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All for One looked at the list of quirks. So many promising options. He felt like a child in a candy store. This one looked particularly useful. Before taking Tomura in, he never would have considered it. The boy was eight now and stubbornly refused to bathe. This quirk, ‘Cleanliness,’ allowed the user to change anything into the state of being freshly cleaned with just a touch. Dishes, laundry, children, the possibilities were endless.
All that was left was to acquire it. Some of his more disposable, but still competent, operatives were contacted. “I have someone I need you to bring me.”
A week later, he was giddy beyond belief to get his new quirk. It was practically like ordering powers online. Quirk Amazon! All for One straightened the lapels of his suit jacket and prepared to meet the terrified young woman who currently held a useful quirk.
Only, it wasn’t a young woman restrained by the traffickers. Instead, it was a very small, very distraught child. The green haired boy was sobbing, making all the villains, All for One included, very uncomfortable.
“What is this?” All for One asked with a sigh.
“We got the kid just like you asked,” one of the thugs proclaimed proudly.
“This is not what I asked for.”
“Sure it is, Midoriya Izuku. Just like you said.”
All for One stared at the idiot in wonder. He made sure to carefully enunciate each of his words in hopes it would somehow fix the situation. “Mido Izumi. I asked for Mido Izumi, a college student with a cleaning quirk.”
The goons looked confused, before quickly switching to fear. “Oh. Someone on our end must have misheard.”
“Indeed, and now my quirk is still running around and going to inane university parties.” His aura was menacing, not even needing to make a threat to imply the consequences of his displeasure.
“We can get the right one!” they hurriedly placated. “We can even get rid of the kid so you don’t need to worry about it!”
For some reason, this made him very uncomfortable. The tiny, innocent child, no older than three or four, was shaking with terror. The boy’s big eyes were pleading for help. Somehow, it reminded him of Tomura. The older boy had looked just as lost and helpless.
“No, I’ll take care of Midoriya myself,” All for One declared. “Work on getting me my quirk.”
“Of course!” The thugs scurried off, content to escape with their lives. That left the child, still cowering in what was a ridiculous amount of ropes. With a sigh, All for One used a telekinetic quirk to unravel them.
The green haired boy sniffled and held his tender wrists. “A-are you going to hurt me?”
The child looked so pathetic. It didn’t sit right with All for One. “No, I’m going to take you to go play with another kid while I figure out this mess.”
Midoriya looked at him with hopeful eyes. “Will you find Mommy? She tried to stop the bad guys when they took me and fell down. She didn’t get back up again.”
Well that didn’t bode well. “I’m sure she’s fine. Why don’t you come play with Tomura and I’ll find her?”
Grabby hands were thrust in All for One’s direction and he begrudgingly picked up the snotty child. He probed with his quirk, but couldn’t feel anything. It was possible the boy still hadn’t manifested a power. Pity, it appeared he wouldn’t even be getting a quirk out of this fiasco.
He called a car, not sure how Midoriya would react to being warped. That quirk was already…unpleasant. The boy napped in the car, snoring softly. Being scared for so long after being kidnapped had to be exhausting. As soon as the car stopped, the child jerked awake and glanced around in confusion. “Oh, I was hoping it was a bad dream.”
“Sorry to disappoint.” If only it could be a dream. Then maybe he wouldn’t have to deal with this. All for One carried Midoriya into the base, already looking for Tomura. A quick activation of ‘Are You Decent?’ proved entry into his successor’s room was clear. “Tomura, this is Midoriya. I want you to play with him for a bit while I locate his parents.”
The eight year old glared. Had All for One been paying attention, he would have realized that this was a bad idea. Tomura was a temperamental, traumatized child with a decay quirk. He didn’t have the self control or patience to deal with a three year old. However, All for One was far more concerned with cleaning up the mess this had become.
Midoriya was set down in Tomura’s room and All for One closed the door on his way out.
—————
Izuku looked up at the big kid in front of him. Now was the time to use his manners. But everything had been so scary and he blurted out the first thing he thought. “You smell bad.”
The big kid stiffened, hand reaching up to scratch his neck. Izuku frowned. His Mommy had always said itching was bad for you. Now that he looked, there were red marks on the other boy’s neck. They looked like they hurt!
Izuku frantically dug into his pocket for the cat bandaids the bad guys hadn’t bothered to take from him. There were hero bandaids at home, but they were kept up high because he liked to use them even when he wasn’t hurt. Lunging forward, he barely noted the shocked red eyes widening before he plastered the bandaid over the ouch. A second later he was armed with another one. Just call him the Anti-Ouch Hero Izuku!
“Uh, what are you doing?” The big kid asked.
“You’re not supposed to scratch because you can get hurt,” Izuku explained. Shouldn’t an older kid know this? “You had an ouch, so I put bandaids on it to make it better!”
“Thanks I guess?” The older kid glanced around the room. “I’m Tomura.”
