Chapter Text
It had happened so fast.
Tomura Shigaraki, possessed by All for One, had tried to steal One for All. The vestiges had come out to stop him. The confrontation in the Void had been the first time Yoichi had laid eyes on his older brother since his death. Yoichi would have never admitted it, but he’d prepared a speech for the occasion. He’d only gotten to speak one word. Then All for One had shot forward, grabbed Yoichi by his hair, and yanked him into the shadows.
The other vestiges had moved, but not fast enough. Yoichi had glimpsed their frantic eyes before his vision had been consumed by darkness.
Now Yoichi was being dragged down a dark tunnel. He could neither see nor hear. Even his older brother’s footsteps had no sound. Of course, neither of them breathed. The misty ground under his legs did not feel hard or soft, or indeed like anything at all. Yoichi could only feel the hand painfully gripping his hair.
Yoichi twisted and squirmed, trying to break free. But the hand refused to budge. When he clawed, he did not draw blood. The silence was unnerving. Big brother had always loved to talk. Gritting his teeth, Yoichi dug his nails in harder.
Through trial and error, Yoichi and the other vestiges had long ago learned that manipulating the Void depended on willpower. They could create anything they wanted in the Void, from a chair to sit down in to a card game to play. If one vestige tried to change the landscape and the other fought against the change, then whoever concentrated harder or wanted it more would win.
But no matter how hard Yoichi imagined a knife with which to stab his brother, nothing happened. He feared he knew why. This was not the Void, but rather the mental landscape of All for One’s quirk. Yoichi had absolutely no power here.
A shiver wracked his ghostly body like an electric shock. No, he couldn’t give up so easily. Having failed to remove his brother’s hand, he tried to rip the hair off his own head. For a brief moment of burning pain, Yoichi got a lock free.
Then All for One lifted Yoichi up, still using only one hand, and tossed him into a room.
Yoichi bounced off the shadowy floor without pain. It felt flexible, like a trampoline. He looked around. Though the floor felt soft, it gleamed like metal. He recognized this place, right down the crack in the corner and the door without a handle. The vault.
“Do you love bank vaults so much, big brother? This obsession of yours has gotten unhealthy. You should see a shrink.” Yoichi spoke with false bravado. He felt very, very afraid.
All for One did not reply. He dropped to his knees, his red eyes looming close. At some point during the journey, All for One’s form had changed from the scarred vestige of his real world self to a young, healthy body. Yoichi had a bad feeling that he knew why. The vestiges had some ability to change their bodies in the Void, at least enough to get a new haircut or clothing. Otherwise, they’d all be stuck in the bloody rags of their deaths. All for One must be able to change because he’d entered a mindscape under his control.
Yoichi could change nothing for the same reason.
All for One grabbed Yoichi’s face and felt it. Yoichi tried to jerk away, but his older brother gripped the back of his hair to hold him in place. Either All for One was supernaturally strong, or Yoichi had gotten weaker here.
“Let me go!” Yoichi screamed. This only got him a finger probing his mouth. He bit down, but his teeth did no damage.
All for One kept running his hands down Yoichi’s body. The villain muttered, “So real…much more real than any of my attempts…”
“Big brother, it’s me. You know that, don’t you?” Yoichi had long wondered how his brother would react to coming face-to-face with him again. He’d spitefully hoped for some trace of guilt. Joy was possible, though that would have been annoying. Yoichi would have preferred his brother to show concern about the threat to his evil plans, in the unlikely event that big brother took him seriously for once. At the least, he’d expected some big, dramatic reaction. He did not know how to react to this blank stare.
“Maybe, just maybe,” All for One muttered. His gaze held a burning force that made Yoichi inch backward, as far as he could go with the hand still gripping his hair. “If it was merely a quirk ghost, then it would smell edible to me.”
“I told you, I’m not a quirk ghost, it’s me—wait, edible?”
All for One answered Yoichi’s question by taking a bite out of his hand.
Yoichi howled in pain and backhanded his older brother across the face.
This time, All for One let go. He spat out blood on the steel floor. “I can’t eat it,” he said in a tone of wonder. “Not a quirk ghost. I must talk to the doctor about this.” He stood up and walked out of the vault.
Yoichi lunged, but the vault door slammed shut in his face. His forehead bounced off. Even though the material looked like metal, it felt soft and spongy. This place was made of shadows and despair.
