~O~

Rationally speaking, Izuku should not have that much coffee.

He knew it was bad for his health or whatever but he was very extremely tired. You see, he woke up really early. By that he meant he never slept. He couldn't sleep last night for all sorts of exhaustion had abandoned him so he spent the entire night scrolling through r/allmightymemes and watching cat videos. At one point, he even started hallucinating - he could almost see Nana's figure standing by his bedside trying to pry the phone out of his hand with the classic disappointed mother look. Sad for her, she was just a hallucination. Hallucinations can't take away children's phones and force them to go to sleep.

Actually now that he thought about it, maybe she wasn't really a hallucination. Perhaps his predecessors' vestiges were beginning to take form in the physical world too. How in All Might's Silver Age had he not thought of that possibility before? It wasn't the possibility of his very dead predecessors manifesting as most likely ghosts in the physical world that surprised him, it was the fact that he had completely missed it was what shocked him.

See, this was why he should have more coffee.

On top of not sleeping, Aizawa had them run this exceptionally tricky obstacle course like fifteen times as a 'warm up' session before sending them off to their internships and he only revealed that it was a graded exercise at the last minute. Izuku wanted to pull his hair out, his classmates felt the same.

The internship wasn't any better. In fact, it got worse. Now, Izuku wasn't one to make assumptions about people but the suffocating atmosphere between Shouto and his father was much more intense than usual. Something must've happened back home, it was the Todoroki family after all. Their drama never ceased to end and as their self-proclaimed family therapist, when Burnin' offered him coffee he gratefully took two styrofoam cups of the dark warm beverage from her, saying one was for Katsuki. Katsuki never had coffee though. He downed both cups before the ash blonde could even notice he had them. No amount of caffeine would prepare Izuku to get an earful from Katsuki about how he absolutely fucking sucked at taking care of his health. He wasn't risking ever being caught with coffee by him. Never.

Anyhow, he joined the other two afterwards and they waited a while for orders which came soon. They had to follow Endeavour throughout the day again and from the last few day's experience, they knew it was going to be tough to keep up with the new number one hero. Especially, tough now that there was apparently some new family drama going on. Izuku knew damn well Katsuki wasn't going to help so now he had two Todorokis to babysit while on patrol. Great.

He should've asked Burnin' for another cup. Maybe he should've said it was for Shouto.

(He did. Right before they left)

He couldn't really be blamed now, could he? If his analysis was correct then there was a eighty five percent chance that at least at one point during this patrol, Shouto would either snap at his father and try to roast or freeze him alive depending on the mood or Shouto would confess whatever was going on to Katsuki instead of Izuku which kind of hurt but it would most likely be because Shouto wanted to become a closer friend to the ash blonde and consequently they would both try to trash talk Endeavour in the middle of the goddamn street. Neither possibilities must come pass. Not when Izuku was running on three cups of coffee. If he added another cup to his system during their break then nobody knew. Maybe Shouto knew but that didn't matter. He wouldn't rat Izuku out to Katsuki. He hoped he didn't, he really needed to stay awake for whatever was going to happen that he needed to prevent.

"I feel like the kid just jinxed himself," a voice that suspiciously sounded like the fifth user (who was also very dead like Nana) whispered. Izuku could tell he was the only one who heard it. He wished he didn't because that was exactly what happened. He jinxed himself.

Izuku would rather not talk about that eventful evening and the bank that went down in ashes. Or the lawsuit currently being filed against Endeavour, or Katsuki and Shouto being jailed for two hours for almost killing the bank robbers. Especially not about the time he got locked up in the bank vault while that shit show was going down. That last bit was exceptionally traumatising for some reason - a reason Izuku would prefer not to know.

He just wanted to go home, close his eyes and hopefully never wake up again. Maybe he should've listened to that hallucination. Sorry, Nana's hallucination.

