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~Serenity, Joy, Horror.~
Izuku’s day ends, in hindsight, without much fanfare; in fact, as he does a cooldown jog around the dorms to the rapidly-darkening sky, he silently wonders if this is the calm before a storm. Then he huffs an almost-there laugh at the thought that his class, him included, have become so deeply paranoid that they can’t enjoy a calm night without suspecting something worse at hand. The stars twinkle down at him, and he smiles back up in response, wondering what tomorrow will bring.
As always, his musings eventually turn to One For All, and sparks fly around him as he speeds up involuntarily, ruminations picking up steam. He’d finally begun to master Black Whip, but now he’d just manifested Float and it was becoming troublesome— just yesterday Uraraka had startled him during training and he’d jumped high with the power of One For All and then just... stayed there, stuck in the sky.
His classmates had goggled, All Might had paled considerably and Uraraka had fervently apologized, believing she’d accidentally touched him.
Izuku didn’t know how he’d managed to pull himself together in time to subconsciously release the Quirk as Uraraka had nervously called ‘release’, but he at least half-knew it was most likely a miracle from Nana, All Might’s mentor. While this would usually warrant avid fanboying and some more hero worship, Izuku had touched down on the ground and promptly passed out, to the trepidation of everyone involved. Then he’d woken up in the infirmary three hours later, Nana having visited him in the strange void he pretended to call his own subconscious, as if it hadn’t been hijacked by seven other people, and she’d certainly enlightened him.
Right, she’d told him to start calling All Might Toshinori-san, but Izuku wasn’t sure when he was going to get to that point, since he still felt a small flicker of fanboy-like fever whenever he stood in the man’s presence for particularly long.
Whoever said ‘don’t meet your heroes’ was just spouting bullshit. Meeting his was one of the proudest moments of his life.
With that, Izuku realizes he’s sped up gradually, paced to his thought process, and that now his light jog is at practically a sprint, stray green sparks flickering off of his legs. He abruptly finishes his run, skidding several feet, and jerks out of the deep spiral his head has gotten him into, though Nana’s calm, fond stare is burned into his head. He would have to talk to All M— er... Toshinori-san...? God, that felt weird— he’d have to talk to him about the Quirk, but no doubt he already knew what was up as soon as Izuku had begun using it.
Walking the cooldown gives him time to focus his thoughts in, hoping he’s gotten back to the dorms before curfew. When he’s greeted by the few nearly-night owls sitting in the common room, doing homework, he sighs in relief. No irate Aizawa-sensei to scold him, but no All— Toshinori-san, either.
...Was he ever going to get used to that? No matter.
“Where were you, Deku-kun?” Uraraka asks, yawning as she blinks up at the star-filled sky through one of the windows. “Wow, it sure gets dark early now!”
“Just a run,” Izuku murmurs, plopping his sweat-soaked body down next to her. She shrieks, and Ashido pokes him in the back with her foot, also squealing.
“No sweaty boys on the couches! Off! Off, Midori!” Maybe if Izuku was less out of breath, he’d be a bit more embarrassed by the nickname, but he isn’t. Both of the girls giggle in surprise when he flops bonelessly onto the floor, resting his cheek against the floor and reveling in how much cooler it is.
“Did you kill Midoriya?” Shouji-kun’s deep voice rings out across the common, steeped in amusement, and Izuku lifts an arm just high enough to keep from being accidentally identified as a corpse. Uraraka makes a frantic shushing noise.
“If Iida heard you guys talking louder then a whisper he would lecture us for twenty minutes straight and then everyone would wake up!” Uraraka whisper-yells, although there’s a wide grin on her face and she’s being purposely silly. Izuku bites his lip as he watches another body sit carefully next to Uraraka, clad in minimal pajamas, silently choosing not to tell Uraraka of the suddenly-occurring shenanigans.
“I can be quiet,” Hagakure purrs, inched away from Uraraka’s ear, and the girl shrieks, slapping a hand over her ear and clasping her heart with the other.
“Tooru,” she whisper-yells, although half of it is laughter and the other is yelling, so there isn’t much room for whispering. Ashido starts cackling, and at that, not even Izuku can keep completely silent.
“Quiet!” Comes the roar from somewhere above them, and they all freeze, wide-eyed.
“We made Iida-kun mad,” Ashido says, faux-terror in her eyes.
“Are you sure that wasn’t Bakugo?” Shouji interjects from the kitchen, and Uraraka snorts loudly, which prompts Izuku to let out another embarrassingly large cackle, which makes Uraraka smack her foot into his back and then recoil at how damp his shirt is with another squeaky “EWW—"
“Do you want me to get Aizawa-sensei?!” Is the next increasingly irate comment from Iida, which proceeds to be so loud Izuku swears the lights shake.
