His words were a gurgled slur, the old man was looking at him with a thin veneer of intrigue and annoyance. He wasn't quite sure, he was too low on oxygen and his brain was dying so he couldn't think clearly as the crime lord repeated his question while he held him up. His arm was too weak to get to his pocket… H-he was dying.
Todoroki's short breaths were shallow as he gasped for air, desperate and hungry, the unblemished parts of his purpled as he strained to move.
His brow was taut, blue wet eyes almost rolled up behind his skull from it all.
—he couldn't breathe!
All For One signed in exasperation as he softened the hold he had on his throat. The spotlights of the helicopters veered off in their direction and then moved away as quickly as they came. The old man closed his eyes for a moment to think and then he snapped his finger above his shoulder with his free hand.
A shocking volley of energy lit up the sky.
The sound of the explosions were muddied from the ringing in his ears, he felt deafened and blind as his vision became increasingly spotty.
The crime lord clicked his tongue, as he shook his head.
"Unfortunately for you, my abilities do not transcend the boundaries of death. At this rate you'll no doubt perish without my assistance, before I can sate my curiosity." A dark deep chuckle escaped him as the boy feebly fought for life.
Shigaraki dropped his hold on Tōya's blistering neck as he looked into his weak eyes from below. The boy fell in front of Zen face to face like a puppet with its strings cut. "I'm feeling somewhat nostalgic, you've earned this I'm sure. But it doesn't come without its repercussions." In that quick drop the demon lord instead took two seconds to crush the front of Tōya's skull in a stone-like single hand hold grip before he hit the ground. Wrenching his body in two directions from the instant stop from freefall.
Todoroki jerked in a dwindling futile struggle against the tightening vice hold. The crime lord laughed at that, as he re-lived the glories of old times past in his mind.
"It's a pittance, more of a consolation prize, but it will have to do."
The dead wisps of a dark red miasmic glow that fell from the demon lord's shoulders sprung up around the young man. In an instant Tōya felt everything go wrong, his blood curdled in a way that he could not put into words, never mind the racing emotions in his head. Plumes of blood red energy emerged from both individuals like a ghostly presence between two souls.
One unwilling and the other demanding.
The glow became blinding even when the palm of All For One's hand obscured his vision.
The sensation was horrendous, as if the cells within his body protested with every little dwindling fiber of their being. He kicked with his good leg but he couldn't muster whatever strength he had. He wasn't sure what hurt more, this or his first "death" on that damn cursed mountain.
He burned as kindling, he was helpless and alone.
And then the torture continued as jagged rivets jabbed into his stomach, digging and and prodding his broken form. It forced his body to work hot when he had nothing left to give, his blood sugar dropped and he was trembling. At last the black and red rivets dug into the foreign material that kept him from breathing in the confusing mess of his chest. A heavy deep pull ripped him in two, and the little drop of his energy escaped him with a last gasp.
Time slowed to a dead stop, and he hung limply.
Tōya was losing consciousness, he was dying and he couldn't stop it.
—No, no, no! I don't want to die.
I never got to apologize to mother, I couldn't get to see Fuyumi or Natsuo.
To apologize to Shoto again, it wasn't his younger brother's fault, and he still held that grudge against the little kid no matter how many times he tried to rationalize it away.
He couldn't even tell his… his idol, the infuriating man, the man he wanted to grow up to be.
The one who he hated with all his being.
The one he wanted to show that his existence wasn't a mistake.
That he was born into this world to be —what? A hero?... The greatest one that ever lived?
The thought was so naive that it galled him even as his lifeblood ebbed away. They were right to doubt him, he was dying even when Phosphor did everything it could to cool his body down.
His mother's precious gift, when he finally decided to consciously use it for whatever little good was left in this evil world. How could he be a hero when he couldn't even do this? His mind flashbacked to the damn iron cage, when he refused to look his mother in the eye in that dark cell of a room.
Separated by reinforced glass.
How she wistfully recounted the sight of a flower made in ice, blooming from his chest. As his family did everything in their power and then some to stop him. It brought him to tears, he was ashamed, and he rebuffed them as he died a death worse than a dog's.
He couldn't feel a thing and the world was a dark pit of nothingness.
When this fucked up world grated him and spat him out for the first time. He saw the hypocrisy of society, the dirty little secrets of the Hero Public Safety Commission. When he dug into hidden files and well kept untold stories. Child soldiers that were indoctrinated, pointed and corralled with a carrot on a stick and a tight leash. A red hawk and a multicolored bullet flashed before his eyes.
Their little cleansing operations, killing off the weak willed fake heroes in secret. Putting down dissidents who threatened this false status quo.
The fool's gold vanity of heroes, they became commodities and celebrities. And they couldn't handle reality when it bit back. Swans and peacocks, preening like they actually made a difference. When some evil-doer was just too strong, or a disaster was just too much to handle, it was easier to feign selective blindness. Or give up when it got too tough. Instead they rushed to the easy pickings like cockroaches to a dead horse. Those damn false heroes congregated to the pretty places, to the affluent areas, waiting for the paparazzi to show up to congratulate them on a job well done. And they left areas like Naruhata and Kamagasaki to fend for themselves.
And then he was proven correct when the world went to hell and everyone was fending for themselves. After he gave his televised hate filled speech… that, he no longer believed in. And he showed Japan, that this… this was what they raised up, a dying corpse of lies.
He's seen it, more times than he can count. When he skulked in the shadows, quietly padding through the underworld, it never ended. Not when All Might was around and not when he was gone. When people and families became ugly behind closed doors. A single man could not be everywhere, it was insanity and one day that man would die, if not by All For One then by old age and natural causes.
Where had the money gone? Where was the assistance?
People like Toga couldn't get the help they needed, where were the school advisors? The wellness centers? …The quirk councilors? She was a kid and she couldn't understand the world around her when it wasn't made for her. Maybe her parents were too unequipped for raising a child like her, too inept? No, they definitely were… when they branded her a demon and they threw her out publicly after she broke for the first time and the story made news.