But when they returned they were reminded of that English essay and the heroics report that were due tomorrow by a very enthusiastic Tenya. Both of which Izuku had planned to do at the last date after writing one paragraph for each. It was fine though. The green haired boy had taken enough notes that week to finish the report in like, ten minutes top. The essay was going to be a struggle. It was still fine. He would just skip on Momo's very nice tea and settle for yet another cup of coffee to keep him from physically collapsing tonight.

With that, he resolved to finish his assignments before doing anything else.

... But then Eri asked him to help with her homework since Mirio was visiting his family and Aizawa had left for his night patrol. He couldn't say no to her. How could anyone say no to her? Have you seen Eri? Izuku could finish the report while helping her anyway.

Eri was done by dinner time. Ochako and Tsuyu (bless them) took her for dinner while Izuku planned to skip his meal for tonight to work on that essay.

He was going to but then he got a text from his mentor asking him if he would like to try the Katsudon he made if he didn't have other plans. Toshinori very heavily implied that Izuku could absolutely decline the offer since it was his first time cooking Katsudon but Izuku frowned upon the thought that his mentor didn't know that Izuku could never say no - neither to him nor to Katsudon. So, yeah... He wasn't entirely sure what happened after that not-exactly-good-ish Katsudon, the exhaustion was catching up to him. At one point he just started seeing black dots at the corner of his vision and perhaps he started hallucinating again too because En was desperately trying to keep him away from the kitchen only to marvellously fail at it due to the fact that he was fucking dead. Hah.

Did Izuku have coffee again? Yes.

Why? He wasn't sure.

Did his body somehow shift to autopilot and everything started to fly before his very eyes? Most likely.

Because now it was way past one in the morning and the light coming from his computer was beginning to itch his eyes and for some reason there were four mugs sitting on his desk.

When Izuku's head hit the keyboard and his eyes couldn't open themselves anymore he thought that maybe he was a bit too over-caffeinated.

And tired. God, he was so tired.

~O~

Vestiges were a strange concept - the existence of such a thing would most likely be passed as a mere rumour or a myth by the laymen but the ones who experienced them knew better. A fragment of a soul, an actual soul somewhere in your quirk - in a completely unique plane of existence. It sounded more and more unreal every time it was worded but it never made it any less true. Vestiges and all their conjoined factors were true nevertheless, the fact that he hadn't actually put much effort into researching the phenomenon was not important. And if at the early stages of experiencing these vestiges, All For One thought he was finally losing it when the ghosts of the people he stole quirks from started invading his dreams then nobody knew anything about it.

He didn't show up here often, within his quirk's vestigial realm, it wasn't like he needed rest or the simple sense of humanity that came with it - he remembered having stolen a quirk that warded off exhaustion and its likes. It was nice, however, to be here as it gave him a sense of control. All these 'vestiges' weren't so willing to bend to his will upon first exposure but things were different now. This was his territory, his boundary and granted it was more interesting than his Tartarus cell.

Although, what he didn't expect to find here today was the achingly familiar confused green haired boy poking around at the uncanny structures that were built all about the mist-covered realm. To be fair, it has been an uncomfortably long amount of time since the thought that he might be hallucinating last came across All For One's mind. He wouldn't admit it out loud but he thought maybe - just maybe, he might be hallucinating a little bit. He almost attacked the kid in an attempt to confirm his suspicion but stopped midway as the boy seemed identical to someone he definitely knew. He should've listened to the good doctor when he said his body needed some traditional rest but ah well. At least he knew what was and wasn't a hallucination.

The boy looked at him.

Even though his eyes were bloodshot red with exhaustion, the villain could see the gears turning behind them. It was all too familiar. He knew what came next. Yet he couldn't possibly prepare himself in time-

Izuku opened his mouth and he did not shut up for a long, long time.

All For One regretted very little things in his very long life but he was starting to think maybe he should have looked more into what the vestiges truly were.

~O~

"I sense disturbance in the force,"

The sudden claim from the forth user of One For All drew the other's attention quite efficiently. No matter what they were up to, the vestiges dropped everything and turned to Hikage whenever his quirk picked on something - after all, a buzz from his quirk was never a good thing. Therefore, ignoring Yoichi's, "I got that reference!" Daigoro addressed the subject at hand like any professional would,

"What in the immaculate glory of my fancy throne happened now?"

