#AFO meta

[silentfanmusings]

All for One and Quirk Origin Theory

Okay, so I have some thoughts on 407 and how it recontextualizes the world of BNHA and Quirk history.

According to the latest chapter, not only are AFO and Yoichi twins, but they're also (possibly) the first with Quirks because they're apparently older than the Glowing Baby. Who society (and the readers) have been told since chapter 1, was the first Quirk user. 

Over 400 chapters later that no longer appears to be the case. Although we also have to account for unreliable narration messing with the order of past events, and I don’t think we can know for certain if the twins or the Glowing Baby were born first since the twins likely have no actual records of their existences anywhere.

But if the twins truly are older and possibly even part of quirk society's origin, then I also wonder about some of the other things stated in 407 and how it seems like people older than AFO have Quirks.

“Meta abilities… also started to present…. in young people going through puberty.”

Which means that a variety of people were developing meta abilities all around the same time, which led to chaos in society due to inadequate research into the meta ability phenomenon that has been ongoing since the Glowing Baby was born, since researchers “hypothesized that a novel disease was to blame.”

In 407, we see some adult soldiers talking about meta people and coming across a young AFO in the streets, mentioning that they should avoid him because he might be a carrier of the meta ability “disease”. Which means that many believed in the early days that meta abilities spread through some sort of contact with someone who was a carrier.

This line of thought actually makes me believe that people older than AFO (who’s still a young child) have gained meta abilities, as mentioned a couple pages earlier.

We can even see a very young AFO apparently stealing Quirks from people he’s defeated or killed, who look a fair bit older than he does.

Which indicates that a variety of young people all over have suddenly developed powers with the disease line of thought being the most widely spread bit of information to create a wall between those with meta powers and those without.

It’s very likely that the original mutagen could have spread from All for One, or the mutagen could have been something that affected AFO and Yoichi’s mother who then passed along the mutation to the twins, since she was clearly showing some signs of a minor meta ability that AFO stole from her when he was born.

Whatever mutagen it was altered the DNA of multiple people - many of them either born with their meta ability or developing them as minors before and during puberty; which makes me hypothesize that the earliest people with meta abilities, all in the same generation, gained it through some sort of environmental factor and they weren’t all born with altered genetics.

Some sort of mutagen altered their DNA, triggering the appearances of unique powers and appearances, and Ch 407’s narrator makes it seem like Quirks began with All for One and his brother.

I wonder if any of this will be confirmed, or if we’re going to be left to theorize about the origins of Quirks and AFO’s possible role as one of the earliest people with meta abilities.

[featherstorm2004]

Me realizing the reason AFO is so obsessed with Tenko is because he is the reason Tenko was born, therefore making Tenko his the same way Yoichi was. which explains why he was so adamant with making him just like Yoichi, down to even wanting to be a hero just like his predecessor. Whilst also giving Tenko the same trauma AFO experienced making him a true fusion of the brothers the way AFO always wanted.

[helga-grinduil]

'I love how there’s basically no reason for AFO being the way he is.'

But.

But there is a reason? We were literally shown it in this chapter?

A kid having to survive literally from the moment of it's birth, and somehow not only managing to do exactly that, but also being able to keep his weaker twin alive as well. Having to chew on the corpse of their mother not to starve. Not only no food, no proper clothes, no home, no names, but also no parents, no adults, no socialisation, no protection in the world where people with quirks are feared, hated, and seen as 'infected', no one to properly socialise him or tell him 'no' or explain why he can't have something, no one to teach him what caring or affection is, no anything. Literally just him and his brother together their entire childhood. Taking. Providing. Taking. Killing the danger. Taking. Because you have nothing and no one (except for this one little useless thing you do not really understand why you are keeping alive and taking it with you everywhere, but it's the only your thing you had since your birth and you don't want to be alone).

