Late into the night, Toshinori was still sitting on the edge of the bed with the phone clenched in his hand. He'd dialed the number twice and hung up before the first ring both times.
The third time, he let it ring.
They took a while to answer on the other end, and when they did, a gravelly voice came through, dragged down by sleep.
"Somebody better be dying, Toshinori, because I was just having the best dream I've had in weeks and you went and ruined it."
Toshinori managed a tired smile against the screen.
"Good evening to you too, Gran Torino."
"Good? What the hell's good about it? Do you know what time it is, Toshinori? Us old folks need our sleep, even if you keep forgetting that." The mattress creaked, along with a badly stifled yawn. "Out with it already. If you woke me up over something stupid, I'm gonna smack you upside the head next time I see you."
Toshinori lowered his gaze. He coughed into his fist, and when he pulled it away, a smear of blood was left on his hand. He wiped it discreetly on his pants.
"There was an attack." He paused briefly before going on. "A group of villains broke into the USJ. We managed to stop them and take them into custody, but... during the transfer in an armored vehicle, even with an escort of several patrol cars, they were freed."
His eyes lost their strength for a moment.
"It all happened in a matter of seconds. There were five pro heroes protecting the operation... and even so, nobody reacted in time."
There was a brief silence on the other end of the line.
"An armored transport, with an escort, and you still lost them?" Gran Torino's voice hardened at once. "Hmph... That's not the work of some amateurs looking to make noise. Somebody planned every move. Knew exactly how the heroes would react... and made them look wherever it suited him."
Toshinori closed his eyes.
"Yeah... That's my conclusion too."
"Of course it is." Gran Torino let out a snort. "I've spent too many years watching villains not to recognize a well-planned hit when I hear about one. And you're no rookie either, Toshinori."
There was a brief pause before he continued.
"So quit going around in circles. You didn't wake me up at this hour to tell me something you already figured out on your own. What was it you saw... that's got you so worried?"
Toshinori took his time answering.
"I haven't found anyone," he admitted after a long silence. "I've spent months looking for someone worthy of inheriting One For All... and nobody's turned up. Meanwhile, everyone still believes I'm the same Symbol of Peace I've always been."
"Toshinori..."
"Let me finish, please." He switched the phone to his other ear and leaned against the edge of the mattress. "That League of Villains... it showed up too suddenly. I don't think it's the work of a handful of small-time criminals. Someone's guiding them from the shadows. Someone with patience... and a very clear goal. I've spent nights turning the idea over and I can't get it out of my head."
Gran Torino stayed quiet for a few seconds.
"...Hmph. Finally using your head instead of those decorative muscles. If even you're smelling something off, then it's not worth taking lightly... Well? What else?"
"What do you mean, what else?"
"With you there's always a 'what else,' so spit it out and let me get back to sleep. At my age I can't tell the difference anymore between a call from you and a nightmare."
Toshinori lowered his voice until it barely held.
"Every day I feel One For All burning down a little more. I notice it the moment I wake up... and when I push my hero form more than I should, my body ends up making me pay for it with interest." He brought a hand to his side, over the old scar. "It worries me, Gran Torino. I've got this feeling that something important is about to happen... and I'm afraid I won't have the strength to stop it. Worse still... I'm afraid I still haven't found anyone worthy of inheriting the power."
There was only silence on the other end of the line.
Finally, a huff broke the pause.
"Listen well, Toshinori. I'm not gonna repeat myself." The old man's voice took on the firmness of a master scolding his student. "Nana didn't put her trust in you so you could spend your nights feeling sorry for yourself. If finding a successor were as simple as picking the first kid with a hero's face, anybody could've carried One For All."
"Gran Torino..."
"I'm not done yet." There was the dry thud of his cane against the floor. "The flame going out doesn't change a thing. From the day you inherited that power, the clock started ticking against you. That's never been any different. So quit staring at the clock and make use of the time you've got left. Find the successor... and get ready for whatever's coming."
