#afo: *catfishes his nemesis*

[snootysith]

Because Even All For One Needs a Buddy Cop like All Might

I gave All For One his own Naomasa... who is basically like actual Naomasa with the same excellent work ethic only with lower moral standards.

Because “Naomasa” could possibly be drawn from Ii Naomasa, a general in service to the Tokugawa Clan, I eyeballed generals in the opposing faction, the Toyotomi Clan, and settled on calling him Nobushige Tsukamoto after Sanada Nobushige.

Nobu was a Special Assault Team commander who got fed up operating in a system that twiddled its thumbs as Pro Heroes all but usurped the responsibilities of public welfare, dispensing justice by a child’s notion of morality. There were many times in his career when he bore the consequences of “imperfect” heroic rescues because he had to contend with heroes who struggled to make extremely hard decisions at the expense of their public image.

The chip on his shoulder is huge to say the least.

Nobu’s Quirk is parabolic hearing, the ability to hear certain areas with perfect clarity when he focuses on them but unable to hear anything outside that focus. Prolonged activation gives him a headache and sudden, earsplitting sounds will temporarily deafen him or at worse, render him unconscious so he strongly prefers keeping his focus in his line of sight. He must also be mindful of his immediate surroundings for, without sound, he can fail to notice an attack while focused elsewhere.

What his Quirk lacks in flashiness, he more than compensates in firearms and combat expertise. Reconnaissance is obviously second nature to him and his para-military experience coordinating large-scale operations is many and varied. These qualifications made him an excellent candidate for the role of All For One’s spymaster.

Nobu can generously be considered All For One's confidant and less generously considered his errand boy.

Back in the day (about thirty years pre-canon), it was common to see Nobu dogging All For One’s footsteps which was, by all appearances, quite strange. For what reason would the shadow lord of Japan keep an unassuming man like Nobu on hand? For what reason would a cop turned vigilante be interested in currying favor? Simply put, they both fulfill a purpose in each other’s lives.

All For One opens more doors than the police ever did and gives Nobu the opportunity to test his mettle, hit the hero system where it hurts, and generally stave off boredom.

Privately, All For One finds his shrewd intelligence valuable, his bluntness refreshing, and his deadpan temperament highly amusing. He understands Nobu’s loyalty is a rare gift so he considers it one of his more precious possessions and they’ve built a strong attachment to each other over the years.

Whether it’s platonic, romantic, or out of self-interest is up in the air. It’s quite possibly a mixture of all three. Neither of them really dwell on it.

It’s just an arrangement, after all.