His bone-dry mouth split into a manic grin.
He didn't do anything then, he only burned her empty childhood home as a token assistance. So she wouldn't wallow away like he had… when he first woke up from his coma. He didn't really help her and he couldn't, not when he was so screwed in the head himself.
Tōya made no change, he just told her to move on.
It didn't matter whether someone laughed or cried, the next day would come regardless. And that was reality, so it was better to laugh and have fun in this dreary world, while you still had the chance.
That's how he kept himself sane until he faced Endeavor.
Another face, a masked monochromatic visage flashed before his spotty eyes.
Fucking bastard's, an orphan because a villain killed his parents and screwed over by a repeat customer who held a grudge. Strung out like garbage when he was innocent with honest work, and without connections to start again. Where was the safety net? When Jin fell into the pits of the underworld as a petty crook, strung along until he got too deep to pull himself out.
The rehabilitation… the helping hand?
If he was being honest with himself, he was no different.
He took advantage of Twice when he needed him most, Dabi had gone too far.
…No he couldn't rationalize it away as some unrelated persona, he was that villain and those sins carried over.
Dabi had willingly jumped off the deep end, and he no longer saw the cowering man for what he was and instead he saw him for the opportunity that he became. When Hawks drove that killing blow and he so desperately wanted to laugh and cry at the irony as he let it happen. He knew the man was too loyal to the Hero Public Safety Commission, he'd never turn. And he let Twice get too close to him as he observed with glee.
How Dabi —H…how he drove himself to satiate that forever unfilling greed of his.
—It never ended.
…He was a bastard and Tōya knew he was no better than anyone else.
Or Shuichi, a lone heteromorph adrift, when his classmates spat at him and looked down on him as the other. Confined to his room like a dog, too afraid to leave for fear of unprompted violence.
When he was looked at as if he were a villain waiting to happen. The damn Creature Rejection Clan, they were the most vocal minorities out in the countryside, and behind closed doors. But he saw the way people looked at those different from them. The protests that sprung up because an employer didn't like the unconventional way you looked. They needed someone relatable, conventionally attractive.
It was veiled in that easy politeness, you didn't fit the job description.
A villain's look… a creature's look, an evil look, they were just too chicken-shit to spell it out.
He burned brighter at the hate that coursed within, the smolder that cooked at his core.
He did nothing for him, it wasn't his problem, not his fight to meddle in… If he wanted to change the world and follow Stain's ideals like him. Then he was a kindred soul in that respect, but if Tōya was honest then he could say with certainty that he did the bare minimum for Spinner in life.
…He was no friend, merely an acquaintance of convenience.
Now Shigaraki, he was Spinner's friend, his dear friend. Tōya saw both young men enjoy their own little leisurely escapades in the digital escape of League. And he only looked on with scalding hatred in his heart as he quietly refused their invitations to join them. He was a hypocrite because he could no longer delude himself with false joy, he couldn't enjoy himself anymore. Because every single day, that one moment drew closer, and he'd finally reveal his identity.
—He remembered the letter that Spinner sent him after it was all over. When he was stuck in that metal cage, wasting his days away for nothing. Somehow Shoto had become the intermediary between them.
How that was possible, he'd never know.
But the scrawled words that got to him warmed his cold dead heart.
"Get better."
"...Even in your last moments. I thought I'd lighten the mood, maybe you'd light my tail on fire for that stupid remark. But we're both stuck. And I… I'm sorry I couldn't be stronger, we both followed Stain. And I failed to live up to that."
"Compress sends his regards. He felt a connection to you due to your apparent storied ancestries even if it was because of someone like Endeavor."
"...But if we don't get another chance to speak to one another I want you to know this."
"Tomura, left me these words and I thought that they would comfort you."
"Even until the bitter end, I kept fighting to destroy."
Tōya burst out into laughter at that, at least in his final moments. Shigaraki won and got off better than the rest of their sorry selves.
Shoto was startled after monotonely reading out that letter.
But it meant the world to him enough that he somehow managed to give a genuine pleasant laugh. And didn't that ruin his lightening mood, as he hacked and coughed afterwards. When he remembered that he was confined to a hell of his own making.
They weren't good people, by many metrics, they were villains and scum.
But they… existed and he wanted to show the world that he was born into this world too.
It made him mad, angry… furious really. And he genuinely laughed from the absurdity of it all, a warbled raspy sound that only got louder as sensation came back to him. When the haze of his dreams fell away and he woke up to reality. Tears streaming and his crackling jaw fell open, It shook his badly beaten limp teenage body as he chortled in manic wrath.
When his spotty vision finally cleared and he could see with clarity the palm that threatened him with a world of pain and a future of misery.
"...Now, we'll have to peer into that small mind of yours, young man." Tōya's bloodshot eyes could see between the gaps of the man's fingers, the wisps of red energy falling from his shoulders. He was building up that fire and budding ice in his chest, but it wasn't enough, it would never be enough.
His infirm arm shook as he strained.
"Unfortunately for you, it means certain death. As even the stout and refreshed succumb to the power of this meta ability. I'll lose the little gift, but it's a paltry copy, and I won't take those back."
The grin was too gleeful to be human, too hungry… too greedy.
Tōya thrashed and rushed for his pocket all in one desperate go.
And yet nothing he could do would stop the demon lord as he held him in that damn crushing grip.
Light, sensation, and sound became one.
As the quirk activated, and he knew no more.
Pain, ear shattering and all encompassing lanced his skull for a second, that infinite moment.
It felt like not only was he thinking for himself as an individual but for All For One as well. Welded to him like a conjoined twin, skull to skull, that parasitic twin was trying to dig into his deepest darkest secrets.
