Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Before we begin, I’d like to let you know that we aren’t considering entering any charges against you at this time,” Detective Tsukauchi states. “Your actions were clearly in self defense, even if we haven’t heard the full story yet.”

Yume nods, staring glumly at her lap. She is seated in a reasonably comfortable office chair, one of several surrounding a table in the police station’s conference room.

“Thank you, detective,” says Yume’s mother. “But what actually happened? I was just told my child was at the police station in connection to the death of a villain.”

“We’re still missing most of the picture ourselves. I think it would be best if Yume fills us in on the details. Just start at the beginning, please, in your own words.”

“The beginning…” Yume trails off. She lifts her head, briefly meeting Tsukauchi’s eyes before looking away. “I guess I’ll start with the night I got my quirk. The night I first met All For One.”

Izuku furtively approaches a small, dilapidated office building on the outskirts of Musutafu, checking the building number against a scrap of paper in his palm. His hair is covered by an All Might beanie and a medical mask obscures his face.

Entering the building, he climbs the stairs to the second floor and locates a particular suite. Checking the scrap of paper a final time, he shoves it in a pocket, takes a deep breath, and knocks.

“Come in!” a resonant masculine voice calls from inside. Izuku obeys, opening the door and stepping into a smallish room, unfurnished and undecorated.

A large man sits in an electric wheelchair, wearing an immaculate black suit. His entire head is encased in a bulky black helmet with a skull motif. Scary! This was a bad idea, Izuku thinks to himself. This was a really bad idea.

“Welcome, please have a seat,” the man gestures to a folding chair placed opposite to him. “You are AllMightFan3 from the forum, correct? I am Mephisto. My alias, of course, it’s for the best if our actual names are left out of this.”

“H-hi,” Izuku squeaks meekly. He considers fleeing right back out the way he came, but takes a seat instead.

“Don’t be alarmed by my appearance. I’ll admit that my flair for the dramatic caused my choice of disguise to be a touch intimidating. Since Japan’s government has seen fit to declare actions like mine ‘villainous’, I decided I may as well look the part. But all I want is to give quirks to those without them. Not that quirklessness is a problem in itself, but society can be quite cruel to anyone that deviates from the norm.”

Izuku finds himself relieved by these words. “So, uh… how does this work? Do I need to do anything?”

“It’s quite simple. My quirk allows me to induce a quirk manifestation in others with just a touch.” Mephisto sighs. "I could be helping so many people, but alas, Japan’s laws forbid me from using my quirk without a license, then makes getting such a license effectively impossible. My quirk is too great of a threat to the status quo. So, I do what I can in secret to help those in need.

“For many years now I’ve sought out quirkless people online and contacted them to arrange meetings like this one. I must admit I’m quite impressed that you managed to track me down: I keep a very low profile, so the fact that you were able to uncover my existence and find a way to contact me speaks well of your intellect.”

Izuku blushes and waves his hands. “It’s not like that, I just spent a lot of time online researching if there was any way I could get a quirk. It was mostly pseudoscience, scams, and urban legends, but there were some surprisingly consistent rumors of a person who could give and take quirks. Though I guess the ‘taking’ part isn’t true? Anyway, I found a forum on the dark web with a lot of shady stuff on it, and there was an old thread about meta quirks with your username mentioned in it. I messaged you, but wasn’t actually expecting anything to come out of it.”

“Your perseverance does you credit. Now, are you prepared? The process can be uncomfortable, but not painful.”

Am I really going to go through with this? Izuku considers. …I want to be a hero. I want to stop feeling so useless and helpless all the time. Even with how risky this whole thing is, I want to see it through.

“Not too long ago, someone I really look up to told me I can’t be a hero without a quirk,” Izuku tells Mephisto. “It hurt, but… I think he was right. At first I planned to give up on being a hero, but I honestly don’t think there’s anything else I can be. So, I’ll do it. I’m ready.”

“Then let’s begin.” Mephisto leans forward and places his hand on Izuku’s forehead. After a moment, glowing red lines twist through the air, surrounding the two of them. Izuku’s whole body tingles as the energy enters him. After several seconds, the flow of energy stops and Mephisto removes his hand, leaning back in his wheelchair.

“How do you feel?” Mephisto asks.

Izuku isn’t quite sure. “Strange. There’s… something, but I can’t make sense of it.”

“Give it a moment to settle.”

Izuku waits. A new sensation enters his awareness. I can feel… things? He closes his eyes and focuses. I can sense the locations of certain things around me, but what are they? Concentrating on one of the things nearest to him, he lets a stream of information enter his mind.

battery_level: 73%, motor_1_power: 0v, motor_2_power: 0v, accelerometer_1_state: (0, 0, 0), ...

Opening his eyes, he matches the location of the information with Mephisto’s electric wheelchair. Wait, is that?… He directs his new sense a little upwards, at the source of information contained in Mephisto’s helmet.

oxygen_output_level: 80%, intake_filter_status: normal, intake_air_quality: normal, operation_time_remaining: 4.4 hours, ...

I can sense electronics! That helmet is some kind of oxygen mask, I guess. Directing his attention to the more-distant devices, he senses the building’s thermostat out in the hallway, some office computers a couple rooms over, and an electric car parked on the street outside.

“You seem excited. Have you discovered something?” Mephisto asks.

“My new quirk lets me sense electronics! I can tell where they are around me and read data about them!”

“Intriguing. That would certainly be a useful quirk in day-to-day life. It could even have heroic applications, perhaps.”

“I think so too! I could sense villains or civilians around me if they’re carrying phones, and gather all sorts of data from computers I come across. There’s also the possibility that I could affect electronics in some way, oh I wonder what the range on this is and is it limited to electronics or would it work on anything that uses electricity hmm nope not getting anything from the room’s lights so I guess that’s–”

A soft cough cuts off Izuku’s mutterstorm. "I was going to offer to help you figure out your new quirk, but you already seem to have things under control. I’m sure you’ll be able to do incredible things with it, given time.

