One month later...
Sako was staying with his parents for a short time while he collected his salary from balancing dishes at the diner he worked at. When he got home late at night, he would work on a screenplay. His parents were very helpful to him while he was getting back on his feet.
But some days he would get a bit tired from his job and fall asleep while writing his screenplay. Today was one of those days.
"Atsuhiro! Dinner is ready." His mother's voice roused him from his tired state.
Sako slowly woke up from his short nap on his desk. He raised his head from his folded arms to look around a bit. He started to yawn before he heard his dad's strong voice cut in.
"If you don't, I'm eating all of the dumplings!" His father warned him.
"Not the dumplings!" Sako yelled back. "I'm coming down!
Sako launched out of the desk with resurged energy to stop his dad from eating all of his favorite dumplings. His screenplay lay half-written on his desk as he practically jumped down his stairs to save the dumplings.
*
Iguchi started an apprenticeship under an old sensei at a local karate dojo.
"Okay, Mr. Splinter!" One of the children said as Iguchi guided them through a move.
"I'm not that guy from TMNT!" Iguchi argued as some of the children smiled at him.
On the weekends, he helps his wonderful mother at the homeless shelter by helping with serving food to them.
"Shūichi, can you get the backup dish of casserole?" His mother called out to him as she fixed a plate for a homeless man.
"Got it, mom."
He was doing good since the trial, his mother was helping him out a lot.
*
Magne got a job as a waitress at the club that her best friend works at. Her dad allowed her to move back into his apartment, and he made sure that she was comfortable in her old room.
The job had decent pay and the atmosphere was just so welcoming.
"Hey, I think that guy over there likes you, girl." Magne's friend.
"Really?" Magne asked.
"Yeah! Every time he comes in, his eyes are just drawn to you. Maybe you have charmed him." Magne's friend whispered.
Magne looked over her shoulder to see a brown-haired man with a gentle air about him sitting at one of the back tables. When she caught his eye, he blushed and waved happily.
"Oh, he got it bad." Magne's friend commented.
Magne smiled, "I'll go talk to him. See where it goes."
"Get it, Girl!" Magne's friend cheered as Magne walked over to the gentleman.
*
Kurogiri got a job at a late-night family-friendly bar that acted as a restaurant. He stayed with Inko during this time with Tenko. Tenko would often go visit Izuku if he wasn't at work, but he would still make time for him and Miss Inko.
His usual shifts bounced around between late nights and early afternoons. Normally, he would still make it in time to have a meal with Inko at home.
However, he had to go to a police station to talk about what they found in his DNA.
Kurogiri fixed his cuffs as he approached the police station after his shift ended to go talk to Detective Tsukauchi. Once he got there, he saw Eraserhead and Present Mic looking like they had a lot of mixed feelings about him arriving through the door.
Kurogiri walked up to the Detective and the two heroes. "What seems to be the problem, detective?"
"Your DNA charts have... history."
He remembered the flashes of memories he had. "What is it?"
Eraserhead looked at him with tired eyes with a more somber tone to them.
"Shirakumo..."
Kurogiri's mind flashed a memory of white clouds before he realized something....
...he didn't think he had enough time to have dinner with Inko.
*
Jin got a part-time job at a small bookstore run by a sweet old lady. She was so sweet to him and Himiko that she gave them a place to stay on the second floor upstairs. Izuku introduced them directly to the sweet woman who was happy to help them out.
Himiko was offered a job by Recovery Girl to become her little nurse helper while she helped heal people. The old woman was happy to help her learn more about crocheting too since she loved to knit.
So the sweet old woman became like a grandmother to Jin and Himiko.
*
Touya started on an online degree to work with pyrotechnics. It would take him a while though to finally get a license for it. But while he was working for it, he was starting an apprenticeship with a man that ran a tattoo and piercing shop. It would take a while for him to finally become an official artist, but for now, he was learning about cleaning the equipment correctly.
He began to communicate better with his family, especially since they offered him a place to stay in a new family house. And he...
"Touya, I want some chicken nugget." Takami groaned as he laid down on Touya's lap.
"Gimme chicken."
... even started to officially date Keigo Takami.
Touya listened to his boyfriend whine until he flicked his forehead, causing Keigo to groan dramatically. He laughed before engaging in a weak slappy hand fight with his boyfriend.
*
"Shimura! We got a wall with your name on it!" A man called over to his pale-haired employee.
"On the way, Mr. Uraraka!" Tenko called back.
Uravity pulled a few strings to get him hired at her parents' company. She even pulled a string to let him use his quirk when dealing with a huge destruction job, she even provided him with special gloves that she uses that covered up to three of his fingers.
He worked extra hard to help out around the place without knowing that much about constructing an actual building. Even though he was inexperienced with certain things, Mrs. Uraraka really helped him out with it.
