First off I’m sorry if none of this makes sense, I somehow misunderstood something in the manga/anime, or if someone else has already touched on this.
Secondly, MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE MANGA!!! (Up to the current chapter 417!)
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I have one very important question:
If Izuku is quirkless now, given that all eight of the vestiges have been “transferred”, then how is he still in the vestige realm?
There are only three possible reasons for this:
Izuku has made OFA his quirk. Maybe by using it in such a unique way, some part of OFA will always remain within Izuku.
My personal gripes with this theory:
Kind of boring, as we’ve already seen it with All Might.
It ignores the fact that it was Izuku that unlocked all eight(?) quirks.
Izuku, unlike All Might, hasn’t been reduced to a wispy state like vestige!Might.
I don’t have definitive proof for this, as OFA is mostly likely not gone-gone. But there’s no one left in OFA, at least on Izuku’s side. None of the predecessors. Not even Yoichi as an anchor quirk.
Since AFO-OFA are “resonating” , Izuku (and Tomura) are immune to regular vestige/quirk rules. For example, being reduced to a being like vestige!Might.
My personal gripes with this theory:
All the same ones as above.
Although, this is a little less boring.
If Hori uses this reasoning to delve more into Tomura and Izuku’s connection (OFA-AFO connection), then I wouldn’t hate it.
It still ignores Izuku’s inherent connection to OFA (unlocking all the quirks, and seeing vestiges without any medical procedures like Tomura).
My favorite theory that’s come out of the DFO fandom: Izuku has had a quirk all along!
This one makes the most sense.
I won’t go into all the specifics, but if you’re interested Marunalu has gone over the theory several times on their Tumblr.
It answers everything.
Why Izuku was able to unlock the quirks.
Why Izuku could see the vestiges.
Why Izuku is still in Tomura’s vestige realm despite being “quirkless” now.
And why Izuku is able to handle several quirks at a time without becoming braindead.
*All the other ones could maybe be disproven (maybe), but the last point can’t. No amount of quirk singularity can fix how much brainspace a person has. Tomura had to get major surgery to be able to handle AFO (which while different from OFA, both have more than one quirk). Meanwhile, Izuku unlocks his predecessors’ quirks like he’s beating a video game (heh).
*One other reason that I just thought of while typing this: maybe there’s a AFO vestige in the vault. I’ve seen this theory tossed around for a while now, but I feel like there would have been more proof outside of that one chapter. Alternatively, if there is an AFO vestige kicking around OFA, that could be AFO’s final play. By being the only one left in OFA, there’s no one to protect Izuku from being taken over, or possessed by the AFO quirk. I really hope it isn’t this one, but it would make an excellent fanfic. Especially if combined with DFO and/or Tomura having to be the one to save Izuku.
Or maybe it’s none of these, and Hori will surprise us. He certainly has before, and I’m 100% sure he will again :D!!
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"DFO One Shot: Bonus #4 - In My Time of Need."
Trigger warnings: AFO being himself, emotional abuse, abandonment issues, children in distress, and kidnapping.
Characters: Tenko, AFO, Inko, Izuku, and the Shimura family.
Word count: 2,843
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Inko is four months pregnant when she reconnects with her brother. The one she never got to meet due to their father dying right before she was born, and their mother placing him in the foster system and then abandoning her in some nowhere hospital.
Her brother, Kotaro, is ecstatic to meet her. He talks a mile a minute. About his work and accomplishments and how proud he is of her and all about his family. His father-in-law and mother-in-law, wife, and his two kids. There’s a soft fondness to his voice when he brings them up, a dreaminess in his gray eyes.
(She supposes, for people like them, having a family like that would be a dream.)
In turn, she talks about her fiance and her pregnancy. It’s not as glamorous as his life, but Kotaro listens intently as she talks.
(It’s nice, even if he’s pretending to care.)
She’s five months pregnant when she starts to have doubts about her upcoming marriage. Her fiance is more distant, and not as attentive as he used to be.
He blames work, but she knows better. She’s seen his eyes wander to her swollen belly, has watched some measure of fear enter his eyes whenever she brings up anything having to do with their baby.
But she stays quiet. The fear of being alone again eats away at her, making her perpetually stressed out.
