Eijiro was starting to suspect that he was getting punked. He let out another huff of exertion as he dragged another bag of trash up the stairs of Dagobah Beach. The Monday morning following the end of HeroCon, he had met up with the tall thin assistant of All Might here to start training. Now, nearly a week in, and all he had done was hauling trash in addition to his normal workout. Sure, it was a good thing to do for the local community and all to clean up the beach, but the number of times he had seen someone toss more trash down onto the beach while he was cleaning was making this act of good samaritanism seem like a futile gesture. It didn't help that he could only really work very early and very late in the day due to the summer heat either.
It had long become dark at this point but with how late he had started back up this afternoon, he wanted to keep going for a bit longer. It mostly wasn't hard work given his existing strength from his own prior training but it was already becoming a bit of a soul crushing task. If Yagi hadn't told him that he would be getting a chance to talk with All Might when they next met up for the man to check in on his progress then he would have likely stopped already.
He was just about to head back down the stairs when a soft thump hit the ground behind him. Freezing, he slowly turned to see another figure now circling the back of the truck he had been transferring the trash into. A figure about his own height with a long hooded coat and golden horned circlet. "Oh hey Loki!"
Loki turned to face him, mask hiding his full expression but Eijiro thought his eyes showed a smile. "Hey, Kirishima! How is the clean up going?"
This was another reason he was still cleaning this late. A few days prior when he had stayed out working on cleaning late, the vigilante had spotted him and dropped in to investigate. He had been really interested when Yagi's name had come up but refused to say why since he didn't want to give Eijiro any "spoilers" as to why.
Still Eijiro had liked the vigilante and his work even before his existence had basically become National news. So he offered the other boy a grin and a shrug. "It's going at least. I have a small clean spot closer to the water now and one of the piles is nearly gone."
The vigilante bobbed his head and hopped up onto the low wall separating the street level from the drop off to the beach before sitting down. "That's great! You're cleaning it much faster than I would have at any rate. As my brother would say, I am a Dex build not Strength."
That little tidbit of info was enough of a lure to draw Eijiro back over to sit with the other boy. As a masked vigilante, most of his personal information was still not public knowledge. "You have a brother?"
"One legal one anyways. Or well one and a half maybe? My youngest uncle was raised mostly by my parents so I guess he might count…?" The boy trailed off into a mumblestorm. This happened with the vigilante a lot so Eijiro leaned back to swing his legs out to stretch them as he sat and waited for the vigilante's thoughts to run their course.
Before he could finish though, another light thump sound behind them and Eijiro found himself looking at the Underground hero that had sat in on Present Mic's live broadcast. Eraserhead gave Eijiro himself a puzzled look before wandering close enough to tap the mumbling vigilante on the head. "Problem Child, is this why you have been running late the past few nights?"
The boy cut himself off and turned to blink up at the hero. "Oh hey Eraser! Weird question but do you see Dad more as your Dad or brother-in-law?"
Oh, that explained why the hero and vigilante had seemed so casual with one another on the broadcast. The Hero gave Loki a small glare at the question though. "Problem Child, you realize we aren't here alone right now right?"
Loki shrugged. "I mean, he is going to be in 1-A next year so I don't really see how it really matters."
As Eijiro mentally reeled at the certainty in which the vigilante stated he would be attending UA the hero gave the vigilante a questioning look. "Explain."
"Yagi is training him." While Eijiro half expected the hero to want a better explanation than that, evidently that was enough for Eraserhead since he seemed to study Eijiro in a new light at that.
"You mention this to your father yet?"
"Just that Yagi found someone, not who it is."
Eijiro found himself feeling rather lost. "Uhh, why would your Dad care that Yagi is training me?"
Loki turned back to him at the question. "Sorry, I don't want to spoil the surprise still. You aren't meeting with him again for a few more days right?" At a nod, the boy continued. "What I can tell you is he and my Dad have a…I guess you could say a history with each other. Just know that when he talks to you about One for All, we already know about it for future reference."
