Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Toshinori Yagi was tired.

Not physically mind you. It was more like the emotional kind. The kind where you go through the same thing over and over but you aren’t sure you’re making much of a difference.

Yes, he had single handily ushered in an era of peace, but he often felt that was more trouble than it was worth. Heroes had grown complacent, more concerned with popularity than actually pushing themselves to do better. Sure there were a few outliers like Endeavor, but something about that man honestly rubbed Toshinori the wrong way.

Society as a whole had pretty much grown dependent on All Might to solve their issues. That wasn’t what he wanted when he decided to become the pillar to support society. He had come to realize just how much of a problem it was to rely on one single pillar.

On top of that, he honestly wasn’t sure how long he had left to be a Hero, but according to Recovery Girl, it wasn’t very long.

His refusal to rest and heal after his crippling injury had come back to bite him, it had exacerbated the damage to his body, and eventually he would no longer be able to use One For All, even if he still had the Quirk.

So he found himself looking for a successor. Someone to not only inherit One For All, but hopefully, with his guidance, usher in a better era then what they had right now, where all Heroes strive to be a collective of pillars upholding society.

Around that time, he had been contact by his former sidekick, Sir Nighteye.

The two of them hadn’t spoken since their falling out, yet now he had contacted Toshinori out of the blue to announce he had found a suitable inheritor for One For All.

Something about the situation honestly felt… Off to Toshinori. But he decided to give Mirai the benefit of doubt, if only for the sake of their old friendship.

It was with that reasoning he found himself at the Nighteye Agency. Centipeder, who Toshinori guessed was Mirai’s second in command, led him to the main office.

It was when Toshinori finally met Mirio Togata face to face that he realized how right his unease was.

This boy was practically a carbon copy of All Might himself, to a disturbing degree. In fact, if Toshinori hadn’t known better, he would have thought Mirio was his long lost son or something!

And the boy was far too chipper for Toshinori’s liking.

This felt… Wrong. It felt so wrong that Toshinori almost felt sick from it.

Eventually he asked Young Togata if he could possibly step out so he and Mirei could talk in private. Nighteye agreed and sent him to help Bubble Girl with paperwork.

“So what do you think?” Nighteye asked when they her finally alone.

“Mirai… Please, for the love of god, tell me you didn’t groom that child into a copy of me.”

Nighteye blinked at the man.

“I simply helped him reach his full potential. I fail to see what’s wrong with that.”

“Mirai, that boy, you made him like me!”

“Yes, so that he can take your place as the new Symbol of Peace.”

“Mirai-“

“Don’t you see? You don’t have to worry when you’re forced to retire, not when Mirio can take your place-“

“I don’t WANT someone to be like me!” Toshinori snapped. “This society has become too dependent on someone like me. They see strong Quirks like mine as the end all, be all and cast aside those who don’t fit the bill. I’d rather my chosen successor become their own kind of Hero than a second All Might!”

“Don’t be ridiculous All Might!” Nighteye snapped back. “This society needs you! It needs someone like you to be a pillar to hold them up!”

“What good is it to hold up something that’s rotting from the inside out. Heroes have become complacent and lazy because of me.” Toshinori sighed as he stood. He had known Nighteye for years, and he knew arguing with the man was a lost cause. Once Nighteye set his mind on something, he would not change it.

“This was a mistake. I’m sorry Mirai, but I will not be giving Young Togata One For All. Goodbye.”

“All Might!” Nighteye snapped, and Toshinori realized he honestly couldn’t recall the last time Mirai had called him by his given name. Were Toshinori Yagi and All Might indistinguishable as far as the man was concerned? The revelation felt no better than when All For One tore open his stomach. “You need to be reasonable! Mirio is the only one who will be able to use one for all to its fullest potential. You can’t imagine the damage to society giving it to anyone else will cause!”

“It can’t be much worse than the damage you’ve inflicted on that child.” Toshinori spat as he left the office, ignoring Nighteye’s protests and not looking back.

Time had passed, and Toshinori had been forced to block Nighteye’s number in response to the constant calls and harassment.