She’s six months along when she finds out her fiance’s terrible secret. It’s right there, laying on the dining room table. Spelled out on starch white paper. If Inko didn’t know better, she might assume he left it there on purpose.
Maybe he did.
Because he doesn’t come home that night….
….or the next night after that.
He ignores her phone calls, and any attempts to call the company he works for are met with a disconnected service.
Her - their (even though Hisashi is being weird, and might possibly be a villain doesn’t mean that he’s any less a father) baby kicks all the time now. Inko loses track of when he sleeps. It used to be during the day, but maybe this is normal. She’s a first time mom with no one to ask or turn to.
She consults the internet before remembering her sister-in-law, Nao.
Nao is more than helpful, but Inko leaves feeling woefully underprepared. She goes home and cries. She cries until her sides hurt and the tears stop leaking from her eyes.
The next morning, as the sun rises, she makes a decision.
Inko is seven months pregnant when she asks a favor from her brother and his wife.
“Can you take care of my baby for me?” She asks, head bowed from the weight of the request.
Her brother’s smile is thin when he answers. It’s hard to tell if it’s because he’s angry with her or sad for her baby. She doesn’t have it in her to ask. “Of course,” he says. “We’ll love him like he’s our own.”
They start the paperwork soon after that, and Inko starts handing over all the baby things she and Hisashi bought. Well, most of them anyway. Some of the stuff is too sentimental. It hurts her heart to look at it now, but she knows someday she’ll want to see it. And who knows, maybe her ex-fiance will too.
Inko is eight months pregnant when she goes into labor. It’s sudden, and her instinctual response is to call out for Hisashi. But he doesn’t come (of course he doesn’t). His side of the bed is still made up from the morning he left. It’s cold. She tries not to look at it every night.
She fails.
Through her tears, she calls her brother who tells her to call an ambulance, and that he’ll meet her at the nearest hospital.
The next few hours are a blur of her sister-in-law talking her through the blinding pain, nurses asking her questions, and pushing.
Inko’s finally rewarded with a high-pitched cry. Her body is in agony, torn in ways she can’t possibly imagine, but her baby is here.
“It’s a boy,” a nurse says, voice muffled behind her mask. “Do you want to hold him?”
Inko’s throat suddenly feels tight. She turns her face away. “No, I-I’m okay.” She points a trembling finger at her sister-in-law talking quietly on the phone in the corner. “She’s his mother now.” Her heart breaks at those words, but it’s for the best. If she holds the baby now, she might never let him go.
It doesn’t escape Inko how, in trying to avoid being like her birth mother, she turned out to be just like her.
The nurse nods solemnly, and moves to get Nao’s attention. Inko closes her eyes, refusing to see what she can’t have.
-x-x-x-
Tenko is four years and three months old when his mommy and daddy bring home a new baby. It’s small and tiny and already has a head full of curly green hair.
“His name is Mikumo,” mommy says, placing the baby in Hana’s arms. She puts a hand on Tenko’s shoulder. “I trust you two will be the best older siblings you can be?” It’s not a question, but Hana and him respond in unison.
“Yes!”
-x-x-x-
The next few months are hell on Inko. She somehow manages to get a job with her lackluster employment history. Her days become an endless blur of working, eating, and sleeping. She stops answering phone calls and emails.
She exists but only barely.
And then, on a rainy afternoon, exactly five months and six days after she gave birth, Hisashi comes home.
“I’m sorry, honey,” he says, as if that would be enough. “I was scared.”
So was I! She wants to scream, but Inko’s always shied away from conflict so she settles on a non committal, “mhm.”
Her fian- ex-fiance reaches for her, strong arms that she used to take refuge in coming to pull her into a hug. Inko thinks of what their life could have been if he hadn’t abandoned her and their-
Inko feels her throat constrict and chest tighten. She takes a step back. When she speaks her voice shakes. “Don’t.”
Hisashi sighs. “I came back,” he murmurs. She doesn’t have to look up to know that he’s staring at her. Emotional intelligence has never been his strong suit, and that’s never been more apparent to her then right now.
She holds her hands out in front of her. “You left.”
“I came back,” he repeats. “I came back for you and our son.”
The first tear always takes her by surprise. It’s warm and tastes like salt sliding past her lips and down her chin. She sniffles, holding a tight fist over one of her eyes.
