  Chapter Text

   Izuku was struggling to understand how he had even managed to get here,
   seated before the archvillain of Japan with only a sense of dread to keep
   him company. All Might sat concealed in an observation room, of the firm
   opinion that he could only aggravate the prisoner and he sent Izuku off
   with a strained smile. A vague haze hovered over Izuku’s memory. It
   started with a simple conversation gone astray on a long drive home.

   “So, who is All For One? Do we know anything about him beyond what you
   told me before? He’s been imprisoned for months now.” Izuku remembered
   asking All Might from the backseat of the car as Detective Tsukauchi
   leisurely drove along a sprawling highway.

   Playing on the car radio was an aftermath report of a villain attack in
   downtown Tokyo. Izuku caught the phrase “liquid body” from the female
   reporter before Detective Tsukauchi changed the channel.

   “Nope. Still nothing. No one really wants to speak to him,” All Might had
   replied brightly. “He gives off polite airs, but he’s a piece of work.”
   All Might’s mostly obstructed shoulders in the front seat shrugged. “Not
   much you can do with someone like him. Everything that comes out is a
   threat or taunt.” All Might carefully waved his hand in a circular motion
   towards the side of his head.

   “No one’s even made it through a full interview with him, from what I’ve
   heard,” Detective Tsukauchi added from behind the wheel. “He plays mind
   games with them. The prison also has a “no recent events” policy on any
   discussions with him as well. Just in case he ends up with ideas or has
   some means of communicating. Given that people only want to ask him about
   current events, it doesn’t leave much to talk about.”

   “Wait, they still don’t know what Quirks he has?” Izuku asked
   exasperatedly. “They can’t if there’s still an information block on
   visits.”

   “Nope. We have no idea what he can do. They can run DNA tests, but it’s
   not like anyone apart from him even knows how his Quirk works. They could
   get matches with any number of people, but if they’re not in a database
   then we can’t cross-reference them anyway. Even if they run an analysis,
   the data doesn’t mean anything without the ability to interpret it,” All
   Might gestured with a skeletal finger. “It’s a waste of time after the
   initial tests were conducted. They weren’t game to MRI him either, given
   he’s definitely got a Quirk that creates metal components.”

   “No one’s bothered to ask him anything about… anything?” Izuku asked,
   dumbfounded. “He must be around two-hundred years old and people can’t
   think of a single non-current affairs thing to ask him?”

   In some ways it was unfathomable that they’d let a potential resource go
   to waste. On the other hand, said potential resource had blown up a city,
   murdered numerous people and terrorised Japan for over a century. At the
   very least.

   “Well, I tried to ask him about Shigaraki, but he didn’t say much of
   anything really. Some garbage about you being too dependent on me and him
   letting Shigaraki run wild and how he just wanted to be the ultimate
   evil,” All Might shrugged again. “He spends too much time talking about
   nothing.”

   Izuku shifted his head onto his arm. “But, that’s not really nothing, is
   it?”

   “What do you mean?” Izuku had the feeling that All Might would have been
   looking at him with the you’re about to do something stupid aren’t you
   expression that was thankfully becoming less common.

   “Well, he clearly doesn’t know anything about us, All Might, if he thinks
   that you’re just going to let go of me after not even two years of being
   taught. Maybe Shigaraki was dependent on adult figures, but I don’t even
   remember my dad and mum’s been busy working and keeping the house
   together. I’ve never had a lot of adult supervision before,” Izuku laughed
   nervously. “I had to find ways to keep myself entertained. If anything,
   I’m on the disobedient side of the scale.” All Might outright giggled.

   “I’ll say, especially after what happened with Overhaul. I’m surprised
   your mother let you leave the dorms again after that.”

   “I’m surprised she didn’t withdraw and ground me until I was thirty.”

   “Oh? That strict?” Tsukauchi asked.

   “She has her moments,” Izuku smiled fondly. “Do you think she’d agree to
   me asking the archvillain of Japan about his Quirk?” Izuku asked, only
   partially joking. There was an itch at the back of his head, a feeling of
   something missing that poked and prodded at his senses.