“I’m Izuku!”
“Do you like video games?”
Izuku tilted his head. “I’m not allowed to play them. I only get a little bit of computer time a day, so I watch videos of cool things.”
The big kid walked away in a huff and Izuku was worried he did something wrong. Then, some sort of fancy remote with a lot of buttons was shoved into his hand.
“You’re too little for most of my games, but I found a racing one that should work.” Tomura plopped down on a beanbag chair and patted the space on the floor next to him. Izuku didn’t move. “Well, aren’t you coming?”
“You still smell bad.”
Tomura’s remote got thrown into the bed rather aggressively. “Fine. Wait here and don’t touch anything. I’m going to take a quick shower.”
—————
All for One located the mother’s identity quickly enough. Midoriya Inko, mother of Midoriya Izuku. The only problem was finding her. If she was dead, getting rid of the child would be more complicated. But surely if the woman was still alive she would have filed some sort of report about her offspring being missing?
There were no reports on either of them. After asking the traffickers where they took the boy from, information finally turned up. A green haired woman was admitted to a hospital nearby where the child was taken. All for One was gone in a flash, already warping there. Subtle persuasion quirks convinced the receptionist to let him pass, and he was soon standing in Midoriya Inko’s hospital room.
“Hello?” the woman, who couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than the child’s mother, asked with a confused expression. Ah, yes. Strangers weren’t supposed to be in hospital rooms of people they didn’t know. At least the boy’s mother appeared unharmed. This would be easier than he had feared. “Do I know you?”
“No, you don’t.” All for One intended to say more, but Midoriya started speaking again too quickly, her words falling over one another.
“Oh good. Well, I mean it would have been better if I did know you, or if you knew me I guess. Then maybe the doctors would be able to figure out who I am. It’s frustrating not being able to remember my name or anything else. I don’t even know if I have a family. Oh dear, that was a lot. I didn’t mean to unload my problems on a stranger.”
Ah, memory loss. Easy enough to fix with one of his many quirks. The requirements weren’t anything demanding either, just the presence of a blood relative. He’ll just need to get the child here to activate it and then they can all get on with their lives. “It’s no trouble at all, although it appears I have the wrong hospital room. Farewell.”
Checking to make sure no one was looking, All for One warped back to grab the younger Midoriya that had been left with Tomura. The younger Midoriya had been left with Tomura. Oh no.
For the first time in a while, All for One didn’t use ‘Are You Decent?’ before barging into Tomura’s room. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be a pile of dust where the terrified green haired child had been.
Red and green eyes turned to look at him. All for One couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Tomura was wearing a change of clothes. His successor had been in the same outfit for three weeks now. It was startling. Not only that, but the oppressive odor Tomura carried had disappeared. Adding in the wet blue hair, the only logical conclusion was that the boy had bathed.
How was this possible? All for One had been trying to ingrain the bare minimum of basic hygiene into Tomura for over a month now. His eyes darted to the three year old sitting next to the older boy on the beanbag. Green eyes blinked sleepily at All for One.
Tomura turned to glare at him, showing off the cat bandaids plastered sloppily along his neck in a line. “You woke Izuku up.”
The tone was accusing, though the little one didn’t seem to notice. “S’okay. Did you find my Mommy?”
Now was the time for him to tell the boy yes, to use the quirk to recover the mother’s memories and wash his hands of the mess. Although… he was such a good influence on Tomura…No! The line was at one child. That had been All for One’s promise to himself when taking in the grandson of a One for All user. It would be the perfect way to hurt All Might in the future.
“I’m afraid your mother has been in an accident and can’t take care of you anymore.”
Midoriya burst into tears and Tomura wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “It’s okay, Izuku. You can stay here with me.”
The boy glared daggers at All for One as if daring him to say differently. He wouldn’t of course, but it was interesting to see Tomura so defiant about something other than self care. It was reminiscent of himself and his brother.
“Of course you can stay with us. We’ll take care of you, Izuku.” All for One could still see hesitation in the boy. “You can play with Tomura more. Don’t you like playing with him?”
“I like Tomura,” Izuku agreed. The older boy puffed out his chest proudly at that, but was somewhat undermined by the red tint to his cheeks.
“Then welcome to the family.”
—————
That night, all digital records of Midoriya Inko were erased. Even the quirk registry was broken into and altered. The apartment she used to live in was cleared out and put for sale. People in the police department who had been bought off were instructed to intercept any missing persons reports about someone matching her description.
Slowly, Midoriya Inko faded away as though she had never existed.
The woman in question, of course, knew none of this. She didn’t even know her name. A week later, she accidentally used her quirk and the doctors were overjoyed that they could now find her identity. Only, she wasn’t in the database.
It was only natural that someone so cut off from who they were would cling to whatever people told them. So when well dressed strangers came into her room, she asked what she asked everyone.
“Do I know you?”
“Of course you do,” they answered.
And she believed them.