Chapter Text
“I’m too old for this crap.” Muttered a yellow-clad initially retired pro hero.
He and Toshinori’s detective friend, who was also in the know, had needed a breather after learning about the whole All for One and time travel mess. He decidedly went on to ignore the fact that they were the only two survivors of the entire nation and that a lot more people knew about One for All now. Namely, all the UA heroics teaching staff, and a class of first years.
They had bigger problems anyway.
“So, preserving the timeline to protect everyone in the long run, or losing track of the timeline to protect people from more concentrated attacks.” Gran Torino outlined. “To me it’s clear which one is the lesser of the two evils, but I can understand the issue of knowingly putting children in danger.”
Nezu nodded. “We can also consider that change will be accomplished regardless of our choice.” His tail curled behind him. “We will not let that future happen, but it could potentially be drastically more difficult to locate key players if we go off-track.”
The room went silent for a bit before Eraserhead sighed. “Well, once you’ve put it like that, I don’t think the kid is going to let us do it any other way.” He looked at Izuku fondly, who had clearly been stunned out of a deep thought process with a sheepish look.
“Plus ultra, right?” Izuku grinned.
All Might laughed knowingly, and Tsukauchi sighed, recognising the like souls. “They just picked the harder choice, didn’t they?”
“Yes.” All Might affirmed.
Nezu’s whiskers twitched. “It certainly isn’t the wisest choice, but it is the one that reflects the single greatest asset a hero needs, that cannot be taught.” He let a bit of pride leak through in his voice at the end. His gaze raked everyone in the room. “At the end of the day, we are all heroes in this room, so I see no need for further discussion. All in favour of going off a predictable course?”
Izuku’s shoulders visibly dropped in relief at the unanimous support for the harder choice. Midnight winked at him as she lowered her hand. “You want to save everyone, don’t you cutie? You have our full support.”
Mic shot him finger guns, and Ectoplasm nodded in approval from both of Midnight’s sides.
“You have a good heart, Midoriya.” Ectoplasm intoned.
Mic beamed. “You just keep on being you, little listener.”
Izuku began to flush at the attention, and Aizawa pat his head consolingly.
Nezu clapped his paws. “Well then, the natural decision from here on out is to begin planning raids. Time is of the essence while things are still within the bounds of our knowledge. Did you bring the paperwork, Detective?”
Tsukauchi nodded, and pulled some sheets from his briefcase. “I’ll have to get an official statement from Eraserhead in regards to the locations.” Tsukauchi sighed. “I assume that this meeting isn’t actually above-board, and that I can’t cite ‘time travel’ to verify the validity of the information.”
Some of the UA teachers laughed nervously. Tsukauchi decidedly kept his eyes trained on the paperwork. “Right, well, I’ll let that slide considering the circumstances, but I can’t falsify official documents. As things currently stand, Eraserhead’s information would be written as a tip from him, without any registered patrols backing up his claims. The higher ups may not approve the raids, especially since some will require major evacuations.”
“Not to mention there are two locations.” Aizawa said, tiredly. Bureaucracy. “Will scouting out the areas under the guise of a normal patrol be concrete enough for the commission?”
Tsukauchi pursed his lips. “Should be. The only problem is, it’ll have to be a raid on the nomu factory and league without informing them that All for One is the real target.”
Cementoss let out a humming sound. “All Might-san, does the commission know enough about All for One, that this would raise flags regardless?”
All Might lifted his hand to his chin in consideration. “I think it would be flagged in the system, but ultimately, UA teachers stumbling across evidence against the league on a scheduled patrol and pushing for a raid wouldn’t be out of character considering how targeted the attacks are. Once they see that Nezu and I are backing it, they should be fine with it.”
“Um…” Izuku raised his hand awkwardly and cringed slightly as all the eyes turned to him. “There’s someone else… Dr. Garaki?” Aizawa’s face darkened at the memory of the man. “He’s the man behind the nomu. He wasn’t at that particular nomu facility or he would’ve been caught the same day All for One initially was. He’s probably still in Jakku.”
Tsukauchi dragged his hand down his face. “That’s… going to be a lot harder to get a raid on for.” He glanced down the table at Eraserhead and Deku. “Where did you get the initial tip-off from?”
They wilted. “Kurogiri.”
Tsukauchi paused. Kurogiri’s identity had been a trip and a half to learn. “Ah.”
Thirteen kindly put their thoughts back on track. “We can just capture Kurogiri in the first set of raids.”