He had gone on to teach at U.A.. The other teachers seemed awkward around him, though he couldn’t exactly. As a fraudulent fictional wizard once said, fame is a fickle friend. He hoped they would come around and start treating him like any other person.

Midnight on the other hand, seemed quite friendly outside of her whole Hero persona. She had made sure he would feel welcome at U.A., and had even introduced him to her tea shop.

She had also gone on to warn him about Aizawa.

Apparently the two of them were former friends, until a falling out a few years back. Evidently, Midnight had originally gotten him his teacher job as a way to help him cope with the loss of a friend, however, Aizawa quickly started running his classroom like a tyrant, using his Quirk and Capture Weapon to keep students in line, spending more time sleeping than actually teaching, blatantly favoring students, and worst of all, expelling students for the most ridiculous reasons, ruining their futures out of his own pettiness.

Midnight said she had come to regret getting him the job, especially since Aizawa would brush off any complaints from the other teachers how even his temporary expulsions screwed up their schedules pretty badly, leaving them being forced to cram as much as they could into lessons to help the students catch up, and it would unfortunately leave some students underprepared when they finally did graduate, and top of their black marks making it obscenely difficult to find good work.

All Might saw just how petty and underhanded Aizawa could be when the school year finally started. See, during that year’s Entrance Exam, one student caught the teachers’ attention.

Izuku Midoriya.

All Might remembered the boy, remembered that Quirkless child asking if it was possible to become a Hero.

And Toshinori had crushed the boy’s dreams quite cruelly.

When he had finally settled down that day, it was only then he began to realize how hypocritical he had been, how he had been projecting himself onto the boy.

Nana would have been disappointed.

Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do to track the boy down and apologize. Sure, he could have asked Tsukauchi for help, but using police resources to track down a Quirkless teenager who didn’t even have a criminal record would have looked pretty suspicious.

And then, All Might saw him again, participating in the Entrance Exam. The boy had put on some muscle, and had a determined look in his eye that hadn’t been there before.

And as the boy passed the threshold needed to enter the Hero Course, All Might felt pride for the boy.

Unfortunately, Aizawa also had his attention turned on the boy. He had made very clear his displeasure at the boy’s Quirklessness, citing the boy would be a liability.

All Might bit his tongue at the hypocrisy of a man whose Quirk didn’t work on Heteromorphic mutants and who relied primarily on a scarf for combat.

Since Midoriya had fulfilled the conditions to pass the exam, nothing could be done.

All Might had been to busy to try and catch the boy after the exam, but had decided then and there he would pull him aside after their first Heroics lesson, to apologize once and for all to the boy.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be. The very first day of class, All Might discovered the boy had been put in Aizawa’s class, per the man’s own request. By that time, it was too late, Midoriya had been expelled.

All Might pulled up the security recordings of the Quirk Assessment Test. From what he saw, was no possible way Midoriya could have placed last. Not to be mean or anything, but from what All Might saw, there was no way Ypung Hagakure, who didn’t seem to have built up much muscle, could have surpassed him.

On top of that, there was an incident where another student, Katsuki Bakugo, who All Might and a bunch of other teachers already had red flags about for not even getting a single Rescue Point in the exam, which pretty much meant he had deliberately gone out of his way to not help anyone, had attempted to assault Young Midoriya, with his Quirk no less, which broke multiple laws considering this wasn’t a combat exercise. The most Aizawa had done was briefly restrain the boy and give him a half assed warning, more concerned with how he was getting dry eye with using his Quirk.

A more minor example as well, but despite making it clear he wanted the kids to give it their all, Aizawa paid no mind to Shoto Todoroki, who went through every exercise using only half of his Quirk, instead preferring to focus on Midoriya, at one point even using his Capture Weapon on the boy without just cause.

Unfortunately, Nedzu also brushed off his and the other teachers’ concerns, stating Aizawa was allowed to run his classroom as he saw fit, just like any other teacher.

Then the first Heroics class happened.

Battle Trials, Katsuki Bakugo and Ochako Uraraka on opposite teams.

