Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Desperation claws at Izuku as he makes his way through the rubble. He’d taken so long to get here already, he can’t let this take any longer than it needs to, he needs to find him.

Stumbling to the top of a pile of rubble, he looks over the flaming piles of fallen cement and brick around him, before crying out, “All Might!”

There’s no response from his mentor. The desperation in his gut claws at his throat as he fights to keep his breathing steady. 

He stumbles down off the rubble, feet moving without him having to command them, leading him through the rubble as he cries out again. 

“ All Might! ”

There’s a cough from his right, and Izuku jerks around, rushing towards the sound as relief fills his body. “All Mi--”

His voice cuts off in his throat. 

All Might’s skeletal true form is pinned beneath a pile of rubble, blood dripping from his mouth.

Blue eyes look up to meet Izuku’s, missing their usual shine.

“Young Midoriya,” All Might says, his voice weaker than Izuku has ever heard it-- weaker than he ever wanted to hear it.

“No,” Izuku whispers, before rushing forward, dropping to his knees as he starts pushing rubble off of the hero. “No, no, nonono nononono --”

All Might starts to speak, but his voice cuts off with a cough. Izuku freezes with the piece of rubble he had been moving still in his hands, waiting for the hero to stop coughing, trying to figure out what to do.

“Young Midoriya,” All Might repeats, “stop. You need to run.”

“I’m not leaving!” Izuku says, tossing the piece of rubble in his hands to the side as he moves back in front of All Might, kneeling in front of the hero and bending down further to get closer. He tries to ignore the tears threatening to fall from his eyes. “I just-- I just need to get this rubble off of you, and then you can get up, and, and then you can win and save everyone like you always do--”

“ Izuku. ” 

He freezes at the use of his given name, and the tears he was trying to hold back start falling, though he pushes the sob threatening to break from his throat deep, deep down. Not here. Not now.

“Izuku, I’m not making it out of this. You are.”

All Might’s hand reaches up to his head, pulling a single strand of hair from one of the front pieces. 

“I meant to be there-- I meant to train you with One For All beyond the preparation. I’m sorry. You’ll have to figure it out on your own. Find Gran Torino-- he’ll be able to help you.” 

A shaky, skeletal hand holds out a golden strand of hair to Izuku. Izuku’s equally shaky hands take it.

“Eat this,” All Might says, and there’s no time to think about how strange of an order that is, not when there’s rubble all around them and he will be back any second now. 

There’s only time for Izuku to open his mouth and swallow the hair without any second thoughts.

A burst of wind sends a nearby building toppling to the ground, and Izuku ducks to the ground, covering his head as the rubble is sent flying. As soon as it settles, he just barely raises his head over the nearest pile, looking to where the building had been moments ago.

“Are you really going to continue to hide, All Might?” All For One speaks, and a new wave of fear rushes through Izuku’s body.

He turns back to All Might, voice barely a whisper as he speaks again. “All Might, we have to--!”

“No,” All Might says before Izuku can finish. “ You have to run.”

The embers of One For All burn within the Symbol of Peace’s body one last time, as he pushes himself back to his muscular form and shoves the rubble off of his body, not yet standing. “It’s fine.”

“No.” There’s a gentle hand wiping tears from under Izuku’s eyes.

“Do you know why, Young Izuku?”

“ No. ”

“Because I am here.”

It’s a final promise, a final goodbye, and Izuku is so scared as he realizes that he’s watching All Might’s last moments. 

“Now, Young Izuku, please. Run. ”

A choked sob just barely makes it out of Izuku’s throat as he stumbles to his feet and runs.

He can hear All For One behind him, but it doesn’t matter what he’s saying. All Might is there, and he’ll--

He’ll sacrifice himself to save the day.

And the fear triples within Izuku’s chest as his feet start moving faster, his heartbeat drowning out the fight behind him, the losing battle from his hero, the helicopter blades that are just arriving, and oh, God, please--

All Might is supposed to be invincible, and his death is being broadcasted to the world.

And, once Izuku’s out of this mess and home, he’ll have to watch the chaos from his death unfold firsthand.

Or sooner. The second he tries to get to the train station, he’s blocked by a crowd of people all looking up at a billboard TV screen, watching the end of the battle unfold, and Izuku wants to scream. Why are they still broadcasting? Do they not realize that All Might is dying?!  

He can’t tear his eyes away from the screen. Not with how All Might is struggling to stand, still bleeding from being crushed under that rubble where Izuku had found him, where Izuku had gotten One For All two months early.

Part of him feels his body protesting at the Quirk suddenly making itself at home within him. The other part of him is glad that he was ahead of schedule for his training. All Might’s warning about his limbs exploding off of his body still haunts him.

As he’s sure the images on the TV are going to for years.

The fight is mostly one-sided at this point. All For One is attacking, All Might is defending with all he has, and Izuku is watching, terrified. Even with his skeletal form revealed to the world, the people around him are cheering, because he’s still All Might, he’s still the Symbol of Peace, and so he has to win. 

Izuku is the only one who knows.

Izuku is the only one who knows how wrong they are about that.

Izuku is the only one who knows they’re watching All Might’s death.

He’s the only one who sees that final hit coming, where All Might is finally tossed from where he had been keeping his footing, thrown into one of the near-collapsed buildings behind him.

He’s the only one who knows he’s not getting back up.

And yet--

And yet as the crowd realizes that, as they go silent, the December wind bites harder through Izuku’s clothes. 

Izuku finally realizes that this is the end for life as he knows it alongside the rest of Japan.

And the tears return in full force alongside the crowd.

---

Mom (5:07 PM): Izuku where are you???

Missed call from Mom, 5:07 PM

Mom (5:08 PM): Izuku??? Are you safe???

Missed call from Mom, 5:08 PM

Missed call from Mom, 5:09 PM

Mom (5:09 PM): Izuku please pick up

Missed call from Mom, 5:09 PM

Missed call from Mom, 5:10 PM

Missed call from Mom, 5:11 PM

Mom (5:11 PM): Izuku Midoriya this isn’t funny, please, call me

Me (6:23 PM): I’m sorry. I’m safe. I’m on my way home. The train station got held up.

Me (6:23 PM): I need to talk to you when I get home

Me (6:24 PM): It’s about All Might

Izuku stares down at the last message, reading and rereading it as his finger hovers over the send button. 

She’ll probably assume it’s about All Might. Of course it would be about All Might. His death was just broadcasted to the nation. 

She just--

She just doesn’t know what that means for Izuku, specifically.

He sighs, deleting the message and shoving his phone into his pocket, curling into himself as he stands on a familiar street.

In front of him is a passageway that marks the beginning of his life changing.

From bad, to worse, to good, to horrible.

How can things change so quickly?

One For All has settled in his veins by now, the power bubbling underneath his skin, a frantic, desperate fight to get out. Izuku wonders if this is what it feels like for most people, for everyone else with a Quirk. He wonders if this is what it feels like for All Might.

Felt. Felt like for All Might.

Izuku stops staring at the path under the bridge, and walks through it. He stops to stare at the sewer grate a little longer than he should, before he convinces his feet to move again.

He’s been down this way multiple times since that day. Since everything changed. But this feeling-- this feeling is not a good one. Usually, it’s at least positive.

Right now, all Izuku feels is bad as he walks through the passageway.

He starts to question as he walks through. If he hadn’t been caught by that slime villain, would he be as affected by All Might’s death? Sure, it still would’ve been horrible , but it’s so much more personal now that Izuku knows him. Now that Izuku has his Quirk flowing through his body, buzzing underneath his skin. No matter how personal it might have felt if he hadn’t met All Might, he knows-- he knows it’s worse now. 

All Might is dead, and Izuku saw him, talked to him, moments before he died. 

It’s… 

Tears threaten to fall from his eyes, and he wipes them away half-heartedly. He’s spent too long crying today. He needs to go home.

He keeps walking, the moonlight shining clear on his face again as he exits the tunnel. His eyes stay on the ground as he walks.

A few moments pass before he notices a shadow on the ground beside him.

The shadow of a person.

He jerks around on instinct, hands moving to his side clenched into fists in some sad excuse for a defensive position. 

But there’s no one there. There’s only trees rustling a bit as the wind blows, biting at Izuku again through his clothes.

He looks around, slowly, carefully, checking anywhere he thinks could serve as a hiding spot, but…

Nothing. There’s nothing. There’s no one there.

Izuku takes a deep breath. “You’re fine,” he mumbles to himself as he turns, heading back home. “It’s just the wind. The adrenaline’s still wearing off, and you’re panicking, and you’re seeing things. It’s-- it’s fine. No one’s there.”

But he can’t shake off the feeling that someone’s watching him. It follows him the entire way home, only fading as he finally, finally opens the door to his and his mom’s apartment after the longest day of his young life.

“ Izuku! ” his mother cries, immediately rushing him and trapping him in a hug before the door’s even fully shut behind him. There’s tears rushing down her face, as is normal for the Midoriya family. “Thank God you’re alright, you had me so worried! ”

Tears start dripping down Midoriya’s face, too, as he wraps his arm around his mother in turn. “I’m sorry,” he says, voice quiet. “I’m-- I’m okay. I’m safe, I promise.”

It takes a few moments of both of them crying into each other’s shoulders, Inko more intensely than Izuku, but eventually, they break away from the hug.

“I got things ready to make katsudon,” Inko says, smiling up at her son with still-watery eyes. “Do you want to talk over dinner?”

His lack of appetite is betrayed by his stomach grumbling, and he lets out a quiet, half-broken laugh. “I think that’s your answer.”

“I’ll get it started.”

And with one final light hug, she leaves him in the doorway, heading off to make their dinner.

Izuku finally gets to shuffle off his shoes, pointedly ignoring the dust still left on them as he sets them to the side, taking off his jacket moments later.

He stares down at his shirt for a moment. His grey one, a darker text reading Plus Ultra.  

U.A.’s motto.

All Might’s alma mater.

Izuku’s dream school.

He fights back another wave of tears, brushing off the front of the shirt before finally truly walking into the apartment.

He moves to go to his room, but is immediately stopped by the sign on the door. An All Might themed one, personalized with his name. As is the rest of his room. He’s not sure he’s stable enough to face that yet.

Instead, he moves to the living room, considering turning on the TV only to realize that all the hero news channels he usually watches are probably filled with news on All Might’s death.

After a failed attempt to look through some hero forums to distract himself, being greeted by more people terrified and upset and grieving over All Might’s death, he finally settles on a game he’d downloaded months ago and stopped playing shortly after. It’s just a puzzle game, with no mentions of heroes or All Might to be found, and for once, Izuku is grateful for it.

He can’t… he doesn’t want to think about All Might. At least for a few minutes. He can think about All Might when he talks to his mom over dinner.

One For All buzzes underneath his skin.

All Might’s Quirk buzzes underneath his skin.

He keeps tapping on his phone screen and forces himself to ignore it.

Still, the buzzing stays, and even forcing himself to ignore it doesn’t make it go away. Eventually, it’s too hard to focus on the puzzle game, his mind shifting back to earlier.

“ Find Gran Torino-- he’ll be able to help you. ”

Pushing the tears that threaten to fall from the corners of his eyes back, he taps out of the game and switches to Google, typing in “Gran Torino” and waiting for it to load.

Only for it to come up empty.

Izuku had assumed Gran Torino was a hero, either one of All Might’s friends within the modern age of heroes or an older one. But there’s-- there’s nothing.

Pressing his eyebrows together, he closes Google and switches over to a hero forum he frequented. He ignores all the popular posts right now-- All Might lost and All For One??? and What happens now that we’ve lost our Symbol? -- and starts looking through the section dedicated to older heroes. When that fails him, he switches to lesser-known daylight heroes, and then underground heroes, and then older underground heroes, and then heroes specifically known to be close with All Might at some point, and--

Nothing. He comes up empty.

Even still, he switches to another forum, and another, and another , until finally, finally, he finds a mention of Gran Torino.

A single mention. And all it tells him is that he was a hero back before All Might debuted, and that he has some kind of air-propulsion Quirk. There isn’t even a picture.

There isn’t time to try to find anything else, because Inko tells him that dinner is ready as she sets their bowls down on the table, and his phone is off and put back in his pocket in seconds.

He has to talk to her. He needs someone-- anyone -- to know what’s going on. He doesn’t know if All Might told anyone about him, but he doubts it. If he had, that hero would probably have at least tried to get in contact with him by now. And All Might would’ve told him that someone would find him. He wouldn’t have sent him on a wild goose chase to track down an old hero who is practically unknown.

So, no. No other hero is coming to Izuku’s aid. Not this time. 

But he can at least try to track down Gran Torino, like All Might asked. And until then, he can have his first hero-- he can have his mom here to help him.

He can tell Inko hasn’t forgotten about his request to talk over dinner. It’s in the way she sits, hand gripping her chopsticks but not yet eating, poking at her food every few seconds. It’s in the way she keeps glancing up at Izuku, waiting for him to say something, before looking back down at her plate. 

Izuku takes a moment to take a few bites-- he isn’t sure when he last ate, and he’s been running on adrenaline for so long today that his body is demanding food, demanding energy-- before setting his chopsticks down and looking up at Inko. His hands find a place in his lap, fidgeting as he clenches them into fists before relaxing them, over and over. Part of him wishes he had his hand grip to fidget with, but that’s in his room, and he… he still isn’t ready to face that room. Not yet.

Inko meets his eyes, setting her chopsticks down in turn. “Izuku, honey?” she asks, her voice gentle. “There was something you wanted to talk to me about?”

His breath hitches as he goes to start, catching in his throat before the words can even start to form. Before tears can well up, he lets the half-breath out, pressing his mouth into a tight o as he does, before trying again. The second inhale is a full one, and he wonders when he last really, truly took a deep breath like that. Definitely before everything that happened today. Definitely before the fight started.

“...I don’t know where to start,” Izuku says, his voice quiet. It sounds like when he’d first tried explaining to his mom why Kacchan didn’t come over anymore. Quiet, and weak, and scared. He really doesn’t know where to start. How does he tell his mother that his idol has been training him for eight months? How does he tell her it was all to receive his Quirk? How does he tell her that he gave it to him today, two months early, less than an hour before he died?

It’s so much. He doesn’t know where to start.

“Anywhere, Izuku.” Her hand reaches across the table, a silent offering, and Izuku reaches out and takes it, a grounding presence, something touching him instead of just buzzing underneath his skin.

He takes another deep breath, fights back tears, and finds a place to start.

“Do you remember the slime villain?”

Inko is silent for a moment, but nods. “I do.”

“...That wasn’t… Kacchan wasn’t the first person he attacked.”

And he starts. He tells her everything he can, about him being attacked, about All Might saving him, the rooftop, Kacchan being attacked, Izuku rushing in to help, All Might telling him you can be a hero , All Might telling him about One For All, the training, and finally, the rushed, too-soon transfer. Through it all, Inko stays silent, listening with teary eyes as he forces himself through every part of it. 

“Oh, baby,” she whispers when he reaches the end, “I’m so sorry.”

And-- and it’s all he needs to be sent careening over the edge, the seams that were already barely holding him together finally ripping. The sob that tears itself from his throat is barely human, more of a screeching whine than anything, as tears drip down his face faster than he can control. Inko pulls her hand away for only a moment before she’s by his side, hugging him like she did when he was little, arms around his shoulders, face pulled to rest on her chest as sob after sob wracks his already-exhausted body. 

“It’s okay,” she repeats, throughout it all, “it’s okay, baby, it’s all gonna be okay.”

Is it? he thinks, but he can’t bring himself to say it. 

Her hand rubs gentle circles on his back, patient beyond what he deserves, beyond what he ever deserved, and he’s reminded all at once of how glad he is that this is his mother. His mother who floats over a box of tissues from the shelf in the other room to set on the table beside them. His mother who pushes his bowl of katsudon to the side, regardless of the fact that it’s probably cold by now, with how long of a story Izuku had to tell added onto the time he’d spent sobbing. His mother whose hands are so gentle when they’re placed on his cheeks once the sobs slow, gently pushing him back and wiping the tears with her thumbs first, then with a tissue, all while giving him a gentle, watery-eyed smile. His mother who helps him stand, shaky on his legs, and moves to bring him to his room before pausing and turning, leading him to the couch and telling him she’ll be right back. 

(He guesses she saw the same thing he did earlier. The All Might-themed sign on the door. He’s glad she did. He’s glad she didn’t lead him in there. He isn’t sure if he’d be able to take it.)

She comes back a minute later with his pillow, thankfully a plain blue (though he can’t help but be reminded of the fact that it’s the same blue as the blue All Might’s costumes) and a simple white blanket.

“Are you alright sleeping out here tonight?” she asks, voice gentle as she sets the pillow down on the end of the couch. “I wasn’t sure if you’d want to be in your room tonight, but… you’re always welcome in mine, you know. I know you aren’t a little kid anymore, but…”

Part of Izuku wants to grab on to that offer and take it. He wants to curl up in his mom’s arms and sleep, like he did after waking up from a nightmare when he was a little kid. It’s similar. Today is like one big nightmare.

But he doesn’t. “No, I’ll sleep out here. It’s okay.”

Inko looks like she wants to argue, wants to insist that he doesn’t stay out here alone tonight, but instead, she just sits down next to him, draping the blanket over his shoulders as she does. They sit in silence for a moment, Inko smoothing the blanket over his shoulders, before she finally speaks.

“You know, Izuku… I’m sorry.”

He blinks, trying to figure out what she’s apologizing for this time. She has the same bad habit of apologizing for everything that Izuku does. Even when it isn’t her fault.

“I should’ve… I should’ve noticed something was going on with you. And believe me, baby, I’m so, so proud of you, but today, seeing all of that on the news… I think… You can be a hero, Izuku. I’m sorry I never told you that before. I think you could’ve made it without getting a Quirk-- what’s it called again?”

Izuku is quiet, eyes wide as he answers, quietly, “One For All.”

“I think you could’ve been a great hero even without One For All. You just… needed the right support, and I never gave you that, and I’m sorry. I… tell me what you need, from now on, okay? I know Quirk training is expensive, but I’m sure I can figure something out--”

Izuku shakes his head, frantically. “No, no, I don’t-- It’s okay, you don’t need to--”

“Zuku, let me finish. It’s not that I think you can’t figure it out on your own.” She chuckles lightly. “You’ve always been so smart, and so good at understanding Quirks. But seeing all of that on the news today… you being a hero, it’s scary. I’ll support you-- if you’re sure, I’ll support you-- but I want to help you as much as I can. I want you to get all the help you need to be strong, okay? Even before you apply to UA.”

Izuku doesn’t want to cry again. He’s cried enough for one day. So he fights back the tears threatening to form at the corner of his eyes and wraps his arms around his mom, voice quiet as he says, “Thank you.”

She wraps her arms around him in turn. “Of course, Izuku. Anything for you.”

They sit in the embrace for a few moments silently, before Izuku pulls away. 

“Do you want to watch a movie or anything, Izuku?” Inko asks, hands still resting gently against his arms. The buzzing is still there, underneath his skin, but calmer. It’s calmer, now. “If you just want to go to bed, I understand. It’s been a long day for you.”

Izuku is tired-- more tired than he’s ever been, even with the eight months of training he’s gone through-- but he isn’t sure if he’s ready to be alone quite yet. 

“Can we watch a movie?” he asks, and Inko smiles, nodding. 

After asking if he wants anything specific and getting a no in response, she picks something out-- some old hero movie, from before All Might, and Izuku is relieved because he knows there’s a lot of All Might movies on the shelf.

She puts it on, and Izuku can’t focus on it, but he sits there and watches anyways, Inko sitting next to him and not-so-subtly glancing over every few seconds, sadness clear in her eyes. She’s never been good at hiding it, nor has Izuku. It must be a family trait.

Slowly, the buzzing underneath his skin calms almost fully. It’s still there, and he’s not sure if it will ever go away. He doesn’t know what having a Quirk feels like, especially not One For All. But it calms, and the buzzing that’s been bothering him all night becomes comforting. 

He isn’t sure when he falls asleep. 

He wakes up in the darkness of the living room to find himself laying down on the couch, carefully positioned with his head on his pillow and the blanket pulled over him in a way he’d never do naturally. He blinks, fighting with his eyes to get them to adjust to the darkness as he realizes that Inko must have moved him after he fell asleep. He squints over at the clock underneath the TV-- 1:08 AM.

He blinks at it a few times, trying to figure out why he’s awake, before he hears something.

“ Damn it, old man, get out of the way--! ”

He knows that voice.

The sliding door leading to the balcony is behind him, and he tries to turn over so he can peer over the arm of the couch to see through it without having to sit up and reveal himself. 

Key word, tries . Instead, he topples off the couch, hissing as he hits his shoulder as he lands. Luckily, the fall didn’t seem to be too loud, seeing as he doesn’t hear Inko wake up, and the people outside keep talking.

Ignoring the pain of his shoulder, he shuffles over to the end of the couch opposite the balcony, peering over the edge of it outside.

He doesn’t… see anything.

At first. Then, he hears the unmistakable sound of an explosion-- a quiet one, somehow, but an explosion nonetheless, and he ducks under the edge of the couch, pressing his back against the end as he pulls his head down to try and ensure that he can’t be seen.

There’s someone else on the metal railings of the balcony, based on the clinking sounds Izuku can hear.

“ Do I need to fucking carry you, or can you get up by yourself? ”

“ I’m fine, thank you, Young Bakugou. ”

He knows those voices.

One problem, though. Two, actually.

One, other than when they met after the slime villain, All Might doesn’t know Kacchan.

Two, All Might is dead.

He’s dreaming. He has to be. This is some horrible nightmare that he’ll wake up from screaming any second now.

Worried that even within the dream, he’ll scream, he puts his hand over his mouth, trying to keep his breathing steady. 

Even as he hears Kacchan-- no, not Kacchan, this dream-person -- rustling through the fake plant they keep outside, pulling out the spare key they keep out there just in case someone gets locked on the balcony.

Even as he hears the key be inserted into the lock, a click confirming that it’s been unlocked.

Even as the door opens, and two pairs of footsteps walk in.

This is a horrible nightmare, and Izuku is going to wake up soon. Any minute now. Any second now.

He curls into himself further as the footsteps get closer, walking around the back of the couch, and he considers moving around to the front of the couch before deciding that he’d be too exposed there. Is there enough time to dash for his room? No, he’d probably freeze at the door when he sees the All Might sign. His mom’s? Maybe. No, they’re too close. The bathroom? Still no, too close.

They’re almost at the end of the couch, and Izuku’s legs are pulled in as tight as he can, trying to maximize the time he has before they can see him, even if it’s just his feet, even if it’s just a dream, he can’t , All Might is dead and Kacchan would never sneak into his house like this and--

He didn’t notice that the footsteps had stopped.

“Midoriya?”

In a moment of absolute terror and instinct and why am I not waking up , Izuku shoots to his feet and shoots out his elbow, nailing the speaker directly in the nose.

Chapter Text

For a moment, Izuku thinks he’s finally about to wake up. For one, single moment.

But the way his elbow hits the other person’s nose says otherwise. It feels too real, far too real for a dream. Especially the crunch that sounds as he does it.

“ Ow! The hell!” 

The person he just hit doesn’t just sound like Kacchan. 

He looks different-- older, maybe by a year or two, scars littering the skin that Izuku can see. He’s wearing what looks like a hero costume-- some kind of wrist brace, with a black sleeve and gloves underneath, and a v-cut tank top, baggy pants, grenades (that seem functional) attached to his belt, black and orange boots. Whatever it is, even if it isn’t a hero costume, it looks like one. And not one meant for the wintertime.

But whoever this is, he looks almost exactly like Kacchan.

He holds a gloved hand over his nose, stumbling back for a moment. Izuku can’t do much more than stand there in shock. What is he supposed to do? Whoever this is, he looks almost exactly like Kacchan, and he just-- he just broke into his apartment.

And behind him is All Might.

Who is supposed to be dead.

Izuku glances between the two of them, over and over and over as his brain tries to put the pieces together. Kacchan and All Might just broke into his house. Kacchan is wearing a hero costume, and All Might is alive. 

Nope. He absolutely can’t put this together.

“How are-- You-- Why-- You’re supposed to be dead, ” he finally says, pointing at All Might. “I watched you die. The entire country watched you die.”

“That was news to me, as well, Young Midoriya,” All Might says, grimacing as he places a hand on the back of his neck. “I’m a bit behind on the news, it seems.”

“Stop joking around,” Kacchan bites at All Might, hand still held to his nose. “He’s already fucking traumatized as it is.” He turns to Izuku, glaring down at him, and even with the new Quirk buzzing underneath his skin, he shrinks under the other’s gaze. “We’re not from here. The only reason we’re here is because of some bastard’s Quirk.”

Izuku blinks up at him, his brain, muddled by sleep and adrenaline, struggling to process the words. 

“What?”

Kacchan sighs, holding out his free arm, hand splayed, and Izuku steps back on instinct.

“You know how my Quirk looks, right?” he asks, and sets off a few small firecrackers in his palm-- still larger than most of Kacchan’s usual threats. “For me , there’s also this.”

Red lines form across Kacchan’s palm, glowing through his glove, tracing up his arm, and when Izuku looks up, the same lines are tracing along his neck and face. After a moment, they fade, orange lightning flickering to life on top of his skin.

“Bet the Katsuki you know can’t do that,” he says, and Izuku stares as Kacchan gives him a moment to process. After Izuku stays silent for a few seconds, he sighs again. “It’s One For All. Have you really not even used it yet?”

Izuku hesitates, before shaking his head, his eyes falling to the floor. 

“Damn. Well, now you know what it should look like.”

Izuku nods at that. He’s still-- really not sure what to say. Kacchan has One For All. Or, another Kacchan does. Not the Kacchan he knows. And All Might is alive, and here, somehow, and--

“Wait, you said you’re… here because of someone’s Quirk?” He asks, trying to keep his voice quiet. “What do you mean? Did you get hit by someone’s Quirk? Should I call an ambulance, or other heroes, or--”

“Shut up, we didn’t get hit by anything,” Kacchan says, finally pulling his hand from his nose. There’s blood smeared underneath his nose, as well as on the palm of his glove. Izuku… did not think he’d hit him that hard. “Some kind of damn warp Quirk. Interdimensional shit. We’re fine. ”

“An interdimensional warp Quirk?” Izuku says, raising an eyebrow. “Like--”

“Like one second we were fine, and the other we were being sucked into a damn portal and tossed into a world where the old man was dead,” he says, pointing back at All Might.

“He’s not old!” Izuku says in response, but it only catches his mind for a moment before he starts thinking about the possibilities of a Quirk like that. “It could be used for communication, to find universes with more technological advancements to figure out their tech and bring it back… Or it could be used to find universes where humans have higher healing abilities, and we could emulate that in our universe… Even to just meet people from other universes and see how they live, it could be just so useful, it’s--”

“Midoriya,” Kacchan cuts him off, and Izuku stops, if only for the fact that he used Midoriya. Not Deku, not even Izuku. Just… Just Midoriya. “Stop fucking mumbling. I don’t care about its applications, I just care about getting the fuck home .”

And something clicks as Kacchan starts talking about leaving.

“Wait, no, this is-- this is actually perfect!” he says, staring down at his hands for a moment before looking back up at the two in front of him. “All Might-- well… you know. And I-- I just got One For All, and he told me to find Gran Torino but I can’t find anything about him, but you two are right here and-- you can help train me! Just like All Might would’ve!”

Something unspoken passes between Kacchan and All Might turned to each other, meeting eyes and staring at each other in silence for a few long, long seconds.

Kacchan turns back around, glaring at Izuku. “Listen, we can get you to Gran Torino. That’s easy enough. But we’re not staying longer than we have to when you already have someone to train you.”

And Izuku can’t lie, he’s… disappointed. He doesn’t want some random, unknown hero to train him. Not when All Might-- not the All Might that’s been training him, but All Might nonetheless-- is right in front of him.

“But-- Kacchan--”

And something flips in Kacchan’s eyes, the glare passing far past the frustration level it had been on into anger as he scowls. He takes a step towards Izuku, and Izuku steps back, any confidence he’d had a moment ago gone.

He’s glad that Kacchan stops after one stomp forward. “ Don’t fucking call me that ,” he hisses, and-- what is Izuku supposed to say? “ Never fucking call me that. Got it, Midoriya?”

Izuku blinks up at him, eyes wide, and nods. “Got it. I’m-- I’m sorry.”

He doesn’t have to be an expert at analysis to know something happened between this version of Kacchan-- Katsuki , and his Izuku. Something happened to make him respond that poorly to their childhood nickname. Even Kacchan, the Kacchan Izuku knows, puts up with it.

Still, with the apology, Katsuki takes a deep breath, letting his shoulders drop. All Might glances between the two of them, stepping over and placing a gentle, skeletal hand on Katsuki’s shoulder as he looks over at Izuku.

“Young Bakugou is right,” he says, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t help train you while we’re here. We still have to find the person who brought us here, or wait for the Quirk to wear off, so we don’t mind helping you between all of that.”

Katsuki growls. “I didn’t say that.”

All Might gives him a look-- not a glare, but Izuku isn’t sure what to call it-- before looking back at Izuku with a smile. “We don’t mind, Young Midoriya.”

Izuku could start crying right there. He almost does, the tears very, very quickly welling up in his eyes, his vision going blurry.

But before he can start, his mother’s door is slamming open, Inko rushing out with a baseball bat in hand, various small items floating around her with the help of her Quirk.

The three in the living room stare back at her in silence. She looks between the two she wasn’t expecting to see, her grip on the baseball bat tightening as the items floating around her start to shake slightly.

“Izuku, honey?” she says, her soft voice barely hiding the sharp tone underneath it. “Excuse my language for a moment.” 

Izuku stares for a moment, before nodding.

“Katsuki, All Might, I have multiple questions for both of you-- especially you, All Might-- but first of all: What the fuck are you doing in my apartment, uninvited, at 1:30 in the morning?”

“Quirk,” Katsuki says, his glare finally betraying how tired he is. Izuku can’t blame him. Unexpected interdimensional travel is probably exhausting.

“What Young Bakugou means is that we were brought here by what seems to be an interdimensional warp Quirk,” All Might explains, the same exhaustion shown in the way he looks at Inko. “I didn’t mean to bother either of you, but Young Bakugou believed here was the best place to start to find out what we should do. He believed Young Midoriya’s analysis could prove helpful in figuring out the nature of the Quirk that brought us here.”

The objects floating around Inko slowly drop to the ground, though she doesn’t drop the bat just yet. “While I’m very flattered that Izuku was who you thought was best to help you, and I’m sure he is as well, wouldn’t it have been better to go to the police? Or to another hero?”

“I don’t believe any of them would be too keen on listening to our story when they had just seen the version of me they know… well, you know.”

Inko hesitates, pressing her lips into a thin line as she stares at All Might. She finally lets the bat drop to her side, keeping a loose grip on it with one hand as she sighs. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to insult your judgement, All Might. Whether or not you’re the hero I know as All Might, you are still a hero, and I’m assuming still the number one. It’s just… late. But you’re right. They probably wouldn’t believe you.” She pauses, before mumbling to herself, “I’m finding it hard to believe as well.”

“Mom,” Izuku whispers, pulling her attention as he walks closer, before leaning in to whisper into her ear. “They said they’ll help train me with One For All. I might not need a Quirk trainer, or anything.”

“Oh,” Inko says, turning to give a soft smile to her son. “That’s good, then.”

“We need to figure out how we’re getting home while we’re doing it,” Katsuki says, cutting into their conversation. “If he doesn’t have any ideas, we’re getting in contact with UA.”

“Wait, UA?” Izuku cuts in. “So you are older!”

Katsuki rolls his eyes. “I’m in my second year there, idiot. Have you even done the entrance exam yet?”

Izuku shakes his head. “That’s not until February.”