“I should be returning to hiding soon, you never know who’s watching. Do you have any questions before we part ways?”

Izuku considers for a moment. “I’m so, so grateful; is there anything I could do to repay you?”

“I offer my services freely, so no payment is required. However… I suppose, since you’re offering, there is something you could do for me.”

“Anything, I owe you so much!”

“In our messages on the forum, you mentioned that you plan on applying for UA, correct? I find myself fascinated by such a prestigious institution. If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, perhaps we could speak from time to time about your experiences? What your classes are like, who your teachers are, upcoming school events, little things like that. Would you be amenable?”

A twinge of unease makes itself known in Izuku’s gut. “That’s… um… hmm. Sorry, but as much as I’d like to say yes, I don’t think that sort of information is something I should share.”

Mephisto voice takes a reproachful tone. “Is that really too much to ask? After everything I’ve done for you? You said you’d do ‘anything’, right?”

Guilt almost compels Izuku to give in, but he manages to find his resolve. “I’m really sorry, but no, that’s not something I’m comfortable doing. Maybe there’s something else I could do?”

Mephisto heaves a long sigh. “I try to do things the nice way, and look where it gets me. Ah well, time to do things the simple way. Kurogiri!”

Dread seeps into Izuku’s core. I guess that’s the other shoe dropping. Time to get out of here! Without a word, Izuku scrambles to his feet, knocking over the folding chair as he sprints to the door and barrels through. He almost makes it to the stairs before being suddenly swallowed by a dark void.

Landing hard on his stomach, he looks up through fading purple mist to once again see Mephisto seated in his wheelchair. At his side is now a person made of the same purple mist, wearing a suit with a strange metal collar. Izuku tries to get back to his feet but the misty person steps closer and places a foot on his back, holding him down.

“Now then,” begins Mephisto. “As you have doubtless realized, my intentions in granting you that quirk are not quite as benevolent as I lead you to believe. I gave it to you for a purpose, and you will fulfil that purpose whether you desire it or not. It would have been so much easier for you had you simply given me what I asked for, ungrateful child, but now you must betray your future classmates and teachers with full awareness of doing so.”

No no no no no no

“First things first – Mephisto is an alias I use when seeking unwitting pawns to do my bidding in exchange for new quirks. Now that you are aware of my true demeanor, you will know me by my true name: All For One, the demon lord who will soon rule this country from the shadows!”

Izuku would roll his eyes at the melodramatics if he wasn’t busy panicking.

“Above you, child, is Kurogiri, one of my most useful servants. He is going to show you exactly what will happen if you dare to defy me. Do not resist.”

Kurogiri reaches down and hauls Izuku to his feet, restraining him with a hand on his shoulder. A purple void swirls into existence in the room. “Be silent once we pass through to the other side,” Kurogiri says in a surprisingly-formal voice. Izuku is too terrified to struggle as Kurogiri pushes him into the portal and follows him through.

Upon emerging at the other side, he takes a moment to get his bearings. The room is dark, but enough moonlight enters through a window to make out details as his eyes adjust. It’s a bedroom. A… familiar bedroom.

Soft breathing is audible from the bed. Izuku’s eyes widen as he recognizes the person sleeping there – his mother. His racing heart picks up speed at the sight. What is Kurogiri planning on doing?

Before he spirals too far into panic, Kurogiri opens another portal and guides him into it. They emerge back into the office space, All For One’s expressionless, masked face turning to regard them.

“As you have seen, my servants can reach you and your mother in an instant, no matter where you are. Disobey me, or fail to carry out my instructions, and your mother’s life is forfeit. Do you understand?”

Speechless with terror, Izuku gives a jerky nod.

"Your orders for the time being: You will pretend to ‘discover’ your new quirk at some point in the next month; I trust you are clever enough to come up with a convincing explanation for its late appearance. Otherwise, continue your normal life and prepare for UA’s heroics exam. You are required to make it into the hero course next year. Failure will not be tolerated.

“And in case you were thinking of calling for help, I’ll give you this special instruction:” All For One reaches out his hand towards Izuku’s face once again. Izuku attempts to back away but Kurogiri holds him in place. All For One places his palm over Izuku’s mouth, leans forward until his face is next to Izuku’s ear, and whispers words that pierce deeply into Izuku’s mind. “Do not communicate anything to anyone regarding me, my associates, my plans, or my orders.”

The hand is withdrawn and Izuku falls to his knees, the whispered words still echoing in his ears.

“Kurogiri.” All For One prompts with his usual voice. Apparently needing no further instructions, Kurogiri opens a portal behind All For One, then walks through. All For One reverses his electric wheelchair, his masked face staring impassively at Izuku.

He halts just before crossing the portal’s threshold. “A parting word: I am generous with those of my servants who please me; carry out my orders well and you and your mother will be granted lives of luxury in my new world. But: Do. Not. Fail.”

All For One backs through the portal, which closes behind him.

Now alone in the abandoned office, Izuku slumps to the floor and weeps.

Chapter Text

If it’s too good to be true, it usually isn’t, Izuku thinks to himself yet again, lying face-down on his bed. I knew that. But I just had to try anyway. And I got what I wanted! All it cost me was my soul!

The past few days had been spent quietly going through the motions. At first he had tried to get help: when his mother asked him why he looked so upset, he broke down and started to explain everything that had happened. But the words wouldn’t come. He made up an excuse instead.

Later that night he had found a website to submit anonymous tips to the local police department. He started to spill the whole story, but his fingers locked up and wouldn’t let him type a word. Increasingly desperate tests revealed that whatever it was that All For One had done, it’d rendered him completely unable to communicate information related to All For One, no matter the method he used.