Collapsing to the ground, Yoichi cradled his injured hand, which did hurt. What had big brother been thinking? Yoichi had bitten his older brother repeatedly from a young age. But All for One had always considered retaliating in kind to be beneath him. He’d often lectured his little brother for being disgusting. Had the centuries driven All for One mad?
All for One hadn’t seemed to believe that Yoichi was real. Of all the reactions that Yoichi had anticipated, that hadn’t been one of them. He did not know how to feel. It would have been good if his brother had left him alone, but All for One had kidnapped him without even bothering to accept his existence. How unfair and undignified.
For lack of anything better to do, Yoichi felt his way around the vault. It looked exactly like the old prison featured in his nightmares. However, the building material lacked the substance to let him bash his brains out. Yoichi had used a hunger strike to try and force his brother to let him out last time, but ghosts didn’t eat and that hadn’t worked anyway. He tried repeatedly to imagine up a wrecking ball inside his cell but nothing happened. This only confirmed his worst fears that he had no power in this place. He was completely at his brother’s nonexistent mercy.
Yoichi wanted to believe that his heroes would rescue him again, but he could imagine no way for them to enter All for One’s mind. No heroes were coming. At this point, his only escape would be if All for One died. Then they’d both go down together.
Burying his face in his hands, Yoichi tried very hard not to cry. He’d endured this place once. He’d do it again. He had faith that Nineth would finally defeat All for One. Then everything would be over.
But he really didn’t want to die trapped within these hated four walls.
Time passed. It was impossible for Yoichi to say how much. He didn’t get hungry or thirsty. He did get bored. Lying back with his eyes closed, he ran through a dictionary of every English word he knew. He couldn’t bear to look at the vault walls. When he’d died for the first time, at least he’d believed he could never be trapped in this place again. This fate was too cruel.
A tear trickled down Yoichi’s face. He made the mistake of cracking an eye open as he wiped it off. Even though the darkness, he could feel the walls pressing around him. It choked him. Yoichi clutched his chest, gasping for air. No, no, no. This couldn’t be happening. Surely this was all another nightmare. He keened like a wounded animal.
The wheel on the door turned.
Yoichi’s head shot up. He leapt to his feet. Dizziness made him sway, dropping down on one knee.
All for One shot forward, too fast to be resisted, and wrapped his arms around Yoichi, clingy as a baby sloth. “It’s truly you,” he cried.
Yoichi had a perverse desire to futilely deny it, but his breath wouldn’t come. His lungs felt crushed. He was still panicking.
“There, there.” All for One brushed a tear away from Yoichi’s eye. With the villain’s touch, Yoichi’s body felt lighter. He could breathe again. His pulse slowed. The panic attack was gone. In its place came a strange emptiness.
“What did you do to me?” Yoichi demanded.
“I helped you.” All for One kept petting Yoichi’s hair.
Yoichi wanted to throw his brother off, but there would be no point to fighting someone so much stronger, so he sat still. How odd. Normally, Yoichi had no problem attacking his older brother no matter how futile it might be. Intellectually, Yoichi knew he ought to be enraged by this babying touch. But rather than anger, he only had a sense that he ought to be angry.
“What did you do?” Yoichi growled again. Even his tone did not sound as furious as it should be.
“You feel perfectly real,” All for One whispered, kissing the top of Yoichi’s head.
Yoichi knew he ought to react, but his heart rate and breathing remained completely steady. This, in turn, forced him to be calm. At least it made thinking easier. “You’re controlling my body.”
All for One smiled. “You don’t have a body.”
“This fake body is part of your mindscape now. It’s under your control.” Once again, Yoichi knew he ought to be panicking. He was completely and utterly screwed, but this knowledge felt distant. His thoughts had been wrapped up in cotton. Yoichi fought through the suffocating sensation to summon up anger. “How dare you do this to me?”
“The vault was only a temporary holding cell, little brother. I’ve kept your old room for you.” Full of smiles, All for One snapped his fingers. The vault warped into Yoichi’s old bedroom as a young adult. It was a perfect replica, from the mahogany desk to the titles of the books on the shelves. Even his Spiderman bedcover had the same soda stain in the corner. The material under Yoichi’s knees changed to cream carpet.
Bending over, All for One grabbed Yoichi’s hand. He effortlessly healed the bite injury, then hauled his little brother to his feet.
Yoichi shook off the hand. “I meant stop messing with my body! I want out of your head!”
