The Successor (My Hero Academia)

Letting out a shuddering breath, Izuku Midoriya opens his mouth to say something… but nothing comes out. In the end, what is there to say? He steps forward and takes his father's hand, beginning the process of transferring Quirks between them once again. Except this time is different, undeniably so. Before, it was more of an exchange. Not that Izuku gave his father anything, but it was a carefully curated package of Quirks that his father had metaphysically 'held out' to him, Quirks designed to allow Izuku to use One For All without breaking his body every single time.

Now… now it's different. Because while his father is still offering it all up, this nevertheless feels a lot more like Izuku is taking more than receiving. He's never used his own Quirk like this. His own version of All For One has gone an awful long time without getting to experience this effect. He'd starved it all these years, in order to make his and his father's plan work.

Now he gorges it and himself on all of the Quirks that the original All For One has consumed and hoarded over the past century and some change. He takes and takes and watches with dismay as his already injured father begins to wither away, right before his eyes. And yet, Izuku does not look away. Even as the tears swell at the corners of his eyes, even as they fall, he keeps on looking.

He owes this man, his father, that much at least. For all that Hiashi Midoriya has done for his son, for all that he's given him, for all that Izuku is taking now… he deserves to be witnessed in his final moments.

"Good… g-good… b-boy…"

The tears do fall then, big honking ones that Izuku is not at all proud of. It's one of the things he hates the most about himself, how when he cries, he cries hard. But right now, it feels… right, in a way. The pain, the grief, the sense of loss, it feels right. Izuku cries big honking tears and watches his father wither away in front of him.

In the end, the original All For One is barely alive by the time Izuku is done. Hiashi Midoriya hangs on by a thread without the entire suite of regeneration and healing perks that he'd stolen to keep himself alive in the wake of the horrific damage that All Might's attack had caused. Through sheer force of will, the original All For One, brought to the point of having no Quirk but his own, gives Izuku one more nod and one final piece of advice.

"Now… finish it, my son. Make this the f-first of many… victories."

Knowing exactly what his father means, it doesn't make Izuku happy about it. Nevertheless, he draws his hand back. The power thrumming through him now is more than intense, it's almost maddening. But Izuku was made for this. He was made to contain all of these Quirks, just like his father before him. Activating One For All without hurting himself, with all the other minor Quirks he has to back it up is child's play.

Punching through his father's chest and rupturing his heart is… probably going to haunt Izuku for a long, long time. But it needs to be done. His father wouldn't have lasted much longer anyways, but he needed to have a proper cause of death. He needed… he needed to die at the hands of an Aspiring Pro Hero.

Even as the tears eventually stop falling, Izuku's mind is already whirling. He's a smart boy. He knows what needs to happen now, he knows what sort of plan he needs to enact. Taking his eyes off of his father's corpse and laying them on Nana Shimura, Izuku lets out a shuddering breath… before lifting his clean hand palm up in the air.

"Kurogiri… phone."

It's a test as much as it is anything else. If his father hadn't told Kurogiri his plan, then it was possible Izuku had just created an enemy. But… Izuku didn't think that his dad would make such an unfortunate oversight. His confidence is answered a moment later by a smaller portal appearing over his open palm and a burner phone dropping into his hand.

Looking down at it, Izuku considers his next step… before looking to Nana Shimura first. He now knew exactly how his father had put the former One For All bearer in stasis… because he now had the exact Quirk that the original All For One had utilized to do so. Reaching out, it's all too easy for Izuku to collapse the stasis field, the clear glass surface of the large coffin-like box shattering.

Nana begins to fall forward, no longer frozen in time, and Izuku leans in to catch her, the power of dozens of physical enhancement Quirks as well as One For All thrumming through his muscles. He catches Nana Shimura and cradles her as he slowly sinks to his knees. She's breathing, he ascertains quickly enough… and so Izuku waits for her to open her eyes. He doesn't have to wait long before her long lashes begin to flutter and she slowly looks up at him, gaze filled with awe and wonder.

Offering a watery smile, Izuku clutches her close, this last gift of his father's.

"H-Hey there… you're okay now. You're safe. I… I saved you."

Nana Shimura reaches up and runs a hand across Izuku's face, her childlike wonder not changing as she looks at him like he's her God. Letting a watery chuckle make its way out of his throat, Izuku lifts up the phone in his other hand.

"Let's… let's get you out of here, alright? I just need to place a call real quick."

Flipping open the burner and dialing a number he knows by heart at this point, Izuku holds the phone to his ear and waits patiently, trying to ignore how good Nana Shimura's body feels against his own… and the way she's rubbing against him surreptitiously, even as she continues to gawk at him. After a moment, a familiar voice comes over the other end.

"Yo, Toshinori speaking."

"A-All Might… it's me. It's Izuku. S-Something… something happened?"

"Young Midoriya! What's wrong? Where are you?!"