   All Might coughed and sprayed the dash with a fine red mist. “Absolutely
   not! I forbid it!”

   “That’s exactly why I’m asking her and not you,” Izuku grinned from the
   backseat.

   “He’s evil!”

   “He’s ancient. You honestly don’t wonder about the sort of things someone
   with that life experience and Quirk would have run across to end up the
   way he did?”

   “Nope, he made it perfectly clear that he always wanted to be the supreme
   evil,” All Might snipped through folded arms.

   “Yeah, and I’ll just take his word for that, won’t I?” Izuku grinned. “If
   he does nothing but lie, then that’s probably one too, but there’s a grain
   of truth in there somewhere.”

   “What would you even do? Harass him into telling you his life story?” All
   Might sighed.

   “Not when I can kill him with kindness. Who knows, it might even be
   poisonous for him.”

   “You’re explaining this to your mother. Teacher or not, I’m not being on
   the receiving end of this one.”

   Izuku blinked for a moment. “You’ll let me?”

   “I’m not entirely for it, but any prospective information on what
   influenced Shigaraki can only be a good thing. If anything goes south we
   can pull you out pretty easily. Just be aware of who and what you’re
   dealing with.” Struggling, All Might turned a serious look to Izuku around
   the side of the seat. “Only if your mother gives the okay.”

   The conversation turned to school for the rest of the way.

   It might have been curiosity or it might have been the nagging sensation
   that chewed at his brain for the three weeks that he researched the
   subject of the conversation. All For One was a cryptid. Mystical in more
   ways than one, he was only a rumour on a network that was two-hundred
   years old. There were whispers of a shadowy figure who once ruled Japan,
   intermingled with a string of conspiracies and fragmented events.

   Izuku had even braved the dark web, poking and prodding at some of the
   seedier elements of the world wide web. The internet had rumours, but the
   dark web had stories.

   An implied yakuza wrote about his grandfather who lost a fire manipulation
   Quirk and his sanity without any reason. His grandfather had been
   institutionalised, crying and repeating “he took it, he took it” until his
   dying days. No one could console him.

   Another user spoke of a nursing home where a room full of dementia
   residents inexplicably became docile and no longer used their Quirks on
   the increasingly disturbed staff. The nursing home erupted into flames
   just before a court case against them commenced.

   A user with neon pink text spoke of how their great-great-great-great
   grandmother with a longevity Quirk had simply aged rapidly one day and
   passed away in her sleep, her face a mask of terror. No cause had ever
   been found.

   A hacker provided a grainy CCTV recording of a heist and a scanned
   collection of documents from over a century ago, where there was a flash
   of light and entire bank vault had been emptied. What separated it from
   the usual robbery was that it contained a list containing confidential
   information on the Quirks of the First Generation. Izuku had greedily
   snavelled up and saved the video and documents to an external hard drive.

   Paging through, Izuku saw someone recount how their Quirkless uncle had
   developed a warp Quirk and gone from rags to riches under a mysterious
   benefactor. A decade ago, the uncle had simply disappeared.

   Numerous and terrifying, the stories were scattered nuggets of gold hidden
   across the web. They’d never last long, vanishing within hours of posting.
   Izuku bounced from proxy to proxy, fleeing from a series of deletions that
   seemed to follow Izuku’s aliased postings across snitch.ru, rabbit.az,
   aconspiracy.xfiles and their compatriots.

   After thirty-two identity changes (all carefully logged in a separate
   notebook), a large amount of feigning communal interest in a lucky tabloid
   article on All For One which had been released at the start of the first
   of the three weeks, Izuku hung up his tinfoil hat and called it a month.
   He haphazardly tossed a bulging notebook into his bookshelf and lodged his
   hard drive in a gap containing seven others and went to dinner.

   It took another week to present his research to All Might and Tsukauchi,
   whose jaws reached the proverbial floor.

   “We never found any of this,” the Detective Tsukauchi exclaimed. “How did
   you find all of it?”

   “I asked the right people. Turns out criminals have very long and very
   unforgiving memories,” Izuku explained through sunken eyes. “There’s more
   than this that could be linked to him, but these ones seem to be the most
   obvious.”