That was when the utter despair had set in. He resigned himself to his role as an unwilling pawn in All For One’s game, to betray his future classmates and teachers. If his mother’s life were not at stake he would refuse his orders and accept death, but he can’t find it within himself to give up his mother’s life.

I just can’t win. Without a quirk, I was too weak and useless to be a hero. And now that I have one, even if I make it into the hero course and graduate I’ll be a traitor! I just want to help people. Is that too much to ask?

A knock on his bedroom door interrupts his mournful reverie. “Izuku?” his mother calls through the door. Izuku hauls himself off his bed and swings the door open.

“You’ve been cooped up in your room all weekend,” she says. “I know you’re not feeling well, but do you at least want to come watch a movie with me? I have All Might vs Dracula ready to go.”

Izuku wants nothing more than to go back to wallowing in his misery, but the worry on his mother’s face compels him to agree to join her. “Okay, mom. I’ll be out in a bit.”

All Might is a bit of a touchy subject these days. He’s still Izuku’s favorite, of course, but the memories of their meeting insinuate themselves into his thoughts any time the topic of All Might comes up. The number one hero standing on the street, crushing his hopes and dreams before leaping away to turn the slime villain over to the police.

The words “Without a quirk, you cannot hope to be a hero” had hurt to hear at the time, but they were All Might’s words, so they must be correct.

Before long, Izuku and his mother are curled up on the couch, a bowl of popcorn between them. The movie is one of Izuku’s childhood favorites, but one he hasn’t seen in years. As Izuku watches, the actor playing All Might faces impossible odds, grin never fading no matter how low the chance of his victory.

What would it be like to be absolutely fearless? To never give up, to never lose hope even when winning seems impossible?

During a lull in the action, one of the heroes fighting alongside All Might asks much the same question. “There’s too many of them! We’ll never clear a path through Dracula’s thralls and set off the Helsing device in time! Why are you still smiling‽ How are you not shaking in your boots?”

Actor-All Might calmly replies, “I don’t smile because I have no fear. I smile because I know that, no matter what happens, I will always put my all into defeating evil. I smile because I am here, and I will fight.”

…Wow, this movie is way campier than I remember. But maybe there’s something to that. Have I given my all into getting out of this mess? Or did I just give up and mope?

Izuku continues to consider, no longer paying much attention to the screen.

When he reenters his room after the movie, it’s with a wide, shaky grin on his face.

Izuku figures that his new quirk is his best bet for finding some way to fight back against All For One. He’s ignored it as much as he could up to this point, so he has no idea of its full capabilities yet. He finds a blank notebook, labels it “Personal Quirk Analysis #1”, and gets to work.

After a few dozen pages of theories, tests, and observations, Izuku writes a summary of what he’s learned so far.

Quirk Name:

Electronics Sensing
Remote Control
I’m In
Interface

Overview:

Interface allows the user to sense and interact with nearby electronic devices. The user’s control over devices in range is near absolute: all data in memory or storage can be read or written at will. When connected, Interface presents the device’s functionality to the user in an intuitive way.

Interface has its own digital storage space into which the user can store data. The user can access and manipulate data in this storage at any time, and transfer data between it and any device in range.

The user can access information in the storage space nearly as effortlessly as their own memory. For example, if the user downloaded a history textbook into Interface’s storage, they would be able to recall information from that textbook as if they had memorized it cover-to-cover. However, the user wouldn’t immediately develop the skills associated with that knowledge – memorizing a history textbook wouldn’t instantly make one a qualified historian – so the user would need to learn how to properly apply the knowledge they gained.

The storage space contains a database that is automatically filled with basic information about every device that Interface encounters, including the time and location of the encounter and any identifying information connected to the device, such as serial numbers.

Stats:

• Range: 30 meters, approximate
  • Unclear if range can grow with practice
• Number of simultaneous connections: 2
  • Connecting to multiple devices at the same time requires the user to split their focus
  • For an inexperienced user, two devices at once is challenging but manageable. Attempting more than that causes the user to drop connections as they lose focus
  • Practice will likely enable the user to increase this limit
• Data transfer speed: apparently instant
  • Multiple ~25 GB video files can be copied across devices with no perceptible delay
  • Appears to directly manipulate storage devices instead of accessing normally?
• Storage space size: at least 1 TB, possibly much larger

Summary:

Interface is a “hacking” type quirk that is considerably more powerful and versatile than others of its type that are documented online. No data within its range is safe unless encrypted, and even encrypted data is vulnerable if the decryption key is present anywhere within the device’s memory.

Interface has high potential for investigations and espionage. Its combat potential is much lesser, but could still be formidable combined with support equipment.

It’s not the sort of quirk I dreamed of having as a kid, but it’s just the thing I need for my current predicament. My best path forward is to get as much information as I can about All For One, then try to find a way to escape his grasp or take him down.

What I need now is a lead. The only contact info I ever had for “Mephisto” was on that dark web forum, and even with Interface there’s not a whole lot I could do to track him down using that. And the office building I met him in was a bust, the suite he used has been up for lease for months so he must’ve just broken in rather than renting it.

That leaves me with absolutely nothing to go on, unless…

Izuku turns his attention inward, to the device database included in his quirk. Even in the short time since he received Interface, it’s already recorded encounters with thousands of different phones, laptops, and countless other electronics that have entered his range at some point. Despite the quite large amount of data, Izuku finds it trivial to narrow down on the devices that were logged shortly after the quirk was bestowed upon him.

There’s All For One’s electric wheelchair, his creepy life support helmet, random other electronics in the office… and a couple minutes later, a phone! The location data puts it in the same room as All For One. I didn’t have my phone with me, and All For One didn’t seem to have one, so it must be Kurogiri’s!