"I don't know," the forth shrugged, his eyes scanning the place, "Where's Izuku?"

"Whatever do you mean?" Nana asked, looking around for the little green head as well.

The third user eyed a certain smoke quirk user suspiciously, "Wasn't he with En?"

"Whoa now, don't look at me." The said boy interjected with an offended tone, "I mean, I was with him. I was trying to stop him from a coffee overdose unlike some people who had just given up on this child's health. I suppose, I am the only one in this godforsaken house that knows how a human body works-"

"I have a medical degree-"

Ignoring Yoichi again, En continued, "-And what's bad for it and still I get the rough end of the stick. Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep Izuku away from that stuff? That child is addicted. I'd rather die again than try to pry coffee away from his hands, I guess that would be easier."

"Thanks for the input, buddy but if there's no Izuku there's no prying coffee or double dying so let's just focus on that, eh?" Daigoro placed a placating hand on the sixth user's shoulder.

"Also what do you mean by 'that child'? You're not that older than him." The shortest of the group gasped offendedly at the remark from his own successor.

"Anyway, anyway, anyway," Yoichi started, offering a bit of dramatic hand gestures, "Back to the problem. Child is missing. We need to find the child. Get those dead brains working."

"What if he just woke up and you know, left this place like he does?" Third added, not sounding very sure of his own statement yet finding it to be the most possible scenario.

Nana hummed, "Plausible but I think we would've known when he woke up. Also that he looked like he was gonna sleep for a month straight. He was just straight up sleeping on Yoichi's chair-" Yoichi added, "Fancy throne." only to get ignored again, ''-when he arrived here while you all were busy with that star wars discourse. When has he ever been tired enough to sleep in his sleep? Only a new limited edition Silver Age All Might pencil that writes in gold would have woken him up and I'm afraid they haven't launched that yet. Right, Mist Might?"

The vestige of the former number one hero only flickered, golden eyes staring forth with such intensity they could cut through metal in an almost haunting manner. Everyone chose to ignore it.

"Maybe he was just thirsty?" The third user shrugged. His ideas weren't really helping...

Hikage pinched the bridge of his nose, "Why would my quirk think he's in danger on his way to drink water in the middle of the night. Enlighten me, please."

"Backstabbing friends? The UA traitor? A villain with a teleportation quirk? I dunno."

"Wasn't very enlightening."

"Well? I don't see anyone else popping any great ideas?" Third threw his hands up in the air in exasperation, "Why, what do you suggest, that he may have been eaten by the shadows of the void? Dematerialized after hearing Yoichi's lightsaber lore? Kidnapped by an unknown vestige?" That only left Hikage rolling his eyes at him.

"How on God's green earth did you all, full fledged heroes with years of experience, manage to lose a teenager here anyway?" The second user chimed in, generally gesturing at the void, the man sounded more worn out than any dead man had the right to.

"Wow, man. It's like, you weren't here at all when it happened." One could tell Daigoro didn't appreciate that by his tone, "You were definitely not engrossed in why baby yoda should've just died. I don't even know who baby yoda is, why would you want a baby to die?"

Nana eyed the second user as if she was going to hiss at him any moment now, "You're just as guilty as the rest of us are."

Yoichi put a hand on the woman's shoulder, "Actually, nobody is guilty. We all know if anyone was to get lost in here, it would be Izuku. We all know nobody could've stopped it. It was inevitable. End of discussion."

"And are we just supposed to accept his death and move on?" Third raised a brow at the white haired man.

"No."

"Bummer." The glare Yoichi shot him was intense enough that he had to turn away and keep his mouth shut for the rest of the day. Or night. What is time to the dead anyway.