“Well, looks like we’re cramming ten years of experience with a Quirk into two months at most, then.”

“I thought you didn’t really want to help me train--”

“Shut up, Midoriya, I’ll do it.”

“Why do you have to get in contact with UA, exactly?” Inko asks, pulling the group’s attention back to her. “Why not go straight to the police?”

“Again,” Katsuki says, jabbing his finger at All Might. “One of the detectives that works on cases relating to UA has a lie detector Quirk. We contact UA and ask for their help and offer to have Tsukauchi interview us, we’re set. Plus, my homeroom teacher has an Erasure Quirk.”

“Oh! Do you mean Eraserhead?!”

“Of course you already know who he is just from his Quirk. Yes, Eraserhead.”

“Oh, that’s so cool!” Izuku grins as he pictures the page he has in the tenth volume of his hero analysis notebooks. “If we get to meet him while you and All Might train me with One For All, I can ask him some questions! Like, what’s it like to be a hero who fights almost Quirkless, or how his capture weapon works, or where he got the idea to start wearing goggles, or--”

He catches himself as Katsuki glares at him, putting a hand over his mouth to stop the muttering. “Sorry! Sorry.”

Katsuki rolls his eyes again, the group going silent for a moment.

Inko is the one to break it. “Well, I’m sure you aren’t going to be able to contact UA right now. If you’d like, you two can both stay here for the night? We don’t have much, but we should have an air mattress somewhere. You both look tired. Especially you, Katsuki.” 

Katsuki sighs as Inko steps up to him, a gentle hand against his cheek. “I am tired.”

“You can take my room, if you want,” Izuku offers, fidgeting with his hands. “I mean-- I don’t-- I was sleeping out here, anyways.”

Katsuki pulls away from Inko’s hand, looking back at Izuku, meeting his eyes. Izuku stares back for a moment before pulling his eyes away. 

“Sure, whatever, we’ll take your room,” Katsuki says after a few moments of suffocating silence. “Don’t complain when your back hurts in the morning.”

“I’ll be fine with the air mattress, Mrs. Midoriya,” All Might says, and both Inko and Izuku stare back at him. The Number One hero. Offering to take the air mattress.

“Like hell you will,” Katsuki cuts in. “You get the bed. I’ll take the damn air mattress.”

“Young Bakugou--”

“I’m not arguing with you on this. Some of us don’t already have chronic pain. I can handle an air mattress.”

All Might sighs. “Alright, Young Bakugou. If you’re sure.”

“Well-- I’ll go get the air mattress, then?” Inko says, looking between the three in the living room as she steps back towards the hall. “I’ll get it set up for you.”

Izuku is left alone with Katsuki and All Might for the second time that night, and looks over at the two before holding out his own hand. 

“So… One For All? How does it work?”

“It’s a Quirk,” Katsuki says, as if that answers everything. “You just have to use it.”

“...That answers nothing.”

Katsuki groans, putting a hand over his face before reaching out and taking Izuku’s wrist.

“You have to use it . There’s a feeling that comes with all Quirks. What does it feel like to you?”

“...Like buzzing? Underneath my skin?”

“That’s your base level of usage, then. Remember that. It’s not zero percent. It’s base level. The only time you can hit zero percent is when it’s erased.”

Izuku nods, looking down at his hand as Katsuki releases it. “So I just have to… make it buzz more. Like molecules being heated up in a microwave.”

“Think of it like an egg,” All Might offers, “in a microwave. You don’t want to push it to the point of it exploding. The most important part of using One For All is feeling, and visualizing something like that can help.”

Izuku isn’t sure what he was expecting for advice from All Might, but that… wasn’t it? He can make it work, though.

“And don’t focus it on one part of your body,” Katsuki adds. “My Quirk-- my original Quirk-- is based in my hands because that’s the only place I can easily use it. One For All is a full-body stockpiling Quirk. Use a limited percentage throughout your entire body or you’re going to be putting way too much strain on one part.”

Izuku nods, curling his hand into a fist. “So just… make the buzzing faster. But not too fast. Heat up the egg enough that it doesn’t explode.”

The other two One For All users in front of him nod, and with that, Izuku takes a deep breath, focusing on the buzzing underneath his skin. At his acknowledgement, the energy that had settled down picks back up again, vibrating underneath his skin, what had become comforting quickly crossing the realm back into unfamiliar and uncomfortable.

“Focus on the egg not exploding,” he mumbles to himself, staring down at his outstretched fist as he sits through the discomfort, pushing the buzzing further, just a little, just enough to activate One For All.

With one final push, red veins light up across Izuku’s arm, the buzzing throughout his body going from uncomfortable to encouraging. He’s doing it!

The orange lightning that had appeared around Katsuki had taken a few seconds to appear after the lines, so Izuku just focuses on keeping the energy he’d built up going, watching the flickering lights within the lines on his arms, mesmerized. Just a second or two more. 

“The room should be set-- Izuku?”

He’s jolted out of his focus by his mother’s voice, and turns to see her at the end of the hallway, leaning in. Right. She was just getting the room set up.

“Cool. Thanks, Auntie Inko.”

“Oh-- of course, Katsuki!” 

All Might places a hand on Izuku’s shoulder before he passes. “It’s alright, Young Midoriya. You’d be better off practicing with a full night’s rest, anyways. You’re already doing better than Young Bakugou did when he first started. It’s impressive how quickly you can catch on to things.”

Izuku smiles up at All Might, even as something inside him twists. He’d always wanted All Might to help him with One For All, but… but his own . Not another user’s All Might. Not another Ninth’s predecessor.

He fights back the tears threatening to spill from the corner of his eyes and gives a shaky smile. “Thank you, All Might.”

“Of course, Young Midoriya.” All Might smiles, giving him a thumbs-up. “We’ll talk more in the morning. Get some rest.”

Izuku nods, pressing his eyes shut at the tears that just won’t go away. “I will.”

All Might’s hand leaves his shoulder as he walks away, and Izuku keeps his eyes pressed shut even as they seem determined to make him cry, again.  

The hero thanks Inko for letting him and Katsuki stay, apologizes for the intrusion, and then Izuku’s door is shutting behind him. Inko’s footsteps are light as she walks to Izuku’s side, but not light enough for Izuku to be unaware she’s coming. He wipes his eyes as discreetly as he can before turning to her.

“Are you alright, Izuku?” she asks, voice quiet. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. Is that what One For All looks like? The red?”

Izuku smiles softly and nods. “Kacch-- Katsuki’s faded to orange lightning after a few seconds, but mine might not do the same. And it might be a different color.”

“Well, it’s good to see that you’re already getting a grasp on it. But do you feel alright about them being here?”

Izuku hesitates. He wants to tell her that he doesn’t. That seeing All Might alive so soon and knowing that he’s going to leave is tearing open a wound that had barely started to clot. 

But instead, he shrugs. “It’s not their fault, and they’re really nice. They’re going to help me. It’s alright.”

“But you aren’t calling Katsuki Kacchan,” Inko points out, mouth pressed tight. “Izuku, honey, you’ve always called him Kacchan. Are you sure it’s alright?”

“Oh, no, it’s just-- he’s a different Katsuki, you know?” Izuku says, fumbling as he tries to explain it to her without telling her how upset Katsuki had seemed when he first called him Kacchan. “It just… feels disrespectful to his version of me to start using their childhood nickname, even if it’s what I call the Kacchan I know.”

Inko doesn’t seem convinced, but still, she nods. “Alright. If you’re sure. Get some rest, Izuku.” She pushes herself up a bit, standing on her toes to press a kiss to Izuku’s forehead. “If they’re going to be training you, I’m sure you have a few long days ahead of you.”

Izuku laughs a little, nodding. “Yeah, I’m sure I do.”

“Goodnight, Izuku.”

He waves a bit as she steps out of the room into the hall, giving her one last smile as she leaves. “Goodnight, Mom.”

As soon as she goes, the tears he’d managed to fight off spill from his eyes.

He locks the balcony door, pulls the blinds, and crawls back onto the couch, all through the blur of his tears, making sure to muffle any sobs that threaten to come out. He’s sure everyone else is still awake. He doesn’t want to bother any of them.

So he pulls the blanket over him, presses his face into his pillow, and lets himself cry until he stops on his own. Within seconds, the post-crying exhaustion hits him, and he welcomes it with open arms as he turns over and shuts his eyes.

Sleep comes within minutes. He’s glad. 

He has a long few days ahead of him, after all.

Chapter Text

Izuku is, surprisingly, not sore from sleeping on the couch in the morning.

Katsuki and All Might are already awake when he wakes up, Katsuki already starting to make some sort of breakfast. Izuku isn’t sure what it is, just that it smells good.

There’s a set of clothes hanging over the arm of the couch nearest Izuku’s feet, and he’s not sure who got it for him, but he’s glad they did. It just means he has an excuse to not go into his room.

He slips out of the blankets and goes to the bathroom to change, finding that the shirt is one of his usual T-Shirt shirts. The collection had started as a gag gift, but had grown far from that. He’s pretty sure he owns more of these then he owns of the clothing named on them.

But the fabric is soft, and the tags don’t itch against his skin, so he’s fine with that. 

After taking a few minutes to get changed and brush his teeth, he splashes water on his face, just to try and give him the extra kick he needs. It’s still early, and he’s never been a morning person.

He pauses to look at his hands as he does, remembering the red lines that had formed across his skin the night before. He presses his mouth into a line as he remembers what it felt like. 

It can’t hurt to try, right?

He reaches out for the buzzing underneath his skin again, fighting to wake up the Quirk sitting there, and after a moment, it picks up. He pushes it a bit, the buzzing picking up a bit more until it’s settling where it had settled last night. The red lines form across his skin again, the light glittering through the water droplets still on his hands.

He holds it for a moment longer, and the red fades, replaced by green lightning flickering across his skin. His eyes widen as he watches the light reflect on the water droplets. 

He isn’t sure how much of the power he’s using. With no frame of reference on what 100% is like, there isn’t any way for him to know.

Experimentally, he tries shaking the water off his hands with the strength of the Quirk behind it. It doesn’t take much for the water to fly off.

Grinning, he moves to the door, hesitating before touching the handle. Right. One For All manifests as a strength and speed and… general enhancer. 

Carefully, gently, he opens the door, the lightning still arcing around his hands as he does. Katsuki looks up from where he’s sitting at the dining table, feet pulled up next to him on the chair. He glances over Izuku’s body, following the lightning as it flickers. 

“Didn’t take you long to figure that out,” he says, simply. “But turn it off. You don’t know how to control it yet. You’re going to destroy the damn house.”

Oh, right. Fair. 

“How do I--?”

“Bring it back down to base level, idiot.” 

“Right!” Izuku grabs at the buzzing across his skin, pulling it back down to the low level he’s gotten used to over the past… has it really not even been a day? 

The lightning fades as the buzzing settles back into his skin, another wave of emotion crashing over Izuku. It hasn’t even been a day. It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours since he got One For All.

It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours since All Might died.

Isn’t it a bit disrespectful to latch on to someone new this soon? A new All Might, and his successor. Part of Izuku wants to say that it’s just because they offered, because they’re here, and he needs all the help he can get, but the other part of him isn’t sure. The other part of him is telling him to go find Gran Torino on his own, like All Might told him to.

Before he can fully consider it, All Might’s hand is on his shoulder. Izuku jumps. He hadn’t seen him when he came out of the bathroom, so where did he come from?

“I got in contact with UA,” he says, holding up a cellphone in one hand. “Tsukauchi is unavailable, but Principal Nedzu has offered to talk to us directly and decide on if we’re trustworthy. We’ll be interrogated before we’re allowed to enter, but we’ve gotten permission to go. Including you, Young Midoriya.”

Oh, right. UA. Izuku almost forgot.

“We’re not leaving until Midoriya eats,” Katsuki says, and Izuku realizes that yes, there’s a plate of food sitting at the end of the table, where he usually sits. His stomach growls, betraying the fact that he hasn’t eaten since dinner last night, and he barely ate that. “And I made some small shit for you. Missing your damn stomach isn’t an excuse to miss food.” Katsuki tosses a small tupperware at All Might, who pulls his hand from Izuku’s shoulder to catch it.

“Thank you, Young Bakugou,” he chuckles. “We’ll leave once we eat, then.”

Izuku nods, already sitting down. 

They’ll leave once they eat.

---

UA is so much more impressive in person.

Izuku wasn’t expecting to see it until February, when he would be coming for the entrance exam, but here he is, two months earlier, in… less than ideal circumstances. Horrible circumstances, actually.

But he’s standing in front of the gates, and waiting for the principal of the school to come to talk to them. Nedzu, Quirk: High Spec. High intelligence, higher than most humans, and Izuku can understand why he’s the one talking to them. With a higher intelligence than humans, he can probably tell if they lie. Which is an incredible application of his Quirk. Izuku, personally, loves versatile Quirks like that. They give him so much more to analyze, it’s really amazing, and versatile Quirks can be incredibly strong just from the fact that they’re versatile, so--

Katsuki bumps the side of his head with the back of his hand, scowling, but not looking at him. Izuku immediately puts a hand over his mouth. Damnit, not again. He really needs to work on the mumbling thing.

Katsuki scoffs as soon as Izuku stops. “Damn nerd.”

Izuku looks back to the gates, making out a figure in the distance.

It’s definitely not Nedzu. For one, they’re taller. For two, they’re human (or, at least, they look human). For three, they aren’t the familiar bright white of Nedzu’s fur.

The figure gets closer, and Izuku confirms that they are, indeed, not Nedzu. Probably a teacher? They look too old to be a student, so--

Izuku’s eyes catch on the fabric around their neck, and a lightbulb immediately turns on in the back of his head. Katsuki had said that his teacher was Eraserhead. Izuku just hadn’t expected to see him so soon.

He forces himself to keep his mouth shut as he drops his hands back to his sides, standing as straight as possible, a shaky smile on his face as the hero approaches. Still no sign of Nedzu, but Eraserhead could be an escort of sorts. Or security, here to check out that it’s safe.

All of those theories are proven false as Eraserhead comes to a stop just inside the gates, looking across the space between them with a blank face.

And Nedzu pops out of his scarf.

Izuku has no idea how to react to that, so he just… lets his eyes widen a bit as he watches the principal shuffle down Eraserhead’s body, using one of the ends of his capture item as a rope of sorts, before walking closer to the three waiting outside the gates. Eraserhead stays further back, but if the way he’s standing means anything, it’s clear that Eraserhead is security of sorts, he just wasn’t sent ahead. He was security and an escort. 

“So!” the principal starts, beady eyes staring up at the three as he clasps his paws together. “I assume you three are the ones who had asked for Tsukauchi? My apologies for his unavailability, but I’m sure you can understand, seeing the recent news. I’m afraid many of us have our plates full right now.”

“Yeah,” Katsuki speaks, looking down at the principal with a respect that Izuku had never seen in the eyes of the Kacchan he knows. “A lie detector Quirk would’ve been really useful for this.”

“Don’t worry! I’ll be able to tell. You humans are such horrible liars, after all.”

Izuku shudders a bit at being referred to as you humans , but he doubts Nedzu meant anything by it. It’s not like he’s human. 

“Nevermind all that, though. Why are you three seeking UA’s assistance?”

“Well, Young Bakugou and I were brought here by a Quirk,” All Might starts. “We aren’t sure exactly what it is, or whose it is, but it was some sort of interdimensional warp Quirk. We both believed we needed outside help in order to find the person who brought us here and have them send us back.”

“It’s not like we have access to any Quirk databases on our own,” Katsuki added. “And I’m not about to get arrested for hacking into one.”

Nedzu hums, looking over to Izuku. “And you?”

“Oh, um,” Izuku stutters, looking over to All Might and Katsuki for assistance. Katsuki tilts his head towards the principal as All Might moves his hands in a go ahead gesture.

He isn’t sure what to make of that, but-- oh . Nedzu probably knows.

“I’m, um.” He looks up at Eraserhead, standing in the background, and lets his voice drop, hoping it’s quiet enough that he can’t hear him. “I’m the ninth holder.”

Nedzu blinks up at him, and somehow, Izuku’s able to tell what the momentary drop of his smile and the increased shine in his eyes means. It’s sadness.

“Ah,” Nedzu says, his head dropping a bit as his gaze falls to the ground. “I see.”

It’s silent for a few moments, as Nedzu lifts his head again to stare down the three, Izuku shuffling a bit in place before realizing that oh no, that’s probably going to make it seem like he’s lying, he’s not going to be let in--

“Well, you three seem to be genuine. There’s no need to be so nervous-- I’m sorry, I never got your name?”

“Midoriya!” Izuku blurts out, the relief at his nervousness being seen as just that and not as lying taking over. “Izuku Midoriya!”

“Midoriya. Well, there’s no need to worry so much. Why don’t Eraserhead and I bring you three to Gym Gamma? That’s where the others are waiting.”

The question isn’t really a question as the principal turns and starts walking away, Eraserhead not even blinking as he sends out his capture weapon and uses it to lift the principal back onto his shoulder, nestled in the scarf once again. 

Maybe it’s a mouse-- rat-- uh, maybe it’s a Nedzu thing, Izuku thinks as he rushes to follow, All Might and Katsuki already ahead.

Wait.

“Others?” Izuku and Katsuki say at the same time, seemingly registering the information simultaneously. Nedzu looks back at them from where he’s nestled in Eraserhead’s scarf, beady eyes staring at them over the grey cloth. 

“Well, let’s just say that it seems the Quirk that brought you two here affected other universes, as well. You’ll meet them as soon as we get there!”

Right. Izuku looks over at Katsuki, meeting his eyes with matching confusion. Because that isn’t vague at all.

The silence is suffocating, and after a few moments, Izuku can’t take it anymore. 

“Eraserhead!” he blurts out, prompting the hero to look back over his shoulder as he walks. “I-- uh-- your Quirk, it basically just levels the playing field, right? You can erase others’ Quirks? I mean, it’s-- that’s really cool, I mean, you basically fight Quirkless!”

He slaps a hand over his mouth after the last phrase. Right. Great first impression. Talking about how he basically fights like one of the most hated groups in modern day.

But Eraserhead doesn’t say anything rude. 

“Wasn’t aware I had any fans,” he drones, staring back at Izuku with a deadpan expression. He mumbles something under his breath after that, but Izuku can’t understand it-- something about living this down. “But yes, I can erase Quirks as long as they aren’t mutant Quirks, so most of my fights are done with simple hand-to-hand combat.”

“That’s really cool! It’s not as flashy as most daylight heroes, but I guess that’s the point, since you’re an underground hero, and even then sometimes things that are less flashy are actually better when it comes to tactic. I haven’t spent as long looking into heroes that focus more on fighting Quirkless but I probably should, I only ever see it discussed occasionally and that’s really disappointing because those heroes are just as important as any other, so even if I can’t make people appreciate them more it’d be nice to just know about them.”

Eraserhead hums in response, turning back ahead of them as Izuku realizes that the building that had been a ways away was now almost directly in front of them.

Nedzu shifts out of Eraserhead’s scarf once again, walking up to the door with the same smile as always.

“Here we are! Please, try to be nice to each other.”

He pushes open the door as Katsuki, Izuku, and All Might come to a stop next to Eraserhead, making the inside of the gym visible to the three of them.

The inside is filled with chunks of ice, half-melted and pooling in puddles on the ground. There’s light reflecting off of them, some of it white to match the ceiling lights, while some of it is a yellow hue that suggests flames. 

Izuku follows the reflections of the light, trying to find its source, and finally finding a group of four. Two of them seem about Katsuki’s age, one being a year or two older, and the fourth probably being around 20. Definitely not a high school student, at least.

One of the two around Katsuki’s age is standing with his left arm to another chunk of ice, flames melting the ice next to him. His hair is duo-toned, the left side red and right white. 

The other has long, green hair, some of it in a bow, and a finger to her chin as she crouches in one of the nearby puddles.

The slightly older one has a wide, awkward smile on his face, hand behind his head and dug into short-cut blond hair. A cape falls behind him, and Izuku bites back the pang that goes through his heart as he realizes that the boy’s muscular stature reminds him of All Might. 

The fourth has his hands held up in front of his chest, giving an equally awkward smile back to the blond boy. There’s gloves on his hands, but they only cover his thumb alongside his pinky and ring finger. He has a capture weapon mirroring Eraserhead’s. His light blue hair is pulled partially into a bun, while the rest falls straight down to reach his shoulders. Even from this distance, Izuku can tell that the skin that he can see is incredibly dry.

They’re all wearing hero costumes, and Izuku assumes these are the others Nedzu was talking about. 

He glances over to Katsuki after looking over the four, watching as Katsuki scans over the group, his face dropping as he lays his eyes on the light-blue-haired one. 

The… Izuku isn’t sure what to call that initial emotion, actually, but the wide-eyed expression that had formed on Katsuki’s face fades almost instantly as Katsuki furrows his brow and scowls, hands splaying at his side as he crouches before launching off toward the fourth.

On Izuku’s other side, Eraserhead activates his Quirk, shooting out his capture weapon, but it’s no use-- the initial blast had managed to launch Katsuki across the entire distance between them, far enough away that Eraserhead’s capture weapon couldn’t reach him.

Katsuki crashes into the blue-haired hero. He hadn’t had time to react much more than looking in Katsuki’s direction. The blond pins him to the ground, his shirt fisted in his hand and other hand splayed above him, prepared to shoot off explosions that won’t come with Eraserhead’s Quirk still active. 

“The hell are you doing here, bastard!” Katsuki shouts, loud enough that Izuku can hear him from the entrance. Eraserhead is already rushing into the gym, capture weapon moving around him as he keeps part of it gripped in his hand. Izuku and All Might take a moment before following behind.

“Hold on, wait, I can explain--”

“Like hell you can!”

“Bakugou! Hey, it’s kind of weird seeing you here, but listen, he’s not--”

“Shut the hell up, Weird-Eyes!”

“That’s enough .” 

Katsuki is forced to let go of the blue-haired hero’s shirt as he’s pulled back by Eraserhead’s capture weapon, struggling against it for only a moment before giving up. 

The hero takes a moment as he stands to brush himself off, sighing. “The fourth time I’ve been attacked today, and it’s not even noon. That has to be a new record.”

“Um,” Izuku speaks up from beside Eraserhead. “So, I, uh. Who-- who are all of you?”

The hero looks over at him, red eyes meeting green. “Oh, yeah, you’re young , huh? Midoriya, right?” 

Izuku hesitates, but nods. “Yeah, that’s me. Uh-- how did you--?”

“Sorry, right, we must not know each other where you’re from.” The hero tilts his head to the side, shutting his eyes with an awkward smile as one hand reaches up to scratch at his neck for a moment before he pulls it away, reopening his eyes and looking back at Izuku once again. “My name’s Tenko Shimura, and I’m the Ninth Holder.”

Chapter Text

There’s a few moments of silence as Izuku stares at Shimura, glancing over at Katsuki and All Might to find them staring the same way. Eraserhead’s capture weapon unwraps from around Katsuki as he stands still, just staring .

Shimura glances between the three with an increasingly awkward smile before he lets out an equally awkward laugh, waving his hands in front of his chest. “I mean, another Ninth Holder! I’m guessing-- you and Bakugou are Ninths, too, right? I mean-- everyone else is, too. Oh-- it’s nice to see you, All Might!”

Part of Izuku is reminded of the way he rambles, and he wonders if this is what it feels like to be looking in from the outside of it. He glances over to Katsuki, who seems tenser than he was a moment ago, as Shimura continues to ramble to fill the silence.

“I mean, I’m guessing you’re not from this dimension? Unless you are and somehow aren’t actually dead--”

“Hey,” Katsuki cuts in. “Let’s not talk about that shit in front of Midoriya.”

Shimura blinks, glancing over at Izuku before looking back at Katsuki.

“Oh,” he whispers. “ Oh. Oh, sh--crap.” Shimura walks forward to the four, placing a gentle hand on Izuku’s shoulder. “You’re from here , aren’t you, kid?”

Izuku meets his eyes for a moment, sees the pity there, and immediately looks back down at his feet, nodding. 

“I’m sorry. Crap. You’re the Ninth here, right?”

Again, Izuku nods. “I was there. I got it right before it happened.”

The silence falls over them again, heavier this time. Shimura doesn’t remove his hand from his shoulder. Izuku doesn’t look up from his feet. No one says anything.

Until, after a moment, Shimura clears his throat and speaks again, stepping back a bit. “You know what, kid? Why don’t I tell you a story?”

Katsuki scoffs. “He’s younger, not a damn toddler.”

“It’s not that kind of story,” Shimura responds, rolling his eyes. “You know how you got One For All. Why don’t I tell you how I did?”

“Should we really be talking about this in front of Aizawa-Sensei?” 

Shimura looks over at Katsuki, glancing at Eraserhead-- Aizawa? No, Izuku’s going to stick with Eraserhead unless he’s told to use anything else.

“I’ve already been run through multiple versions of the same story,” Eraserhead says, hands in his pockets as he looks towards the wall to his right. He does not seem… at all interested in any of this. “I know about One For All.”

...How is he so casual about this?

“I’ve seen stranger Quirks.”

Oh, shit, he said that out loud.

“ Anyways! ” Shimura cuts in. “So, do you know about the Seventh Holder?”

Izuku has heard All Might mention his mentor, but nothing too specific, so he shakes his head.

“Well, she’s my grandmother. Nana Shimura. So I guess you could say part of it could be that One For All was returning back to the same bloodline, but there’s a lot more to it than that--”

---

Tenko Shimura is six years old and is sitting in a police station with three highschoolers.

His hands are resting in his lap, palms facing up, fingers slightly curled, and he stares down at them, white hair that had just been black falling in his frame of vision as he does.

“Kid,” one of the teenagers speaks, and Tenko looks up at him, eyes wide and still scared. He stares into black eyes, hints of red highlighting parts, as Aizawa stares back at him, the deadpan expression he’d been wearing since he found him still so gentle. “You aren’t in trouble. You don’t have to be scared.”

Tenko pulls his gaze away from Aizawa, staring at the floor. “But I--”

There’s a hand on his head, and Tenko flinches for a moment before realizing it’s just Yamada ruffling his hair. “Little listener, there’s no but to it. You know, I made everyone’s ears bleed when I was born! The doctor, the nurses, my parents…”

“What Hizashi is trying to say is you aren’t going to be blamed for manifesting a Quirk you couldn’t control,” Aizawa cuts back in. “The worst that’ll happen is you’ll have mandatory Quirk counseling.”

“Which isn’t as bad as it sounds!” Shirakumo adds, leaning forward to look at Tenko past Yamada before leaning back to poke Yamada’s cheek. “I mean, if it was that horrible, I don’t think Hizashi here would’ve survived past early childhood--”

Aizawa glares at the two, his eyes flashing red and hair standing up as he activates his Quirk. They both silence, and he sighs as he lets his Quirk drop. 

“I don’t think now’s the time for jokes like that.”

“C’mon, Shouta, it’s all in good fun!” 

“I’m serious.”

“Shoutaaa!”

Aizawa glares at the two once again, and they finally quiet.

“Usually, you’d get put into foster care, too, but we’re going to talk to UA about that. I don’t want another kid getting put in that system without at least trying to do something to stop it.”

Tenko isn’t entirely sure what foster care is. But if Aizawa thinks it’d be better for him to not go into that, he’ll believe him. Aizawa found him, like heroes are supposed to. 

Aizawa, Yamada, and Shirakumo. Tenko knows they’re still students, but to him, they might as well already be full heroes.

And having the three sitting beside him makes him feel just a little better.

---

Tenko Shimura is seven years old and is staring up at the world’s greatest hero.

His mouth hangs open as All Might stares back down at him, and at the tiny notepad gripped in his hands, newly fashioned with a set of half-fingerless gloves, a simple ballpoint pen hooked onto the spiral binding at the top.

Aizawa-- Shouta , he’d told him to call him Shouta, stands beside him with a gentle hand on his shoulder. Even a year into being a ward of UA, the three who had rescued him are still the highest on the list of people he trusts. With the combination of that alongside Shouta’s Quirk, and the fact that he was the least likely to freak out over meeting All Might, he was chosen as Tenko’s escort.

“Tenko,” Shouta says, glancing down at him. “Do you want to introduce yourself?”

Tenko glances over at Shouta, then back up at All Might, then back at Shouta, repeating the process a few times before settling on staring down at his notepad, a blank page staring up at him.

“Um. My name is Tenko Shimura, and-- and you knew my grandma?”

---

Tenko Shimura is ten years old and is moving in with the three who saved him.

He slides his autograph notepads (multiple of them filled, thanks to the fact that he was a ward of a hero school for four years) into the built-in bookshelf on one side of the room, looking back over to the bed, where a yellow sleeping bag sits.

“What are you doing?” Tenko asks, walking over with a bit of a bounce in his step, looking into the opening of the sleeping bag at the bits of Shouta’s hair sticking out over the part of his face that’s visible.

Shouta opens one eye, looking at Tenko as he leans down a bit to be eye-level. He’s grown a lot since when they first found him.

“Testing the bed,” he says, before shutting his eyes again.

Tenko pouts. “But you’re supposed to be helping!”

“Testing the bed is helping.”

“You can test the bed later. ”

Shouta sighs, but unzips the sleeping bag, stepping out of it onto the ground beside Tenko. He ruffles his hair a bit as he looks down at him.

“Alright, what do you need help with?”

Tenko glances around at the boxes around the room, eventually settling on the box of figures in one of the corners. He rushes over to it, grabbing out two of the figures-- a specially-made Eraserhead figure, and an All Might figure. 

“Top shelf!” he says, grinning. “And we have to put Zashi and Oboro up there too!”

Shouta chuckles. “Got it. Bring them over here.”

Tenko wastes no time rushing over, the two figures gripped in his gloved hands. Shouta takes them, reaching up and setting them beside each other on the top shelf before looking back down at him. 

Tenko looks up at the figures, pressing a finger to his lips as he studies them.

“Move Toshi over more,” he says after a moment. “I want more room for Zashi.”

Shouta nods with a light laugh, moving All Might further towards the left of the shelf until Tenko calls out “There!”

As soon as Shouta stops moving the figure, Tenko rushes back over to the box, pulling out the Present Mic and Loud Cloud figures. Neither are as high-quality as the All Might figure or the custom-made Eraserhead, but Tenko had already said that he didn’t mind as long as he got the first piece of licensed merchandise they had made when they debuted as Pros. It had made both Zashi and Oboro laugh, but they’d agreed.

Shouta takes the figures from his hands and places them down, placing the Present Mic figure on the left of the Eraserhead one and the Loud Cloud one on the right, looking back down at Tenko with a single eyebrow raised.

Tenko steps back to look at them, pressing his finger to his lip once again, before nodding. Shouta chuckles.

“Is that all you needed help with?”

“You can’t go back to sleep yet!”

---

Tenko Shimura is twelve years old, and the low-quality figures of Loud Cloud and Present Mic on his shelf have been replaced by the very first piece of licensed merchandise for the newly-debuted Pros. 

“Hey,” Oboro says, looking at Shouta beside him. “You’re the only one left without a licensed figure up there, Alley Cat.”

“Yeah! Come on, Shou, you’ve been a Pro longer than us, how have you not had one figure licensed?”

“Are you two forgetting what the point of being an underground hero is?”

Tenko pulls his gaze from the figures, looking back at his caretakers with wide eyes. He’s far from the six-year-old child they found on the streets all those years ago. The shine in his eyes makes that much obvious.

“You should get one,” Tenko says. “Just one licensed figure. That way they can all be official.”

Shouta sighs. “The custom-made one you have might as well be official.”

“But it’s not licensed. ”

“You’d rather have a mass-produced figure that others have versions of, than a custom-made one that no one else has.”

Tenko nods. “Yes.”

Aizawa sighs again, dragging his hand over his face. “Fine. I’ll consider it.”