Y'all really think that Horikoshi would just drop the ball with the themes of storytelling, and AFO wanting to be seen as a character, and the dangers of dehumanisation and the idea that quirks made people 'evil'? That one Tartarus guard who said that villains are not entirely human and more like animals was wrong, but not about this one guy in particualar, I guess! /s

P.S. Yoichi having normal clothes and even shoes while AFO wears a garbage bag. Protruding ribs visible. A hungry baby screaming for a mother’s (corpse’s) comfort, but learning that no one will respond to his cries, so he has to claw and bite and use force.

[snubulous]

Who else had literal feral child AFO on their bingo card? Cause I sure as hell didn’t

[greenhappyseed]

do you think Midoriya agrees that he murdered Shigaraki, or that he just hadn’t come to argue with Spinner?

THIS IS SUCH A GOOD QUESTION! @granny-griffin I love the way you think! I’m going to answer in 2 parts: First, a close look at the factors that led to Tomura’s death, because a LOT happened in very few chapters; and second, Izuku’s conversation with Spinner in the context of the final battle, because there are continuing themes that are very consistent with how Izuku approaches Spinner. And finally, a lil Izuku appreciation because he does something very cool in 427.

I. How, exactly, did Tomura decay?

When Izuku held hands with Tenko inside their memories, Izuku cracked the hatred surrounding Tenko and let out Tenko’s core — the person who wanted to be a friend and hero to the LOV. When that happens, the “finger armor” on Tomura’s real body crumble too.

At that exact moment, AFO seizes his opening and re-emerges. AFO says that “Tenko’s spiritual defeat” damaged “his” body, which implicitly blames Izuku for the physical damage. But that’s just AFO’s narration, and AFO is a manipulative liar (even to himself and to MHA readers). We don’t know that Tomura’s body would have decayed if AFO hadn’t re-emerged. For all we know, once Izuku cracked the hatred, Tenko could have gone on to live a normal human life. But of course, AFO would never tolerate a normal human life in the “vessel” he spent years cultivating.

Without Tomura’s rage and hatred, and with AFO in control, AFO quickly “uses up” any remaining power in Tomura’s body. At first, hyper-regeneration doesn’t work, and as AFO uses more power he has to start using more quirks to hold his body together.

AFO’s greed burned out his own “vessel.” AFO’s overuse of his quirk condemned Tomura’s body, not Izuku.

Izuku knows exactly what’s happening because All Might warned him back in Chapter 2 about strong quirks coursing through limp noodle bodies.

But at this point, Izuku doesn’t know that Tenko’s spirit is still around. Izuku thinks he’s fighting pure AFO, and he sees a weakness he can use to end AFO. If Izuku doesn’t use this opening, then AFO will transfer himself to another person (which is likely to be Izuku himself) and begin all over again. Izuku knows this because AFO is screaming about finding a new vessel.

In the vestige world, when Izuku goes for the final strike, that’s when Tenko comes back and adds his fist to the vestige mega-punch. When Tenko comes back, which is itself an unexpected miracle thanks to Nana, there aren’t any “perfect victory” options — it was either smash AFO for good and let Tomura’s body crumble OR let AFO body snatch Izuku (or someone else) and hope that maybe Tenko’s spirit could overcome AFO in that new body — and that’s assuming AFO’s self-transfer would even include Tenko’s spirit. It’s an easy choice for Izuku to make, especially when Tenko himself chooses the smash option.

In the end, Izuku saved the crying little boy Tenko trapped under hatred and AFO’s lies. But Izuku couldn’t save Tomura’s physical body, and I don’t think there was any way he could have. It absolutely haunts Izuku right now — he wanted to save everyone with a smile and he held the strongest quirk in the world, yet he couldn’t make Tomura’s story end happily. Nobody could. To make it worse for Izuku, the world is probably celebrating the hero who destroyed the villain with a punch, because that’s what it looked like on TV. Only Izuku, All Might, and a few others know what happened in the vestige world.

II. What does Izuku think as he talks to Spinner?

Does Izuku think he murdered Tomura? Honestly no, I don’t think he sees himself as a murderer. And he’s NOT. He knows, logically, that AFO engineered a mutually assured destruction scenario with Tomura.

