Chapter Text
1
Bel’s script was easier said than done.
It wasn’t like they could just send an invite to UA asking them to come to Italy for a relaxing trip. Nedzu would see right through it and the other heroes would certainly find it suspicious. So soon after the battle when it was known Katsuki had ties to the Italian mafia? Nedzu would have to have got his head kicked in by a mule to not be able to piece two and two together. Even if he didn’t, what responsible educator would send his hero students to the world’s largest mafia territory?
Besides, the heroes needed time to recover too. His classmates and teachers suffered different degrees of injuries, especially Deku. Katsuki remembered how hard the green haired teen had been fighting. He certainly wouldn’t be up and ready for an international flight in the short term.
That gave Varia time to get things in order.
They needed a stage that wouldn’t cause a huge disruption to the general population. They just had a battle with villains, there was no need to stir up more shit with regular heroes. That was a smear of Vongola’s honor and absolutely a waste of unnecessary resources. Besides having some down time to themselves and to scrape together somewhat of a script, they also had to wait for the right opportunity to set things in motion.
After the battle, many countries sent their heroes to help Japan rebuild. The news was focused on a new tomorrow and reforms. Changes were bound to happen, especially with a bunch of higher ups in the Hero Commission injured by the villains. The mutants that participated in the MLA’s riots also brought the voices of those unheard to the spotlight. Not to mention, there were other criminals that were still on the run. Too many things needed to be done, too much different politics and interests or just problems to be taken care of.
The hero students fought hard in the battle so they would be bathed under the media’s attention. While UA could maintain the dorm system and keep the interference out, it wouldn’t be impossible to incentivize Nedzu with an opportunity to give the students a relaxing time. CEDEF’s intel said that UA was going to have a graduation for the current third years, which when combined with the hospital stays and rebuild would delay the start of the new school year.
Somewhere not in Italy but still in Europe. A nice and quiet place that wasn’t on hostile mafia territory. The suggestion would have to sprung from genuine offers, one that wasn’t influenced by outside forces or hinted through blackmail.
The right time. The right place.
A whisper of an idea.
But that wasn’t something the Varia executives needed to or should be involved in. At this stage, they needed to stay out of the equation so that UA would take the bait.
Katsuki pulled the vanilla cake out of the oven, putting the burning hot tray on the counter to cool. At the other end of the kitchen island, Eri stood on the chair, whisking a bowl of cream. She was in another of Victoire’s old dresses today, a casual summer dress that featured sailor blue and a white bow in the back. Lussuria had found a new hobby of modifying Katsuki’s old clothing for Eri lately. His sewing machine finally had a purpose other than decorating his puppet collection again.
“Listen now,” Fran said as he held up two identical bottles. The green haired boy was expressionless as he stared at Eri. “If you are making cake for me, you add this.” He raised the bottle in his right hand. “If it’s for the fake prince, you add this.” The left this time.
“Don’t you dare put Arsenic anywhere near my food,” Katsuki huffed while snatching the bottle from Fran’s right hand–the one that contained sugar to sprinkle into the cream. “Eri, ignore him. And Fran, go get us the chocolate from the freezer.”
The boy slipped off his stool and ducked into the back room, leaving only a shadow of his apple shaped hat gliding over the door frame as he searched for the chocolates.
Katsuki felt a tug at his sleeve.
Eri lifted the whisk, showing him how the cream was at the right texture just as he told her. It had been months since Levi acquired her to Varia’s castle. Although still quiet (both due to shyness and stumbling over words as she learned a new language), she has been more expressive physically lately. She was probably learning that the only way to get attention around this castle was to really get in people’s faces too.
“Good job,” Katsuki complimented and Eri lifted a smile. Her cheeks had rounded out and her skin was a slight redness to it from being out in the sun. There were a few apple trees in the garden that were giving fruit around this time of the year so the girl must be helping the kitchen staff pick apples after her exercises. They should give her more sunscreen later. “This is going to be a great cake.”
