Work Text:
All For One was done.
He's had enough. He's been leading Japan's crime scene for half a century, but this was it. He was washing his hands off this mess.
You might wonder, why would the greatest villain of all time simply give up? He hadn't even gotten to the stage where he would be crowned the king of the world, hadn't had a chance to grow bored of it, as cliche as it was.
No, he was quitting while he was ahead. All For One had no desire to become an example for the sunk cost fallacy, and that was exactly what this entire endeavor was: a waste of time and effort. An exercise in frustration.
Regardless of how careful he was with hiring only the smartest underlings, how long he spent trying to train them up to his exact specifications, somehow, they never learned. The incompetence was staggering.
All For One found himself jealous of the hero sidekicks at one point, watching them work together like a well-oiled machine under their agency's guidance. It was ridiculous; All For One didn't do jealousy.
So here he was: At a hero gala with a flute of champagne in hand, having officially convinced the freshly created HPSC that yes, he was a hero, he's always been a hero, and he was more than competent enough to be given one of their shiny new hero licenses.
Was it a bit drastic? Perhaps. Was it a sign of an encroaching midlife crisis? Perish the thought. All For One was immortal, there wouldn't be a noticeable middle of his lifetime.
Would he need to change his behaviour? ...Technically, no.
There were plenty of heroes considered to be scary, and even more corrupt ones. All For One had exploited them quite ruthlessly while he ruled over the crime empire.
But what would have been the point of switching sides if he half-assed it? If he only changed his position nominally? If he was doing something, he was going to do it right.
It didn't mean he was going to let the government (/derogatory) dictate his moves, but he would ensure that Polyfold — as he was now known — rose to the top of the ranking. The public would trust him above all else, and there would be no one to stop him!
There was only oneeeeee small hiccup.
"YOU!"
And its name was Shimura Nana.
"Me," he turned to face her, having wisely activated an area-of-effect silencing quirk the moment he noticed her approach. "Hello, Thief."
Oh, wonderful. There was a teenager at her elbow. Not her son (All For One had researched Kotaro, having shelved the idea of messing with him and archiving it entirely once he switched sides) but some blonde kid with a wild mane of hair. Thief Junior, All For One would bet.
"What are you doing here?!" She kept her distance, wisely enough. Where was that wisdom when she decided to confront him in the middle of a busy party?
He motioned with the flute. "Enjoying the party."
"Cut the crap-"
"My, my, such language around young ears?" He tutted, head tilting towards the boy. "Not very heroic of you, now, is it?"
Shimura fumed, but there was nothing she could actually do. At least she realized that before trying to tackle him; All For One would have had to let her get a few punches in just to keep up his heroic persona-
Oh, nevermind. Some two heroes on the other side of the room just started brawling.
All For One furrowed his brows, attention pulled away from the Thief. "Is that normal?" He asked, vaguely concerned. Shimura glanced over her shoulder — he'd have to remember this trick for the future if it was that easy — and shrugged.
"It is the first hero gala," she said, dryly, before remembering who she was talking to. "And I won't let you ruin it!"
"Seems to me like those two heroes are doing just that."
She was conflicted, that much was clear. All For One was honestly curious to see which of her urges would win: the one to pick a fight with him, or the one to go deal with the brawlers.
If he had placed a bet on the outcome, he would have lost money. Watching Shimura's retreating back, he was certain that this wasn't going to be the end of their confrontation.
Partially because she had left the teenager behind.
"Why did you call master a thief?" The boy asked unceremoniously, staring at All For One curiously.
"Because she is one."
That, predictably, wasn't enough to sate the boy's curiosity.
"I gave my brother a quirk." Hadn't she told the boy the backstory of his legacy? "She is one in the long line of those who took it from him as, I presume, are you."
Bushy brows wandered together, the cogs turning. "Isn't it impossible to steal, though?"
All For One snorted, taking a sip of his champagne. "No quirk is impossible to steal, boy, and you'd do well to remember that. Brainwash quirks, emotional manipulation quirks, hell- classic old school manipulation. There's many ways to obtain that which seems unobtainable."
More thinking happened behind those bright blue eyes. The boy was quiet for so long, All For One almost thought this was the end of their conversation. He glanced in the direction where Shimura disappeared, but the crowds obscured the potentially-still-brawling men.
"You're a hero, now?"
He turned towards the teenager with a small sigh. "Yes."
"Why?"
"Simply put? Because villains are incompetent. Every single one of them." That didn't seem to satisfy the boy. "What do you want me to say? That I saw the error of my ways and decided to repent by serving the public? Don't make me laugh. I was never wrong. I was the one who offered mutants safety when the government was hell bent on hunting them all down. They marked me a villain, and I simply never bothered to do anything about that label as I went about my business."
Blinking, he glanced at the flute in his hand. He barely had any of the champagne, there was no way it had been strong enough to prompt that tirade.
"You killed a lot of people," the boy said, voice quiet.
All For One snorted mirthlessly. "Show me an adult in this room who hadn't." The boy opened his mouth, hesitated. Closed them again. "Or will you tell me that it's different? That those kills are justified just because the people who died were criminals?"
The teenager had no response to that.
"Contrary to what you might have been told," All For One really should have left it at that, but he felt the need to elaborate. "I haven't murdered all that many people. I prefer to leave my opponents alive but utterly defeated. And before you argue: the Thieves stole from my family. If they gave the quirk back at any point, they would have lived."
And they would have; Most hadn't died directly at All For One's hand but rather as a result of fighting him for the quirk. He had only been interested in dispatching those two who dared to steal his brother as well as the quirk. The rest, he hardly cared about.
"Didn't you say the quirk was easy to steal-"
"Shut up." All For One growled. "And, for the record, I didn't say that. I said it wasn't impossible."
The boy hummed at him. And then reached to pull out a hair (???) and presented it to All For One.
"Here," he said. "If I give it back, you'll have no reason to kill anymore, right?"
All For One stared. "What do you want me to do with that hair?" He asked, incredulous.
"Eat it," the boy sounded nonchalant. "That's how you pass it on."
All For One plucked the hair out of his grip, washing it down with the remainder of his champagne, because of course he did.
And then he felt the unmistakable slap up the head his brother was so fond of.
"Give it back," Yoichi's voice demanded. "You don't need even more power, and I don't want you to have this quirk. I want Toshinori."
All For One blinked, lips stretching into a smile. "Brother-"
"If you don't give it back, I'll spend every single second of your life singing all the songs you hate-"
"Jesus, fine," All For One slapped his hand against the boy's — Toshinori's — forehead, passing the quirk back. "There, happy now?"
He didn't expect a response. He got one nonetheless.
"Yes." Yoichi's voice was quieter now, weaker, but All For One could still hear it.
Honestly, in this case, he didn't even need the quirk. He had more than enough of his own stock and, now, he had his brother back in whatever small capacity was still possible.
"What-" Ah, right. The boy. "Why did you give it back?"
"Yoichi likes you better, apparently." The name didn't seem to spark any recognition, but that wasn't All For One's problem.
There were tears in his eyes now. "I don't want you to kill master," the boy said through wobbly lips.
All For One rolled his eyes.
"It's not unreasonable for him to believe, brother," Yoichi's voice chided. "You did kill everyone else in the line, myself included."
Argument for another time, that.
"I'm not going to kill her," All For One promised, since it costed him nothing. "Nor you. I got what I wanted."
He retreated then, no longer in the mood for dealing with him nor Shimura once she returned.