I’ve got his phone number! That should be all I need to track him down, right?

Izuku thinks for a moment.

…I have no idea how track someone with their phone number. And wouldn’t a criminal use a burner phone? What even is a burner phone?

With a sigh, Izuku grabs his laptop, turns it on, connects to it with his quirk, and starts to research.

Chapter Text

Izuku’s heart pounds as he turns the corner and his quarry comes into view.

Alltel is one of Japan’s largest telecommunications companies, providing cellular service to millions of occasionally-satisfied customers. The gleaming glass-and-steel facade of their Musutafu branch office proudly advertizes their newest gadgets and gizmos, available at low, low up-front prices, with the mandatory monthly subscriptions printed rather smaller.

Izuku continues his approach to the building, but then slips into the alley beside it rather than entering the busy lobby.

As it turns out, tracking someone down using only their phone number can be quite difficult. Sometimes one can get lucky, if someone carelessly makes their number public on social media, or has their personal info vacuumed up by a data brokerage company.

Unfortunately, despite Izuku’s full week of searching, it seems Kurogiri is savvy enough to leave no trace on the internet. To make matters worse, his phone number is no longer in service, meaning he almost certainly used a burner phone.

The alley leads Izuku to the back of Alltel’s branch office. There, the building’s loading dock is guarded only by a lone security camera. He connects to it with Interface and loops the last several seconds of footage, then walks along the back wall of the building.

I’m picking up a bunch of office computers, but no servers so far. He passes the loading dock, trying to split his attention between keeping an eye out for Alltel employees and using his quirk. There.

On the other side of the wall, he senses a room full of servers and networking equipment. Taking a final look around to ensure he’s alone, he leans against the wall, closes his eyes, and focuses.

He mentally sorts through each of the dozens of servers in the room. Web server, ERP server, NAS, random-application-from-two-decades-ago server, database server! But wrong database, oops. Even at Interface’s near-instant speeds, it takes several minutes to find the database he’s looking for.

Customer records! Here we go. Izuku queries the customer database against Kurogiri’s phone number. Damn, it’s a prepaid SIM card, so no personal details. But it looks like it was sold as just the SIM instead of with a phone included, so maybe… He checks his quirk’s logs and then queries the customer database against Kurogiri’s IMEI, a number that uniquely identifies a phone even when the SIM or phone number changes. Yes! He’s careful, but not careful enough. He swaps out prepaid SIM cards regularly, but puts them in the same phone.

The records for Kurogiri’s phone stretch back nearly two years. There are no calls or text messages logged on any of his SIMs, but each SIM had a generous data plan. He probably just uses secure apps to communicate. Smart. Exact location data isn’t included in the records, but there are extensive logs of all the cell towers his phone ever connected to. That’s a worrying amount of information for one company to have, now that I think about it.

Izuku loads all of Kurogiri’s data into Interface’s internal storage for analysis. Sorting the cell tower records by amount of time connected reveals that Kurogiri spends most of his time somewhere in a run-down part of Tokyo’s Kamino ward. After poking at the data bit longer, Izuku is able to narrow the possible location down to a couple square kilometers.

Success! Time to get out of here, though, wouldn’t want to get caught trespassing.

“Izuku! Package for you!” Izuku’s mother announces. Izuku exits his room to accept the package.

“More hero merch?” Inko asks.

“Y-yep!” Izuku answers, trying and failing act nonchalant.

His mother gives him a suspicious look, but hands over the box without further comment.

“Thanks!” he says before heading back to his room, closing the door behind himself before opening the package. After reviewing the contents, he stashes the box deep in his closet to await the weekend.

A few days later, the time has come. Izuku’s homework is finished and his mother will be out of the apartment for the rest of the day. He retrieves the package from his closet and sets it on his bed, then starts to sort through the items within.

His goal for the day is to pinpoint Kurogiri’s exact location within the search area he found from the phone company’s records. His new quirk means that as long as Kurogiri (or more specifically, Kurogiri’s phone) is present, he’ll be able to locate it just by walking past it on the street.

Given that All For One placed the gag order preventing Izuku from telling anyone about his predicament, Izuku assumes he’s not being monitored too closely. No sense wasting the effort to watch him if he can’t snitch on All For One’s plans. So there shouldn’t be too much risk of his unexpected trip to Kamino being noticed.

However, Kurogiri is doubtlessly familiar with Izuku’s appearance. A chance meeting with him (or another of All For One’s agents) in Kamino would be extremely dangerous. Izuku’s first thought was to disguise himself with the beanie-and-mask combo that he used when meeting “Mephisto”, but Kurogiri has already seen him in that, and it’s not a terribly good disguise in the first place.

Further consideration resulted in him ordering the items contained in the package. Once he’s put them on, he’d be able to walk right past All For One himself without being recognized.

It takes him nearly an hour to fully don the disguise. He stands in front of a full-length mirror to inspect his handiwork.

Curly green hair has been wrestled inside a hair net and then covered by a straight black shoulder-length wig. Freckles have vanished underneath a layer of foundation, and mascara and eyeliner highlight the eyes. Instead of a habitual joke t-shirt, a blouse worn over padding that gives the suggestion of curves. Finally, a knee-length skirt over leggings completes the outfit. (The red sneakers don’t quite match, but Izuku forgot to order shoes so they’ll have to do.)

A giggle chuckle slips from Izuku’s lips as he twirls in front of the mirror, skirt billowing out around his legs. I look so cute! he thinks to himself.

What name should I use? For the disguise, I mean. I can’t exactly introduce myself as “Izuku” looking like this. He ponders for a moment. Mom said she planned to name me “Izuku” if I was a boy and “Yume” if I was a girl, right? Yume. I like it!

