Chapter Text
All Might shook Izuku awake after they returned to Tokyo. The number one hero already dropped Tenya off at the Ida home, and Izuku felt a bit guilty that he slept most of the ride back.
All Might laughed. “Quite alright, my boy. You and young Tenya had a busy day. He slept most of the way too. Do you still feel up to cleaning the beach tomorrow?”
Izuku nodded. “Yeah! I want to get it done.”
“Well then, eat a good dinner and get some sleep. We’ll leave bright and early tomorrow morning.” All Might walked Izuku across the street to the Midoriya home, where Izuku’s mother waited in a state of near panic. The three of them sat at the kitchen table so All Might could reassure Inko, since All Might and Izuku spent all day in a dump and didn’t want to risk staining the couch. “Inko, Izuku’s brilliant plan kept everyone safe,” All Might said softly, neglecting to mention Izuku’s plan put himself at the most risk, other than the hostage. “Most pro heroes couldn’t have done better, and in fact there were five of them on the scene who couldn’t come up with a better plan to save the hostage.”
“I know,” Inko said, trying to hold back her tears, “but I just don’t like you being in danger! Was,” and she paused here a moment, “was the victim really Katsuki?”
All Might’s ears perked up at this. Of course, he berated himself. Young Izuku grew up in Musutafu! Considering the victim appeared to be the same age as his successor, it made perfect sense that they probably knew each other. Izuku nodded in confirmation. “Yeah, it was him.”
Inko started to reach out to hug him, but considering the state of his clothing, she decided against it to All Might and Izuku’s shared chuckles. “I’m so proud of you, Izuku. Did you two get a chance to talk?”
He shook his head. “They took him over to the EMTs right after the incident and Tenya and I went back to the beach with a police officer while giving our statements. I don’t think he wanted to talk to me anyway.”
“It was probably a traumatic experience for the boy, young Izuku,” All Might said, diplomatically. “Many people you rescue will be in a state of shock, even if they’re not hurt physically, and it is common for them to lash out to gain a measure of control over the situation. I’m sure he’s grateful for your help!”
Izuku nodded, but somehow, he doubted that Katsuki Bakugo felt grateful in the slightest. “I’m just glad we rescued him.” Izuku meant every word. He’d have done the same for anyone caught in a similar crisis. Whatever Bakugo thought honestly no longer mattered to him. The determination to help others in need burned in his chest, regardless of his past with Bakugo.
That night, after taking an awfully long, hot shower, Izuku laid in his bed and fell asleep almost instantly. As soon as he began dreaming, he became lucid. In front of him stood a towering castle, and as much as he longed to explore it, he couldn’t take a step toward it. Dark clouds hovered in the distance, and occasionally cannons lining the castle’s battlements fired huge blasts toward the dark brambles beneath the looming storm. Looking down, he noticed that most of his body seemed to be made of a hazy mist, with only the top of his head, his arms, and part of his chest solid. He couldn’t even speak, as his mouth was made of the same mist.
The gate to the castle opened, and a beautiful woman came walking out. The black, sleeveless bodysuit she wore highlighted her powerfully built figure, accentuated by a long, flowing white cape around her neck, a smaller matching cape around her waist, and white gloves and boots. Light shimmered around her, appearing as some sort of transparent armor. With confidence, she strode toward Izuku. Her eyelevel matched his own, so she stood at least one hundred eighty-three centimeters, and with the complicated bun she wore her hair in, she probably held a bit of a height advantage on him.
She placed a strong yet gentle hand on his shoulder, and near her touch, the haze that clouded him receded. “So, you’re Toshinori’s boy?”
Izuku rolled his eyes. Why does everyone think All Might’s my dad? he thought. I love and respect All Might, and he may be like a second father to me, but Hisashi Midoriya is my father! I carry his name and he sacrificed everything for me!
“Oh, kiddo, I’m sorry,” she said, as if he’d spoken out loud. “I just mean that you’re the one Toshi chose as his successor.” She tapped the side of her head with her fist, sticking out her tongue playful as she did. “Sometimes my mouth moves faster than my brain. I just wanted to tell you that you did a great job today. Your first ‘big damn hero’ moment and boy did you save the day and then some.”
Thank you, he thought.
“No problem,” she said with a big smile. “Listen, those sticks in the mud are ‘withholding judgement for the time being,’” she said, rolling her eyes, “so you won’t be able to enter for now.”
What is this place?
“It’s not really a place, kiddo,” she replied. “This is just how your mind interprets One For All and the Great War against All For One. We’re the same way, I suppose, all of us hopeless romantics. Don’t worry, though. You’re doing great! Hell, you’re doing better than I did. I think you’ll be the one to truly unlock its full power.”
Izuku gasped, or the closest approximation he could manage with an ethereal cloud for a mouth. You’re one of the previous holders.
“Yup,” she said, popping the “P” at the end of the word. “Nana Shimura. I’m the one who trained that big lug, Toshinori. Well, until I…” she paused, “passed his training on to Sorahiko.”
GranPa Torino?
