A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next FIVE chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!
Izuku trusts Mei.
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… He needs to tell her. And not just the bare minimum or even half of it. He needs to tell her everything because at this point Izuku fears he'll go crazy if he doesn't talk about it with someone. And who better than the only person to stick with him through thick and thin all these years?
Of course, if he's going to tell Mei everything, then they need to get rid of the elephant in the room. Even now he doesn't fully trusts Kurogiri to not react poorly to the knowledge that his former 'Master' tried to take over Izuku's body and failed.
With that said… Izuku looks to the butler made of purple mist and clears his throat.
"Kurogiri… you claim I've inherited everything that All For One once owned, yes?"
"Correct, Master."
Mei lets a weirded out noise from her throat beside him, but Izuku ignores her for the time being and focuses on the matter at hand.
"I assume that comes with properties as well as information. Did All For One keep files for instance?"
Kurogiri bows his shadowy head.
"Indeed, Young Master. There is a manor on the edge of the city that has been prepared for your ascension. The previous Master was quite particular about making sure it was properly stocked and readied for you. There are also quite a lot of files, both digital and physical, stored there that the previous Master felt were important to the next steps after your inheritance."
Izuku's eyes narrow at that. He could understand why All For One would prepare a lavish experience for himself in some rich, fancy manor on the edge of the city if he thought he was going to be taking control of Izuku's body. However, he couldn't quite understand why the villain would leave behind files for Izuku when the bastard didn't think Izuku would be around to enjoy them.
Then again, it was more likely that he'd just left behind files for himself, wasn't it? Keeping everything stored in one's head was only a plausible idea in fictional stories, after all. Nobody in the real world could remember everything all the time. Unfortunately, while access to the physical files would be easy, the digital ones would likely be password protected…
For the time being though, this gave Izuku the perfect excuse to get rid of the heteromorph.
"Kurogiri, I want you to go ahead to the manor and finish preparing it for our arrival. You will return in thirty minutes when my… companion and I will be ready to depart. Am I understood?"
The heteromorph immediately bows at the waist.
"As you command, Master."
Then, a swirling portal of purple appears behind him and he steps back through it, disappearing entirely. Leaving Izuku and Mei alone... albeit with the ashen remains of All For One still on the bed next to them.
"… So uh… what the fuck was that about?"
Grimacing, Izuku turns to Mei, giving her his proper attention.
"Sorry for that… thank you for being patient, I promise I'm going to explain everything. For starters… this was all a trap. For me."
Mei's jaw drops open, her eyes flicking between Izuku and All For One's corpse.
"W-Well… I guess it didn't work properly at least?"
But Izuku shakes his head.
"No… no, it worked perfectly. I walked right into his hands. I would have ended up giving him everything he wanted from me if it wasn't for… no, let me back up and start over. This man was All Might's killer, as we knew. But he was also more than that. He was known as 'All For One'."
Narrowing her eyes, Mei crosses her arms under her chest and gets thoughtful.
"Hm. All For One. That sort of name… well, it has bad implications, doesn't it?"
Izuku simply nods, staring at the top half of All For One's skull, half-buried among the ashes of the rest of his body.
"It's exactly what it sounds like. His Quirk allowed him to take and give Quirks at will. He could steal Quirks from anyone he touched with his hand… and grant them to others if he wanted to. Not surprising that he gave All Might such trouble in hindsight. After all, how do you properly fight someone who can be or do anything?"
Snorting derisively, Mei looks around the room.
"Well, as All Might would say… you go Plus Ultra, I guess. It certainly seems like he didn't get to enjoy the results of his last battle with All Might, even if he did come out ahead. Not if he was stuck in a place like this all this time."
… Yeah. She wasn't wrong about that. All Might really had been something else. Something special. A corner of Izuku's mouth turns up in a wry smile at the thought… before dropping again when Mei suddenly pipes up with a cheery tone.
"Well, I guess you were the perfect one to go after him then, weren't you? You didn't have a Quirk for him to steal, after all. Is that why it all went wrong? Also, why were you and the mist dude talking about inheritances and all that stuff?"
Snorting ruefully, Izuku shakes his head.
"Right. No. Like I already said, his trap was perfect; it didn't go wrong. He knew exactly who I was, including my Quirkless status. All For One allowed me to infiltrate his organization. In fact, he probably knew my true goals from the moment I applied to be an accountant. Basically I was… a backup plan. One of his contingencies, maybe the last one. If everything else went to shit… I was who he turned to."
