Chapter Text
Lemillion finds the rooftop in question quite easily. He can fly now, and while he didn’t master the quirk (not yet), he is quite confident about using it. Confident enough to fly over the city and approach the location without anyone seeing him.
He expects some bodyguards, but Legion is alone. Then again, it’s probably one of Twice clones. Or perhaps not, at least not today? Mirio Togata isn’t going to pretend that reading what’s happening in Legion’s mind is easy.
Sir Nighteye tried. Nedzu tried. Lemillion tried. They are still far from getting full read on him, and he is willing to admit that much.
Legion is sitting on the rooftop’s edge, looking down. Honestly speaking, he’s looking like he is considering the jump. Probably at the end of the meeting he will do it, at least if he is a Twice clone.
Lemillion sits right next to him. Then they just sit there for something like a minute. In complete silence. Mirio doesn’t feel like talking first. It’s an awkward moment for them both. Not to mention a painful one.
“Not going to try to arrest me?” Legion asks finally.
“We’ll have enough time to be each other’s nemesis. From tomorrow until either of us dies or you are incarcerated.” Mirio sighs. “Today I’m here as a friend. Just don’t try to commit any crime in front of me, please.”
“Fine.” Legion looks down. Both literally and figuratively.
The awkward silence is there again. How are they supposed to approach the subject of what happened?
“How’s your family doing?” Mirio decides to try that route.
“They are crying.” Izuku smiles faintly. “Inko taught us well. Almost too well. Asa and Eri pretty much cried themselves into sleep. I have no idea how to explain what happened to her. Mom is with Mr. Compress and Kurogiri. Crying too. Compress is probably trying to cheer her up while Kurogiri is warping in additional tissue boxes and providing drinks to replenish the lost liquids. I’m holding quite well. I’m the Symbol of Evil now, I really think that I shouldn’t cry…”
It’s a sad spectacle. Really sad. Sad enough that Lemillion has enough of it. He grabs Legion’s arm and pulls him into a hug. Izuku hugs back and the dam breaks. He cries. A lot. He calms down eventually, but only a bit.
“S..sorry.” Izuku pulls back. Tears are still welling in his eyes, but the dam is back on. “I shouldn’t have… damn it.”
“You needed it, so you did it.” Lemillion shrugs. “I’m not you, so I didn’t record it to humiliate my opponent publicly or anything like that.” Somehow Legion chuckles a bit. “Besides, you just lost your father. It’s alright to cry over that.”
“Didn’t you just lose your mentor and predecessor?” Izuku retorts back. Yeah, that battle was a mutual kill. All for One realized his dream of standing over his fallen nemesis, only to fall to the ground soon after and perish, the wounds and quirks exhaustion overwhelming his regeneration quirks together with the hero reinforcements. “Oh, wait. One for All.” Lemillion nods.
“It takes a few days for a perished Holder to pop back to One for All.” Lemillion replies. “Yoichi told me that. So in a few days I’ll be able to talk with All Might again. At least after Nana stops shouting at him for some party in the United States and after he stops shouting at me for not telling him that All for One is still alive.” He pauses for a second. “You don’t have that much luck.”
“They will also all shout at you that I have way more quirks now.” Legion ads. He is trying to smile wryly while doing so, but the key word is ‘trying’. “Dad gave me most of his before the battle.”
Lemillion freezes for a second. His mind shifts through what he just learned. He isn’t the only one - the heroes in his head are arguing ever since he hugged Legion.
“He expected to die.” Lemillion finally concludes. “Wait, he knew that All Might was back to full strength?!”
“We’re talking about All for One himself, Mirio.” Legion rolls his eyes at his words. “Of course he knew. Despite the League and UA doing their best to hide it. He just popped up in the League headquarters, gave me most of his quirks, took the second copy of Overhaul’s quirk, told me that it’s a father’s thing to sacrifice themselves for their children… and left. To save Eri and to crown me before the world.” He sighs. “I still think that he hoped that he would manage to return to us, though.”
“So All for One’s last act in life was to save the country from dictatorship and unearth decades worth of corruption… all to save his daughter and help his son.” Lemillion summarizes with a sigh. There’s probably a riot in his head. He doesn’t even want to imagine Yoichi's reaction to it. “Family as a cure to evil? Is it that simple?”