Toshinori swallowed.
"I know you're right."
"Of course I'm right, I'm old." A mattress creaked, and his voice came back lower than before. "Now stop brooding and use that big head of yours. A well-planned attack... and someone pulling the strings from the shadows. Tell me, Toshinori... who does that remind you of?"
Toshinori closed his eyes and felt the taste of blood rising up his throat.
"It can't be him. I left him at death's door years ago myself, and nobody could hold on like that all this time."
"Nobody normal." Gran Torino snorted. "That man never played by our rules, and I've spent more years than you trying to understand him. I never saw a body, and neither did you."
Toshinori frowned.
"You never told me that."
"Because there was no need." There was another brief pause. "And I'm not telling you now so you'll lie there shaking under the covers. I'm telling you so you'll stop ruling out the possibility just because you're scared to look it in the eye."
Toshinori kept his gaze on the window, on the city lights that never went out.
"Then I need to find the heir before that shadow makes its next move."
"Now you're talking like the man I trained." The old man let out a dry laugh. "When you find him, bring him to me. Somebody's gonna have to teach him what you never learned."
Toshinori smiled wearily.
"And what exactly didn't I learn?"
"To think before throwing yourself in headfirst. You were always a big oaf who solved everything with his fists. Nana had her work cut out for her with you. I'm the one who had to teach you to control that monstrous strength. Smiling comes easy to you... teaching the basics, not so much."
A small laugh slipped out of Toshinori that turned into a cough.
Gran Torino clicked his tongue when he heard it.
"Still as stubborn as ever..."
"I'm fine."
"Sure. And I'm young again." He yawned. "Now let me sleep. You've done enough waking up an old man."
There was a brief silence.
"...And eat something, Toshinori. I can tell by your voice you haven't been taking care of yourself."
Toshinori opened his mouth to answer.
"Than—"
But the call had already ended.
Toshinori stared at the dark screen for a moment, and for the first time all night the tightness in his chest eased a little.
An heir. I have to find him before it's too late, and I hope the old man's still around to yell at him too.
He coughed again, set the phone on the nightstand, and lay back with his eyes on the ceiling, knowing sleep wasn't going to come anytime soon.
******
The mist parted in the center of the lab and left them all on the other side.
Doctor Garaki's laboratory stretched out in shadow, with rows of bubbling tanks lined up against the walls and the constant noise of machines running nonstop. At the far end, behind a curtain of steam, an enormous tank rose full of a pale liquid, and inside it floated a figure connected to dozens of tubes that ran in and out of a body covered in bandages and equipment.
Tomura was the first to step out of the mist, dragging his feet and scratching his neck.
"Tsk... I hate it when you do that, Kurogiri. It leaves me with this gross feeling."
"My apologies, Tomura Shigaraki," Kurogiri answered with a slight bow inside his haze. "It's the safest way to return without leaving a trail the heroes can follow."
Doctor Garaki had already moved ahead toward a metal gurney where Woman's ruined body lay connected to a tangle of cables. He ran a finger along one of the open wounds and clicked his tongue with a strange tenderness.
"What a sorry state..." he murmured with a calm smile. "But there's nothing to worry about, my dear. Any damage can be corrected with the right procedure. Rest... you'll be up again soon. And this time, you'll be an even more perfect creation."
Johnny, the little Nomu, swayed at his side without a sound, waiting for an order that still hadn't come.
"Are we gonna spend the whole night babying that thing?" Tomura dropped into a chair and rubbed his wrists, still marked by the metal of the shackles. "I'm out now, which was the only thing I cared about. Five more minutes stuck in that damn box on wheels and I'd have torn it apart."
"And indeed, you're free now, young Tomura," Garaki answered without taking his eyes off Woman. He calmly adjusted one of the cables connected to her body before going on. "Though I'm afraid the circumstances of that release are far from... glorious."
Tomura stopped scratching for a moment. He frowned.
"...What the hell's that supposed to mean?"