A dark chocolate drizzle with coffee cream on top. Katsuki also froze some dark chocolate with coffee powder in the shape of coffee beans yesterday. Add a few pieces on top of the cream and they could maybe even make a rose of cream at the edge for decoration.
“Is Boss going to have some of the cake with us?” asked Eri while helping Katsuki fill the cream into the piping bags.
“He has work but we can bring him a piece for a little break. Do you think you can deliver the cake with me?”
She shivered a little–hesitant and nervous–but eventually, Eri nodded. “I want to play with the big cat after.”
“Then get your grades up first or you’re going to be Bester’s snack.”
Squalo’s raspy voice came from behind them. He tossed a few pieces of stapled paper at a cleaner edge of the island. Eri’s homework was always marked by one of the lower ranking Varia members–mostly whoever had spare time or wasn’t on shift–so the red handwriting changed all the time. Eri was like a mouse seeing a cat, her small face twisted as if swallowing lemons as soon as she saw the red D- on the first page.
The swordsman yawned. His hair was loose and his white shirt was a bit crumpled. The man still had a glove over his prosthetic left hand but it was stained with dust and pen ink.
“What happened to you?” Katsuki tilted his chin towards the tangled knots at the tip of Squalo’s long hair.
“Bel is too excited for his plan. Levi needs a new hobby. We’re planning traps, not trying to barbecue your classmates.”
“No beheading either, I hope.” The place they found was a manor near the countryside of France. It was old but not that old. Still, it was kind of funny to discover that there was an aged guillotine in the basement.
Fran came back in with the chocolates, setting them in front of Katsuki. “Me was looking forward to the guillotine idea. We can have the ghost of the head maid haunting the manor.”
“Stop trying to turn this script into a horror movie plot.” Squalo knocked him on the head before racing a hand over over Katsuki’s shoulder, swiping up a piece of chocolate. He leaned his weight on Katsuki and dropped a hand on Fran’s hat, forcing the boy still so he couldn’t run off. “If I have to tell the other trash to bring out Halloween chainsaws, those UA kids have to be fucking blind and deaf with brains leaking out their ears for them to believe in this crap.”
“Our Halloween chainsaws are the leftovers from cleaning up what we keep in the basement.” Blunt and dull, not really useful on the job anymore.
“Exactly. Our butter knives are sharper than that.”
“Eri! Oh, little Eri!” Lussuria’s voice sounded from the hall, getting louder as footsteps approached. He smiled when he noticed all of them in the kitchen. “There you are! Look, darling! I found Victoire’s bow collection. When you’re done here, come to my room and we can have your little runway.”
“If the police heard that, you’d be a person of interest in seconds,” Fran grumbled. He was very calm for his age, maybe a little too much that he could light people’s coats on fire while standing in line for general Varia meetings. He was a whole different kind of menace from Bel, which was probably why they were always at each other’s throats. “My teacher left me with a bunch of perverts.”
“That’s harsh, Little Fran.” Lussuria pouted.
“Pervert.” The boy pointed to Lussuria before counting off with the rest of his fingers. “Crazy prince. Ugly pervert. Long haired monster. Lazy tyrant. Incubus with anger issues.”
“Watch your mouth or no dessert for you,” Katsuki chided before turning back to Eri with a softer tone, “Isn’t that right, Eri?”
“Yes!” She nodded eagerly. Katsuki didn’t want her to pick up on the foul language or pointed speeches around the mafia this young. Not to mention, he didn’t want her Japanese to regress either. Learning too many bad words this early…even Xanxus might squint a little if Eri started shooting out swears that could raise Jesus before Easter.
They were Vongola. They needed to have more class than street urchins.
The cake was almost ready as Eri carefully placed the final piece of chocolate at the center. Fran cheered when Katsuki cut him a slice.