“Maybe we should go,” Izuku says with a shudder. “If Iida wakes up Kacchan, I don’t want to be the one to witness it,” he continues when no one moves, and then it’s almost comical how pale they get.
“Bakubro is totally going to blow us up,” Ashido says with the enlightenment of a wizened monk. Uraraka snorts.
“I’ll take him,” she says, a sleep-deprived glint to her eye, and Izuku salutes at her, slowly getting up from the floor.
“We’ll honor your noble sacrifice,” Shouji says, and Ashido has to clap her hands over her mouth to keep from breaking into those loud guffaws she does when someone tells a particularly good joke.
It startles Izuku sometimes, how well he knows these people to know base facts about how they act and smile, when a year ago he could say he really didn’t know anyone at all except for maybe his mom.
...He missed her. He should call her soon.
They all amble into the elevator together because no one is willing to take the stairs, and they continue to make a racket inside. Ashido makes no less then an impressive eight jokes about Izuku’s hygiene, but he just sticks his tongue out at her. He is going to go take a shower— he just has to grab a change of clothes first. Duh.
Everyone gets off at their floors, and Izuku walks to his room, wishing not for the first time that all of his All Might merch looked less terrifying in the darkness, but taking comfort in the fact that he knew what the man looks like in the light. He glances at the clock and winces, because he’s cutting the designated ‘be in your room’ time a bit close. He’ll be quick with his shower— it’ll just be a few minutes!
In his hurry, he forgets to charge his already-dead phone, and he only remembers halfway to the showers. He considers running back for a half-second. Eh, he reasons, he can just do it once he’s in bed.
If only he’d remembered.
~~~
The showers are strangely eerie without the cheerful chatter of Kirishima or the growls of Kacchan sounding out over the enclosed door tops, but Izuku tries to finish as quickly as he can anyway.
Soon enough, he’s darting back up to the dorms and checking the halls surreptitiously, hoping Nedzu’s cameras aren’t trained on him right now or that Aizawa-sensei doesn’t have to get up from wherever he is to go find Izuku.
Actually, how does that work? Doesn’t Aizawa-sensei do patrols at night?
...When does the man sleep?
Izuku is so deeply unsettled by this sudden epiphany that he spends several moments staring up at the ceiling, unnerved. It takes a fair amount of time for him to fall asleep after that, mind once again going a mile a minute, but his exhaustion from training earlier in the day finally overrides his urge to pick apart every piece of information he gets, and he drifts away to the lazy swing of his fan blades and the continual stares of his All-Might-swathed room.
~~~
Izuku opens his eyes to a... familiar dark landscape. Notably, the familiar dark landscape of his now-hijacked subconscious. Looking down, he realizes he can see all of himself this time, including his legs, and... he can walk around?
“This is different,” he murmurs, and then squeaks, hands going to his mouth. “I can talk?!”
“Hey, ninth!” A gruff voice says, and Izuku spins around to stare at the Black Whip user with wide eyes. The man grins at him. “How’re you treating my Quirk?”
“It’s more how the Quirk is treating me,” Izuku grumbles before he realizes what he’s just said, and then he blinks and immediately blushes, bowing frantically. “Sorry— I didn’t— that just slipped out!” He squeaks, continuing to bow and wondering how much strain Iida usually puts into his back by bowing so quickly while the other half of his brain continues to muddle through sheer embarrassment.
To his luck (maybe luck? He hopes this is lucky), the man just starts laughing, before clapping a rather sturdy hand on Izuku’s shoulder.
“You’re really amusing, kid,” he says with a smirk, before looking over his shoulder. “Looks like everyone else is here, too—" he stops and furrows his brow, before grinning something fierce. “We got someone new, I think.” Izuku blinks, turning in confusion, because that didn’t sound right, not really—
And yet there is everyone, even the two not-silhouettes from the first time Izuku had seen them all, as well as—
“Midoriya-shounen?” All— Toshinori-san says, confusion on his face as he looks down at his fully-formed self, and then distracted joy at the sight of Izuku. Izuku feels the same suddenly-bottomless joy, as if he hasn’t seen the man for years, probably because this meant Izuku was fully integrated with One For All and now Toshinori-san was, too.
Izuku’s bounding in for a hug before he registers it, but Toshinori-san pulls him up into his effortlessly, swinging the both of them around as they laugh gleefully, carefree despite being in a moment with such strange circumstances.
