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The space inside One for All was incredibly boring, and how could it not be? It was a graveyard, after all. The only excitement came roughly every ten to fifteen years when a new vestige would arrive, but that excitement was overshadowed by the regret and disappointment of yet another defeat. The place was somber, dark, and depressing to most.
Until the arrival of Daigoro Banjo.
Unlike the other vestiges, Daigoro refused to sit in silence in this odd realm between a dream and the void and was determined to make something happen. Of course, he couldn’t do a thing about the All for One situation (wouldn’t be able to for many years, although he doesn’t know that yet) but he could certainly change things here.
Simply put, Blackwhip is a quirk that can grab things. It grabs with, well, a whip. So therefore, Blackwhip must be tangible right? And since the “whip” is made of energy then it’s form can’t be limited to just a whip, right?
And it was not. As Daigoro soon discovered, the limitations of realism and reality didn’t apply here in this half-dream half-void space, meaning his quirk was a lot more versatile here than it had been when he was alive. Not only could it take any shape he wanted it to, but it could also change color, consistency, and split apart. The other vestiges were a bit concerned at what he could do with this newfound power, but it’s not like he could harm anybody here…
Physically.
Because eventually Daigoro achieved his goal from the beginning of his experiments with Blackwhip: he made a deck of cards. With that, the vestiges discovered that Daigoro Banjo was a gambling man.
Health specialists say there are seven different types of gamblers: The casual, the compulsive, the professional, the social, the escapist, the superstitious, and the high roller. The eighth type, the one they don’t mention, is the ruthless gambler. A combination of the social and professional, the ruthless gambler takes everything you’re worth before you’ve even realized they’re doing it. This describes Daigoro to a T.
There is no currency in this space and yet, every time he plays cards with the vestiges they still feel like they’ve lost something – probably their sanity. If card gambling was a valid form of combat, the vestiges were sure that the battle against All for One would’ve ended with Daigoro. In short, card gambling was fun for Daigoro, but not so much for everyone else whose personalities weren’t particularly suited for these kinds of games. But then Yoichi suggested an obvious idea: “Why are we limiting ourselves to card games? If your quirk is capable of making such intricate things as cards, surely it can make game pieces!”
And so Daigoro introduced the group to Landy Cand, a simple children’s game about making it through a colorful board to the castle at the end.
This game was so embarrassingly simple that sometimes, in a moment of clarity, Hikage (Fourth) would ask himself what the hell he was doing. But the group had been isolated in this slice of reality for so long that ultimately no one could be blamed for finding the utmost joy in such childish things, and the air in this place was objectively lighter now, so different from how it had been just a decade ago – or what they presumed to be a decade, there were no clocks – that even Hikage could say that maybe board games directed at 5-year-olds were doing them some good.
From there the vestiges spent a long time focusing on board games from their childhood, until they decided it was finally time to bring the cards back. The environment in this place could only be described as a senior’s poker club if the seniors were immortal (according to Nana.)
One amazing thing about this place was that every so often they would get “fresh blood,” as Daigoro said, who would know games that none of them had even heard of (because these games simply hadn’t existed in their day.) Unfortunately, though, it wasn’t lost on them that this small joy was built on the top of another gravestone of another hero yet again defeated by All for One.
But then something odd happened. The current user, the eighth, gave the quirk away and didn’t die shortly after. In fact, he was well into his fifties when he had passed on the quirk, which was weird too considering the other users had lived to forty at most. This left his vestige in a strange limbo – sort of there but not really – essentially splitting his existence in physical reality and his existence inside of the quirk apart. So naturally the vestiges had one looming question about this half-vestige:
Could it play cards?
Yes, amazingly enough, yes it could.
Meanwhile in the physical world..
U.A team bonding events. They were absolutely required unless you had a good excuse to miss them – such as a death in the family – because Nedzu had determined that team bonding events would boost productivity and force his overworked employees to take a break. Unfortunately, this year they had been delayed due to… everything else going on, so Yagi had yet to attend one.
Team bonding events could be anything, as long as they promote camaraderie. They did have to be confined to indoors or secluded areas since a bunch of celebrities hanging out in a mall would cause nothing but chaos, but there were plenty of options. Tonight – now that Nedzu had finally found a timeslot for it – they were playing cards.
“All Might! This is your first time in one of these events isn’t it?” Hizashi asked, a little too loud due to his excitement.
“Ah yes,” Yagi replied sheepishly, “although I’m not sure how good I’ll be. I haven’t had a lot of practice in cards.” (That he knows of, anyways.)
“Well, that’s fine! None of us are very good, except Snipe for whatever reason…”
The teachers all sat down around the table, and the few people who actually knew how to play argued about who should deal until Aizawa reluctantly said that he would do it.
Yagi destroyed them.
He didn’t mean to! He didn’t even know why he did! As far as he was aware he had no idea how to play cards, but the moment his turn came around he suddenly knew exactly what to do.
“What the HELL, All Might?” Hizashi yelled, again not deliberately.
“I- I don’t know…” Yagi admitted.
“That had to have just been a fluke,” Nemuri exclaimed.
And so, they had another round. And so, Yagi destroyed them once again. The team bonding event ended in confusion, which Nedzu considered a success,
“So, it seems the skills and knowledge one’s vestige learns in this realm transfer to real life experience. Who knew!” Yoichi commented, after hearing about the team meeting from Yagi’s vestige.
“Nobody,” Second (Kudo) replied in his regular no-nonsense tone, “because we’ve never had a vestige like this before.”
“Oh, quit ruining the fun.” Daigoro said, jokingly punching him in the arm.
Ninth was here. Wait, but Ninth hadn’t died yet. What the hell? Yagi’s vestige had been a weird occurrence for sure, but this took the cake.
As if One for All as a quirk couldn’t get weirder, it showed Ninth the story of All for One and One for All, seemingly all on its own, before Ninth was sent back to the real world.
The vestiges were ready to accept anything at this point.
It happened again. Well, sort of, but this time Ninth didn’t seem to be dreaming, and this time they could actually speak to him! Unfortunately, the circumstances were less than pleasant, and Daigoro barely had time to explain his quirk to him, much less tell him, “I have important things to teach you, but they will have to wait.”
Izuku was baffled about the last comment for the next week, but chalked it up to education about his new quirk.
Izuku’s dreams became more frequent after that, but not to be educated on the suddenly emerged second quirk as he’d once thought, but to play… cards?
After the ominous message Daigoro had given him a week before, Izuku had assumed it would be wisdom from his elders, or knowledge about the new quirk, so he was bewildered when he found himself in the room again, facing a card table.
“Kid, do you know how to play cards?” Daigoro asked, a mischievous expression on his face.
“N-no…”
“Well then, you’re about to learn, aren’t ya?”
From then on, Izuku was summoned into the One for All realm every so often to play cards, or board games, or whatever Daigoro had managed to conjure up that day. In actuality, Daigoro had the same reason for doing this as Nedzu had for team bonding events. Being a One for All holder was stressful. He knew full well how Izuku was constantly worrying about his friends, his family, and his own progression. And God damn it that kid was so self-sacrificing he would probably work himself to death trying to protect them. He needed a break and a break Daigoro would give him, even if it was just playing games in a small void-like room every once in a while.
Years later, when All for One was defeated and Izuku could no longer reach the vestiges, he looked back fondly on the times when he had put his worries aside and simply played cards.