“Go do your homework after this,” Katsuki ordered the boy. “I’ve gotten six calls from Mafia School in the span of two days. Keep this up and we’re signing you up for the boarding portion of school.”
Since Squalo was busy, Varia’s second in command handed over a bunch of the more tedious work to Katsuki, which included dealing with school. It was quite the achievement, actually. The mafia had schools for their own children, where poisons and guns and all the other not so legal stuff were encouraged. At first they thought Fran might feel a little maladapted to this type of schooling since he was just a normal country boy before getting picked up by Vongola. However, maybe it was because he had ten years of memories stuffed into him like the rest of the Varia elites and Tenth Generation, he was pretty much thriving off on torturing his classmates.
Squalo had a similar experience when Bel was still in school. The prince was an absolute nightmare and only did his schoolwork when he felt like it. He only got serious when the teachers told him he could be done with school if he showed mastery in the subjects so they could let him skip grades.
In Katsuki’s opinion, the school just wanted to sack the crazy royal pain in the ass.
“Me thinks it’s unfair that she doesn’t have to go to school.” Fran pointed his fork at Eri between bites.
Squalo scuffed as he took a piece of cake from Katsuki. Plopping himself into a stool, he asked sarcastically, “How old are you and how old is she?”
Fran made a face but turned quiet.
“I don’t think little Eri is ready for school,” added Lussuria. He was getting a pot of tea started to go with his cake. “She needs a few stun guns to keep those little rascals in line.”
“We’re not giving little shits any weapons until she’s fully literate.” Squalo shook his head. “I’m not writing her damage report for her.”
The rest of them chuckled while Eri looked around with a confused face. “What’s a damage report?”
“Paperwork,” grumbled Squalo miserably. Lowering the half a bite of cake back onto his plate, his features twisted as if his pancreas had burst. “Lots and lots of shitty paperwork.” His phone went off and the man made a shooing motion at Eri while checking his text. “Go bother Boss.”
“Come, Eri. Let’s deliver the cake to Xanxus.” Katsuki got a silver tray, plating the cake and a cup of Lussuria’s green tea on it.
The girl hopped off her seat, holding her hands out for the tray. “I’ll be careful.”
“Good luck, kids.” Lussuria waved at them.
They walked slowly, with Katsuki intentionally taking smaller steps to match Eri’s stride. The girl was careful and focused on not spilling the tea as they went up the stairs. When they made it to Xanxus’s office, Katsuki pushed the door open just a crack to check inside.
Xanxus was reading some files at his desk. There was a slight crease between his brows but judging by the curve of his scowl, he wasn’t in that foul of a mood.
Tapping Eri on the back lightly, Katsuki pushed the door fully open.
“B-Boss! We made cake!”
She almost bit her tongue trying to pronounce the Italian words but she did it. A full sentence in front of Xanxus without being ordered to speak!
Xanxus glanced up at Katsuki, who returned a smile. The Varia boss didn’t say anything as Eri walked closer while holding her breath. She stepped on the short stool beside Xanxus’s desk. The wooden stool was added since Eri had been fetching Xanxus his drinks. Katsuki wasn’t sure if he should be concerned that a six year old could recognize different wine bottles and recite the year and vineyard of each one before she could even spell their names.
…It should be fine.
The bar was low since Eri came from a yakuza’s basement but some days, Katsuki wasn’t so sure if Varia was any higher.
Eri placed the cake and tea in front of Xanxus before hugging the empty tray against her chest. She stared at Xanxus, the hope and anticipation evident in her large round eyes.
“Tastes like shit,” gruffed Xanxus after taking a bite. The line between his eyebrows didn’t lessen and he still had a face that could scare Navy Seals into shitting in terror but Eri nodded while beaming bright.
“Lighten up a little won’t you?” Chuckling, Katsuki threw himself onto Xanxus’s lap, taking the fork from the man to take another piece of cake. He lifted the cake up to Xanxus’s mouth. “We have kids and this is a cake, of course it’s sweet.”