The venomous green glow of the quirk was blinding and their minds struggled for dominance. The man intruded on the very day of his birth like another nurse, he was a figure hidden away in his childhood as he played with Fuyumi after school, and a spectator during the ugliest parts of his life when he tried to connect with Natsuo as he lamented his existence at night and in bed. Everything that Tōya Todoroki the thirteen year old was ashamed about was barren to the old bastard.
…It slowed down… with that day.
The day he burned in that forest fire, it became something… more comprehensible. It was funny how that worked. His understanding of the event was aided by All For One's perspective, he saw that pale haired thirteen year old with a third person clarity. How he peered in the shadows like a voyeur with a near invincibility quirk, taken from someone far in the distant past. And it began all over again. Toya went too far as he hunched over, crying himself hoarse. He couldn't stop killing himself when the quirk activated against his own volition. The forest lit up like a furnace without escape.
He chuckled at just how close his past self had gotten to the ground near the lakebed from the old man's point of view. What was left was a crumpled charred mess of unfinished dreams.
And then he was shown the events afterwards, how All For One presented his barely breathing husk to Kyudai Garaki as if he were a new side project that they could play with abandon. The syringes and the cloned skin that was used, but was wholly inadequate for his recuperating body. They held back the better stuff just in case Tōya was too much of a problem to invest in.
He was too old to mold, that's how they rationalized it.
They wanted to see if they had finally found the perfect willing vessel of hatred. They'd build him up with a systematic chart, the more work he did for them. When and if he accepted All For One's offer to join him in that mockery of a daycare. The better his body would grow to become. They'd upgrade him as if that's all he was. A growing, evolving project that the demon lord would snatch away at the last minute after he did all the hard work.
The sterile room was clean save for the blood and the discarded biological material. A jawbone that could never amount to much was used, but how could he complain when his original fell off with barely any trouble the first time.
It skipped forward three years into the future… in that godforsaken daycare. Tōya was still unresponsive, yet to wake up from his coma.
He recognized that sickening brightly colored wall and that haunting tablet at his bedside table.
Tōya caught sight of a relaxed All For One monitoring him from the start, chin resting on a closed fist. In that darkly lit throne room, it faced a wall of monitors that showed the greater landscape of Japan. In one screen he eyed the listlessly sitting Tomura lost in destitution. In another Nomura, enraptured by a TV that captured the image of a speedy hero. It didn't end there because the man was greedy. A surveillance state if he'd ever seen one.
His struggles increased.
The old man was getting too close to seeing the future, and he'd be damned if he let that happen without a fight!
Tōya resisted with everything he had, he felt a different form of strain and another type of exhaustion as he fought with everything he had. He wasn't sure if it was because of the quirk or the lack of oxygen from earlier.
…But he was losing it, it was too much and he was just that weak.
In a last ditch effort Toya decided to try one of his last gambits. His body felt hot as he rose the intensity of his quirk, internalizing it to the fullest. The last embers within shot off as he felt his body become engulfed with flames. The images became more spotty, the clarity was getting fogged up. If he cooked his brain, then All For One would have nothing. He would rather die than hand the man a future foregone.
Fuck, this… this was worse than the Kamino ward battle.
Before he fully lost consciousness, before the man could wrench the secrets from his dying mind, he pushed a final time.
—He couldn't see this!
Not this, he wasn't allowed to see the stone still boy as his eyes cracked open for the first time on that infirmary bed.
It was that moment!
The comatose boy was seizing and jumping up the mattress as if he was straining against an iron cage. The first thoughts that he had when woken up fully were going to be consumed by the demon lord, stolen away. And he could do nothing to stop it.
"Is this hell—"
And then the experience shattered like broken glass, a mess of randomness, it died in a blissful reprieve as soon as the torture started in earnest.
The connection snapped, but it wasn't the clean kind. The quirk rubberbanded and the whiplash went full force between both victim and perpetrator. His mind was scrambled and the memories crashed against each other.
His hoarse cries died a soft quiet death, still openly reeling from the pain.
The mind numbing sensation only slowed to a dull ache, as he fought to hold himself together.
His eyes snapped open between the gaps in All For One's fingers.
The world looked dimmed and All For One was not as bright as he once was. The pitter-patter of the rain was loud on the otherwise quiet landscape, the shock of thunder deafened him. Surrounded by broken buildings, the spattering of blue flames died out under the pressure of the rain.
Tōya felt empty, there was no waning power, no hungry fire, and certainly no seedling of cold.
Just a void he could not recognize, as if he were only a… boy.
And only that.
"What… is this?" Shigaraki openly questioned with un-reprieved concern, as he analyzed the dying green embers of energy that would rob Tōya of his secrets.
A lone distance away a hidden twenty-four year old hero with blood red eyes and a grey scarf activated his quirk.
His long raven hair flew back like tendrils in the night, as the light of the near clouded moon backlit his figure. He hung onto the large scale antenna of the building far away. The sight of a burning young boy crying out in pain as he was held by a large imposing man was the clearest thing he saw as he followed the struggle in the sky. The gaudy orange and green motorcycle that his senior Ms. Joke owned, was used to chase the two living calamities above them.
The road was ravaged but the small vehicle was driven by a madwoman, the only compliment he could offer was that they got there in time.
It was parked below, as the woman climbed up the fire escape to catch up to him.
She hadn't built up her stamina for long distance running, un-rationally so. She was a hero and in his opinion she needed to increase her physical standards. He wouldn't say it plainly because he knew she would twist it into some kind of bad pretense for him having some interest in her body.
…Whatever would get more of a rise out of him, he wouldn't put it past her.
It would be the only time in his life that he would openly thank the woman for being as meddlesome as she was. It was embarrassing to sit in the sidecar, and he wouldn't do it again.
The quirk connection was severed in an unceremonious fashion between when it truly started and before it ever ended.
Both ancient man and growing boy were left blindsided in that frantic confusion.