   “They would do, you can’t be head of the underworld without making an army
   of enemies,” All Might agreed. “You know, if you can get any more
   information about these events, I think you’ll give people a lot of peace
   of mind.”

   “Provided mum agrees to it.”

   “Only if she agrees to it.”

   It took another month to convince his mother, who eventually gave in once
   All Might provided an extremely comprehensive schedule of how the
   visitations and any resulting research would be carefully balanced against
   Izuku’s schoolwork and internship.

   The day of the visit finally arrived, four months after the initial
   conversation, much to Izuku’s dismay.

   Izuku remembered how he had arrived, with the Detective and All Might
   escorting him through its sterile, white innards. A list of rules rattled
   off at the gate, “no current affairs” was chief among them and an
   assertion that he’d be dragged from the room if need be if Izuku was to
   breach any of them. No smuggling of communication devices, no weapons, no
   Quirks, nothing that could compromise the prisoner’s secure status.

   Heavily armoured and drilled guards leading him underground into the
   deepest bowels of the Tartarus complex.

   Izuku understood the rules, dressed casually in a cotton t-shirt with
   “Shirt” printed across it in haphazard English and clutching at a
   carefully screened and utterly blank notebook.

   Across from him, behind reinforced glass, the archvillain of Japan was
   bound and unmoving.

   “Hello,” Izuku initiated uncertainly. His skin had been crawling the
   moment he crossed the threshold, a memory of the encounter and escape at
   the Kamino Ward months ago.

   “Ah, All Might’s disciple,” drawled All For One, “is he too cowardly to
   come himself? Yet I don’t hear the garments of a hero.” With hardly a word
   out, All For One had already lunged for the figurative jugular.

   A stray thought of how does he know who I am if he’s blind and isn’t
   familiar with me? whispered its way through Izuku’s head.

   “Oh, no,” Izuku corrected hastily, almost relieved at the lack of any
   pretence, “I asked if I could talk to you. This isn’t exactly hero
   related.”

   “I’m surprised he said yes.” While there was little by way of expression,
   Izuku could just about sense the contempt dripping from the prisoner’s
   tone. It wasn’t anything he wasn’t expecting. Kacchan had already said
   worse to him in earlier years. Water off a duck’s back.

   “Well, he’s not my legal guardian, so I think you should be more surprised
   that mum said yes. She’s stricter with these things than All Might,” Izuku
   corrected again. “Mum gave the okay, but that was a stressful discussion.”
   And there it was, a miniscule twitch from the man opposite. A spasm more
   than anything else. Interesting. Pinned down as he was, the prisoner oozed
   irritation.

   “At least your mother is a wise person. I wonder why the student doesn’t
   heed all of the advice of the teacher.” All For One’s tone didn’t indicate
   a question, so much as an implicit statement that All Might wasn’t worth
   listening to in any capacity. Kacchan would have hated the comparison, but
   the hostility had an almost comfortable familiarity. “He no doubt warned
   you off speaking to me, overprotective as he is, but here you are.”

   Izuku found himself smiling at the thought of Kacchan’s outrage if he ever
   found out about the mental comparison as he replied. “I don’t think it’s
   normal for anyone my age to listen completely to their teachers. We pick
   and choose and run with what works best for us. He warned me, but I’m
   still here. Mum warned me as well, but I think she cared more about the
   time management aspect of it."

   “Is that a recent development?” All For One probed.

   “Not really. My old homeroom teacher told me not to bother applying to
   U.A.” His mother’s beaming face had carried Izuku through the cheerful and
   resolute signing of that application form.

   “I see you followed their advice to the letter,” came the snide,
   dismissive reply.

   Izuku hoisted up his legs and sat cross-legged in his seat. Leaning
   slightly forward as he did so as to better prop up his notebook.