Near the end of his work shift, he saw two figures at the entrance waiting for someone. Curious, he stepped forward to see it was actually two retired heroes. Gran Torino in a wheelchair with All Might standing next to him.
"Hello, young Shimura. can we speak to you?" All Might asked gently while Tenko hesitated at seeing him. He was almost tempted to scratch his neck before breathing out.
"Sure, old man."
*
As for Izuku, well he had his work cut out for him.
With the recent success of the program, he elected to take a small break to make sure everyone was fitting in nicely before going to continue his work. It wasn't until near the end of the month he got more news.
They planned on having him on the future reform programs when dealing with a new batch of villains or just one villain. Not all of the public was okay with the decision, but most people felt like many criminals could be redeemed.
Nedzu wanted him to talk to All for One in Tartarus. He didn't know the exact reason other than maybe All for One just wanted someone to talk to.
And that's why Izuku is walking through a maximum-security prison with several heroes behind him to make sure he is well guarded. They guided him until he arrived at one door that was very deep into the facility.
Izuku took a deep breath before stepping in.
"Ah hello there."
"Greetings... All for One." Izuku returned the greeting.
*
"And you are..?" All for One asked when he walked in further.
"My name is Midoriya Izuku." Izuku introduced himself, getting closer to the man.
All for One's smile twitched at that name while Izuku sat in the chair opposite of him behind the glass.
"So is there any name you want to go by?" Izuku asked the Symbol of Evil.
"Just All for One will be fine. I dropped any alias I had a long time ago."
"Okay. Just start your story from the beginning." Izuku prompted.
"Are you really going to listen to me talk about my life over 100 years?" All for One asked.
"I will listen to anything you tell me," Izuku answered back.
All for One retorted, "Well, this might take a while."
"I have all day, and I can always come back if you want to continue," Izuku added.
All for One smiled, "Ah, well, I'll just tell you what I suppose you need to hear today."
"Go on and start whenever you need," Izuku replied.
All for One started, "Ha, well it started over 100 years ago when my brother was still alive. We were there when quirks first started to appear. He was quirkless and I was not. To say there wasn't any hatred or feud between the quirk users and civilians would be a lie. I tried to use my powers to help people out, but the hatred towards quirks just grew because others didn't understand it. They saw the quirked people as villains in the making. Once quirks started appearing more frequently, civilians grew upset since they were slowly becoming growing in numbers. When I got my strong quirk, I was ridiculed upon by many people except my brother."
"Once. Only once did I try to bring the two together only to get overpowered. They beat me up into a pulp when I tried for peace, so I went with my ideas to try to bring order. Those that I helped that didn't want to help me back, so I took their quirk. If they didn't have one, I would just purge them without a thought. Heh, how do you think I survived this long? It's just because of a Longevity quirk I stole around that time." All for One continued, "I will admit that I committed many crimes. But I did truly care for my brother and I didn't like how he was on the different side, so I gave him a quirk that he could use. Then he turned against me to fight for 'justice', be a hero to the others. He didn't stick with his blood, he joined the side of the people who hated me"
"Do you regret killing him?" Izuku asked.
"I regret a lot of things since I have lived for so long." All for One answered, avoiding the questions, "I don't regret taking Shigaraki as my protege. He had the ideal conditions to succeed and continue my legacy once I ran out of time. I want to actually give some quirks back to their owners because I actually have no use for it, but they are quite interesting to me. When a quirk piques my interest, I must have it even if I didn't need it at that time."
Izuku started, "If that was the beginning..."
"Don't worry, I'll skip most of the middle of you for today." All for One replied.
"Then you can tell me the middle another day," Izuku said gently.
All for One slowly nodded before continuing on about what Izuku already knew but from his perspective. How he guided Shigaraki to take over his place. How he commissioned Kurogiri to become his caretaker. How he ordered a doctor to make huge creations of mutations to kill others. How he had allies still around in hiding that the heroes might never find. The time when Shigaraki came back with shot wounds from the USJ incident to the time where he forced Shigaraki to leave during the Big fight between him and All Might. How his legacy gained him the title of the Symbol of Evil before he got locked up in prison years ago.
"You know, I started to care for Shigaraki like he was my son sometimes."
"Really?"
"Yes. Believe it or not." All for One sighed, "Once upon a time, I almost stopped being a villain."
"What?"
"Quite a surprise insist it? Well, I met a woman long before I had my first fight with All Might. I found her quite interesting since she cared about so many things. I actually married her and had a child with her. But then when the child was still very young, I was called away to focus on villainy yet again.. I met Kurogiri and took in Shigaraki during the time I was away from them. I figured the sooner I make the world better, I could return to them even better than before, but then, I started to consider that I might just retire, so I could just live my immortal life out. I might even throw away the longevity quirk just so I could finally die in peace."