But does Izuku see himself as a failed hero? Yeah, I think so. That kid has so many self-esteem issues to begin with, and his whole self-identity is wrapped around being a hero like All Might. Remember how brutally All Might scolded himself in Chapter 1 when he was struggling to transform and save Bakugo from the sludge villain? I imagine Izuku’s internal monologue is something like that, cursing himself and holding himself to an impossibly high standard. It’s why All Might tried to reassure him in the hospital that he saved Tenko’s soul.

Still, I’m not at all surprised to see Izuku bravely committing himself to remembering Tomura and carrying out Tomura’s final wishes. When Izuku goes to see Spinner, he has to know Spinner will be angry over his friend’s death. And Izuku knows that part of a hero’s role is to validate someone’s pain, because he did that for Tenko.

A hero needs to SEE that crying child and be kind even when the child isn’t. A hero needs to let the child know they’re not alone.

Validation is what happens when Shoto uses Phosphor for the first time and tells Toya: “Dad was a madman! Our family was screwed up! …But you’re not taking any more innocent lives. Aim all your rage at us!” It’s what Shoji tells Spinner during their fight: “We’ve all got scars we carry.” It’s what Ochako tells Himiko: “Maybe this world isn’t a place you can be yourself…but being able to declare what you love, and do it with your whole face…that smile of yours is so perfect I’m honestly jealous!”

Izuku understands there’s no point in arguing with Spinner over who, exactly, killed Tomura. It doesn’t matter. Tomura is gone and Spinner is in pain. Spinner needs his anger and grief over Tomura’s loss validated. He needs his mistreatment as a heteromorph validated. He needs his abuse at the hands of AFO validated.

Izuku doesn’t just let Spinner call him a murderer; he lets Spinner call him a ���sick puppy,” he lets Spinner talk about the destruction of Deika, he lets Spinner vent about how he had given up on life until he found Tomura. Izuku lets Spinner grab him and manhandle him so Spinner can finally express that, to him, Tomura represented hope for major change. Tomura’s death is the death of that hope. And in return, Izuku uses Spinner’s villain name (just as Tomura did). Izuku adds on to Tomura’s message too — he tells Spinner that Tomura wanted to be LOV’s hero. He tells Spinner how much Spinner meant to Tomura, which Spinner didn’t know before.

Simply by listening and sharing what he knew, quirkless Izuku validated Spinner and reached his heart, enabling Spinner to control his own raging quirk.

Izuku saved Spinner. No quirk needed.

And even if hero and villain will never see perfectly eye to eye, Izuku bonds with Spinner, encouraging him to write his book about Tomura to counter the popular media narrative (which winds all around the chapter). Izuku, who is possibly the most celebrated hero on the planet at the moment, encourages a book that will “stick it to heroes forever and ever.” Finally, Izuku promises Spinner that he will never forget Tomura. In return, Spinner finally softens and sends his own message of goodwill to Shoji.

Izuku may have been too late to save Tomura, but he will keep Tomura’s memory alive. In doing so, he saved Spinner and bonded with him, getting Spinner to implicitly admit that some heroes are good people. Izuku and Spinner, our two social outcast narrators, found common ground.

And that’s the beginning of a major change.

[mishy-mashy]

Bruce is actually really attractive, and I have enough reasoning to make a list

He's:

Tall (. Tall enough to hit his head on the vault doorframe)

Long-legged

Has a straight nose bridge

Has high cheekbones (more noticeable in 2nd pic below)

Has a strong jawline

Sharp eyes, but they aren't small (plus eyebags if you're into that)

Overall, he has strong, attractive facial features

Has broad, refined shoulders. You can tell he works out (or he did, when he was alive)

Even has a thick, muscly neck

He has MUSCLE. Is SCULPTED. NOICE. VERY NOICE. (nice arms. Nice shoulders. Nice neck. Nice legs. Nice butt-)

(There are actually panels where you can see some of his muscles. Other than those already shown here, he's got bricky thighs-

