Deku had a very different idea in mind when he went out looking for Shigaraki and AFO.

It had been ages since anyone had heard from them, but he knew All Might was still worried about them, and he'd been extra on edge since AFO escaped.

Deku knew he'd been given OFA for this purpose, to stop AFO...and if he waited any longer, AFO would only get stronger. He rationalized that now was the time to strike. The Top Pros would provide a distraction, right?

This is what I have to do, he told himself. I got the mantle of OFA for a reason. I have to save the world from these Villains.

Now that it came to it, he thought Shigaraki would be more...ready?

Angry?

Aggressive?

Instead he was just standing there like he had a million better things to do with his time.

Deku interpreted that as...well...he'd gotten a lot scarier in the time since they last met.

Look at him, he thought. He doesn't even see me as a threat anymore.

Shigaraki probably would have checked a watch if he had one.

Deku gulped and began to power up his quirk to 20%, full cowling.

* * *

Shine, Kayla and Aizawa didn't spot their quarry right away. Aizawa said to spread out and look more. 

Aizawa finally stumbled closer to the parking garage and saw All Might walking towards the steps of the garage.

"All Might," he called.

All Might turned to look at him oddly. "Aizawa? How did you get here?"

"Nevermind that. We came to stop this." Aizawa had his scarf ready. "This is a trap, all of it. Midoriya is going to die if we don't get to him before AFO does."

All Might blinked. "I came here to stop Young Midoriya... He's not ready yet...but, Aizawa, he may be our only hope."

"We have another hope," Aizawa said. "I've seen it. I didn't think it would be possible, but there may be a better solution."

Kayla and Shine noticed he'd stopped looking.

Shine came closer. "All Might..." she said.

"Miss Likstar..." All Might said, "you know why we must stop AFO."

"I know that we cannot stop him the way you stop things," Shine said. She pointed to his torso. "We've seen where that leads. Deku will end up no different than you...or worse. No matter how many quirks he has, trust me, Shigaraki can kill him. And Shigaraki has not killed, other than in self defense, for quite a while now, but he will kill you, I believe. If we approach this like a war."

"But it is a war. This is my duty, to stop AFO," All Might said.

"It is small duty to stop one person," Shine said. "AFO is not what you think he is, All Might. He is a dictator, and he is evil, but he is just a man. Stop thinking of him as the thing in the closet or under the bed, the thing there to foil you at every turn. It's foolishness. Think of him as man, and you can defeat him as one."

"I don't understand," All Might said.

"Neither does Midoriya," Shine said meaningfully, "and he's about to attack one or both of them like they are monsters. People will be what you treat them like 90% of the time, All Might. Only the very strong of us will stick to our guns no matter how we're treated. I want to be that person, but I will not give those two that much credit--yet. So please, help me stop this."

All Might stared at her.

Aizawa looked from one to the other.

"Don't repeat Nana's mistakes," Shine risked adding. "Nana is dead...don't do what she did."

All Might looked at his hands.

"Hey," Kayla called in English, "I see them! They're right up there." She pointed at the top of the garage. "Funny how close you were."

"I knew he headed there. I saw him," All Might said.

Shine sighed. "I can get us up there, but I can't stop Deku, All Might."

All Might drew in a deep breath. "Let's go, Miss Likstar. We should put an end to this."

Shine opened a door.

* * *

Deku was just about to throw a punch or some other attack, when a flash of purplish light hit him.

Shigaraki turned too but seemed hardly surprised...until he saw All Might.

He glared.

Aizawa turned off both of their quirks right off though.

"At least for a few seconds," he said, "neither of you can do anything, so pay attention."

Shigaraki couldn't escape now, but he backed away. "What is this, Likstar?"

"Should I?" Kayla hissed to Shine.

"No," Shine said. "This has to be a choice, Kayla. I only want you to interfere if someone is about to die."

Kayla nodded.

"All Might? Mr. Aizawa, what are you doing here?" Deku said, puzzled.

"Don't even get me started," Aizawa said flatly. "I know everything now, Midoriya. A lot makes sense that didn't before, but..." He shook his head.

"Did you bring them here to die?" Shigaraki demanded of Shine. "Because I think we're clear on this."

"We didn't betray you," Shine said. "All Might is here to get Deku. He is doing what a mentor should, protecting his successor. You understand that?"