“If by family you understand people who stick to you and do their best, regardless of what happens, to help you… then yes?” Legion replies. “Not a panacea, mind you. Even dad was… just slightly less evil at the end, not good by any stretch. But getting support and being accepted is probably very, very important.”
Then he starts crying again. This is going to be a longer evening.
***
YEARS LATER
[and actually not in a chronological order]
1
The plan was perfect. Someone managed to locate the Villain Industries new headquarters. Some shell company or something, with a luxurious penthouse at the top of it supposedly housing Gremlin herself.
Who exactly decided that Dynamight is a good hero to make that arrest was probably an idiot, though. Not as much of an idiot as Dynamight himself was when he referred to his mother as Old Hag in Uraraka’s presence (THAT DAMN WOMAN ALMOST BROKE HIS WRIST DAMMIT but honestly he likes how intimidating she can be, someone to actually have a rivalry with without being an ass like the living thermostat), but close.
Sure, he was a Rank Three Hero at this point (FUCK YOU ICY-HOT AND FUCK YOU MINI-ALLMIGHT) but he wasn’t exactly a low-profile hero. But Mini-AllMight was fighting some destructive gigantified villain elsewhere, and Icy-Hot was… honestly, Bakugou has no idea where he was and he doesn’t care.
He is still salty over that school festival. Sue him for that. He doesn’t give a shit.
With some remote detection-suppression quirk he manages to sneak his way through the building and is almost at the penthouse. Doors are slightly ajar and he can see Gremlin in… wait, is that an All Might pajama?
Whatever fucking dammit.
He leaps through the door. She yells, startled, but he manages to immobilize her on the floor in like three seconds, lessons with Uraraka (it’s certainly not her finding worrying amounts of enjoyment in beating him up, it’s TRAINING) didn’t go to waste and…
It is at this moment that Bakugou notices that they aren’t alone in the room. He sees the majority of the active League members in the room, having some sort of fucked up sleepover. All Might or Lemillion pajamas everywhere. There is a large TV screen showing Lemillion battling the villain as seen from a helicopter.
Vampire and Spinner are actually holding a banner with some LEMILLION #1 written over it. While staring at Bakugou with an obvious shock.
There is also Deku. Because of course there is Deku. Right in front of Bakugou, in fact. Because of fucking course he is right in front of Bakugou.
“No one is ever going to believe you, Kacchan.” He says slowly, and with a worryingly delighted smile. Then he punts Bakugou through the window.
2
The screams and sounds of struggle coming from the warehouse reach a deafening crescendo. Kyoka Jirou (Rank 56 Hero according to the last ranking update, she is satisfied with this) stops listening.
It’s way too painful to listen to.
“What’s happening, Earphone Jack?” One of the policemen asks. They were supposed to raid the warehouse (which was a base of some anti-complex mutant group, one of those who popped up in the wake of CRC’s tragic - well not really tragic - demise). But someone arrived before them.
She quickly scans the available heroes and policemen. Nope. Just no way.
“Murder Rabbits.” She deadpans. “All three.” Policeman goes pale and phones someone much higher in the hero ranking.
Thankfully they have the Symbol of Peace nearby and Earphone Jack can just go home and not get traumatized enough to jump out of the window in horror when Koji brings his pet bunny to their class reunion. Like Mineta did last year.
***
TinTinCan: I need Kurogiri on those coordinates, preferably right now.
SmallMight: ??? What happened?
TinTinCan: Certain triplets in need of a pick-up.
SmalMight: SHIT
SmallMight: Miruko gave them a house arrest but they escaped.
SmallMight: 90% sure that Asa let them out because he thinks they are adorable.
SmallMight: They bonded way too much after he stole a truck full of organic carrots for their last birthday
SmallMight: Papagiri en route, what the hell did they do this time?
TinTinCan: Attacked some anti-complex mutant group base.
SmallMight: … how many victims?
TinTinCan: Twenty thugs, three B-Rankers and two A-Rankers.
SmallMight: Wow. Seriously, wow.
TinTinCan: But they accused each other of stealing kills and ended up coming to blows. They were already unconscious when I arrived.
SmallMight: Oh great. I think I remember their parents pulling something similar in front of some ISP base during the war. Uncle Stain was a sore ass about it for days because he had less kills in the end.
