All For Some

Chapter 9: Izuku Shigaraki

Izuku yawned, leaned his head sideways and rotated his shoulder, still sore from his morning, and evening gym training. He'd have to check the instructions on the stretches again. He wasn't excited about feeling like this all day every day, but his father really wanted him to get fit soon so random criminals couldn't just grab him like they had that one time. With his studies and all the other training, he didn't have much free time left, but he was sure he could squeeze in more training than his father's plan required. He counted hours in his head and scribbled notes on his notebook, trying to figure what would be the most efficient use of his time. Father wanted him to improve his agility, so Izuku started wondering what would help with that most.

"Midoriya!" Ida stood up and turned to face Izuku, waving his arm. "You have been muttering the whole lesson. Stop that. It is distracting others and you should focus on the lesson yourself."

"That is enough Ida," the teacher commanded. "Midoriya, focus on the lesson. I don't know how your old school did things but here we don't think about other things in class."

"In my old school that was dependent on a person's quirk," Izuku answered, wondering how long they would keep treating him as the new guy. He had transferred months ago.

"The lesson Midoriya. Focus on it."

Izuku shut up and focused on his notebook the one with notes for the class. They were studying history and had just reached the point where people started being born with quirks.

"Now," the teacher continued, "as part of your grade you will do group presentations for the societal consequences of quirks appearing. I will assign the groups."

Izuku wanted to smirk. They were literally talking about his father's childhood. The only problem was explaining to his group where he found the information.

"Team Three: Tenya Ida, Izuku Midoriya, and Nori Uehara."

Izuku's face froze, staring forward when the last name was declared. It was bad enough to be in the same class with the girl that would have compared him to a chimpanzee just a year earlier. The idea of having to work with her made him think about his father's mention of a sudden accident. His hand shot up.

"You don't get to change your group Midoriya. Here we expect everyone to be able to work with everyone. Your topic will be the rise of organized villainy and the so-called emperor of villains who nearly ruled Japan."

Izuku would have fallen off his seat if he wasn't still so focused on who he needed to work with. A chair scraped against the floor as Uehara joined him and Ida. They stayed quiet until the teacher finished assigning groups and let them work for the rest of the lesson. Uehara was the first to speak.

"So, has either of you ever heard about this so-called emperor of villains?"

"I have read about a villain that created an army of followers when the societal order collapsed. I don't think his name was mentioned anywhere," Ida commented.

"That is because he only used the name of his quirk," Izuku said, speaking only to Ida, unwilling to even look at the third member of their group. "It was called All For One."

"How do you know that?" Uehara asked, sounding like she didn't believe him.

"I have a bookshelf full of notebooks on different quirks."

"And you complained about valuing quirks." Uehara raised her nose and managed a grin so arrogant Bakugo would have been left second.

"Being interested in quirks and valuing people based on their quirks are two different things. One gives you knowledge. The other just makes you a trash person," Izuku recited in tired tone. "Remember when you said that it is impossible to make a person quirkless?"