“Toshinori-san!” Izuku says, beaming down and then smirking when the aforementioned stumbles, mouth agape.
“I— who— you—?” Izuku blushes.
“I hope it’s okay...” he mumbles, suddenly shy in the face of his idol. Gosh, this is sort of embarrassing, isn’t it—
“No, that’s... it’s nice. I haven’t had very many people call me that in a long time. I’d appreciate it if you... used that, my boy.”
Izuku nods rapid-fire, unable to form words. Now they’re both blushing. Great.
“Aha! You took my advice, squirt?” A jovial but effortlessly kind voice says from behind the both of them, and Izuku feels more then sees Toshinori-san freeze.
They turn slowly, and there’s Nana— in all her lovely, heroic glory, grinning at them like it’s just a regular day and this isn’t impossible.
“Sensei?” Toshinori-san’s voice goes all high and crackly, as if he’s in shock. Honestly, Izuku wouldn’t be too sure he isn’t.
“I see my Quirk has been giving you some issues, green beanie,” Nana says, addressing Izuku first even though he can tell there’s nearly-panicked energy to her movements. She’s itching to talk to Toshinori-san.
“Strange, considering it’s such an easy Quirk to navigate... I’m just kidding, I’m kidding!” She says with a light laugh and hands raised placatingly as Izuku blows a raspberry at her.
He’s not sure where he got this newfound courage from, or why the hero-worship is a bit easier to get past while he’s in One For All, but he suspects it’s the kinship they share. They’re blood-related, in a sense. It isn’t something to be taken lightly.
Toshinori-san is watching them with something like wonder in his eyes, and Izuku flushes as Nana aims a smile at him.
“Hi, squirt,” she says softly, and it hits Izuku how maternal she is, and he wonders how she’d ever mustered the courage to give up her son—
“Hi, Nana-san,” Toshinori-san says, voice already hoarse. She chuckles heartily.
“You’re a bit of a hypocrite aren’t you, Toshi? Always telling Izuku here to stop being a crybaby when you do the same.” Izuku puffs his cheeks out in retribution, and Toshinori laughs wetly.
“I guess you’re right,” he says, and a tear slips down his face. Izuku knows how he must feel about as much as he knows he has no idea how he must feel— which is a strange balance, a sense of half-loss that makes Izuku wonder if he deserves to think he knows anything about missing someone like that at all.
“You did good, squirt,” Nana says into the sudden quiet, as the other predecessors have moved in, exchanging greetings with hands or quiet murmurs, reveling in their sudden metaphysicality. Toshinori’s eyes go impossibly wide, and then wet, and then there’s a quiet, trembling laugh as he walks forward and Nana accepts the hug with grace. “Oof— I guess I can’t call you squirt anymore, can I? You’re like seven feet tall!”
Well, mostly grace.
“Group hug!” Izuku says, like some person possessed by a vengeful five-year-old. He jumps over to the two of them and they both laugh a bit, finding nothing wrong with the scenario. Then Black Whip’s arms go around the three of them and Izuku squeals as they’re hefted up, giggling like he’s five.
“Are we really doing this?” Another high, calm, Nighteye-esque voice says, before a theatrical sigh ensues and a pair of thin arms wrap around Izuku. He blinks and turns, seeing one of the unfamiliar users, but accepts it anyway. The First approached cautiously and Izuku pulled him in as well, and then everyone was just snorting under their breaths as the pile of people teetered precariously.
Miraculously, they manage to separate without falling and suffering bodily harm, though the concept is strange in and of itself.
Once everyone’s hugged, or in Izuku’s and Toshinori’s case, cried themselves out, Izuku takes a considerate look around at the faces looking back at him.
“Haven’t done that in a long time,” Nana says with a smile, looking down at her arms like they’re something she can’t quite believe are there. Izuku blinks owlishly at her.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, usually none of us are physical like this,” the First explains with an undercurrent of kind serenity in his tone.
“Do you know why we’re suddenly like this, then?” Izuku asks, tapping his chin. The First shakes his head.
“Typically, this only happens when something very important is going on. I’ve not yet figured out exactly which important events trigger it— typically the transfer of power would be one event, but that happened months ago in your case...”
Izuku blinks, and snaps his fingers. “Could it be because Toshinori-san is finally solid?” He asks, pointing towards the man basked in a golden glow. The First nods.
“Perhaps.”
“But why did I show up now?” Toshinori-san asks, also confused. There’s murmuring from everyone— Nana looks stumped. “Will I even remember this when I wake up?”