"It won't change anything," Shigaraki said.

Shine turned to All Might. "Talk fast, Symbol of Peace," she said.

All Might looked at Deku. "Young Midoriya...I understand how important this is to you, but this is not the time. This is a trap. It won't end well for us if you try to fight them now."

"But I have him right here," Deku said, "and this is the only way to bring peace, like you said. Stopping AFO is the most important thing."

"Impertinent little--" Shigaraki began.

"Silence, Tomura," Shine warned. "Show some respect for the uniform. Did they interrupt AFO talking to you?"

"By arresting him, yes!" Shigaraki said.

"Well, don't be a hypocrite, then," Shine said. "Trust me, you'll want to hear this."

Shigaraki went silent.

"Stopping AFO is important..." All Might said warily, "but...I don't want you to...to repeat the same mistake of the past, Young Midoriya... The truth is, I haven't been fully honest with you...and I should have been. I wanted... I guess I thought you might blame me. The truth is..." he glanced at Shigaraki uncertainly, "it's my fault this...well, this man here fell into AFO's hands."

That is not what Shigaraki thought he'd say. He was actually struck speechless.

Aizawa and Kayla looked stunned also.

Shine waited.

"It... Nana, my mentor, she had a son," All Might said.

Deku gaped at him. "What?"

"And she put him into the foster care system...partly to protect him from AFO, I think, but...she died, and she never came back for him.... I doubt anyone ever told him why. She asked Gran Torino and I not to get in touch with him. She wanted him to be safe from the Hero life... A Hero's life isn't easy, especially being the bearer of...well, the mantle of OFA."

Deku was wide -eyed. "Wow...I had no idea."

"And...he knows, right?" All Might checked with Shine.

"All of it," Shine replied calmly.

"And her son had a son...and that's...Tomura Shigaraki," All Might said.

Deku almost choked. "What?!!"

Shigaraki didn't even react.

"What?!!!" Aizawa and Kayla both said.

Shine shook her head.

"You knew?" Aizawa demanded of her.

"Of course I knew," she said. "I do my research. Geez, it's not like it was hard to find out."

Aizawa just stared at her.

But no one noticed he'd turn his quirk off. They were all too invested in what All Might was saying.

"I...should have admitted it sooner," All Might said. "I'm sorry, Young Midoriya... The truth is, as much as evil can lead to good, our actions can also lead to evil. It seemed right at the time, but...things aren't that simple."

Deku looked at Shigaraki, then he blinked. "You know...he does kind of look like...now that I'm thinking of it..."

"Like Nana?" All Might didn't see any resemblance.

"Not just Nana," Deku said. "He looks like AFO's brother...the one I saw in my visions."

"What? Really?" Shine said with interest.

That did shake Shigaraki up a little. "What?" he said. "What is all this nonsense? You can't actually be thinking this makes anything better, All Might." His tone was full of hatred.

"I...know it doesn't," All Might said, finally addressing him. "I suppose I would be angry if I were you also... I wondered if I'd ever get a chance to apologize...but I am sorry. I never knew...until AFO told me."

There it was. He was confirming Shine's claim that AFO had known.

"Why would he tell you such a thing," Shigaraki said, "even if it was true? And I still don't know if I believe that."

"All Might," Shine said, "let's try something. I want you to show him a picture of Nana."

All Might looked up.

"You have one, right?" Shine said. "On your phone somewhere."

"I do now. I looked through some things..." All Might said. "Here, let me pull it up."

"I don't want to see a picture," Shigaraki said warily.

"Do you really want to go the rest of your life asking if we were lying?" Shine challenged. "What will a picture hurt you? Maybe it'll mean nothing, maybe it won't. It's just a picture."

Shigaraki reluctantly shrugged.

All Might pulled up the photo. Aizawa and Kayla looked at it too.

"She's pretty," Kayla remarked. "I don't see a resemblance either."

Shine glanced at it. "I kind of see it, actually," she said.

All Might turned the phone around.

"Hey, that is how I saw her," Deku said, forgetting how weird that sounded.

But Shigaraki's reaction was the best. He gave a gasp of recognition and said, "The photo!"

"What is it?" Shine said, concerned. "Are you okay?"