"I was… well, I g-guess I was kidnapped. Um… I killed a man, All Might. I dunno where I am… where WE are… I was hoping you could track this phone's location?"

"… Not to worry, Young Midoriya! I will put my best people on it! What's this about you killing a man?"

Glancing back over his shoulder at the bed where his father's corpse lies, Izuku swallows thickly… and answers honestly, dropping the bombshell to end all bombshells.

"He called himself All For One… and said he was my father."

-x-X-x-

Despite his inherent sadistic side, Nezu was still quite capable of empathy, especially when it came to those close to him. And he certainly feels empathy for the man sat across from him right now. Yagi Toshinori, otherwise known as All Might, had been looking… smaller, for some years now. Ever since taking that injury that would have killed a lesser Pro Hero, he had been reduced to a shadow of his former self.

But then, if the Toshinori that Nezu had interacted with for the past several years was a shadow of his former self, then the man sitting in front of him now was a shadow of a shadow. This Toshinori was not just feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders… but the weight of his own personal failures as well, dragging him down.

"The boy… he's such a good boy, Nezu. I was right to name him my successor. I just… I had no idea."

Nezu nods along at that, even as his genius level intellect processes the day's numerous bombshells. Finding out that All For One was alive all this time was a shock in and of itself. All Might and his allies, Nezu included, had been operating under the impression that the villain had died all those years ago in that final, fateful confrontation.

Now though… that was revealed to not be the case. More than that, it turned out even before All Might and All For One's fateful final duel, the latter… had reproduced.

Obviously, the boy's words had had to be tested. But the results were already back and revealed that All For One, for all his evil, had not been lying. At least for a very small time before abandoning them entirely, All For One had masqueraded as Hiashi Midoriya, seducing Inko Midoriya and impregnating her, leading to the birth of Izuku Midoriya… All Might's chosen successor.

Now, Nezu didn't believe in coincidences… but then, as the boy had explained to them, there were no coincidences here. All For One had been planning to utilize Izuku to finally get One For All back all his life. It might, in fact, have been the only reason that he had a child in the first place. Everything had been arranged so that All Might and Izuku would cross paths… and going even further back than that, there were suspicions that Izuku's entire life had been manipulated from behind the scenes by his villainous father, in order to make Izuku the exact kind of person, a heroic kind of person, that would draw All Might in.

It seemed, however, that All For One wasn't banking on being bedridden by his final combat with All Might… nor was he planning for his son to truly be so heroic that he would reject his own father. That was what had happened, of course. All For One had had Izuku kidnapped and then explained the situation to the boy, before demanding that he hand over One For All right then and there.

Things had escalated, from what Izuku had told them. And All For One had ended up dead… dead by his own son's fist through his chest cavity. This too, weighed heavily on Nezu's heart. No one should suffer like that; no boy should have to kill their own father. Toshinori clearly felt the same, and clearly felt like a failure for having to force Izuku to clean up after him.

But it was worse than that, at least for Toshinori. Because it had gone a step further… All For One had, in the process of revealing his grand plan to his prodigal son, also revealed another massive secret. Nana Shimura was alive. Rather than killing her, All For One had kidnapped her that fateful day and spirited her away. While Yagi had been off in America making a name for himself as All Might, All For One had had unrestricted access to Nana Shimura, doing whatever he liked with the woman.

Even for Nezu, it was horrifying to think about. But for the broken, dying man behind the persona of All Might, it was obviously a lot, LOT worse.

"All that time… he had her all that time. I didn't save her. I didn't kill him. I couldn't… d-do anything. In the end, Young Midoriya had to handle all of it."

Folding his paws in front of him, Nezu frowns most severely.

"You had no way of knowing, Yagi. Today's revelations are shocking, there is no doubt about that. But you had no way of knowing any of this. It was… that man's machinations went undetected by us all for this entire time. We must have only peeled back the surface of his operations after his supposed death, and with his demise, we thought we got it all. Instead, he was still working, still plotting, still planning. Still, take solace in the fact that he failed. All For One is dead, truly this time. And Nana Shimura is returned to us, alive and well."

Letting out a choked sob, along with some hacked up blood, Yagi Toshinori nods.

"Y-Yes. And she's barely aged a day… she'll live much longer than me, at this rate. Strange to think about… but a-appropriate in a way. I… you're right, of course. Young Midoriya has succeeded as my successor within days of receiving One For All. He is a much better bearer for my Quirk than I ever was."

Slamming a paw down onto his desk, Nezu lets a low growl exit his throat.

"Do not say that! You are still the Symbol of Peace! And Izuku Midoriya still has a lot to learn before he will be ready to take your place. You, All Might, are still needed!"

Something in Toshinori's slumped shoulders straightens at that. He sits up, and a bit of his old fire returns to his sunken eyes.

"You're right."

