Chapter Text
Izuku wiped some blood from his mouth and stared down at the hulking creature in front of him. Even though he knew it was probably someone with a monstrous transformation quirk, his brain refused to believe that whatever this was could be human. It was a million times stronger than anything he had ever faced.
Looking into its dead eyes sent shivers down his back – the exposed brain certainly wasn’t helping any. The villain with the hands all over his body laughed maniacally and one of his classmates called out Izuku’s name. The teen continued to stand his ground and readied another punch to launch at the impossible beast. This monster supposedly had multiple quirks; Izuku would have to put in a incredible amount of power if he wanted to defeat it.
Frankly, Izuku wasn’t sure if he had it within him to do so. This fight might be one he wouldn’t be able to win, but if he could protect his friends and his teacher who laid still behind him, he would do anything he could. He charged a second time, trying to focus on any weak points but the ‘Nomu’s’ body was hard on his fists. There was a loud yell behind him, but he couldn’t spare a second to look away from the villain at hand.
“Izuku!” a voice boomed behind him before All Might appeared and pushed the beast away with a punch that sent a rush of air all around them. The Nomu continued to stand its ground; all All Might had done was push it back a few meters. In the moment, Izuku couldn’t think about why the hero had called him his given name; he was too relieved by his arrival to think of things like that.
The newly arrived hero went after the Nomu a second time with powerful punches which he delivered over and over again. They were almost too fast for Izuku to recognize which was a grand feat considered Izuku’s enhanced eyesight. The main villain, with white hair and an odd assortment of human hands, dropped his smile as All Might continued to work on defeating the Nomu.
Then, with one last punch, the monster was sent flying out of the stadium. The teen marveled at All Might’s strength, but the hand-guy clearly wasn’t happy about it.
The Number One Hero was currently standing in a fog with slight injuries on his body. He, too, had blood dripping from his mouth which was concerning to say the least. The man looked strained and pushed to his limits; Izuku worried for his teacher. Hero or not, the man clearly cared about his entire class.
The hand-guy went on a mini rant before deciding to rally his forces once more. But Izuku couldn’t let that happen. He watched and readied himself before making the decision to go after the main villain and his misty accomplice. He ran faster than ever before and sent the grey-haired man flying with a kick.
His co-conspirator wasn’t too happy about this; he narrowed his shining yellow eyes at Izuku and used his quirk to bring the man back to his side. Izuku recalled Katsuki going after the ‘neck’ brace and went about doing the same.
He zig-zagged on his way to the villain before jumping and punching towards that metal part. The mist man backed away and suddenly there was a dry hand coming out of the fray and straight towards Izuku’s face. It must be the main villain and taking note of how the fingers were splayed, Izuku recalled the man’s quirk. He was about to try and grab the man’s wrist before a bullet came out of nowhere and went straight through the villain’s palm. The limb quickly receded.
Izuku flinched away from the closeness of the shot before turning his head. There was a whole arsenal of pro-heroes. The one with a gun continued to shoot at the villain, getting all of his limbs before the two of them retreated; it didn’t go unnoticed that they left all of the weaker villains behind.
The teen exhaled as he realized that the major threat was finally gone. He could relax now; especially as the new heroes worked to detain the powerless villains who were still trying to put up a fight. Izuku looked over at All Might who was staring at him with wide eyes. The teacher’s chest heaved one large breath before he coughed up blood and deflated into none other than Yagi Toshinori.
Izuku stared, dumbfounded, at the man who had dubbed himself his uncle. Like clockwork, his jaw dropped and Kirishima started to run over to the two of them. Izuku figured that the fog was still blocking the teen’s view of Uncle Toshi and he called out for the teen to stop.
If the hero hadn’t told Izuku, it probably wasn’t something he wanted a lot of people to know. Thankfully, Cementoss used his powers to call up a wall between the two heroes and Kirishima. Cementoss gave an excuse and Izuku listened as Kirishima walked away, albeit a bit dejectedly.
The teen returned his attention to the skinny man in front of him, “Uncle Toshi? Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked and the man paled.
The hero stumbled out an excuse but Izuku decided he didn’t care all that much in the end. He took a few steps closer to the blonde and gave him a hug; they’d have to talk about it later but for now he was just glad that his self-declared uncle was safe.