"That was the same woman in the photo in the study..." Shigaraki put his hands on his head and looked more freaked than ever. "That was...her... My father's...mother..."

Silence.

"So I guess this proves it." Aizawa had no sense of timing or tone.

Kayla shoved him.

Shigaraki scratched nervously. "That makes me itch."

Shine walked closer to him, which no one else wold have done at such a time. "I know that the truth is hard to hear," she said gently, "and I'm sure it will not help if I say that I get it, but if you do not know, you can't really know what you think. There is no real conviction in murky memories and vague ideas, you know. Open your eyes, Tomura, and you'll see where to direct the hate and the blame."

Shigaraki looked up at her oddly. "That's what Master says."

Shine bit back a gag. "I'm sure he does, but I am talking about the facts, not just my interpretation of them."

"So...he knows who she is?" All Might was confused.

"He knows she was someone his father did not like," Shine explained. "And here's where I fill in the blanks. Nana's son hated Heroes. He used to punish his children for saying the word 'hero'. I believe I told you that a bit already. By the time AFO got into this picture, the groundwork was already there. It's a very simple matter to take a thing everyone told you to hate, and twist it into being the reason they were harsh and cruel to you. And so we have that groundwork for hating all Hero Society."

"Whoa." Kayla was impressed. "That's...some next level manipulation. AFO could totally work for the Originals."

They glared at her.

"Sorry." She looked down.

"Only it's true," Shigaraki said.

"No, it's not," Deku said. "AFO is a tryant--"

"Mind your tongue, Deku!" Shine said sharply. "You want to get us all killed?"

Deku stopped. "Miss Likstar? Why are you defending him anyway?"

Shine frowned. "I'm sorry, did you not hear what we just said?"

"I did...but he's still a Villain. He's still doing something wrong," Deku said.

"And what, right now, is he doing wrong?" Shine challenged.

"Uh...well...he's going to kill a bunch of Pros," Deku said.

"That's an assumption," Shine said.

"Well, I was supposed to." Shigaraki didn't help. "But I just got some news that seems like a higher priority than that, and since you're here, Likstar, do you know where Silk is?"

Shine looked at him, then suddenly she laughed.

"What's so funny?" Aizawa said.

"Oh, nothing," Shine said. "I'm sorry, I'm not laughing at your question, Tomura. I know it's serious, it's just...ironic. I love you, by the way. Of course you would be thinking of that at such a   time."

She shook her head. "They do not deserve you on that team... But I'm afraid I don't know where Silk is. She disappeared yesterday, I'm sorry... If anyone knows, it's AFO."

"Why would he know?"

"Because she disappeared here." Shine gestured around. "This very site. She was looking for you. She was going to warn you. Mirko warned us, and we were trying so hard, but she never came back, so here we all are. I also didn't think I'd find you in time to have this conversation, but here we were."

Shigaraki blinked. "So you really were going to..." He suddenly seemed upset. "I don't usually apologize, but...I feel a little like this got...out of hand...and a few days ago, too. For the record, Likstar, I would spare all of you, if it were up to me."

Deku's jaw dropped.

So did All Might's.

"And I appreciate that," Shine said, "believe me--but it's not up to you, is it?"

"I'm not even really running this." Shigaraki gestured around. "I want to find the League first before starting something, but they're all gone."

"They didn't go by choice," Shine said. "They all vanished. It's long story, but Twice told us-- Oh, we found him. He's in custody now. He preferred it to being loose."

"Why?" Shigaraki said.

"You'll understand if you talk to him again, but the point is, this whole situation is a mess," Shine said. "If you want to get them back, I suggest you finish listening to what All Might has to say."

She looked back at All Might. "Finish." She waved at him.

"I...don't know what else to say," All Might said. "After all AFO has told him, what could I say? Is it really all my fault? I do not know anymore. Maybe you were right, Miss Likstar. Maybe I should have done something, but now that's it's too late, aren't we all just obligated to finish this?"

"You can make up for it," Shine said, "not for all those mistakes-- That's in the past...and you can't fix this, like I said. But you can do the right thing, right now, All Might. That's all we can ever do. Stop trying to save the world. Save the person you can."

She looked all around. "That's all we can do."

All Might shook his head. "I would love nothing more than to do that, but what can I do now? I have no power left."

