When Izuku met Giran for his hacking lesson, he was asked to come to a coffee shop first, much like he had for the league. He still needed the crunches but his ribs had healed enough for him to walk longer distances. The scar from his shoulder was a nasty hand print, a flash of red against his pale skin, a hole in the sea of freckles, and Izuku hated it with all his might. But at least, it didn't hurt anymore. The scar he still felt vividly was the one in his mind.

Food was far more difficult to eat. After being so violently burned, he had discovered the startling similarities between human skin and animal meat being cooked. Every time meat would be pushed on his table, he would be reminded of the smell and the pain of his burn and couldn't differentiate what was in his plate to what was memory. He actually threw up when his mom decided to cook once and forgot the food on the stove.

He was nursing another coffee, working on his notebook to check if his new writing made sense and exercising his calligraphy. He needed to be able to read what he wrote afterward and messing up letters wasn't a good idea.

Giran arrived, he was smiling at Izuku and holding in one hand a cup and in the other a bag.

He sat in front of him, pushing the bag toward the teen and getting comfortable.

"Guidance, glad to see you made it. I wasn't aware you got, hum, broken? Got into a fight? I wouldn't recommend it if you're trying to keep a low profile. Anyway, the person I found for your little lessons won't meet in person until she's sure you're really in. She likes hacking more than anything else. Almost. And she's very serious about it. She would love to teach, for the right price obviously, but she wouldn't want anyone to just come into her world if you're not in to actually do some stuff. She asked me to give you this," he tapped on the bag and took a sip of his coffee. "All I can promise is that it won't explode. The rest is yours to deal with."

Carefully, Izuku opened the bag and took out what was inside.

A computer.

A post-it note on it read 'An old one of mine, if you're serious about it, you'll find out how to unlock it.' signed with a little heart.

Izuku tried to look for another note, and, after finding none, tried to open the device. The screen remained dark and even after trying to power it up, it wouldn't show any sign of life.

Izuku wanted to believe the whole thing was dead, and needed the charger but clearly his new, potential, teacher wanted him to show his worth and he wasn't about to give up. If Izuku wanted to enter UA, he would have to do better than just some creepy notes. If it meant finding a way around this computer, he would. If the person, this 'she' that Giran had found, really intended to take him as an apprentice if he was capable of doing this, it must be feasible, and to his level; he was still here to learn after all. So Izuku packed the computer and finished his coffee, shooting a look at Giran.

"Did she give you any more info, a deadline or something?" He asked after downing his drink.

"Nope."

"Then I'll get going. I have some work to do."

"See ya."

Giran smiled and waved ironically in Izuku's direction as he left.

From the window, Izuku saw a man slip into the chair he just left, and leaned into Giran. If he had been waiting for Izuku to leave, he might have been there for a while.

Maybe he needed to work on his situation awareness.

—

At home Izuku went to work. He hadn't the slightest idea of what or how to do it. But if Izuku had one talent, it was research. Somewhere on the internet, he would find something to get going, and he would get past this little challenge. He had to.

—

Two days later, Izuku managed to crack the damn thing. The screen lightened and a few green lines appeared.

Izuku had been right when thinking that he shouldn't be too hard. The security was almost non-existent, the challenge was finding out how to turn on a computer without the computer. The most difficult part was to put all the things learned on diverse videos and tutos together to work in his situation. Once he understood the logic behind it, it wasn't so difficult.

So here Izuku was, reading the lines as they appeared.

'congratulation, guidance; as you read this message i'm being informed of your advancement. i'll contact giran and organize an actual meet up. keep this computer. i'll probably show you how but i made it untraceable so it should be safe to learn what you wish to learn, and do so safely. you'll learn how to use a computer to its full capacity. at least i hope so. until we meet, perhaps try to think of your goals with these new skills.'

Another little heart decorated the bottom of the message before the screen turned off again.

Izuku would have liked to know who this teacher would be. Intrigued, he did what he did best, looking for an answer.

—

"I think I'm going to work with La Brava," Izuku explained the next time he saw Shigaraki. "She works with Gentle Criminal. They do videos of them doing diverse level of crimes, and I think Gentle as a thing for tea. She leaves hearts at the end of her messages and it's everywhere on her costume. I would bet it has something to do with her quirk."