---

(Tenko is thirteen, and an officially-licensed Eraserhead figure has made itself at home on the shelf with Loud Cloud and Present Mic.)

---

Tenko Shimura is fourteen, and he’s pacing alongside Sir Nighteye in a hospital waiting room. 

An extra pair of gloves hangs out of his pocket, the ones on his hands threatening to disintegrate every time he pulls his hands into fists. He can tell that the texture is off already, his Quirk already affecting the gloves, but he can’t stop fidgeting as he paces. It’s either clenching and relaxing his fists, scratching at his neck, or wringing his hands, alternating as he continues to walk in circles.

Air hits the fingers covered by the gloves, and he stops in his tracks as he stares down at his now-bare hands, the gloves now floating in the air as dust. 

Tenko pulls his extra gloves from his pocket, carefully held without his ring finger. One falls to the ground, and he huffs as he pulls on the first glove on his left hand before picking up the fallen glove and pulling it on his right hand.

He walks over to where Shouta, Oboro, and Hizashi are sitting, leg bouncing as he rests his hands on his knees. It gives him something to grip so he doesn’t accidentally disintegrate his gloves again (he doesn’t have a third pair with him), and prevents him from scratching at his neck, and the leg-bouncing replaces the pacing.

A tiny cloud floats in front of him, and he stares at it for a moment, before looking at Oboro, who’s messing with his own tiny cloud as he looks back at Tenko.

He sighs, falling back in his chair and blowing the cloud away from his face, the mist dispersing for a second only for it to reform and rush back at Tenko, dispersing back into mist as it hits him directly in the face. 

He blinks a few times as the mist clears, leaning forward a bit to glare at Oboro, whose attention has focused back on the cloud in his own hands. There’s a small smirk on his face, though, and Tenko is smart enough to know that that’s his way of acknowledging what he did.

Tenko falls back in his chair once again, arms crossed, and he doesn’t realize that Oboro had successfully distracted him from why they were here until the door leading to the rest of the hospital opens.

He shoots to his feet as Sir Nighteye stops pacing, both staring at Recovery Girl where she stands on the other side of the door. 

She looks across the group for only a moment before speaking. “You’re all welcome to come in. He’s stabilized, as of now.”

Tenko doesn’t need to be told twice. Barely a second passes before he’s rushing past Recovery Girl, eyes scanning the names on the room doors until he finds Toshinori Yagi , shoving it open instantly.

“Toshi!” he cries, rushing into the room and gripping the bar on the edge of the bed. His original plan had been to grab onto Toshinori himself, but the bandages he’d seen as soon as he got the door open changed that plan in seconds. Tears prick at the corner of his eyes as he takes in the sheer number of bandages around the hero’s body.

Toshinori takes a moment to open a single eye, looking over the edge of the bed at Tenko. 

He gives what Tenko assumes is supposed to be a smile as he reaches up and places a hand against his cheek.

“Young Tenko.”

---

Tenko is still fourteen, and with Shouta watching nearby, he jumps between piles of trash on Takoba Beach. Gloveless hands brush against nearby pieces as he passes them, brushing the pieces behind him as he jumps to the next.

It’s slow, but faster than it would be if he was trying to clear the beach with his physical strength. He lands on the sand, attempting a roll, but ends up falling flat on his chest despite his efforts. 

Coughing against the sand, he rolls over and starts to catch his breath, looking back at what’s left of the pile behind him as he does so.

It’s not a large improvement, but it’s definitely improvement. The dust left behind from the trash is still being broken apart and taken away by the wind. By the time it’s done, it’ll be indistinguishable from any other dust.

The ground level hasn’t made much progress, but with the technique he’s using, that’s to be expected. Decaying part of the base of the piles would only end in disaster, anyways. 

But as the process goes on, the sunset becomes more and more visible over the piles.

He looks over at Shouta, ready to say that he’s done for the day, when he sees Toshinori-- much thinner than he was just a few months ago, but still undeniably Toshinori-- talking with him.

Tenko pushes himself to his feet in seconds, shoes scrambling to get a grip against the sand for a moment before he rushes towards the two.

“Toshinori!” he calls, pushing himself to a stop before he can pull the other into a hug, reminding himself that his gloves are in the bag set on the ground next to Aizawa still. Technically speaking, he doesn’t need them anymore, not with the Quirk counseling he went through as a kid alongside the instinctive way he touches things when his gloves are off, but he’d really rather be safe than sorry.

Toshinori looks over at Tenko, smiling down at him as they meet eyes. “Young Tenko. You’ve made nice progress on the beach.”

Tenko grins, looking back over his shoulder at the steadily shrinking piles. 

“Well, I figured it would be a good way to work on my Quirk, plus speed and agility,” he says, turning back to Toshinori. “I have a feeling no Quirk gym would be too happy with me destroying their equipment. Besides, this beach has really been neglected, and Decaying things gets rid of a lot of pollution really quickly.”

“That’s true. It’s a good way to train your Quirk, and it helps the community while you’re at it.”

“Yeah! I figured that, if it’s training for UA’s entrance exam, I might as well do something heroic, right?”

“I couldn’t have thought of anything better to do for training myself.” Toshinori glances over at Shouta for a moment before looking back to Tenko. “Why don’t we take a walk, Young Tenko? There’s something I’d like to talk to you about.”

Tenko looks over at Shouta, who shrugs and gives him a “go ahead” gesture. There was nothing to worry about in the first place. It’s Toshinori, who might as well be Tenko’s uncle. But, in Tenko’s mind, it’s always worth asking permission, just in case. His caretakers had taught him about that as part of his basic safety from when he first became a ward of UA.

With that confirmation, Tenko nods to Toshinori, and both begin walking away, going around the piles of trash yet to be fully cleared. It’s silent for the first minute or two.

“So what did you want to talk to me about?” Tenko asks, one hand idly scratching at the dry skin on his neck. 

“You know that your grandmother was my mentor, correct?” 

“Yeah? She started training you because she liked the Symbol of Peace idea, right?”

“She was one of the first to believe in it. That’s only where it started, Young Tenko.”

By the time the story is over, All Might is looking at him expectantly.

With an offer.

An impossible offer.

“You want to give me your Quirk one day. When I’m older and better trained.”

Toshinori nods.

And if Tenko knows anything about the man that might as well be his uncle, it’s that he’d never lie about something like this.

So he takes a moment to stare at the sand in front of them, listen to the crashing of the waves, feel the sand shift with every step he takes.

And then he looks back up at Toshinori with a grin.

“I’ll take it.”

---

Tenko Shimura is still fourteen, and the entrance to the grounds for the practical exam stands in front of him.

He ditched his gloves when he switched into the tracksuit he’d been wearing for training, keeping his space from the rest of the group as he ran through some basic stretches, focusing on his arms, wrists, and hands. He can’t afford his hand cramping because he didn’t prepare it for Quirk use properly. 

He looks across the group, trying to figure out any possible threats. Nothing notable, that he sees. The mutant types are all base-strength from the looks of it, and from the way they’re stretching their entire body instead of a specific part (save for a few whose mutations seem to focus on only part of their body), the emitter types are all doing similar stretches to Tenko focusing on different parts of the body, the transformation types are doing the same. Through it all, everyone is taking deep breaths, grounding themselves in preparation for the task ahead of them.

“ UA Entrance Exam, Group C, ready? Start! ”

And the group is off.

Tenko splits off as soon as he can, rushing to find an enemy, when one of them pops out directly in front of him.

A one-pointer. Not great, but easy enough.

“ Target spotted. ”

It moves to slam its… arm? Down onto Tenko, but he’s ready for it, hands meeting the metal before it can hit him. It crumbles to dust in his hands, Decay spreading over the rest of the bot.

One point. Alright, a good start.

He rushes off to find another, finding himself face-to-face with a three-pointer and two two-pointers.

The two-pointers come at him first, and one hand goes out on both sides to hit them. Decay doesn’t spread as fast with only one point of contact, but the enemies crumble nonetheless, as Tenko rushes the three-pointer, dodging an attack with a quick roll and hitting the tracks pulling it along, running off before it even finishes Decaying.

Eight points.

He hits a two-pointer as it charges him, directly followed by a one-pointer.

Eleven points.

He jumps onto the arm of a two-pointer, hand meeting its head for a moment, flipping over a three-pointer with a single hand hitting each of its heads as he does so, landing on the arm of a one-pointer and hitting it with both hands before jumping off, rolling as he hits the ground.

Seventeen points. Not bad so far.

There’s no more bots charging him directly, so he takes a moment to regain his bearings before shooting off to find more. 

There’s definitely some other strong fighters here. All around him, there are the remains of some of them, charred, broken apart, and some even melted. (Aren’t they supposed to be heat-proof?)

He finally sees another bot-- a two-pointer-- and rushes towards it, hands already splayed by his sides, ready to shoot forward and make contact. Adrenaline rushes through his veins.

He’s almost there when he has to skid to a stop as blue flames overtake the bot, fading in seconds, leaving the charred and melted remains of it on the ground.

Tenko stands there, frozen, for a moment. He can still feel the heat against his skin.

“You know, maybe the old man was right for not giving me a recommendation,” a voice says, and Tenko looks over to see another boy walking over. White hair, striking blue eyes staring, emotionless, at the melted pieces of what used to be a robot, giving it a light kick with his boots. “This makes getting in a lot easier.”

The boy looks up at him. “Thirty-nine points.”

Thirty-nine points?!

Tenko stares, and after a moment, he realizes the boy’s arms are steaming . That… cannot be a good sign. 

But he simply turns, unconcerned about the steam, looking over his shoulder at Tenko. “You might want to get moving if you want to get in. Though, not sure if they’d want your crusty ass in their school, anyways. Doesn’t quite fit the perfect, glowing hero persona, right?”

Crusty? I know my skin’s dry, but come on, it’s just part of my Quirk! He doesn’t have to be rude about it!

Before Tenko can voice any of this, the boy is gone. Off to find more bots to destroy, he guesses. 

Well. Just gives him more reason to get in. He needs a chance to finish that conversation.

God, just wait until Tenko’s dads hear about that. He’s pretty sure they might break down UA’s walls themselves to find out who the kid is so they can track him down and fight him.

...On second thought, maybe Tenko shouldn’t tell them.

It doesn’t matter, anyways. There’s more bots to destroy.

He’s off again, managing to find and destroy plenty of bots, despite the wreckage lying all over the fake roads. He’s doing well. Forty-nine points.

Up until the zero-pointer is released. 

Tenko stares up at the absolute beast of a robot, and for the first time since the exam started, he’s frozen. He can’t move. Shit.

How the hell is that thing legal?

It gets worse when he hears a shout, and looks toward it to find the white-haired boy from earlier pinned to the ground, fighting to free his arm from under a piece of rubble sent raining down when the zero-pointer was released. 

His fire should be strong enough to melt the rock. He’s fine.

His arms are smoking, and Tenko’s pretty sure he can see burns forming on his arms. 

Nevermind, he is not fine.

Tenko’s not sure what he’s doing rushing at the bot. Can his Quirk even Decay something that big? Can he do it in time? Isn’t Decaying something from the bottom up a horrible idea?

It doesn’t matter, he’s doing it anyways, jumping up onto the broken windowframes of one of the buildings and using it to push himself up to the top of the bot’s tracks. He has to run to counter the movement trying to push him off, nevermind to get onto the solid part of its body connecting the tracks to the rest, but he manages it, and as soon as he does, he presses his hands to the tracks.

Priority one: immobilize your enemy. Especially if you can’t take them on head-to-head. That’s why Shouta has his capture weapon.

The tracks disintegrate under his hands, and as soon as Tenko’s satisfied with the fact that it won’t be able to move much further, he presses his hands to the solid metal body of the bot.

Decay spreads across its tracks, and Tenko only realizes that he should’ve focused on spreading his Quirk evenly front-and-back instead of on both sides of the tracks when it starts careening forward.

Shit.

He rushes off the bot as fast as he can, rushing to the white-haired boy and pressing his hands to the rubble on his arm. It Decays in seconds.

He doesn’t really have time to register the boy grabbing him, and only barely manages to remember to keep one finger off as the boy begins using his flames to propel them away from the bot.

The ground shakes as the bot hits the ground, and Tenko is incredibly relieved that he and the white-haired boy are the only ones that didn’t have the common sense or the ability to run away. They stumble as they come to a stop, and Tenko pulls away as soon as possible, not wanting his hands that close to touching for any longer than they have to be.

The buzzer rings as they both catch their breaths.

“So,” the boy says after a moment, “how many points did you get?”

“Forty-nine,” Tenko answers, running his hands through his hair as he shuts his eyes, breathing still heavy.

“Eighty-two.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“You’ll be fine, though. From what I’ve been hearing, most people only got in the twenties or low thirties at best. It’s kind of sad that they thought they could get in. Your Quirk is contact-based?”

Tenko nods. “Five fingers.”

“Mine’s better suited for long-range attacks. I could just have a wider range of attack than you could. It’ll be interesting to see who’s really better.”

Recovery Girl is calling for anyone who’s injured, and as the boy turns, Tenko notices just how bad the burns on his arms look. From his own Quirk?

He looks over his shoulder as he starts to walk away. “I’ll see you in class. Don’t expect me to be grateful for what you just did. It won’t make me go any easier on you. If I’m going to surpass my old man, I don’t have the option of playing nice.”

And Tenko is left with that.

Well.

That was an interesting exam.

---

Tenko is still, still fourteen. (Wow, what a year.) And he’s just had the most stressful week of his life.

An unopened envelope sits on the table. UA’s emblem is emblazoned on it. Shouta is half-asleep with his head on the table next to him, while Oboro fidgets with a tiny cloud.

The door slams open with a shout of “HEY!” signalling them all to Hizashi’s return. No one does much more than glance up at the door. They’re all used to this.

He’s in the dining room in a second, hair still gelled up in that absolutely obnoxious cockatoo look (not that Tenko would ever ask him to change it). 

“Have you opened it yet?”

Tenko shakes his head, reaching out to grab the letter off the table. “I was waiting for you to get home. I wanted to open it with all three of you.”

He knows there’s nothing to really worry about. The white-haired boy he’d met had said most people averaged 20 to 30 points. He’ll be fine.

Still, his hands shake as he opens the letter. This makes or breaks his future. He’s wanted to be a hero since he was a kid. He’s supposed to get Toshinori’s Quirk and be the next Symbol of Peace. He’s supposed to be the next greatest hero.

And it all comes down to this.

The letter finally opens, and Tenko pulls out a-- a hologram. Okay. This is normal.

It flickers to life in front of him, and he’s sure he doesn’t imagine how his dads cringe beside him at seeing the principal of UA in their house, even if it’s a hologram.

“ Hello, Tenko Shimura! I am Principal Nedzu of UA High, and I’m here with some very good news for you! ”

Tenko can’t help the sigh of relief that escapes him. Good news. Thank god.

“ As you likely know, you earned forty-nine villain points in the practical exam. That’s a very impressive score, and above our average for accepted applicants!

“ However, there is a bit more to it than just villain points. There is more to being a hero than just fighting. As a hero school, we must implement a way to reward those who fulfill parts of heroism beyond the fighting, and we do that here at UA with rescue points! ”

Within the hologram, a screen is put up, displaying the scene with the zero-pointer and the white-haired boy. It cuts between Tenko frozen at first, to him Decaying the tracks, to him Decaying the rubble on the boy’s arm, to the boy blasting them away from the falling bot with his fire. (He can hear his dads gasp behind him when the bot starts falling, but chooses to ignore it.)

“ While the other applicants ran at the sight of the Zero-Pointer, you heard a cry for help and went to stop it. For your direct offense in the defense of another, the judges awarded you sixty rescue points, bringing you to a total of one-hundred and nine points! Not only is that an incredible score, it brings you to second place in the overall applicant scores! ”

The screen that had been showing the zero-pointer a moment ago switches to a list of ten names, with villain and rescue points beside them. The only person above him, with eighty-two villain points and forty rescue points, is named Touya Todoroki. 

That must be the white-haired kid. One-hundred and twenty-two total points. Wow. That has to be some kind of record.

“ Due to your incredible score on the practical exam, as well as your high score on the written exam, I am happy to say that you have been accepted. Welcome to UA, Tenko Shimura! This is your hero academia! ”

The video shuts off.

The dining room is silent for a few moments, before Tenko speaks.

“I got in.” It’s barely a whisper, but then he repeats himself, the volume raised to nearly a shout. “I got in!”

Needless to say, there’s a celebration in the Aizawa-Yamada-Shirakumo and Shimura household that night.

---

Tenko Shimura is fifteen, and he’s standing outside his house on a cloud. 

“Is this really necessary?”

Oboro looks over at him from his own cloud, grinning. “Yep! You gotta show up in style.”

“I really think there’s better ways to do that than this.”

“Too bad, we’re doing this. And we have to get going now if we don’t want Shouta or Hizashi to stop us.”

“Yeah, if they wouldn’t want me doing this, maybe it’s not such a great-- idea-- ”

Tenko didn’t get the chance to finish that thought as his cloud starts rushing ahead, falling backward onto the section of it that’s behind him. He sits up, spitting some of his hair out of his mouth and looking to his right to see Oboro crouched on his own cloud, grinning over at him.

“You can’t stand up! You gotta stay low!”

“Thanks, would’ve been great to know before we started!”

Oboro laughs, the wind taking most of the sound with it. 

Tenko manages to pull himself into a crouching position, mirroring his dad’s as he places his hands on the cloud for some more stability. The cloud weaves through the streets, around people and cars, and Tenko can tell that people are staring. A few recognize Oboro, clearly, as there’s shouts of “Loud Cloud!” chasing after them as they go. A few even cheer them on.

When the streets get too crowded, the clouds lift further into the air. They don’t go above the height of most buildings, but they go high enough to avoid any cars or trucks that pass by. 

The initial adrenaline rush is fading as Tenko grins, the wind rushing through his hair, undoubtedly messing up his uniform, but that’s an issue he can fix when he gets to school. 

“Tenko!” Oboro calls. “You think that boy from the entrance exam’ll still think he’s above you when you show up like this?”

“I don’t know!” Tenko shouts back. “But you were right! This was a great idea!”

“Your other dads are going to kill me!”

“I’ll give a nice speech at your funeral!”

“Thank you!”

Tenko laughs, his smile wide enough to force his eyes shut, but he reopens them after a moment, looking around to take in the view. Sure, it’s not as high as they could be, but it’s still higher than Tenko’s ever been, and it’s a whole new way to view the city. Oboro is waving to a few civilians who call out his hero name.

He’s sure they’re wondering who he is, but it doesn’t matter to him. They’ll find out in a few months. He’s not going to UA for nothing. The sports festival is only a few months into the year.

They’re at the gates far sooner than Tenko expected, and he’s laughing as he hops off the already-dispersing cloud. 

“Have a good first day, alright?” Oboro says, hopping off his own cloud to pull Tenko into a hug. “Remember, you’ve got this! What household are you from?”

Tenko laughs. It’s long. He knows it is. He knows it is every time he thinks it in his head. “The Aizawa-Yamada-Shirakumo and Shimura household.”

“Exactly! Three Pros and a soon-to-be hero. You’re gonna be great.” Oboro reaches up to ruffle his hair. “I have to head to work, so I’ll see you tonight, alright, Tenko?”

“If Shouta and Hizashi don’t kill you first.”

Oboro laughs. “If they don’t kill me first, yeah.” He hops back up onto his cloud, dropping back into the crouching position he had been in a minute ago. “I’ll see you! Have a great first day!”

“Have a good day at work.”

“I will!”

And Oboro is off, his cloud racing off in the same way it had with Tenko a bit ago. 

“Loud Cloud, huh?”

Tenko turns, meeting the emotionless, striking blue eyes of the white-haired boy from the entrance exam.

“Oh, it’s you!” he says, grinning. “You got first on the entrance exam, didn’t you? Touya Todoroki, right?”

Todoroki rolls his eyes. “Yeah. Didn’t know about the rescue points, but whatever, I’m not complaining. Who’re your other parents? Didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but three Pros in one family must make for one interesting household.”

“Oh-- uh, Hizashi is Present Mic, and Shouta’s an underground hero.”

Todoroki raises an eyebrow. “Underground? I don’t know a lot of those.”

“Yeah, most people don’t. He’s Eraserhead.”

He hums. “Must be interesting. I’ve only got one Pro parent.”

“Who--?”

“It’s not obvious? Well, I’ll take that where I can get it.”

Obvious?

When it clicks a moment later, Tenko almost smacks himself in the face. Of course. The fire, the eye color, the hair texture.

“Endeavor? Holy shit, dude.”

“Yeah, it’s absolutely amazing ,” Todoroki says, rolling his eyes, his words dripping with sarcasm.

“That’s what you meant when you said he could’ve given you recommendations! A recommendation from the number two paired with a performance like what you did in the normal exam would’ve definitely gotten you in.”

“I don’t want his damn recommendation.”

Tenko pauses, blinking as he processes that and waits for an explanation.

He doesn’t get one. Todoroki turns and starts heading inside the gates.

“I’m going to be late. You might want to hurry up too.”

“Oh, shit, right!”

And they end up at the same door.

They glance at each other, before Tenko pushes open the door, stepping inside and going to find his seat.

Todoroki sits down next to him.

Once again, they glance at each other for a moment.

Well.

Here’s to the start of the school year.

---

Tenko Shimura is fifteen, and a much skinnier Toshinori is sitting in his house, not that it’s unusual.

“The Sports Festival is soon, isn’t it?”

Tenko nods. “Yeah, end of the month. I’ve been having to put in a lot more physical training to get ready for it.”

Toshinori hums. “You know the offer I made you a few months ago?”

Again, Tenko nods. Of course he does.

“I want you to announce yourself as the next Symbol at the Festival. Tell the world that you are here.”

Tenko stares for a moment, before pressing his eyebrows together and his mouth into a line.

“So I have to win.”

“Right. I don’t doubt that you can, Tenko.”

“You don’t know my classmates. Endeavor’s son is one of them.”

“That only gives you more reason to try. You’ll be the next number one one day. Now’s as good a time to start as ever.”

Tenko looks up, meeting Toshinori’s eyes. Toshinori is giving him a grin, far more skeletal than his usual trademark smile, but it has the same feeling to it.

Tenko can’t help but return it.

“I’ll try. I’ll say it. I’ll make sure they hear me.”

Toshinori’s grin widens. “I’m looking forward to seeing it.”

---

Todoroki is chosen to give the speech to open the festival. Not that anyone is surprised. Not only was he number one in the hero practical exam results, he has one of the highest scores in the history of UA.

There’s still no emotion in those eyes as he stares out over the crowd, standing in front of the microphone.

“I’m here today because my father wanted a child with a powerful Quirk. I am not at this school because of what he wanted.” 

Interesting way to open that, but okay. Tenko notes that he should really work on getting some of those walls down. Todoroki’s family life sounds absolutely horrible.

“This is what I have to say to everyone here. We are the next generation of heroes, of inventors, of the behind-the-scenes business and marketing specialists, of Quirk analysts, of whatever else you’re here to be. And we are going to be better than our parents could ever hope to be.

“This is our first chance to show it. Make me fight to win, because I will win. Plus Ultra.”

There’s no enthusiasm in his voice. But he leaves it off at that, and rejoins the crowd.

Tenko looks over at him.

He just stares at the ground.

And the first event is announced.

---

Fourth place.

Tenko got in fourth place for the first event.

After him, other students begin coming in pretty steadily. He was hoping to get the chance to talk to Todoroki before there were too many people around, but it looks like he’ll have to wait for that.

Besides, he seems a little preoccupied, glancing over the stands, looking for something.

Or someone.

Tenko follows his gaze. It doesn’t take a genius to know who he’s looking for. Everything about Todoroki screams that, despite his clear hatred for his father, he wants him to care.

But there’s a clear absence of any Flame Heroes in the audience.

---

Forty people pass the first event.

The second event is a partner event. Tenko isn’t surprised. The second event is always either partners or groups. They have ten minutes to find a partner. The only problem is that they haven’t announced what the event is. 

“Shimura.”

He turns at the voice, meeting a familiar pair of blue eyes.

“Todoroki? What’s up?”

“Partner with me. We worked well together in the entrance exam, and if we pass, I’ll have the chance to face you next round.”

Tenko thinks for a moment. 

He isn’t wrong. Sure, the comment about facing him in the final round is a little concerning, but it’s to be expected. Everyone’s waiting to face someone in the final round. It’s always one-versus-ones. 

“Deal.” Tenko holds out his hand, and after a moment’s hesitation, Todoroki takes it, shaking it.

“Don’t slow me down. And don’t think this means we’re friends.”

Oh, Todoroki. You’ll be eating those words as soon as I figure out how Oboro and Hizashi got Shouta to befriend them.

---

They re-enter the gates of the stadium in first place, the crowd cheering as they do. 

Tenko grins as he looks over the crowd, holding up a single fist.

“Tell the world that you are here.”

I hope you’re watching me, All Might.

I’m doing it.

---

After a day of adrenaline-filled events, everything culminates in the awards ceremony.

Tenko can hear cheering above him as he waits on the platform beneath the stadium, hands back in their gloves and fidgeting beside him, tapping against his sides.

After what feels like an eternity, the platform starts moving, and light greets him alongside yells, clear as day, celebratory.

Celebrating him . 

Or, well. Celebrating all of this. The debuts of new students, the shows of power, the valiant efforts by everyone involved. Tenko’s proud of himself, but he’s not self-absorbed enough to think this is all him.

He glances over to his right, where Todoroki is standing, hands clenched into fists as he stares at the ground in front of the podium. Bandages cover his arms and part of his hands, as well as a single patch on his cheek. 

He goes to say something, to reassure him that he did well, but before he can, Principal Nedzu is going from the third-place winners to Todoroki, silver medal in hand.

Vlad King is helping him reach the student’s necks to give them the awards, letting the rat-mouse-bear-whatever sit on his shoulders to place the medal around Todoroki’s neck.

“You did very well, Todoroki! I’m sure your father is proud! You put up an incredible fight, even if you didn’t win in the end. There’s always next year!”

Todoroki only nods in response, barely meeting the principal’s eyes, instead resting the silver medal in his hands and staring at his reflection in it.

So Nedzu moves on to Tenko, holding out a gold medal. Tenko ducks his head to allow the principal to slide it over.

“Shimura, you’ve come an incredible distance from where you were when you first arrived on school grounds as a ward of UA nearly ten years ago. You clearly put your all into this festival, and you’ve earned this medal with your own tactics, skills, and hard work. I, as well as all the other teachers here at UA, are happy to call you one of our students. I cannot wait to see where you go from here.” 

Tenko grins at Nedzu, resting his hand against the cool metal of the award around his neck. “Thank you. I promise I won’t disappoint you, or anyone. I’ll be the best hero I can.”

“I don’t doubt it.”

And with that, the Sports Festival is over.

The locker room is a bit awkward. Changed back into casual clothes, since the festival took up the entire school day, Todoroki leaves the medal on, but keeps staring down at it. Tenko puts his in his bag, if only to avoid losing it.

“Hey, Todoroki,” Tenko calls as he zips his bag closed. “You did really well, alright? You just need to work more on your balance.”

Todoroki stares for a moment, but sighs. “You’re right. I do. I’m not letting you win against me again.”

Tenko chuckles. “Of course not.”

They walk in silence out of the stadium, up until Todoroki gets tackled and pulled aside by two others, who, based on their appearances, are his siblings. Tenko stifles a laugh as he watches them go, not able to pick up much of their conversation.

Other than the youngest, probably around twelve or thirteen if Tenko had to guess, calling out to Tenko.

“Hey! Shimura! Thank you for being Touya’s friend!”

“He’s not my friend, Natsu--”

“Yes he is!”

Tenko doesn’t stifle his laughter this time as he turns fully, giving a small wave.

“No problem!”

Because really, even if he doesn’t know it yet, Todoroki is his friend.

---

Tenko Shimura is sixteen, and he’s finally realizing how deep the friendship he’d made with Touya runs. He’s finally gotten past the walls he’s been worrying about since the Sports Festival last year.

He hadn’t even been expecting it. He’d just noticed a decent bruise on Touya’s arm that couldn’t be explained by training-- he hadn’t gotten hit there recently. Tenko would know. He pays really close attention.

And somehow, it had led to him sitting in his dining room with the four Todoroki siblings, glancing out the window at Shouta pacing in the backyard, clearly shouting something into his phone, but Tenko can’t hear it. 

Shouta does not take kindly to people mistreating their children, to put it lightly. 

If Tenko wasn’t this close to destroying Endeavor, he’d feel bad for the Pro. But he doesn’t. Not after Touya finally fully dropped the emotionless facade to fall apart in Tenko’s arms. 

Tenko knows what a hero is. Tenko knows what a Pro should be. And Endeavor isn’t one of them. So if his dads tear his career to shreds, Tenko isn’t going to feel bad.

He can deal with the anger later, though. Right now, there’s four people in his house, all of which are clearly uncomfortable, and Tenko needs to help them calm down.

“So, uh.” Distractions? Distractions would probably help. “Do you guys… want to play Mario Kart or something?”

The youngest-- Shouto-- blinks up at him, heterochromatic eyes staring into red. “What’s Mario Kart?”

Tenko pauses, staring, a million thoughts running through his head.

What’s Mario Kart?

Shouto doesn’t know what Mario Kart is? He’s ten. He should know what Mario Kart is.

Didn’t Touya say he was isolated from most kid stuff?

What’s Mario Kart?

How. How has he never even heard of Mario Kart.

Endeavor didn’t let him play Mario Kart?!

He looks up at Touya, hoping his eyes send the message he’s trying to convey.

Why the fuck does Shouto not know what Mario Kart is, Touya?!

WHAT’S MARIO KART?!

Finally, he takes a deep breath, shutting his eyes. Right. This is supposed to be a distraction. It’s supposed to be comforting.

“Well. We’re playing Mario Kart.”

Tenko takes a bit to show Shouto how to play, before letting Fuyumi and Natsuo take over. Touya is sitting in the corner of the room, curled up on the ground instead of on the couch.

Tenko makes his way over, sliding to the ground next to him. “Hey.”

Touya looks up at him, meeting his eyes and giving a hum of acknowledgement. 

“Do you not want to play?”

“It’s fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

Tenko presses his eyebrows together, mouth pressed into a line. “Alright. I’ll sit over here with you, then.”

He does for a while, keeping a bit of space between them, but sitting close enough that he’s there if Touya needs someone to ground him. Tenko is mostly paying attention to the game going on in the center of the room.

He’s the only one of the two to notice when the game pauses, and Shouto shifts off the couch, a second controller in hand as he walks over.

“Touya?” Shouto asks, holding out the spare controller. “Natsu wants you to play with us.”

Touya shifts, looking up at his younger brother, and with the shift Tenko finally notices a forming bruise under his eye. Oh. No wonder he’s shut down right now.

He reaches out to take the controller, pushing himself to his feet as soon as it’s in his hands. “Alright. Let’s go, then.”

Tenko watches them go, and stays where he is for a moment before standing up and heading over to one of the chairs to watch.

No, maybe things aren’t okay for the siblings yet.

But-- he glances out the window to see Shouta still pacing and holding the phone to his ear-- they will be, hopefully soon.

---

Tenko is seventeen, and he’s finally set up with a work study. 

With his dads’ agency, of course, because where else? He’s wanted to at least intern with them since he was a kid and the agency was first established. There was never a chance that he wouldn’t be interning with them. 

Especially since Toshinori doesn’t take on work study students. He considers the villains he faces off against, as well as his own power, too dangerous to put any other heroes at risk, especially students.

One of the best parts of the Dusk Agency is that it doesn’t specialize in either underground or daylight heroics. It provides a place for both, with Shouta handling most of the underground work while Hizashi and Oboro handle daylight. 

Tenko knows he’s going to be a daylight hero, but that doesn’t mean he can’t enjoy learning about the other side of heroics. 