Yume continues to examine her new appearance in the mirror. She’s feeling almost blissful, despite the nerve-wracking mission she has planned for the day. She finds herself taking few selfies. Just to remember what my disguise looks like. It’s not like I’ll be wearing this once I’m done finding intel.

After a few more minutes enjoying her new look, she finishes her preparations. She places the final component of her disguise into her new purse.

Alright! Time to find an evil lair!

Yume’s search area is in a moderately run-down part of Kamino. Not abandoned or derelict enough to feel unsafe, but there are more shuttered storefronts along the streets than occupied ones, and only the occasional pedestrian on the sidewalks. The few surviving businesses seem to be mostly dive bars, pawn shops, and tattoo parlors.

Yume walks a route taking her within quirk range of each building in the search area, scanning the devices present in an attempt to find Kurogiri’s phone. It’s strangely fun being out like this. When she stops at a fast-food place for lunch she feels unexpectedly flustered and ecstatic after the cashier calls her “Miss.”

She manages to cover about half the area on her first day, but her search doesn’t bear fruit. She manages to make it back home and change into regular clothes before her mom returns.

Donning her disguise the next day is just as exciting as the first time. Upon arriving in Kamino, she walks the remainder of her route. As she nears the end of her search, she starts to worry she may have passed the lair at a time when Kurogiri wasn’t present, meaning she’d have to walk the whole route again. But on the next-to-last street, she passes an uninviting basement doorway and finally gets a ping matching her quarry.

It’s his phone! She makes a note of the location. There’s unfortunately no shops or restaurants nearby, so she’ll have to conduct her reconnaissance from the sidewalk. She finds a spot in range of her target and then leans against the side of the building, trying to look casual.

There are surprisingly few devices in Kurogiri’s immediate vicinity. The only ones of note are Kurogiri’s phone itself and a small internet-connected screen with a built-in camera. She connects to the latter and takes a look.

The wide-angle lens shows a surprisingly well-kept bar. Kurogiri stands behind the counter, motionless except for the flickering vapor that comprises his body. He’s just staring at the wall. Creepy.

The screen seems to be mounted to the wall at one end of the bar. It’s currently dormant, waiting for an outside connection. Yume checks if there’s any trace of past connections, but it doesn’t seem to store those. Weird. Wonder what it’s for?

Kurogiri’s phone is somewhat more interesting. She takes a moment to make a copy of the phone’s memory with her quirk, doing the same with the screen to be thorough.

As she had suspected, Kurogiri uses apps with end-to-end encryption for all communications, forgoing normal calls and texts entirely. Other than the messaging app, his phone is entirely impersonal: it uses the default wallpaper and theme, has no stored pictures or other media, has a completely barren browser history, and has no apps besides the messenger and the ones that come preinstalled.

Does Kurogiri has a different phone for personal stuff? Or does he just live like this? She watches him continue to stand stock-still in the empty bar. Still creepy. Maybe All For One did something to him…

Yume’s quirk is able to nab the messaging app’s decryption key from the phone’s security chip, so she checks that next. It seems to be set up to automatically wipe messages after a day, so there’s not much to see. There’s a message from “Sensei” instructing Kurogiri to ensure “Tomura” keeps up with his training, and a message from “Tomura Shigaraki” stating that he had finished buying a new game controller and was on his way back.

Tomura Shigaraki? Who’s that? Maybe it’s All For One’s real name, or it could be-

“You lost, kid?”

Yume startles at the unexpected voice. Dammit, I got distracted and forgot to keep an eye out!

A man stands in front of her, appearing in his late teens or early twenties, with blue hair, pale skin, and inflamed scratches all along his throat. He looks down at her with a scowl.

“U-um, I’m just,” she stutters.

“Spit it out, girl. This isn’t the sort of place you just hang around, so you better have a good reason to be here.” He moves closer, close enough to grab her if she tries to run.

Come on, you planned for this! Yume takes a deep breath and begins to recite her cover story, her hands opening her purse to grab the final component of her disguise.

“Have you heard the good news?” she asks.

“What are you talking-” he starts.

“The good news about Jesus!” Yume interrupts, trying to put as much cheer and confidence into her voice as she can manage. “He died for our sins so we can go to Heaven with God when we die.”

She finishes pulling a tiny booklet from her purse and offers it to the man. “Here, have some informational literature that’ll explain why you should dedicate your life to Jesus! My church would just love to-”

The man grabs the booklet with a derisive sneer, holding it up and inspecting it for a moment before changing his grip so all five fingers touch it. It rapidly dissolves into dust.

Oh shit that’s a dangerous quirk.

“Fuck off, kid. This isn’t the place to peddle your bullshit.” The man backs away, and Yume doesn’t hesitate to book it down the street at top speed.

She doesn’t stop running until she reaches the nearest train station.

Chapter Text

Yume makes it back home later than she intended, but she should be early enough to avoid her mom. She gets a much-needed glass of water from the kitchen before heading towards her room to change.

When she turns around from the sink, her mother is right behind her.

“Eeek!” she squeaks and fumbles her glass. Inko catches it with her quirk before it can hit the floor.

“Oops! Sorry for startling you, sweetie,” Inko says.

“H- hi Mom.” Yume’s at a loss for words. What do you say when your mom catches you in girl clothes out of nowhere?

“You look so cute like this! But, um… is there anything we need to talk about?”

“I’m just, um, figuring things out, I guess.”

“That’s fine, sweetie, just know that I’ll support you no matter what, okay?”

“Could you… call me ‘Yume’ when I’m like this?”

Inko tears up. “Of course, Yume.” She leans over and kisses Yume’s forehead, wrapping her in a hug.

Many tears were shed that evening, but happy ones.

The next day, Yume really doesn’t want to risk another encounter with that man with the disintegration quirk. Instead of making another trip to Kamino, she checks over the data she’d gathered.