   “You’re a walking contrarian, aren’t you? All Might told me about his run
   ins with you. What someone does or doesn’t do really doesn’t matter to
   you, you’ll just find a way to rationalise it as a negative and go on the
   attack anyway. What you’re currently doing is drawing attention away from
   yourself and focusing it on me so you can withhold information.” Izuku
   flipped open his notebook and put pen to paper. “You’ve got something
   fairly big to hide and you diverting attention exposes that motivation as
   existing anyway. The only real questions here are what and why?” Izuku
   paused in mortification as the man opposite’s lips parted. “I just said
   that aloud, didn’t I?”

   Of the responses Izuku had expected, it wasn’t laughter. Unrestrained,
   Izuku would have expected a violent outburst. In this situation, he would
   have expected another scathing comment. Instead, All For One laughed
   breathily, leaning into his bonds. Wheezingly he spoke, “I’ll have to
   change tactics, if that one’s too transparent for you. How refreshing.”

   Doing his best not to glow a blinding red and simultaneously pale at the
   interest, Izuku carried on. “I add it to the list when you do. I’m not
   emotionally involved enough to really be impacted by what you’re saying. I
   know about you in theory, but that’s it. Maybe All Might has a history
   with you, but I don’t really know enough about you personally to…”

   “Care,” All For One supplied, somewhat subdued as he struggled to breathe.
   “You’re only here to satisfy your curiosity as to whether or not the
   stories were true.”

   Izuku nodded, scratching at his notebook with his left hand. “Yes and no,
   I’m actually here to ask you about how your Quirk works.” For now.

   Another chortle, more restrained that the last.

   "What makes you think others haven’t already asked?” Had All For One been
   unrestrained, Izuku could imagine the stereotypical scene of the villain
   confidently leaning back in some overblown chair in a secret lair, drink
   of choice in hand, if the tone of voice was any indication. Deflections
   aside, the man easily rose to each comment.

   “Whether or not they asked it’s irrelevant if they can’t read the
   answers.” Answers didn’t matter if the people involved were too attached
   to read into the answers. If none of the interviewers had managed a full
   interview, then it seemed unlikely that any sort of effort was put into
   understanding the villain.

   “And you think you can? What expertise do you hold above theirs?” Doubt
   and reprimand weighted the words. Oddly enough, had Izuku been any younger
   he could have mistaken the man for a disapproving parent rebuking an
   overly ambitious child. Albeit an extremely evil one.

   Izuku inhaled shortly and went for it. “If there’s something I know, it’s
   Quirks and how they work. Maybe I don’t know you, but I don’t really need
   to. Quirks fall under broad categories of function. You can take and give,
   consent doesn’t seem to be a factor. You either can’t “see” certain types
   of Quirks or you need to have prior knowledge of it before you take it
   with what I know about your brother. Despite your nom de guerre, because
   we both know it’s not your real name, you have a history of giving
   multiple Quirks and causing brain damage to the receiver. You clearly
   aren’t impacted by those same restrictions, so it must either alter your
   brain mapping or adjust functions to allow for simultaneous use and
   storage. It also must isolate or categories the Quirks you stock, because
   from the few people who do remember you, you creating certain Quirks is
   always in the context of giving them to someone else meaning there’s
   probably an inherent immunity to stop it from tainting your own Quirk with
   a mutation,” Izuku mumbled, almost to himself. “The only thing really in
   question about your Quirk is the finer details and whether or not you need
   to maintain those features or if they’re inherent and your hard limit for
   holding Quirks.”

   There was silence, for only a moment. “If only my hands were free, I would
   clap for such a thoughtful assessment. Clearly you’re not all brawn,” All
   For One positively purred. “Speculate away.” A wide and slightly unhinged
   smile was directed at Izuku.

   It was all Izuku could do not to wince at the eagerness. An image of a
   nervous All Might, hidden in the observation room above with the
   grim-faced prison staff, came to mind.

   “I note that you said thoughtful and not correct,” and Izuku breathed and
   unsteadily jotted it down in his notebook. “You don’t seem bothered by the
   guess.”

   “Few people live long enough to question my Quirk, let alone have the
   talent to guess so thoughtfully at its functions. It seems we share a
   hobby.” There was something terribly keen in that voice that hadn’t been
   there before, twisting itself through the compliment.

   “I suppose it helps that you’re playing along out of boredom,” Izuku
   verbally dodged, unease uncoiling itself from the back of his mind.