"What's One for All?"
Eraserhead shook his head. "Sorry kid but that isn't really our secret to share." He turned and tapped the other boy on the head again. "I'll wait for you on the roof but don't take too long, we need to start patrol soon." With that the hero turned and wandered back toward the buildings on the other side of the street.
Loki seemed to wince. "Right, I should go soon. I don't want to make him and Tsukauchi stay up later than they need to. I feel bad enough that I accidentally made them work so many hours of overtime working my case before I came clean that I was me."
The new name caught Eijiro's attention. Hoping for at least some details of who his new sort of friend was, he pressed slightly. "Tsukauchi?"
"He is one of the detectives here in Musutafu. He covers the late shift."
That explained why the man was working the Loki case at least. "So I'll see you tomorrow?"
The boy, clearly smiling behind his mask now, nodded. "Sounds like a plan. I might swing by a bit earlier maybe. You should head home though. It is well after midnight."
Eijiro blinked in shock at that. He hadn't realized it was quite that late. Though to be fair, he hadn't really been paying much attention to when he had been getting home at night the past few days. It explained why his mother had seemed so worried about him getting home so late though. "Yeah that sounds like a plan. See you tomorrow!"
With a wave the vigilante vanished into the night and Eijiro himself began to head back home. He was glad that he at least did not have school tomorrow.
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
As his Problem Child hopped up over the edge of the roof to join Shouta, the vigilante's mouth was already running again. "So I can't help but notice you didn't answer my question."
Shouta internally winced. He had hoped that the change of subject would have been enough to make the boy drop it for now. "Why did you even want to know that?"
The boy blinked his emerald eyes up at him. "Isn't it obvious? I want to know if you are just my uncle or if I should be counting you as one of my older brothers too."
Shouta huffed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You aren't going to drop this are you?"
"Nope."
Shouta considered the best way to answer the question. "Mic has been referring to him as my dad on and off since we were in UA."
From the way the boy lit up, he knew he made a mistake. "That's great! That puts my brother total at 3!"
"3? Don't you mean 2?"
The boy narrowed his eyes. "3. I am wearing Dabi down on the idea."
The way the Problem Child said that implied things about his nephew that he was not sure he really wanted to think about. "Please don't tell me you are trying to forcibly adopt an adult just to add him to our mess of a family."
The boy rolled his eyes. "He wants it too, he just has too many trust issues to let himself admit it. If he didn't he probably would have at least moved out by now."
Shouta had to admit the boy probably had a point on that at least. If the stories that Oboro was telling him and Hizashi about the fights that Dabi and Tomura were constantly having were anything to go off of, the younger man really should have at least moved into his own place even if he was serious about joining Tomura's little villain group.
…
A part of Shouta was slightly concerned at how normalized all of that sounded even in his own head. With a sigh he found himself muttering, "How is it that half of our family is made up of Villains and they aren't the ones that are my biggest source of headaches?"
Izuku huffed under his mask. "Rude, Eraser."
The Hero found himself just shaking his head. "Come on, we have patrol."
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Shoto was pretty sure that he was probably making a mistake. Just an hour before, he had climbed out his window and snuck off the mansion grounds with just his backpack of his most valuable possessions. He was running away.
Shoto was not completely sure but he was beginning to suspect that something might have happened at the convention with his father beside the glitter bombing. Ever since the event, his father had been angry. Dangerously so. His father's flames burned hotter and hotter during their training and frankly, Shoto was worried that it was only a matter of time before he was burned as badly as Midoriya's friend Dabi.
So after nearly a week of brutal "training" with his father, he was taking up Midoriya's offer to stay with him if he ever needed it. He had followed the other boy's advice and left his phone back in his room without the SIM card and was traveling with only a written out set of instructions and cash that he pulled earlier that day from an ATM.
Looking up at the bar in Kimino that Midoriya had instructed him to, Shoto just hoped that he had managed to find the right place. Shoving open the door, he found himself greeted with the sight of a collection of shady looking patrons of the bar as well as the misty looking bartender and, thankfully, the familiar face of Dabi sitting at the bar doing what looked like homework.