His work study combines both.

When he misses school, it’s to work with Hizashi, Oboro, or one of the other daylight Pros. It’s to get firsthand experience with publicity, image, working with fans. 

When he comes to school tired, it’s from a late-night work study with Shouta or one of the other underground Pros. It’s to get firsthand experience with the quiet parts of heroics. Learning to take down villains quickly, not flashily, to work with the police and detectives, to investigate, and to handle some of the dirtier cases that the public doesn’t like hearing about, so they get brushed aside by most daylight Pros. 

It’s all the experience Tenko needs to clear up what kind of hero he wants to be. 

He’s going to be a daylight hero, so he can take up the Symbol of Peace mantle like Toshinori wants him to, but that doesn’t mean he can’t use some of the information he learns working with Shouta. That doesn’t mean he can’t investigate, handle the messy cases, and focus on quick, clean takedowns. 

He wants to be the kind of heroes his parents are. He wants to make sure other kids like him are seen, and found, and not left behind by society with whispers of “a hero will find them eventually.”

He’s reminded of that every time he leaves another day (or night) of his work study, a pat on the head from one of his dads as a “see you later”. 

Miataru . To be found.

Tenko, Miataru, is going to walk the line between the two sides of heroics. He’ll be one of the first to blur the lines.

That doesn’t mean he’ll be the last.

---

Tenko is still seventeen, soon to be graduated, with a brand-new Professional Hero License held in his gloved hands.

Tenko Shimura. Quirk: Decay. Hero Name: Miataru. 

He takes a picture of it, sending it to the group chat between him, his dads, and Toshinori. 

He tucks his phone away afterwards, glancing over to Touya, who’s taking a selfie with his license, sticking his tongue out and just barely holding out the license as he flips the camera off with the same hand.

“What are you doing?” Tenko asks.

“Oh, cool, you’re done, take this picture for me.”

Touya all but shoves his phone into Tenko’s hands, shifting his license to his now-freed hand, while continuing to flip the camera off.

Tenko sighs, adjusting his grip on the phone to take a proper picture before handing it back.

“Who are you even sending that to?”

“Oh, Enji.”

“Of course you are.”

“We haven’t talked since last year. Let me have this. I’d kill to see his face when he finds out his failure of a son has a hero license when he doesn’t anymore, honestly.”

“Killing’s not a very heroic thing to do.”

Touya chuckles. “Fuck off.”

“You know you love me.”

---

Tenko is eighteen, newly graduated, and is waiting on Takoba Beach for Toshinori.

The beach has stayed clean over the past few years. He stands on the shore that used to be buried beneath mountains of trash, the sunset reflecting off of the water, and takes a few deep breaths, letting the breeze wash over him.

“Young Tenko!” Toshinori’s voice calls, and he turns, looking over his shoulder at the deflated form of the hero, smiling.

“Toshinori!” 

Toshinori steps up to Tenko’s side, meeting his eyes for a moment before looking out over the water. 

“You know, it looks almost exactly like when we first decided on this,” Tenko says. “Just cleaner.”

“That it does. Four years is a lot of room for change.” Toshinori looks back over at Tenko, smile smaller than his usual signature one, and holding something gentle behind it. “From a fledgling hero student to a licensed hero. I’m proud of you, Young Tenko. Your grandmother would be, too.”

Tenko’s expression softens as he looks over at Toshinori.

“I hope she is.”

The pair stands in silence for a moment, turning back to watch the waves lapping at the shore, the ripples breaking up the sun’s reflection.

It’s peaceful. Everything feels like it’s come full circle. This is where it started, and this is where the work to earn it finishes. 

The beach is clean, the waves are quiet, the wind is cool against Tenko’s skin as it pushes at his hair. He brushes pieces back behind his ear when they blow into his face.

“Young Tenko,” Toshinori says, cutting through the silence. “You are aware of what taking this power means, right?”

Tenko looks up at him, taking a moment before nodding. He knows. He’s prepared for the responsibilities and risks that come with it.

“You’re still sure?”

“I am.”

It’s all Tenko really knows. That this is Toshinori’s power, and that before him, it was Tenko’s grandmother’s, and now, it’s going to be his. At least for a little while.

One For All is cultivated by each user, and undoubtedly, Tenko will find someone else to continue its cultivation one day. He just hopes their job will be to uphold peace without the threat of All For One. 

Toshinori smiles down at him, and Tenko wonders how many people have been close enough to him to really see that kind of smile. Not the courageous smile he uses to comfort scared civilians, but the gentle one he saves for his loved ones.

As if Tenko didn’t already feel small enough next to the weak form of Toshinori, the hero activates his Quirk, standing up straight for once. He easily stands over a foot taller than Tenko, and the sheer mass of his muscled form doesn’t help matters. Knowing the man for ten years doesn’t make the difference any less jarring.

“You’ve gone far beyond my expectations for you, Young Tenko,” Toshinori says, giving his truly signature smile, a hint of the care in his more reserved one still visible. “From the day you agreed to be my successor, you’ve worked hard to make yourself a young hero worthy of One For All. Earning your professional hero license and graduating from UA was only the beginning. You have much farther to go, and I’m sure you’ll make it that far and beyond. You’ve lived up to the motto of UA, and you’ll provide the country with a brand new Symbol to the same level.”

Tenko can tell his eyes are watery, but he doesn’t care. This moment has been in the back of his head for the past four years. 

Toshinori plucks a single hair from his head, and holds it out to Tenko. 

“Eat this.”

And the moment is ruined.

Tenko stares at the hair, glancing back up at Toshinori’s face and back a few times.

“Excuse my language for one moment.

“ What the fuck? ”

---

One For All is not an easy power to master.

At all.

And Tenko is pretty sure three hospital visits in two weeks is a bit excessive.

Touya clearly agrees, sitting beside the hospital bed with his arms crossed as Tenko lays his head back, Recovery Girl’s power washing over his body and speeding up the healing of his arms.

She’s already gone, having stormed off with a huff about “reckless teenagers, even after graduation, don’t they know I have a new school year to deal with?” shortly after beginning the healing process. Which just leaves Touya and Tenko in the hospital room, Toshinori caught up in a villain attack.

Tenko doesn’t really feel like using the energy needed to lift his head up, so he just tilts his head over to look at Touya, who’s glaring at him with the same striking blue eyes as always.

“Alright,” Touya starts, “both of us know your bones exploding from the inside isn’t an effect of Decay, and you can’t blame three separate incidents on one villain’s Quirk.”

He narrows his eyes, and the blue there might as well be his fire of the same color with the way it burns into Tenko. “So what’s going on.”

Tenko glances around the hospital room to the best of his ability, before Touya cuts in. “There’s no one else in here, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Still, Tenko isn’t sure how he feels about talking about One For All here, and Touya’s always been good at telling when he’s lying. 

“Can we talk about it later?” he asks, and Touya sighs, sliding down in his seat.

“Why didn’t I know you were going to say that. Fine.”

They sit in silence for a moment, before shifting into more idle chatter as the healing process continues. 

Tenko is released later that day, and immediately passes out in his room as soon as Touya drops him off. He almost forgets about the promise to talk about One For All later until he walks out of his room, ruffling his hair in an attempt to fix the bedhead that’s definitely formed from the nap, and finds Touya playing his Switch in the living room.

Touya glances up, pausing his game as he notices Tenko before silently patting the seat on the couch next to him, shifting his legs to make room.

Tenko sighs, but walks over. He’d already agreed to tell him. It’s not like he’d be able to hide it for that long, anyways.

“So,” Touya says, once Tenko’s settled down next to him. “Bones.”

“Bones? That’s how you’re opening this?”

“Yeah. What, is it inaccurate?”

“I--” Tenko takes a breath, sighing. “I guess not.”

“Right. So, what’s the deal with the bone thing.”

“...You know my uncle Toshinori?”

Touya raises an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

“Uh, he’s All Might.”

Touya splutters, before pressing a hand to his mouth. “I’m sorry, what? ”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. Okay, how is that relevant to the bone thing. Is All Might breaking your bones? Do we need to destroy the career of another top hero?”

“ No! ” Tenko shouts, waving his hands in front of his chest. “No, no, he-- okay, so his mentor was my grandmother, okay? That’s how we know each other. And she had a Quirk, called One For All, that let her transfer stockpiled power, and she gave it to All Might, and All Might gave it to me.”

Touya blinks, staring, eyes wide.

“...Uh.”

They sit there in silence, save for the pause music of the game Touya was playing, for a few moments.

“Okay, let me just-- let me start from the beginning.”

---

After those first few weeks, Tenko starts slowly getting the hang of One For All. He’s signed on as a sidekick at the Dusk Agency, and starts building up from fifteen percent. He isn’t sure how his dads don’t figure out something’s up with his Quirk, but it makes life a lot easier for him when it comes to keeping the secret.

Arguably the only bad part of One For All is the way it makes his hair stand up. Which has led to countless jokes from Touya about him secretly being Shouta’s biological child. It would be bearable if Shouto wasn’t taking it seriously from the moment he first overheard it. He loved the kid, but really?

Other than that, the power it gives him is a rush he’d never felt before. Light blue lightning arcs around his body when it’s active, and, according to Touya, it makes his eyes glow a bit, which is badass as fuck.

He did have to go back and work on Decay, thanks to how One For All’s stockpiled power strengthened it, but the most it did was make the particles smaller and speed up how fast Decay worked. It was nothing Tenko couldn’t learn to work with.

And, once he starts building up to it, he manages to reach one hundred percent fairly quickly. That’s not to say it doesn’t leave him sore, but at the least, it doesn’t break his bones anymore.

His comfort zone with the Quirk falls somewhere around the forty-to-fifty-percent range, though he goes above that if he needs to.

And he knows what it’s all leading up to.

He knew what it was leading up to before he even got the Quirk.

He’s twenty when the first signs begin to show. The appearances of multi-Quirked beings, starting at the USJ, with the group going by the League of Villains. With All Might’s power fading far faster the longer time goes on, other heroes are struggling to defeat the beings-- Nomus.

And then there’s the attack on UA’s first-year training camp.

He’d had to push to be put on the team for the case. The student kidnapped was in Shouta’s homeroom, as well as in Oboro and Hizashi’s classes. Not to mention, he was friends with Midoriya, the Quirkless fledgling hero Tenko had saved from a villain over a year ago now. 

It’s painfully personal, which is why Tenko needs to be there.

And that doesn’t even touch on All For One’s undeniable involvement.

The more background research they do into the villains responsible, the angrier Tenko is that they didn’t find out about any of these people sooner. Sure, Miataru can’t find everyone -- but Himiko Toga’s case hits too close for comfort. A held-back Quirk that led to death. 

Part of him hopes that he has the chance to make sure she’s found and rescued tonight. Maybe he can pull some strings to get her into a rehabilitation program instead of a prison.

She’s only a year older than the kids she helped attack. She’s still a child. Tenko doesn’t want to throw a child in prison if he can help it.

“Miataru,” Touya’s voice calls. Dabi. Right. He’s still a sidekick, too, but with the Burnin’ Agency, so they don’t get to work together nearly as much as he’d like. “You ready?”

They’re on separate teams. Dabi was assigned to the bar where they believe the kid-- Bakugou, or Kacchan, if he’s going with what Midoriya calls him-- is being kept, while Tenko is assigned to the team going after where they believe the Nomus are being kept.

It’s not going to be an easy fight on either fronts, but they’re hoping to have the element of surprise alongside strong heroes on each side. 

Tenko forces a grin, nodding, determination blazing in his eyes as he looks back at Dabi.

“Yeah,” Miataru answers.

Tonight might as well be their debuts. They don’t have the choice of not being ready.

---

The fight wasn’t pretty. But they won.

Bonus points for Tenko making it out of there with his life and his mentor, and without any permanently debilitating injuries.

That isn’t to say he was uninjured. He can use One For All at 100%, but he’d had to push himself a bit further than that, alongside Toshinori, to beat All For One. Not to mention the fact that Keigo’s feathers hurt like a bitch when he used them as weapons. Tenko won’t be surprised if some of the stab and-or slash wounds he left leave scars.

They didn’t even catch any of them. Every League member other than All For One got away. Including Toga. 

Part of Tenko is disappointed at not being able to follow through with his plan of getting her help, but the rest of him reminds him that the main goals of the attack were met. All For One is in prison, and Bakugou was rescued.

Albeit, not how they planned to have him rescued. (He can see why Shouta calls Midoriya a problem child. Tenko reminds himself to call him later to scold him for being there-- oh, God, he’s turning into his dads. Since when does he scold anyone? )

That’s a problem for later, though. For now, he’s enjoying the feeling of being able to move his arms again, even if they’re still heavily bandaged, thanks to Recovery Girl’s help. He hasn’t gotten the clear to leave his room to go see Toshinori yet, but he’s hoping he will soon.

For now, the door to his room is opening, and Tenko glances over to see his dads entering. 

Their conversation stops as they notice he’s awake, all three immediately rushing over to take turns tackling him into hugs. Hizashi is first, and Tenko lets out an oof as the air is knocked out of him by the pure strength behind the hug.

He wants to say something about how he’s still sore, but since moving out, it feels like he’s gotten less and less hugs from his dads, even while working at their agency. So he ignores the pain to smile and hug Hizashi back, then Shouta, and finally Oboro.

“We’re glad you’re okay,” Oboro says as he pulls away, as if it wasn’t obvious by the way they all hugged him. 

“I’m glad you three are okay, too. How’s Bakugou and Toshinori?”

“Bakugou was uninjured,” Shouta says. “He’s at home now, but we’re planning on moving the students into dorms. As for Toshinori…”

It goes quiet.

For a moment, Tenko assumes the worst.

“He’s having to retire,” Hizashi finishes on Shouta’s behalf. “His injury’s limited his Quirk too much. The fight against All For One was his final stand as a Pro. We aren’t sure if he would’ve made it without your help.”

Tenko breathes a sigh of relief, leaning his head back against the hospital bed and shutting his eyes. It’s not ideal, but it could’ve been so much worse, and he’d known that All Might’s end as an active hero was coming soon. “So he’s okay?”

“Injured, but okay.”

It’s silent for a few moments, before Oboro speaks up.

“We actually wanted to talk to you about his Quirk?”

Tenko looks back up, eyes wide. Oh no.

“And yours, while we’re at it,” Shouta adds.

Oh, no.

“I mean, we’d been hoping you’d talk to us about it when we first noticed it, but we figured we might as well approach it first since you didn’t,” Hizashi adds again.

Tenko glances between his dads, before clearing his throat and responding with, “Right. Yeah.”

It’s silent as the three wait for Tenko to start, and after a moment, he takes a deep breath, running his hand through his hair as he lets it out.

“Alright, so, you know how my grandma was his mentor?”

---

Tenko Shimura is twenty years old, and is officially on the final step of working to become the Second Symbol of Peace. 

He’s been moved up from sidekick to Pro status in the Dusk Agency, complete with a traditional Dusk Agency party with the entire agency. (It was cut short because of a villain attack, but it’s the thought that counts.)

He laughs as he waves off yet another civilian who’d seen him during the aftermath of Kamino and been thrilled at the thought of meeting All Might’s confirmed successor, alongside their child, who clutches a tiny spiral-bound notebook in their free hand, the other held up to hold their caretaker’s. 

Miataru is signed with a smile on the first page.

It’s a nice way of coming full circle , Tenko thinks, running a hand through his hair, still sticking up as One For All rushes through his veins. He tries to keep the power going when he’s on patrol, if only for the sake of being able to respond immediately to threats instead of having to power up the Quirk before he can do anything. 

There’s no more interruptions as he finishes the last few blocks on his patrol, making his way back to the agency and letting One For All settle back to its normal level as soon as he’s inside, sighing as the energy relaxes to almost nothing underneath his skin. 

He ruffles his hair, pushing the pieces that had fallen fully into his face back behind his ears as he makes his way to the changing room, pulling his civilian clothes and his currently-empty hero bag out of his locker.

He’s turning to head to the actual changing stalls when a swirling black portal, edged with blue and yellow blurring into green, opens in front of him.

“Oh,” he says, eloquently, “that’s not good.”

He doesn’t have time to say much else before he’s sucked into the portal.

His hero bag and civilian clothes fall to the ground where he was a moment ago, and the portal closes.

Chapter Text

At some point, as Shimura was telling his story, the others gathered around to listen. Both the green-haired girl and the red-and-white-haired boy are sitting on the ground to Izuku’s left, while the muscular blond has settled with leaning on one of the steadily melting ice blocks, not seeming to care as he slowly sinks lower. Katsuki hasn’t moved much, though somewhere along the line he’d relaxed a bit, and All Might still stands next to him.

Tenko finishes with a clap of his hands. “So that’s how I got here!”

Well. Eraserhead raising him explains the capture weapon, his Decay Quirk explains the gloves, and his tendency to break his arms when he first got One For All explains the arm braces starting at the end of his gloves and ending somewhere under under the short sleeve T-shirt he wore. 

Wait. 

Izuku glances around, confirming that, yes, it seems that all of the others have arm braces, and if Shimura and Katsuki are both Ninth Users, then it’s probably safe to assume that the rest are too. Is breaking your arms a trend amongst Ninth Users? Oh, God, is Izuku going to break his arms?!

“At least we can confirm the same shitty Quirk brought at least three of us here,” Katsuki says, crossing his arms. “We had the same yellow and blue shit.”

“No way, that’s what pulled me in too!” the blond says, still leaning onto the melting ice. The duo-toned boy hums in agreement, while the green-haired girl nods with a quiet “kero.” 

“So all of you were brought here by the same Quirk?” Izuku asks, pulling attention back to him. “Do you think it targeted Ninths specifically?”

“Not necessarily,” the duo-toned boy says. “It could have been any number of factors. Perhaps connections to other heroes, seeing as all of us are connected to at least All Might, if not other heroes. Though, the Ninths idea isn’t a bad theory.”

Izuku hums, nodding with a finger to his chin before he realizes something.

“Hold on, um-- I never got any of your names? Other than Shimura--”

“You can call me Tenko, if you want.”

“Um. Other than Tenko, and I already knew Katsuki and All Might, but I don’t know anyone else, so?”

“Oh, my hero name is Shouto. My civilian name is Shouto Todoroki. You can call me either.”

“...Is your hero name... your given name, too?”

Todoroki nods.

“...Do you need help coming up with a hero name, or...?”

Todoroki blinks. “No.”

“Oh. Um, alright.”

“My hero name is Froppy!” the green-haired girl says as soon as silence falls over the group, leaping to her feet. “I’m Tsuyu Asui, but you can call me Tsu.”

“Oh. Um. Alright, Tsu.”

The blond pops out of the ground beside Tsu, body phasing through. Izuku jumps back as he starts to speak. 

“Name’s Lemillion! Mirio Togata, you can call me Mirio!”

So they really are all heroes, Izuku thinks, eyes sparkling, before his gaze shoots over to Katsuki.

“Kacch-- Katsuki, you never told me your hero name?”

Katsuki meets his eyes for a moment, before rolling his eyes with a scowl. 

“I don’t have one.”

“Oh. Oh, do you want suggestions? Some of the ideas I have are pretty basic but the Katsuki I knew always made fun of them when we were little so I haven’t tried showing him any of the new ones but if you want…” 

Izuku’s voice trails off as Katsuki glares at him, eyebrows pressed together, the scowl still there. The glare doesn’t seem to be quite directed at Izuku, but he can’t describe what’s off about it. 

“...Katsuki?”

“Next time you see the Katsuki you know, beat the shit out of him for me.”

What?

“What?” Izuku voices, immediately after the response pops into his head.

“Did I stutter, dumbass?”

Izuku shakes his head as the glare directs itself at him, hands instinctively moving to protect his face even though Katsuki doesn’t make a move towards him. Katsuki rolls his eyes with another scoff.

“Just don’t fucking let him treat you like that without a fight. Got it?”

There’s a lot Izuku could say, about how his teachers would never side with him if he fought back, and how Kacchan hasn’t actually been that bad since the slime villain, and how Izuku would probably lose anyways.

But he doesn’t. He just gives a hesitant nod and a “got it,” which seems to satisfy Katsuki.

He turns to the rest of the group, eyes narrowed. “The rest of you extras want to share any of your long-ass backstories, or can we start training Midoriya?”

Simultaneously, Izuku says “Wait, they’re helping with my training?” and the others say “Wait, we’re training Midoriya?”

“Aw, man, I guess I have to be a better teacher than when I fought 1-A, huh?”

“I help my siblings with their schoolwork a lot, kero. I might be able to apply the teaching skills from that to this.”

“I’m not sure what I can do to help, but I’ll do my best.”

“I can help go over what I taught Midoriya back in my universe, if that would help?”

Izuku’s eyes widen as he scans over the group as each speak, the enthusiasm (or, in Todoroki’s case, the willingness) at the idea of helping him something he’s only ever seen with All Might and his mom. It’s-- new. 

It’s not bad, though.

“Alright, idiots, come on, we can’t all train him at once. I’m the one who showed him how to use One For All, so I call helping him with that.”

“I can help with basic fighting skills, then?” Tenko offers. “No Quirk, just the basic stances and movements.”

“I tend to specialize in flexibility and movement, so I can cover that, kero,” Tsu says.

“I think we’d all agree that Midoriya’s analysis skills don’t need any work, but I can help with predicting quick movements! There’s not always time in battle for in-depth analysis and predictions.”

“Well, I could help with stamina and agility, if that doesn’t overstep on any of your focuses.”

“I’m afraid I can’t offer much physical help, but I could always clear up the history of One For All with Young Midoriya, and any questions he has about it that the rest of you can’t answer.”

It takes a moment after they start talking for Izuku to realize they’re all staring at him, waiting for his response.

“Midoriya?” Todoroki says. “Are you alright if we help?”

“...Um. Yes? Yes, I’m just-- not, used to so many people wanting to help.”

“If you’re getting into UA, you’re damn well going to get used to it. The idiots in 1-A are going to fucking adore you and there’s nothing you, or anyone, can do to stop it.”

Izuku looks over at Katsuki, eyes wide. His classmates liking him? Or, as Katsuki puts it, adoring him? It sounds impossible.

It sounds like a dream come true.

And something in Katsuki’s voice tells Izuku that he’s being honest when he describes it that way.

“I’ll… try to get used to it, then?”

“Good. Now which of you idiots wants to start? I’m not throwing him straight into One For All.”

---

Tsu ends up starting.

She explains her Quirk-- the one she was born with, at least-- before they start, at Izuku’s request. Frog, a mutant-type Quirk that essentially lets her do anything a frog could do. Some of the parts of it are… a little gross, but still useful. 

She explains that her suit is specially made to contain the toxin she’s able to secrete, after the potency was increased by One For All, since she wants to be a water-based rescue hero and can’t risk the toxin hurting anyone. 

She even displays some of the simpler parts of the Quirk, such as her tongue, her jumping, her ability to stick to walls, and one of her Super Moves, Camouflage. (She mentions another Super Move, but explains that it’s a team-up move with one of her classmates that she can’t do on her own, which is disappointing, but understandable.)

After displaying Camouflage, she finally gets Izuku back on track, leading him in some simple stretches to get started. 

“We should start with some laps if we’re going to focus on movement, kero.”

Izuku nods, pulling himself up from the stretch he was in and clenching his hands into fists. 

Before he’s even able to consider starting to run, Tsu is off, and Izuku is left rushing to catch up.

---

The rest of the Ninths watch alongside All Might and Eraserhead at the edge of the gym.

“So, you really thought breaking into Midoriya’s apartment was the best first step?” Shimura says, a small grin tugging at the corner of his lip as he looks over at Katsuki.

Katsuki scowls. “Fuck off. As if you don’t know about his damn analysis skills.”

“Oh, no, believe me, I do. I just think there were probably better ways of getting his help than a break-in.”

“If you’re so damn smart why don’t you tell me what I was supposed to do?! Show up at his front door? He’d have a damn heart attack.”

“You might’ve almost given him one by breaking in,” Togata says with a laugh. 

Katsuki growls, glaring at Togata. The older boy barely flinches, simply laughing. 

“If you hadn’t chosen to go to Midoriya’s, we wouldn’t have the chance to help him, though,” Todoroki points out. Both Shimura and Togata nod, humming quietly in agreement. 

“ Thank you, fucking Half-and-Half.”

“My name is Todoroki.”

Katsuki rolls his eyes. “No shit.”

The nicknames are a choice. 

His eyes shift back across the gym to where Midoriya is finishing the first lap, already out of breath from trying to keep up with Asui. 

But he doesn’t give up. He keeps running without even pausing to catch his breath.

“It’s good to know he’s always been this determined in every universe,” Shimura says.

Todoroki hums. “I’m not sure if Midoriya knows how to give up or take a break. It’s admirable, at times.”

“And fucking reckless at others,” Katsuki adds on, narrowing his eyes as Midoriya stumbles, barely managing to keep his footing.

Katsuki straightens from where he had been leaning against the wall with a huff. He would head over and force Midoriya to slow down himself, but if he knows anything about him, it’s that it would only make him try harder to keep up.

Instead, he starts walking towards the exit, waving a hand towards the other Users behind him as he goes. “I’m getting some fresh air. Come get me if he finishes with Frogface and wants to practice with One For All.”

“Do you want someone to come with you, Bakugou?”

Katsuki looks over his shoulder at Todoroki with a glare. “I can handle myself fine, thank you.”

There’s a shift in Todoroki’s expression, so miniscule that most people probably wouldn’t pick up on it, but Katsuki sees the small crease form on his forehead, and the way his lips are pulled just a little tighter.

Despite the obvious (to Katsuki, at least) disappointment on his face, he nods. “Alright. We’ll come find you if we need you.”

“None of you assholes start on One For All without me.” 

After nods and agreements from each of the other Users, Katsuki finally turns, shoving his hands in the pockets of his hero costume as he heads outside, taking a deep breath of fresh air. Not that he’s uncomfortable with the gym, but the surrounding energy of multiple One For Alls in one place is new, other than what Katsuki can feel within One For All. 

He walks through the grounds, shivering a bit against the cold, the paths on the school campus familiar enough that, for a moment, Katsuki can forget that he’s in another dimension. But then the sheer lack of students hits him, alongside the fact that he’s in his hero costume still, and he’s reminded of the fact that this isn’t his home.

Fuck. As much as he’s willing to help Midoriya with One For All, he really just wants to figure out how to get home. Being in another dimension feels so complicated.

His phone buzzes in his pocket, and Katsuki blinks, pulling it out to the old picture of All Might’s familiar skeletal form, the hero’s name listed across the top.

He presses his eyebrows together, but presses the green answer button before it can stop ringing. All Might’s face pops up, and Katsuki can make out the rest of the Users behind him, as well as Aizawa.

“Ah! Young Bakugou! It’s good to know our phones still work in this dimension.”

“Yeah,” Katsuki says with a light huff of a laugh, wiping any sign of the crisis from a moment ago away, not wanting any of the hero’s pity. “The hag would kill me if I had her paying for my phone while it was useless in another dimension.”

All Might gives a light laugh as well. “Are you still on campus?”

“Yeah. Is Midoriya done with Asui?” (From behind All Might, Katsuki can hear Asui calling, “Call me Tsu!”) 

“Ah-- yes, he is! He’d like to work on One For All, if you could make your way back here?”

“I’ll be back there in a few minutes.”

At that, Katsuki hangs up, shoving his phone back into his pocket and taking a deep breath.

He doesn’t have time to worry about the cross-universe crisis he’s having, or to work on finding the Quirk that brought him here.

No, he can work on that later.

For now, he blows out the breath and starts heading back to Gym Gamma.

---

“Come on, Midoriya!”

Izuku looks up to the rafters of the gym from where he’s laying on the floor, meeting Katsuki’s glare. 

“You’re gonna just give up?! Not being able to use One For All to its fullest potential yet isn’t an excuse! Get the fuck up!”

Yeah, Izuku isn’t sure what he expected from Katsuki as a teacher. 

He pushes himself to his feet, staying crouched as he pulls the buzzing underneath his skin back up until the green lightning returns. As soon as it does, he launches off, hands scrambling to reach the lower of the two ledges on the wall. 

Don’t miss again, don’t miss again, don’t--

His hands grab on, and he allows himself an internal cheer alongside the cheers of the other Ninths on the other side of the gym, before he pulls himself up, positioning himself to launch up to the next one. 

He’s already farther off the ground than he’d be able to reach without One For All. Compared to the start, the rafters feel like a much more reasonable goal now.

Until he pulls himself onto the second ledge and realizes there’s no more ledges, and he’s only halfway there.

The only thing he has to use is the windows, and there really aren’t any grips there. 

Izuku presses his eyebrows together as the lightning continues to arc around his body. 

Alright. No more grips, but maybe--

He jumps directly towards the window at the steepest diagonal angle he can get, pushing his feet against it as soon as he touches and using that to launch himself up.

He reaches his hands out to the rafters, grinning, and--

His hands brush past, just barely.

Okay. Guess I’ll just die.

Before he can go plummeting down to the concrete floor of the gym beneath him, though, a hand is grasping the front of his shirt, forcefully tugging him up onto the rafters.

“Be fucking careful,” Katsuki bites, not letting go of Izuku’s shirt. 

“Oh, I-- sorry,” Izuku says, curling his hands into fists in front of him. “I-- thought I could reach it, in my defense.”

Katsuki rolls his eyes. “Whatever. You can’t use a high enough percentage to get up here yet. Come on, we need to figure out how much you’re using.”

There’s another tug on his shirt, and before Izuku can understand what’s happening, he’s being dragged back down from the rafters, Katsuki jumping between the ledges as if the distance between the two sides of the gym is nothing. He’s dropped on the ground as soon as they reach it, falling back before he can catch himself.

He jumps back to his feet almost immediately.

“Um-- how are we going to figure out how much I’m using?”

Katsuki turns to him, glaring. “Choose a part of your body and use it to its maximum potential. That’s going to be your gauge of how much you can use.”

“Hold on, are we sure that’s a good idea?” Tenko cuts in. “I’d been training for four years when I got One For All, and using it at its full power was still enough to break my arms.”

“It’s once. Aizawa-sensei, is Recovery Girl here today?”

Eraserhead nods with an already-exhausted sigh. “Don’t take that as an excuse to be overly destructive. I can understand the need to know his full ability, but I will stop you if you test it more than once.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Come on, Midoriya. Choose a body part and use 100%.”

Okay. Cool. He’s being asked to break his own arms.

This is fine.

He lifts up his right arm, staring at his own hand as he curls it into a fist. “Where should I aim?”

“Anywhere that we aren’t standing. And preferably away from the door.”

Izuku hums, turning to the back of the gym. 

Right. Right. Just-- just power up his arm, and throw a punch.

And break his own arm.

This is fine.

He doesn’t let himself overthink it any further, bringing the buzzing that had just settled back to his skin, except this time focusing the buzzing on his arm. 

Just push it to the maximum. 100%. Just to know what it feels like.

The power surges up before Izuku can even think much more about it, his arm screaming at him as power courses through it.

Right. 100%!

He pulls his arm back, the power still increasing, his arm still screaming at him, the power still buzzing higher than it ever had.

He throws a single punch.

And immediately, his arm is overtaken with pain.

He blinks, before looking down to where his arm hangs limply by his side, confirming that, yep, that’s definitely broken.

He takes a single deep breath as he stares at it, wide-eyed, and he screams.

---

Recovery Girl is nice, at least.

There’s still bandages wrapped around his arm, and he feels absolutely exhausted as he lays in the bed in her office, but she was understanding of Katsuki’s reasoning. (Though Katsuki did get a whap on the head with her cane for having Izuku go through with it knowing it would probably break his arm.)

“Have some gummies, Midoriya,” she says, holding out a handful of colorful gummies as Katsuki presses a hand to where she’d hit him with her cane in the background. Izuku holds out his good hand, and she drops the gummies into it. He tosses one into his mouth as a taste-test, and before long, the rest join it.

