Hisashi once again thanked the man who had offered him his technopathy Quirk back at the dawn of the evolution of Quirks. The man at the time had just wanted to be normal like the rest of his family and had been scared for years once his Quirk manifested that if his family found out the truth, they would throw him out of the family out of fear. It was that way with most of the people he remembered meeting back then. People were afraid of their own Quirks and begged him to take their curses away while many who were born without begged to be gifted power regardless of what it could be.
As much as he wished things had been different back then, he was still glad at least to some degree that it had happened. After all, Hisashi never would have collected such a large variety of Quirks had it not happened that way. Still, with the loss of his eyes, some that had long been considered mostly pointless for him, were now vital for his everyday life. After all, what is the good of a screen if the person viewing it can't see what is displayed upon it?
He had been lurking in the background of the group chat since the detective had sent the first message of the day wondering if he should chime in. True, he didn't really have much to contribute to the conversion at that point but he was a bit bored. There was only so much he could do between his blindness and the machines he needed to continue functioning. He had been lucky that the part of his brain that had been turned into mush on the pavement by All Might just years prior had not damaged any of his more recent memories but the loss of control over more basic bodily functions was less than ideal. He could go without the machines so long as he was careful to not forget to do important things like breathing. Still ideally he wouldn't need them at all once he found someone out there with a healing Quirk strong enough to repair the damage properly. At this point, he had more or less written off regaining his eyes but even still he had not had any luck finding that one Quirk or combination of Quirks that would solve the issue that was holding him back from returning home the most.
He didn't want Inko or Izuku to see him like this. It was a bit of personal vanity, but it was also the fact that if they saw him like this, that would mean he would have to admit to who he really was. And, if he was being honest with himself, he was less than happy about who he had become.
As the saying went, his road to Hell had been paved only with the best intentions in mind. People didn't want Quirks, he'd offer to take them for them. People wanted Quirks, he'd offer to give some of the gift Quirks away. His brother slowly dying because of his illness, he'd gift him an energy stockpiler so that he would be able to regain his lost health. A global organization of Quirkless people targeting the Quirked in hate crimes, he'd hide those he cared about where the group would never find them. Brother run away with a new secret boyfriend, he'd keep an eye on them to make sure that Yoichi was still safe. Brother suddenly dying again after the boyfriend somehow stole his Quirk, go after the boyfriend to try and get it back. The boyfriend no longer having the Quirk and refusing to say what he did with it…
Hisashi regretted the choices he made that day in his desperation to try and save Yoichi. Somewhere along the line he had changed from the caring and protective man to a monster in his brother's eyes. In hindsight, the Vault had probably not been his best idea but Hisashi had to admit, he shared more in common with dragons than just the ability to fly and breathe fire. He hoarded what was most important to him. It was a horrible habit he did his best to try to break when he had met Inko to varying levels of success.
Before he could continue to spiral down into a pit of self loathing again, his thoughts were interrupted by an incoming call from Izuku. Desperate for the distraction, he picked up the call without any hesitation. "Izuku? Did you need something?"
"Okay this is going to sound weird if you're not but I need you to answer honestly, are you secretly a supervillain?"
Hisashi nearly dropped the phone in surprise. He gave a nervous laugh before he managed to strain out an answer. "Can-can I ask why you would feel the need to ask that?"
He heard a string of colorful language on the other end of the line before Izuku seemed to compose himself enough to talk. "My new friend made a joke about the possibility that I was secretly the son of a top ten Hero and and S+ ranked Villain and I'm sure you can figure out what part of that I realized I couldn't actually prove wasn't true. Does Mom know? Or anyone else in the family?"
Hisashi sighed and rested his head in his free hand. "This is not a conversion we should be having over the phone. Are you somewhere private?"
"Do you think I would really make a phone call like this if I wasn't?"
"Can you send me the exact GPS location you are at from your phone? I am going to send a friend with a warping Quirk to collect you so we can do this in person."
Izuku huffed on his end of the call before hanging up and sending his location data. Coordinates in hand Hisashi activated his microphone. "Kurogiri if you could come here for a moment. I have a small errand for you to run." There was the familiar sound of a Warp Gate as Kurogiri crossed over from the bar to Hisashi's personal lair. Before the Nomu could inquire, Hisashi held up his phone to show the location data. "I need you to open a Gate between here and this location. After Izuku comes through you can go back to what you had been doing. I'll call you when I need you to open the Gate back up so he can return."
Kurogiri took a brief moment to read the numbers before activating his Quirk once more. It didn't take long for Izuku to poke his head through the Gate. "Dad?"