The old criminal mastermind's power left him and he let go as Tōya slowly fell to the ground, the dumbfounded boy questioned this new development with wide delirious eyes.
Droplets slowly rained down around them as time slowed to a stop.
But there was one thing that Tōya knew for certain, even when his head was pounding and his mind scrambled.
—Someone needed to die.
Before Todoroki's feet could make contact with the slick surface, his hand dug into the three syringes that he pilfered from the back of Hound Dog's mane. When he sent the man off he noticed the vials falling in the sky, and he knew that he would need them when they truly became lifesaving. The caps fell off in a flurry of movement, his arm was hyper-extended in an arc and he jabbed them all in one go into his neck just as his feet made contact with the roof floor.
A heavy thump escaped the impact of flesh and metal.
His blue eyes took in All For One's form from below, as his brows furrowed into demented hate.
I don't care if I die, as long as I can take him with me!
The veins in his neck pulsed violently from the injected foreign material and the hollow sensation was instead filled and exploding within his core. It wanted out, his quirk screamed from it all, howling like a damned soul. The sensation felt strange as if there was a third… something… in there now.
Tōya didn't know who he was anymore, it— the blowback from the mind quirk was making it hard for him to think.
And he winced.
"S-shit." The curse left his lips despite his own volition.
It was all too much and he fought to keep his consciousness from fading within the raging sea of his thoughts and memories. Trigger was only making it harder to keep himself grounded. On its own it would steal any cognitive reasoning that a person had left, berserk if there was any better word for it. He couldn't let the drug take him before he pulled the bastard down with him!
…The building under him disintegrated from the intensity of his re-energized quirk, a deafening shockwave rocked Toya's world.
Light exploded, blinding and blue, near white and stark, making it hard to see a few feet in front of him.
Was he cold? Did he feel heat? He wasn't sure.
It was like that even balanced feeling of homeostasis that he got from Phosphor, it wasn't a cool breeze on a nice toasty spring day. But more of a perfect temperature, it was struck, and his body temperature was one with the world around him.
A stray thought hit him, he had been waiting for someone.
C'mon… just a bit more and then All Might would get here.
He couldn't believe that he was supposed to wait for the Number One hero, to put a stop to this. It felt like so long ago and yet it was barely minutes ago when this all started.
All For One was there with him, in that ball of light, hovering as if gravity was a foreign concept.
His face shrouded with a stolen quirk, Tōya couldn't place the emotions running through All For One. The old man was covered in scales to protect himself, along with a pre-prepared dome of energy. All For One's wits had recovered before Tōya could ever really take advantage of the situation as he moved his hands to no doubt attack him with an offensive quirk.
The man's meta abilities woke up as if revived in earnest, shooting out towards him in a flurry of sensation. Whatever had happened to disorient them both was gone. The attacks happened in an instant and it felt like it continued for forever. A maelstrom of meta abilities escaped the greatest criminal that ever lived. Toya couldn't ever really match that range of power, but he'd be damned if he didn't try. Pushing forth his hands in response, Tōya emitted the newfound quirk factor to its fullest to mitigate getting swept up in a sea of attacks. Sheer heat, too hot that the sweat forming on his skin evaporated before it could drop. It did exactly as he needed, unmitigated destruction sallied forth, meeting the slurry of quirks one to one.
A great cannon of air split the plasma that shrouded Tōya's view of All For One, aided by the power of a navel laser. Tōya ducked low with the aid of recoil from a short burst of hyper intensified fire from his palm, a second shot sent him down to All For One's feet. The speed of the movement caused his head to reel back. Aiming upward with a shiny glistening finger, it reflected the light around him. Brimstone and power met the unholy amalgamation of quirks that was All For One.
Tōya's body shimmered and convulsed as he built up the power and let go. A small, almost nuclear explosion escaped the impact. All For One was sent flying up into the sky towards the moon. The attack left Tōya winded, but he couldn't afford to let this continue on the ground, too many… innocent people suffered at his hands.
Toya's palms were aimed down as he propelled himself with his quirk. Stars and stripes flashed before Toya's eyes as he scaled the beautiful night sky. It almost made him forget that down below, the hellscape was a product of their own making.
It was a hellscape down there, I… can't really ignore it. I screwed up, I should have left when I had the chance. But that doesn't mean I can't make the old bastard pay for this!
Superheated ionized gas fell from the boy in pale blue, a flower of ice on his chest melted and defended him from his other half as it encased his body whole.
There in the distance, a quirk, familiar and terrifying, pillars of gaping maws rushed to Tōya, ever hungry and never satiated.
They surrounded the boy from all directions. The ugly dead-pale decrepit faces soullessly looked at him, sprouting like snakes from All For One's back. And they rushed at him, four looped around and went for his back. He pivoted and waved his hand, turning them into matter as he broke down the organic material with sheer heat. The rest grew and dodged as they formed scales, becoming chimera-like monstrosities in the skies.
The moonlight highlighted the monstrous quirk with a soft pale rim light.
And Tōya opened his hands in an open armed embrace, two meta abilities combined into a quirk singularity—
No! Where did that word come from? That's not what it was.
An ancient foreign idea entered his mind, it wasn't something he had ever thought about. Almost like a second mind coaxing out an idea behind his ear.
It was just his mother's quirk and his father's, hopped up on three doses of trigger.
The attacks met and sent out a tremor in the sky, it forced Tōya back from the impact. With some resistance, he moved within the shockwaves.
Todoroki skimmed his chest with a thin hand as he flew, shaking and shivering. Lightly he grasped for the open wound from the life ending bone attack. It wasn't there anymore, however the skin was slightly raised. His head swayed from the lack of air around him, but the old man was there in the distance and he couldn't stop to relax.
The sky became pseudo-daylight from the sheer intensity of light that he emitted. He needed to dim the power or he'd suffocate himself. He accelerated and cut the power in one second to give himself that moment to breathe in cool air. Tōya rolled into a tight ball to make himself smaller, and All For One took that opportunity to intensify his salvo of attacks.