"… What does that mean, exactly?"
Here it was. The part Izuku was leery about telling anyone. But Mei had to know. She needed to know everything… if she was going to help him decide what to do next.
"The reason his body has decomposed this fast is because he didn't just die… in his final moments, he used his Quirk to transfer everything he'd ever stolen along with his own mind… over to me."
Mei's gasp is fairly understandable and when Izuku chances a glance up at her, he's not surprised to see her staring at him in horror, her hands covering her mouth. After all, she's a genius… she immediately understands what he's saying. He finishes saying it anyways.
"He wanted to take over my body. That was his final plan. To escape his own ruined body, to slip into a new identity where none of his enemies would ever know it was him. He was going to become Izuku Midoriya."
Suddenly, Mei's hands are on him. On his arms, specifically. She stares at him like she's trying to make sure he's real… trying to make sure he's definitely still there.
"But you… y-you stopped him, Izuku. Of course you d-did. You're one of the strongest, most willful people I've ever met. Some crotchety ancient old geezer's mind wasn't going to be a match for you. You beat him, didn't you? You smacked him down!"
"No."
Mei freezes, even as Izuku shakes his head with a grimace etched across his face.
"He had me dead to rights. He had me right where he wanted me. In fact, he nearly succeeded at burying me in my own mind. He WOULD have won… if All Might and the others hadn't been waiting for the right moment to strike."
Confusion spreads across Mei's face as she gives him an incredulous look.
"I… I don't understand…"
Truth be told, Izuku didn't fully get it either. He does his best to muddle through the explanation anyways.
"Essentially, every Quirk that All For One took came with a fragment of the person he took it from. Hundreds… maybe thousands of people over the centuries. He stole and stole and stole, collecting their powers for himself, becoming stronger and stronger while also becoming more and more of a monster. Including All Might's Quirk. And it wasn't just All Might's Quirk… the original bearer of that Quirk was All For One's own brother."
Mei gasps in horror again and all Izuku can do is nod along with her. It was pretty horrifying to think about… but then, a monster like All For One WOULD steal his own brother's Quirk, wouldn't he? Regardless…
"When All For One tried to steal my body, he finally left himself in a weak enough state for all of those fragments of personality, the people behind the stolen Quirks, to rise up and… and take their vengeance. So it wasn't me that defeated All For One. It wasn't me who avenged All Might once and for all. It was all of them. Without them, I would be all but dead and All For One would be puppeting my body right now."
Silence falls as Izuku's heavy words hang in the air between them. He's not sure what he's waiting for from Mei. Maybe… recrimination or something? It would be fitting for her to take him to task for his fuck ups. After all, she was the one who told him he needed backup in the first place. And in the end, she'd been right…
"So… you're still you and All Might got his own back against his killer, even after all this time? And on top of that, this idiot All For One made sure you would inherit everything he owned because he thought he would be walking out of here as you? I mean… I don't know about you Izuku, but I see this as an absolute win!"
Wait, what? Blinking, Izuku looks up at Mei to see her forcing an exuberant, expressive smile onto her face. He can't help but scoff in response.
"An absolute win? What about this is a victory? I've spent half my life hunting down this bastard only to play right into his hands and have to be saved by a last second Hail Mary play from beyond the grave. And now… now I have all of All For One's Quirks along with the ability to steal Quirks and… what the fuck am I supposed to do with that?"
Mei falls silent again, but this time Izuku doesn't stop.
"Even if I set aside my failures… it's over Mei. All For One is gone. All Might IS avenged, regardless of whether it was by my hands or not. The villain is defeated and here I am… with nothing left. What do I do… what do we do next? I dragged you down this path with me. I made you waste your life, your future, your opportunities for me. Now here I stand, more adrift than I've ever been before… and I just don't know what to do."
His anchor, his reason for existing in a world that looked down on him for being Quirkless… it's done and dusted. Literally. Sure he's still Vigil, the Quirkless Vigilante, but Vigil's purpose was to find All For One and kill him. Now that that's done… what the hell is Izuku supposed to do next?
"Please… tell me what you think I should do."
In the end, Mei is as good a person to ask as any, Izuku figures. He himself might not know, but she… she may have an idea of what should happen now, right?
