Mystery from Another World

Part 48: All Might's Burden

Deku had to tell All Might the next morning that he'd spilled everything to them.

All might wasn't really that surprised, knowing Deku's history of blowing his secret, plus Shine catching them at night wasn't the best combination.

Once he heard that they had basically put it all together before Deku even told them, he knew it was useless to hide anything anyway.

So he told Deku he would talk to them himself, and he did, first thing, after they had left Eri with Aizawa for the afternoon.

It was Friday again by this time, and they were looking forward to the weekend, but also they both were wondering what their next step with the villains would even be.

All Might sat them down in one of the lounge rooms (the school had several all over campus).

"I know young Midoriya told you about One For all," he said, "and that you had already realized most of the truth."

Shine didn't apologize for it. Wally looked nervous.

"I'm not mad." All Might noticed. "I realized that it was going to happen sooner or later. You two are...more observant than most. And now I think it's only fair you know the whole truth, but in return, I have to ask you to keep it a secret."

"You can be sure we will keep it close to the chest," Shine spoke. "But you do not have to tell us if you would rather not."

"But you want to know, don't you?"

"Of course we do. Information is power, isn't it? Especially, when people are hunting you, but, who knows if your history is more dangerous to know than to not know."

"I'm not sure the rest of it will put you in any further danger, but I need you to understand the kind of man All For One truly is." All Might clenched his fist. "You know he was a crime boss back in his heyday. I thought I had stopped him years ago, but he survived somehow. He must have some medical help we don't know about."

Shine thought she recalled Shigaraki mentioning a doctor in their brief encounter. Maybe that was who he meant.

"But he has done even more evil than that," All Might went on. "You know of the nomu. We now know that even Kurogiri, his loyal follower with the warping powers, is a nomu of sorts--more intelligent, and still mostly the same human being he was before, but, his mind is shattered. Only the slightest bit of his true self is left. Aizawa learned it recently."

"What?!" Wally cried.

"You would have to hear it from him. I don't know anything more than that." All Might had not been privy to the conversation, and Aizawa and Mic were too disturbed by it to say much. Plus it was highly confidential anyway.

"But he has done even more than that... They told me something in our last fight. I don't know if it is true, but if it is, it is the worst thing of all."

They braced themselves, since it was hard to know what could be worse than turning people into mindless monsters.

"He told me that his protege, Tomura Shigaraki, is actually the grandson of my old master, Nana Shimura." All Might was very grave.

They gaped at him.

"Wh-what?" Wally sputtered.

Shine thought for a moment, then realized it was just the kind of thing a super villain nemesis would do. Joker came to mind. So did Salem.

"Did you know she had a grandson?" she said aloud.

All Might was amazed at her astuteness yet again. "No. The thing is, I knew she had a son, but she put him in foster care because she was afraid her enemies, particularly AFO himself, would go after him. And she made us swear to have no connection with him, for fear AFO would follow our trail. So we never tried to find him, and we hoped he was doing well. I don't know what happened to him now, but he must have had a family. Though the story could have been a lie. Gran Torino thought it might be, and he pointed out the boy is still a dangerous criminal, no matter what. AFO was only trying to confuse me and shake my confidence in our fight."