Two opposing forces danced as they rushed each other, a short distance away.
With a quick weave of movement, Toya reactivated his power within an instant just before the jaws of the scaly head crushed him. Tōya's form shimmered and jerked during this whirl of movement between meta-abilities. He was clipped at his side, sending him down to the awaiting All For One. The old man had a cocked fist ready and waiting. The impact of the non-powered fist sent him reeling.
Jogging his head out of the battle.
————————————————————————————————————————————
I can't rem- who am I fighting again?
His skull felt splitting, as he clutched it in pain. Tōya was falling so fast that his surroundings were lighting up like a space shuttle re-entering orbit.
…I'm fighting? What for?
Why would —I?
A blind nasty face was inches from his own, the dark red scales glistened. But it opened its maw, revealing not a row of teeth, but a beam of deadly purple energy.
An impromptu Hell Spider mixed with his mother's quirk, it was sloppy and he nearly negated the improvised attack altogether when he haphazardly combined the two…
But it did its job, within the clash between two interlocking attacks, barely, it was enough to keep his body whole. A beam of crimson light bisected both the head of the soulless quirk construct and their clashing attacks. Nearly taking Tōya's left arm from the rest of his body. A jerky movement was enough, the paper thin blade of light skimmed his cheek as he leaned back.
Tōya choked from the strain, hacking from the lack of oxygen.
He was losing consciousness, he could barely breathe. Another short drop in quirk energy was enough as he deactivated his quirk to take lungfuls of the thin atmosphere, if only for a moment. Dropping further Tōya fell downward like a bullet as he kept his arms down to his sides.
Tōya felt as if he fell face first into the ocean as he re-activated his quirk, the sensation shocked his frame.
It was becoming increasingly difficult to separate reality from his dwindling psyche, Tōya's vision became spotty as the fight dragged on.
————————————————————————————————————————————
No, the fire I can't stop it! It won't end. I was supposed to show dad my new moves, I even studied his videos on the internet. He'd be proud that I could follow him even if he no longer trained me. I got better, stronger. Sure a little pain hurt but it meant nothing when I could show him that I could still be a hero… M-maybe I'll never live up to beating All Might.
But I-I… think I could settle for number two or something.
I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
His shy smile wobbled as he looked down in shame, in that forested peak, all too long ago.
—The fire, the forest, it won't stop! I don't know where to run to!
Wait, the lake, I just need to—but no! I cleared out most of the trees and I went too deep.
His legs burned and the bones burst from the intensity of the flames.
My hands, I can't move —run!
—The bucket, the bucket!
Again his head pounded and he almost lost himself to his muddled mind, His eyes cracked open.
That was too close for comfort.
He pivoted at the last second to dodge a sound shockwave attack from All For One. Tōya's ragged gasps were strained as he looked at the beaten crystalline form of his arm and body for the first time. It had taken the brunt of the damage. He almost stopped to look at himself fully, amazed with the quirk, before he caught himself.
Hopping himself up on such a large dose of trigger was a gamble, and he knew he would pay for it later. But it was better than the alternative, anything to buy a little time.
"...Tsk"
Todoroki's other hand joined the first as he exploded with power, it was too much. Power and heat was never an issue with his quirk, it was always the limitations of going too far that damaged his body beyond what it could take.
And he needed an outlet of escape before he built up too much quirk factor mass. Driblets of plasma cascaded down in an oozing fashion. And he paid for that with All For One's lethal razor blades. The crescent shaped razors sliced and clashed against the hardened ice that layered his body.
Despite his quick pivots, at the very least the attacks were mitigated to glancing blows.
Shards of ice blew out from the collision.
Tōya was sent back from the concurrent impacts, shockwaves buffeted the sky and he jittered as he fought to regain control of his senses.
————————————————————————————————————————————
I need to defeat Endeavor! The bastard, a fake who buried and forgot him.
Stain's speech, it resonated with him, the world was rotten to the core. Look at those bastards, smiling and waving while they stole the glory from the few hard working heroes who followed what they preached.
He shook himself from the super enhanced rivets that entangled and crushed him. The strain of the rivets were deadly, as their razor sharp tips aimed down to dig into him like a pincushion. The drug induced thoughts coursing through his veins were barely dispelled… they almost overpowered him.
With a defiant yell, Tōya's energy exploded outward. Disintegrating the clouds along with the reinforced rivets. Tōya's hands fell down to his sides as he let out gasps.
"Fuck, I-I… I almost lost myself."
Were it not for the flash of a set of grey motherly eyes, the rivet that dangled inches away from his face reflected a face he wasn't really sure was real. That gaze looked at him with affection and fear and he couldn't look away. Just like when he first opened his eyes in that iron skeleton.
Tōya's lull was enough for All For One to capitalize on the opportunity, no longer following the charade in earnest.
Every offensive meta ability at his disposal mixed into one ultimate quirk combination and the mastermind released the pressurized power within.
All For One's right arm grew into an unholy abomination in an instant.
Shigaraki flash stepped forward and cocked his fist back above Tōya, the hammer arced into the anvil with a deafening blow.
And Tōya was rocked into a freefall spin, excess quirk energy trailing after him. Involuntarily his eyes closed shut.
————————————————————————————————————————————
"Fuyumi, that wasn't nice."
The twelve year old Tōya said as he rubbed his sore nose, after she kicked the ball into his face.
Another brief flash and a second memory blinded him, he couldn't open his eyes.
"Natsuo! Let's play."
A third recent experience whiplashed him and he was falling deeper into darkness.
—It… no, the scared half burned face of his father hit him like a truck, surrounded by desolation and a blue flaming dome. —No, he was a mirage, it wasn't real, a nightmare that's all it was. The man pleaded for him to stop, he was missing an arm and his hero costume was a ruined mess.
It already happened.
Enji Todoroki crushed him in a hug.