“This is my castle, they should be accommodating me, not the other way around.”
Rolling his eyes, Katsuki shoved the cake into Xanxus’s mouth. With his other hand, he pinched Xanxus on the shoulder as he felt the mafia’s hand pressed against the curve of his butt.
“Give this to Bel.” Xanxus handed Eri some paper, gesturing for her to leave.
As soon as the girl left, Xanxus bared his teeth. “Are you trying to crush my clavicle? Also, there was at least ten pounds of sugar in that cake. What was she trying to do? Become the next Poison Scorpion?”
Gokudera’s sister, Bianchi, had an unnatural talent to turn all of her cooking into poisonous weapons.
“Eri’s hand slipped.” Katsuki planted a kiss at the edge of the scar on Xanxus’s forehead. He traced the edge of the marked skin down to the tip of his dark brows. Tossing the fork back on the plate, Katsuki leaned his head on Xanxus’s shoulder. “She tried so don’t waste her efforts. Fran loves this cake and even Squalo swallowed it down without swearing.”
He could feel the man’s warm hand travel up his spine, pressing against the notches of his bones while Xnaxus kissed him. The sweet taste lingered on Xanxus’s tongue and Katsuki felt himself melting into the kiss.
Xanxus was right though. There was definitely too much sugar in the cake that even Katsuki’s tongue was starting to go numb.
“Bunch of idiots,” cursed Xanxus when they parted. The man picked up the tea and drained it in one go, trying to wash the aftertaste of sugar down. “I don’t want Fran anywhere near the armory or my office if this is in his system.”
Oh, the kid illusionist would be a hyperactive nightmare. Squalo would probably throw him into training with the lower Varia members in an attempt to burn the sugary fuel out of the kid. Katsuki actually felt kind of bad for Stain and the rest of Varia.
Just a little though.
“I’m with you on that,” Katsuki laughed softly as he shifted his body to face Xanxus properly. Straddling Xanxus’s lap, his legs dangled on either side of the office chair, toes just touching the wooden floor as he swung his feet. He wrapped his arms around Xanxus’s neck and buried his face against his boyfriend’s chest. There was a hand on the back of his head, fingers threaded between his hair and the weight of it comforting. “I’m going to take a nap. Be nice to Eri if she comes back. She wants to play with big kitties.”
There was a grunt that sounded along the lines of “Bester’s not a cat” before the noise of shuffling paper came. Katsuki’s consciousness began to slip while accompanied by the occasional noise of pen dragging across paper and flipping pages. In his sleepy state, Katsuki could imagine Xanxus’s writing. Unlike the man’s usual rough exterior, his cursives were clean and practiced. The words accompanied Katsuki into slumber.
There was no better lullaby and sweeter dream.
2
Midoriya saw his hands decaying as he reached for Shigaraki’s hands. Young Shigaraki’s hatred originated from a house, beautiful and normal until…until everything crumbled.
The world was dying and there were just people who couldn’t be saved. Shigaraki didn’t want to be saved. Even if he wasn’t All For One’s pawn, he was the villains’ hero and destruction was the path he chose.
“If Spinner is alive, tell him that Shigaraki Tomura kept fighting for destruction until the bitter end.”
Midoriya woke up with a startled gasp for air but he soon realized he hadn’t escaped from his dreams. There was a boy in front of him. His hair was shaped oddly, with three spikes pointing skyward like a pineapple’s leaves.
“Who–” the green haired teen started but then he remembered the cultural festival. This boy had shown up and Bakugou knew him. Squalo too.
He was mafia.
“I’m not mafia,” the boy spat as if reading Midoriya’s mind. “You don’t need to know my name. I was just asked to deliver that message to you in exchange for information on how that stupid villain managed to transplant Six Realms onto himself successfully. Everybody who knew how to make that happen should be long dead.”