-and in the panels where we first get his name dropped, he's got those shoulder blades too-)

The one time we see him smile, and he actually has a scary one

Has small, kinda sharp pupils, and his eyes remind me of a cat. We only ever saw him tense or defensive, so his resting/listening face is really cute

Other than the physical appearance stuff, he also:

Takes shit without batting an eye (patience, knowing it's just how Kudo is, etc)

Kudo being all "Cut the crap Bruce and give it to me straight", after Bruce tests his blood and is rightfully Concerned because they just faced AFO

Put up with Kudo's experimenting and testing over Yoichi's transferable Factor

Did ya'll see the look on Kudo's face when he realized he had Yoichi's Factor/will? Kudo was going to start in nonsense and Bruce just dealt with that.

Also something I noticed when looking back at the images here; Bruce has bandages on his arms in the void. But not when he faced AFO in the sewers.

Were he and Kudo cutting their arms open in their experimenting over Yoichi's theory? Is this why Kudo has two gauntlets instead of his one? Why we never see his bare arms in the void? That he always keeps his arms down so there's no slip?

Is smart enough to run blood tests, plus has enough common sense to pick Shinomori as his successor

He picked a guy who avoids society, has an Ability to detect danger so he can always stay away from AFO, is also a coward so he's never going to go throw himself into danger, even without knowing instinctively he stands no chance, etc.

Meanwhile, Kudo chose Bruce, who he played Hot Potato Yoichi with; but he did also trust Bruce, and put the only pure combative Ability in OFA through Bruce.

These two made their choices based on what they valued and saw the Factor needed.

Is logical, analytical, and calm.

He tried advising Midoriya on their Abilities in One For All, especially his own.

Midoriya then tried ignoring him about using Fa Jin for the first time, but found he was right, thinking: "Dammit!! I had [Lady Nagant] right where I wanted her, but... ugh! The Third was right. My parallel Quirk processes are all screwed up!" (ch. 314).

Plus, when Midoriya fixed his processing mistakes, Bruce was analyzing the way he reached his new conclusion. Pure facts, no bias, very calm, just saying it as it was.

We never see him panic. When he's caught by surprise in the sewers by AFO, Kudo, and Yoichi's little bubble event, he immediately reacts. He doesn't falter, he just knows he has to do something right now.

Was more willing to listen than Kudo to Yoichi's beckon, and probably was just following Kudo's rejection of Midoriya

While we don't see Kudo's face, we see Bruce's eyes when Yoichi calls on his heroes. Bruce was more open and receptive, or at least more impacted.

Bruce was also the one to start talking, while Kudo just kept quiet.

He actually communicates a lot

When Yoichi called them to support Midoriya, Bruce started talking to paint a picture of why they thought the way they did, so Yoichi understood where they were coming from.

(Though he seems to beat about the bush sometimes, since Kudo spoke up to be direct on how they couldn't just put their trust in some starry-eyed teenager. Plus, when Kudo tells him to just tell him what's wrong [double Factors])

When Midoriya first used Fa Jin against Nagant, Bruce came out just to tell him he knew what he was trying, but that Midoriya wasn't ready; and Midoriya found he was right. Midoriya just didn't want to listen to him then.

He asks Kudo for clarification after finding Kudo had two Factors in him after the sewer incident ("Just to be sure, All For One didn't touch you, right?") Kudo knew him well enough to go "stop beating around the bush and tell me", so Bruce was probably gonna start with questions, theories, and trying to understand everything in general, before saying "yeah you have two Factors. Don't know why".

Is strong-willed and loyal.

He followed Kudo, even to death, carrying on the cause he started until it ended with him.

Plus, when talking about how AFO needs a strong will to override OFA's own, we first see Bruce, Kudo, and Yoichi.

AFO couldn't steal OFA because the will was too strong for him, and that was back during Banjo's time. Since Shinomori never actually tried opposing AFO and just hid, we can assume the first Three (Yoichi, Kudo, Bruce) already had an accumulation of strong willpower that made OFA un-stealable. Those three are a strong enough foundation, and the main wills, that the other users just become bonuses.