"I won't let you die alone son… I've got you."
He was held in an embrace above the old man, his mind truly gone, a maw of flames and a mind empty. Tōya chuckled.
" —Hold on a little longer."
And he was… as All For One buffeted him with attacks he couldn't account for, a devastating knee strike crumpled him inward, Toya couldn't hold on no matter how much he tried, spittle and rice cakes were thrown up as he emptied his stomach.
His mind flashed back to that dark room, when it was all over, and he was forced to listen to that unrecognizably small man in that wheelchair, bandages covering him from head to toe.
"I… I'm responsible for all of this." But he wasn't sure if he heard his exhausted father's voice or his own dying one.
The ice around him cracked from the pressure of the All For One's attacks at its edge, the breaking point, the plasma around him warbled. Like a balloon ready to pop.
Using All For One's upper leg as leverage, Tōya superheated the offending appendage with both hands. Using the opportunity to both send him back from the recoil, away from All For One. And to slow the man down as the leg blistered and popped to uselessness.
Instantly, before he could fall back two feet, Tōya's arm mimicked All For One's earlier attack; He cocked it back, and he used his other ailing hand to support the badly beaten arm. He unleashed a low-powered Vanishing Fist as they collided. Shearing off the first layers of the villain's defense, he planned on taking full advantage of the villain's first sign of unbalance…
Except the flashes of memories hit him again as his fist met All For One's unblemished jaw.
—Wait, wasn't it Endeavor? Another face was superimposed on that lumbering body, but he knew it was wrong.
He couldn't hold on to reality.
The... whatever the quirk did, jumbled my head, t-the trigger.
His teeth chattered.
He couldn't fully let that happen until he finished this, before he ran out of time and the trigger ran out. He'd be dead, if not by All For One then by all the shit he'd been piling onto his unwilling body. If it wasn't his own, he'd probably feel sorry for it.
Remembering the loss of his own right arm when he unleashed the full power of Vanishing Fist in a delirium, oh so long ago. He ducked under All For One's elbow strike nonetheless, even when half his mind was a mess. Toya recalled that Dabi, in that past memory was going nuclear, he was willing to take Endeavor and any bystander down with him in the Gunga Mountains. So a sloppy rendition of Vanishing Fist costing him the arm was no big issue. If he was honest with himself, then losing his mind took that choice out of his hands.
—Except this time, Tōya held his head together as it split apart, he fell to a dead stop mid-dodge. The flaming fist died out before he could parry another, gasping for breath, his head was rattled as a hammerstrike sent him careening downward.
He turned with a wary fear like he was looking at his surroundings for the first time, mid-flight.
Toya did not spot the advancing blur that was All For One. And he paid for that when the man sent the full power of leverage within his strike, snapping his skull to the left and continuing the strikes in a flurry. An elbow strike dug into his right bicep and he thought he heard a crunch.
Tōya flipped after the second to last attack, shooting off his quirk to escape the subsequent blow diagonally. Desperate to escape the onslaught. However his leg was extended just enough that the villain instead grasped it. With two hands, Toya was flung across the sky. A series of purple beams pinpointed Toya's falling form, crashing into him with ferocity.
Running out of many options Toya instead headbutted the last beam as it met him, before a memory snapped him away from the fight.
"Fuck! keep it together!" He growled in pain.
Even when all he could see was stars, the plan worked out as the memory whiplash from the offending quirk subsided for these past few seconds. Tōya's reality and the past no longer blended together for the moment.
The main issue had yet to be solved, and Toya let out a low curse as the villain was rushing him far too fast, with glee on his face. All For One's figure was larger than the imposing six foot something he had pegged him for. He couldn't run away, but there was a lull, a second between strikes Tōya willingly took. It was another gamble and Tōya's instinct made up for his mind as he used Vanishing Fist again at the last second.
Don't telegraph it, it hasn't worked so far. Arm's fucked but it's probably still good enough for one last attack.
A fist glowing brilliant and blue bloomed, it was low as if he held the battered arm in a hug. Internalizing the heat within him almost cooked Tōya's brain a second time, but he needed every last dreg of time before he siphoned the energy into his strike into one fluid motion. Tōya was shoulder checked within the combination of attacks exactly as he predicted.
There!
The hook after the jab, the combo, he recognized it.
This time the ultimate rendition of Vanishing Fist was cleaner in execution, refined by his mother's quirk instead of the disjointed version he once used that blew his lower arm clean off.
The ultimate move.
A sharp pivot, a missed strike from an old man too comfortable for his own good, too extended.
The perfect opportunity and the blow was an uppercut that shattered the sky when the impact resounded to full effect. Tōya's vision blurred stark white, his teeth clenched tight.
————————————————————————————————————————————
The man was equal parts astounded, entranced, and enraptured.
Disregarding the earlier goals that he had originally set into motion. His memories were mixing and he used another quirk to hold his thoughts into place before he lost himself completely. As the second wielder of this Mind Splicing quirk, he knew the ramifications as he tested it out on the original owner of the meta ability.
Back then, oh… so long ago.
The gnat was a man who begged for alms, at first he took him for a good for nothing and yet when he found the opportunistic homeless man digging into the mind of another drunken fool.
In that dingy alleyway, he was dumbfounded and spellbound at the prospect, at the possibilities.
The original quirk was weak and rather than scour the mind for everything of worth. It merely combed through the surface area thoughts and latest memories, at the detriment of the victim. A simple headache was all the harm it could do.
But no, when he took the quirk and made it his own. He mastered it truly, no secret would be left untouched. The kill condition only happened if the recipient was not coaxed out into openly letting him into their mind. And no one had yet to do so, not that he would care to let them know.
People were a resource that he freely consumed without issue.
Tōya was an anomaly that defied belief, more so in stupidity and disregard for his own safety.