"I can," Deku said. "Whatever needs to be done...I can do it."

"I'm not sure you can, Deku," Shine said, "because what I'm asking is for you not to fight."

Deku was wide-eyed again. "But...that's... How else can we stop this?"

"Tomura," Shine said, "what's more important, getting the League back, or finishing off these two morons?"

Aizawa had to smirk at her choice of nouns there.

Shigaraki frowned.

"It would be easy to finish them off now," he said.

Shine tilted her head.

"Okay, fair enough. You could do that," she said.

"Likstar--" Aizawa began.

"Hush," Kayla shushed him.

"And to be fair, it is what everyone expects of you," Shine said. "But you know, what I think is...all this time, you hated All Might, you didn't really know All Might. He's just a symbol to you...just like he was to everyone else....And, okay, he took AFO to jail, but he didn't know how close you were at the time. All Might is mostly unaware of what he's done... You've blamed him for years and years and years. And you can keep doing it till everyone around here crumbles to dust, and maybe that's what you want. But let me say, from the moment I met you, I didn't really believe that." Her eyes flickered gold. "Anyone could finish All Might now--it doesn't have to be you. And you know you've hardly tried in all this time...because you knew that. If you kill him now, you will prove only that you can take advantage of someone's weaknesses and their concern for their pupil. The world will not see it as fixing anything, the League will not see it as a victory, and I am going to be heartbroken, if that matters." She smiled slightly. "But most important, is it really what you want?"

Silence.

You could have heard a pin drop.

No one even moved. They'd hardly been breathing, afraid they'd break the spell.

Shigaraki glanced at All Might.

He'd definitely have take this chance not long ago...

Not long ago, it would have not even have given him pause.

He hated All Might... At least, he hated the symbol of peace...but...All Might really wasn't the symbol of peace anymore, was he?

And perhaps that was why he had given up trying to kill him for a while now...

What difference would it make? Shine had a point.

None.

Shigaraki's hatred for All Might had always been far more imaginary than he realized it was, based on an ideal that had nothing to do with All Might's real feelings thoughts or motives. Just on an idea of him the public bought into...and slowly that idea had been stripped away from actually getting to know people...

In the end...what was All Might now? Just a person.

Master would still want him dead though...

But technically, he hadn't said to kill him...

No one had to know this happened, right?

Finally, he spoke. "At the moment, I have other priorities. I know you'll all stop me anyway. I'm not stupid. She's here." He nodded at Kayla. "It wouldn't be any accomplishment now. You're right about that, Likstar."

Aizawa blinked in disbelief.

Shine smiled. "I thought so.... Well, Deku, heard enough? Time to stand down."

"I--" began Deku.

"Midoriya," All Might put a hand on his shoulder, "let's just...go home. You can settle this another time. People are in trouble, it sounds like. Even if they are Villains, still. And the Pros may need our help."

"But..." Deku couldn't help but feel this was anticlimactic.

"I know," Shine said. "You think this feels wrong after all that crap about your duty and all that. But here's the thing." She shrugged. "Your duty changes based on the needs of the people around you. And this is not what the world needs right now. Simple as that. I'd get a move on now, before AFO--"

But just as she was saying those last words, the whole structure shook beneath them...and then...it seemed like huge energy blast erupted under it and split the bottom layers into pieces. The whole thing start to crumple to the side.

Deku used his lasso to grab onto a different building, and he grabbed All Might, Aizawa, and Kayla with his other hand.

Shine grabbed Shigaraki before he could do anything, and then she used her sword to stick into the falling asphalt. She made a portal under them.

* * *

The crumbling caught the attention of Hawks, and he saw the whole thing go down. He rushed over to see if anyone was inside...but they'd all escaped.

To their horror, though, as the dust cleared, they saw AFO was standing in the center of it all.

AFO hadn't known Shigaraki was up there, in his defense, which Shigaraki assumed.

"Master!" he cried indignantly.

"Oh..." AFO recognized him. "Sorry, Tomura Shigaraki, I didn't realize it was you. But of course you're capable of escaping that, anyway. Was this not a good time to make my dramatic entrance?"

"AFO!" All Might growled, before anyone could stop him.

Shine slapped her forehead.

"Get up," she told Shigaraki. "Get out of here."