His friend was listening absentmindedly. He had found a new game and was halfway through. He had asked Izuku his thoughts on it a few times and, the game basically working with riddles, asked for his aid on multiple occasions. Izuku was very happy to be allowed to participate in his friend's activity this way. He knew how much he cared for his games and little warmth bloomed in his chest whenever Shigaraki would turn over and ask him as if it was the most natural thing to ask Izuku.

"Is she well known?"

"No, she's usually behind the camera. I've only seen glimpses of her, magenta hair, heart shaped earrings, short stature. Gentle is the figure of the duos and their videos are usually rapidly taken down so it's hard to find anything but Sensei told me Giran worked with many people of the underworld and surely they both are in contact. And from a few comments I caught, she is proud of her skills, and I think it's hacking." Shigaraki tilted his screen and showed it to Izuku. "Go left," his friend went back to his game and Izuku to his ranting. "By the way, the other day I heard about Stain doing some more killing. I did some digging a little bit on the life of the hero and I found out he was the father of three children, each from different mothers, and refused to get in contact with them or pay anything. Even my dad does!"

"Your dad?" Shigaraki glanced up and paused his game. "I thought you lived with your mother."

"Yeah, I do. My father left when I was five and I don't really know what he is doing now. But he still sends money for food every month."

"You don't know where he is?"

"Nope, I think Mom knows but I don't really care. It's not like I remember him anyway. If he wanted to be there, he would. Maybe he is dead."

"Do you want him dead?"

"I really don't care about him. He is not family. Blood doesn't define you. And it sure won't tell me who I should care for. Aside from Sensei, do you still have someone?"

"I don't know. I don't remember them all that well either, just faces and flashes of memories, nothing worth fighting for. Even if I still had people, I don't think they would want to talk to me. Anyway, I'm in the room, what now?"

Izuku observed his friend for a few seconds. He would like to pry and ask more but Shigaraki trusted him and they used each other more to forget about the outside world than to share trauma.

"Show me, there, you see this..."

—

"I finished encoding my notes. I asked Shigaraki to decay most of my not coded notebook, aside from the ones I thought had interesting things in them. I can redo them in code this time and keep them safe." He told Sensei proudly.

"How did you encode them?"

"New language. Made sure there was no trace of translation equivalence."

"Excellent. Would you be willing to do some analysis for me? On some heroes?"

"Of course, might as well be useful."

"Oh but you always are, Izuku. On this note, I'd like to ask you to come back to the bar after your little meeting with this hacker. I think it is time for you to add your touch to my little secret project. We have some things to discuss."

"Of course. I'll get going now. Later."

—

La Brava was indeed waiting for him in a restaurant, in a reserved booth, and for a moment Izuku wondered what it would look like, two tiny looking people, passing for 12 year-old, going to the restaurant together. It was a wonder they weren't rejected.

"Hello there, Guidance I presume. Giran did tell me to expect someone short. Since we're using code names, I'll be-"

"La Brava, you work with Gentle Criminal. I heard of you."

"Really? Well, I'm glad. We tend to be shadowed by bigger events or ignored by the public."

"That's probably because you don't have any ideals behind your work aside from having some views. I'm not complaining though, I quite liked the last one, the thing in the hospital. I didn't like the place much."

"Well, you seem to know what you're talking about. Maybe we'll come back to it later. I understood that you wanted to learn how to hack. Did you give some thoughts on my question?"

"I want to be able to program mainly, to code for projects. And being able to find my way around some security programs certainly would help me."

Weirdly, Izuku was feeling a lot more confident than he usually did while meeting people. But being Guidance here, instead of little Izuku Midoriya, was comforting and felt like a protection layer.

"Well that would give us some things to do. I hope you brought your computer."

Izuku pointed at his bag. And took the thing out of it.

"How do I know you didn't put things on it? Tracers, bugs, all of that."

"You'll have to find out for yourself. See it as a little game. Once you're sure that the computer is completely clean, I think you'll have learned what you need to know and might be able to fly on your own. Shall we get started?"

—

As promised, Izuku went back to the bar. The door wasn't locked but the room was empty and all Izuku did was make his way to the bar. He put his crunches against it, climbed his way up a stool and reached for a glass to drink some water.

Sensei didn't speak immediately, he was probably watching, as he seemed to be always doing, but he didn't acknowledge Izuku's existence.

Not bothered by the lack of attention, Izuku instead took out his laptop, his own and the hacky-one , and went on for some info gathering.

After a while, he heard the low rumble of Sensei's voice speak.

"Izuku. I'm glad you came. I hope your lesson went well."