"So, is like, no one gonna mention the open door over there cause I think that maybe, just a theory might not be true, Izuku might've gone... wherever that leads." En said, pointing at the huge metallic door that Yoichi suspiciously found like a certain vault's. As the sixth user had said it, unlike before, it was open but only slightly. How come Izuku opened it and walked out with none of them hearing a sound? What was even out there? Why had no one thought of checking that place before? There were questions, many of them but not all could be answered at the moment. After all, there was a greater, much more important question they were to decide the answer to before moving onto the rest; who was going to find Izuku behind that door. Clearly, not all of them were willing to go as they had no idea of what awaited them on the other side.

"I vote Second to go find Ninth."

"Oh really now?!"

"I also vote Second. It's his fault anyway."

~O~

"And it was all so horrendously bad, like, can you imagine? We're representing Japan's entire hero system on live camera and you feel the need to call your supervisor, the number one hero in the goddamn country and your friend's father an asshole in front of a bunch of C-grade bank robbers and some innocent clerks who just want to go home and get some sleep! I was trying, I really was, if there's really any God out there, he knows damn well how hard I tried to stop the inevitable but guess fucking what - Shouto just had to call Endeavour an asshole too. We're live, there's witnesses, can we fight later?! These poor, poor innocent people. I swear they didn't deserve any of that. Bless those criminals, they managed to shut them the fuck up because I was going to start crying at these people. Like, they have no regard whatsoever for a tired little guy? Preposterous!"

"Wow, uh that is... wild?" All For One wasn't really sure if he was using the correct term. He didn't fancy the circumstances of saying something wrong that might piss off the boy who strangely looked and sounded like his son who was also the current holder of his brother's quirk. All For One was a liar and he was lying to himself that this boy definitely wasn't Izuku and was literally just some vestige he forgot about because this child was tired and if he was anywhere near as cranky as his mother when she was tired then help him, he liked to have his head attached to his body.

If maybe he wasn't as cranky then All For One would've tried to manipulate the child into betraying Yoichi's legacy and turning to his side but he was a hundred and ten percent sure he was as good as all these lifeless vestiges if Izuku found out his father 'accidentally' burnt his special pre-release limited edition Silver Age All Might pencil that only wrote in gold that one time when he returned to their family apartment in the middle of the night just to check up on a few things.

"Oh, 'wild' doesn't even begin to describe the shit show that went down next!" Izuku spun on his heels, clearly not fully conscious of what he was doing.

"Kacchan and Shouto almost killed those poor robbers! In flames, it all went down in flames! You're not supposed to purposely hurt the criminals, it's the law for crying out loud. They would've gotten away with it if it wasn't for the fact that literally everyone on the scene was recording it. Pretty sure this emo kid was streaming it live, they had great hair though - it was green if you were wondering. Endeavour and I were trying to help everyone evacuate but then Burnin' showed up with Kido and that fucker aimed wrong and pushed me instead of the criminals. Guess where I fucking landed? In the bank vault. In the bank vault. And the vault wasn't even locked but I thought it was locked and Endeavour began thinking it was locked too. Suddenly, I developed an alien hatred for vaults and I started crying because fuck everyone and everything. Pretty sure Endeavour panicked because then he tried to burn the vault - I WAS STILL IN IT YOU TWAT."

Someone either come pick up this child or wake All For One up from this dream because he was this close to cackling.

Vault trauma, how ironic.

"They seem rather... incompetent. These heroes of yours."

The sigh that escaped Izuku's lips was something only a drunk stressed mother could replicate, "Ah... I'm aware but alas there's only so much one can expect from them. They're no All Might after all."

All For One cringed hard when Izuku wasn't looking, hearing about newly established vault trauma was great and all but he doubted he could survive the boy going off about that blonde tumultuous scruff of a man. Have you seen his hair? A crime even the greatest Demon Lord of all times couldn't dare commit (Hairless behaviour) Therefore, if the green haired boy was really going to go on a tangent about how great and superior Toshinori was to everyone ever than All For One really hoped someone would come pick up this child, he didn't even know where he came from so he could kick him out.

Izuku yawned, "Anyway, I was wondering," Oh we're not talking about Cringe Might? Cool. "You seem familiar. Do I know you?" Not cool. Not cool.