Toshi’s spindly arms wrapped around his back and pulled him tight. In the older man’s grasp he let out a few more shaky breaths and a succession of tears fell from his eyes. If ‘All Might’ hadn’t shown up when he did, that could have gone so much worse than it did. While the actual villains were a bit weaker than they made themselves seem, the Nomu had been insanely strong.
It was the first time that Izuku had been faced with a problem that he couldn’t easily solve with his strength or his careful thinking. He never wanted to be in that position again, but judging by this experience, it might be inevitable. He would just have to train more and more until he was finally strong enough to take on the world.
That’s what Yuuei was for, after all.
Soon enough, an ambulance – or something like it – swerved around the wall in a shaky turn. When he looked to see who was behind the wheel it seemed to be a Yuuei staff member. He thought he saw them at the entrance exam once. The ambulance had a Yuuei logo on it and they were loaded into the back.
Instead of talking to each other, Izuku and Toshi rode the ambulance in silence. There was too much that could be said; Izuku understood if the older man wanted time to think over what he wanted to say. The teen barely knew where to start when it came to asking questions.
The few that came to mind were: Does his dad know? Why didn’t he tell Izuku? Were they planning on telling him? Is the transformation part of his quirk? He remembers Toshi telling him that the blood he often ended up coughing was because of an old injury that required him to remove his stomach. Who was powerful enough to do such a thing to the Number One Hero?
After they got to the campus, the ambulance driver led them through the halls to the Nurse’s Office where Recovery Girl was awaiting them. Izuku wasn’t very injured and he could already feel himself beginning to heal, but he wouldn’t refuse treatment from Recovery Girl. Not in a million years. He was still thinking about his missed chance from the Entrance Exam.
The old woman ushered the two of them to separate beds before planting smooches on them. After she used it on Toshi, the man’s shoulders drooped down and he allowed himself to lie down on the bed. He looked incredibly tired.
Recovery Girl moved to Izuku next and handed him a gummy when she was done. The feeling was honestly kind of strange. It reminded him of when he first got the serum and the doctors were testing out his regeneration strength. It was like the feeling he got back then but amplified.
If he had to compare it to anything normal, it was like chills running through his entire body. He shivered in response as it ran down his nerves. The old woman gave him a strange look, “Are you cold?” she asked, seemingly confused.
“No? It was just the feeling of your quirk, kind of strange,” he said before explaining what it felt like to him.
She gave him a peculiar look like she was trying to decide if he was telling the truth or not, “No one’s ever given me that kind of feedback before, interesting,” she said. She studied his body in a way that reminded him all too much of the doctors on that first military base he was on.
Before they could talk about it anymore, his dad burst into the room with a panicked look on his face. It looked so strange on his usually calm face. The man was wearing the outfit Izuku had first met him in and he rushed straight over to Izuku barely sparing a glance for the other people in the room.
As soon as Izuku was enveloped in a hug, the teen let himself cry for the second time that day. He wrapped his arms around the detective and dug his fingers into the trench coat in a feeble motion to pull his dad closer. The detective carried him through a few sobs and didn’t mind that Izuku was probably soaking his collared shirt with his tears.
When they pulled away, the older man looked over Izuku as if assessing him for injuries. He sighed in relief when he didn’t find any, “When I got to the USJ and I didn’t see you with your classmates, I was so worried, Izuku!”
The teen felt a little bit guilty that his dad had to go through that. Maybe he wouldn’t have gone into the ambulance had he known the man was nearby; he said as much before asking the important questions, “Are all of my classmates okay? What about Aizawa-sensei?” Izuku endlessly worried about all of his friends. He’d only known most of them for a little over a week and sometimes their focus on him could be a tad bit overwhelming, but he really cared about them.
The detective looked at him sadly and Izuku’s entire body went rigid, “They’re mostly okay. You teacher was taken to the hospital, of course. Most of your classmates were unscathed, but Shinsou did end up being taken to the hospital for a broken arm and a concussion,” the man informed him; upon seeing Izuku’s worried face, he quickly added on, “However, I did call his parents and they said that he was in good hands and going to be released rather quickly.”
Izuku let some of the tension leak out of his shoulders and leaned into his dad, “Can we go home? I don’t want to be here,” he said in what was barely a whisper.