None of his earlier controlled projects and experiments ever came close to this conclusion. Not in this spectacular fashion, two conclusions made themselves abundantly clear. A slow dead drop of energy as their bodies died out like a dead star, or a supernova that blanketed space for that infinitesimal moment. He was no doubt killing himself from the vials of Trigger.
The quirk he added into the mix to keep the boy alive may have pushed things too far altogether.
Kyudai, was this what you believed in all those years ago?
The magnificence of it turned his smile into elation and waryness. But no, he wasn't really sure if the boy really achieved Quirk Singularity or not. If it killed him as he brought destruction to the whole of Japan? Then yes, he had achieved that condition in a roundabout way. Tōya's wits were leaving him, and his own attacks were sending him to that breaking point.
The theory was only that, a simple thing. As always, these little experiments always left him with prime opportunities to enjoy himself to the fullest.
But he was not without understanding of his own somewhat negative circumstances. All For One's head was a jumbled mess and yet he could easily relive the words that the good doctor imparted to him, as he studied Tōya further.
"Proposing that quirks evolve faster than the human body can adapt, leading to uncontrollable power, social collapse, and eventual humanity-ending catastrophes."
"Then it would herald the end of the world as we know it."
The memory, old and spotty, met him with increasing clarity.
The youthful stocky man with glasses openly explained to him in glee as he wrung his fingers together. No doubt happy that someone had finally taken interest in his doomsday belief. They shared a bottle of wine in his penthouse. And that was how they began their cooperation in earnest. The idea was interesting, but Kyudai's merits were not solely based on that far away idea… No. It was on the limits of the human body, and how they could bring that out.
It was merely a diminished power-up from near death.
He had seen it a hundred times, his head pounded and his memories were a mix of fuzz and mud. It didn't mean he couldn't test the boy, if he died it would be no skin off his back. This experience could not be left an afterthought, or he would be left dissatisfied.
And that could not do, not after he spent the miniscule resources on this boy and the blond buffoon.
…He needed to see more, it was not enough, none of it was.
Zen decided then and there to discard the Mind Splicing quirk in the sea of quirks, he could always find another.
All For One noted the plasma that engulfed the boy, the cool mix between both ends of the spectrum when it came to temperature was a dime a dozen novelty. The sun rose, and yet not really because the moon was still behind the boy like a shroud.
Was his play on words too literal?
It wouldn't be enough, none of All For One's attacks struck truly. He could give the boy his props, a beating he could take, more gracefully than the grown retches around him. All For One could simply wait the boy out as he diminished from the rapid loss of stamina and the benefits of trigger.
…Push the boy, or you would forever regret it.
—Take it, his power is yours. It is not theirs, they took the gift meant for his brother. And they used it to play the hero.
Voices of the dead warred within his mind.
He shook his head, the quirk's debilitation was growing much too quick while he played with the boy. Regardless of the fact that he removed the offending quirk, the symptoms were still present, although diminished. He openly debated the thought of leaving and coming back for another day of retribution.
No… The boy, Tōya, This ended now.
—This game ends now.
The purple wisp entered his vision in worry and concern.
"...Go Kurogiri, join Tomura, look after him. I'll be back with you soon. You've done enough to slow down the Number One fool."
The number one crime lord's man-like figure exploded and he lost his mortal form in the sea of flesh. Meters and miles of flesh and faces cascaded out as it blotted out the sky. It was an eldritch shape that when looked at would turn anyone insane. Understanding became unfeasible, and yet when it met the brilliant light.
—It became chaotic and unrefined.
It wasn't time to play around, he was done with this charade.
It was a form he had not used in a long time, he so dearly wanted to see the ramifications, he'd crush the boy and move on.
He had spent too much of his later life playing it safe. Because a blond brute of a man thought he could cow him with power unbecoming of himself. Of cowards and sycophants and meddling thieves who believed themselves paragons of justice.
Once he was done with Tōya, he would destroy the rest of this prefecture all in one go.
He was fed up with this pretense. It did not matter if All Might got here, he would come back to a ruin regardless. It was not the first time he had done such a thing. And that was more than fine with him, it had all gone on too long…
————————————————————————————————————————————
The fight had gone on for too long, even now Tōya could barely keep his eyes open. When he blinked his eyelids became heavy…
He saw his father and Shoto below him on that barren ground… they looked up at him as he revealed himself fully with surprise and anguish. He no longer hid away as Dabi, he was Tōya and the world would hear his story today. As he stood on Gigantomachia's back
His right eye flinched, a cold snap hit him, he was sweaty.
–No, no, no… that wasn't right. All For One was in front of him, he was fighting him, he needed to stop him. Or he'd never see his family again. The man became a wall of flesh, it dwarfed him to the limits of what he could see. He couldn't fight that, where would he even start?
His right foot was shaky, he tremored, Tōya couldn't do it anymore. He rose up to execute his last gambit, openly he debated with himself as he scaled upward.
"Maybe I— could… Fuck it."
Come father, dance with me in hell!
The lingering memory was both a detriment and an opportunity.
"If I'm losing my mind then ride the wave." Tōya dropped the power in an instant for one last breath into a controlled freefall. His palms were wide open as he extended them outwards to slow his descent, the air screamed into his ear.
He'd give himself over to the delirium in full, it wasn't the first time.
Energy coursed within his veins, exploding outward, at this point it felt all too familiar.
Tōya fell from Gigantomachia's back and rushed forward, his hands raised up in a sort of prayer. His right arm went over his brow and his left was extended. His form was shaky as he rocked across the sky like a meteor towards the wall of flesh.
…This time Best Jeanist wouldn't be able to stop him, he wouldn't let him.
His eyes were burning from the wind resistance as he kept them open despite his body's protest.
"Prominence… Burn!"
His mouth was an open wordless gap.
—He blotted the sky with everything he had.
Tōya was a blur of speed as he made contact with the wall, the audible scream as he called out the attack barely came out within the torrent.
A supercharged Prominence Burn filled him.
