All the Stars in the Sea: Chapter 1

AN: Hello everyone! I'm HoundofSpring, but you can just call me Hound! I've lurked on this site for a couple of years now and decided to make an account a while back, thinking I would start adding some content to this site, but never did until now. This is my first story, so criticism is (and always will be) a welcome gift. The idea for this story popped into my head one day, and after searching through the stories on-site, I was surprised to see (as far as I know) that this was not pursued! I hope you enjoy! Thank you for taking an interest in what I have!

I do not own My Hero Academia or any of its characters.

To say that Midoriya was having one hell of a week would be an understatement.

The summer training camp had started wildly, obviously another one of Aizawa's attempts at a logical ruse, and only increased in intensity as the days progressed. The training was undoubtedly valuable, and would have proven to bear fruit for everyone had their session with the Wild Wild Pussycats finished as planned.

"Many things seem to not go as planned when they concern me, though," Midoriya mused.

The League of Villains organized their foremost attack members into a vanguard and sent them out to disrupt, attack, and cause mayhem at the first year hero course's summer training camp. Their primary goal, however, was the kidnapping of one student in particular. Katsuki Bakugo.

"Kaachan."

The years of pain Midoriya suffered under Kaachan and his 'lackeys' were none too pleasant to recall, but it was all in the past. Kaachan definitely isn't the same person now as he used to be, and I know he will end up being a great hero like I knew he would be. That belief, however, hinged on the hero's ability to rescue Katsuki from the League before anything could happen to him.

"And I was so close to saving him too…" Midoriya recalled, laying in his hospital bed. After everything that he worked for, trained for, the hours he spent pushing his body and breaking past his limits day after day, it was just not enough to save his childhood friend. Every teacher that he had to help him along the way, their teachings wasted in the face of just not being enough. As he laid in the hospital bed, one of his arms in a state of irreparable, critical danger of being completely useless, that was the truth Midoriya found in himself.

It was a sobering thought, and what occupied most of his thoughts the moment his classmates left his hospital room. Kirishima outlined an insane rescue plan to try and save Katsuki, and those that visited Midoriya were notably discouraged from attempting to help. They reasoned that it would only do more damage than good for the heroes that would be on the scene should the students intervene. Midoriya agreed with many of the claims on a logical basis, almost fully agreeing to simply let the heroes deal with the problem their way. It was the chance, the window of opportunity, the slight chance of the unexpected to sway the tides in their favor, which convinced Midoriya to meet Kirishima and the others in front of the hospital that same night to attempt the rescue of one Katsuki Bakugo.

On his way to the front of the hospital, however, Midoriya awkwardly caught his foot on a stray pebble and stumbled forward. Stopping himself before he could fall, Midoriya did not make much of the event and continued onward.

How he wished he knew how one stray pebble would radically change his entire world.

"I'll have you return everything, All For One!"

"Will you kill me again, All Might?"

The clash sent up shockwaves that rippled through the broken town. The lively Kamino Ward's normal cacophony was replaced with screams, crumbling buildings, and crashes all around. At the epicenter of this conflict a battle between gods raged, the symbol of peace against the lord of darkness.

Near the center of this battle stood one Katsuki Bakugo and the other members of the League of Villains, while at its most immediate sidelines Midoriya, Kirishima, Yaoyorozu, Todoroki, and Iida were gathered together, hidden from view but watching what they could of the battle in awe of the power being thrown around.

We really would have been in over our heads if we even thought that we could take on someone like that! The world of pros is ridiculous! Will we ever be able to fight like that? Will I ever have to? The questions kept piling up for Midoriya as the battle raged, watching his mentor being beaten down by his sworn enemy and leader of the League of Villans, All For One, and attempting to plan a safe way to get Katsuki away from the battle without fighting themselves, Midoriya had not taken care to watch out for the many piles of rubble around his feet from Mount Lady's initial attack on the Nomu warehouse.