His dad grabbed one of his hands and gave him a slight nod, “Of course, but I think first we’ll have to talk about Yagi.”
Izuku’s eyes widened; in all honesty, he’d forgotten that the man was in the room. He looked over his dad’s shoulder and blushed a little bit before he nodded in agreement, “So you knew?” he started, referencing Toshi’s ‘secret identity.’
The detective nodded in response. He took a seat on Izuku’s hospital bed, “We’ve been friends for quite a while, and Yagi wasn’t always like this – needing to transform and the like. Yagi, maybe it would be best for you to explain?”
And explain he did. Toshi told him of a great villain, All For One, that he managed to defeat. The tale was epic and one that spanned over generations because of the villain’s power. Izuku was shocked by how long All For One had managed to cause such terror but glad that he was out of the picture. Now, All Might was only able to work under a time constraint as his body went against Toshi’s heroic plans.
When he asked if they were going to tell him, they told him that they were going to reveal it during the dinner they had that first week, but because Izuku surprisingly invited Hitoshi, they had to hold it off. Izuku sheepishly scratched the back of his head after finding out he was the reason the truth had been delayed.
They went through most of Izuku’s questions before his dad and Toshi gave each other this weird look. The detective put a supporting hand on Izuku’s shoulder before nodding. In the background, Recovery Girl closed the door to her office.
“You see, my quirk, is something that has been passed on. Those generations of heroes before me that have been fighting All For One, we have all shared the same quirk – it’s called One For All. Even the villain’s existence is something that has been kept within a small group of people.”
Izuku opened his mouth but had nothing to say. It was so much information and, judging by the fact that he’d never heard of anything like it in the media, was completely unique to ‘One For All.’
Toshi clearly saw his hesitation and his dad’s hand felt like a heavy weight on his shoulder, “I’m telling you this because I’ve been looking for a successor,” Izuku gulped, “And so far, I think you are the most worthy. Would you be willing to take it?”
The teen paled. The more he looked into Toshi’s bright blue eyes, the more he felt a ‘guilt’ rising in the back of his throat, “I-“ but he stopped. What could he say to an offer like this? The last time he’d agreed a proposal like this, he’d been thrown into a war as a thirteen year old.
When he’d first gotten the serum, it had set apart from everyone around him as someone with inhuman powers. He had felt separate from everyone else around him in a way not many could understand. On the other hand, he did want to become stronger than he was currently. If not for himself, then for his friends.
He might have felt separate from the people in the 1900’s, but back then, no one had extraordinary powers. He had been an oddity back there. Now, nearly everyone sported something that set them apart from the rest of society, in quirks, looks, and even fashion. His green hair was practically ‘plain looking’ here.
Still, “I don’t know,” he looked down at his lap and clenched his hand in front of him, “Maybe one day, but right now I think I want to focus on getting stronger by myself and becoming a hero. If you really can’t find anyone else,” he took a deep breath and stopped that thought as it formed, “I’ll continue to think about it,” he finished.
His dad’s hand rubbed smoothing patterns on his back and he leaned into the touch.
Toshi gave him a weary smile from where he was laying down, “I understand, my boy.”
“Do you want us to give you a ride to your apartment?” his dad offered and Toshi agreed. They left the Nurse’s Office together after thanking Recovery Girl for helping them all out. Izuku made a quick stop by the classroom to grab his bag and phone before reconvening with them at the car.
The car ride wasn’t silent; instead it was filled with his dad and Toshi making light conversation. Izuku was planted in the back with a furrow between his brow. Even though he had his phone, he was conflicted about texting his friends. He felt like he needed to process a lot right now. But, he also wanted to check in with them; especially Hitoshi.
He wished he could have been sent to the same zone as his friend but he didn’t know where the teen had ended up; Izuku had ended up helping Asui and Koda get out of the water zone. In the end, he decided on sending a quick message to all of his friends that said the same thing. If Izuku knew how to ‘copy and paste’ it would have gone a lot faster; alas, he had to write it out multiple times for all of the people he had on his contacts list (which had greatly increased since school started).
When he got to Hitoshi, he opened the ‘emoji keyboard’ and spent a few minutes looking for the hearts (they ended up being at the end, which was largely inconvenient). Izuku didn’t like using the emojis very much, but he considered this a special occasion. He typed out a quick message and told his friend to check in with him as soon as possible.