Silence reigns once more as his question hangs in the air. Izuku stares at Mei imploringly as she gazes right back at him. Until finally… she gives him an answer.
"You… should do whatever feels right, Izuku."
What? Izuku stares at her incredulously, but Mei just grows determined, her gaze turning rather intense as she stares him down.
"That's not a copout, just so you know. I'm dead serious. I mean every word. It was you, Izuku Midoriya, who chose to dedicate so much of your life to hunting down this bastard and putting him in the grave. So fucking what if it didn't go exactly the way you envisioned it? It still happened. You say that those Quirk Fragments saved you, but really… didn't you save them first?"
Huh?
"Seriously, just think about it for a moment! You said it yourself; they were waiting for an opportunity to strike. But that opportunity only came because you put yourself in the line of fire! Izuku, you put your entire being on the line, offering yourself up to All For One on a silver platter that let them swoop in and take him down once and for all!"
She… she was twisting things…
"You played just as much of a role in defeating All For One as they did. In fact, you were instrumental! So stop beating yourself up and start doing what you do best… thinking about your next steps! Izuku, just because you've finished one mission doesn't mean you're done. It just means it's time for you to find your next mission!"
Mei smiles at him and this time it's not fake. It's very, very real.
"I know you, Izuku Midoriya. I know you're not the kind of man to give up. Not for anything. I followed you away from UA and any other possible future I might have had because I believed in you. And I still believe in you. No matter what you do next, I will continue to believe in you above all else. Because if you decide it's the right path… then I know it will be the right path."
Logically, Izuku had known that Mei had some faith in him. She had to have in order to work with him all these years. She'd believed in him when no one else did and without her, he would have been dead a dozen times over long before ever reaching this finish line.
She's right though. He realizes it then, even as he feels something like pride and certainty fill his chest. She's right. He's not fucking done. Far from it. He still has a whole lot of life ahead of him and a whole lot more injustices out in the world in need of correction.
Izuku Midoriya is just getting started and with All For One's Quirks and All For One's wealth, he has everything he needs to start making real change in the world. He just has to knuckle down and figure out where his resources are best spent… something that All For One's files might help with since Izuku can just do the opposite of whatever All For One's plans were.
Where All For One might have wanted to weaken society, Izuku would make it stronger. Where the bastard might have seen things to take advantage of, Izuku would fix them instead. Yes… Mei was right. This wasn't the end. It was just the beginning.
Although… did she have to be so damn sappy about it? Sheesh. Izuku can't deny that he feels rather touched by Mei's words… so touched in fact that he finds himself getting a little hot in the face and maybe a bit defensive just to hide how much her monologue has moved him.
"… What have I told you about using real names Engi-mmph!"
However, before he can finish his sentence, Mei cuts him off with a hand to his mouth and an exasperated yet affectionate roll to her eyes.
"Oh shut up already, Izuku~"
Then, she replaces her hand with her own mouth, kissing him again. Izuku's eyes widen though he doesn't pull away… even as this kiss lasts a lot longer than the one she gave him before he left on this mission in the first place. Before he knows it, they're exchanging a bit of tongue… and hands are starting to move across one another's bodies.
Unfortunately, just as things are starting to… escalate, the increasingly familiar sound of teleportation hits Izuku's ears followed by the increasingly familiar voice behind said teleportation.
"Master and companion… the manor has been prepared to your satisfaction."
Pulling away from Mei's mouth with some level of reluctance, his face decidedly aflame, Izuku nods to Kurogiri.
"R-Right… I suppose we should get out of here then…"
Mei's eyes dart over to the medical bed and the remains within it and her nose scrunches up rather cutely. Wait, cutely?
"Yeah… that seems like a good idea."
It's a little disconcerting, trusting Kurogiri to teleport them to the manor rather than dropping them in the middle of the ocean or something. But in the end, he already showed he can do things like snatch Mei from her workshop whenever he wants.
Of course, Izuku isn't expecting the teleporter to bring them straight to the manor's Master Bedroom… or for the heteromorph to immediately depart after doing so. Izuku's mouth opens and closes as he looks from the bed to Mei and back again. She also looks to the bed and then him, blushing profusely.
… They should probably focus on exploring the manor and securing those files first. Right?
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The Vote:
[X] Well, the bed is right there... - 85%
[ ] They should focus on more important things first - 15%
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