C’mon, Inko, she berates herself. Don’t cry! Don’t cry! Don’t-
Hisashi pushes past her defenses and pulls her close. He kneels down. “It’s okay,” he says.
“N- no! It’s not! It’s not!” She cries, frantically shaking her head. “I-I did a bad thing.”
He strokes her hair. “What happened?”
“I gave…” Inko has to force herself to breathe through her sobs. “I gave our baby up for- for ad-adoption.”
She feels Hisashi tense. His hand drops from her hair. He pulls her away, holding her by her shoulders. The expression on his face shocks her the most. Never, in the six years they’ve known each other, has he ever looked at her like that.
Like he wants to kill hurt her.
Inko feels a lot like a deer in headlights, unable and unwilling to move. She hiccups, trying to wrench his hands off her shoulders.
“Why?” He asks, but before she can answer, Hisashi asks another. “To who?”
“My brother.”
“Your brother….?” Hisashi almost seems confused. He tilts his head to the side. Something flashes in his eyes suddenly. Something that makes Inko struggle harder against the man she once so badly wanted to marry. He smiles at her but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “Ah, yes, Kotaro.”
Hisashi pats her head. It makes her feel small.
It makes her feel like a child.
“That’s fine, dear.” He leaves as quietly as he came in. Inko crumbles to the floor, sobbing and shaking.
-x-x-x-
“Ku-chan,” Tenko sing-songs, holding his arms out. Mommy says that babies start crawling at about six months, but his baby brother is only five and likes to crawl all over the place. Which he likes to brag about to Mikkun and Tomochan when they play together.
Mon-chan trots along, following after them. She barks at the baby when Ku-chan gets too close to the road or tries to put something not very good in his mouth, but otherwise seems content to watch from a safe distance.
Hana sits on the other side of the baby, arms also spread out. “No,” she whines. “Ku-chan!”
The baby looks between them, deciding who to go to. It’s a hard choice, Tenko knows, but Ku-chan loves him best. Daddy even said so, though he laughed after he said it, so maybe that isn’t true. He frowns, hands falling into his lap.
The baby coos in his direction, throwing himself back into a crawling position. Spit covers his chin (“why is Ku-chan slimy?” Hana once asked their mom. “Because he’s teething, sweetheart.” Tenko doesn’t know what “teething” is, but it must be gross.) But he can’t even pretend to be grossed out, especially when Ku-chan is going to pick him!
He raises his hands once more, ready to be accepted, if only for a moment in time.
The sliding door slams open. “Tenko!” Daddy shouts, and the moment is ruined.
-x-x-x-
His son’s hair is green - lighter than Inko’s but close enough in shade to be compared. All for One counts the baby’s freckles. He vaguely remembers Nana’s husband having freckles, or maybe it’s from some distant part of his own family (distant, in his case, meaning anyone outside the vestige of his mother and whatever faraway memories remain of his stubborn younger brother). There’s eight of them, spread out like stars on his chubby cheeks.
He reaches down, carefully scooping up the baby, and reclaiming what is rightfully his. His son groans but remains blissfully asleep. All for One presses the baby to his chest, lightly bouncing him.
“I’m so glad to finally meet you,” he whispers, kissing the crown of his son’s head. He turns to leave. A plan forms in his head. They’ll have to move after this and Inko will have to cut contact with the Shimuras. She’ll be devastated, but it will pass quickly. Being reunited with their son should soothe any of her worries.
As angry as it makes him, All for One can sympathize with her decision to part with their child. And if he were capable of owning up to his mistakes, he would have told her the real reason he left Inko while she was pregnant.
All for One has never cared about his upbringing. He has never once thought about the atrocities he witnessed growing up in the slums, nor about his only solace being the cold embrace of a mother that both hated him and celebrated him, and a sickly twin brother that apparently didn’t care for him as much as All for One did him. And it doesn’t bother him to recall the empty feeling in his stomach every night, or the vile adults that used to taunt him and his brother in broad daylight, waving food around and calling them terrible, terrible names (he hates daylight for that reason. Daylight means he can’t fight back. He can’t wipe the sneer off their faces, teach them to fear him).
No, he has never cared about his upbringing, but from the moment Inko announced she was pregnant, All for One couldn’t stop thinking about it.
What if he’s bad at being a father?
