force his feet to move.
Hisashi slowly stood himself up to his full height, making Shinsou have to crane his neck backwards to meet the man face to face.
“You have a very large set of balls on you, bold as you are. Luckily, I have an interest in creatures like you. That - and Izuku needs someone by his side like you - someone to keep him grounded, sane, and on this side of madness. But hear me, boy.” Izuku watched him loom over Shinsou in a way that would have broken a weaker man. Shinsou was not a weak man. “If you ever question me like that again, know that my curiosity will not outweigh my temper. Now, if you are quite finished - I’d like to hear Izuku’s answer.”
Hisashi sat himself back down, gracefully, and tapped his fingers against the chair arm. Shinso looked properly scolded when he turned his back on the beast and stared at Izuku from across the apartment. Izuku wasn’t sure why he wasn’t as scared as Shinsou, but maybe he was already mad.
Izuku allowed himself a moment to think about it - again. At first, Hisashi’s quirk wasn’t on the table. But the way Hisashi spoke, the quirk wasn’t mentioned as a benefit to taking over - it was mentioned as the cost, or the end result of the cost. There was no avoiding it. He was supposed to be Hisashi’s heir, to take over when he ultimately fell in battle to All Might - that was inevitable. They all knew it. All Might had trained this new generation of heroes but he had yet to officially retire and the whole underworld knew All Might never stopped hunting down the boogyman, not for a second - even without proof of life.
But if Izuku accepted, it meant he’d betray everything about himself, everything he’d ripped and chopped his own body into pieces for. His fingers dug into the wooden counter almost painfully. He knew what his answer was, but the risks of giving it were too high.
“If I refuse - what’s your plan?”
“I’ll find someone else, though likely not half as intelligent or capable.”
“From your tone, I can assume you take credit for those traits in me, Dad .”
“Of course I do, son.”
“Then my answer is yes.”
“Izuku!” Shinsou balked.
“Toshi, stop. This is how it has to be. If I say no, there’s no telling what havoc some idiot will wreak on the world after Hisashi is gone. I can’t risk that. Besides - we both know he won’t find a better option than me.”
“That’s not the point, Zu. I know there’s no better option, that’s obvious. But you can’t honestly think accepting his offer is a wise decision.”
“I don’t.” Hisashi scoffed. “But it’s the only option.” Izuku turned to Hisashi with hardened eyes. “I have one condition.”
“Name it.”
“Regenerate everything I’ve donated. Fix me. But don’t you dare give me a quirk until it’s the whole kit.”
“You don’t want a quirk?”
“I don’t want to owe you. We’ve already agreed on the cost. So I won’t be adding anything to that receipt. Are we agreed?”
Izuku spared his boyfriend one glance and while he did find fear and anger in those dark purple eyes, there was also a quiet sort of confidence. Shinsou had faith in Izuku, and that’s all Izuku needed to keep pushing forward.
“We’re agreed, son. It’s wonderful to have you back in the family. What’s in the case is yours. I’ll send Kurogiri for you on Monday so we can fix you up - and then we’ll spend the week going over the basics. Medical training won’t start until the week after.” When he finished speaking, Hisashi stood up and motioned for Kurogiri to head to the door. “Thank you both for your gracious hospitality, it’s been a very interesting day. I hope you both have a good weekend.”
Izuku and Shinsou stared each other down as Hisashi walked right through a portal instead of their front door. The weight in the room finally, blessedly, lifted. All the little hairs at the back of his neck calmed down and Izuku felt like he could breathe for the first time in hours. Sighing deeply, he lowered his head until he could rest his forehead on the cool wooden countertop for a while and close his eyes.
He just said yes to the most powerful man in the universe. He just said yes to the most powerful man in the universe . Izuku was seriously questioning his own sanity, and maybe even his intelligence level. Why would he do that? Why would he say yes, of all things? Then even to be so bold as to lay out a condition for agreeing.
“You’re really doing this?”
Izuku tipped his head sideways to look at Shinsou, who had silently made his way into the kitchen beside him.
“Yeah.” Izuku sighed.
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yeah. Okay. If you’re doing this, then we’re doing this.” Shinsou motioned between them with one hand while speaking. “I’m not leaving you and I’m not losing you. So don’t you dare think you can keep me out of danger, because I know you’ll try. But I’m all in, Izuku. All in.”
“You get what that means, Toshi? It means we’re going to be villains. We’re going to be succeeding the most dangerous man in the country, if not the world. If you - if we do this - there’s no going back. There’s no changing minds or room for regrets. We become the monsters we have feared we would become if we accepted our dark sides. So I need your honest thoughts here, Hitoshi.” Izuku stood up, wrapping both hands around Shinsou’s wrists and tugging him in close. “Can you take this dive with me and risk drowning in the madness by my side?”
Shinsou didn’t hesitate: “Yes.”
“Okay.” Izuku brushed a hand across his boyfriend’s cheek. Shinsou leaned into it, his eyes closed. “Don’t ever leave my side, Toshi.”
“Not going anywhere. Promise.”