He isn’t sure what’s in these-- probably some kind of stamina-booster, seeing as Recovery Girl’s Quirk works by activating the injured person’s stamina-- but they taste good, so he’s not going to worry about it.

“You know, All Might was once a student of mine,” Recovery Girl says, adjusting the flow of the IV in Izuku’s arm. There’s a clear sadness to her voice. The taste of the gummies on his tongue suddenly becomes really unappetizing. “His mentor was with him throughout most of his time here at UA.” She turns back to him, expression gentle. “I’m sorry you won’t have the same experience, Midoriya. The loss of a mentor is difficult, especially when it leaves you with a new Quirk you don’t truly understand.”

Izuku pulls his wrapped arm closer to his chest, gripping his wrist with his good hand. 

It’s silent for a few seconds, before Recovery Girl sighs. “You have a lot to live up to, young man, and that’s a heavy burden for someone your age. Still, I’m sure I’ll see you become a hero All Might would be proud of.”

The gentleness in her voice is cut off by a whack on Izuku’s head from her cane.

“But stay out of my office while you make it there! I don’t want to see you in here with broken bones if you already know how to use it safely!”

Izuku gives a quiet, bittersweet laugh, good hand rubbing the spot she had hit. 

He wants to be a hero All Might would be proud of-- that’s why this energy is buzzing underneath his skin. That’s why he’s training at UA before the entrance exam even happens.

“I’ll do my best.”

Something stings inside him with the knowledge that he’ll be doing it without All Might.

Chapter Text

They’re on the way back to the gym when Izuku notices Katsuki shivering.

Luckily, Izuku had thought to bring himself a coat. Not-so-luckily, he’d forgotten Katsuki was wearing a warm-weather hero costume, and hadn’t brought one for him.

Or any civilian clothes. Wearing a hero costume for as long as Katsuki’s been wearing his can’t be comfortable.

“Do you think everyone would want to go to the mall?” Izuku asks, good hand reaching up to settle at the back of his neck. “I mean-- you’re all still in your hero costumes. That can’t be comfortable, can it?”

“It’s--” Katsuki gets cut off by another cold breeze, shivering as he tucks his hands further into the pockets of his pants, curling into himself even further. He shuts his mouth for a moment, glaring at the ground before he speaks again. “Fine. If the rest of the Users want to, then whatever.”

Izuku nods, glancing up at the gym as they approach it once again. 

Katsuki cuts ahead of him, finally pulling a hand out of his pocket to shove the door open. Almost immediately after they’re both inside with the door shut behind them, he crosses his arms, a bit of smoke rising from his palms.

Oh, he’s isolating the heating feature of his Quirk from the explosions, utilizing it as a source of heat. Nitroglycerin becomes less effective around 13 degrees Celsius, so it makes sense that he wouldn’t worry about accidentally exploding anything when it’s cold out like it is today. That’s actually really convenient, and could definitely provide an emergency heat source for any rescue missions that could possibly lead to hypothermia--

“You’re rambling again, damn nerd.”

Izuku immediately covers his mouth with his bad hand, left hand going up to lightly hit himself on the forehead. “Sorry!”

Katsuki huffs. “Whatever.”

He shakes his hands off, the smoke fading as he walks the rest of the way into the gym, Izuku following not far behind.

The rest of the Ninths finally notice them, looking up from where they’re rifling through a cardboard box labeled Lost and Found.  

“Hey, Bakugou!” Mirio calls, holding up a jacket and a T-shirt. “We’ve got some civilian clothes!”

“Well, I guess we don’t need to go to the mall,” Izuku says, glancing over at Katsuki.

Katsuki, on the other hand, is glaring at the clothes Mirio is holding up like they personally offended him.

“I’m not wearing that shit.”

“Aw, come on, that can’t be a winter hero costume. And it’s gotta be just plain uncomfortable.”

“I’m not saying it’s not , just that that shit is worse. ”

Tenko doesn’t even glance up from where he’s searching through the box himself as he adds on. “If you have any other ideas, be our guest.”

Katsuki elbows Izuku as they reach the table, and he winces as the jolt shifts his right arm.

After a second, Katsuki glares at him. “Midoriya had an idea.”

Oh. Oh, right!

“Um-- I suggested checking the mall? I mean, lost and found can work for now, but there’s probably better stuff at the mall. But-- then again, there’s always the issue of money, and--”

“Stop,” Tenko cuts him off, finally looking up from the box as he pulls something out from his pocket.

He holds out a wallet, grinning. “Emergency hero money.”

Izuku blinks. “Emergency hero money?”

“Emergency hero money. It’s in case we get stuck somewhere without a way to immediately contact help, for supplies and such. Usually, I’d save it for an incognito mission, but I honestly don’t see many of those in my future and we should probably prioritize clothes. So, emergency hero money!”

Katsuki crosses his arms once again, glaring at the box of Lost and Found. “Anything’s better than this shit.”

“If you’re planning on leaving UA, you are going to have to change out of your hero costumes first,” Eraserhead cuts in. Izuku jumps a bit-- has he been here the entire time?

Katsuki’s eyes shoot up to meet the Pro’s. It’s silent for a few seconds as Katsuki glances back down at the box, and back up again.

“...Mother fucker-- ”

---

Despite his complaints, Katsuki did finally change into what they could find in Lost and Found. A black button-up underneath the blue and white letterman jacket Mirio had found, alongside a pair of jeans that fit well enough, even if they aren’t perfect fits. The jeans they found aren’t great, but at this point, Katsuki’s accepted it, just cuffing the ends to fit right.

The rest adjust the clothes they found-- a clearly off-brand All Might T-shirt and black sweatpants for Tenko, alongside a black, puffy jacket, a hoodie with red and blue sleeves (on the left and right, respectively) and ripped jeans for Todoroki, a giant green jacket and black leggings for Tsuyu (as well as earmuffs, a beanie, and gloves), a simple black jacket and jeans for Mirio, and a jacket that’s definitely oversized for All Might, since that’s all he’s missing with his civilian clothes already on. For lost and found outfits, none of them are horrible, actually.

“Aizawa-sensei,” Tsuyu calls as she pulls her hands away from her jacket, finished adjusting it, “are we alright to go now, kero?”

Eraserhead glances up, eyes trailing across the group. He’s changed into his own civilian clothes, which basically just means he switched out his utility belt for a normal belt, took off his capture weapon and goggles, and put on a black coat. After a moment, he closes his eyes again, leaning his head back against the wall. “You’re fine.” He takes a deep breath, letting it out before pushing himself up off the wall, walking over and past the group. “Come on.”

“Wait, you’re coming with us?” Izuku speaks up, and the rest of the group looks over at him, each with subtle shrugs (though their definition of subtle definitely varies). 

Eraserhead looks back at him, expression as blank as always. “Yes. Since all of you except Shimura and All Might are minors, you’re temporarily under the care of UA. Midoriya, you’re the only exception, since you have a mother at home, but until you go home to her tonight, you’re under my watch. There’s no room for argument here, so don’t even try it.”

Izuku could smack himself for not thinking about the fact that of course they’d all need adult supervision. Instead, he nods his head, straightening. He gives a “yes, sir!” alongside the rest of the Ninths.

“What about me?” Tenko speaks up, pointing to himself with one still-gloved hand. (They must not have found replacements for him to wear in place of his support items.) “I’m not a minor, so do I get free roaming privileges?”

Eraserhead sighs. “Yes. Sure. Fine. Just don’t go around making a mess. Be the competent Pro you claim to be.”

Tenko whispers, “ Yes, ” to himself as he does a small fist pump. 

“If any of you have any other questions for how we’re handling your care while you’re in this universe, save them for later. If we’re going to the mall, we’re doing it now so we can get it over with.”

Once again, the other Ninths nod, and Eraserhead narrows his eyes before turning back around and going back to walking out of the gym, the group now following behind him. It’s not a far walk to the train station, but it’s cold enough out that, even with the new winter clothes, everyone other than Todoroki is shivering at least a little.

Does Todoroki have the ability to regulate his own heat? He clearly has a fire Quirk. Didn’t Tenko mention that he was Touya’s younger brother? And Endeavor’s son? That would mean that a fire Quirk would make the most sense. But from what everyone else has shown of their Quirk, he’s the only one the ice could’ve come from, so he must have some kind of half-ice, half-fire Quirk. If he has both fire and ice, it would be reasonable to assume he can regulate his temperature. That must make dealing with extreme temperatures really easy.

Izuku catches his train of thought, pressing his hands to his mouth as he glances over at the group. When no one, not even Katsuki, is giving him a weird look, he gives a quiet sigh. 

Good. I wasn’t mumbling.

The station is busy enough that if it weren’t for the air of uncertainty-- the air of fear-- Izuku might be able to forget that All Might (or at least the All Might from this universe) is dead. That it’s been less than twenty-four hours. 

But amidst the bustle of the station, the same as always, there’s something different. In the way children are held just a little closer to their parents, in the way the well-dressed businesspeople adjust their clothes far more than necessary, in the way the other various people fidget and check their phones.

Izuku pushes his vision straight ahead and tries to ignore it. 

“Have they said anything about memorial services?”

“Sir Nighteye is planning on doing something ahead of the funeral for the public. The rest is going to be private.”

Izuku blocks it out. He doesn’t want to hear this. He’s surrounded by other One For All users, and All For One doesn’t even know he exists , hopefully. He can deal with All Might’s death later. Right now, he’ll just start crying, and he doesn’t really want to cry in public, in the presence of multiple Pros and other-dimensional Ninths.

So he blocks it out as the train arrives, sticking with the rest of the group.

The ride itself is uneventful, as is the rest of the walk to the mall. Izuku could almost pretend that these were just his friends or something like that if not for the buzzing surrounding him, no longer only coming from beneath his own skin. One For All has an energy that spreads so much further than that, especially with six of them in one place. It’s a little overwhelming.

But Izuku can manage. It’s just a new kind of power. It’s like standing too close to Kacchan’s explosions and having his ears ring afterwards, or standing too close to someone with a fire Quirk and being a bit overheated, or any of the other million effects of being in close proximity with someone’s Quirk. Hell, once Izuku had spent too long walking near another student at Aldera and found out their Quirk raised the moisture in the air around them the hard way when his hair started frizzing and he got so badly congested he’d thought it was a sudden-onset cold at first.

So no, One For All isn’t really that bad in comparison. It’s almost tame. It’s just the buzzing. He can handle the buzzing.

When they finally get to the mall, there’s a tech store not far from the entrance, TVs set up in the window. Izuku glances over, and through the crowd, he sees a newscaster talking beside a video of last night’s fight between All Might and All For One.

Izuku tears his eyes away and blocks it out again.

He can deal with All Might’s death later. 

“Hold on, hold on, wait, does everyone else have this place in their universe too?” Tenko speaks up, pulling his attention over as the group pausing as he steps off and points at frozen yogurt shop. Izuku glances around the group as the answer splits.

Tsuyu, Katsuki, and All Might all shake their heads as Todoroki and Mirio both nod. 

“Oh my god. Okay, Tsuyu, Bakugou, All Might, you have missed out on so much. Todoroki, Mirio, Midoriya, Aizawa? Can we all agree that we need to go in there so the rest can see what they’ve missed?”

Izuku shrugs. He’s never been there, personally. Mirio, on the other hand, gives an enthusiastic “Yeah!” Todoroki’s hum of approval isn’t nearly as enthusiastic, but it’s not as indifferent as Izuku’s.

“Make it quick,” Eraserhead sighs, after taking a moment to press his fingers to the bridge of his nose. He waves them into the store, following behind them at a much slower pace. 

Somehow, everyone except Tsuyu and All Might end up with a cup in hand, the two without having their own excuses and a water bottle in hand. (Tsuyu isn’t a fan of cold foods due to the fact that cold makes her hibernate, and All Might can’t have sugary foods due to the general lack of a major digestive organ. Both are reasonable, so Tenko had just shrugged, given them each a bottle of water and moved on.)

Izuku is finding that he, surprisingly, doesn’t hate banana-flavored frozen yogurt. Meanwhile, Katsuki is visibly disgusted by his (not that he’s surprised, Kacchan never liked sweets), yet is eating it anyways (again, not surprising, Kacchan has always been stubborn). 

The group spread out a bit after they’d each gotten their cups. All Might, Katsuki, and Mirio had settled at the same table as Izuku, while Todoroki, Tenko, and Tsuyu are at another table, Todoroki and Tenko seemingly in some kind of intense conversation between spoonfuls of frozen yogurt. Eraserhead is at an entirely separate table, seemingly asleep, but if Izuku looks close enough he can tell that his breathing hasn’t slowed, and he adjusts every so often, his hair parting just enough to show that his eyes are open and keeping watch over the group.

“So!” Mirio speaks after a moment, words muffled through a mouthful of frozen yogurt. “Midoriya, you’re still planning on applying to UA, right?”

Izuku glances over, taking a moment to actually swallow the frozen yogurt in his mouth before answering. “Uh-- yeah, I am.”

“Cool, cool. Midoriya back in my universe got into General Education, you know.”

Izuku’s eyes shift back to his half-empty cup as he presses his eyebrows together. “I’m trying for the hero course.” He shoots his hands out as his eyes widen, gaze focusing back at Mirio as he realizes how that sounds. “Not-- not that there’s anything wrong with GenEd!”

Mirio cuts him off with a laugh. “I get what you mean! Don’t worry! He’s trying to transfer to the hero course, too, so I get it!”

“You can do that?”

The noise Eraserhead makes from the other table is almost a laugh. Mirio ignores it.

“Yeah, through the Sports Festival, usually, though I think he’s working with Principal Nedzu. Which, yeesh. I don’t think I’d want to be him, Principal Nedzu is probably a real strict teacher.” Again, some kind of almost-laugh from Eraserhead. “But I’m sure you’ll be able to get into the hero course! I may not be a great teacher, but hey, with six of us, there’s no way you’ll fail the entrance exam.”

The corner of Izuku’s lip twitches up.

“If you think I’m letting you fail that damn exam, dumbass, you’re even more of an idiot than I thought,” Katsuki adds on, jabbing his froyo spoon at Izuku for emphasis. “I’ll be the best damn teacher you’ll ever have. That’s a fucking threat.”

Izuku is not sure how that is a threat. But he looks over at Katsuki and nods anyways, smile widening just a little.

“Now finish your damn frozen yogurt so I can get some half decent fucking clothes!”

---

Izuku internally notes down the froyo place as a place to revisit in the future as they leave.

He follows the group to one of the maps of the mall as Tenko and Katsuki look over the map, standing at the front of the group as they each look for a different store.

“I swear to fuck, if this shithole of a universe has that fucking froyo place and not the only fucking store I know with half decent clothes-- here it fucking is .”

Tenko, on the other hand, steps back with a sigh. “They don’t have the one I usually get my clothes from. We can check out the one that took its place, but I have no idea what they carry.”

“Are we splitting up?” Todoroki asks, standing beside Izuku. 

“If that works?” Tenko says, glancing over at Eraserhead. “We can just do one after the other, but it’d be more time-effective to split up for a bit.”

“You aren’t wrong on that,” Eraserhead says, glancing over at a nearby clock. 2:45. “Be back here by four.”

“Got it!” Mirio says, moving to Tenko’s side. “I have a feeling my style’s gonna be more in line with yours, so I’ll check out whatever you’re looking at.”

“I’ll go with Bakugou,” Todoroki says. “Tsuyu, Midoriya?”

“I’m going to stick with Togata and Shimura, kero.”

Izuku glances at the two groups. “Um. I’ll go with Katsuki, Todoroki, and All Might?”

“Then I’ll stick with Shimura’s group to keep it even,” Eraserhead says. “Four. Got it?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Good. Now get going.”

“Wait, hold on, emergency hero money,” Tenko says before either group can leave, pulling out the same wallet as earlier. “I’ll split it in half? It should be more than enough.”

He hands Katsuki half of the yen, before tucking the rest back in to his wallet.

“Cool, cool. Alright, see you guys at four!”

---

Izuku quickly learns that clothes shopping gets a little boring when he isn’t looking for anything for himself.

Not that there’s really a lack of anything he’d like at the store, no, he just doesn’t want to waste any of Tenko’s money on more hero merch he doesn’t need. It’s like Tenko said: it’s emergency hero money, and technically speaking, not having proper civilian clothes kind of counts as a hero emergency. Wanting hero merch definitely doesn’t.

So he just kind of… stands there, sticking close to Katsuki as he looks for his own clothes. 

To no one’s surprise, one of the shirts he grabs is the same style of skull shirt Izuku’s seen Katsuki wearing since they were little kids. But after that, it slows down.

“You’re fucking kidding me,” Katsuki hisses under his breath at one point, rifling through one of the racks. 

“Um. Is something wrong?”

“It’s the same damn store , but other than this damn shirt and some fucking pants everything they carry is different.”

“Oh.” That’s inconvenient.

“It’s fucking-- whatever. I’ll find some stupid shit to wear and move on. Whatever.”

With that, Katsuki yanks a pair of black jeans covered in red-plaid patches from the rack, followed by two pairs of plain jeans, one ripped with the other intact. He grabs a mostly-black patterned button-up and an obnoxiously bright orange T-shirt with some band’s name on it from the next, before pulling a simple heavy black sweatshirt from the jacket rack.

The clothes rest over his arm as he holds them to his body, still glaring at the rack as if it had personally offended him (which, it kind of did, Izuku guesses). 

“I swear to fuck, this shit better look half-decent when I put it on.”

Izuku is about to say something about the changing room, but is cut off by another.

“Ah, there you are, Young Bakugou, Young Midoriya! Look what I found!”

Both Ninths glance up at the sound of All Might’s voice, before immediately freezing.

After taking a moment to register the image in front of them, Katsuki stifles a laugh as Izuku’s lips curve into a smile.

All Might’s skeletal form is buried in a fluffy, neon yellow winter jacket. 

The held-back laugh escapes Katsuki’s lips after only a few seconds, the other Ninth doubling over with his arm still holding his clothes to his chest as he laughs. “The fuck are you wearing!”

All Might’s smile doesn’t fade, seemingly unfazed by Katsuki’s teasing, as he looks down at the jacket, smoothing out some of the fluff. “I think it looks nice.”

“Maybe if you’re trying to look like a fucking-- a fucking neon polar bear or some shit! The skinniest fucking neon yellow polar bear to walk the planet!”

People are starting to stare, but Izuku is too caught up in the fact that he’s never heard an actual amused laugh from Kacchan, and the laughter it’s pulling from his own throat, building until he’s wiping tears from his closed eyes.

Even All Might is laughing, a much quieter sound than the triumphant one he’s known for, but Izuku doesn’t care. It feels so much more genuine.

He doesn’t even notice when Todoroki makes his way over, his own clothes in hand, until he speaks.

“...I like your jacket, All Might.”

A new wave of laughter washes over Katsuki and Izuku, and Izuku isn’t sure, but he thinks he hears Katsuki hit the floor. 

Yeah. Izuku’s never heard Kacchan laugh like this.

That stupid neon polar bear jacket.

Izuku thinks it might be a new favorite item of clothing.

---

When they finally stop laughing, they all realize in a panic that four is rapidly approaching. Unzipping the neon yellow one, All Might rushes off to grab himself an actual jacket, while Izuku follows Todoroki and Katsuki to get in line to check out.

“Wait, I don’t have anything to get,” Izuku says, glancing between the piles of clothes on the other two’s arms. “I can go back to the meetup spot and tell Eraserhead you’ll be there in a few minutes?”

Katsuki and Todoroki glance over at each other. 

“Fine. Just don’t do anything stupid,” Katsuki says once the two break eye contact.

Izuku nods before turning to rush out the door. It isn’t too close to four, and they’ll probably be done checking out by the time it hits, but they might still be late, so it’s better for Izuku to go ahead and make sure Eraserhead knows than to wait. 

Only, Eraserhead and the rest of Tenko’s group isn’t there when Izuku makes it back to the meeting spot.

He sighs as he sits down on a nearby bench. Of course, the rush to get over here was for nothing. 

He’s just pulling out his phone to play some mindless game when someone sits down on the bench next to him.

Izuku tries not to think too much of it, until they’re shifting a little too close, and swinging an arm over his shoulder.

He tenses and opens his mouth to say something, but before he can, there’s a hand around his neck, with the middle finger lifted.

“Quiet. Put your phone away. Don’t say anything. Don’t call for help. Pretend I’m an old friend. The second my last finger touches your throat, you’re dead, so listen .”

The world around Izuku slows as he slides his phone back into his pocket. It’s even slower when he pulls his eyes from his lap to meet the face of his current captor, and--

“Tenko?” Izuku asks, hesitant, and almost immediately regrets it from the way the other’s face hardens. No. This isn’t Tenko. Tenko’s eyes have more life to them, and Tenko doesn’t have that kind of venom in his voice.

“Tomura Shigaraki,” the other rasps, the name given with more confusion and less anger, weirdly enough. But it shifts back to anger before long. “And you’re the one Sensei’s been looking for, aren’t you? A little young to be All Might’s successor, but you fit the description.” The grin he gives is so different from Tenko’s grin, so much more unsettling.

But he-- Shigaraki-- seems to know about One For All. And-- Izuku doesn’t know who “Sensei” is, but if they’re looking for him, Izuku doesn’t have a good feeling about it.

“Do I?” Izuku asks, voice shaking just enough to be noticeable as he keeps eye contact with Shigaraki. “I-- uh-- I’m not sure what you’re talking about, so, uh, I don’t know.”

“What’s your name?”

Izuku hesitates. Should he tell him? That sounds like a bad idea. 

Just-- use a fake one.

“Uh-- Deku?”

What the fuck? That’s what I went with?

“Deku? Oh, come on, you don’t expect me to believe that, right?” Izuku feels the muscles of Shigaraki’s hands move, pulling his middle finger just barely closer. Fuck. “You really are a hero wannabe. Give me your actual name. Not some stupid alias.”

The grip on Izuku’s neck is just barely tighter, and Shigaraki’s finger is too close to touching, and Izuku doesn’t really want to know how Decay feels when it’s used on a person, and Tenko was a lot more trustworthy with it. 

Izuku feels like his heart is about to leap out of his chest. He thinks he’s about to start hyperventilating.

“Izuku Midoriya.” It falls out of his mouth before he can second guess it again. He doesn’t want to die. He’s All Might’s successor, and he has to survive to help the other Ninths get home, and he has to survive to be able to take up the mantle All Might left behind one day. He doesn’t want to die.

“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it? Izuku Midoriya. Take a walk with me.”

Izuku is dragged to his feet by the hand on his neck, and despite it all, he falls in pace with Shigaraki. He doesn’t have a choice. He doesn’t want to die.

“Hey, you know, Sensei was expecting it to take weeks to find you,” Shigaraki says, chuckling. What about this is funny? “Can you imagine how he’ll feel when he finds out I found you in a day? I wasn’t even really looking!”

Whoever Shigaraki’s Sensei is, he was looking for him. And-- it started yesterday? So was it the fight? He wasn’t shown in the news, he was gone before the cameras could catch him, so it couldn’t have been that whoever it is saw him on TV or something--

Izuku’s thoughts stop in their tracks. 

Whoever it is knows he’s All Might’s successor, and was able to give a description of him to Shigaraki. 

Fuck.

Fuck, Shigaraki’s Sensei is All For One.

All For One is looking for him.

It’s like time stops. Izuku can’t breathe. His feet are still moving. There’s still a hand around his neck. 

“But I mean, really,” Shigaraki says, breaking through the static in Izuku’s mind. Izuku looks over at him to see an unsettling attempt at a grin and red eyes staring down at him. “Did you expect to be able to get away for long?”

“Midoriya!”

It’s the same voice. But from behind him. 

Izuku can breathe again, immediately jolting to a straighter stance. Everything snaps back into focus, and he almost tries to turn his head around before remembering the hand on his neck.

But Shigaraki is turning his head, and not long after, is pulling Izuku around as he turns his entire body. 

Tenko is just a few meters away, One For All making his hair stand on end and lightning arc around his body, and he’s glaring at Shigaraki with some mix of confusion and anger. His fists are by his side, and behind him, Izuku can see Tsuyu, Mirio, Todoroki and Katsuki, and further behind is Eraserhead. (He thinks he sees All Might struggling to catch up, but he isn’t sure.)

He can breathe again.

“Let him go,” Tenko says, voice low. One hand is moving to his wrist, releasing one of his gloves. 

Shigaraki’s grip on his neck only tightens. “Who the hell are you?”

“My name is Miataru, and I told you to let him go.”

“Or what? I could kill him right now, what would you do then?”

Tenko’s fists pull tighter. 

Izuku glances behind him again, and--

Mirio is gone.

What’s his Quirk, again? He didn’t say, but he was able to pop through the floor like that earlier. That could be so many things, though--

Izuku’s thoughts can’t spiral any further, because Mirio is popping out of the ground in front of him, jacket waving as he gives a shout of “power” and lands a hit directly to Shigaraki’s chest.

The grip around Izuku’s throat is gone, and he coughs, sucking in a full breath of air for the first time since Shigaraki had grabbed him. 

He hears something clatter, and a shout from what he assumes is an offended vendor who just watched someone get thrown into his display by a teenager.

Izuku turns, hand to his throat, and confirms that yes, Shigaraki was, in fact, thrown into a display of sunglasses. 

He pulls a pair off of his face, pulling his hand into a fist. It crumbles into dust, confirming that this is the Tenko Shimura of Izuku’s universe.

Tenko-- the one who actually goes by Tenko-- steps to Izuku’s side, putting his still-gloved right hand in front of him in a defensive gesture as his ungloved left hand stays in a fist by his side. Mirio takes position beside him.

The rest of the Ninths finally catch up as he does, all forming a defensive line in front of Izuku. Katsuki is directly in front of him to the right, with Todoroki beside him, while Tsuyu takes position to the left of Mirio. Each of them has lightning arcing around their body. Green, gold, light blue, orange, and both red and blue blurring together.

“Five of you?” Shigaraki scoffs, glaring as he stands up from where he had fallen in front of the stand. “Of course.”

He pulls a phone from his pocket and presses something on the screen without even looking. “I have enough that Sensei will be more than happy, anyways. Thanks, Izuku Midoriya.”

A portal opens beside him, purple edges blurring into black, and he gives the same unsettling grin as earlier as he steps in with a wave. “I’m sure I’ll see you again soon.”

The portal closes behind him.

Izuku can still feel his hand on his neck, even as his own hand rubs where it’s sore.

The five other Ninths turn to him.

“What the fuck did he say to you?” Katsuki says. There’s anger in his words, but not towards Izuku-- the only emotion clearly directed towards Izuku in his voice and expression is concern. Kacchan’s never been concerned about Izuku before.

Izuku stares at the ground for a moment before looking back up at Katsuki with wide eyes.

“I-- I think All For One’s after me.”

Chapter Text

“You’re fucking kidding me,” Katsuki curses, for the third time since they’d arrived back at UA and settled in one of the classrooms. 

“He-- he said his Sensei was looking for me. He knows I’m All Might’s successor. It’s-- All For One is the only thing that makes sense.”

“I fucking get that, Midoriya.”

“Hey-- at least we know, right?” Tenko says. “We can take steps to work against him now that we know he’s after Midoriya. We can take steps to protect him.”

“Oh, yeah, right, let’s just fucking protect him from the villain who’s strong enough here to kill All Might before he even transferred One For All. Piece of fucking cake.”

“But there’s five Ninths here, excluding Midoriya,” Todoroki says. “Even if we can’t all use 100% of One For All’s power, the five of us combined have to be able to do something, right?”

“Kero,” Tsuyu says in agreement. 

“I mean, I’ve helped take down All For One once, so I don’t see why I couldn’t do it again!” Mirio says, grinning. “And hey, that means Midoriya wouldn’t have to handle it on his own later on!”

“So that makes two of us with experience,” Tenko says, “and I’m assuming the rest of you haven’t actually fought All For One?”

Todoroki, Tsuyu, and Katsuki all shake their heads. 

 “Alright. Well. No other way to gain experience but do it, I guess. If it comes down to fighting All For One, we’ll need all the help we can get, so the three of you would be on board.”

“Don’t need to tell me twice,” Katsuki says, slamming his fist into his open palm and lighting off a small explosion as it impacts. “I’ll take any excuse to blow that motherfucker to bits. It’ll be a hell of a lot easier than playing fucking keep-away.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Bakugou,” Todoroki says. “This is only if he really is looking for Midoriya.”

Katsuki scoffs. “Listen, Icyhot, his very fucking existence in this universe is the only excuse I need to blow him to bits. I’ll track him down either way, even if the rest of you aren’t with me.”

“No you will not. ” Katsuki glares at Tenko as he crosses his arm, returning the glare at nearly the same force. “It was a hard fight for me, and I’m twenty years old and fought alongside All Might after two years of training with One For All in active hero work. You are definitely not going on your own.”

“The fuck are you, my dad?”

“I’m another Ninth with an extra four years of life experience under my belt who isn’t going to watch you get yourself killed.”

There’s no bite back against that. Instead, Katsuki falls silent, glare hardening for a moment before he pulls his gaze away from Tenko.

“Whatever. Then I better have some fucking backup.”

“Don’t worry, Bakugou! If it comes down to it, there’s no way I’m leaving anyone to face All For One on their own.” Mirio grins, a stark contrast to the scowl on Katsuki’s face as he turns to face him.

“How the fuck did you get to face All For One already, anyways? Crusty bastard--”

“ Hey-- ”

“--I can understand, but you haven’t even graduated yet, so the fuck gives?”

“Oh, yeah, that could be kinda confusing, couldn’t it? It’s not really that complicated of a story, honestly.”

“If this turns into another long-ass backstory, so fucking help me--”

---

Mirio really isn’t sure why he was being called up to Principal Nedzu’s office during the middle of Heroics class. 

“Wow, Mirio, what’s Principal Nedzu want with you?” Nejire asks, using her Quirk to keep herself floating as she leans in close. 

“Heck if I know. But, hey, guess I To- gotta go see, right?”

Tamaki groans behind him. 

Mirio chuckles. Sure, it’s not the best joke, but it’s entertaining, at least to him! 

“I’m gonna go get back into my uniform and head up to his office. Hate to miss out on today’s class, but hey-- You got this, Nejire-chan, Suneater!”

He turns to give a thumbs-up to the two as he walks away. Tamaki doesn’t look up from where their head is pressed against the wall, but they give him a thumbs-up in return anyways, Nejire doing the same.

It’s not that far of a walk to the locker room, really. It’s a bit weird walking back on his own, but that’s really the only thing that’s different. 

A few minutes after he makes it to the locker room, he’s already walking back out, shuffling his tie into place as he does. He tries and fails once again to come up with any reason for why he’s being called to Nedzu’s office. 

“Maybe it’s something to do with my work study…?” he thinks aloud. “No, no, Sir would contact me personally. None of my grades have been slipping recently, either, I’ve been working on that…”

Nothing comes to mind, even as he continues thinking aloud as he walks. It’s not like there’s anyone else in the hallway, and he’s quiet enough that he shouldn’t disturb any classes in session. 

He comes to accept that whatever had come to the principal’s mind is probably just something he’s not smart enough to understand. It happens when your principal is an ultra-intelligent rodent (or something).

He knocks on the door of said maybe-rodent’s office as he reaches that conclusion. It’s only a few seconds before he hears the principal call for him to come in.

“You needed me for something, Principal?” Mirio says as he opens the door.

Despite his belief that it wasn’t related to his work study, Sir turns to face him, sitting in one of the three chairs sitting across from Nedzu. The middle chair is the only one open, the one on the far left occupied by--

“Holy crap, All Might?”

Okay, yeah, All Might helped to teach one of their heroics class at the beginning of the year, but Mirio never got the chance to have a one-on-one discussion with him, even though Sir was his sidekick for such a long time.