Izuku and Aizawa blinked at each other. “Right.”
“That still leaves the issue of actually getting him to talk.” Vlad King groused, not unkindly.
Eraserhead nodded, masking his emotions. “Last time me and Mic were called in, after they discovered who the base of the nomu was.” He shook his head. “We could try again, but the method we used to awaken his subconscious as Shirakumo was unreliable.”
Deku put a hand to his chin, before looking up at Shota directly, catching his attention. “You remember how we got Kurogiri to Kurakumo, right?”
Shota looked at Izuku in confusion. “Yes… I also remember that we can’t do that again.” He said, unsure of where Izuku was going.
The rest of the adults in the room looked at each other in confusion. They never really got detail besides ‘hand-wavey One for All stuff’.
“I had kind of thought of this after Kurakumo… became a thing… a different way to do it had some more… people been around.”
Shota softened his gaze and gestured encouragingly as the mood of the room dropped slightly.
Izuku smiled, but the loss reflected in his eyes spoke volumes. “There are a few quirks that react to the subconscious in funny ways, particularly to do with One for All.”
Aizawa’s eyes widened. “Shinso.”
Izuku nodded. “Mmhmm.” He shook his head as if to physically ward off the bad memories, and turned to Nezu and Tsukauchi. “What are the chances that they’ll let a current general education student use his quirk on a member of the League of Villains? For science?”
“For science.” Shota muttered, slightly hysterically, lost in memories of his personal student. Who was currently still alive. And had a scheduled lesson every Wednesday and Thursday.
Whoops, he nearly missed tomorrow.
Hmm, he was hoping to meet with Izuku’s mum sooner rather than later. He didn’t think he was going to continue coping very well with the lack of contact with his son. Well, maybe Izuku could join them. Izuku did have a few new tricks up his sleeve that would fit right in…
Nezu tilted his head thoughtfully. “I’m sure I can convince them to bring him in as part of the interrogation due to the high profile nature of the case, and the need for quick results when Kurogiri inevitably proves to be uncooperative.”
“Yay.” Izuku whispered.
Shota pet his head proudly.
Nezu’s tail shifted slightly. “Well, we may have been getting ahead of ourselves. There is still the issue during the raid of defeating All for One, and the aftermath, as even Tartarus could not hold him.”
“I think it goes without sayin’ that a speedy, unexpected retirement of the Symbol of Peace is not what we need right now.” Everyone nodded at Snipe’s assessment.
Midnight snorted, and leaned back casually. “Well, with our dear Eraser on the field, and the resident green bean, I can’t actually see too much of an issue, knowing our current All Might won against him.”
Gran Torino’s and Tsukauchi’s eyebrows rose into their hairlines. “You want to bring a fifteen year-old-”
“I lived to like, eighteen.”
“... fifteen year old zygote to fight a man who the undisputed number one hero nearly died against when he was still in his prime?” Gran Torino asked incredulously.
Shota nodded. “You’re right. But, consider:” and gestured grandly to a ferally grinning Izuku, who had let out long strands of black whip to writhe behind him menacingly, complete with a very light use of smoke screen, for the extra mystique.
Tsukauchi did not yell, “WHAT IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY AND GOOD-”
Gran Torino speed-walked out of the room. “This is out of my pay-grade. He’s your problem, Toshinori.”
All Might wheezed. “Torino sensei, please come back-”
Nezu addressed everyone at the table, including a grouchy old man who had been dragged back by a frightened All Might. “It seems our plan of attack is clear.”
Powerloader blinked. “Wait, what’s the plan? Did I miss something?”
“The plan,” Present Mic cut in amusedly, “Is to sicc the green bean, Sho and All Might on an unprepared All for One and watch the chaos unfold.”
“So attack and pray for the best?” Powerloader deadpanned.
“Yep!” Mic chirped.
Nezu laughed. “We will figure out the details once we gain the required intel and approval. There will be other heroes on-site. But for now, that does seem to be the most effective course of action.”
Gran Torino blinked dazedly. “Going to pretend that the kid I had for internships a bit over a week ago is going after the Scourge of the underworld with full confidence from the UA principal.”
He shivered as he saw Izuku surround himself with black whip again in his peripherals.
Nezu’s grin went slightly feral in response to Izuku’s (and his scheming Dad’s) feral energy, before he schooled his expression, and let out a heaving sigh.
“Unfortunately, the heart of this matter is, what happens after?”
Tartarus could not contain the symbol of evil after all.