He had an eye like Shigaraki’s during the final battle. The red eye with the switching numbers instead of a human pupil.
“Dead…?”
“Yeah. The experiment only worked on me. Then I killed everybody involved in making that happen as revenge.” He sat down in front of Midoriya, gesturing for the hero to sit too. Their surroundings changed from gray mists and rough stones to the meeting room of past One For All users that Midoriya saw before.
There was a corner of ruins where eight chairs were placed in a circle. The ground outside of this corner of the room was a murky stream. The previous seven OFA holders sat in their chairs, watching Midoriya and the boy. All Might was still a visage shaped by flames.
“Rokudo Mukuro,” Nana sighed. “You are the illusionist who fought All For One at the prison alongside Vongola Decimo.”
They could feel it. The connection between One For All and All For One was stronger in this metaphysical world than what Midoriya felt physically in his conscious state.
“We met earlier than that,” Kudo muttered while rolling his eyes but he was glaring at Midoriya when he said that. “You were the one who was trying to mess with that idiot’s head at the park.”
“Well, you didn’t put up much of a fight inside his head so I assumed I had permission.” Rokudo shrugged without a care in the world. “I didn’t do anything but remove a few filters from his mouth. Kufufu, it was quite a show.”
“W-wait! It was because of you?” Midoriya’s eyes widened when he realized what they were talking about. His outburst at Namimori park…that was because of this kid? Belatedly, Midoriya felt his cheeks burning up because after everything that happened, he finally had time to pull the tangled mess of his thoughts into manageable threads. The previous OFA users didn’t have much time to talk to him casually before, not with the battles and all their quirks coming into play but now, they were all looking at Midoriya with a strange look.
A fist landed on his head and the pain felt just as real as when a punch landed in real life.
“I’ve been wanting to do that. Boy, I don’t even know what to say to you.” Banjo shook his head as he pulled his fist back. “We try to let you have your privacy and such and hey, I get it. We’ve had crushes and we’ve all been teenagers once but boy oh boy…that was just not right. It’s a struggle and a heartbreaking process to accept rejections. The way you went about it was completely out of hand and iIf I was that Bakugou kid, I’d have thrown you out a window at one point.”
“I’m sorry…” Midoriya felt himself shrinking. He wanted to hide but there was nowhere else to go. The other users took turns expressing their disappointment. From yelling at him to the silent look of disapproval, Midorya felt like rotten fish in the trash.
Yoichi coughed, calling everyone’s attention to him. “I trust you understand why you’re wrong now?”
“Y-yeah.” Midoriya’s head hung low. “I say I love him but I didn’t listen to him. I was only thinking about my feelings and how I think things should be. That’s a very selfish kind of love. Kacchan would give up his hero career for Xanxus and the other mafia because that is what was right. He wouldn’t jeopardize them just because he was in a tough spot. I know how important being a hero is to him. He’s like me. That’s our dream. Everything we’ve worked for our whole lives. After seeing that, I started wondering if I could do that too. If I would be willing to give up being a hero if Kacchan asked. Not because it could save his life or because there is something else on the line, just because it’s for him. Xanxus didn’t ask him to do that. If Kacchan didn’t do that, Xanxus wouldn’t be in imminent danger either. He’s a villain and I don’t even know how many heroes it would take to bring him down. Even if the heroes don’t go after him now, they will keep trying in the future.”
Slowly, he wiped his face and held back tears before lifting his head to look Yoichi in the eyes.
“I can’t do the same,” he whispered. “I don’t love like he did. I don’t love him the same amount as he could love another person back.”
“You’re a slow learner and it took relating to the same dream for you to realize your wrongs. Having morals and empathy are different from being able to walk in another person’s shoes.” Yoichi sighed. The man was slim and his bangs fell in front of his face but the man had kind eyes. “You’re young and you have done many stupid things, Midoriya. For a second there, I thought Toshinori made the wrong choice. You…you reminded me of my brother.”