So this is definitely unexpected. Not in a bad way, no, Mirio can’t deny that he’s taken a lot of inspiration from All Might and it’s no secret that Sir admires him too, but wow. Out of all the possible options for What Would Happen When He Got To Principal Nedzu’s Office, “meeting All Might” was not one of them.

“That’s right!” the hero’s voice booms out in the small room as he stands, flexing, because of course, this is All Might.   “I am here to meet you personally, Young Togata!”

“Oh, wow, okay,” Mirio laughs, eyes shining as he looks up at the hero. Everyone knows All Might is tall, but it’s so much different to see in person-- Mirio’s almost six feet tall. He is not used to having to look up that much to meet someone’s eyes. “Sorry! I’m just a little confused right now? It’s an honor, really, but what’d I do to deserve it?”

“We might as well just cut to the chase,” Sir says, still not standing.

All Might coughs, sitting back down. “Right.”

“Mirio, you know All Might, obviously. All Might, Mirio Togata, hero name Lemillion. Formal introductions handled, Mirio, do you happen to know what All Might’s Quirk is?”

Mirio thinks for a few moments. “It’s probably some kind of Enhancer Quirk, right? But I don’t know if it’s something that’s been confirmed. Isn’t it a big source of a lot of theories?”

“Exactly. It’s never been confirmed.”

“I like to consider myself an expert in dodging reporter’s questions when it comes to my Quirk!” All Might announces with more booming laughter.

“...Right. You’re still just as enthusiastic as you were when we worked together, All Might. Care to explain the rest?”

“Gladly!”

(Mirio is pretty sure Sir’s comment was sarcastic, but he’ll roll with it.)

“As you said, Young Togata, most fans and theorizers assume I have an Enhancer Quirk-- super-strength, super-speed, enhanced impact strength, all along those lines. However, that is far from the truth! The truth of my Quirk is that I wasn’t born with it at all!”

Mirio blinks as silence falls over the room, before laughing a bit. (That was a joke, right?) “I’m sorry, what?”

“I mean as I said, Young Togata!” (Not a joke. Okay.) “My Quirk is called One For All, and it was passed onto me like a mighty torch!”

“Hold on, passed onto you? Not that I don’t believe you, it just sounds kind of crazy. And why are you telling me all this, anyways? If you avoid the question with reporters, it’s gotta be some kind of big secret, right?”

“Exactly right! As I mentioned, this Quirk can be passed on, and I’ve been looking for a successor since I began teaching here at UA!”

“And he’s been taking recommendations for longer than that,” Sir adds.

“So, Young Togata, how would you feel if I were to offer you this power?”

Mirio stares.

And laughs, again, because this has to be a joke.

“Mirio, as much as I value humor, All Might isn’t joking here. He is looking for a successor, and you’re his first choice, if you’ll take it.”

“Wait, seriously?” (Yeah, maybe he should stop assuming things in this conversation are jokes.) “I mean, again, I’m really honored, but-- why?”

All Might stands once again, placing a hand on Mirio’s shoulder. “Young Togata, this power has been passed down through generations, cultivated by each user and passed down to another. My time as a hero has become limited due to an injury I received six years ago, so it’s time for it to be given to the next generation of heroes. I’d like you to be the one to carry this torch after me.”

Mirio is silent for a few moments as he thinks. 

He grins up at the hero once he considers it. “I mean, sure, why not? If you really want me to take it, I won’t say no.”

All Might’s smile widens, the hand not on Mirio’s shoulder reaching up and plucking a single strand of hair from the front pieces (whatever they’re supposed to be). 

The strand is held out to Mirio, and with the same booming voice as he’d been speaking in nearly the entire conversation, All Might says, “Eat this.”

Mirio pauses.

This one has to be a joke, right?

So he laughs.

“Still not a joke, Young Togata!”

---

Mirio walks out of Principal Nedzu’s office only a few minutes later, with All Might promising to get in touch about training with One For All, Sir promising that it wouldn’t interfere with his work study, a new Quirk preparing to manifest, and Mirio still grimacing as he tries to get the feeling of hair in his mouth to go away.

He’d been told he could head back to class, so after a moment, he starts walking back to the locker room to do just that. It’s a bit annoying to have to change back into his hero costume so soon, but he’s sure Nejire and Tamaki will be glad to see him back already.

(And being late getting back to class is enough of an emergency to warrant him using his Quirk to phase and launch himself through the floors, right? Can’t miss too much education!)

As soon as he finishes pulling his hero costume back on, he does just that. It’s a much more effective way of travel, honestly. He’s had plenty of time to get past the fear of the loss of senses and oxygen, and now it’s just convenient. Tamaki jumps a little when he launches up through the floor of the observation room, but they let out a breath a moment later and go back to pressing their head against the wall, so really, no harm done!

“Togata,” his teacher calls from the front of the class, “please refrain from using your Quirk to return to class. I’ll let it slide today, but please, you need to stop doing that.”

Maybe a little harm done.

---

As promised, All Might gets in touch about One For All after school lets out for the day.

Mirio had not expected the man in question to get in touch by showing up out of nowhere as Mirio was leaving his last class alongside Nejire and Tamaki and grabbing Mirio by the shoulders with a booming request for him to come with him to the staff room, but hey, what can you do?

(He might need to get All Might to apologize to Tamaki, though. He’s pretty sure he saw their life flash before their eyes when All Might showed up. Giving people near-heart attacks isn’t really a heroic thing to do.)

But he can do that later.

All Might shuts the door of the staff room behind him, coughing into his fist as he does.

“Uh, All Might?” Mirio says, glancing at the mist rising from the Hero’s body as he leans against the door. “You’re, uh, kinda smoking, there. In the literal sense.”

“Ah, yes, that.” Another cough. “Please don’t be alarmed at what’s about to happen, Young Togata.”

Mirio steps back against the wave of smoke that comes from the All Might’s body as soon as he says that, and there’s a few more coughs as it clears.

A skeletal man stands where All Might had been a few moments ago.

“Woah, you just like-- popped! Deflated! Like a balloon!”

All Might looks up at him, finally letting his fist drop from his mouth as the coughing fades. “As I mentioned earlier today, I was injured a few years ago, and that injury has been limiting my time as a Hero.” He lifts up his suit jacket and the button-up underneath to reveal a gnarled, twisted scar. “I received this injury six years ago, near the end of my time working with Sir Nighteye. I lost my stomach and irreparably damaged my respiratory system. As a result, I can only hold my muscle form for a few hours every day.”

Mirio’s brow creases as he stares at the scar covering most of All Might’s left side. “This is why you’ve been looking for a successor? How? What fight even was it? You’re undefeatable, if there was a fight this bad I would’ve heard of it, right?”

“I asked the media to keep it quiet. It’s nothing you should be concerned about, Young Togata. I defeated the villain who caused this injury shortly after I gained it. You won’t have to worry about him.”

Mirio stares for a few moments longer before nodding, and All Might finally drops his shirt back down, hiding the scar from sight once again. 

“So, Young Togata,” All Might says, energy back in his voice after that frankly depressing story, “I promised you that I’d train you in the usage of One For All, and I already happen to have a location in mind. What do you say we wait until the rest of the students leave for the day, and then we can head straight over?”

“Oh, already? Yeah, sure, that’s no problem! Where do you have in mind?”

“Ah, I can show you! One moment!” All Might pulls his phone from his coat pocket, tapping and swiping a few times before holding it out to Mirio. On it, a trash-covered beach is visible.

“Isn’t that-- Takoba Beach, right?”

“Exactly. When I first arrived here in Musutafu, I learned of the state it had been left in, and planned to clean it myself-- but found that I didn’t have time in the day with my limited Quirk usage. So I figured it would be the perfect spot to train a successor! Public service and a learning experience in one!”

Mirio nods, putting a hand to his chin. “So I’ve just gotta clean the beach, right?”

“Exactly. And as you have your Provisional, and are being supervised by a Pro Hero, you can use your Quirk as much as you’d like so long as it’s done safely.”

“Use One For All to clean the beach. It is super-strength, right?”

“Ah-- stockpiling power, actually.”

“Stockpiling power is just a fancy way of saying super-strength.”

“...No, not really--”

---

Despite Mirio’s insistence that “stockpiling power” within One For All just means he essentially has super-strength, he quickly finds that the power is not nearly as simple as that.

Namely, by launching himself to the top of one of the piles to move a washing machine stuck on top, and finding himself instead getting very personally acquainted with the washing machine by slamming his face into its side as he panicked over the fact that both his legs had broken the second he’d launched off.

He scrambles to get a grip on the edge of the unrecognizable piece of trash underneath the washing machine, not wanting to risk further injury by attempting to use Permeation to fall through the pile and launch himself back to the sand. Before he can worry more about tumbling down the pile, though, a pair of muscular arms are wrapped around him and bringing him back down to the sand.

All Might deflates once again as he kneels over Mirio where he had placed him on the beach. Mirio, on the other hand, stares directly up at the sky, noting how it’s beginning to darken, the clouds taking a pink hue as the sun sets.

“Hey, All Might?”

Whatever All Might had been asking-- something about if Mirio was okay-- is cut off at the question.

“Yes, Young Togata?”

“I think I need to go to a hospital.”

“Yes! Yes, of course.” 

All Might steps away, pulling his phone out, and as he moves, Mirio is pretty sure he hears him mumble “oh, God, Mirai’s going to kill me.”

Assuming he’s talking about Sir, Mirio silently agrees.

---

Mirio is pulled aside at the start of the next Heroics lesson, which All Might is helping to teach.

The hero in question leans down a bit to whisper into his ear, hand cupping his mouth as if it’ll make it any less obvious. 

“Young Togata, please refrain from using One For All during class and your work study for now, until you gain better control and an excuse can be made for the sudden appearance of a new Quirk. It’s simply for the safety of yourself and your classmates.”

Mirio doesn’t need to be told twice. He nods, giving a smile and two thumbs-up as the hero straightens back up again.

“Well then, students, let’s get started, shall we!”

Mirio steps back over to Tamaki and Nejire as All Might begins explaining the exercise. Three groups per round: hostages, villains, and heroes, and the objective is to save the hostages by either getting them out of the building or defeating and restraining the villains within the fifteen minutes given.

As soon as the teams are given out-- Nejire is on Togata’s team, but Tamaki is on their own in a separate group, to their dismay-- Nejire leans into Togata’s side.

“Hey, hey, Lemillion,” she says, each word emphasized with a poke to Mirio’s chest, “what’d All Might want with you?”

“Oh, nothing much,” Mirio says, thinking of anything small that could work as an excuse. “He was just asking about something that had happened at Sir’s agency. Just worried about his old sidekick, I guess!”

“Oh, that makes sense,” Nejire says. 

Mirio lets out a quiet sigh. Keeping One For All a secret might be a little hard with Nejire’s outward curiosity, and even if Tamaki doesn’t voice it, he knows they’ll probably start noticing things too. But at least his answer was sufficient enough for Nejire to calm down.

“Do you think they’ll ever partner up again?” she asks. Nevermind, still excited. “Ooh! What if you end up working alongside All Might in an actual hero setting! That’d be so cool , wouldn’t it, Suneater?”

Tamaki looks like they’d rather be anywhere else but there right now as they watch another group going through the motions of the exercise on the screen. “Yeah, cool.”

“I don’t know if they’ll partner back up again, actually.” The tension in the air in Principal Nedzu’s office didn’t make it seem likely. “But yeah, it would be cool!”

The match in front of them wraps up as the hero team manages to restrain the villain team, with the help of Miku Kaneda’s metal manipulation Quirk. Turns out, having a playing field made of metal helps her Quirk be a lot more effective. (No one is surprised.)

All Might presses the side of his headpiece as he begins to speak. “Great job, all of you! Hero team, please release the villain team. Everyone return to the viewing room in order to discuss the match!”

Kaneda is named as the MVP of the match, thanks to her careful planning of what metal to take and quick thinking when one of the members of the villain team got away after her initial attack. Once that’s settled, and the rest of the participants are given compliments and criticism, they move on to the next match.

Tamaki ends up on the hostage team, while Nejire and Mirio’s team is the hero team. 

“You two are terrifying on the villain team,” Tamaki says, burying their face in their shirt. “At least when you’re rescuing and I’m being rescued it’s more embarrassing than terrifying.”

Mirio laughs, and the three separate, Tamaki heading to the hostage team so the villain team can decide where to keep them while Nejire and Mirio make their way over to join the rest of the hero team.

“Mirio, you can Permeate in and grab the hostages, can’t you?” one of their teammates asks. Kouki Kubo, Quirk: Percentile Prediction. Their Quirk isn’t offensive, but it makes them an amazing strategizer, so it’s no surprise that they’re one of the two in the class on recommendation.

“I can’t Permeate other people, remember?” Mirio says. It’s a weird suggestion from them, honestly. Percentile Prediction should’ve told them that that plan wouldn’t succeed.

They give him a weird look. “Are you sure?”

“...Yes? I am? It’s never worked like that before.” He gestures down at his hero costume. “I had this suit specially made out of my hair so it could Permeate with me. Why do you think my clothes fall off at the Sports Festival?”

“Cool, now I have to bleach that memory from my brain again, thanks, Lemillion,” another teammate says. (Izanshi Sugata, Quirk: Transmutation. As long as he can picture the desired object in his head, he can transform any object into another.)

Mirio laughs. “Sorry!”

“You know, you really should’ve asked the Support course to make you a gym uniform the same way they made your hero costume,” Kubo says. “96.4-percent chance they would’ve said yes after First and Second Year.”

“Is that an actual calculation?”

“I don’t need my Quirk to know that they did not want to deal with you naked on live, national television again.”

“Amen,” Sugata says. 

Nejire nods in agreement, while Mirio stares at her with a wide-eyed look of betrayal.

“In other news, we have two minutes until we have to go in. If the plan with Lemillion isn’t going to work--” they pause, narrowing their eyes in the way they do when activating their Quirk for more than simple calculations, before mumbling something under their breath. After a moment, they shake their head. “Then we need to come up with something else. Lemillion, you can at least locate the hostages and report back, but there’s only a 34.9-percent chance of you making it back in time to be our main offense. Nejire-chan, Shift, that leaves you two. I’m a strategizer, not a hard-hitter. I’ll be backup offense.”

“What’s the chance of me finding the hostages?”

“14.6-percent in the first minute. 45.2-percent in the second. 73.8-percent in the third. 98.7-percent in the fourth.”

“Four minutes, huh? Well, let’s see if I can beat the odds and do it in one!” Mirio smiles wide, posing as he does. Kubo rolls their eyes before turning back to the rest of the group.

“Are we all ready, Hero Team?”

Each member nods, one by one.

“Good, because--”

They’re cut off by a horn blaring, announcing the start of the exercise.

Lemillion is off before they can say anything else, Permeating through the ground before launching himself towards the building the exercise is being held in. He Permeates through the wall with ease, landing once he takes a glance around and doesn’t spot any members of the Villain Team.

Alright. First floor.

He Permeates his head through a few of the walls as he rushes around, to no avail. No one here.

He isn’t sure if this is one of the buildings with a basement, so he assumes better safe than sorry and Permeates through the floor once again before launching back up.

There’s no basement. He just phases through to the first floor again, making sure Permeation is reactivated as he phases through the ceiling to the second.

How long has it been? Two minutes? Dang, he was really hoping to beat the odds Kubo had given him, but they’re right, as always. The chances of him finding the hostages in the first minute really was slim.

But it doesn’t matter. He’s on the second floor now, out of five, and he just needs to take a look around.

He checks the same way he had checked the first floor, and is about to Permeate to the third when he hears something thud behind what he had assumed was a wall leading outside.

A quick peek through, however, shows another room that Lemillion hadn’t noticed.

The Hostage Team is inside.

There aren’t any guards, which might be a good thing, or it might not. He isn’t sure.

That’s not what matters though.

Right now, he should report back to the rest of his group and tell them the location so they can safely get the hostages out. There aren’t any windows in the room, nor does he see any doors, so they must’ve used the Object Duplication Quirk of one of the Villain Team members to duplicate the brick and make the wall, or at least fill a hole in it. That just means the Hero Team is going to have to be careful not to cause any major structural damage when they get the hostages out.

There’s something he has to do before he reports, though. In this situation, where it’s just an exercise, it’s really pointless, but it’s important to get the full reality of the situation simulated.

“Hey!” Lemillion says, taking careful steps towards the members of the Hostage Team with his hands held out and spread in a show of peace. “My name’s Lemillion, and I’m a hero! Me and my team are here to rescue you!”

The team looks up at him, a soft expression on Tamaki’s face before there’s a cracking noise and their expression drops to one of terror.

“Lemillion!”

Before he can really register what’s happening, Tamaki is tearing away their bindings with a quick activation of Manifest and using the tentacles they summoned to pull Lemillion close as a piece of rubble falls where he had been standing, exposing a hole in the ceiling.

He could’ve phased through it with his Quirk, but Tamaki had clearly forgotten that in the heat of the moment. (It was sweet, actually.)

All Might’s voice sounds through Lemillion’s earpiece. “ Sugata! Please ensure the safety of the building when using your Quirk to create explosive devices! You nearly injured a teammate! ”

“ Sorry, All Might-Sensei, ” Shift’s voice sounds over the earpiece. “ Didn’t mean to give it so much of a kick. ”

“ We’ll discuss it afterwards! For now, just be careful! ”

“ Got it, Sensei. ”

The earpieces go silent again, and Lemillion focuses back on Tamaki, whose breathing is heavy as they slowly pull back the tentacles they’d created from their fingers.

“I’m gonna lose points for that, aren’t I?” they say, sitting back down and curling into themself as the last bit of tentacle turns back into their fingertips. 

“I don’t think All Might’s gonna take points off if he got upset with Shift about it. But since you’re untied now, why don’t you help me get the rest of the hostages untied and out of here?”

Lemillion isn’t sure why he had planned on reporting directly back to the group as he remembers the earpiece All Might had spoken to them through. He presses the button as he kneels down to start untying the rope around another one of his classmate’s arms.

“Perfectile, Shift, Nejire-chan, the hostages have been located! They’re on the third floor in a hidden room, right under where Shift’s bomb broke part of the ceiling!”

“ Wait, really? ” Shift’s voice responds. It’s a moment before he’s leaning down over the hole, waving to grab Lemillion’s attention as he finishes untying the first hostage, Tamaki already almost done with the second.

“Hey! Lemillion! Want me to make a ladder?”

“Yeah, that sounds great, Shift!”

“Got it!”

“Hey, wait-- the Support Course is going to kill me if they have to remake my staff-- Sugata!”

Lemillion chuckles lightly as he moves to untie the final hostage, listening in on the complaints of the (clearly restrained) Villain Team student above. A few seconds later, there’s metallic clanking as Shift carefully sets up a ladder up to the fourth floor through the hole he’d made in the ceiling.

“One ladder, fresh from the oven!”

“ I don’t think ladders come from ovens, ” Perfectile’s voice sounds over the earpiece. “ Also, Shift, you forgot to shut off your microphone after your last transmission. ”

“ Sorry, Perfectile! ”

“ You really spend most of your brainpower on remembering object’s dimensions and stuff, don’t you, Shift? ” Nejire-Chan’s voice adds in for the first time since the start of the exercise. 

The knot of the rope around the final hostage’s arms is finally untied, and they stand up, brushing themself off as they do. 

“Alright, is anyone injured?”

There’s a small chorus of no s from the four in front of him, and Lemillion grins. “Great! Ito, you go up first, then Kimura, Kakazu, and Tamaki, if that’s alright with everyone.”

The four nod, Tamaki shifting closer to Lemillion as the rest of the Hostage Team forms a line to climb up the ladder onto the next floor. Their hands reach up to fidget with the hood of their hero costume.

“Hey, it is kind of weird that they didn’t have you switch into civilian clothes for this exercise, isn’t it?” Mirio says. “I know that the first two hostage teams repeat the exercise on the hero and villain teams so they need their hero costume then, but it’s kind of weird seeing a bunch of heroes held hostage.”

Tamaki glances over, shrugging a bit. Kakazu is starting the climb up to the top of the ladder as Kimura climbs off and onto the fourth floor.

Tamaki takes a few steps forward and is nearly at the base of the ladder when it shifts, and a clear cracking noise rings out in the room.

From there, time simultaneously slows and speeds up.

Lemillion sees the cracks on the ceiling spreading, and sees Tamaki freezing as they look up and notice the same thing. He watches as cracks connect and a piece of rubble begins to fall almost directly towards Tamaki.

His feet are moving before it all registers, arms wrapping around Tamaki as his Quirk activates, vision and hearing going dark, and all he can do is hope.

He doesn’t realize until the sensation of something passing through his body is gone that he’d activated it on instinct. 

When he turns it off, Tamaki is still in his arms, unharmed, gasping for air with eyes wide. 

“Lemillion!” Shift’s voice calls, and he looks up at the hole in the ceiling to confirm that it had gotten bigger. Rubble had actually fallen.

And is broken at he and Tamaki’s feet.

He stares down, and back up at Tamaki, and back down again, and back up at Shift.

“Dude, I thought you said you can’t Permeate other people!”

Tamaki is hyperventilating at this point, Lemillion realizes, and--

Oh, shit, he’d Permeated Tamaki.

He isn’t supposed to be able to do that.

But there’s nothing he can do about that right now, so instead he pulls Tamaki’s attention to him, leading them through some simple breathing exercises to try and get them to calm down. Permeation was terrifying for him at first, and he just shoved Tamaki into it with no warning, no wonder they’re freaking out.

In the end, he ends up gently picking up Tamaki with their permission and carrying them up the ladder, secured once again. They just need to get the hostage team out of the building, and then they can pass the exercise and Lemillion can start to figure out what’s up with Permeation. It isn’t hard to get everyone outside with Tamaki in his arms, slowly starting to calm down. 

The Hero Team is announced as the winner as they step outside. Mirio sets Tamaki down once he’s sure they won’t collapse the second he does. No one is injured, and Tamaki’s almost fully calmed down by now.

Sugata faces a lot of criticism afterwards, but he accepts it with a smile and a nod. Kubo is named the MVP without much debate, which isn’t uncommon. Having an intelligence and strategy Quirk tends to lead to that. 

Tamaki, once they’re fully calmed down (at least by standards of Tamaki’s usual anxiety levels), is assigned the villain role alongside the rest of their team, the villain team from Mirio’s exercise being the hostage team while the hostage team from the first takes on the hero role. The repeats were expected, so the remaining eight settle in to watch another match.

As they watch the villain team decide on where to put the hostages, Mirio glances over at All Might, biting at his lower lip a bit.

He hasn’t had One For All for that long. Only a day. There’s a lot he doesn’t know about it.

But maybe it isn’t a coincidence that the rules of Permeation seem to have changed. Expanded. 

He can’t ask now-- not in front of his classmates, during the middle of class. He’ll just have to catch All Might afterwards.

Another twenty minutes later, and he’s doing just that, sticking his head out of the wall in the teachers-only hallway All Might was using to get away from the class.

Said hero, in his true form, jumps as Mirio sticks his head out, hand to his chest before he recognizes him and relaxes. 

“Please, Young Togata, this area is meant for teachers only,” All Might sighs. “You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

Mirio steps the rest of the way out of the wall, brushing off his hero costume as he does. He’s going to be late to his next class, but since All Might’s a teacher, he can just ask for a late pass and be fine.

“Come on, you’re not that old.”

All Might laughs, before coughing with a fist to his mouth. “Thank you, Young Togata. Is there something you needed?”

“Oh, yeah! So in today’s exercise--”

“You were able to Permeate Amajiki, even though in the past, your Quirk was only able to affect your body.”

Mirio pauses, before slowly nodding. “Yeah. Exactly. That.”

“I was planning on coming to find you after school to discuss it, but now’s as good a time as any. It was expected. One For All enhances its user’s base strength, and with it, their Quirks, should they have one. Sir Nighteye and I discussed possible ways Permeation could be strengthened, and one of the possibilities he brought up was the possibility of you gaining the ability to use it on other people.”

“So it is a One For All thing,” Mirio says, giving a small nod to himself. 

“If you’d like, we can discuss it more at lunch, and possibly plan a time to test other possible enhancements?”

“Oh! Yeah, that’d be great! I’ll just have to let Tamaki and Nejire know!”

All Might nods, grinning. “Well, you should go change and get to your next class, Young Togata. I’ll see you at lunch.”

“Alright! Thank you, All Might-Sensei!”

Mirio gives a wave, before he’s dropping through the floor and launching himself off towards the locker room.

If One For All is enhancing Permeation like this already, there’s probably a lot of other possibilities. Maybe he can find a way to use it so he doesn’t end up blind and deaf while it’s active? 

For now, though, being able to Permeate other people covers a major weakness he’d already been worried about when considering hostage situations and rescue missions. Even if it’s the only enhancement he gets from One For All, he’ll be happy with that.

He’s just going to have to wait until he gets the chance to test it out with All Might to figure it out.

---

All Might has him run through at least a dozen different tests after school that day.

By the end, he’s exhausted, and his Quirk is making him feel floaty from how many times he’s activated it. It’s nothing he can’t handle-- not when he’s in his third year at UA, and he’s been working with Sir for a while now-- and he’s only found two other enhancements.

“I won’t have to worry about my clothes falling off at the Sports Festival this year, at least,” he says with a quiet laugh as he stumbles, trying to make sure he’s still standing. He honestly isn’t sure where his feet are at this point. They might be phasing through the ground and he wouldn’t know.

“And I’m sure being able to make other objects Permeable will be beneficial as well, Young Togata!” All Might’s smile is wide as he crosses out the final listing on the clipboard in his hand. “These were all only possible results of One For All’s enhancing ability. It’s to be expected that not all of them are accurate.”

“Yeah, but come on, being able to make the ground Permeable and then being able to use it to trap villains would’ve been so cool.”

“That one was a bit of a long shot. I’m not entirely sure why Nighteye let me provide that as a serious idea.”

“Long shot or not, it would’ve been cool!” 

---

“Mirio.”

He’s on his first day at his work study since getting One For All when Sir calls for him, gesturing him into his office. Mirio glances between the visor in his hands and the open office door, shrugging as he puts on the visor before heading in.

“Sir! What did you need me for?”

Sir looks up at him from where he’s standing over his desk, glancing over a piece of paper. “All Might told me you’ve been successful testing the enhancements of Permeation, but he hasn’t been able to properly teach you how to use One For All, has he?”

Mirio shakes his head. “Uh-- no. I broke my legs the first time? Which, hey, at least they healed stronger, right? Got super strong leg bones to go with the strength enhancer!”

Sir lets out a single laugh. “Right, of course. Well, I thought it would be best for you to learn from someone who has experience teaching a successor of One For All, so I took it upon myself to contact All Might’s teacher.”

“Wait, really? Who--”

He feels the rush of air just in time, activating Permeation across his chest just in time for an elderly hero to rush through, hitting the ground with a kick that manages to leave cracks spidering out from the point of impact.

The elderly hero laughs, cape fluttering for a moment before it settles. “Just in time. Not bad, kid.” He turns to Mirio, grinning. “Nice to see someone who already knows what they’re doing.”

Mirio blinks. “Thank you? I’ve got a lot of practice under my belt!”

“Mirio, this is Gran Torino,” Sir says, gesturing to the short man in front of him. “Gran Torino, this is Mirio Togata, hero name Lemillion. He’s All Might’s successor.”

“So I’ve heard,” Gran Torino says, jumping up to grab on the front of Mirio’s hero costume, hanging on with his feet pressed to Mirio’s chest, keeping direct eye contact now that their eyes are at the same level. “You’ve got quick reaction speed, and you’ve clearly honed your original Quirk well. That’s promising, but don’t think it’ll make me go any easier on you. One For All isn’t an easy Quirk to master, rookie.”

Mirio takes a second to register his words before grinning, giving the older hero a nod. “I won’t let you down, Gran Torino! I was given something great, and I’ve To- gotta live up to it, right?”

Gran Torino’s expression sours, and he’s kicking off of Mirio’s chest and shooting a kick to his face almost too fast for Mirio to respond. Luckily, he manages to activate Permeation across his face just in time for his foot to pass straight through.

---

It takes a single work study day for Mirio to figure out what he had been doing wrong.

He pulls another piece of trash from the top of a pile effortlessly, hopping back down with it in his arms as golden lightning arcs around his body.

He’d been thinking of One For All the same way as he thought about Permeation. Focusing it on one body part at a time to make it more manageable. 

Forcing the highest percentage of stockpiled power possible into one body part clearly hadn’t been working. So instead, he’s started using 30%, spreading it across his entire body.

And he hasn’t broken a bone yet, so it’s clearly what he should’ve been doing from the start.

And with one pile already cleared, and another halfway there, using One For All to clean the beach is clearly working as well.

“Great job, Young Togata!” All Might calls over, one hand cupped around his mouth as the other gives a thumbs-up. “If you’d like to be done for the day, you’ve made great progress!”

Mirio glances at the darkened night sky, considering his options in his head. He has been at it for a few hours. But…

“I think I’m going to finish this pile first! Plus Ultra, right?”

All Might laughs, the sound reaching Mirio much quieter than he’s sure it originally was. “That’s right! Plus Ultra, my boy!”

Mirio smiles as he launches himself back up onto the half-finished pile.

The more work he does with One For All, the more of it he’ll be able to use. So of course he’s going to go Plus Ultra with it.

After all, the Sports Festival is only in a few months, and he wants to feel comfortable enough to use it freely there.

---

“I want you to tell the world: I am here. ”

So it was probably a good idea to aim to have the beach finished by the Sports Festival.

He’s managed to reach 40%, with a mix of really figuring out his limits, cleaning the beach, solo exercise, in-class training, and his work study. It’s not much compared to his goal of being able to use 100% by the time he graduates, but that’s a high goal, and even All Might’s made that clear.

Hence the training schedule he’s had written out for him by All Might, which Sir then found out about and modified heavily.

“We want you to be able to use it, not wear yourself out so much that you can’t even move, nevermind activate One For All. Going beyond doesn’t mean putting yourself out of commission, though I should’ve expected All Might to consider the two the same.”

(Mirio thinks back to when Nejire asked if he thought they’d be working together again any time soon. From what he can tell, the closest they’re going to get to working together again ever is helping him with One For All, and even then, the only time they were together when they were doing it was when Mirio received it.)

He should be able to hit 50% by the time summer break starts, which is something to look forward to, but for now, he’s just enjoying three things. One: the short break from school before the Third Year Sports Festival. Everyone attends the First and Second Year Festivals, but it’s essentially two days off from school that they can spend preparing for their own outside of that.

The first years are mostly taking it a little too seriously for first years, but that’s normal. Heck, Mirio remembers thinking his first Sports Festival would make or break his entire career! He didn’t get scouted by Sir until his second! 

The most interesting part? Undoubtedly the two General Education kids taking it more seriously than Mirio’s ever seen GenEd kids take it. Most GenEd kids he’s seen just get it over with by getting as far back as possible in the first round and getting eliminated. But these two?

Mirio watches as they use the support items ( that they somehow got approved for, even though most support items are saved for the hero course, wow these kids must be good ) to rush through the first event, the purple-haired one making everyone else stop dead in their tracks as they pass them. It must have something to do with his Quirk. Whatever it is, it’s powerful.

The other kid, on the other hand, seems smart, but doesn’t show his Quirk at all in the first round. 

He also shows himself to be reckless. Very reckless. He’s the one to tear a piece of metal from one of the robots near the start, use it to dig up the landmines and put them into a pile, and get the purple-haired kid to grab on as he jumps onto it and sends both of them flying.

Mirio watches, a dumbfounded grin on his face as he watches the two rush into the stadium, the green-haired one dragging his shell-shocked classmate behind him as the audience cheers.

He can’t help but join in as Nejire shouts cheers beside him.