The bartender tapped the bar in front of Dabi and gestured back at Shoto when the man looked up. The heavily scarred man briefly froze as he seemed to register just who had wandered in. He quickly turned to the barkeeper, "Can you send my shit back to my room?"
"Of course." He continued to speak but Shoto couldn't make out what he said from here. Shoto found himself shifting his gaze down to stare at his shoes as he nervously shifted from foot to foot. A scarred hand came to rest on his shoulder.
"Come on kid." Shoto found himself silently following the Villain back into the back of the bar. Part of him wondered why of all places that Midoriya would send him to a Villain bar given he was a vigilante. Of course, the boy's brother called his group the League of Villains so maybe this was a blind spot for the Quirkless Hero-to-be.
The older man had just pushed open a door at the end of a hallway leading from the back of the bar when Shoto was greeted with the sight of Midoriya's sister in the middle of what seemed to be a knife throwing contest with a slightly older guy with a full body lizard mutation wearing what seemed to be a Stain cosplay of all things. Midoriya Tomura was relaxing sprawled on a couch off to one side watching with one of the hands from his villain costume over his face with their older friend Sako sitting at a table off to the side polishing a set of masks like the ones that Dabi and Midoriya Himiko had worn when crashing the panel.
Midoriya Tomura was the first to spot Shoto and quickly sat the rest of the way up. "Shit. Why is Peppermint here?"
Now everyone was looking at him with a mix of concern and confusion. Shoto nervously shifted from foot to foot once more. "Midoriya gave me directions here with the instruction to come here if it got bad at home."
Dabi seemed to growl slightly in frustration as he crossed the room to throw himself onto the couch with Tomura without a word. The cyan haired teen gave his friend a puzzled look but didn't comment. The new guy that Shoto didn't know looked around the room confused. "I'm sorry I feel a bit lost. Who's the kid and who is this Midoriya who gave him directions to find the League?"
That confused Shoto for a beat before it clicked that they probably didn't use their actual names while working as Villains. Himiko patted the new guy on the shoulder. "Midoriya is Loki so don't go spreading his name around. Peppermint is a friend of Loki's with a fake Hero for a dad."
Oh, apparently his new name was Peppermint around Villains. Shoto supposed that was fair given his hair. "I'm sorry but who are all of you? I know some of your actual names but…"
Dabi snorted. "Still just Dabi kid. Benefit of legally not existing as a living person. Handjob and Himiko are just Shigaraki's now since that is All for One's family name apparently. New guy is Spinner and you remember Mr. Compress. The guy back at the bar, Kurogiri, is in the League too but only as transport."
Shoto found the off hand comment of one of the Midoriya's fathers intriguing. "All for One? Who's that?"
A voice drifted from the monitor on the wall displaying no visual feed he had overlooked as unimportant up until now causing Spinner to jump slightly in surprise. "Well according to All Might I am evidently the Symbol of Evil."
Shigaraki Tomura huffed. "Father."
There was a grin in his voice as he replied. "Tomura. I see Loki has collected another stray. At this rate I am going to have to find a bigger building for the bar."
Shigaraki Tomura huffed. "He doesn't have to live here at the bar. I know that there is at least one empty apartment that you own that he can stay at."
All for One made a humming noise from his side of the screen. "True but I doubt your mother would be very happy with my allowing a young teen to live alone there."
Shigaraki Tomura winced slightly at that. "That is probably true."
Shoto narrowed his eyes at the monitor. "HereThereBeDragons?"
That earned him a puzzled look from Dabi and an amused one from Shigaraki Tomura. The man on the other side of the screen laughed. "Ah yes, I had forgotten that you were IveConnectedThem completely. Hello again, I suppose it is Peppermint for now?"
Shoto shrugged happy to get confirmation that he was correct which father this was. "If we are not using real names then that is fine. I don't really care."