Kurogiri’s phone turns out to be a dead end, as the contacts for “Sensei” and “Tomura” aren’t traceable through any means at her disposal. The screen-and-camera combo device turns out to be a much stronger lead; Yume is able to find its IP address and password from the copy of its memory she took the day before. (The password is the factory default of “admin”. For an ultra-secret high-powered criminal enterprise, their cybersecurity could be better.)

With the IP and password, Yume is easily able to connect to the device over the internet. The camera shows Kurogiri still at the bar, this time methodically polishing a glass. On the other side of the counter is the man from yesterday, playing a handheld game console. I guess he’s connected to all this somehow? But without being in quirk range I can’t take a look at his phone or anything.

As yet, there’s no sign of All For One in the villains’ lair. Maybe his main base is somewhere else. The bar seems too small for someone with ambitions of taking over the whole country.

Yume uses the limited hacking skills she’s picked up over the last few days to set up the screen to keep a log of all outside connections. She leaves the camera feed open on her laptop while she does her homework, tuning out the sound effects from the man’s game console as she works.

Some time later, her laptop beeps to signify that the screen received a new connection. Pushing her homework aside, Yume checks her logs and finds the connection’s IP address. Before she can investigate it, a voice comes through her laptop speakers that chills her to the bone.

“Hello Tomura,” says All For One. “How is your training proceeding?”

“Just fine, Sensei.” The man, now positively identified as Tomura, replies without looking up from his game.

“I regret to inform you that Tomura Shigaraki has decayed another of his combat instructors,” Kurogiri says.

“Now, now, Tomura, we talked about this. Proper teachers are hard to come by, and we need to make sure you are ready when the time comes.”

Yume shakes off her stupor at hearing All For One’s voice again. She listens in on the rest of the conversation, but learns little of note besides the fact that Tomura is a petulant man-child and that there are some unspecified future plans they are preparing for.

When she looks up All For One’s IP address, she expects to find it belongs to a VPN provider or an anonymous relay node. Instead, it appears to originate from somewhere inside Kamino’s industrial region. Did he just connect to it directly, without doing anything to anonymize the traffic?

An IP-scanning tool doesn’t pick up anything noteworthy from the address, and Yume isn’t able to narrow down its exact location. Guess it’s time for another heist.

It isn’t strictly necessary for Yume to wear her disguise on her next mission, but she does it anyway.

In a chain coffee shop in Kamino, she slowly sips her drink while mentally sorting through data pilfered from the internet company’s servers, one floor above her. It doesn’t take her long to pull up the customer records for the IP address All For One had used.

The records list “Death Star Holdings LLC” as the internet customer, with a service address for a warehouse in Kamino. I think this is it! All For One definitely seems conceited enough to register his base of operations under that name. Oh gods, his life support helmet thing was even shaped a bit like Darth Vader.

Yume loses just a smidgen of fear of All For One upon realizing how big of a dork he is.

A few days later, Yume Midoriya leaves home on her final mission. If things go well, she’ll be free from All For One’s clutches by the end of the day.

She’s tense and on edge the whole train journey to Kamino. Her plan is simple, almost foolproof, but she terrified of the consequences if she fails. With her mother’s life at stake, she’s tempted to turn back, to comply with All For One’s demands and become a spy at UA. But given just how much top-secret data her quirk could slurp up from heroes’ devices, how many lives she could put in harm’s way, she knows she can’t let that happen.

The walk to the warehouse is long. Yume doesn’t let her guard down, watching for Kurogiri’s mist, Tomura’s blue hair, or All For One’s helmet.

Finally, she arrives. A wall surrounds the warehouse compound, the gate closed and presumably locked tight. Yume enters the narrow gap between the wall and the building next door. After ensuring she’s alone, she focuses on her quirk, doing her best to stay aware of her surroundings at the same time.

An entire forest of electronics is arrayed throughout the warehouse, far more than she expected. Many seem lined up in rows in the main warehouse building. She examines one of those devices further: it’s some kind of chemical processing system, but with sensors for measuring things like heart rate and brain activity. Most of these devices seem to be inactive, but several of them are recording health data and making tiny adjustments to various chemical levels in response.

What the hell is going on in there?

Yume finds a security camera positioned to overlook the main room of the warehouse. Connecting to it, she gasps at what she sees. Row after row with tanks of strange greenish liquid, most mercifully empty. The contents of the occupied ones turn her stomach.

Either All For One is rounding up people with the strangest mutation quirks I’ve ever seen, or he’s creating abominations of mad science. Either way, this is bad news.

Continuing to catalog the electronics she can sense in the lair, a cluster of devices below ground draw her attention. An expensive, powerful desktop computer is running and active, but it has no monitor connected. Near it, there’s a collection of medical devices: a heart monitor, an IV pump, and a ventilator. All seem to be in active use.

That’s him. It’s got to be. He’s here.

Yume takes a deep breath, and then another.

When planning for this mission, it took some time for her to decide what to do once she tracked down All For One. The villain had somehow rendered her completely unable to communicate to anyone what she knew about him, so even if she knew exactly where he was there wouldn’t be any way she could tell the heroes. Despite many attempts, Yume could find no way to defeat the gag order placed on her.

Fortunately, she was able to come up with a workaround.

She opened her purse and dug out an item she had purchased the day before: a cheap old flip phone, with no SIM card and thus no cell service. She flips it open and powers it on.

Once it starts up, she dials 119. Even without service, emergency calls would go through.

“119, what is your emergency?” says a voice on the other end of the line.

Yume speaks with a panicked voice that’s only slightly faked. “Uh, umm, I think I just saw a villain grab someone and drag them into a warehouse. It looked like it was that one really strong villain, Muscular, the one that escaped from prison a few months ago. Please, send heroes!” She rattles off the warehouse’s address and waits for a reply.

“Hmm. Very impressive. Foolhardy, but still quite remarkable.”