"What? Master is here," Shigaraki said.

"And he's more than capable of ending all of them," Shine said. "You want to waste your time here? Silk is probably somewhere in the base, so is Compress, so is Toga. Go get them. I will watch this." She held up her sword. "If it's up to me, no one will die."

Shigaraki glanced at AFO. It was true, no one really posed a threat...except maybe...

"Get the Siren away first," he said.

Shine sighed, and portalled Kayla to her. "There, she won't do anything unless it's life or death. Happy?"

"Just make her tell them all to leave Master alone," Shigaraki said.

"I won't tell them that if you don't go," Kayla warned. 

"And get the League," Shine said.

"Yes, if you go and get them, I hold them off," Kayla said.

"In fact, that's best anyway. They could destroy the place the League are in if they start fighting now," Shine said.

"I can buy you 5-10 minutes," Kayla said.

Shigaraki cast one last glare at AFO. "If you don't, I'll kill you later," he said.

"Just go!" Kayla shouted at him. "Before we all die."

Shigaraki warped away.

Shine covered her ears. "All right, Kayla, better start singing. Try to make time stop, huh?"

Kayla cleaned her throat and began to hum then broke into full song.

[Image by Onerose. Song to the Siren--Eurielle]

https://youtu.be/g9xTTiygjBY

* * *

Mirko wasn't in the mood to take a beating from some punk kids.

But the kids didn't exactly seem concerned about that.

The minute she and Best Jeanist turned around, the boy in front of the passel of them said, "Discombobulate."

And Best Jeanist seemed to lose focus.

Mirko jumped around to kick the kids from the side, and metal piping shot out of the other boy and surrounded them all, so that she crashed into it instead.

"Show offs," the girl said. She snapped her fingers, and the ground under Mirko suddenly seemed to move...or she moved. Suddenly she was several meters away and smacking into a wall.

"You could kill her if you switched with something inside the wall," the rebar kid said.

"Ah, that's not as much fun," said the girl. "Where's Paint?"

As if on cue, another girl melted out of the paint on the building nearest them and used a spray can to fill the air with it.

Then she seemed to phase out of the paint in mid air and covered Best Jeanist with it, which made him look pretty silly.

Mirko would have found it funny if these brats weren't taking up their valuable time.

She recovered from the impact, but only in time to be smacked into another wall.

"I could do this all day," the first girl said.

"Switch," warned the kid who'd thrown Best Jeanist off, "reel it in. We have more Heroes to worry about. Edgeshot is still at large."

"Fine," Switch said.

Mirko could only try one thing before she was smacked around again, and that was kick as much dust as possible at all of them.

It worked surprisingly well. The kids all started coughing on it.

"D--- rabbit!" said the first boy.

"Mixer! Get her," The rebar kid said.

"Shut it, Pipe," he said.

Mirko grabbed Beat Jeanist, despite all the paint, and leapt farther away from them, into the scaffolding of one of the buildings under construction.

"Snap out of it, Jeanist," she said.

He moaned something incoherently then blinked a little. "What was that? My brain felt scrambled."

"It's not usually like that?" Mirko couldn't resist saying. "Wow...I guess it was his quirk. That's a problem." She eyed the kids. "But the others aren't too powerful, I'd say."

"We can hear you now," Pipe called. "We're not powerful, huh, b----?" He held out his hands. "You ain't seen nothing yet!"

Piping shot out of his arms and up toward them, sticking into the scaffolding and making it start to crumble.

Best Jeanist used thread to form a brace to hold it together. "If we land on the ground, that girl will use her quirk. I think she moves the earth a little."

"No," Mirko said. They all had basic names. "I think she's switching out chunks of earth with each other. That's kind of OP, to be honest."

"What does that mean?" Best Jeanist said.

"Nothing really useful, just that we're fricked if they all keep attacking at once," Mirko said.

Suddenly, Paint appeared...out of the paint on Best Jeanist's coat.

"Hey!" she said, eyes gleaming, smacking Best Jeanist backward.

Mirko dodged her and knocked her legs out from under her.

Paint lost her cockiness... She seemed like kind of a punk kid still.

Mirko planted her foot on the girl's chest. "Ready to give up yet?"

"Mixer!" Paint was wailing.

"Discombobulate!" Mixer was focusing on Mirko now.

