ＡＬＬ ＦＯＲ ＯＮＥ

Her pencil, stopped moving against the page. It was a brief pause to look up at the sky, to consider his analogy. She had not heard that exact one before, but similar ones.

"It's a nice theory... but that puzzle only refers to one frog. Not A collective of them. On top of that, a humans brain is capable of more complex thoughts. Sometimes we can notice subtle changes in our environment before we realize it...." She stops herself and shakes her head a little. "Sorry... I'm Rambling about that. Long story short... I think a humans brain is more complex than what that analogy go's off of. Some people notice things faster and will instinctively fill a role to help solve it, OR scramble and panic creating a bigger problem. And sometimes they do nothing." She knew it became more complex than that. When a society had things like Quirks. It complicated things even more.

She did not feel like society was broken, she also did not think it was perfect. There were flaws. Most things had flaws.

"But that's part of the equation, isn't it?" He postulates, not even ceasing his own idle scribbling away at the notepad that sets dwarfed in his hands by the man's colossal height. Pale white eyes, and their uncomfortable matte surface, remain ever transfixed.

"A human would notice being set in a pot, a human would notice themselves begin to boil. For, at our core, we are more complex entities than them. We notice nuance in ways that they cannot, find patterns where there are none, or see them in greater detail when they are." A little hum leaves his lips, and the lock of his eyes breaks from the lined paper, finally. To level with her presence more directly.

the more that voice and presence haunted him, the tighter his hands clung to the man . like the touch to his back, it CONSUMED Yuga . because this was his LIFE, wasn’t it ? All For One was the person he served, the only person who saw him as an equal, no — who MADE HIM an equal . his parents even now saw him as a flawed child, a tool for their own survival . ( he must keep them SAFE . )

but All For One, he was different . he could see his value . he could appreciate who he WAS . right ?? and even with this twisted NEED for the man’s presence, it’s all sickening . he HATES him . he’s terrified of his every action, every word . but aside from All For one, he had NOTHING, and in the midst of his panic he needed SOMETHING .

❝ reward ? ❞ shakily he begins to pull back, just enough to rest his teary gaze up at the man .

❝ I — I don’t need one . ❞ a plead . hasn’t he done ENOUGH ? ❝ all I need is for them to be OKAY . you’ve given me that and more — I c - can’t take any more from you . just leave it to me, I can DO what you need me to ! ❞

"Of course I believe you, my boy." The massive hand of the villain so delicately pats at the young man's back. Given power, one always assumed their personality would swing to match. But Aoyama was still that crying little quirkless boy, afraid of being different. Afraid of the pain of being scorned.

would it have been better if she had tried? if she managed to help? maybe it would have changed kai. maybe he would have stopped.

" i d-don't...know everything. about...heroes and b-bad guys. "

she shook her head. even when she asked her new friends or the ua teachers, she wasn't sure if everything stuck. she didn't understand all the words or phrases, the tone. if anything, the more she knew the more confused she got.

" i mm...i thought i was c-cursed, and hurt people with it. " eri raised her hand to her horn, feeling the little indents that made up it's spire. it was getting bigger, but still felt small. it hurt, it felt weird the bigger it got. sometimes it made her scared--what if she couldn't control it at all? mister aizawa wasn't always around to help.

"But! I would never describe you as cursed, child. This power of yours can be used for a great many things. Disease, aging, injuries, all of it can be undone the more you learn to use your power. And anyone who tries to stop you from doing that is only hurting you." A fleeting bout of that monstrous addiction burns at his core. Wondering what such a quirk must feel like, how it would feel to rewind someone back until they were nothing more than a child, or worse.

Wondering further what it could have felt like to be whole again. Not a prisoner to his own limited senses. Or a shadow, burdened to hide in the darkness as he was.

there isn’t ANYTHING about this he doesn’t despise . seeing HIM of all people in his home, the few places he could remotely feel safe ( a feeling that’s surely RUINED, now . ) is enough to send him into a spiral on its own . but that new GRIN, the reminder that he and his parents will never escape, and his own pitiful gesture to get SOME sort of comfort — it all sends his mind deeper into DARKNESS .

he wished All For One would GO AWAY and leave him and his parents be . and yet he’s clinging to the embrace like a lifeline . because he still GAVE YUGA EVERYTHING — he owed him . All For One cared for him in some way, didn’t he ?

and yet those words — OWE TO YOU, hurts more than anything else could . his breaths barely escape his throat now, hyperventilating into the man’s shirt as those tears well up .

Those stone chiseled features, rendered as if unto marble like the gods of the old world. Perfect, well carved, and precisely as unnaturally artificial. Contorted, twisted into that self important sneer. Letting himself laugh if only a little at the boys sudden insistence. Oh how they always flocked to him with such great appreciation for all he had done, and it seemed that even now that had yet to change.

Once a quirkless child in a world full of them, burdened with the fear of uncertainty. Buried by the knowledge of being different in ways that no amount of money or popularity could ever change. But that was him, wasn't it? The change in the world, giving quirks to the quirkless and taking those that were not appreciated.

" y-you could have? "

eri remembered nights on end, wishing for a hero to come save her. even as she ran, she wished from a world where she knew nothing, that someone there would finally free her from constant, unending pain. what if she had been saved sooner? would he have really helped her?

And he was not so cruel.

He imagines, though, if he'd seen things the same way as Kai and his organization he'd have done much the same. All of the children he'd used for their abilities? It wasn't any single bit better than what she'd been through. It's probably for the best she can't see his smile. IT would surely not be any comfort.

" you know? " a whisper of a response. the last sentence made the weight in her stomach lighten more. did he really think that she would be good at helping? the thin line of her mouth twitched upward and she nodded.

" t-thank you, mister. h-how did you know about h- t-them. "

"I do know, they used your power for such awful things."

Such sacrilege, he thought. Who could look at all of these glorious abilities that they'd been gifted by the, for once, forgiving hand of nature, and think how one may destroy that. Creating a drug that removed someone's ability to use the quirks that they had been born with. All for One was many things, a megalomaniac, a monster, a villain-- But to be ashamed of these abilities felt a step beyond the sort of thing he could ever stomach.

Kai Chisaki. Had but one product that the villain wanted. For all the usefulness the idea of this rewinding quirk could do in reconstructing his damaged features? The thought of being able to overhaul himself seemed all the more prescient to what he needed.