Kudo, also saying that Midoriya needs allies with the same will and drive as him... hey Kudo, you're talking about yourself and your old allies, aren't you? That's why you look at Yoichi and Bruce when you say this.

Not only is Bruce attractive, but he's got good character. THE END.

[fanofflames]

Skeptic is so criminally underused in the Final War arc…

His quirk, Anthropomorph, is very similar to Twice’s… he can make puppets out of human-sized inanimate objects. In a war-torn Japan, where most have evacuated their homes, Skeptic would have nearly infinite material to work with. Rumble, fridges, desks, bookcases, mattresses, etc… everywhere.

The heroes were scared of Twice? Imagine how scary Skeptic could be… It seems his quirk doesn’t have a measurement requirement and with his hacking skills, he could probably produce a puppet of whoever he wants. The biggest drawback? How many he could control and the durability of his puppets.

He seems to be capable of controlling at least 10 puppets at a time, if his Twice puppets are any indication. However, it seems he can give direct or indirect commands to his puppets, meaning he might be able to give general commands to a much larger multitude of puppets using the comms and video system.

Skeptic could have potentially produced an army for the League, tricked the heroes into believing Twice was still alive, or even made puppets of Toga, Dabi, and Shigaraki to confuse the heroes.

Heck, depending on his limitations, he might be able to make Nomu puppets and/or have his puppets receive quirks from All for One.

Plus, Skeptic uses psychological warfare. Imagine puppets of young Touya attacking Endeavor, using family members of other heroes, or even confusing the heroes with puppets of each other.

Better yet, his puppets could have gone and freed the imprisoned Meta Liberation Army, and Mr. Compress, while the majority of the heroes were fighting against the villains.

He might not be Twice, but I’m surprised AFO didn’t incorporate Skeptic’s quirk into their battle.

[abodeofhunter]

headcanons my headcanons!!!! The gist of the headcanon is that Bruce and Kudo were part of Destro's resistance and that by bringing Yoichi to him, they brought on the defeat of the entire MLA army with All for One. Destro is defeated and sent to jail because AFO didn't kill him. It's more fun to be sent to rot in jail after losing everything you've worked so hard to build.

[amaranthdahlia]

this js the funniest thing ever actually

[siflshonen]

Practice what you preach, Izuku! He's his own man, you egoist!

[selenestarmoon]

With AFO's past we understand why he is obsessed with family, it is because he sees family as people who are his who will always love him and be by his side.

That's why AFO hates Kudo for "causing" the death of Yoichi, his only family.

That's why he hates Nana and Endeavor because they have what he always wanted but they choose to put it aside in favor of their work as heroes (although Nana did it because AFO didn't give her another option).

And if DFO theory is true, AFO hates All Might for taking Izuku away from him and for passing on his dream to his son, and by extension, encouraging him to live (what AFO believes) a life full of loneliness and suffering because for AFO the heroes always suffer and are alone, hence why he tells Izuku that he chose a thorny path, while for AFO, the villains have carte blanche to do whatever they want and have followers (they aren't alone).

[featherstorm2004]

You ever think about how AFO probably has a lot of resource trauma considering his past, like I can't get over the fact that when we see a toddler-ish aged AFO he was noticeably more malnourished than his brother signaling that he probably only ate the bare minimum to survive in order to keep his sickly twin alive.

And I wounder if deep down that caused some subconscious resentment to from in him against Yoichi as they grew up. Like how some siblings who take the protector role in abusive environments can go on to resent the other sibling that they were protecting because 'they had it easier', that could probably explain why when they got older AFO seemed to overcorrect with him treating himself to luxuries whist Yoichi was kept in such poor conditions.

Like he still loved Yoichi and wanted him near him but he might've also resented him for the fact that he wasn't the one who had to constantly fight tooth and nail for them to survive. So, that's probably why he never took Yoichi's love for hero's and being kind seriously since he probably saw it as a result of his brother never having to deal with the 'real world' the way he did so just brushed it off as being naive.