He could clearly only use that on one person, she thought before her head seemed to go kind of fuzzy.

It didn't get her off Paint, however. You don't need a lot of focus to stand on someone, but Paint started struggling to get free while she was disoriented. A little more wiggling and she'd be able to.

Best Jeanist had almost fallen off the scaffold, but he caught the edge and pulled himself back up. The whole thing was rattling.

He motioned and Paint's clothes tied her up suddenly. She grunted in annoyance.

Then he shot more threads out toward Mixer and Switch.

Switch disappeared and reappeared out of range.

Then she switched out the ground under the scaffold, and it crumbled the rest of the way.

Best Jeanist was able to catch himself and yanked Mirko and Paint after him, but Pipe was sending out more rebar--and some of it shot through the threats and impaled Jeanist before he could move off.

It did not kill him, somehow. It was only slightly in. He was able to yank himself off of it in time, but he was now bleeding in a few different places.

Mirko found her brain cleared. Mixer had stopped focusing on her.

She bounded up again and kicked some of the rebar pipes back at the kids.

They scattered.

This went on for few more minutes--the kids attacking in various ways, the Pros dodging them. Paint remained down for the count, though Pipe started trying to break her out of the threads...without ruining her outfit, which was quite a challenge.

Switch almost killed them, but Mirko began to jump so fast she couldn't switch things in time, and knocked her down and then out.

Best Jeanist was held off more by Mixer, but Mixer couldn't do anything else while he was doing that.

Pipe tried to attack him again, but Best Jeanist tied him more with his own threads also.

All in all, it looked like the fight was going to be over.

Then Pipe surrounded Mirko with rebar again to prevent her jumping around anymore, and it closed over her head.

"Hey! Prick!" she said.

That's when they all heard it--the blast, things crumbling.

Best Jeanist looked up and saw the parking structure crumbling.

"Mirko." He began trying to yank the rebar out of the ground.

Mirko cast a nervous look at it. "Nevermind, just go. I'll be fine," she said.

Switch sat up a little groggily. "What's that?"

"Switch, get us out of here!" Mixer yelled.

"I got this!" Pipe closed bars over all of them, weaving them together.

Best Jeanist began to loosen one. The structure was falling toward them all now.

Pipe suddenly made one rebar shoot out longer and knocked Best Jeanist back.

"You see, a--h---," he called, "even tied up I can still fight." Piping started to pierce through the threads.

"You fool!" Best Jeanist yelled at him. "We're going to--"

Mirko covered her ears as the cement came falling down on all of them.

She fully expected to die at any second.

But the rebar proved a little tougher than she thought. Pipe, in his effort to trap her, had set the pipes too close for her to jump through, which meant anything that fell through was less than her own body weight...how ironic. The chunks of cement bounced off it and broke into pieces. A few small bits rained down on her, but the only ones big enough to even cause a concussion just missed her, or she dodged. Anything big enough to crush her didn't get through. 

"Jeanist!" she tried to yell over the noise. "Just get under this--"

But she couldn't hear him.

She heard the teens yelping, as no doubt cement and asphalt rained on them too.

The buildings next to them started crumbling in partially too.

Then it was over, almost too soon. The dust settled. Mirko coughed, and the teens coughed on it.

"D--- Pipe..." Mixer said, "you're hella strong. Look at that, not a bar out of place."

"Well, frick yeah!" Pipe said, not sounding quite as brave as he meant to. "Rebar is supposed to hold up concrete, dumba--."

"The Hero is still alive too," Switch noticed. "But where's the other one?"

Mirko listened...nothing.

"Jeanist?" she yelled suddenly, now scared. "Best Jeanist!? Answer me, d--- it!""

Nothing.

Okay, maybe he just got knocked out by a chunk of concrete.

She'd hear breathing then...

"Oh, s---," Paint said. "I think he got buried." She laughed nervously. "I guess that means we succeeded."

"Kind of by accident," Mixer muttered. "Not a lot to brag on. Pipe, finish off her too."

But Mirko kicked the rebar out of the ground in a burst of rage.

They all cringed.

Mirko hopped out of their range, kicking aside chunks of asphalt. "Jeanist?"

Then...a song hit her ears...something...kind of hypnotizing...

Her and the teens all just froze in place.