But as quickly as it appears, it gutters out again and Nezu… Nezu mourns for his friend, because he knows in that moment that All Might is truly gone, and only a ghost of his shell remains. And who knows how long they'll get even that…

"Unfortunately, I will not be able to take up that position at U.A. this year after all. The world… the world needs as much of All Might as I can give it for as much longer as I can manage it. Who knows what other evils are lurking out there, just waiting for me? And… it's not as if Young Midoriya will need any more of my tutelage. He's already well on his way to becoming a fantastic hero."

Nezu grunts at that.

"Not so fast. He still needs plenty to learn… but I understand why you feel you are no longer up to the task. I understand and accept your decision."

Yagi just nods, looking away. The combined shock of finding out that All For One was alive all this time, as well as holding Nana prisoner… had caused a physical attack within the ailing Pro Hero. A string of heart attacks, combined with a stroke. Recovery Girl had done the best she could to help him, but at the end of the day, they were at the point where all they could do was make him more comfortable.

But of course, someone like Toshinori did not care for comfort. He would spend the rest of his limited time doing what hero work he could… and all Nezu could really hope for was that when the man finally did die, it would be in bed, rather than him keeling over in front of witnesses…

In the meantime, Nezu had his work cut out for him. This next year at U.A. was already shaping up to be a wild one, what with the faculty changes and the incoming crop of First Years. It was both exciting, and incredibly stressful. More than anything though, U.A.'s principal wanted to see what young Izuku Midoriya would manage.

The boy was the child of All For One… but at the same time had proved himself a hundredfold, first with all those months of personal training with All Might, and then with his own father's death, rather than giving in and giving All For One what he wanted. In Nezu's mind, there was no doubt that Izuku Midoriya had what it took. He was excited to see just how far the boy would go…

-x-X-x-

After the… incident, Izuku found himself staying in U.A.'s facilities overnight, ostensibly for them to observe him, presumably because he was in shock. And to be fair, he was in some sort of state. Most of it was manufactured by his Quirks, of course. With the Quirks he'd taken from his father before killing him, Izuku could engineer any sort of act or disguise that he wanted.

Still, he was a little in shock. Not from killing his father, he was coming to terms with that much easier than they probably expected him to, on account of the truth being that his own father ASKED him to do it in order to give Izuku the best chance of a clean future as a Pro Hero. No, Izuku's honest shock actually stemmed from watching All Might literally nearly die just from the discoveries that Izuku had dropped on him.

He really hadn't been planning on that. He'd actually thought the reveals, that All For One was truly dead and that Nana Shimura was safe and sound and out of enemy hands, might even bolster the flagging, ailing Number One Pro Hero. It was a bit of oversight that Izuku intended to learn from, because he realized now that he really hadn't thought about it from Toshinori's point of view.

Rather than all of this being a good thing… instead it was all an example of All Might's multiple personal failures, wasn't it? He'd absconded to America and left his living predecessor in their greatest enemy's hands. He'd not followed up closely enough after nearly killing All For One all those years ago, and that had come back to bite him in the ass. And… he'd given his Quirk to Izuku, and if not for Izuku's 'heroic spirit', then he might as well have nearly handed the One For All Quirk right back into All For One's hands.

All of that put together… well, Izuku supposed it was no wonder that Yagi very nearly died from the shock of those three things. Luckily, the man had managed to pull through and would make as much of a recovery as he could, according to Recovery Girl herself. But at the same time, how much weaker he would be… Izuku was left to wonder, he truly was.

Laying in a bed in a guest suite deep within U.A., Izuku finds himself staring up at the ceiling… until the door to the room suddenly cracks open, and a familiar figure creeps in. Thanks to several night vision Quirks, Izuku easily recognizes Nana Shimura as she closes the door behind her and moves over to his bed, crawling under the covers with him.

She's hugging him a moment later… and not being at all subtle about what she wants as she moans and rubs against him. Blushing, Izuku ponders what to do about THIS new development. Not that he's all that surprised, before All Might's arrival, Nana had begun to get handsy with him, having sensed Izuku's erection from her soft body pressed against his.

Luckily, before anything could happen there, All Might had arrived, and everything had been too chaotic for Nana to do anything of that sort. She'd stuck close to him though, and they'd only finally separated an hour ago for bed. That, apparently, was a separation too far for the raven-haired woman.

Should he… take advantage of this? He was certainly tempted. His cock was already starting to strain against his pajamas, thanks to her body heat and the softness of her womanly figure. He did have options, however. He could let her do what she wanted to do, and see where she took this, see what she decided she wanted out of him.

Or he could take control and get what he wanted out of HER. Based off of his father's explanation and Nana's mewling insistence, she would most definitely not mind him being forceful with her.

Finally, he could put a stop to this and… well, just let her cuddle with him, nothing more. He doubted he could get her to go back to her own room at this point, but at the very least, he probably shouldn't be having sex with her right off the bat. But then, if he didn't do anything he 'shouldn't be doing', he wouldn't have committed patricide earlier today.