Before Garaki could answer, a new voice filled the lab from the far end, deep and unhurried, mixing with the burbling of the tubes.
"It means, Tomura... that there's a very big difference between winning and staying alive. Tonight you didn't earn a victory. You barely made it back. It would be wise for you to learn to tell the two apart."
Tomura straightened up at once. The irritation he'd shown a moment before all but vanished.
"Master," he murmured, lowering his gaze.
"Come here, boy. Come closer so I can hear you better." All For One's tone turned warm. "I didn't come to scold you, if that's what you're afraid of. Scolding is for parents who don't know how to teach."
Tomura got up slowly and walked until he stood in front of the fogged glass. It was hard for him to hold his gaze without looking away.
"But I'm here, aren't I?" he growled. "I got out. They pulled me out of that damn truck, but in the end I got out."
"And that's precisely what matters. You're still alive... and you've got your freedom back. There are defeats you don't even get the chance to learn from."
The lab fell silent for a few moments.
"Now answer me, Tomura... why did you let them lock you up in that truck in the first place?"
Tomura scratched his neck, harder and harder.
"Because they cheated." He spat the words out bitterly. "They crammed half a hero school into the USJ and threw them all at us at once. There's no way anyone could've known they'd be there. The board was rigged before we even showed up."
All For One let out a soft laugh.
"No, Tomura. It wasn't a trick."
Tomura looked up, visibly annoyed.
"Then what was it?"
"You were too easy to predict. You attacked the most obvious spot, in the most obvious way. And on the other side there was someone capable of seeing it coming."
"The rat?" Tomura made a scornful face. "He's just a talking animal that thinks he's smarter than everyone."
"Nezu." All For One's voice kept the same serenity. "Don't underestimate that little principal. His intellect is extraordinary; few in Japan can match it."
He fell silent for a moment.
"A strategist like him doesn't wait for his enemy to act before responding. By the time you reached the USJ, he'd already considered that possibility long beforehand."
Tomura clenched his teeth without a word.
"Remember this, Tomura. The instant you do exactly what your opponent expects... you stop setting the pace of the game. And whoever sets the pace decides the outcome."
Tomura tensed his shoulders and fixed his eyes on the floor.
"You've learned something tonight, Tomura." All For One's voice slid in among the bubbling of the tubes. "Men like Nezu live by reading their opponents. If you hand them your intentions, you've already lost before you act. Make them doubt. Make every move of yours mean ten different things... until they figure out which one was right when they can no longer stop it."
Tomura didn't answer right away. He scratched his neck with one hand before letting it drop.
"...I get it, Master. I was too obvious. It won't happen again."
"I should hope not." The liquid in the tank rippled gently. "But look at the other side of the board too. While you were held down, my allies kept moving the pieces. Even without you, the operation went forward. Ask yourself why. A leader doesn't need to do everything with his own hands; he needs to build a group capable of acting even when he can't."
Tomura lowered his eyes. The idea made him uncomfortable, but the facts left him no room to argue with it.
"The organization that will someday be yours was able to carry the war into the very heart of the Symbol of Peace." All For One's voice stayed calm. "And when the first attempt didn't produce the expected result, that same organization snatched you from an armored convoy headed to Tartarus, surrounded by patrol cars and pro heroes. None of those defenses were enough."
He paused briefly.
"Two operations of that magnitude. They're no coincidence, Tomura; they're the result of decades of preparation, patience, and discipline. That's what you're destined to inherit. Not a band of criminals... but a machine built to alter the course of society. See that you don't underestimate the worth of what you hold in your hands again."
Tomura stayed silent. For the first time all night, his fingers stopped scratching at his neck.
Garaki, who up to then had been focused on Woman's cables, straightened up and wiped his hands on his coat.
"With your permission, Master... there's a detail that's been troubling me for hours." Garaki peeled off his gloves without hurry. "A discrepancy. Minuscule, perhaps... but discrepancies tend to herald extraordinary discoveries."
***********
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