Bakugo’s declaration that he would hurt her just short of the match being called off left a bad taste in Toshinori’s mouth. This boy didn’t sound heroic at all. Apparently he took offense to Uraraka being friendly with Midoriya the day prior?

It had gotten even worse. Bakugo was excessively violent during the match, but unfortunately, the boy was also smart, because as much as Toshinori hated it, he was still acting writhing the parameters of the exercise, so dispute the other students’ protests, he couldn’t call the match off without it looking like he was playing favorites.

Then Uraraka, who had been defending the absent Midoriya against the utterly vile vitriol that spewed from Bakugo’s mouth, called the explosive boy a villain.

And Bakugo went ballistic.

“Young Bakugo! Do not use that gauntlet! That’s an order!” All Might shouted over the radio as Bakugo reached for the pin on his gauntlets. All Might had read the specs for those things. A point blank blast in an enclosed space!? The boy had lost his mind! “You might kill her!”

And Bakugo gave a smirk All Might had only seen on the most vile of villains.

“Good!”

And then he pulled the pin.

All Might moved in an instant. Sadly, even that wasn’t enough, as by the time he reached the building, it was too late. Leaping through the smoldering hole, All Might had ripped the gauntlets from the surprised Bakugo’s arms, crushing hurling them to the ground as he pinned the boy and used his own capture tape to restrain him.

Then he turned to Uraraka, and his heart sank.

She was on the ground in a state of shock, her attempt to dodge leaving her with a charred right arm.

Then the shock wore off, and Uraraka let loose a blood curdling scream.

Recovery Girl told them Uraraka’s arm had been burned to the bone, and had to be amputated.

All Might wanted Bakugo expelled. More than that, he wanted that sociopath thrown in Tartarus.

Unfortunately, Aizawa had intervened, writing the whole thing off as a training incident to Nedzu, and cruelly kicking Uraraka to General Education. He also had the audacity to complain that All Might had been too rough with Bakugo.

This had caused the situation to devolve into a screaming match amongst the staff. Nedzu had brushed them off, saying that Aizawa could do with his class as he saw fit, and wouldn’t budge even when All Might roared in his face that it had happened in his class, not Aizawa’s.

The teachers seemed more divided than ever.

All Might’s first class with 1-B would not be a combat exercise. Some students had complained of course, Monoma especially being vocal about ‘A rabid dog from 1-A ruining things for our class!’

All Might had the students practice against robots in Ground Beta. At one point, Young Tetsutetsu had recklessly charged in, damaging the supports for an above ground subway line.

All Might’s first class had been scolding him for his recklessness and lecturing him on collateral damage when young Kendo cried.

“Monoma, LOOK OUT!!” All Might’s first class whirled around. The damage Young Tetsutetsu had caused to the railway caused it to collapse, with Monoma underneath-

Before All Might could leap into action, the section of railway froze in midair, Monoma looking like he was on the verge of a heart attack.

Then All Might saw Reiko Yanagi, hands outstretched, body stiff in agony as she couldn’t bring herself to speak from the sheer strain of levitating a couple of tons of debris.

Blood began to leak from her eyes, nose, and mouth as Yanagi gave a cry, and with a Herculean show of effort, threw the debris to the side safely as the strain caught up with her and she collapsed.

The strain had been enough to leave the poor girl in a state of unconsciousness for the next few days. Recovery Girl kept her in the infirmary to keep an eye on her. The old woman had stated she was suffering from severe Quirk backlash but should be fine in a few days.

All Might went easy on Tetsutetsu. It was clear this whole thing had been an honest mistake on his part, and he was clearly beating himself up over it, so All Might merely cautioned him on being more aware of any collateral damage his actions could cause in the future.

At the end of the first week, disaster struck once again. Villains had invaded the USJ facility where 1-A was having their first rescue training, all for the purpose of killing him.

All Might hadn’t intended to be late, but his injury had chosen that day to flare up, leaving him at Recovery Girl’s clinic to rest. By the time anybody realized something was wrong, All Might rushed to the USJ, but it was already too late. Young Asui and Young Kaminari were dead.