Izuku starts to feel genuinely worried. “I mean, you should; I did, when it first happened to me...” and then he gasps. “Oh, do you think One For All finally fully transferred to me?” Izuku asks. “I got Float yesterday, and today I was running really fast, and One For All activated on its own...” Izuku shrinks back the longer he talks and then blushes a deep red. “It was a stupid idea,” he mutters, and then jolts up as Toshinori-san puts a hand on his shoulder.
“That was actually a remarkably good guess, Midoriya-shounen. You should be proud of your mind; I certainly am.” Izuku gasps, and his eyes are probably all wide and embarrassingly shiny, but that— that is— Toshinori-san starts chuckling. “Are you going to cry again?”
Izuku sniffles defiantly. “Like you weren’t just crying ten minutes ago!”
Toshinori-san’s laughter is as booming as it always is, and Izuku can’t stay fake-mad for very long, the tears sliding down his cheeks disappearing as he beams, feeling so happy he might burst.
“Well, we might as well make use of this time,” Black Whip user says, and Nana smiles toothily. “Why don’t you tell us what you’ve been up to, you whippersnappers?”
Izuku grins in tandem with Toshinori-san. “There’s so much to talk about!” And sitting down in the shadowy realm feels completely normal, as does sitting by Toshinori-san. He may be surrounded by heroes, but the man who gave him everything he’ll always keep close.
If the other users tease them about being like father and son and neither deny the accusation, ears burning red, no one else needs to know.
~~~
In the end, Izuku doesn’t know he’s waking up until he is, the sky of the shadow-realm lightening so rapidly he snaps his neck up in time with Nana, alarmed.
“What is—"
“Relax, squirt,” Nana says with a broad smile. “You’re just waking up.”
Izuku blinks, and stares down at his hands, which are rapidly getting transparent. “Oh. Huh. Well this is different.” He looks back up at everyone else. “Will I be tired when I wake up?”
“Considering how late you were up jogging, you’ll be tired anyway,” Toshinori-san quips, and Izuku groans.
“I regret telling you that.” The sky is flaking away, alarming to look at even while Izuku remembers he’s in a dream.
“Well, guess this is an until next time,” the First says with a gallant smile. Izuku feels a twitch of wrongness in the back of his head, because that made sense, but... did it?
“Yeah,” Izuku says sheepishly, rubbing his neck and grinning. “I’ll see you all later!” He says with a smile, and Toshinori-san chuckles. Izuku feels that wave of wrongness again; it’s almost like the embarrassment he feels when he addresses someone with the wrong formal way of speaking— which is... strange, in this circumstance.
“We’ll see you soon, green bean!” Nana says, and Toshinori-san nods his assent.
“Some of us sooner then later,” he says with a wink, prompting the other users to groan that Toshinori was hogging Izuku, while conveniently dodging the fact that they were dead.
Izuku goes to echo the sentiment, but instead of the usual peppy “see you later!”, all that leaves his lips is a quiet “goodbye.”
He freezes at that, wondering why a farewell choice was bothering him so immensely, and then—
Then he jerks awake, blinking up at his ceiling to an unusual quiet. What’d he woken up to? Izuku paws at his phone and then curses when he realizes it’s dead, having forgotten to charge it. So, he hadn’t woken up to his alarm? How bizarre.
Izuku fumbles with the charger and breathes a sigh of relief once he manages to get it connected, pressing the power button to catch a glimpse of the time.
The sky is barely light, but with the rapidly-darkening nights Izuku couldn’t be sure what time it was anyway.
An explosion sounds downstairs— one of Kacchan’s, but loud enough that it makes Izuku jerk up rigidly, before determining there’s no threat and sitting down again with a huff. So that’s what it’d been— Kacchan had been setting off explosions, and it’d woken him up.
Of course. Izuku rolls his eyes and scarcely has time to consider why exactly Kacchan might be setting off explosions now before his phone lights up, the display on and notifications rapidly rolling in.
It was 6:43. Couldn’t Kacchan have let him sleep in a bit more? What was he even doing up?
Izuku yawns as a voicemail chirps across his screen, most likely spam, and then one more notification makes itself known.
Izuku squints down at it— ah, Japan News, from three minutes ago. Izuku taps on it, sleepy eyes scanning the heading droopily.
Freezing.
Scanning it again.
And again.
And again.
SHOCKING LOSS: ALL MIGHT DIES AT AGE 49, OF UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES
The voicemail notification pops up again, small in the face of the building terror in Izuku’s throat.
One (1) Missed Voicemail From: Yagi Toshinori
Another explosion rocks the building, but Izuku doesn’t register it, because then he blows out every single window on UA campus with a single, disbelieving crunch.
THE END