TinTinCan: khe khe
SmallMight: Alright, alright, ugh
SmallMight: So how much is this going to cost me?
TinTinCan: Standard rate for captured League members.
TinTinCan: Sir Nighteye says that he is VERY interested about that human trafficking circle in Hiroshima.
SmallMight: Oh yeah sure take them out, those asshats are creepy. I’ll send you the address tomorrow, just you know, gather the evidence first so that nobody knows it’s me.
TinTinCan. Right.
TinTinCan: Izuku.
SmallMight: Yes?
TinTinCan: Could you organize some anger management classes for the rabbits?
SmallMight: Why?
TinTinCan: BECAUSE THEY ARE THIRTEEN YEARS OLD AND I DON’T WANT THEM TO BE LIKE THAT WHEN THEY ARE ADULTS
SmallMight: Did I mention that Miruko is pregnant again?
TinTinCan: NO
3
Stain, despite being a crucial part of the League of Villains, had some mixed feelings about it. Oh, he still endorsed whatever Legion did - Izuku had convictions and ironclad will. It’s just that… he wasn’t sure if he liked the result.
The world grew atrociously peaceful. Most of the villain versus hero battles were to a various degree staged (although the public didn’t know). It was the price that the heir of All Might decided to pay for the country not being at risk of descending into the same hell-on-earth status that it had a few years ago.
Of course, both sides believed in their ideologies. That was a plus. League of Villains didn’t tolerate punch-clock villains in their midst - they all believed in their own visions of the world, just agreed to only pursue them in certain ways. There were many true heroes out there, worthy successors of All Might, to fight them.
It’s just… it didn’t feel right when no one was really putting their life on the line. Well, except for some fights. When some foreign villains rolled in or some previously League-aligned group took its self-imposed limitations as a sign of weakness. But… that wasn’t very common at this point.
Then again, Stain has also realized how soft he got in the meantime. Oh, he was still deadly, that much didn’t change. It’s just that nowadays he was mostly busy teaching the new generation of villains how to fight properly. He still killed a hero or two occasionally (if they acted REALLY bad), just… his recent average was this happening once a year.
Rather pathetic. Although how much of that was due to bad heroes being very rare?
He was thinking this over while picking up the diapers in the supermarket (Miruko kept sending him to buy stuff like that as punishment when he lost a spar, and unfortunately, he lost the last one). He was interrupted when he heard some loud noises coming from the direction of the counter.
He decided to investigate. He realized that it was something interesting when he saw that there was a hero talking to the guy behind the counter. And, considering the look on the cashier’s face, it wasn’t anything nice.
Stain spent half a minute listening to the talk. Then he realized what it was about.
Hero wanted some FREE STUFF. Because he was a HERO. And when the cashier tried to say no (completely reasonable), the hero started to make thinly veiled threats of the shop getting into ‘problems’.
Oh, no. That will not stand.
“I’d leave the shop if I were you.” Stain says, and the hero turns his head towards him.
“Oh? And why is that?” Hero fails to perceive him as a threat. C’mon, the All Might merchandise that he is wearing does make him look tame (especially the colourful and honestly rather horrible glasses), but he should have enough situational awareness to see the amount of muscles under the shirt, right?
Stain doesn’t answer. Instead he takes off the fake nose (it’s quite shocking how well it hides who he is). After maybe five seconds, the hero goes white.
“S…sstain.” He says, taking a step back. He ends up hitting the counter.
“I have a one warning policy nowadays.” Stain announces. “This is your warning. You are a hero. Act like one. Apologize to the cashier and fuck off.” He lets out some of his Malicious Intent. He isn’t sure from this range, but he thinks that the hero actually wet himself. “And just so we are clear, you are going to be under observation. Until your death. With all the League’s resources. Either retire now, or be the best hero you can possibly be. Or I WILL find you. And gut you like a pig.”
As the hero hurriedly apologizes to the cashier (and Stain plans how to leave the area before the hero reinforcements arrive, but not before paying for the diapers, Miruko would have murdered him for stealing from a shop), the Hero Killer realizes that he is still needed. Maybe for a few more years? Then he’ll focus on teaching the next generation (especially his own part of it) how to fight properly.