He feels weak and silly for thinking such things but the thought remains, hovering over him like a dark cloud.
He pushed it down, until he couldn’t anymore. All for One prefers to stand his ground (there aren’t many that could beat him anyway), but the more the baby grew, the more he wanted to run away. And he did, eventually.
But he’s back now, which is all that matters.
Now that he has their baby back, they can be a family again.
Someone breaks the quiet with a sniffle. He turns towards the only other bed in the nursery. Big gray eyes look up at him in fear. Tenko Shimura - his future vessel. He inwardly groans, this could be bad. If Tenko recognizes him from this encounter later on, it could lower his credibility.
“What are you doing with Ku-chan?”
It takes All for One an embarrassingly longtime to realize the boy’s talking about the baby. “Him?” He asks, motioning with his head to the little body gathered in his arms.
“Yeah. Where are you going?”
All for One thinks fast. “I’m….taking him back to the little brother factory.”
In the sweetest voice, Tenko repeats, “to the little brother factory?”
“Uh, huh. It’s where all little brothers are produced. My s- Ku-chan needs a minor repair. He’ll be back tomorrow.”
Tenko seems to consider his words, sucking in his bottom lip. “Mhm, promise?”
He somehow manages to suppress an eyeroll. “Promise.”
“M’kay.”
All for One starts to leave again. “Mister, is it okay if I kiss him ‘goodbye’? It’s scary out there at night time, and I know my baby brother doesn’t like the dark.”
Somewhere in the cold abyss of his chest lies a broken heart. Tenko’s words bring him back to a time where the only person he cared about was his own baby brother, small and helpless and also afraid of the dark.
Against his best judgment, he brings his son over to Tenko who quickly sits up. The boy leans closer to the baby, pressing several kisses on his cheeks, forehead, and nose. “I’ll miss you lots and lots, Ku-chan. But we can play with Mon-chan tomorrow when you come back from the factory, ‘kay?”
All for One already knows the two boys will never meet again, and that all of Tenko’s memories will be either used as leverage to bolster his own plans or completely wiped clean. It’s unfair but life rarely is.
Maybe in a past life or the one after this, they can be brothers.
But not in this one.
In this one, All for One has plans. Plans that rely on keeping them apart.
So, he pats Tenko on the head and waits for the boy to close his eyes before finally escaping.
That night, he returns home, baby in tow. Inko is still on the living room floor where he left her. She looks between him and the baby slumbering in his arms. She doesn’t bombard him with questions, just welcomes him and their son home.
They’re together again.
-x-x-x-
Tenko remembers his baby brother. He remembers his big green eyes and curly green hair and the freckles that decorated his brother’s cheeks. He remembers how happy his brother always was, clapping his hands and giggling. He remembers how Hana and him liked to play ‘peek-a-boo’ with Ku-chan, and how the baby loved it every single time.
He remembers the night Ku-chan was taken away, clutched to - what Tenko, at four-years-old, could only describe as - a real-life giant. The man had been kind to him that night and he promised to bring Ku-chan back the next day. Except Ku-chan never came back….
Mom and dad tried to find his brother, but they never did.
Tenko tries not to remember the sounds of his mom’s screams when the detective told them the baby was likely dead or worse.
At the time, he had no idea what could be worse than dead. But it had to be pretty bad for his dad cry (the only other time in his memory where his dad cried was right before Tenko killed him).
The memory of his maybe-maybe not dead brother is brought to the forefront of his brain. He looks into a pair of familiar forest green eyes.
Izuku Midoriya has been a thorn in his side for a little over a year now. From the first moment he laid eyes on the little hero brat he couldn’t stop thinking about him. It frustrated Tenko that he couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew Midoriya from somewhere.
It suddenly clicks for him while watching Midoriya struggle to get up. He took quite a few blows trying to prevent Tenko from decaying Mount Fuji. His breathing comes out ragged, likely due to that particularly annoying quirk that makes Sensei’s vestige vibrate with sheer anger.
Midoriya forces himself to his feet, trembling like a leaf. He looks up at Tenko, determined, and it’s at that moment he chooses to remember Ku-chan.
In a voice so small there’s no way Midoriya or the other vestiges can hear him, Tenko murmurs an apology. “I’m sorry, little brother.”
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