All For One didn’t love. He only knew how to possess.
Midoriya’s head hung low again in shame.
“That’s it? You’ve realized your wrongs and blah blah blah?” Rokudo suddenly interjected. He was trying to keep a dour expression but he just looked bored and if not a little let down by the lack of heated violence. “I’m not on Bakugou’s side but I think you should at least dangle Midoriya here over that edge for five minutes. If you like, I can also throw in a nightmare combo free of charge.”
“Kid, you’re the type that wishes the world would burn down, aren’t you?” Banjo squinted at Rokudo and the teen flashed the man a crooked smile. “Feel like we’ve met another bastard like you before.”
“Demon Spade visited this place once,” Nana reminded the rest of the ghosts from the past. “He’s Vongola Primo’s cloud guardian. Unlike All For One who kept himself alive through quirks and science, Demon Spade only had a conscience when he wandered in. He was traveling through people’s dreams just like this kid here.”
“That was my fault.” Shinomori placed a hand on his forehead as if regretting a hangover. The fourth user of OFA sighed in exasperation. “Sorry guys. I don’t even know how he slipped in. He was looking for a body and I guess this one was already too crowded for him.”
“Sounds like him,” Rokudo quipped. “Tried to take my body too but he’s dead for good now. You can thank Vongola Decimo for that.”
“Vongola Decimo…isn’t that–” Midoriya felt his mouth turning into the same flames like All Might’s and he couldn’t talk any more. Vongola Decimo was Sawada Tsunayoshi. There was no mistake in it. The strange people around the brown haired teen, the powers that weren't in his quirk registry, and all the odd things that happened all pointed to that truth.
Rokudo smiled at him, a curve that looked more like the painted lines on a horror movie doll’s mask than one that contained real human emotions.
“You can put two and two together in that puny little brain of yours,” Rokudo said gently but his eyes told a different story. “But some secrets should remain secrets and not blurted out like an illy thought out love confession from a certain hero, okay?”
Midoriya shut right back up.
“Hey, stop playing with him.” Kudo stepped in, blocking Rokudo from view. “This isn’t your domain either, illusionist.”
The will of seven heroes was what maintained this realm. The flames of One For All burned through the river of time, still shining bright within Midoriya even if the final battle was over.
“That power of yours,” Rokudo said with a tilt of his head as if in thought. “It can only be passed to people with no quirks, right? Have you ever wondered what would happen if someone with one of our flames could do with One For All?”
Everybody was looking at him. Tension thickened in the air as another edge of the ruins chipped off, sinking into the chaos but Rokudo’s smile only grew larger.
Yoichi closed his eyes as he leaned back into his chair. “If there comes a time for the need, it is what is meant to be but so long as we are here, we will do what we can to guide the future.”
His answer didn’t amuse Rokudo. The boy’s smile fell and he took a large step back with a shake of his head, he mumbled, “...Heroes.”
Rokudo began to fade. He was just dropping off a message from Shigaraki and Midoriya assumed the other images that the illusionist showed him was a bonus. There might be some curiosity involved too since he knew about the previous OFA users and after meeting them all, he was satisfied with this short interaction. He seemed to just be hanging around to meet people, whether alive or not.
“Wait!” Midoriya found his mouth again. “Kacchan! Is Kacchan okay? Will he…will we ever see him again?”
Rokudo glanced at him, indifferent to the pleading hope in Midoriya’s eyes. “Who knows? Why don’t you go find out for yourself?”
He vanished, shattering into a thousand pieces of crystal that got swept under the stream. Even leaving, he had to get in a last scare. Midoriya wasn’t sure what he meant but according to the previous OFA users, that was just how all illusionists were. They had other things they wanted to discuss with Midoriya, which forced him to shove any thoughts relating to Bakugou Katsuki to the deepest corner of his mind.
Still, he couldn’t help but wonder what Rokudo had meant.