Wow. This year’s first year GenEd kids are definitely something else.

(He’s pretty sure he gave the first-place one a near heart attack when he snuck into the halls around the waiting rooms to meet him before the finals.)

---

“Congrats on not losing your pants for once, Togata,” Kubo says, smirking as they look over their shoulder at Mirio. “I’m gonna be honest, the 97.3% chance that you’d keep them on for all three events was a surprise.”

“You’re going to congratulate him for that and not for winning ?” Sugata says, raising an eyebrow. “That was super impressive, Togata. I don’t think anyone else stood a chance against you. You said you were using Permeation to, what, negate drawbacks so you could throw harder punches or whatever? It really made you stronger on the field, whatever it is.”

Mirio laughs, nodding at the explanation Sugata gives. It’s what he and All Might decided on, even if it doesn’t make much sense. Quirks can be like that sometimes.

“What was with the whole I am here thing, though? Isn’t that All Might’s thing? What, is this you telling us you’re his secret love child or something? With the weird eyes and the hair, we could’ve guessed that.”

And at that, Mirio stops dead in his tracks. 

“No-- no, oh, golly, I just take a lot of inspiration from him! I want to be like him one day! You know?”

Kubo snorts. “Oh my God, you really must be All Might’s secret love child with how defensive you are. Weird, looks like I’m getting 100% when I check how likely that is to be true--”

“ Kubo! ”

He takes their teasing for only a few more minutes, before he ultimately decides that nope, this is embarrassing, and Permeates straight through the floor and sending himself flying towards where his friends are waiting for him outside.

He pops back up a good distance from them, his clothes still on, something that he would’ve considered a miracle just a few months ago. Wow, he’s come a long way, hasn’t he?

“Tamaki! Nejire!” he calls, waving as he runs up to the friends he sees waiting farther down the path. “Hey!”

“Mirio!” Nejire’s voice calls back as she practically skips to meet him halfway, wrapping him in a hug that manages to lift him straight off the ground. “Look at you! My favorite boy getting in first place!”

Mirio laughs as Nejire’s hug practically crushes his ribs in the best way possible before she sets him back down. “Yeah! Sucks that you weren’t up on that podium, though. You really deserved it.”

“Eh, it happens! Besides, I’m not looking to be scouted at this point! Ryukyu’s already offered me a sidekick gig once I graduate!”

“Oh, really? Sir hasn’t confirmed anything with me yet, but I’m hoping he’ll let me stay on.”

“I don’t think Fatgum would let me leave his agency,” Tamaki adds, standing a bit off to the side of the other two’s enthusiastic display. “Besides, I wouldn’t want to upset him. He likes working with me, even if he’s-- a lot.”

“Aw, come on, you really are such a kitten sometimes, Tamaki! Fatgum seems super fun to work with.”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to look at takoyaki the same way ever again.”

Mirio laughs. “At least he helps you keep up an appetite, right? That’s really important for your Quirk.”

“I have a big appetite naturally,” Tamaki mumbles. “He just makes it worse. Sir Nighteye doesn’t have you eat three-course meals for lunch and dinner on long shifts, does he?”

“I… can’t say he does, no, but it makes sense when both of your Quirks are food-based at their core! He knows what it takes to keep that up! Sir’s analysis of my Quirk is really what helped me.”

“Is Sir the one that convinced you to say that whole I am here think at the end of your winner’s speech?” Nejire asks, leaning back into Mirio’s view.

“Uh-- no, actually,” Mirio says. “I-- uh, decided to say it myself!”

Wow, he is not good at acting casual when it comes to lying about his relationship with All Might, even after all these months.

“It makes sense,” Tamaki says. “You shine just as brightly as All Might.”

“Aww, Tamaki!”

---

The months after the Spots Festival are a bit of a blur.

It isn’t long until summer break once the festival passes, and Mirio easily aces his finals. The only thing bringing anything interesting into his life is his work study, and even then, the most interesting things that happen there are some small-scale villain attacks that are handled in an hour or so, if not less. Even cleaning the beach blurs into routine.

So, of course, summer break is Mirio’s chance to finally bring some more spice into his life. He isn’t stuck at training camp like the first years, his work study is put on pause over breaks, and he just finished cleaning the beach, so it’s just him and a lot of free time.

“Come on, Tamaki, just answer! If you were to eat a lizard and Manifest its tail, would it grow back if it was cut off without you having to use Manifest again?”

Mirio laughs at Nejire’s words as he works through another level of the game they’re all playing. It’s single-player, so they have to take turns, but it’s still fun.

Staying focused with the discussion in the background is hard, though.

“I think you’re thinking of salamanders,” Tamaki mumbles back. 

“Same difference! Can you grow it back or not!”

“I don’t know!”

There’s a bit more lighthearted arguing back-and-forth before two simultaneous alarms ring out in the room. Mirio is already on his feet before he realizes it isn’t the hero alert system he’s hooked up to thanks to his work study.

Tamaki and Nejire have both gone silent as he registers that it’s the noise setting they have for the breaking news app on their phone. (Nejire just thinks it’s interesting and good to keep up-to-date, while Tamaki gets anxious if they aren’t keeping up.)

The silence lasts longer than he expected. Usually, they check it and start discussing it.

This time, they both stay silent, before Nejire speaks.

“Mirio, put on the news.”

There’s something in her voice-- fear , Mirio realizes. 

He doesn’t argue. (His character had died when he panicked in response to the alarm, anyways.) He switches back to the main cable as soon as he finds the remote.

There’s no need to switch channels. A breaking news banner is displayed across the bottom of the screen as they turn it on.

U.A. Training Camp Attacked By League of Villains

Mirio stares, eyes wide and mouth agape as he watches a first year get loaded into an ambulance before it drives away. More are being treated on-scene, and there’s another ambulance being loaded. Most of the kids look largely uninjured, but--

“Oh, God ,” Tamaki whispers, both their hands held to their face as they stare at the screen through spread fingers.

He recognizes the next person brought into the remaining ambulance. With that shock of purple hair, there’s no way he can’t.

That’s Shinsou. The only one of the two GenEd students to get into the hero course directly after the Sports Festival.

He’s only been in that class for a month.

“Fuck,” Mirio whispers, leaning back against the back of the couch as he stares at the images on-screen. Blue flames ravaging the forest, a picture of Ragdoll from the Wild Wild Pussycats as the reporter declares her missing after the attack, and--

“Out of the forty students at the camp, twenty-six were injured. One has been declared missing, reportedly targeted and taken by the League of Villains: Katsuki Bakugou from Class 1-A, winner of this year’s Sports Festival.”

Mirio remembers him. After that awards ceremony, there’s no way he couldn’t.

And after that awards ceremony, he’s sure he knows why they took him.

---

Mirio gets a call from All Might the next day.

“Young Togata,” he says, voice more frantic than Mirio had heard it since he accepted One For All. “I’m sorry for contacting you on such short notice. Could you meet me on Takoba Beach as soon as possible?”

Mirio’s already at the door pulling his shoes on by the time he says it. “Yeah. Yeah, of course! I’ll be there in just a minute!”

He’s running the entire way there. All Might sounded nervous. Scared, even. It might have something to do with the training camp. He doesn’t know.

He arrives a few minutes after the initial call, hands on his knees as he catches his breath for a moment before looking back up and rushing the rest of the way to his predecessor.

“All Mi-- uh, I mean, Sensei!” He’s already gotten scolded for drawing attention to them with All Might’s hero name once. “I’m here! What did you need!”

All Might is fidgeting with his hands when he turns to face Mirio. “Young Togata. I’m sorry.”

“If that’s for the short notice thing, it’s really okay, don’t worry about--”

“It’s not.”

Silence falls over the two. 

“It’s not?” Mirio repeats. 

The silence lasts for another moment, before All Might takes a deep breath. “After you trained with Gran Torino, I told you of the true story of One For All, and of All For One. I warned you that you may have to fight him one day.”

“Yeah?”

“We have reason to believe that All For One is the mastermind behind the League of Villains, and that I may have to face him again, soon. In my current state, I’m not sure that I would be able to defeat him alone.”

Mirio’s eyes widen as he processes the words. “But I can only use 50%.”

“Combined with what I can use, the two of us combined can use 150% against him. Besides, don’t doubt the strength that your original Quirk gives you. With Permeation, you could avoid his attacks entirely while getting surprise attacks in.”

Right. Mirio didn’t spend his second year training with Sir to enhance Permeation only to devalue the strength he gets from it. 

“Young Togata. I still have much to teach you, but I believe that what you know now is enough for you to fight beside me. What do you say?”

Mirio’s lips slowly pull up into a grin.

All Might believes in him. All Might believes in him, and wants him to fight beside him.

“If you need me, I’ll do it.”

All Might gives back his own blinding smile, just as bright as it would be if he were in his muscle form.

“Thank you, Young Togata.”

Mirio hadn’t been aware of how soon the promise would be brought into the picture.

It was like one second he was agreeing to it on the beach, and the next he was picking up his hero costume from the school and being sent to help with Bakugou’s rescue as an independent member of Sir Nighteye’s agency.

He isn’t blind to the looks he gets from the Pros as he sits next to All Might. He’s 18, sure, technically old enough to have a professional license, but he isn’t graduated, and he’s still on his provisional. If he didn’t have a work study, he wouldn’t be able to be here to fulfill his promise at all.

He’s assigned to the rescue group alongside All Might, and ordered to, as a work study student, stick as close to All Might as possible at all times unless given other orders.

Which was the plan anyways. He has to be there to help All Might if it comes to that.

So when the League of Villains and Bakugou are warped away by some kind of slime, he Permeates through the ground to follow All Might towards Kamino Ward.

He isn’t as fast with One For All, but All Might was right. He didn’t train Permeation with Sir for nothing. He’s always had a strong Quirk that he honed to be as effective as it is. So even if he can’t make the massive leaps All Might does, he can follow with a phase into the ground before launching himself back out.

He just needs to keep up. This is what he came here for.

Until he’s halfway there, and All Might shouts something down as he resurfaces.

“Young Lemillion! Stand back until I signal you! I’ll do my best to handle All For One on my own at the start!”

Stick as close as possible unless given other orders.

Well, there’s his other orders. He’ll just have to find a place to hide. (Hopefully, that isn’t difficult.)

Before he can ask any further questions, All Might is launching off again after a brief landing on the top of a building, and Mirio is forced to drop through the ground and launch himself off again just to keep up.

He skids to a stop the next time he resurfaces.

All Might’s fists meet the open palms of a man in a skull mask.

All For One.

The adrenaline already coursing through his body spikes as Mirio watches the clash, taking note of the other villains around them. The entire known League, and Bakugou.

The rescue takes priority.

Mirio goes to move, One For All and Permeation working together inside him, but before he can, there’s a ramp of ice reaching up far beyond the buildings left standing, and up rushes a group of four, supported by a Quirk that’s incredibly familiar from the Sports Festival and a similar-looking Support item, worn by a familiar green-haired boy.

Midoriya, Iida, Shinsou, and Kirishima are all rushing up the ice before shooting into the air.

The redhead reaches out his hand, and even from this distance, Mirio can hear his shout.

“ Come on! ”

Bakugou’s Explosions send him flying up towards the group shortly after, grabbing hold of Kirishima’s hand as he leaves the villains far behind him, an attempt to get him back blocked by Mt. Lady’s final move of the fight, Gran Torino showing up only a moment later and taking out most of the League before they can go through with a second attempt.

The rescue, the priority, is complete. (By Mirio’s underclassmen, nonetheless.)

Which just means the other objective.

All For One’s fight against All Might still rages on, but the tables are even, for the first time in any of All Might’s fights that he’s watched.

All Might pulls Gran Torino from the warp All For One had created and hits him with a Detroit Smash, but it’s negated, pushing All Might back and tearing the sleeve of his hero costume.

He doesn’t register most of the short exchange the hero and villain have after that. He doesn’t register any of it. He just watches, in shock, his ears only open to hear one thing.

He’s waiting for All Might to call him in.

And when his smoking figure is brought back down from the near-collision with a news helicopter, he hears it.

“ Lemillion! ”

He doesn’t need more than that. 

All For one is on his feet again, and Mirio is Permeating through the ground once more, before shooting back up and landing an uppercut with a shout of “POWER!”

Golden lightning arcs across his body as he hears the single, stumbled step back All For One takes in the wake of the surprise attack. 

Mirio takes his own step back, skidding over to All Might’s side.

He’s coughing as he stands, body half-deflated, stuck between his muscle form and his true form.

“Ah, Mirio Togata,” There’s a laugh from beneath the oxygen mask on his face. “To think I’d get to meet the Ninth User so soon. Are you really so reckless as to allow your successor here to risk the ending of One For All, All Might? There’s plenty of people at risk from this fight already. To think you’d sacrifice one so close to you.”

Something bubbles under Mirio’s skin. He isn’t a sacrifice. He isn’t going to lose. One For All isn’t going to end here.

He’s Lemillion. He’s going to save a million people.

That number starts, really starts, with the people being put in danger around them because of the villain in front of him.

He grits his teeth, pulling a smile, and doesn’t dignify the villain with a response.

He’s going to win. He’s going to do what All Might wanted him here for.

That’s his start. This is his start. Right here, right now.

“Don’t worry, All Might. I won’t have you watch him die.” All For One’s tone is just as sinister as his first words to Lemillion. “I’ll kill you, first. He’ll lose his mentor like you did, and I’ll make it as gruesome as possible. Then I’ll kill him.”

Determination only builds more at the words.

He’s going to win. No one is going to die here. Not if he can help it.

He takes position beside All Might as All For One builds up another attack, adrenaline pumping through his veins, forcing him to focus on nothing else but the villain in front of him.

He won’t lose.

He can’t lose.

This is his start.

---

“ Mirio! ” 

Tamaki’s voice, loud for once, cuts through the haze of pain medication as the door to his hospital room slams open. Nejire repeats his name, following in after.

“You’re okay! That was so scary! We saw you on the news, and you were fighting alongside All Might, but that villain was crazy strong, and I--”

“I thought you were going to die!” 

Mirio vaguely registers that Tamaki is crying. And then it snaps into focus.

He can’t move his arms much with the casts, but he manages to lift one enough to grab onto their hand and squeeze it, trying his best to be comforting. 

“I’m not gonna die,” Mirio says, grinning. “I gotta save a lot more people. And you’d miss me too much.”

Tamaki chokes out a laugh through the tears, before putting the back of their hand to their mouth. “You can’t be joking around right now!” 

But they’re still laughing.

Mirio keeps on a small smile even as his exhausted body forces him to drop the wide grin he’s used to. 

“I wanna tell you guys something,” he says, the words falling out without him meaning to say them. It’s partially the pain medication.

But he knew. He knew, from the moment that he found out about One For All, from the moment that he found out that it was a secret kept between All Might and his closest friends, that they deserved to know.

“It’s about me and All Might. It’s about my Quirk.”

Tamaki is still wiping away tears, as is Nejire, but they both meet his eyes. 

It’s silent for a few minutes as they meet each other’s eyes before looking back at Mirio.

“Okay,” Nejire says. “Go ahead!”

---

Sir greets Mirio back at his agency a few weeks later with an affectionate ruffle of his hair and a rare-to-see smile.

“It’s good to have you back, Symbol of Peace.”

The title isn’t really his yet. But with All Might retired, he’s the next for it to fall onto.

He gives a signature wide grin back.

---

He’s still in his hero costume when he gets back to the dorms a week later.

Sir had sent him back straight from an incident, assuring him that it was late and he wouldn’t be faulted for wearing his hero costume home so long as he changes out of it as soon as he gets to the dorm. After a greeting and acknowledgement of his outfit by Tamaki and Nejire, alongside some of their other classmates, he shoos them away with a promise to be right back down after he changes.

He closes the door to his dorm, shutting his eyes as he leans back against it and lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. Today was a long day. Not that he’s complaining, he just needs a moment.

He opens his eyes to see a blue and yellow portal in front of him.

“Oh.”

Yeah, great job, Mirio. Such a way with words.

If he lets out a startled shout as the portal starts sucking him in, he’s not there to see if anyone heard it and came running.

---

(“There’s already a few others here in the same situation as you,” Nedzu explains as they make it to Gym Gamma. “Please try to be nice to them.”

He forgets the warning as soon as he sees Tomura Shigaraki standing in there with two of his underclassmen.

It isn’t his fault he didn’t know that he was actually the Ninth User, Tenko Shimura.)

Chapter Text

Katsuki groans, banging his head against the desk he’s sitting at as Mirio finishes his story.

“Motherfucking-- I thought I told everyone to share their long-ass backstories when the crusty bastard shared his. How many more of these do I have to sit through.”

“Three, if you count yours,” Todoroki says. Katsuki shoots him a glare.

“Rhetorical question, Icyhot. And like hell I’m telling you bastards my origin story like that. I’ll give it to you in two sentences: All Might thought I was badass. I got One For All. Is it that fucking hard for the rest of you to say it like that?”

“I think the rest of ours are a bit more complicated than that, kero.”

“Not my fuckin’ problem. Learn to fucking summarize.” 

“Please tell me how to summarize a life that’s entirely different from the version of me the rest of you know,” Tenko says, glaring as he sips a cup of coffee. 

Where did he get that. Why does Eraserhead have one too.

Katsuki just glares at him. “You want to see me fucking try?”

“Be my guest.”

“You were rescued and later adopted by three young heroes, All Might offered to give you One For All when you turned 18 at the age of 14, you got into UA with Endeavor’s oldest son and later helped him bring Endeavor to court, you got One For All, kicked All For One’s ass, and now you’re here.”

“That left out so much.”

“So fucking what!”

“It’s important that we know at least some detail about everyone else, right?” Todoroki says. “If we’re working together for a while. We know that both Shimura and Togata fought All For One now.”

The mention of the villain’s name, not rushed like it was in Katsuki’s attempt at a summary, brings a silence over the room, and Izuku wonders for a moment if he’s imagining the drop in temperature or not. 

“And we’ve lost how long to that story?” Katsuki says, voice low. “How long were we distracted from the villain currently after the weakest out of all of us? How much longer has he had to prepare than we have--”

“Bakugou, calm down,” Tenko cuts in. “It’s okay. As long as we’re at UA, everything should be fine. We have time.”

“Yeah, no shit, and the time we spend preparing is time All For One gets to prepare too! So when the fuck are we starting!”

“Hold on a second. If Mirio and I have both had experience fighting All For One, we should be the ones making the plan. We’ve seen and felt how he fights first-hand.”

“So what, the rest of us are just supposed to sit by and be fucking useless?”

“No. The rest of you can spend the time Mirio and I take to create a game plan to figure out the Quirk that got us here. Beating All For One is only one of the things we have to do here. We all have to get home, too.”

Katsuki glares at him for a few seconds, before groaning.

“Fuck you for having reasonable planning skills. I want to blow that bastard up, so don’t fucking leave me off of there.”

Tenko gives a light chuckle, and nods. “Right. Wouldn’t want to bench you.”

“Just go start fucking planning already! We’ll deal with the fucking Quirk!”

Tenko rolls his eyes a bit, but nods, gesturing at Mirio. “Hey, Aizawa, is there another room we could use?”

Eraserhead looks up from his cup of coffee, nodding. “Just go over into the next classroom. Don’t break anything.”

“Got it. Actually, All Might, would you mind helping us out? You probably have more information on All For One than either of us.”

All Might hesitates, glancing at Katsuki. After a moment, he nods. “Of course.”

With that, the three oldest Users in the room step outside and shut the door behind them.

Katsuki watches them go, before glaring over at Izuku. “Midoriya. Do you have one of your damn notebooks?”

Izuku fumbles for the bag he’d brought with him. He’d already grabbed it from where it had been left at the gym. “Yeah, uh-- hold on--”

Katsuki scoffs, but it sounds like more of a laugh than anything. “That’s gotta be a fucking rule of Izuku Midoriya. You always fucking bring your notebooks everywhere. Whatever, just make a page for this shitty Quirk that brought us here.”

“Yes! Right! Of course!” He finally manages to find the notebook after fumbling through his bag for a moment, setting it on his desk. He hesitates at the cover for a moment.

Hero Analysis For The Future.

Wow, the future came a lot sooner than expected.

There’s no time to dwell on it, though, as he flips through the pages until he finds a blank one, purposefully skipping the one he knows has All Might’s signature on it. (The edges are worn from the number of times he’s opened to that page. It manages to stand out, even against the water-damaged pages surrounding it.)

He pulls his pencil case out, quickly grabbing out a mechanical pencil and scribbling across the top of the page: Interdimensional Warping Quirk(?)

There isn’t a lot he knows about it, but he scribbles out a circle meant to look vaguely like a warp portal, noting the blue and yellow edges in a note on the side of the drawing. He continues on to note that it was used directly after All Might’s death, and brought six people from five different dimensions into the same universe. 

After a moment, his mind reminds him that both Tenko and Mirio had mentioned a pulling force. He quickly goes back to the sketch and notes that it pulls people in, meaning it possibly has a gravitational pull. Either that, or it’s some kind of sucking-style pull, which it definitely could be. Either way, it has a pulling force. That’s important. 

He goes back to the other half of the page to note down that the user of the Quirk is unknown, and it’s unknown if it was even activated purposefully. For all they know, it was activated by panic, or could belong to a child without much control over it yet. It could be anything. Their best bet right now is to get as much information as possible, and then contact the police or search through Quirk databases themself.

He glances up at that, the other Ninths having gathered around him as he took notes. 

“You’ve got most of the shit we know so far,” Katsuki said, and Izuku immediately realizes he must’ve been mumbling. He moves to apologize, but-- “Shut up, don’t fuckin’ apologize, it’s actually useful right now. Add something to the pulling force shit, though: it affects objects, sure, but it’s like it targets specific people to actually pull in. Only reason All Might came here with me is because he was there when the warp shit opened and tried to grab me.”

Izuku blinks, before nodding, turning back to the page to note down the specificity of the targets. “So it has specific targets, but affects their surroundings and can pull in other people, and possibly other objects.”

“Did it activate in all of our dimensions simultaneously, kero?” Tsuyu asks, finger to her chin. “It was nighttime when I was brought here.”

“Night here, too,” Todoroki confirms.

“Yeah, very fuckin’ specific, night. Around 6 P.M., for me and the old man.”

“I didn’t get the chance to check the time for a while after I got here, maybe an hour or so, but it was around 7. If it was the same for you, Asui, and for Shimura and Togata, it could have been simultaneous across all of our dimensions.”

“Call me Tsuyu. I had to find shelter quickly when I first got pulled here so I didn’t start to hibernate, but it was six for me, too, kero.”

“Wait, hold on. Did one of you see me that night? Because I thought there was someone following me home, and saw a shadow, but I didn’t actually see anyone.”

Tsuyu and Todoroki shrug, while Katsuki averts his eyes for a moment before scowling and meeting Izuku’s again. 

“Listen, I’d just fuckin’ showed up there, I was triyng to figure out where the hell I was and what the hell was going on. Seeing you fucking-- fucking two years younger gave a pretty damn good idea of what had happened.”

“...Why didn’t you talk to me then? Instead of breaking into my apartment?”

“Because you were already freaking the fuck out! Shut up!”

“I think it was worse for you to break into his apartment in the middle of the night, Bakugou.”

“Shut up, Half-and-Half! I didn’t fucking ask for your opinion!”

“Shouldn’t you four be focusing on something other than the specifics of how Bakugou and Midoriya met?” Aizawa speaks from the desk at the front of the class, glaring at them. The group goes silent.

“Whatever. Note down the damn simultaneous activation shit.”

Izuku’s pencil is already back down by the time he says it.

“What’s the fucking point of me telling you to note shit down-- Whatever! What else do we know?”

“It targeted specifically Ninths,” Todoroki says. “Midoriya brought up the theory earlier today. With what we know about how All Might got here, it’s the most reasonable explanation.”

“Does that mean that whoever used it knows about One For All?” Izuku asks, not looking up from his notebook as he writes, targeted Ninths?

“Maybe? That would imply it’s someone All Might knows. I don’t think anyone he told about One For All would share it without his permission, but I can’t think of anyone he knows who has a Quirk like that. It might just be different here, but the rest of us aren’t any help if it’s someone who he’s only friends with here.”

Izuku nods. “But it’s not out of the question.”

“Right.”

“Maybe it wasn’t meant to really target Ninths specifically, kero,” Tsuyu says. “It could be that whoever activated it was simply looking for a new Symbol of Peace, couldn’t it? If all of us are All Might’s successors, that makes all of us new Symbols, so that could be what made it target us.”

“That’s actually a really good point,” Izuku says, noting it down underneath the original note about it targeting Ninths. “So it might be someone who knows about One For All, but it might not be.”

“So we narrowed it down for all of fifteen seconds,” Katsuki says, scowling. “Great.”

“It’s already a pretty narrow search, Bakugou,” Todoroki says. “Location-based warping Quirks are already rare. I’m sure interdimensional warping Quirks are even less common. If we can contact the police with this information, or even get access to the Quirk databases ourselves, it should be plenty to track down the specific person. There can’t be that many people with all these specific details.”

“But what if it’s a kid?” Izuku presses his eyebrows together. “If it was the first time the Quirk had been activated, and they haven’t had the chance to see a doctor or Quirk analyst to get the details of it down so they can register it, you all might be stuck here for another few weeks, maybe even a month. Registration can take a while, especially for complicated Quirks.”

“For fuck’s sake, stop bringing up good points that make this situation fucking worse.

“Sorry--”

“Don’t fucking apologize either! I called them good points for a reason, damn nerd!”

“But-- you sounded angry--”

“I always sound angry, motherfucker, you should be used to it by now!”

“You’re-- the you I know is usually actually angry!”

“He’s a piece of shit and an idiot!”

“Bakugou, you should calm down. It isn’t that big of a deal.”

“Fuck off, Half-and-Half!”

“You stayed focused for two minutes,” Eraserhead says with a sigh, the three engaged in the conversation immediately shutting up. “If three of you are UA students and one of you is hoping to be a student, you should be able to keep your focus on the task ahead of you for far longer than that.”

“Sorry, Eraserhead,” Izuku mumbles, looking back down at their notebook. 

“Kid, just call me Aizawa.”

Izuku blinks, looking back up for a second and meeting the hero’s eyes. “...Alright.”

Oh, that’s going to feel wrong after he’s spent the entire day calling him Eraserhead.

“Do we… have anything else to add?”

“The colors might be related to the person’s appearance, kero,” Tsuyu offers. “Like how One For All manifests in lightning matching a color on the user’s body, at least for us Ninths.”

Todoroki hums. “So we might be looking for someone with blue and yellow as predominant colors in their appearance?”

Tsuyu nods. “Like how Midoriya and I both have green lightning.”

“That’s actually a good point,” Izuku says, noting it on the page beneath the initial note about the color of the portal. “There’s plenty of Quirks that have colors matching the person’s appearance, even if it’s just in a visual manifestation that doesn’t affect the actual usage of the Quirk. Like… some people with fire Quirks have different colored fire, even if their flames don’t burn the right chemicals or reach the right temperatures for that color of fire. When that happens, it usually matches a color on their body.”

Todoroki nods, humming. “Alright. That should help us narrow down the search more, right?”

“Yeah,” Izuku says, nodding. “If it really is a clue to their appearance, it’s a good one. Thanks for pointing that out, Tsuyu.”

“Of course, kero. I figured it would be a helpful observation.”

“Is that all we have?” Katsuki presses his eyebrows together, shoving into Izuku’s personal space a bit to glare at the pages. “It better fucking be enough to find the bastard that got us here.”

“It should be,” Izuku says, shifting over a bit to get some of his space back. “Like Todoroki said, warping Quirks are really rare.”

“If we add in the specific factors of the Quirk, it should be enough to find a specific entry in the Quirk databases,” Todoroki adds.

“Eraser-- er, Aizawa? What do you think? I mean, you’re the Pro, so I mean. You’d probably know more than us.”

Aizawa sighs, standing up from the desk at the front and walking over to where the Ninths are gathered, leaning over to look at the notebook. “For a rare kind of Quirk, that should be more than enough. The more details the better, and you’ve got detailed notes, even from the few eyewitness accounts of the Quirk. Note down that it’s an Emitter type. If you hand it over to the police, that’ll help them narrow down to a specific type of Quirk.”

“That’s fuckin’ obvious, though. They should be able to guess that shit.”

“You’d be surprised.”

Izuku presses his eyebrows together, but notes it down at the top of the page under the header. Type: Emitter.

“This feels really simple,” he mumbles, pressing the eraser end of his pencil over his mouth. “It feels like it shouldn’t be this easy.”

“Don’t complain about it being easy or you’ll jinx yourself,” Aizawa sighs. “I’d take that to either Nedzu tonight or the police in the morning. Depends on how fast you want it figured out. Nedzu can have it done for you in a day or two, if you’re willing to risk some of his legally questionable decisions.”

Izuku nods. Nedzu has a history of slightly-illegal behavior that a lot of hero forums like to argue about. He’s never gotten in trouble for any of it, and it’s always been beneficial to whatever case he was working on at the time, so Izuku, for one, is actually willing to risk that, as long as the other Ninths are. After all, they’re the ones being affected by the Quirk.

“If that’s figured out, do you think we should go see about helping Shimura and Togata?” Todoroki asks as Izuku closes his notebook and puts it into his bag, planning to hand it over to Nedzu later. “They seemed like they had it covered, but they also only separated because they wanted us to focus on figuring out the Quirk.”

“I want to make sure those idiots aren’t putting me in the back of the fight,” Katsuki says, immediately starting to head towards the door. “The rest of you can do what you want. There’s no point in me staying here if we’re done.”

Todoroki blinks. “If they’re putting you at the back of the fight, it’s probably for good reason, Bakugou. They wouldn’t just do it without something in the plan to back it up.”

Katsuki stops walking just to turn around and flip him off. “Didn’t ask, Icyhot. I’ll give them a good reason to put me on the front lines when I blow their fuckin’ faces off.”

“Kacch-- Katsuki!” Izuku says, catching himself before the full nickname can make it out of his mouth. He’s so used to telling Kacchan to stop threatening people at school, it was instinctive, but he’d have to be blind to miss the way Katsuki tenses.

“You can fuck off, too, Midoriya,” he says, scowling as he turns back around.

It’s still weird to hear Midoriya coming out of Katsuki’s mouth. Not Izuku. Not Deku. Even Izuchan would be better, and he hasn’t used that since they were little kids.

He watches as Katsuki walks out of the room, Aizawa watching as well before turning back to Izuku as soon as the door shuts.

“Has he always been like this?”

Izuku blinks, before slowly nodding. “Basically.”

“I’d like to have a talk with whichever version of me chose not to expel him.”

Todoroki gives what almost sounds like a laugh, smiling softly. “If it’s the same in all of our universes, you have a list, Aizawa-sensei.”

The door is opening again before Aizawa gets the chance to respond, Katsuki stepping back in, still scowling.

“Hey, idiots. The other idiots want everyone in the other room to figure out specifics and shit.”

Izuku sticks his pencil back into his case and into his bag before standing, pulling his bag onto his shoulders as he does. “Got it!”

It doesn’t take long for the three Ninths to move into the other room, Aizawa following behind. The first thing Izuku notices is that the chalkboard in the front is covered in notes and diagrams of different possible versions of the fight.

“Alright, cool, everyone’s here,” Tenko says, marking down one final thing on the chalkboard. “So we have a few basic plans, but we want to make sure we know what everyone can do. That way we can know who’s best for close combat, who’s best for distractions, and who’s best for ranged combat.”

“I’d probably be best for ranged,” Todoroki says, almost immediately. “My ice attacks can cover a large amount of ground at once, and from a distance, and my fire can have a wide range of attack as well.”

Tenko nods. “So it’s mostly similar to how your Quirk was before you got One For All, right? I saw the you in my dimension at the Sports Festival, and I’d have to agree with the long-range focus.”