"It is only temporary while we finish vetting Spinner here." Shigaraki Tomura thumbed over his shoulder to the lizard man now speaking quietly with Compress. "We use real names normally since up until now Compress was the only one who didn't live here. Spinner has his own place too so he won't always be hanging around."
Shoto nodded in understanding before giving Dabi a questioning look. "So why don't you have a Villain name?"
Dabi snorted. "Dabi is my Villain name. I just haven't used my birth name in about a decade. It is dead to me."
Shoto blinked up at the older scarred man. "Huh. I suppose that is fair. If I had the choice I wouldn't use my family name at least."
"How do you feel about the name Shigaraki?" All for One said with a chuckle from the screen.
Shigaraki Tomura groaned. "Father no. We can't just claim him as our own like you did with me and Himiko. He actually has a parent that would actually try and fight it."
Shoto sighed. "Thanks for the offer."
All for One sighed as well. "I'm sorry. For now the best I can offer is just a safe place to run to when things get bad. Hopefully we can keep you safe here for a while but worse comes to worst, either Sir Nighteye or Eraserhead can 'find' you and escort you back to your Father."
Dabi grimaced. "Does he have to go back?"
"Unfortunately he won't be able to attend UA next year unless he does. Nedzu would have to give him back regardless of what we do."
Shoto nodded with a yawn. "I understand. It is still appreciated that you could help me even this much."
Shigaraki Tomura reached out with a now gloved hand to ruffle Shoto's hair. "No problem kid. Come on. You can crash in Loki's room tonight so he knows you are here when he gets back. We can set you up in your own room tomorrow."
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Internally, Iguchi Shuichi aka Spinner was screaming. He had heard rumors about the monster known as All for One like most that dipped their toes into the criminal side of things even if he had yet to do much. It was generally considered polite in the Underground to warn new people of the centuries old demon but given he had been told that the demon had been pretty inactive and was possibly dead from a fight with All Might in the same breath, he had never considered that he would cross paths with the Quirk stealing monster.
All for One was his new boss's father.
The poor kid, Peppermint, didn't seem to know just what he walked into from his slightly puzzled look at the monitor that All for One's voice was drifting from that he himself had originally written off as just a broken screen.
There was a humming noise from the other side of the screen. "True but I doubt your mother would be very happy with my allowing a young teen to live alone there." Any thoughts that maybe the centuries old demon had just taken the Shigaraki's under his wing were gone now. They were actually his kids. What the actual fuck?
"That is probably true."
Shuichi shifted slowly over to next to Mr. Compress and quietly asked, "That is actually All for One?"
The brunette offered him a smile. "Indeed. There is no need for you to be alarmed though. He is not a thief unlike myself despite his reputation. The vast majority of the Quirks at his disposal date back to the Quirk Wars."
Admittedly that did help a bit. "You've met him?"
"Sadly not in person but given his current injuries that is understandable. The only reason I believe Dabi has been gifted the opportunity is because he was a package deal with young Himiko back when she was adopted."
Okay so that at least explained why the two siblings were so different. "...Er. Are they both adopted? I'll be honest with how old All for One is, the idea of him having a biological child close to my age is a bit odd."
"Both the siblings here are adopted, yes but given the physical similarities between Tomura and All for One's biological son, Loki, I suspect there is some blood relationship even if it might not be immediate."
Shuichi's brows shot up at that. "Loki is All for One's kid? How the hell did that happen? I heard he's Quirkless? Don't tell me that All for One took his own kid's Quirk or is the kid hiding the fact he has one like his old man?"
"No he is legitimately Quirkless from a biological standpoint from my understanding. All for One gifted him a Quirk but given it is a near impossible to prove a precognitive mental Quirk, he is still considered legally Quirkless still. All for One is hardly going to come out and tell everyone he gave him a Quirk."
"Damn, that sounds like a nice Quirk. I'm surprised that All for One would give something like that up even for his own kid."