And I just can't get over what that would do to a kid, like imagine a toddler coming to the realization that he has to starve himself in order to prioritize his siblings health. That's got to be traumatizing and I can just imagine AFO working to provide for the both of them even through illness, injuries or whatever because he new he couldn't afford to be sick or truly take a break and relax.

idk man it keeps me up at night.

[helga-grinduil]

It's so weird to me that a lot of Shigaraki/LOV fans somehow overlooked and didn't get the fact that chapter 237 was all about AFO convincing Tenko that he has an innate desire to destroy and kill due to his quirk, and that this is why society would never save or accept someone like him (but he would). That THIS is why he believes that he wanted to kill his family, since he must've had that impluse when he destroyed them.

'It's more ReDestro/MLA stuff' - oh, I wonder who could ReDestro possibly be a parallel to? A child who was brainwashed into being a future cult leader and was raised to be the next coming of a great villain of old?

Forget ReDestro, think about ERI. ERI, who is the most blatant, clearest, closest parallel to Shigaraki a character can get. Remember why exactly it was so hard to rescue her? Why Deku and Mirio had to convince her that she deserved to be saved? Because Overhaul taught her that her quirk was cursed, and she was cursed for being born with that quirk.

[shih-coulda-had-it]

As the anon partially responsible for boss baby Afo. Uh. Your welcome for the dodgeball I guess DKNDKFNFKG XD

D:< just for you. boss baby au. the point of afo's mission is to eradicate the glowing baby and prevent global tolerance of meta abilities. i don't know, i guess it's just funny to have big brother yoichi-nii be "in charge" of this nightmare capitalist baby.

[greenhappyseed]

Having now read the official release of MHA 407, I don’t (yet) see the argument that AFO was a traumatized baby who was just looking for someone to respond to his cries and take care of him the way that Tenko was wandering the streets. While it’s revealed that AFO doesn’t want to be alone, AFO’s backstory and Tenko’s backstory reveal two very different men with different motivations.

The narrative in 407 says young AFO distrusts anyone who won’t turn and look at him when he cries because those people don’t offer anything of value to him. He can’t manipulate them into doing what he wants, and therefore they are useless and he can kill them if he wants. This has long been AFO’s thought pattern, and it’s what he taught young Tenko — YOU are more important than anything, and YOU should always act how you desire. Nothing in the world matters except what YOU want to do.

Contrast that with young Tenko’s initial reactions when realizing he killed his family, and with Tomura’s later hesitation to kill (or even attack) Katsuki after Katsuki refuses to join the LOV. Tenko/Tomura cares about other people, even after they refuse him, in a way that AFO does not.

Moreover, look at young AFO’s faces. He isn’t shown smiling or crying or having any emotion at all until page 11, when he reveals he killed the glowing child and stole their quirk. He then grins widely as he talks about his dream of a world that exists only for him. AFO didn’t smile when killing the anti-meta group OR when reading with Yoichi. He has no happy, smiling memories prior to this moment (even with Yoichi), unlike Tenko who had fond memories of his mom, sister, friends, and dog.

As another point of contrast, look at why AFO wants to be the villain: He wants to be surrounded by people who pay tribute to him. He does not want to “battle on in solitude.” (Another reason why AFO hated All Might for smashing his face in — it required a lengthy recovery hidden away from followers.)

To AFO, people are a one-way relationship. He doesn’t want to be alone, so he wants to possess a brother who directly opposes everything AFO stands for; a brother who is family and who wishes for the best but will never be a supporter, follower, ally, or friend. AFO gives Yoichi a quirk thinking that will change Yoichi’s mind, or keep him somehow bound to AFO.

Tomura, however, wants allies, and in return he wants to give back to them. He got downright DEFENSIVE when Mirio said he didn’t have any friends. Tomura understands the give-and-take involved in working with people. He doesn’t just want followers that do his bidding.