All For One didn't know what could be worse. Whether the kid remembered him as the scourge of Kamino who almost killed his predecessor and actually killed the rest minus one of them or as the father who was barely there in his life. He decided after much consideration, now that the boy was literally in his vestigial territory, both - both were bad.

Izuku scrunched up his face and tried to take in the features of the man before him. He pulled at his lips as his exhausted brain started working - overtime at this point, if it were a real worker then it'd surely demand a raise or set fire to the system.

Izuku tilted his head only slightly, "Do you know who I am though?"

All For One did what he did best, he lied, like a liar, "Absolutely not." If had said he did know him and very well too at that then Izuku would all but demand his identity. He would like to reveal himself in a sort of a dramatic way, full with all the effects and the right music, maybe a death or twenty in the background but not like this. This would put such a bad impression on his image. Izuku wasn't even in it enough to comprehend the massive plot twist he has been brewing. Who introduced this child to coffee anyway?

"Huh, must be really weird to let me vent like that then. You're a pog listener though."

"Thank you?"

A moment passed between the two of them, Izuku looked as if he was either gonna pass out or set fire to whatever was flammable in here. It was good no vestige had interrupted them; if Izuku's relation with his dead predecessors was anything to go by, he'd definitely set fires with those vestiges. It was his son after all, of course he was great with the vestiges. No, you idiot! That's not your son. Remember the lie! Yeah that was no longer working.

Quiet footsteps, a new figure showed up behind them. At first, the villain assumed it was one of the past users of now his quirks but it was the last person All For One had hoped to see again in his life along with many others, "Uh... Has anyone seen a green kid here? Really small and kind of very bi-" Second's eyes then fell on the dozy mop of green hair, "Oh there you are, you little shit."

Izuku gasped, stars in his eyes as he threw his hands up in the air, smiling brighter than the sun, "Kacchan~!"

"Yeah, nevermind. You can keep him." The second user turned away, ready to walk out of there until his past tyrant's voice interrupted him - the fact that he was there did not surprise him, like at all, "Please take him away?" Huh, Second didn't know the man was capable of saying the p-word but world's wonders he guessed. Not like it mattered though.

"No."

"... You are my favourite One For All user?" He would have to throw up later. Ugh.

"..."

The leader frowned before he walked back, grabbed Izuku by the wrist and dragged both of them out.

~O~

The next time All For One arrived in the vestige realm, it hadn't been for the purpose of the feeling of control. Rather, he just wanted to make sure what exactly were the distant whispers that constantly bugged him, two days after his own son showed up there.

To his immaculately concealed surprise and no, no one could see that he didn't see this coming, of course he knew what was going on. He just wished to address the issue head on which included checking up on it. Anyway, the distant odd structures being dilapidated was one thing but them being actively damaged was another. He wasn't sure why he cared but it felt akin to someone breaking into your house and breaking all of your goddamn crockery. The good ones the old women kept for the guests at that. Oh, how he understood their feelings now.

Somehow, a little too many years of experience prepared him to know exactly which one of the nine banes of his existence was responsible for the havoc caused there.

Daigoro's one, singular, only excuse was, "To relive old moves to teach Izuku and this place seemed better for it than theirs."

All For One replied simply, "Get out."

Obediently, the fifth user of One For All finger gunned his way out.

~O~

It was a fairly good day. Search said the sky was clear, the crime was high, two heroes died and no One For Clowns in here- "Brother!"

Spoke too soon.

Admittedly, he liked hearing his brother's sweet voice again even if the little gremlin backstabbed him like a dirty street rat over a century ago. Would it have killed him to just stay put in his little vault? Look who was out of the vault and dead. "It's an emergency!" Yoichi exclaimed as he stumbled in, almost falling face first on the ground. He barely balanced himself at the last minute, saving his grace in a poor manner. Always the clumsy one.

"What is it, little brother? How have you remembered me?"

"Star Wars discourse. Anyway," Yoichi dusted his shirt and looked at his brother with an unblinking gaze, almost terrifying, "Jabba was supposed to be a furry, right? Jabba the Hut was originally supposed to be a furry, it was confirmed right? Right?"