"It did, La Brava, I was right to think it's her, she's good at what she does. Her only struggle is to explain her own language in Japanese, but I'll figure it out."

"I'm glad you're finding the subject interesting. Knowing you had an interest in it is surely going to be helpful to us. But I wanted to talk to you about another thing. You've joined the League for a while already. I think it is time you learn some of our secrets."

Izuku was curious. He had pieced together a few things he had heard about, on the internet, from Giran and La Brava, from Sensei himself, and had a few theories on what was going to happen today.

Kurogiri's gate opened, inviting Izuku to go to Sensei directly. He had not seen the man since the kidnapping.

As Izuku stepped into the gate, ending up in front of Sensei, he was reminded how imposing the man really was. He was probably making an effort, he had on his lips what could be seen as a warm smile. For a second Izuku wondered what he had looked like in the past, before this terrible fight with All Might. Perhaps there was a way, a quirk or something, to make him back into it again. He felt sorry to see his blind scarred face.

"Do you have any idea why I brought you here?"

"You're going to tell me who you are, aren't you? And what are the League's goals."

"Something along those lines. But I thought the League of Villains was a name pretty telling on his own. We want to see the world of heroes perish. They claim that their strength is used to protect civilians from danger, but most of the time the people who try to attack civilians are the ones who haven't been saved before. But you already figured out that on your own, that's why you're here. I want to annihilate this mindless society. But what I want more is to take back something that has been stolen. I'm going to tell you a little story.

"It all began during the quirk revolution. One brother was born with powers, the other without. It was not yet the norm to have powers and some people were treated in the same regards as quirkless are nowadays. In other circles, being quirkless was already a sign of weakness. The older brother's quirk permitted him to find and retrieve others' quirks. He took ones from people who asked him to, who wanted to get rid of theirs, who were afraid of their powers. To help his younger brother, the man wanted to offer him a quirk, he was weak and sick so the first brother gave him a stock pilling quirk, hoping that one day his sibling would find strength. At a later date, they discovered that the younger brother did have a quirk, one on his own. He could pass it on, generation from generation, and stored powers and strength in it. His brother was killed and the man wanted to avenge his sibling. But the quirk was stolen and the people who now hold it refused to give the eldest the last vestige of his lost brother."

"This quirk, it's All Might's, right?"

"It is. All Might currently holds my brother's quirk. And I'd like to have it back. You understand why, surely."

"Not really, but I'm an only child so..."

Izuku didn't really know what to do with this story. But he had been right in his guesses of who Sensei was.

"Aren't you called the boogeyman of the underground? You're some sort of urban legend but there is little to no proof of your existence."

"You really are smart, Izuku. It is rare to see people capable of doing such a thing. I won't ask to know how you found so much information about me. The name I use now is All For One, it is also the name of my quirk; you might hear some people refer to me as such, Giran mainly. Do you have any other questions?"

"You can give and take quirks?"

"Would you want one? I haven't dared, I was worried you would see it as me looking down on you."

Izuku didn't know what to say. He would be lying if he said he didn't want one. He always had. He wanted to be someone, to understand what it felt like to have a power, to not feel useless. But it wouldn't be a good idea. Izuku wanted to go forward. If didn't want to fit in this society anymore, he had given up on it already. He wanted to prove that quirkless didn't mean useless and that they were more capable than what everyone thought. Plus, Izuku still wasn't sure of the effect of a new quirk in a body not made for it.

And he said so.

"No. I don't want a quirk. If you proposed to me the first time we met, then I would probably have said yes, but not now. I want to show my own worth and show others like me that they have a chance, not try to share those ideals as a hypocrite. And it wouldn't be safe. Do you know how your quirk interacts with the recipient's body? Better not take any risk."

"You're actually right. And that's why I wanted to talk to you about something else. You asked me about your little project based on the science behind quirks. I personally was working on a subject not so different. One of my quirks permits me to copy them. Tomura's greatest wish is to see All Might perish and I believe he could do it with the right weapon. So I decided to create them for him." He smiled at Izuku before standing up. "Kurogiri if you could."

As Sensei stood up, Izuku realized that, unlike the last time he saw him, he wasn't completely covered in wires. He unplugged one from his arm and wrapped some sort of mask over his face.

"I hope you will like the idea, Izuku."

Kurogiri opened one of his gates and they both went through it.