   “I was playing along out of boredom,” All For One corrected smoothly.
   “Now, I’m curious. Admittedly, my prior assumptions of you weren’t
   generous, but I’ve been too hasty in my assessments before.”

   “I’ll pack up and leave now if that’s the case,” Izuku replied with only
   half an ear on the conversation as the words on his page began to
   drastically expand to distract himself from the building anxiety.

   “Sarcasm, so you do have characteristics of a normal teenager. Your
   willingness to maim yourself has often left me wondering…”

   “You’re deflecting again,” Izuku observed. “I’m not sure if that’s a
   nervous habit for you or if you’re doing it because I’m close to being
   right about your Quirk. That being said, I don’t think you know what a
   normal teenager is if Shigaraki is any indication. He’s about seven years
   too late for his rebellious phase.”

   “I’m hurt and offended,” came the amused reply.

   “By how Shigaraki ended up or your parenting? You only have yourself to
   blame for both of them.”

   “How harsh. Shigaraki is a product of society that birthed him. I can’t
   take credit for all of the hard work,” All For One laid out invitingly.
   Perhaps someone else would have risen to the bait, but Izuku was already
   packing his mental bags and heading for the door.

   Clearly the prisoner’s anticipation had registered poorly with someone in
   the observation room, because a voice rang through the air. “Time’s up
   Midoriya-kun.”

   “Okay!” Izuku called back and etched out his last thoughtful of words,
   untangled his legs and rose to his feet.

   “What a shame, my visitations are always so short,” All For One spoke
   mournfully.

   “Well, you did blow up half a city. They could have just let you suffocate
   instead. Same time next week, then?” Izuku offered brightly, notebook
   stuffed into a pocket and was followed out the door by wheezing laughter.

   It was only after he had made it safely back to the communal room where
   All Might waited did he allow the spring to fade from his step and discard
   his nervous smile. Shuddering, he turned to All Might whose face was set
   in a grimace.

   “I won’t say I told you so,” All Might offered, perched on the edge of his
   couch like a misshapen vulture.

   “He’s… not really what I was expecting. I was expecting someone, more
   openly evil.” Izuku allowed himself to collapse into the leather of the
   seat. He shakily reached for the warm tea that had been clearly been
   prepared the moment Izuku left the cell. “I suppose he does it to lull
   people into a false sense of security. I didn’t understand how someone
   with only half a set of expressions could have “villain” written all over
   them until I met him.”

   “He’s always been like that. He feigns concern and sympathy to lure in
   society’s outcasts. They’re easy targets,” All Might said through a
   mouthful of biscuit.

   “Has he ever tried it on any of the One For All successors?”

   “Not really, but you might have accidentally given him the incentive for
   it. He never had access to any of the One For All wielders while they were
   young.” All Might snorted, “not that it’ll make a difference with you”.

   “I think he was trying to gauge me for a world view before the wardens
   ended it. I need more time to work out his response to the stuff on his
   Quirk.”

   “He’s conversation starved since it’s solitary confinement. If what the
   people monitoring his brain activity said was true, you’re the most
   exciting thing to have happened to him in months. He replied after you
   left, said he was looking forward to it.”

   “That’s pretty sad."

   “It’s even sadder that we’re the only two members of the public who have
   had anything to do with him. Stain gets a pile of mail from his “fans”,
   but All For One has nothing,” All Might waved a tea spoon. “That’s what he
   gets.”

   “Let’s get out of here and tell Detective Tsukauchi how it went.” Izuku
   gulped down his tea and headed for the exit, with him and All Might
   reaching it at roughly the same amount of time.

   “At least your mum’s making katsudon for us tonight," was All Might's only
   optimistic comment.

   Anxiety was still ebbing over Izuku after Tsukauchi had been debriefed in
   the car.

   “It seems we share a hobby.” Haunted Izuku on the drive home. As if
   ripping someone’s Quirk from them and leaving them lying traumatised on
   the ground was just a fun pastime and not an act of grievous bodily harm.

   And he’d be dealing with him again in another week.