“Mostly,” Todoroki says, giving a nod as well. “It mostly increased my temperature range.” He holds out his left hand, palm facing upwards and fingers spread slightly as blue flame flickers to life on his palm for a moment, before it goes back out. “I try to avoid using either for long. It’s harder to balance out my temperature, and I’m not completely resistant to either end of my limits.”

“So it’s injured you?” Izuku asks. 

“Like Touya’s does?” Tenko adds on. “It’s smart to use it in short bursts and take some time to balance it out, if that’s the case.”

Todoroki nods, pulling his hand back to his side. “That’s what I’ve been trying to do. I haven’t perfected it yet, though.” 

Tenko hums. “Have you asked Touya in your dimension for advice?”

Todoroki hesitates for a moment before he speaks again. “He… has less restraint than the one you know. And he’s not in the right place to be using his Quirk or giving training advice.”

“Hold on, the fuck does that mean?” Katsuki speaks up. “Is the fucker in your dimension not fuckin’ dead?”

Todoroki shakes his head. “We thought he was. It’s complicated.”

“The fuck do you mean, thought he was?”

“Can someone please explain why Todoroki thought Touya was dead?” Tenko cuts in. “And what you mean in general?”

Todoroki meets Tenko’s eyes, silent for a moment before he speaks again. “It’s easier if I explain everything.”

“Icyhot, you bastard, we just finished a fucking long-ass backstory.”

“It’s just more simple to explain everything instead of forcing it all into a summary, Bakugou.”

Katsuki glares at him, before groaning, taking a moment to jump up and sit on the edge of one of the desks. “Fine. Go right fucking ahead.”

“Thank you.”

Izuku sits down at another desk, Tsuyu and Mirio following suit. Tenko and All Might both stay standing.

“I’m just going to start from the beginning.”

Chapter Text

Shouto knew there was something going on with Midoriya. Something about him had just seemed off since the first day.

And no, it wasn’t his Quirklessness. Shouto was willing to respect him for making it into the hero course despite not having the same advantage as everyone else. There was just something going on with him and All Might, some kind of connection there that Shouto can’t manage to figure out, and that made him a competitor. Just another person Shouto has to beat.

Or, he thought that was all he was.

He can still feel the heat on his left side as if the flames-- his flames are still burning there. 

But it’s not like he could ignore the way Father had shouted from the stands in celebration when they had finally started burning. In the moment, he had, everything about him blocked out, but now? 

Shouto feels like he’s just waiting to run into him as he walks back through the halls of the stadium, gym uniform half burnt off. (He hadn’t asked for a fireproof one. He hadn’t expected to need it.)

So when the shadow of a muscular figure cuts out the light on the floor in front of him, where he’s staring as he walks, he resigns himself to whatever Father is about to say to him about teenage rebellion and accepting his fire and accepting who he was made to be.

He did not expect to look up to meet the eyes of not the wanna-be Number One, but the actual Number One, here instead of up in the stands with the rest of the teachers.

“Young Todoroki!” his voice booms, signature smile wide. “I am here to talk to you!”

Shouto blinks. He can practically feel his eyes shining as he stares up at the hero he had actually admired his entire life, not the one that he’d been forced to pretend to like until he just gave up pretending. He’s been taught by him in class, obviously, but they’ve never interacted one-on-one like this.

And then he remembers that he’d kind of beat up Midoriya a little-- surprisingly not much, considering it was Quirklessness against Shouto’s inherently offensive and heavily-trained Quirk-- and pauses.

“I thought you’d be with Midoriya,” Todoroki says, voice devoid of emotion in the practiced way he’s spoken all his life.

“Young Midoriya will be just fine! He only has minor injuries, nothing Recovery Girl isn’t prepared to handle!”

Really surprisingly not much, then. Shouto thinks back to a few comments he overheard from classmates and competitors, wondering if Midoriya belongs in the hero course. Coming out nearly unscathed from their match makes Shouto even more confident in his judgement of him deserving it.

“Why are you here?” Shouto asks. The main question he has that’s gone unanswered. 

“Ah-- right, well, I figured I would take the time to congratulate you for winning that last match!”

“You didn’t congratulate me after the first one. What was different?” Something’s going on here. Shouto narrows his eyes as he looks up at All Might. It’s not that he thinks All Might is secretly a bad person-- he just isn’t sure how much he trusts top heroes anymore.

“...Well.”

It’s silent for a moment.

“Actually, Young Todoroki, You have time before your next match, correct?”

His next match is against the winner between Iida and the 1-B girl. Shiozaki, if he’s remembering correctly. They haven’t even started yet, and there’s still two matches to go after them.

Shouto shrugs, nodding. He keeps his eyes narrowed, trying to parse out what’s going on from All Might’s expression, but even as he seems more nervous, that smile doesn’t fade. Shouto can’t pull anything from him.

“Then why don’t we take a moment to discuss in private! Ah-- do feel free to go change into a new uniform, if you’d like, however!”

Without the warmth of flames, Shouto has to admit, having his shirt half-burnt off is uncomfortable. So he heads to the locker room to change into one of the replacements offered, All Might staying behind him as he walks and waiting outside once he gets there.

It doesn’t take long for the hero to lead them to another room afterwards, turning on the TV sitting on one of the desks to the Sports Festival in order to keep track of when Shouto needs to head back to the waiting room. 

In the silence that follows, save for the TV playing, Shouto decides that sitting in a room with the Number One Hero that he was born to surpass is more awkward than when he first got to spend time with Natsuo on his own and they both realized they knew nothing about the other and ended up sitting in silence for fifteen minutes straight while making awkward eye contact.

After a few seconds, All Might coughs into his fist, clearing his throat. “Right, well. I had a talk with your father earlier today, Young Todoroki.”

Oh. Of course it’s about his father. He’d been somewhat relieved when it was All Might coming to talk to him instead of Father, but then it had to all loop back to him.

Shouto isn’t sure how much his expression is hiding, but he tries to keep his tone level as he responds. “About what?”

“Well, I had been seeking teaching advice from him, seeing as I believed that he had taught you to reach the level of strength you have with only half your power--” Shouto immediately thinks about how horrible of an idea it is to look at Father for teaching advice, but doesn’t interrupt-- “but he refused. That isn’t what I wanted to speak too you about, however, Young Todoroki.”

Ugh. Shouto kind of wants to walk out. He just wants All Might to get to the point and stop talking about Father.

“As a new teacher here at UA, it is now part of my responsibility to care for the wellbeing of my students! And from the way he talked of your training, and even of your very existence, I feel that there’s… cause for concern.”

Now Shouto really wants to walk out, but at the same time, some part of him that dares to have hope roots him in place. 

“Is everything alright at home, Young Todoroki?”

Shouto hasn’t talked to his siblings much, but it doesn’t take much to know that Natsuo and Fuyumi would both benefit from getting away from Father. Shouto would, too. But there’s only one man in Japan with more influence than him.

That man is sitting in front of him, asking him if everything is alright, giving him a chance that he’s sure his siblings have dreamed of. 

And yet, the part of him that dreamed of it, too, fails to bring any words to his tongue.

Instead, after a few moments of silence, Shouto says, “Yes.”

It’s a lie.

“Father is just very adamant on having a successor, and my Quirk was the most suited for it.”

And a truth.

It was easy for Shouto to tell Midoriya everything. It didn’t have any real impact, and besides, it was mostly a spur-of-the-moment conversation. There was something about the other boy, the way he attacked despite his Quirklessness, staying determined despite all the obstacles in his way, that just pushed him to talk. It’s different now.

All Might’s smile doesn’t fade. Shouto doesn’t find it reassuring in the moment. But he also doesn’t miss the way the Number One’s eyebrows press together, another crease forming on his forehead.

He wasn’t satisfied with that answer. Part of Shouto recognizes the stiffness that washes over him as fear.

Yet, when All Might speaks again, it’s not anger.

“Alright, Young Todoroki. I just wanted to ensure everything was alright! Now, you should be getting back to the waiting rooms. My apologies for making assumptions.”

Shouto nods, walking to the door.

Before he can leave, the handle already starting to turn under his grip, All Might speaks again.

“Please remember that there’s people willing and able to help, should you ever need it.”

Shouto turns his head to meet All Might’s eyes one last time, giving a small nod that he isn’t even sure is big enough for him to see, before he turns back to the door and steps outside.

He still has a Sports Festival to finish. He still has Father’s-- his own flames to figure out.

There’s no time to think about what All Might is offering him and his siblings. 

---

When they get back from the Sports Festival, Aizawa-sensei brings up the internships.

Shouto’s name is at the top of the chart of draft picks with over 4,000.

It’s not like it matters. He knows who he’s going to intern with. He never really had much of a say in it, and he knew this. Besides, if he wants to work on his fire--

All Might Hero Agency.

Shouto stares, blinking before reading the line again.

No, he read it right the first time.

What.

All Might is known for a lot of things, even beyond being the Symbol of Peace. One of them is that he’s never had a sidekick other than Sir Nighteye. Another is that he’s never taken an intern or work study student.

So why is his agency listed as one of Shouto’s draft picks.

Other than the Sports Festival, Shouto hasn’t talked to All Might at all. Before that, he hadn’t ever had a one-on-one conversation with him. So all he really knows about Shouto is what he’s shown in class and the conversations he’d had with both Father and Shouto at the Festival.

Something about those things made him draft Shouto. Something about those things made him confident enough in Shouto’s potential to mark him as All Might’s first ever intern.

Shouto scans the first page again, still reeling, and just barely acknowledges Father’s agency on the list as well.

But if Shouto turns in his top three choices by the end of the day, All Might’s agency at the top and Father’s agency not even written on the sheet? Father will find out in a few days. But for now, he doesn’t have to know.

---

Shouto manages to keep it a secret under the guise of “it must be taking longer than expected to contact the agencies” up until the day before internships begin.

Luckily, by the time it sinks in, he’s already leaving to spend the day with Natsuo. Father had said that he would allow him one day off since the next week would be nothing but hard work at the agency.

Natsuo and Shouto both choose to ignore Father’s roar of Shouto’s name behind them as he realizes that it won’t be, actually, Natsuo stepping on the gas almost immediately.

“Holy shit, Shouto,” Natsuo laughs, grinning, “what’d you do?”

“I applied to do my internship with another one of the agencies that drafted me,” Shouto says. Natsuo laughs a little more.

“Oh, yeah? Which one?”

“All Might’s.”

Natsuo chokes as he almost swerves off the road.

He takes a second to fix his steering, before giving Shouto the most incredulous look he has ever seen him with. “ Who? ”

“All Might?”

Natsuo redirects his gaze to the road, eyes wide before he starts laughing. “Oh my God, Shouto. Please tell me you brought your school uniform with you.”

“No?”

“I’m having Fuyumi smuggle it out of the house, then. You’re staying at my place tonight.”

Shouto goes to ask why, before he remembers Father’s rage-filled roar of his name when they’d been leaving. “Oh. Alright.”

Natsuo gives one more quiet chuckle, taking one hand off the wheel to drag it down his face. “That’s fucking reckless, Shou. Pissing Dad off like that. But, you know what? I’m proud of you.” He reaches over to ruffle Shouto’s hair, managing to reach despite Shouto moving further away on instinct. “I expect every single insider’s secret from All Might’s agency when you get back.”

---

Shouto adjusts his grip on the case holding his hero costume-- new-and-improved, without the ice half-- as he steps off of the train.

The station is decently crowded, but it’s simple enough to weave his way through and make it to where he’d been told an employee of All Might’s agency would be meeting him-- one of All Might’s personal agents, apparently.

“Ah, Todoroki!” 

Shouto looks up to see a skeletal man waving at him, slowly making his way over. Shouto walks to meet him halfway, taking in what he can about the man as he does.

Blond hair, two longer pieces falling down in front. Incredibly gaunt, hence the skeletal description. Baggy, ill-fitting clothes that still manage to look presentable.

Not exactly what Shouto was expecting. But he’s not setting off any alarms in his head, and he looks presentable enough that he’s pretty sure this is the agent Shouto was told about.

“You can call me Yagi,” he says, giving a small smile-- a weird expression on such a skeletal face, but comforting nonetheless. “I’ll be your escort to the agency, and I’ll help you get settled once we get there.”

Shouto nods, shuffling his grip on his case once more as he shifts it over to his other hand. 

“Well, no time to waste, then, is there? I’m sure All Might can’t wait to work with you one-on-one-- it must’ve been quite a fight to get the entire week off from teaching!”

Ah, right. All Might teaches the other years, too-- he would’ve had to have the week off to be able to handle Shouto’s internship.

He hums in agreement as they start walking. He’s sure Nedzu wasn’t thrilled with one of the teachers taking an entire week off, especially not All Might. “I didn’t think about how much of an inconvenience the internship could be.”

“No, not at all, young man!” Yagi says. “Really, he chose to draft you for a reason. You’re the first intern he’s taken! You must’ve greatly impressed him at UA.”

“I wasn’t expecting to get the chance to work with him one-on-one like this.”

Yagi hums. “You’re very straightforward, aren’t you?”

“Sorry.”

“No, no need to apologize! You’re able to get straight to the facts without many distractions. That could serve to be very useful in investigations and quick decisions.”

Shouto blinks. Usually, when people point out his tendency to just say exactly what he’s thinking or feeling, without much filter, it’s not as nice as that.

“Thank you. I’ve never thought about it like that.”

“Of course! Now, when we get to the agency, we--”

Yagi is cut off by shouts down the street.

Immediately, Shouto is on guard, watching as people start to run in their direction, clearly away from something. Sudden villain attack, most likely. They’re in All Might’s patrol area, and All Might’s fast response time is one of the main reasons he’s become the Number One Hero and Symbol of Peace, so Shouto really doesn’t have any reason to worry, but there’s energy buzzing underneath his skin as he prepares for what he thinks is an attack.

“Yagi,” he says, staring as a villain with some kind of Transformation Quirk rounds the corner, “do you have a way to contact--”

He turns to finish asking if there was some way he could contact All Might in an emergency, but the skeletal man is gone.

Immediately, Shouto’s response levels rise. He turns to take in the crowd running off, trying to make out Yagi (which shouldn’t be hard, considering he’s 7’2”, which is unusual even within a Quirked society) but not seeing him at all. 

“Shit…”

Even if Yagi hadn’t been able to contact All Might, as a member of the agency he’d probably be able to give Shouto permission to act until All Might gets here. Right now, without his license and without a Pro or a member of All Might’s agency to give him permission to act, he’s stuck as nothing more than a bystander, unless he wants to take part in vigilante justice in broad daylight and proceed to get arrested for unlicensed quirk usage.

No. He’s good. He doesn’t want to force Father to bail him out of jail. That won’t be fun for either of them.

He’s trying to consider if he’d be able to get through to All Might fast enough with his phone and the number provided for the agency when he’s shown that he doesn’t have to.

“It’s alright now!”

The voice sounds like it’s surrounding him with how loud it is, but a glance up towards the familiar hero shows he’s coming in from above.

“Do you know why?”

All Might’s fist meets the villain’s face, meeting some resistance before the pressure is too much and knocks them backwards. Before they can go flying into any of the store fronts, All Might is there again, stopping them and pressing them into the ground to restrain them.

“Because I am here!”

The crowd, already stopped from the second All Might had started speaking, takes a moment before they start cheering. 

The entire time, Shouto stands to the side, holding his case by his side still as he takes in the fact that this is who he’s interning with. 

He already knew to expect a lot, but this is on another level entirely.

This is already better than going to Father’s agency.

---

The room he’s given to stay in at the agency isn’t completely a blank slate, at least. There’s an All Might-themed lamp on the nightstand, a minifridge that Shouto finds to hold water bottles and some juices, a small coffee maker, and, of course, the already-made bunk beds. Shouto’s never been in an agency’s sleeping quarters, so he can only assume it’s basic.

He doesn’t have much to unpack. He has the clothes he packed in his bag, his case already set at the foot of the beds, a journal to note down anything he learns that he doesn’t want to forget, and a pad of paper with some envelopes and pens to go with it. (He promised to send Mother a letter or two, since he can’t visit during his internship. It’s nice, being able to talk to her again.)

It doesn’t take long to put his clothes away, his journal and the letter supplies staying in his bag for now, so he settles for sitting on the lower bunk, looking at the notifications on his phone.

Usually, it’s just his siblings-- and they’re still there, with wishes of luck from both Natsuo and Fuyumi-- but now, there’s another name there.

Midoriya, 12:39 P.M.: [IMG attached. It’s the top half of Izuku’s face, eyes crinkled in a way that suggests a large smile. He has a peace sign held up in frame. Behind him is an older man, wearing a white and yellow hero costume, glaring back at the camera.]

Midoriya, 12:39 P.M.: hope you’re having fun at your internship, todoroki!! gran torino is a lot older than expected, but he seems to know his stuff ^^ youre super lucky for getting to intern with all might tho :((

Me, 1:06 P.M.: [IMG attached. A photo of Todoroki sitting on the lower bunk, the upper bunk visible above him. The All Might lamp on the nightstand is just barely visible in the corner of the image.]

Me, 1:07 P.M.: I just got settled into the room they’ve given me. I haven’t gotten to spend much time with All Might yet. Hope you’re having fun too.

---

Keeping up with All Might is just as difficult as Shouto expected, and then some. It’s three days of non-stop rushing after the hero on patrols, being told to continue patrolling while he goes back to report an incident, and then nothing happening for another few hours. 

He hadn’t considered that the low crime rates would make patrols into relaxing walks around the city. 

“Relaxing” isn’t really the right word, though. Shouto has sweat sticking to his forehead as he gets back to the agency, struggling to catch his breath at the end of yet another patrol spent mostly on his own before having to rush after All Might back to the agency.

“My apologies, Todoroki,” Yagi’s voice greets him, and for whatever reason, he seems just as worn down as Shouto. Working for All Might as an agency employee must be tiring, as well. “I know you’ve been spending a lot of time patrolling on your own since your internship began.”

“It’s fine,” Shouto says, as if he’s not worn out despite not doing anything but rush after All Might. He hasn’t even had a hand in any villain captures so far. 

“Er… yes, well, I hope you don’t mind accompanying All Might to Hosu tonight, then.”

Shouto blinks. That’s where Iida is doing his internship, isn’t it?

“Why Hosu?”

“All Might believes patrolling an area with a higher rate of crime would be beneficial to your time here, seeing as you haven’t had the chance to practice your skills against real villains.”

It’s like All Might knew he was complaining about that in his head moments ago.

“Alright,” Shouto says, shrugging. There’s nothing else he has to do. Midoriya’s responses have been few and far between. Gran Torino’s clearly keeping him busy. And besides, the more experience he can get the better.

Who knows, he might even run into Iida.

---

He did, in fact, run into Iida. And also fight the Hero Killer.

Father was not happy when he found out about that.

But apparently, the permission slip he’d signed before internships had started agreed that unless a major ongoing threat occured, the agency he was signed with had custody, regardless of what agency he signed with.

That was a relief, at least. He still had another half-week to go. 

His injuries are minor enough that he’s back to the agency by afternoon the next day. Yagi sends him back up to his room to rest for a bit longer before he goes back out on patrol. 

It feels wrong to keep resting, but he’s sure All Might can handle the low crime rates in his region of Tokyo. After all, that’s what he’d been doing the entirety of Shouto’s internship even when he was on patrol.

He just resigns himself to waiting until someone comes to tell him to get ready for another patrol, scrolling on his phone while he waits. There’s not much he can really look at, but there’s the hero news-- and that All Might-themed puzzle game Midoriya recommended. 

It’s like that for an hour or two, quiet and calm, the bandages Shouto is still wearing over the cuts left by the Hero Killer itching a bit against his skin.

It’s interrupted by a knock, and All Might’s voice outside the door.

“Young Todoroki! May I come in?”

He blinks at the still-closed door. So far, it’s been either Yagi or another agency employee coming to get him for patrols. All Might hasn’t come to get him personally before.

“Yeah, sure,” Shouto says, setting his phone down next to him on the bed and standing. If it’s a more urgent mission, he wants to be ready to grab his case and rush to get changed into his hero costume so that he doesn’t slow them down any.

Instead, All Might opens the door and simply steps inside, letting the door shut behind him. It’s almost reminiscent of the Sports Festival.

“You know, Young Todoroki, your actions last night went into something you truly didn’t need to be meddling in.”

Shouto narrows his eyes. He’s heard this from Hosu’s police chief already-- and he doesn’t really agree with it, but there’s not much he can do about it. So despite his frustration at the repeated lecture, he nods.

“I know. It won’t happen again.”

All Might laughs. “I should hope it will, once you’re properly licensed!”

What?

“You know, Young Todoroki, Young Midoriya had a similar concern at the Sports Festival when it came to you. That he had stepped over a line. But truly, meddling in places where you don’t belong-- that is the very essence of being a hero, my boy.”

He has a lot of questions about the fact that Midoriya had confided in All Might about that-- again, his mind goes back to wondering if he really is the Pro’s secret, illegitimate son-- but really, it’s reassuring to hear that his current mentor is proud of him for his actions despite the law telling them otherwise. (There was the “once you’re properly licensed” line, but that’s to be expected. The Number One can’t go around encouraging vigilantism.) 

“Thank you,” Shouto says, summing up his gratitude in two simple words.

“Of course, Young Todoroki! But there is one other thing I want to say-- one other thing I’d like to offer you.”

Another offer? Letting him intern here was already more than he could ask for. Not being upset with him for fighting Stain is more than he could ask for. So what--?

“I’d like you to inherit my Quirk, young man.”

“...What.”

All Might laughs, the sound taking up the entire room. “Don’t act so confused! I mean what I said, Young Todoroki!” 

Okay. Sure. But problem. 

“I don’t think that’s how Quirks work.”

“Not most Quirks, no! My Quirk, however, is an exception that has been passed down generations. Its name is One For All.”

“Isn’t that a saying from an old pre-Quirk story?”

“...Yes! It is! But it’s far more than that, my boy! It’s a legacy that I’d like to pass on to you, if you’d accept it!”

Shouto just stares, silently, before All Might clears his throat with a cough before continuing.

“I began teaching at UA in search of a successor. I was severely injured in a battle about six years ago now, and my time as a hero has been declining. And you, Young Todoroki, have shown great potential! If you’ll accept it, I’d like to have you as my successor, both as a user of One For All and as the next Symbol of Peace!”

Shouto takes a moment to register the words, then another to think about it.

Father probably wouldn’t be happy with him if he gave up the idea of being his successor to be All Might’s successor.

“I’ll take it. Thank you.”

(Shouto’s confident with that decision being the right one based on who he wants to be as a hero. And the fact that it would piss off Father. 

...Until All Might tells him to eat his hair.

Maybe he should’ve thought about it a bit longer.)

---

All Might has him skip patrol the first day he has One For All to start trying to get used to it, once he gives it some time to fully settle into his body. 

Which is an incredibly weird feeling. It’s like both of his sides are adjusting their temperature slowly, hotter on his left and colder on his right, and it’s just fast enough that his body is staying in the uncomfortable range longer than it can get back into the comfortable range. His sides are balancing each other out, but it’s still a weird feeling.  

According to All Might, it’s normal for it to feel weird, though. He mentions something about it strengthening his Quirk, which explains the temperature change in his body. 

“Do you know what your previous maximum and minimum temperatures were, Young Todoroki?” All Might asks, standing at the edge of the training room as Shouto stands in the center. (All Might and Yagi being the same person was a bit of a shock, but the quick explanation about an old enemy and the injury from their fight explains it, as well as explaining the limited time they’d spent patrolling together and the time Yagi had spent with him outside of patrols.)

“My ice is usually around -26 degrees Celsius. My fire is around a thousand degrees.” He can withstand his ice on its own longer than he can withstand his fire, but since he’s gotten more comfortable using his fire since the Sports Festival, he can balance them out.

“Alright! I’ve had thermometers set up around you to measure the temperatures you can reach now. With One For All increasing your Quirk’s strength, we want to be able to measure your new maximum and minimum temperatures so you can adjust the regulation of your Quirk accordingly. I’ll be stepping outside, but I’ll be watching to make sure nothing goes wrong!”

Shouto gives a nod. His temperature limits are already higher and lower than what people without ice and fire Quirks can handle, and he doesn’t want to risk hurting All Might. If his Quirk has really gotten stronger, it’s best for him to step outside.

He listens as the doors shut behind All Might, before taking a deep breath and registering where he is in his surroundings.

The training room at All Might’s agency is so clearly different from the one at home. It’s concrete walls with minimal padding, laminated floors with lines drawn to mark boundaries like the arena in the final round of the Sports Festival. The thermometers All Might had mentioned are in the form of small black boxes set around him, four of them forming a square around Shouto.

It’s different. Shouto isn’t here to train to do what his father couldn’t. He’s here to train as All Might’s successor.

Something about that feels right.

He takes another deep breath before activating his Quirk on his right side, pushing himself as low as he can go. Ice spreads across the floor, sourced from where his right foot is placed, already steadied. The overhead lights make the crystals sparkle.

He doesn’t usually let his temperature drop this low. The more he uses his ice, the more he instinctively wants to balance it out.

But he doesn’t, even as frost creeps up his arm and neck. He lets himself drop as low as he physically can. He doesn’t stop until he knows he’s reached his limit, and not the limit that makes him have to focus simultaneously on keeping his fire in check and making his ice colder.

He takes a second, takes one breath, and stops fighting back against his fire.

It bursts out immediately, red and orange and yellow flickering along his left side. 

But it’s not as hot as it could be. He knows that.

So he pushes it hotter, just like he’d pushed his ice colder. He needs to know his limits. He can tell when he passes what used to be his limit-- even if he’s heat resistant, practically heatproof, he can still feel it-- but it feels like half of what he can do, if even.

He keeps pushing. If that’s his halfway point now, he needs to know what his maximum is.

He hopes this isn’t going to push him into Quirk overuse too quickly. Pushing himself to his limits usually manages to do that, but he doesn’t want to be out of commission for the rest of the day, resting and recovering and letting his Quirk settle.

He’s close to his limit when the flames flicker and start turning blue.

He’s never seen blue fire before, but he knows someone who had it.

Touya had blue fire.

He swallows back that fact and forces himself further. He’s almost at his limit, he can tell, but he’s not there yet. He needs to know his exact limit. It’s just a little further.

His flames cut out against his will as pain sears across his forearm.

He doesn’t scream-- he knows better than to scream when it hurts, after years of training with Father-- but he does let his breath catch, speeding up as his right arm clutches at it. He wants to ice over it, to ease the pain, but something tells him not to.

After the pain stops blurring his vision, he finally looks down.

A burn covers most of his forearm, almost looking more like charcoal than his own skin with the black color and the charred texture. His breathing is coming in fast, adrenaline from the pain blurring his thoughts a bit, but he knows enough about burns-- had to, with a fire Quirk and a future in heroics-- to know that it’s a third-degree.

“Young Todoroki!”

He can’t ice over it. Ice will just make the scarring worse. He wants to, can feel the ice creeping into his veins as he forces himself to hold his right arm away, not allowing himself to hold it. If he does, he’ll probably ice over it on instinct. He can’t do that.

The call of his name is finally registered just in time for him to flinch as a skeletal hand takes his arm, frantic but gentle, lifting it to get a better look at it. All Might’s eyebrows press together as he leans down closer, taking in the damage.

He’s probably seen worse. Most Pros have. But there’s still worry in his eyes.

“We have a medical expert on staff. You should go see him. I’m sorry, Young Todoroki, I wasn’t aware that your own Quirk could harm you like this-- One For All, I expected, could, if you weren’t properly prepared, but I didn’t expect it to affect the Quirk you were born with so strongly.”

Shouto’s thoughts are still blurry as he nods. “It’s okay.”

All Might looks up, meeting his eyes. It’s silent, as if he wants to say something.

It’s still there as he speaks again, something that doesn’t fit the expression on his face-- almost, but not quite. Shouto’s never been an expert at matching emotion to words, but even he can tell it’s off. 

“Let me take you to our medical staff, at least. The sooner this can be healed, the less it will scar.”

Shouto knows it’s going to scar, and he’s sure All Might does too, but he lets him lead him to get it checked out by his staff anyways.

---

Father is still angry about the internships when Shouto gets back, burn bandaged and healing slowly. Faster than it would heal naturally, thanks to the healing enhancement Quirk All Might’s medical expert has, but still slow. 

Training at home is harsher than usual, added on top of training at school. Shouto can manage. His ice is colder. Both his upper and lower limits have doubled. -52 degrees for his ice, and 2000 degrees for his fire. (1900 degrees, technically, since it burned at higher than that, but in a worst-case scenario, Shouto could hit 2000.)

It’s a relief when he finally gets a break in the form of Natsuo stopping by for an unannounced night out with Shouto, cutting Father’s plans of training short. (Shouto was already outside and getting into Natsuo’s car before he could say anything.)

He notices the way Natsuo’s eyes catch on the bandaging when he gets in the car. 

Natsuo doesn’t say anything at first, a year or so of practice at getting Shouto out of there before Father can say anything giving him the wisdom to drive away almost immediately after Shouto buckles his seatbelt. But a few minutes into driving, and Natsuo’s pulling over onto the side of a near-empty road, turning the radio off, and turning to look at Shouto.

“Your arm. What’d he do.”

Shouto blinks, lifting his arm and looking down at it. “It wasn’t Father.”

“Then what was it? Doesn’t UA have Recovery Girl to heal student’s injuries? Why hasn’t she healed it?”

Because he hasn’t thought of that and thought to go to her? He didn’t think it was that bad, since it’s already healing.

“My Quirk got stronger during my internship,” he says. It’s easier than explaining One For All, and besides, it’s supposed to be a secret. “My body’s resistance to it wasn’t able to keep up.”

Natsuo goes quiet, the words registering as his mouth hangs just barely open, eyebrows pressed together as he just stares at the bandaging. After a moment, he finally speaks. “Your Quirk burned you.”

Shouto nods.

“Let me see it. I can rewrap it, I have a first-aid kit.”

He blinks, but holds out his arm to Natsuo for him to look at. His hands barely make contact as they run over the bandaging until he finds where it’s secured and starts unwrapping it.

Shouto can see the way he freezes when he gets the bandage off and turns his arm to see the full extent of the burn. It’s not as bad as it was when he first got it, but it’s already clear that the scar won’t be pretty. It covers the left outer side of his forearm, running from right below his elbow to right above his wrist.

Natsuo is quiet, staring. Shouto doesn’t ignore the way he worries at his lower lip. 

“What color were your flames? When this happened?”

“Blue.”

Shouto realizes what he’s going to say before he says it.

“It’s like Touya.”

It’s barely a whisper, something horrified in Natsuo’s eyes as the realization hits. His grip on Shouto’s arm increases just enough to start to hurt, and Shouto’s sure he’s not imagining the way the temperature in the car drops.

After a few moments of tension sitting in the air, strong enough that Shouto’s sure that one metaphor about cutting it with a knife would apply, Natsuo looks up to meet his eyes.

“Promise me you won’t burn yourself again. Don’t push your Quirk that far. Promise me.”

There’s an intensity in his gaze that leaves no room for argument about hypothetical worst-case-scenarios, no room for anything but an agreement.

Shouto nods, placing his right hand over Natsuo’s where it grips his wrist. “I promise.”

---

After internships, school is just a blur of the same classes mixed in with study sessions with Midoriya and his friends, Uraraka, Iida, and Asui. 

His bandaging comes off a few days after his conversation with Natsuo, seeing as he was reminded of the fact that Recovery Girl would likely be willing to heal the burn for him. He was right in the fact that the scar wouldn’t be pretty. The rough, purplish scar is definitely an eyesore, but other than some questions about what happened (and a request from Midoriya to be shown the levels he could reach without burning himself, when he mentioned the blue flames), his classmates don’t comment on it much.