Everything around him was blinding light as the wall caught fire and turned into carbon. He'd burn up because he overheated, but that was fine, this was a killing blow and this time it was worth it.
It was the same story all over again, nothing ever changed, Tōya went too far and his body couldn't take it..
And yet at the last second his mother's quirk finally shattered, crystalizing into tiny shards. He'd completely forgotten about it. After that short burst of defence from the highest output of his ultimate attack, he looked around at the snowflakes that took the brunt of the recoil of his own attack.
Toya's gaze then turned to heads that cascaded out of the wall of flesh weeped in pain.
All For One was in there.
His head pounded, taking stock of his last reserves. He could feel it, it was more like a natural depletion of his stamina instead of the nasty blowback from putting a hand into a torch.
That's all his quirk ever amounted to, sharp pain and then a dull ache.
But he increased the heat further as the plasma around coalesced, Prominence Burn needed to end this. He couldn't afford to let All For One's quirk amalgamation get too close to him. With a short chuckle, Tōya kept going. He felt faint, not like he was dying but tired and it was a nice kind of tired, like a sleep after a hard day at work.
…That was good, more than good, great.
There was a persistent shake to his figure, like a tremor.
He charged the last attack… Prominence Burn with everything he had. He could see it now, the flesh wall was breaking apart and he felt faint.
Toya's vision became spotty as pure white energy fully covered his sight.
————————————————————————————————————————————
All For One stood within the sun-like dome of plasma, it looked like a sea of white, without a floor and ceiling.
He held his head, it was not the sun, not truly. And he was merely hitting Toya with an easy combination attack from his flesh wall but he lost sight of him. Within this blazing new landscape in the sky.
It was no matter… his quirks could withstand this volley.
—The villain felt faint from the Mind Splicing quirk.
It should have killed the whelp, but the connection was severed prematurely. And the ramifications of that action were too much for him to parse in earnest.
…Not now, not when he had so little time. Instead he made use of a Soothe-Saying quirk, metaphorical ice fell down from his back, cooling the nerves.
A vast expanse of nothingness and everything, he was left alone. He turned as he made use of his Empathy quirk.
But that was a mistake because the crescendo in the child's mind deafened him.
He cut the connection abruptly, it made his delirium worse. His mood took a downturn. All For One's farsight quirk mixed with the temperature sense quirk and a calibration meta ability. They were combined to give a more refined sight. The slightest difference in temperature would give him the accurate idea of where Tōya was…
There!
A figure was out in the distance, in the form of a boy? No, it was a young man with white long hair rushing towards him horizontally. His eyes were struggling with the blur of memories and not even rewriting the composition of his own DNA with another would fix this. His soul was hard coded with experiences that jumbled together, skin deep changes would amount to nothing. He would need to find another quirk to fix this issue.
He turned to the figure fully and he inspected the rapidly closing in man… he found the features to be startling.
The young man's eyes looked soft and green, but he could have imagined that they looked blue and angry a second ago. His face was unblemished, his baby teeth were gone and instead a full row of adult teeth lined his mouth. His lips closed into a tight hard line and his brows furrowed… in disappointment?
He wore plain simple clothes, a pale long sleeved shirt, dark pants and basic canvas shoes.
His face was determined and he looked at him with a clarity that was startling.
…It couldn't be? Could it?
No the young man was dead, Yoichi was gone.
That time… once long ago he overdid it.
When the young man was too rebellious for Zen to fully forgive him.
And then he murdered his own twin brother in cold blood, by happenstance.
A simple flick of his wrist in that dank humid sewer system and his body shattered like a blood bag. All that was left was the singular hand that reached out to that cursed man. It became a taxidermied trophy.
—Kudo.
And then he would never get him back, it was a mistake he couldn't take back. He was his possession, forever his. And he broke him, the most… precious thing. The one thing that accompanied him for what no longer amounted to much of his artificially prolonged life.
It was strange how things like familial connections could run so deep, and yet he felt nothing for his own mother. He hadn't gotten to know her like he did the naive fool.
And he regretted it deeply.
"Zen!"
He could hear the word in the distance, but he was imagining it, it was a detrimental side effect of an unwanted meddling.
Of a quirk connection gone wrong, and he regretted it.
He was forever chasing his lovely possession, and yet he could never catch up to him.
It only strengthened his resolve. He needed to defeat All Might and take back what was wholly his. Years and decades were the culmination of this journey and he would not have it ruined by a second class hero's whelp.
It almost looked like the young man was reaching out for him, even as he held a cocked fist back. That sad boy who held a comic in his hands while the world continued on in ruin.
…That missing baby tooth, and the lamp, it was a nice thought.
No!
The boy meant nothing to him, it was not Yoichi, and this was not the past.
He needed to die, especially…no, because of this transgression.
His memories were stomped on and flung about as if they meant nothing. Increasingly, All For One was getting worked up by these series of events.
It would not be left a stain without repercussions, without reprisal.
A howl may have been heard between either men but it was lost in it all, when they clashed.
————————————————————————————————————————————
The explosion shattered his ear drums, it was only a split second. Just that moment, he looked at the boy and then the man when he activated his Erasure quirk. The green light that cascaded out of the man's eyes connected past the hold he had on the burning boy's head.
And then when he blinked after shutting off the man's quirk, the boy glowed and flashed brilliantly. That staggering emitted quirk forced him to close his eyes for fear that he would go blind permanently.
The buildings around them melted in a blinding fire. And both individuals shot off into the sky in an instant.
Emi Fukukado, rushed behind him at the top of the roof. She was coughing up a storm as she puffed out her words. Her hands fell to her thighs as she hunched over in exhaustion. His ears were ringing but he could hear his colleague's next words.
"What was that Eraserhead!?"
He had no idea, and he was being brutally honest with himself on that fact.
"I-I… don't know."
The light dwindled and there was a trail in the sky when he looked up.