"Oh that part of the Quirk was a mutation gained after Loki got the Quirk because precognitive Quirks run on mom's side of the family. Like our uncle Sir Nighteye's Quirk." Shuichi was not afraid to admit that he jumped slightly at Himiko's sudden presence.
Wait. "Sir Nighteye is your uncle?"
The blonde girl bobbed her head. "Yeah. Mom said he had a bit of an identity crisis when he finally found out that he walked his sister down the aisle to marry his then Hero boss's arch nemesis. Uncle Eraserhead's was worse though since I think he is still going through it since Dad helped Mom raise him since he was Mom's legal ward after their parents flaked on them."
That info dump nearly sent him reeling. "You are telling me that you are all related to not one but two real Pro Heroes and a vigilante aspiring to be one."
"Counting Uncle Eraser's boyfriend and their and Kurogiri's best friends, I would say the number of true Pro Heroes is at 5 and between my little brother and our cousins, we have 4 more. Plus Peppermint to make 5." She gestured back over the bi-colored young teen.
Compress beside him tapped his chin in thought. "I would perhaps count him in Dabi's total instead. To counterbalance their... What was it Loki called him? Flaming piece of trash pretending to be a good hero and father?"
Himiko giggled. "That sounds right!"
Shuichi turned to look at Peppermint and Dabi. Standing next to one another he could see the resemblance even with their scars. His gut twisted at the realization that perhaps they had come from another fire Quirk user. "Which Pro is it? Fire Quirk users are a dime a dozen in the Hero industry."
Compress snorted. "While that is true, only one married a woman with an Ice Quirk."
Oh. Dabi was working with the League to eventually kill his own father. "So Dabi and Peppermint are Todoroki's?"
Compress nodded before lowering his voice only slightly more to stage whisper. "Don't let Dabi know that you know that. It is supposed to be a big secret that he is alive after all. He wants to play up the drama of it all when we eventually help him take Endeavor down."
Himiko also leaned over to stage whisper with a fanged grin. "Dabi will deny it but he has just as much of a love for presentation as Mr. Compress here, Tomura-nii, and Dad. I expect his reveal to Peppermint that he is his dead older brother to be pretty dramatic sometime over his stay here provided Loki doesn't upstage him like he did with Dad to Uncle Eraser's detective friend."
Shuichi took one more look at Dabi. "Yeah…I could see that…" He felt calmer now. Sure he was now sort of working for the demon of the Underground but it seemed that the cause he wanted to aid in was at least not a front for something else. Everyone was nice and clearly from the fact a wantabe hero was in the midst and the atmosphere was just as relaxed as it had been when he turned up without warning showed that they were serious about just wanting real heroes.
Maybe he had internally overreacted.
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
There was a rumor in the criminal Underground. This was nothing new per se to those who dealt with that side of things but this one was different. It was looking like the King of the Underworld was just gone. There had been rumors floating around for a few years now that All for One had lost a major fight with All Might but the fact that his people had hardly batted an eye at the rumors had made it seem unlikely.
Chisaki Kai, now going by the name of Overhaul, was starting to think that perhaps there was more to those rumors than first thought. Looking back over the past few years, it was clear that his men had pulled back more and more over the past few years. Perhaps All for One had met his match in the supposed fight five years prior and his men had lasted this long only on previous instructions.
Regardless if the man was actually dead or not, it was clear there was a new opening to be filled. An opening that this Shigaraki Tomura and his little League of Villains were trying to fill. It was…cute he supposed how they acted like the children that their leader clearly still was. Pulling meaningless pranks and acts of property damage and acting like they stood to fill the old demon lord's shoes was frankly laughable.
Still, their message was popular in the Underworld even if it was a more watered down version of what the Hero killer Stain shouted out. Heroes that did not truly act as Heroes should not carry the name.
They also seemed to think that they were capable of eventually killing All Might, which if the cards they had already shown were their full hand then they were grossly overestimating their own capabilities. But it wouldn't hurt to meet with them at least to feel out how much of an actual threat they would be.
So, Overhaul sent out an invitation to meet at a supposedly neutral location and readied his men.