All For One’s voice booms from the phone’s speaker.

No. No no no!

Yume drops the phone and takes off running. She only makes it a few steps before bile rises in her throat. As she falls to her knees while choking and retching, sludge oozes out of her mouth and slowly creeps across her skin, soon covering all of her.

After a moment of disorientation, the sludge dissipates into vapor. Yume coughs a few times more, then catches her breath and takes a look around.

She’s now in a small, sparse room. Next to her is a hospital bed. In that bed rests a man wearing an crisp, pristine suit, and an oxygen mask on his face. All facial features above his mouth are covered in a mess of scar tissue.

Despite the lack of eyes, the man’s face turns in her direction and gives a wide, genteel smile.

“Ah, Midoriya. How kind of you to drop by.”

Chapter Text

Of all the ways tonight’s mission might’ve gone wrong, Yume can’t think of any that would be worse than her current reality. She had stood up against All For One, and now she trembles at his bedside, waiting for him to speak.

Mom, I’m so sorry.

“I will admit, I’m quite impressed.” All For One’s voice sounds almost congenial. “Here I was thinking you were an only moderately intelligent young man, smart enough to get into UA but not so smart as to cause me any trouble. But here you are, in my primary base of operations, with a plan that’s sure to call down a number of top heroes on my head. If I didn’t happen to have kept a copy of the same quirk I gave you, or if you had left my range before making the call, I might not have even noticed until the heroes came.”

Medical machines in the room provide an aural backdrop to All For One’s monologue. The heart monitor quietly beeps a steady rhythm, while the ventilator pumps air into and out of the villain’s lungs.

"I see it now, I was wrong to use you as a mere pawn. You’re more than that, aren’t you? Even I’m not sure how you managed to find this place on your own. I can use someone like you. I have my successor, a perfect vessel of hatred and destruction, and Kurogiri, my most useful and dutiful servant. But someone clever, resourceful, and unremarkable would make a perfect infiltrator. You could walk right into government buildings or hero agencies and extract whatever info I need, or delete incriminating data in their possession, or simply slip a blade into an inconvenient person’s ribs.

“What do you say? Join me, not as a mere patsy, but as an agent of my will. I’m even willing to overlook tonight’s transgressions. Serve me well and I will give you the power to shape my new world. If you want to help the quirkless? I can give them quirks, or destroy anyone prejudiced against them. Do you desire the power and fame of a hero? I can make you stronger than All Might, and make the people of Japan worship you even more than they do him.”

Yume’s first thought is an outright refusal of the offer, but that seems a bad idea given her current situation. “W-what would I have to do? I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“An unfortunate weakness of yours, but I suppose I can work around it. I have other tools for when I need to enact violence, so I’ll reserve you for tasks that don’t require it.”

I need a way out of this situation! Think! What resources do I have?

“But whatever jobs you send me on will end up hurting people in the long run, right?”

“Well, yes, but you needn’t concern yourself with that if you don’t want. You can hardly be blamed for anything if you not informed about the consequences of your actions.”

The desktop computer next to All For One’s bed is now powered off, probably to prevent Yume from using it to call for help. She can’t sense any other devices with connections to the outside world, either.

“I’d still be hurting people. I can’t do that. I won’t.”

The only nearby devices are medical in nature. Yume’s quirk presents her with data from the ventilator.

blood_oxygen_level: 87%, oxygen_supply_status: normal, oxygen_output_level: 80%, ...

“Then I’m afraid your mother’s body will be acquired for Dr. Garaki’s laboratory. You’re too valuable a resource to waste, though I fear ridding you of that pesky moral compass will dull your intellect somewhat.”

“Wait! Don’t hurt my mother. I’ll do it.”

Normal air has an oxygen level of around 21%. If he’s breathing an oxygen level of 80%, his lungs must be really messed up.

The ventilator is designed to keep its patient’s blood oxygen level in a healthy range, and to sound an alarm if the level falls too low. Disabling that alarm is the work of a moment.

“Will you? I can tell when you lie, and that didn’t sound very sincere to me.”

“I d-don’t want to. I can’t promise full cooperation. But I promise to do whatever it takes to keep my mother safe.”

oxygen_output_level: 80%

She really would. She’d do anything.

oxygen_output_level: 0%

“That will do, I suppose. A mother’s love is all it takes to betray your conscience? I don’t understand how some people put so much value on something so insubstantial.”

Trying to keep any trace of her feelings off her face, Yume keeps close track of a particular data point.

blood_oxygen_level: 89%

“Now then. Your first task will be training. You have a natural gift for intelligence work, but you need proper instruction to make sure you don’t make another blunder like you made tonight.”

With the oxygen supply forcibly shut off, All For One only receives the oxygen level present in the room’s air. For a person with healthy lungs, this would be just fine. But for someone whose lungs work at only a fraction of their intended capacity, it’s a problem.

blood_oxygen_level: 71%

“We’ll need to get you some gear as well. an associate of mine… associate will… I…”

A funny thing about the human respiratory system is that it doesn’t have a way to sense how much oxygen it’s getting. It can detect when there’s too much carbon dioxide in the blood, which is what causes the sensation of not getting enough air when one can’t breathe.

blood_oxygen_level: 60%

All For One falls limp onto his bed. Beeps from his heart monitor become further and further apart. His lips and the tips of his fingers take on a bluish hue. Yume watches in quiet horror.

As long as one can breathe out CO2, there’s no way to tell that one’s lungs aren’t getting enough oxygen. One simply becomes a little dizzy, then unconscious, and then…

blood_oxygen_level: (error: below minimum detectable)

Yume silences the heart monitor before it can announce that All For One’s heart is no longer beating.

After wiping her eyes with a tissue, Inko resumes clinging to her daughter. “Oh, baby, you went through so much!”