He watched the screen for a few minutes as if it would help the message load faster, but in the end his efforts did nothing. The teen sighed and tuned into the small talk the two adults were making.
When they pulled up to Toshi’s apartment building, a place Izuku had only been to twice before, the teen got out of the car and he walked the lethargic man up to his apartment. Toshi leaned on him pretty heavily but it didn’t make much of an impact on Izuku. Particularly considered how light the tall man was.
Once they were at his door, Izuku put Toshi’s hand on the fingerprint sensor and the high-tech door let him in. Toshi had offered to put Izuku’s fingerprint into the door but Izuku had been too scared of the technology to accept. Wouldn’t it hurt?! Some inventions, he couldn’t see himself ever using unless he was forced to.
The facial recognition system on his phone was one thing, but the way the scanner gleamed bright red when it was reading someone’s finger scared him to no end. Luckily for him, keys were not a thing of the past quite yet and he didn’t have to adapt to that kind of sensor at his apartment.
He led the older man to his bedroom and made sure he was settled. Recovery Girl’s quirk was certainly taking a toll on him. Before he left, Toshi called out, “Wait, you’re not mad at me, right?”
Izuku frowned, had he given Toshi that impression? “I’m not. I just have a lot going on in my head. It’s a lot to process. I also think you should examine all your options, first. I already have a strong power.”
The other hero hummed before closing his eyes in rest. Izuku took that as his cue to leave and rushed down the stairs. It had been hundreds of years since he’d taken the serum, but he was still dealing with how the powers he was given made him feel.
He told himself he was only human, but sometimes he didn’t quite feel like that was really true. His feelings about the situation were probably something he would have to work on by himself, but it was hard to think of himself as truly human when, for the last two years he spent in the past, he had been perceived as nothing more than the government’s soldier.
When his dad saw him exit the building, he gave him a weak smile and Izuku loaded himself into the front passenger seat. He made sure to fasten his seatbelt – no way was he going down in this metal contraption if he could prevent it – and leaned back into the chair.
He let out a deep sigh. His dad, as if his quirk were mind reading, reclined Izuku’s chair from the control panel on the driver’s side. Their apartment wasn’t far but Izuku would take any rest he could get.
The drive was silent aside from the soft motor of the car and the occasional warble of a car passing them. Considering it was the middle of the day, the streets weren’t full of vehicles as most people were at work. The teen let the sounds pass over his ears and let his eyes close.
Izuku was growing very tired. It could have been because of Recovery Girl’s quirk, but the teen thought it was more likely an effect of how overwhelming that fight had been.
The hero didn’t realize he had fallen asleep, but when he awoke again, his dad was carrying him to their apartment. They were in the elevator and he could feel the detective’s arms shaking slightly from Izuku’s weight. He groaned and tried to pry himself from the man’s grip on him. The man had taken him this far, but Izuku was sure he could make the last few steps to the apartment.
When he tried to insist as such, his words were barely coherent and came out as a garbled mess of sound. His dad simply held tight to him and continued to carry him all the way to the apartment. He only set Izuku down to dig his keys out of his pocket.
They headed in together and the detective led him to his room so Izuku could actually get some proper rest. The teen practically tore apart his covers so he could get under them. His dad turned off all the lights except for his desk lamp.
He came to the side of Izuku’s bed and brushed his hair to the side. It was a gesture so gentle that Izuku was grateful he could call this man his dad and that they had grown so close, “Are you okay with me going back to work?” the detective asked. Izuku nodded, tired but still understanding that the man had a job to do, “I might have to stay a bit later, I switched shifts with another detective so I could leave USJ and get you; you’ll call me if you need anything, right?” Again, Izuku nodded.
The man sighed and righted his trench coat – it was looking a bit wrinkled – before making Izuku promise he would get lots of rest and text when he woke up. At this point, Izuku insistently mumbled that the detective go back to work.
It was interesting to him that the quirk was affecting him in this way, especially when his body had already healed him so much. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so eager for Recovery Girl to use her quirk on him.
Thoughts of quirks and injuries carried him to sleep where his mind was thankfully void of anything traumatic.