"Over here, Izuku." Hisashi watched his son with his thermal vision turn in his direction and jerk back in shock the rest of the way out of the Gate. The moment he was clear, both the Gate and Kurogiri were gone to give them some privacy.
"Dad what一what happened to you? You're一 You're hurt."
Hisashi sighed and opened his arms in an invitation for a hug that he wasn't sure Izuku would take. Before he could reconsider the offer, he found a head of curls under his as Izuku practically threw himself at his father. "I'm sorry. This was something I was trying to avoid any of you seeing. My past caught up to me shortly after I left on that trip to the States."
He could feel Izuku's tears as they began to soak into his shirt. "Why?"
"Why was I hurt so bad or why did I become a:Villain?" At just a nod from Izuku he sighed and considered where to begin. "I suppose it would probably be best if I start at the beginning…"
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Like in most recountings of the tale by the various holders of One for All, the tale started with two brothers. One with the powerful gift to take and gift Quirks from those who asked and one born small and sickly with a hidden gift of transference. Where the story diverged was in how the more or less blood feud began. The Heroes passed down the story of a monster who killed his own brother when he stood up against him for what he was doing. Hisashi recounted the moment he held his now truly Quirkless brother in his arms as he struggled to regain his breath after he had thrown himself between Hisashi and the man he only knew as the Second. How the man used his shock of the one person he truly cared about dying in his own arms to run off to pass the Quirk on to another.
The Heroes would claim that he hunted each of the holders down one by one to try and forcibly retake the Quirk he had long hunted his brother for. Hisashi explained that outside of the Second who he had chased after in his rage and grief, all his other meetings with holders had been the result of accidentally crossing paths with them. Always seeming to have just missed the Quirk before it had been passed on. How none of the holders seemed to believe him when he told them he truly had no desire to fight them. How they always forced his hand and he killed them in an act of what he considered mercy after the damage they would force him to inflict on themselves to try to get them to stop.
All Might would tell the tale of how the monster known only as All for One toyed with his mentor before ultimately killing her. Hisashi spoke of a woman so desperate to protect the ones she loved from him that his words fell on deaf ears. A battle he had no desire to fight that had seared his appearance into the mind of then future Symbol of Peace. How, years later, their paths happened to cross to both of their surprise.
"I could see the moment he recognized me he planned on turning it into a fight. When I tried to de-escalate the situation, he spouted off how he didn't believe my lies anymore then his master had. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground surrounded by rubble from a battle I had no desire to fight with my skull smashed open on the pavement. If it wasn't for my Quirks, I would have died that day in America without you and the rest of our family even knowing what happened to me. As far as I am aware, All Might thinks I am dead which I hope I can keep that way. The last thing I want is for any of you to get hurt by all of this."
Izuku, who had been listening to the tale in silence, finally spoke up. "So you are a Villain only because a bunch of other people refuse to even consider that you might not be evil incarnate with what your Quirk is? What, do they think you just run around stealing Quirks from people?"
"As far as I am aware, that is likely the case. I have never kept a Quirk that had not been offered to me to keep permanently. The vast majority of my Quirks predate the Quirked outnumbering the Quirkless. I think I would likely only do something like that if I was forced to take a Quirk in a fight to protect one of you."
Izuku momentarily tightened his hug. "People are stupid. So is the guy you called to bring me here a Villain for stupid reasons like that?"
Hisashi paused as if to consider how to answer that. "Kurogiri has been dead in the eyes of the world at large for about 13 years now. I doubt he would really consider himself a Villain given that he largely acts as just a barkeeper and a sort of babysitter for Tomura."
"Tomura?"
"He's, erm, he's sort of your brother. I found him on the streets back when his Quirk manifested violently enough that he ended up killing his family. I didn't want to try to bring him home with me until I was sure that a loss of control like that wouldn't happen to any of you. Then the fight with All Might happened and一"
Izuku cut his father off. "How old is he? What is he like? Can I meet him?"
He watched the mass of scar tissue on his father's face shifted into what amounted to a wince. "He just turned 19 back on the 4th of the month but he doesn't really act like it. He is more interested in playing video games than trying to socialize with other people. I think it would probably be best if I at least warned him about you wanting to meet him before we introduce you two to each other. Besides, I think he might still be asleep right now."
Eying his father a bit suspiciously, Izuku decided to let it slide for now. "I guess that is fair. You can give him my phone number if he wants it."
Hisashi sighed and shook his head. "The best I can do is offer either myself or Kurogiri to act as an intermediary. While Tomura's control is significantly better than it was, he has a bad habit of accidentally disintegrating things so he doesn't keep a cell phone personally despite how much both Kurogiri and I think he should have one."