Yume, recounting the story to Detective Tsukauchi, had run out of tears some time earlier.

“O-once I was sure he was dead, I tried and found out I was able to speak about him. I guess the q-quirk that he used on me only lasted while he was alive. I turned on his computer and managed to use it to call 119, and then just waited for the police and heroes to show up.”

“Thank you for sharing,” Tsukauchi says. “That must’ve been very hard to go through.”

“I still can’t believe I killed someone. I don’t- I don’t regret it, I couldn’t let him hurt Mom, but still. I wanted to be a hero to save lives, not take them.”

“That’s a great attitude to have, but even the best heroes sometimes have to make the choice between the life of a villain and the life of an innocent. For whatever it’s worth, I think you made the right choice.” Leaning forward, Tsukauchi presses the button to turn off the audio recorder on the conference room table. “But off the record: All For One wasn’t quite as dead as he appeared.”

“What‽” Yume and Inko exclaim in unison.

"We took his body to a secure facility for examination. He’s known as an extremely dangerous and powerful villain, so we took every precaution. We verified that he had no pulse and no brain activity, but then things got weird. Even several hours after his death, all his bodily tissues remained in perfect condition. No cell death. It’s like he’s in stasis. We’re pretty sure he could be revived and come back to life with no ill effects.

“It seems he had backup plans in case of his apparent death, too. Kurogiri showed up in the middle of the exam and tried to warp away All For One’s body. He’d have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for a hero with a quirk-nullifying quirk that we had on hand just in case. We’ve taken him into custody, but are still trying to track down Tomura Shigaraki and the ‘Dr. Garaki’ that All For One mentioned.”

“Huh. I’m glad that I didn’t completely kill him. But what if he comes back to life and escapes?”

“Don’t worry too much. We’ve had plans in place in event of his capture. His body is in the lowest level of Tartarus now, under heavy guard 24/7.”

Inko and Yume share a sigh of relief.

“Well, that’s all for this interview,” says Detective Tsukauchi. “Feel free to take a few minutes to decompress, that must’ve been difficult to talk about. When you’re ready, Officer Sansa at the front desk will arrange a ride home for you.”

With this, Tsukauchi leaves the conference room, softly shutting the door behind him. Mother and daughter sit in silence for a time, thinking.

Inko speaks. "Sweetie… I’m so sorry I never supported you like you needed. I was just another person in your life telling you that you needed a quirk to be able to help others. But seeing what you went through these past few weeks, how hard you worked and how much you risked, it’s shown me something that I should’ve realized all along. You’re already a hero, sweetie. Not because you have a quirk now, but because when you see someone hurting or in danger, you can’t help but try to save them.

“I’ll be scared for you, but I guess I always would be anyway. I know you’ll make a great pro hero, Yume.”

Crying once again, Yume launches herself into her mother’s arms.

Chapter Text

Toshinori Yagi sits hunched over in his armchair, head buried in his hands.

After a few silent minutes, he picks up his phone from the coffee table, finds a particular contact, and dials.

“Hey. Finished listening to the interview recording?” Tsukauchi says upon picking up.

“I did,” replies Yagi.

“Your thoughts?”

“I…” Yagi sighs deeply. "Well, let’s see. I crushed a teenager’s dreams, which drove her directly into the clutches of my nemesis, who I didn’t even know was still alive. Then, despite threats to both her mother’s and her own life, she shows cunning, resourcefulness, and bravery beyond that of a fair number of Pros, and manages to track down the most fearsome villain the world has ever known. And then, while standing alone right in front of him, with no training and a non-combat quirk, she manages to take him down.

“I’ve been a top hero for decades, for gods’ sake. How did I manage to mess this up so badly? What am I even supposed to do now?”

“For starters, you should apologize. From the interview it sounded like she’s internalized what you told her. If she goes into heroics thinking her only worth is in the quirk that a villain gave her, she’s going to develop some serious self-esteem issues.”

“You’re right. I’ll do that. Maybe a letter, I’m not sure she’d want me showing up out of nowhere after everything.”

“Your call. It sounds like she’s still an All Might fan, so she can’t be too upset with you.”

“That almost makes it worse. She ought to be angry with me after what I said! I’m certainly angry with myself.”

“Don’t beat yourself up so much, Toshi. You said something stupid while in serious pain from pushing past your limits. Everyone says things they don’t really mean, or didn’t think through all the way. Just write that letter, and maybe include some of your merch too. I saw the kid’s room while we were checking their apartment for bugs, it’s practically an All Might shrine.”

Yagi laughs. “I’ll be sure to do that then. Thanks for everything, Naomasa.”

In a high-security server room in the bowels of the Hero Public Safety Commission, an email zips from sender to recipient.

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]

I have a new high-priority target for requirement into the special operations branch. The target has a currently-unregistered hacking quirk of unparalleled capabilities (see attachment for details.) Due to the threat such a quirk poses, the target must be brought under our control.

The target appears to have heroic aspirations, so start with our standard recruitment methods. But if that fails, you are authorized to use more unconventional means to enroll the target in our training program.

This recruitment has a deadline of the beginning of the next scholastic year. The target is likely to apply to UA, and if they end up under Nezu’s paw, gods help us.

Sayaka Kinoshita
President
Hero Public Safety Commission

IMPORTANT WARNING: This email (and any attachments) is only intended for the use of the person or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. You, the recipient, are obligated to maintain it in a safe, secure and confidential manner. Unauthorized redisclosure or failure to maintain confidentiality may subject you to criminal or civil penalties. If you are not the recipient, please immediately notify us by return email, and delete this message from your computer.

In his office, Nezu finishes reading a particular case file. He does not, strictly speaking, have legal access to this file, but he’s never concerned himself with such trivialities. Leaning back in his chair, he sips his tea and considers the possibilities.