The room was large but felt stuffy. Covered in wires, tubes, and cables, the floor was rather hard to walk on. On each side of the room were glass cylinders in which were floating corpses, eyes closed and peaceful expressions, thanks filled with waters and bodies. Monitors, screens, diverse computers were standing beside each glass coffin and the far wall of the room was one immense computer.

"You can come here only while using a Wrap quirk. You'll meet Johnny later, but Kurogiri should be available if you ask him to come and get you. This place is a secret laboratory. My good friend, you will meet him soon, do not worry, is working on my project, and I think you two could do wonders together. Those people," he gestured at the floating figures as they were walking down the room, "are the core material of the project. We call them Nomus. We intend on making creatures, I doubt they could still be called individuals, capable of holding multiple quirk. Do not fret, these people were already dead by the time we took their bodies. We assumed that they would do better if given another chance. This is where I expect you to add your own touch. Your theories on quirk-biology are incredibly interesting and learning how to use them and how they work in their science would be the key. My friend is an excellent physician and could teach you enough in biology for you to try your theories," Sensei explained.

"What does it have to do with Shigaraki's project?"

"Think of it. All Might is strong, and resilient. But you told me yourself, he has now a time limit and his quirk may or may not be weakening. Now think of one my nomu, created especially to take on All Might at his best. Think shock absorption, strength and regeneration quirks. All of this in one body. One willing to follow every single command you ask of it. All Might wouldn't stand a chance. Now imagine doing this to a higher level. You know especially well how each of the current heroes have their own weakness. To put up special nomus, strong enough to take on the heroes and defeat them, all of this thanks to your brain. How would you feel if your intelligence brought hero society to its knees?"

"So you're saying that I can use the material here to test out my quirk theories?"

"Exactly. What do you think?"

Izuku thought about it. It was a great idea. Izuku hadn't thought of trying to put quirks inside of something. He supposed the idea wasn't so impossible once you knew, and experimented with quirks being taken and given. If those people were dead but still viable subjects to use for his experiment, Izuku could do nothing but accept. His morals and ethics had already jumped out of the window when he saw the news about Chronos and had felt a sick kind of joy rise in his chest. He wanted to help Shigaraki and his skin. And others like him. Lately he was particularly worried about some mutant-type whose need were not meant because they didn't fit in the normal expectation. It was stupid to see how the world had seen the quirks coming more and more and hadn't thought of changing the lifestyle to accommodate it.

But whatever, because Izuku would make the changes himself.

He turned toward Sensei. He wasn't quite sure how the man saw or heard but he nodded and smiled, almost certain to be seen.

"Okay. I'll do it. I can try at least. It's just some trans-genesis kind of thing, if you think of it. Even the pre-quirk era was able to do it. The only challenge will be to make sure the bodies are capable of taking the quirks. Do you have information on each of the... subjects?"

"Yes. Each one of them has a file on their person, their quirk and the way they died. Come, you'll meet Dr. Tsubasa."

Turns out Sensei's friend was strangely familiar, though Izuku wasn't quite able to remember where he met him, only a sour taste remained in his memory. A short man, with a long mustache and gigantic glasses. He turned around from his chair, looked at Sensei and smiled before he glanced toward Izuku's small form and frowned slightly.

"Master," he said, "is he the boy you talked so highly about?"

"That would be him. I'd rather have each of you use your aliases. As I said, this is Dr. Tsubasa, and this," he put a protective hand on Izuku's shoulder, "is Guidance. I believe a collaboration between the two of you would create wonders."

A little thing appeared from behind the chair, jumping around.

It was a foot, with eyes and a mouth and freaking hell it had teeth and urg, what was that?

"Hello, Johnny. Guidance, this would be Johnny, one of our first nomu, he had a wrap quirk if you ever find yourself unable to contact Kurogiri," he smiled at the doctor and then turned toward Izuku. "I will talk with Giran to undergo your support training, but you should focus first on this and your hacking skills. I'll leave you to it now. Guidance, doctor."

He suddenly started vomiting some black goo and disappeared.

"Don't worry kid, this is Johnny's quirk. Rather unpleasant I'll have you know but Kurogiri is Tomura's. I want to make some things pretty clear. I don't know you and your capacities. You will have a chance to prove yourself since Master told me you would be worth it but the nomus are my best work, my children. If I catch you messing up with a single thing you will never be allowed to enter this room again."

Izuku nodded. He didn't want to get on the man's bad side before he even started working on any of his projects.

"Now, since I cleared my oh-so-tight schedule for you, tell me about your theories. I hope I won't be disappointed."