FAMILY RESPONSIBILITIES
Floating several meters above the ground, his pristine suit fluttering to the rhythm of the thermal updrafts, All For One weighed the perfect strike to destroy the Symbol of Peace once and for all. Before him stood a haggard, bleeding All Might, barely clinging to the dying embers of his flame. Victory was not merely imminent: it had been engineered with millimeter precision.
Then, the emperor of the underworld descended slowly, setting his polished dress shoes upon the rubble to take in the scenery and savor the moment. His quirk-radar swept the perimeter, surveying the surroundings.
And that was when his sensors picked it up.
About forty meters away, half-hidden behind a collapsed pillar, was Izuku. His little, fragile, freckled Izu. The very same boy he used to read feudal lord tales to before pretending to leave on business trips abroad.
Except Izuku wasn’t alone. He was on his knees, shielding with his own body a tiny, white-haired girl sporting a small horn on her forehead. The little girl trembled from head to toe, clutching the torn fabric of Izuku’s green costume as if it were her only anchor in the entire universe.
"Daddy… I’m scared," the girl sobbed, burying her face into the boy’s chest.
AFO.exe has stopped working.
All For One froze entirely. The hum of raw strength quirks, muscle enhancers, and shockwaves died down inside him, one after another. His brain, capable of orchestrating nationwide conspiracies for over a century, crashed against a single, unforeseen variable.
Daddy?, My Izu… a father?, She’s like six years old! How early did this boy start? Who is the mother? Why didn’t anyone throw him a gender reveal party?!
I’m a grandfather!
All Might, fist raised and face drenched in blood, readied himself for the final clash, his breathing ragged.
"All For One! This ends here and n—!"
"Shut up for a second, Toshinori, I’m in the middle of something important," the villain dismissed with absolute disdain, putting a hand up to shush him.
From within the folds of his black suit jacket, the man who plunged Japan into a dark age pulled out a cell phone. With surprisingly hurried fingers, he dialed the number saved on speed dial under the contact name Gorgeous Wife.
Barely two rings went by.
"Inko? Yes, it's me, Hisashi," he said, turning his back completely on the Pro Heroes. "Listen to me closely, I’m in a work meeting and it’s pretty loud here. What do you mean I’m a grandfather?"
On the other end of the line, Inko’s voice sounded somewhere between bewildered and mildly exasperated:
"Hisashi? What on earth are you talking about? Where are you? You said you were coming back from California last month and—"
"Inko, don’t change the subject!" he exclaimed, dropping his voice to an urgent whisper. "I am looking at our son this very second. He has a little girl in his arms. An adorable, pale little creature with a precious tiny horn. And she just called him daddy! Why am I only finding out now that I have a granddaughter? Where was I? Why didn’t you send me an ultrasound picture?!"
All Might slowly lowered his arms, blinking in an utter stupor that hurt far worse than his internal injuries. A few meters away, Izuku froze petrified, his gaze darting between the terror of the battlefield and the sheer horror of hearing his father’s voice echoing through the helmet of the country’s worst nightmare.
"What little girl, Hisashi?!" Inko shrieked through the receiver. "Izuku is sixteen years old, he barely knows how to cook rice without burning it!"
"Well, it looks like he matured ahead of schedule, Inko! And the child is cold, she’s terrified in the middle of a dump. Hold on, don’t hang up."
All For One pulled the phone away for a second, locked his eyeless visor straight onto Izuku, and, in the booming authoritative tone of a father at Christmas dinner, barked across the crater:
"Izuku Midoriya! Why is my granddaughter in the middle of an active war zone?! Get that child to safety right this instant or I swear I'm confiscating your action figures until you turn thirty!"
Izuku felt reality unraveling faster than the crumbling buildings around him. Did All For One—All Might’s living nightmare, the titan of destruction—just threaten to seize his All Might collection while on the phone with his mom?
"D-Dad...?" the freckled boy stammered, pale as a sheet, still holding Eri protectively against his chest.
Before he could piece together a single coherent thought, a blast of wind and dust kicked up before them. With a brutal crash that splintered the asphalt, an athletic silhouette dropped into a low crouch right in front of Izuku and the girl.
Mirko snapped upright, rabbit ears erect on maximum alert, muscles taut and combat-ready, a defiant grin plastered across her bloodied face.
"Hang tight, kid!" the Number 5 hero roared, flexing legs packed with pure dynamite. "I don’t know what the hell this masked sack of potatoes is rambling about, but he’ll lay a finger on you over my dead body!"
All For One regarded the rabbit woman with a clinical, calculating gaze. His brain, a supercomputer sharpened across centuries of Machiavellian plots, processed the scene in micro-fractions of a second:
* Long, voluminous white hair: present on the rabbit heroine.
* Long, voluminous white hair: present on the child.
* Visible mutant traits: present on the heroine.
* Visible mutant traits: present on the child.
* A feral, instinctual beast throwing herself between danger and her offspring: archetypal maternal behavior.
* Izuku had always harbored a weakness for intense personalities with high-tier quirks.
A spark of absolute epiphany flashed behind the villain's visor.
He leveled an accusatory finger, trembling faintly with a mix of outrage and familial shock.
"YOU!!" All For One bellowed, his voice echoing like thunder across the ruined landscape.
Mirko scowled, stepping forward with clenched fists.
"What’s your problem, egghead? You want a piece of me? Come get it!"
"Don’t you dare take that tone with me, young lady!" the dark lord shot back. "WHY IS MY DAUGHTER-IN-LAW ALLOWING MY GRANDDAUGHTER IN AN ACTIVE COMBAT ZONE?!"
Mirko blinked. One of her ears flopped slightly to the side.
"Daughter-in-law? What the sh—"
"I am talking about basic responsibility, Miss Rabbit!" AFO cut her off, gesturing wildly with both hands. "Do you have any idea how difficult it is to juggle a marriage and a double life in the criminal underworld, only to find out behind my back that my son hooked up with a Top 10 hero?! And not just that! You two had a child! Did you give any thought whatsoever to the girl's financial future?! Izuku hasn't even graduated from U.A.! Who is paying for her health insurance?! Who is buying the diapers?! Are you keeping her in an underground daycare while the two of you play cops and robbers?!"
Silence smothered Kamino once more. All Might stared blankly up at the sky, desperately wishing some rogue quirk would render him deaf.
Mirko, processing every syllable through a brand of logic that completely bypassed common sense, looked at All For One. Then she looked down: she saw the pale, white-haired girl with red eyes identical to her own, shivering in the arms of the freckled kid. She looked back at Izuku, and then at the girl again.
Inside her adrenaline-fueled, kick-happy brain—entirely devoid of diplomatic filters—something clicked.
Moving with terrifying speed, she pivoted and got right up in a horrified Izuku's face, glaring down at him with a murderous scowl.
"Hey, BROCCOLI!!" Mirko shouted, barely an inch away, pointing a sharp finger at Eri. "Why the hell didn't you tell me we had a daughter?!"
"WHAAAAAT?!!!" Izuku shrieked. "RUMI-SAN, NO!! YOU AND I NEVER EVEN SPOKE UNTIL THREE WEEKS AGO AT THAT ONE PRESS BRIEFING!! THIS IS NOT BIOLOGICALLY POSSIBLE!!"
"Don’t hit me with weird medical excuses, freckles!" Mirko barked, clutching her own head, thoroughly offended. "The kid is my spitting image! Look at my hair! Look at hers! She’s got red eyes and looks like she wants to dropkick someone! When did this happen?! Was it after some agency bash where I had way too much fermented juice?! Are you hiding custody of my own kid from me, you reckless little brat?!"