“No, I don’t think so.” All for One sat down backwards on the desk chair, with his arms hanging over the back. “How have you been, little brother?”
Yoichi stared. “Dead.”
All for One chuckled. “Fair enough. I’ve been working on my plan to possess bodies using duplicates of my quirk—”
“I don’t want to hear about your disgusting child-grooming activities.”
“Don’t be rude.” All for One wagged his finger. “You get three strikes, then I leave.”
Yoichi sneered. “Why would you possibly imagine that I would want you here?”
“Strike Two. You’ve always been foolish, little brother, but surely you’ve realized that I’m all that you have now.” All for One smirked.
That smug tone pushed Yoichi over the edge. “Your company is far worse than nothing, you narcissistic, deluded windbag!” Yoichi picked up a book from the shelf, intending to throw it at his brother’s head. But All for One had already vanished without so much as a mention of Strike Three.
Alone in the room, Yoichi flicked open the book. The pages were blank inside. It figured. Yoichi grasped his brother’s plan quickly. The first time All for One had thrown Yoichi in a vault, he’d tried to use isolation to break his little brother. This was the same tactic again. All for One planned to leave Yoichi alone until he longed for any human contact at all.
But why even bother? All for One couldn’t still want Yoichi to join his side. Yoichi had nothing to offer. If All for One wanted information, then he’d be disappointed by Yoichi’s limited grasp of the living world. More likely, All for One simply wanted to win. From past experience, a burning desire for victory alone would be enough to motivate big brother to great efforts.
Even now, Yoichi still felt calmer than he knew he ought to be. He’d started to sweat and grind his teeth again, but that was a mild reaction to the current disaster. He should be having another panic attack. Obviously that wouldn’t feel pleasant or help anything. Even so, Yoichi missed his emotions. They’d belonged to him. If he couldn’t properly explode, he could at least feel indignant at his brother for taking that away from him. No matter what, he refused to forget his anger.
Yoichi explored every inch of this new room. The desk drawers didn’t open. Neither did the closet door. The computer didn’t turn on. The window showed a motionless image of the backyard of his old family home from the dawn of the age of quirks. He could not break the chair no matter how many times he hit it against the wall. He didn’t even scratch the pastel blue wallpaper. The sound of the chair hitting the wall was reasonably realistic. However, Yoichi couldn’t smell anything. The entire room was completely odorless. Having created numerous rooms in the Void for his own entertainment, Yoichi would classify this place as a shoddy, poor imitation of reality.
Eventually, Yoichi lay on the bed and closed his eyes. In the Void, he’d been able to fall into a proximity of sleep with the occasional dream. It served to pass the time when he got bored.
When Yoichi awoke, there was a hand on his pillow. All for One said, “I came to fix this place into better shape.” As All for One’s fingers brushed the pillow, it suddenly held a faint scent of Yoichi’s favorite strawberry shampoo.
Yoichi sat up abruptly. The computer was turned on now. The book lying fallen on the floor showed words. “You…gave me books? Why?” This contradicted everything he’d assumed about his brother’s plan.
“I’m not going to torment you this time,” All for One crooned. “There’s no need.”
Because I’ve already won, hung in the air unspoken between them. Yoichi scowled. He’d braced himself for a difficult battle of wills. It felt a little insulting to learn that had all been unnecessary. “Then what do you want from me, big brother?”
“I don’t want anything.”
“Liar! You kidnapped me!”
“I removed you from a place that’s likely to become dangerous over the course of the coming battle. If your latest holder died, then so would you. I myself have two bodies to move between now, so my consciousness is a much safer place for you to stay.”
Even now, All for One persisted in pretending to be a protective older brother. Yoichi scowled. “I’d rather take my chances with my successors.”
“I can’t allow you to vanish with those pitiful ghosts. It would be irresponsible of me.” All for One kissed Yoichi on the forehead. “I still love you, my foolish little brother. Now, I have business to take care of. I’ll see you later. We have nothing but time.”
Without even letting Yoichi get in a retort or a revenge bite, All for One vanished.
Nothing but time? What did that mean? Deep down, Yoichi knew what it meant, but he preferred not to think about it.
Yoichi tried to read, but his twisting and turning mind wouldn’t focus on the words. There had to be something he could do against his mad brother. He just couldn’t think of anything. Even if Yoichi could only throw All for One off-guard or upset him, then that would benefit his allies…right? Yoichi had his doubts he could truly do anything to help. But spiting his brother had always been reason enough for him.