"But?" Izuku asked.
"But then, the fight will All Might happened. My unknown child should have ever been around 7 or 8 at this time, never remembering the face of his father. The fight left me with this very unrecognizable face. Even if I returned and retired, I wouldn't think my wife would accept me. So I healed up the best I could and continued to send money for them to be supported from afar. I knew that if my family was ever discovered that they would be held accountable for my crimes or they would be used as bait to lure me in. So I distanced myself even further away from them with no contact except an envelope of money. I know that they are safe away from me, never knowing who I truly am. They could have been hurt, so it was better for me to not be there." All for One said.
Izuku took in the information before a loud intercom cut him off to say that visiting time was over. "Ah, I hope we continue our talk All for One."
"I do as well, Midoriya-Kun."
Izuku waved after bowing slightly to All for One in respect before leaving. All for One nodded to him as the door closed.
'Ah, you have the same determined as my brother, your uncle. I'm glad to know that you are safe, Izuku.' All for One smiled at his thoughts even if his son wasn't in his view anymore. 'I'm proud to see how far you have come. I hope to see you again, Izuku.'
*
After a week of planning, the reformed villains finally cornered Bakugo Katsuki. They had him right where they needed him in the alleyway. They didn't want to kidnap him because...you know...if they did, they would probably have to go to jail. Kurogiri couldn't come because he was in the police station for some reason.
Bakugo sneered, "What the fuck? This shit again? What are you even doing here? You aren't trying to get me to become a villain again, are you?"
"Bold of you to assume that we want you." Jin quipped.
"We are already reformed, Ground Zero. We have no need for anything like that anymore."
Tenko answered smoothly.
"Yeah, I even planned a date this Saturday," Magne added.
"Did you really, big sis?" Himiko asked excitedly.
Magne nodded, "Yeah, I'll give you all the deets after this."
"So what IS going on?!" Bakugo yelled.
Himiko said, "Oh, poor Bakugo. He doesn't even know."
"We know what you did to Izuku." Tenko said chillingly with a smile, "And we aren't happy about it."
"So what? That was in the past! We made up and shit!"
"Oh, really? Where's the proof?"
"Fuck. Wait a second." Bakugo cursed as he got out his phone to search for proof. He wasn't scared of these guys, but that didn't stop his fingers from shaking when he scrolled rough his phone to look for anything.
"What the heck is going on here?" Izuku asked as he walked towards the alleyway.
"Izuku! What are you doing here?" Iguchi questioned.
Izuku looked at them, "Kurogiri warned me that this might happen."
"What he ratted us out?" Touya asked.
Izuku shrugged, "Not important. Why is Kacchan against the wall of this dirty alleyway?"
"Because we were protecting your honor!" Jin answered.
"Come on. We made up and stuff. All of it is in the past. I have forgiven him...mostly." Izuku responded.
They all sighed and Bakugo looked slightly relieved. Well, he looked relieved until Tenko walked over to knee him in the groin.
"OW! Fucking hell!" Bakugo yelled as he slowly sank to the ground on his knees.
"Don't you ever try to bully our cinnamon roll ever again, little bitch." Tenko threatened.
"Tenko!" Izuku said loudly in surprise as he rushed forward to the reformed villain. "Don't do that!"
Izuku sighed while Bakugo just lay silent on the ground in pain. "Okay, nothing to see here. Move along."
"Are we still good for the cafe meetup?" Tenko asked hesitantly while the others started to walk past him.
Izuku nodded, "Yes, now while I deal with him. I'll catch up to you."
While the group walked away, Izuku leaned down to his old friend.
"Sorry about that." Izuku apologized
"It's fine."
"You kind of deserved it..." Izuku mumbled.
Bakugo gasped out, "I know."
"Kirishima is on his way. I called him earlier because I suspected something like this would happen." Izuku replied.
"Bakubro!" Kirishima yelled as he ran to their spot.
"And there he is.." Izuku replied as Kirishima starts to run up to two. "I hope you can forgive them."
Katsuki coughed, "I'll let it slide this time. Next time, I won't hold back from kicking their asses."
"I have no doubt about it. See you later, Kacchan." Izuku said right as Kirishima appeared at the alleyway. Bakugo waved weakly as Izuku skipped away while Kirishima was worrying about him.
"Dude, what happened?" Kirishima asked as he squatted beside his best buddy.
"Nothing much. Just Izuku's friends wanted to defend his honor." Bakugo smirked.
"Hmmm. Well, let's take you back to my apartment. I got some ice and spicy curry."
Kirishima grinned with a bit of sympathy as he helped his bro to his feet.
And just like that, Bakugo vowed to never ever get on Izuku's bad side again since he had a ton of backup.