"I should get back. I was going to meet with Tsukauchi about my new friend back at the restaurant and I still want to finish my shopping."
Hisashi sighed before planting a kiss on the top of Izuku's head before ruffing his hair. "I'll send you Kurogiri's contact information so that you can come back to visit when you are free. Let me just call him so he can open a connection back up. All I ask is that you don't tell anyone about this yet. I would rather wait until either I am well enough to leave here or I can at the very least get Tomura to behave himself long enough to meet everyone."
Izuku nodded as he pulled away from the hug that they had been sharing. "I guess I can wait to tell everyone for now but you better come clean with mom at least before I start at UA next year."
His father sighed and nodded. "That is a fair enough deadline I suppose. If you happen upon any information about a Quirk that could help repair this sort of damage, will you let me know?"
Izuku felt himself freeze at that. "I suppose so. You aren't planning on taking the Quirk for yourself are you?"
Hisashi gave an honest smile at that. "It is fine if you are suspicious, Izuku. I would be worried if you weren't." He shook his head. "To answer the question, no I would rather just ask for the damage to be reversed and leave it at that. I would only forcefully take the Quirk if I thought the owner would take advantage of the situation and try to hurt someone." Izuku felt himself deflate at the answer. He watched as his father turned away to flip on a microphone. "Kurogiri if you would be so kind as to open those Warp Gates again for me."
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
When Izuku stumbled back into the restroom, right where he had left from, he felt extremely conflicted. Taking a moment to recompose himself in the restroom mirror, washing off the mess that had been his eyeliner as best he could, he then unlocked the door and wandered back to the table he had left Shinso at. The detective looked up from the notes he had been taking as Izuku slid into the booth next to him. "Shit kid, what happened? You look like you have been crying."
Izuku sighed and rubbed his face. "That is because I was. Sorry, my Dad and I just had a pretty heavy conversion."
Shinso opened his mouth to ask a question before seeming to think better of it after glancing back at the detective. Tsukauchi looked between the two of them before asking his own question. "Do I want to know what it was about?"
"Probably not." Izuku and Shinso were surprised to find that they had answered in unison. Giving Shinso a smile, Izuku turned his attention back to the detective seated next to him. "I needed to talk with him about why he hasn't come home in a few years. He has a deadline of my first day at UA to figure everything out before I tell my mom everything."
The detective nodded in understanding. "Your mother admitted that she thought that your father was hiding something from her back when you were in surgery."
While he didn't verbally ask the question, Izuku could feel it on the man's tongue. Izuku thought for a moment before deciding that he would probably be fine with leaving out the whole 200+ year old Supervillain thing so long as he was honest about whatever detail he gave. Izuku looked back and forth between the two at the table with him. "You promise not to rat me and my Dad out before the deadline?"
The detective smiled softly at the display of trust. "I think I can manage for that long."
Shinso on the other hand gave Izuku a wild grin before reaching over the table to lightly shove him. "Spill the tea, Greenie."
Izuku smiled at the nickname before frowning as he considered his next words carefully. "So the main reason that he hasn't come home is that he physically can't. At least not right now. He apparently was caught up in an incident over in the States that left him pretty badly injured. He is currently working on finding a way to repair the damage enough that he could come home."
There was a moment of silence at the table as the other two seemed to think over the words. Unfortunately for Izuku, he recognized the moment something seemed to click in the detective's head. Voice shaking, the detective studied Izuku's face as he spoke. "His Quirk isn't just a fire breathing Quirk is it?"
Izuku sighed and rubbed his face. "My Dad is All for One, yes."
The detective made a pained noise as he put his head down on the table and covered his head with his hands. Shinso for his part just looked confused. "All for One?"
Izuku sighed. "Let us just leave it at that you were right about one of my parents actually being an S+ rank Villain."
Shinso's eyes blew wide open at that. "Wait, you're joking right?"
A muffled voice came up from the table. "He's not."
Izuku for as stressed about the truth of who his Dad's identity as the apparent Symbol of Evil was; he was still struggling to reconcile that fact with the man he had grown up knowing. For all the horrible stuff the man had just admitted to him to having done and the many other things he clearly had been avoiding talking about with him, All for One was still very much the man who very clearly loved his family as much as he did. "If it makes you feel better, he claimed that he doesn't actually steal Quirks normally. Most of the ones he has are all from back when people wanted nothing to do with Quirks and were happy to give them away to him."
The detective sighed and picked up his head from the table. "As much as I would not like to admit it, that does actually help. I can't believe I am going to say this but I won't say anything for now. The only reason I know about him as a Villain in the first place is because of All Might and given how the last conversion with the man went, I find myself in the position where it is clear that I can't trust his judgment on things."