Almost tripping, but catching himself at the last second and pushing up against the wall hiding him and his friends from view, Midoriya stabilized himself. As his hand left the wall, however, a small number of pebbles slid off the wall and to the ground.

In every other world, every other timeline in which this event took place, Midoriya would go on with his classmates to create a plan that would rescue Katsuki from the fight against the members of the League and allow All Might to fight All For One head on without any restraints. In every other world, that is what would happen.

Here, however, it would not follow such a path. For here, it just so happened that Midoriya would trip on this pebble and fall within the range of one Wild Wild Pussycat's search quirk, at just the exact moment that an unfortunate bystander would lose their life to collapsed rubble and make it to where exactly ninety-nine people were within the range of All For One.

All For One prided himself on many things. His ability to control the many quirks he amassed over his years as a villain with ease, his student Shigaraki, his constant decimation of the users of One for All time after time they faced against him in battle, the list was long. Most importantly, however, All For One prided himself in his ability to never be surprised. His many years as king of the underworld gave All For One access to information no simple civilian, federal agent, or even hero could have access to within the bounds of their job. Every event of significance to All For One that took place, he had documented and quickly prepared measures for and against their procedure. His final fight with All Might being no different than any other, it being a fool's task to collect the information on it. To discuss critical matters so openly near electronics with microphone capabilities, combined with a person who has the power of All For One, it was child's play to collect recordings and secret documents regarding the plan.

The battle itself would proceed as it always had for All For One: in the way that All For One decided it would proceed. No matter the time or place, All For One never had, until this very day, had to modify his plans to account for an extra variable, a proverbial wrench thrown into his plans. To know that he had no information on this extra person's involvement in the hero's rescue operation was almost enough to anger All For One, nearly enough for him to forego his plans and release a full-blown attack at whichever living being twitched. Nearly.

All For One calmed himself, and used a quirk he had taken some time ago, Quick Thinking, to analyze the situation at hand and to test the new quirk he received. Finding the quirk in his repository, All For One activated Search and analyzed the newcomer to his stage.

All For One prided himself on many things. It would later shock him when he realized that, not only did he stop fighting All Might, but gasped aloud and turned to directly face the hiding spot of one Izuku Midoriya watching his battle against the symbol of peace.

The years of bullying had given Midoriya something akin to a danger sense, a deep-seated gut feeling of twisted uneasiness that something bad would happen. The stronger the feeling, the odds tended to sway in the favor of something worse happening. It was at the moment when Izuku felt like his stomach simply collapsed and most internal organs failed on the spot, that he knew something simply horrible was going to happen.

Shoving his classmates out of the way, a condensed explosion of air shot out from behind Izuku as the wall neatly crumbled to reveal him standing, yet hiding his friends from view.

"Midoriya, what are you do-"

"Quiet!" Izuku harshly whispered to Iida, slowly turning to face the horde of villains and walking towards them.

"I can't risk letting everyone else be seen, so I have to take the fall here and reveal myself. Maybe that way no one will have any reason to search behind what is left of the wall." As Izuku walked forward a voice carried over those gathered, a sound so painfully familiar that he would be remiss to not know who it was from.

"My boy! What are you doing here?!" All Might shouted, aghast at the sight of his successor at the site of this battle. "I should expect to get some hell for this later, no doubt. That is if we all get out of this alive…" Midoriya noted, now shakingly taking steps out into the open.

Gods, when did the air become so oppressive. The sheer feeling of power emanating from both sides was insane. It felt as though Midoriya was a gnat attempting to challenge a monsoon, a droplet of water fighting against the vastness of an ocean. It took all that he had to remain standing, and even more to continue walking while hiding his blatant fear as best he could.

What did stop Midoriya, though, was another voice. One that he found painfully familiar, something tucked away at the corner of his mind begging to be let free but promised a harsh pain should it be undone. A voice that carried over him like a breath of fire, agonizing but tender and warm.

"Izuku." All For One said. "Izuku, my son. Is that really you?"