He managed to beat the bioengineered monster the villains had brought, but by then, he was too exhausted to prevent the leaders from escaping.

Toshinori realized, now more than ever, that he needed to find a successor, because he didn’t know how much more his body would be able to take.

He made his decision.

It was during the weekend when Reiko Yanagi finally woke up. All Might had scheduled a meeting with her and her parents. The first thing he did was apologize for the incident that put their daughter out of commission for several days.

After all was said and done, he revealed his true form and his injury, explaining how he didn’t have much time left as a Hero, and how his Quirk had the power to be transferred to other people.

He asked Young Yanagi if she would inherit his Quirk.

Needless to say, the Yanagi Family was quite baffled. Reiko especially was wondering why All Might would choose her of all people.

“Young lady, let me ask you. What exactly was going through your mind when you saved Young Monoma?”

Reiko pursed her lips, deep in thought.

“I… Was not really thinking. My body simply…”

“Moved on its own?”

“Correct.”

And that was all the reasoning he needed.

After a bit of talking, between the Yanagi Family, Reiko chose to accept his Quirk.

The girl had some muscle, but not enough that he felt comfortable handing her the Quirk then and there. He decided that it would be best to pass the Quirk onto Reiko after the Sports Festival, and after a bit of browbeating from Recovery Girl, he called up Gran Torino after the old woman threatened to call him herself. His old teacher agreed to take Reiko on for internship to help her learn how to actually control the Quirk. All Might knew he wouldn’t be much help in that regard, as the Quirk came so naturally to him.

Reiko and her parents agreed that waiting was for the best, especially after he explained that giving One For All to her in her current state would likely cause her to explode, and that, no, he wasn’t exaggerating, there was a very good chance she would quite literally explode.

He also made sure to warn her about All For One, how the man had a hand in creating the Quirk and was most likely still alive given recent developments, despite All Might having previously popped his skull like an overfilled water balloon. He assured her that he going to do everything in his power to ensure he was taken down for good, so as to spare her that man’s evil.

As he trained the girl, he admittedly got rather close to the family. Reiko’s parents began to invite him for dinner, being mindful of the limitations his injuries gave him in what he could eat, he got along rather well with the other two once they began to see him as just another person instead of the Symbol of Peace.

He had also gotten to know Reiko rather well, and had learned quite a bit about her. He learned how certain sounds made her uncomfortable, how she had a nightly routine before bed that she hated deviating from, how she had trouble communicating with people at times, often struggling to make eye contact or understanding people’s intentions.

She was a rather introverted and reserved girl, and had evidently been bullied growing up.

He also learned her interests, of which she seemed to have a particular fixation on horror. She even had some rather old horror games in her collection that would be worth several hundred dollars today. She also seemed to have a fondness for drawing and reading.

She apologized for not being more like him, but All Might assured her he didn’t WANT her to be like him, that he wanted her to be the Hero she wanted to be.

It was just after the Sports Festival that he officially passed One For All onto her.

He only prayed that the girl would have a bright future ahead of her.

All Might grunted as he prepared, rubbing his aching injury tenderly.

Tonight, they would be conducting a raid to rescue Katsuki Bakugo and bring down the League of Villains once and for all.

He recalled how Melissa had given Reiko a gauntlet capable of withstand three of his punches at full power. It would be a temporary thing to let her use stronger attacks until she could gain better mastery of One For All, which he was thankful for.

He had also finally told Dave the truth of his power, and even managed to meet Izuku Midoriya again, allowing him to finally apologize for what he said to the boy.

No matter what happened, he could at least be thankful for having just a couple less regret in his life, but one thing was for certain: Tonight, he would put an end to All For One, once and for all.

For Reiko’s sake.

It had taken some effort, but he had managed to learn that some heroes and police were congregating in Kamino Ward.

That had to be where the raid would take place!

He tried to convince his former classmates to help, but they wanted none of it.

Him and Mina got into a nasty fight over it.

But he couldn’t just give up. Bakugo was his friend!

No matter what, Eijiro Kirishima would do whatever it took to save him.