He still is rather conflicted about the way the world works nowadays. But he is going to leave dealing with it to his children. If they want to change it, the will have to achieve it by their own hand. Like their parents did.
4
SmallMight: You have been cordially invited to the celebration.
SmallMight: In the League’s headquarters.
SmallMight: Tomorrow evening.
TinTinCan: this isn’t the anniversary of Overhaul finally kicking the bucket, so… what’s happening?
SmallMight: I’m technically inviting Nana, you’re an… accompanying person.
TinTinCan: … Tenko?
SmallMight: Another Shimura in the family.
TinTinCan: Jesus Christ
TinTinCan: Tell him what contraceptives are, he gets Suto pregnant almost every year
SmallMight: okay, first of all, this is his fifth child thus far
SmallMight: stop exaggerating
TinTinCan: -_-
SmallMight: Second of all, did you get to see the look on his face when he sees Suto and four (well, five now) little Sutos in the room with him?
SmallMight: You have never seen a man this happy in your life, I guarantee you
TinTinCan: ugh
SmallMight: also his oldest son loves All Might’s cartoons and MIGHT be sleeping in All Might’s onesies so… I think the next generation of Shimuras is going to be on your side (we all know that the former one is retired now), although they MIGHT be kinda … wolfy.
TinTinCan: I changed my mind
TinTinCan: MORE CHILDREN
SmallMight: …
5
Eraserhead is sitting in the UA’ principal office, alone. It’s his office now, although he still has no idea how that happened. Literally. He woke up in this office with all the paperwork done the day Nedzu vanished. With no idea where he was during the last two hours.
Nedzu left a letter stating that he could technically keep doing his rat things from jail but it’d be boring now that the HPSC president is dead, so he is going to disappear before Sir Nighteye acts on All Might’s promise and issues an arrest warrant for him. Eraserhead decided that he’s so done with the mousebear that he doesn’t even want to bother going after him (especially as Stain’s affair was also an issue to him).
No one saw him again. Sir Nighteye and Lemillion are still pretending that this online consultant of theirs that’s helping them play their perpetual wargame with Legion is a human being, and not a villainous chimera in hiding. Mostly because he has a very well protected online connection. Another thing that Eraserhead really doesn’t care about.
He takes much less naps recently, which might have thrown his sense of reality off-balance. He has de facto retired from being an underground hero. So did Ms. Joke. Having children is, apparently, time consuming. Who would have known? He is fairly satisfied with the world outside being peaceful. And slightly peeved at how half of the League members are pretty much celebrities at this point, especially after Compress published his trilogy of films (if he sees one more student carrying Vampire merch he is going to commit manslaughter, don’t they realize that woman stabbed their principal at the USJ?!).
And he isn’t even digging into the part where someone (and he is almost certain that Legion and Lemillion were somehow connected) has made a collectible card game about the darkest days of Japan. And yes, it was a smash hit as well. He also doesn’t like the graphic design of his own card.
Japan is making less and less sense as the time passes, really. Legion and Lemillion are to be blamed, no doubt about it. Legion is mostly playing around with the crime, until some villain group tries to break off from the League, breaks the rules or comes from outside of Japan without asking and conforming to the local rules.
Then he gets nasty (as in, ‘let’s massacre them all and leave their bodies in some public place to scare the next batch of idiots straight’ nasty). And yes, people still remember what happened with those Russians. Ugh.
Lemillion keeps going after him and his associates but they are for some reason very well hidden and when they are arrested, Vanguard Action Squad attacks the convoy (without killing anyone, of course) and they are gone. Eraserhead is also super done with that.
It greatly contributed to his retirement as an underground hero.
At least the discrimination issues are becoming less and less of a problem, according to the stats (when both the Symbol of Peace and the Symbol of Evil hate you, you’re done with life). Crime rates are down too. Terror groups go for assassinations (or flashy non-lethal battles against heroes in front of the cameras to increase public awareness of their problems) rather than blowing up public spaces.
Yeah, they are positives of the situation. But this is still messed up. And he still doesn’t care.
New year is about to start. The entrance results are in and they have already sorted out the classes. Eraserhead is skimming through the list of his soon-to-be menaces, trying to figure out who is going to be this year’s problem child and…
Oh.
Shigaraki Eri.
Maybe he should retire from being principal too?