Chapter Text
Izuku never really heard his alarms in the morning, no matter how many he set. What he couldn’t ignore, however, was a flick in the forehead from Nana.
“Ow! Nanaaa, why do I have to get up this early anyway?” he groaned.
“Tsk. You know why! You said today you’d start training with us! You’re old enough now.”
Izuku just grumbled, pulled the covers back over his face, and turned toward the wall.
“Midoriya,” called a gruff voice.
“Midoriya!”
Just as he was about to drift off again, a fist came through the wall and hit his stomach. He tumbled off the bed and was tangled in the covers.
“What-hey! Who was that?!”
“It was Daigoro again. And for once, I don’t pity you,” Nana chuckled. “Let’s go! Up and at ‘em.”
En and the others tried their best to hold back the giggles and grins as Daigoro floated through the wall with an evil smirk on his face.
“I can’t wait to get started.”
***
Izuku had learned at an early age to keep quiet about his ghostly friends.
When he had overheard his mother talking to a psychologist about his ‘schizophrenia,’ it quickly instilled a healthy fear of being treated as strange or a freak (well more so than he was already.)
The previous holders clearly hadn’t intended to be seen by Izuku. It was quite the shock when their prospective student locked eyes with them. He could hear, see, and even interact with their ghostly forms. Nana and Yoichi immediately knew that he was the one that One For All should be passed on to. The others had taken some convincing, but they warmed up to him as he got older.
Now that Izuku was 14, they were eager to start preparing him for him to receive OFA. How that would happen exactly… was still up for debate. They hadn’t told Izuku that All Might had One For All right now, and they tried to communicate their wishes with Yagi in dreams, but he seemed unwilling to give up his power to someone he’d never met….They decided that was a problem for later though and didn’t let Izuku know yet.
A bright and early Saturday morning was when they started training. As spring was coming to an end, the heat worked the AC harder than ever. Izuku prepped himself as he got dressed for the brutal workout he knew was coming. Taking a deep breath nearly bouncing on his feet with nerves he stepped into the cleared living room.
Looking around, he thought to himself that the apartment has gotten rather sparse lately.
When his mom had said she was doing some spring cleaning, he didn’t know she’d go… all out like this. There were no decorations left on the walls or tables, even though his mom had always been fond of having a warm living space. Izuku tried not to dwell on it too much; after all, he had to get his training done before she got home.
Each holder took turns training Izuku in the specific skills and muscles needed to wield their quirks. While OFA was simply an enhancer to whatever quirk the next holder had, Izuku was quirkless(they didn’t consider him being able to see them a ‘quirk’ per se.) It could mean he might get any one of their quirks along with the enhancement. When it came to Yagi’s quirk… the holders had lost hope that he would hand OFA over willingly. They were currently scheming a way to do it without him knowing.
All Might had made it perfectly clear that the only way to make sure AFO was defeated was to find a student that had a strong quirk to add to OFA and further strengthen it. He would never hand it over to a quirkless kid…at least not willingly. It had been unanimously decided last night to not tell Izuku about it, since he looked up to All Might so much. They’d rather him stay motivated.
It felt much faster than usual that the sky steadily began to darken. Izuku lay on the floor panting in a pool of his own sweat, attempting to blink the sweat out of his eyes.
He felt a shadow fall over him and opened his eyes to Nana floating there, compassion and a bit of worry in her eyes.
“Hey kiddo, you good? I know we worked you pretty hard today.”
Izuku smiled up at her as he spoke, “Of course, I would expect no less from legends like you guys.”
His compliments and sweet smile melted Nana’s heart- after growing so close to him, the rest also couldn’t resist his adorable charm.
Toshitsugos face steadily warmed to a bright red before he waved away his blush and regained his serious composure. “Izuku. Is everything we showed you today lining up with your assessment of our quirks?”
Practically leaping up in excitement, his fluffy hair flinging sweat around as his eyes shined. “Yes! It’s all starting to make a lot of sense. I can’t wait to find out which one of your quirks I’m gonna get! Oh! By the way, how exactly is that gonna happen?” He enquired wringing his hands as he looked around.
The holders all glanced around at each other nervously.
“We, uh, heh, we don’t exactly know the answer to that yet,” Nana said slowly.
“What?! But- haven’t you already done this 8 times before?” Izuku shouted.
“Well you see- we uh- no, actually. No holder of OFA has ever been able to see us like this,” Yoichi answered, a hand reaching up to scratch the back of his transparent head.
“W-well what did you do, then? Someone had to pass it on, right? That means there is someone out there with OFA already, right?”
Shit, they all thought unanimously.
“That’s right,” said Bruce, grimly. “There is a hero you know who currently possesses OFA.”
“Hey!” Nana glared at him. “I thought we said we weren’t going to-“
“He’ll have to know eventually,” Bruce said, cutting her off.
Bruce turned back to the now worried Izuku. “That hero’s name... is All Might.”
Izuku’s eyes went as wide as saucers. “No way…”
Yoichi stepped forward hesitantly. “The thing is, Izuku, he… well he said-“
“He forfeited his right to choose the next successor. So we’re going to have to figure out how to do it ourselves,” Nana interrupted. She eyed Yoichi and each nodded slightly in approval to each other.
Izuku sat in silence for a moment puzzling over what could that possibly mean, he ‘forfeited the right to choose?’ He’s All Might… why would he do something like that?
Nana knelt down to look him in the eyes. “I know you probably have a lot more questions- you always do -but right now, we don’t have all the answers either.”
Izuku’s eyes softened. “Don’t worry. I trust you. All of you. The questions can wait.”
“Well, that’s a first- koff” Banjo was cut off by a sharp elbow to the stomach from Hikage. Izuku let out his infectious giggle, and everyone else couldn’t help but follow suit.
***
It had only been two weeks since the start of training when Bakugo noticed the difference.
His confidence rising, slowly but steadily.
His stronger frame.
He wasn’t even near Bakugo’s level yet, but he was creeping closer.
It reminded Bakugo of the past. Back when he was weak. Like Deku.
He wasn’t about to let himself be outdone by trash.