In the end, AFO’s unrelenting selfishness will leave him alone — at some point he will run out of “followers” and paths to victory. Meanwhile, Yoichi and Kudou built a network that ensured they would not be alone in their battle. They found true allies in the other OFA holders, and in turn Izuku found allies among pro heroes and at UA, just as Tomura did in the LOV. They are not alone.

[mishy-mashy]

3 reasons I can think of, for why the first Three vestiges were too hard to find information on

[Reason 1]

The time they were born in.

Their births, and any records of them, could just be completely undocumented or non-existent.

They were born in times where systems and governments were down, and it's everyone for themselves.

People aren't going to register their existence, especially the Metas, when they all want to stay under the radar and hide from everyone else.

If you're in the middle of a war zone that spread to where you live, and your baby brother was just born, are you really going to go [Oh no! I have to register his birth for that sweet sweet child tax!]?

Or something like that. But still.

There are more important things, like survival, than registering a baby's birth and going through hospital paperwork. And it's been explicitly stated that the first appearance of Abilities caused a Great Depression all over Japan.

The government is gone. There's no point in registering anything anymore.

Yoichi was literally born at a riverside, and never went to a hospital. By the time the first Three are toddlers / young children, Japan is already chaos and up in flames.

Children are actively avoided because they're the most likely to be Meta Humans. No one wants anything to do with them.

Chances are, the records about the first Three never existed, or were destroyed in all the strife.

Or maybe, if some did exist, Kudo destroyed them. I can see him doing that, to protect themselves from AFO or anyone else having the chance to track their personal histories down.

It makes them ghosts. Exactly what would be best for not only their own survival, but anyone affiliated with them. Like family. It makes them untraceable, and invisible to bodies of old authority.

[Reason 2]

The three were a part of the Resistance. They could've kept information about themselves under lock and key, to protect themselves.

Like how Kudo is referred to as Leader, and never by his real name. Even in the void, up to the very end, Bruce still says "Leader" to address him.

I actually HC them as using codenames in the Resistance, exactly to protect themselves from each other, and outsiders. This makes Yoichi an anomaly among them, for going by his real name. Meanwhile,

Leader, Boss = their leader

Bruce = a reference to his Quirk

Codenames about their Meta Abilities, or roles in their cause, to better remember whose nickname belonged to who.

Outsiders won't know the Resistance members' real names. The Resistance can't betray each other by selling each other out for personal information as easily, if no one knows each other's actual names.

At the same time, this alienates them from who they are, and their humanity. They have to make tough choices that would classify them as monsters. And they're locking themselves under a false name.

They're protecting themselves from everything and everyone, including themselves. At least the person committing all these atrocities is [CODENAME], not me.

[Reason 3]

Bruce, when he was supposed to pass previous information to Shinomori, couldn't.

Maybe he didn't have enough time to tell Shinomori the whole story.

Or maybe he did, and passed on the previous holders' histories, but Shinomori didn't pass those on himself.

Or maybe reminiscing Yoichi and Leader as actual people just broke him, and he could only stick to the bare minimum of the history of this Factor.

Notably, the OFA story is known as "All For One's younger brother was sickly and frail, but he had a strong sense of justice."

We never, ever hear Yoichi's name in the spoken history of OFA. All Might couldn't even get their names. And since AFO hides himself so easily, and birth records just don't exist for him as an undocumented birth, Yoichi legally doesn't exist even as a birth.

Bruce is the first one to find the existence of Yoichi's "unformed dud". The Factor that let him pass on his current Quirk to others. How could the information of that dud be passed on, if not from Bruce?

Somewhere, the information breaks during Bruce or Shinomori's turn with OFA.

Bruce never passed on their names. Or maybe Shinomori didn't. But their names weren't necessary to pass on anymore. All Might only managed to dredge what he could, starting from the time society started trying to stand on its feet. Exactly because that's as far as the records went.

[Reason 2] could add credence to why the first Three's names were never passed on. Bruce could've kept quiet about Yoichi and Leader's personal details, not just to help himself stay together, but to protect anything they might've left behind.