"... Yes?" All For One didn't know whether or not that was the right answer because as soon as the words left his mouth, Yoichi positively combusted. The look of pure betrayal in his emerald eyes and the way his fists shook with rage was all too familiar to the villain, not like he could actually witness it in the sense of seeing with one's eyes but he also didn't require a quirk to know it was there. It was his little brother after all.

"I KNEW IT. HE NEVER ACTUALLY KNEW ANYTHING ABOUT STAR WARS. I DEMAND A DIVORCE."

The words echoed throughout the place and All For One didn't really pray for whoever was about to be strangled by Yoichi, he just hoped one of the idiots nanage to get it on camera - preferably Izuku so he could see it when he vaulted him in the near future after the long plotted revelation of his relation to the boy. Long after the white haired man had left, All For One found himself pondering,

"He's married??"

~O~

The other day, Izuku just barged in. By this time, he knew the man was there more often than not. Mostly to keep things under check which mostly never worked ironically. Besides, it wasn't like the villain had anything better to do - with Garaki taking care of Tomura and him being locked up in a cell - he supposed seeing the dead plus one son was better than pretending these constraints did not cause lower back problems. Izuku came in as quiet as ever, like a haunting phantom, he scared his parents a lot as a toddler. And by parents he meant Inko of course, he never screamed, that wasn't him nope. It wasn't his fault Midoriya Hisashi was a coward.

Izuku inhaled and with an unreadable expression the green head demanded;

"What is the most efficient way of murdering someone who is already dead."

All For One wouldn't like to intrude by asking why and who, rather he would like to help his son in however way he could. He grinned,

"Well, why don't we take a seat? Have you heard of exorcism?"

Spoiler: he didn't see the other vestiges for a while.

~O~

The guards of Tartarus have already threatened him at least seventeen times this week and it was only Tuesday. They've been getting wary of his unevenly increasing brain activity - well, he wasn't going to apologize on the behalf of eight buffoons being a constant white noise for him. He had tried blocking all possible pathways that allowed them to enter his vestige realm but it failed drastically seeing as Izuku just showed up anyway. From where? He did not know. He'd like to find out for sure.

Even now, he knew there was a guard in the control room shooting him a dirty look as someone continued blasting Queen at the back of his head.

Maybe Toshinori wasn't the annoying one after all.

~O~

All For One really found this new development interesting. It was quite intriguing to him, the concept of the possibility that One For All was still connected to him - to his quirk.

Fascinating as it was, there were still some holes in the idea itself. Some questions he didn't quite yet have the answers to. Why was it that only a One For All weirder could enter his quirk's vestigial realm but not the other way around? Why couldn't he see what the concept of vestiges was like for them? Why couldn't he enter One For All? Even if the factor playing at hand was the collective will of all the holders not wanting him to step a foot in there and effectively stopping him to do so, wouldn't his quirk do the same? Truthfully, he wasn't very fond of all the non-Izukus and Yoichi didn't even show up here like at all. Maybe once or twice his brother came to see him after the first time? Only to flip him off and remind of that one time a spider fell on his shoulder when he was ten.

Unless the rules of the vestiges varied for persons and quirks, the case shouldn't be the users not letting him in.

He theorised it could be because Izuku and him shared blood but would it really matter if the boy was born without his power? What difference was there between DNA and quirks to the vestiges?

It didn't take long before he found his answer, before Tomura succeeded in using his quirk on Izuku with full intent to steal One For All.

Both All For One and Tomura found themselves face to face with old faces. This time, not within the villain's terrain but within One For All...

He couldn't stay long but it was long enough to get an answer or two:

The only way to enter another quirk's vestige was to acquire that quirk or come in direct contact with it.

Now what did that imply for Izuku - who did not have his father's quirk? Well, One For All was but a piece of All For One.

(Unless the boy held secrets that escaped his radar entirely...)

Regardless, they should keep the caffeine away from him. It's bad for kids for a reason.

~O~

SIKE IM ALIVE

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