Shinso blinked at the detective in surprise. "You're going to just let it go?"
Tsukauchi shook his head before beginning to massage away what was likely a headache. "No but as much as I hate to admit it, I have enough on my plate without worrying about the fact that the Symbol of Evil apparently helped raise one of the best heroes I have ever worked with right now. Or the fact that the former sidekick of the Symbol of Peace added the man to a hero network chat with myself and Nedzu of all people. The two of them are apparently playing remote games of chess in another chat channel now that they have been introduced to each other. I will worry about it more when we finish getting the two of you sorted out."
It was at that moment that the detective graduated in Izuku's mind to the new status of honorary family. "What did I miss here with you guys while I was dealing with my identity crisis anyways?"
Shinso shrugged. "Nothing all that interesting. Just a bunch of questions about my fosters mostly."
The detective seemed to pull himself out of the mental fog he had been trapped in, "Right, speaking of, you are not going back there outside when I help escort you to collect your belongings. I am going to ask a few heroes I know are trustworthy if they have room with them to house you under their emergency foster qualifications for the short term and then they can help me with finding you something more long term. You will also be pulled from school until we can see about either the school replacing the problem staff or we can transfer you somewhere else. All that sound good, kid?"
Shinso blinked at the man in surprise. "I don't get it, everything is fine. I mean yeah the bullies at my school suck but my fosters aren't that bad."
Tsukauchi just sighed. "Kid, while they are leagues better than some of the other places you have told me about, neglect is still a form of abuse. Withholding your meals like that is completely illegal." He turned to Izuku. "Keep him from running off, I am going to make a few calls."
Izuku shifted out of the booth so that the detective could stand up and watched as the man pulled out his phone and stepped outside. Sitting back down, Shinso gave Izuku a curious look. "Do you know who he might be calling?"
"I have a couple guesses but nothing definitive, why?"
"I was wondering if it might be someone in your family since it sounds more and more like you are informally acquainted with a few Pros."
Izuku winced when he realized his uncles had been mentioned in passing as heroes in front of the other boy. "I mean it is possible. I'm not sure about my Uncle Shouta but I know my Uncle Mirai has space since he mentioned having room for me to stay the week while he hosts his UA intern so that the two of us could train together."
"Which hero is he?" Instead of answering, Izuku pulled out his phone and flipped open his gallery to the photo he had taken of Mirai in the hospital to save with his contact information. Flipping his phone round, he watched as Shinso looked at the photo, then back at Izuku, and then back to the photo. "What the hell? How did I not notice this before now? You look just like him, just with freckles instead of glasses."
"How do you think I felt when I realized that while shopping for makeup to hide my freckles for a cosplay I'm doing? I am surprised that the lady that was helping me didn't recognize the connection. It at least explains why Tsukauchi realized who my mom and I were when we first met at least."
Suddenly Shinso started to laugh. "Oh my God, I just realized! Your uncle and dad!"
Izuku laughed as he realized what his new friend was implying. "Yeah, Dad was thrilled when he heard All Might was on Mirai's and my shit-lists. That suddenly makes a whole lot more sense in hindsight."
That earned a questioning look from Shinso. "What did he do to upset the two of you?"
Izuku snorted. "What didn't he do would be more accurate. He failed to ensure I got proper medical attention after he saved me from a Villain attack. He failed to keep the Villain in question contained so the Villain went on to attack my cousin. What he did do was crush the dreams of a distressed and injured Quirkless kid before abandoning me on a rooftop."
That earned a suitably shocked look from the other boy. "Seriously?"
"Seriously." The pair of boys jolted as the detective drew their attention. "Good news, you are being transferred into the custody of a pair of Pro-Heroes. If you're done eating, we can go collect your belongings." He turned to Izuku. "Don't worry about paying, I got the bill while you were on your call."
Izuku smiled embarrassed at that. "That wasn't necessary. I could have covered it."
The detective shook his head. "It's fine. You can pay me back by trying to stop finding more work for me to do until I am at least done with one of your cases."
Izuku laughed at that. "Are you sure you won't take cash?"
The detective groaned in fake annoyance before reaching over and ruffling Izuku's hair. "Just try to stay out of trouble, kid."
Izuku gave a mock salute. "Will do."
Shinso tapped on Izuku's arm from across the table. "Give me your phone for a second so I can give you my number." Happy to comply, Izuku unlocked his phone and handed it over. A few moments later it was shoved back into his hands. "Good to go detective."
The man who had smiled at the exchange gave one last wave of goodbye before leading Shinso away. Alone once more, Izuku picked up his bag of shopped goods and headed back out onto the street once more.