The computer had internet, including decades worth of new movies, books, and anime. At first Yoichi was excited, until he realized he was blocked from any news of the outside world. Also, the content all seemed to be limited to what his older brother had seen. This made sense, because Yoichi was inside All for One’s head. But it meant the entertainment was heavily slanted toward edgelord crap with villain protagonists. Also, All for One had literally never finished a single story in his entire life. Of all the ridiculous pettiness. Yoichi despaired.
When All for One next materialized in his room, Yoichi had a plan ready. He sat on his bed, reading. Pointedly, he did not look up at his brother.
All for One asked, “Would you like to play a game? I brought Monopoly.”
Yoichi barely resisted a snort. He kept his face studiously neutral as he turned a page. Part of him was already desperate for human conversation, but he beat that part to death with a shovel. He knew his brother’s game and refused to lose at it. Big brother barely qualified as human anyway.
All for One said, “If you play with me, then I’ll tell you how the battle at Jaku City ended.”
Yoichi twitched. He wanted to know badly. But he reminded himself that it would do his allies no good whether he had information or not, and All for One was a liar. Yoichi’s plan was to irritate his brother and draw his attention into their battle of wills as much as possible. That meant he couldn’t give in.
“Still no? Very well. We’ll play a different game.” All for One snapped his fingers. (There was no need for gestures in the Void. Big brother was being melodramatic.)
Pain seized Yoichi’s chest. He coughed.
“Aw, are you sick, little brother?” All for One leaned over the bed and placed his hand on Yoichi’s forehead. “You feel feverish. Lie down, and I’ll make you tea.”
“How?” Yoichi croaked. His body felt hot. Small shivers shook his hands. He could not get sick in the Void. For crying out loud, he was already dead! His older brother must be doing this. Horror consumed Yoichi as he remembered that he was in a place where big brother had total control—including over Yoichi’s own body.
All for One pushed Yoichi down onto the bed. “You need rest.”
Yoichi leapt up, grabbing a pillow and throwing it at his brother’s face.
The pillow bounced off an invisible forcefield. The blankets leapt up and wrapped around Yoichi’s body, cocooning him. Yoichi struggled and swore.
With a clarity born from his still strangely emotionless mind, Yoichi realized the hopelessness of his situation. Whether he played along or not, he would still be his brother’s toy. All for One had plenty of games that he could enjoy without Yoichi’s cooperation. Big brother had always liked looking after him when he was sick a little too much. Yoichi had long suspected that there might be a reason he’d recovered from his illness after being rescued from the vault, even though no doctor his brother had taken him to had ever been able to help. It felt bitter to have his worst suspicions confirmed like this, with his older brother making him ill as a “game.”
There was no ignoring big brother. There was no escape. There was no winning. There were no heroes coming. Even death did not exist in this place.
A teacup on a saucer materialized on All for One’s palm. “Drink this, and then I’ll read you a story to put you to sleep.”
“I’ll accept nothing from you that you don’t force on me,” Yoichi hissed.
“You’re such a child. Even after all these years, you haven’t matured a bit.” All for One shook his head. “No matter. Now we’re together again, we can work on reaching a truce.”
In a world where All for One had all the power and control, Yoichi knew that truce meant surrender. “Fuck you.”
“Language.” All for One snapped his fingers again, and Yoichi’s throat seized up. He could no longer talk. He couldn’t move. Only his eyes tracked his brother’s every movement.
I’ll accept nothing from you that you don’t force on me had been his final gesture of defiance, but it meant nothing if his brother could simply force everything.
“I recreated your favorite green tea,” All for One said, then poured it straight down Yoichi’s throat.
Yoichi thrashed and howled voicelessly. It did not hurt. He had no need to breathe. Yet still he felt suffocated, as the weight of this horrible endless existence pressed down on him.
OMAKE TIME!
Omake: The Perfect Test
All for One: Are you really my brother or just an illusion? I must test this. (Manifests a pair of scissors and cuts off a lock of Yoichi’s hair.)
Yoichi: You’ve gone too far, you deranged megalomaniac! I will feed you those scissors!
All for One: You’re real! Ow ow ow.
#
Omake: Bedtime Story
All for One: Tonight, I’ll read you my Captain Hero fanfiction. Spoiler alert: the demon king wins.
Yoichi: I choose death.
All for One: You’re already dead.
Yoichi: (Sighs) I choose Monopoly.
All for One: Why not both?