Nana lost it then, laughing until tears rolled down her face. “GranPa! That’s great, kiddo!” She wiped away a tear. “God above, I like you! Tell you what, they’re being stingy, but I’m not. When you really need it, my power will be there for you.”
So, when you say “they,” you mean the other previous holders of One For All?
“Yeah, bunch of backseat drivers if you ask me. They’ve forgotten how much of a pain it was trying to figure it out on their own, so they think you should have to go through what they did.” She turned back to the castle and made a one fingered salute, then yelling “Completely ignoring the fact that they all ended up dead!” She shrugged, “Not that I’m one to talk, either, being as I’m a meat popsicle, too. They think the true path to victory is here,” raising her voice again, “while people suffer and die in the real world!”
What if they’re right, though, Izuku thought. Before All Might gave me One For All, I was just a quirkless loser. I’m a nobody who didn’t even have his own quirk.
Nana sat down on a convenient bench that Izuku hadn’t noticed, or perhaps it appeared the moment she decided she needed it. She patted the space beside her, and somehow Izuku sat beside her. “Tell you what, kiddo, why don’t you ask Toshinori what his quirk was before he got One For All and then get back to me on that? Ask him if there are any statues to the previous holders. I’m not saying we didn’t do good, because we did, but he did great. Just ask him, OK?” She glanced toward the castle and Izuku’s eyes followed her gaze, the hazy form of a knight standing in the portcullis. The warrior appeared far less defined than Nana, but his armor seemed far more solid. He stared at Izuku and nodded.
I will. Thank you, Ms. Shimura.
“Oh, kiddo, my mom was Ms. Shimura. I only exist inside the quirk that lives inside you and in people’s memories. You call me ‘Nana,’ got it?”
I’d rather call you by your hero name, if that’s OK….
She blushed. “Um, yeah… about that. I sucked at hero names. Seriously, I changed them like other people changed socks, and most of them make your teacher’s ‘Eraserhead’ name sound like he got it from William Shakespeare. They’re so bad I’m almost glad history forgot about me.”
Well, I won’t forget, Nana.
“I know, kiddo.” She hugged him and her breath hitched, “I know.”
Day two at the beach went much smoother, without any villain attacks and the two teens made much better progress. They sectioned off an area for the vehicles to give Izuku an opportunity to practice throwing heavy objects and, after a few instances of overshooting or undershooting the target, he hurled a car into the zone with a fair degree of accuracy. All Might still left them for a while to do a patrol, but mostly he spent the day reading his book and occasionally snapping pictures or shooting video with his phone.
If Izuku and Tenya knew that All Might shared these videos and pictures with the other heroes of Might Agency and Tenya’s older brother, the embarrassment might have killed them, and that’s not even considering some of the memes. Midnight emailed a picture of Tenya running, a cloud of sand obscuring his legs, while carrying a broken microwave with the caption “Meep Meep” to Tensei. Gang Orca’s personal favorite video showed Izuku struggling to pull a half-buried car out of the sand while the classic John Williams Superman theme played, swelling triumphantly as Izuku finally freed the car, hoisting it above his head with a grin.
After the first two weeks, they finished almost half the beach, and Izuku felt confident that they would meet their self-imposed deadline of five weeks. They’d stopped bothering to bring a cooler after a week, since when they’d arrived in the morning, several locals waited with bottled water, lunch, and snacks. Fortunately, Izuku’s strict diet now consisted of “Lots,” so long as he ate mostly healthy foods. He burned through tons of calories per day and every all-you-can-eat restaurant in Tokyo feared the bottomless pit of a boy, although he always insisted on paying appropriately. The fact that pro heroes often went with him helped to keep him from being banned. The first time Izuku met Fat Gum, the BMI hero walked over to him, patted Izuku on the shoulder several times, and nodded appreciatively.
A week later, after dropping off Tenya at his brother’s house for the night, Izuku finally managed to ask his hero. “All Might, what was your quirk before you got One For All?”
All Might smiled. “You know, I’m honestly surprised you didn’t ask before now, young Izuku. Like you, I was born quirkless.”
A shocked expression covered Izuku’s face. “You said before it came in late!”
“Just like yours did, my boy,” All Might replied with a chuckle. “I didn’t mean to intentionally mislead you, but that answer became a habit long ago. It wasn’t as uncommon in those days, but every year less and less children are born quirkless. Your generation may be the last. And while many people view that as a good thing, I must confess it makes me a little sad. Before quirks, human beings did great things. They built the pyramids, sailed the oceans, designed computers, and even walked on the Moon. Much of that has been forgotten since people have been so focused on quirks that in many ways it has made us stagnant. Even I have forgotten that at times. I’ve faced powerful villains before, so if someone had asked me if someone quirkless could be a hero, I’d have probably said ‘no.’ But now, I believe someone like you could have done it. Your heroic spirit comes from you, young Izuku, as does your intelligence. One For All may have enhanced it a bit, but I remember your hero analysis journal from that day in the park. The same boy who wrote that analysis came up with a plan to rescue a hostage and defeat the Sludge Villain. Never forget, young Izuku, that your first victory against a villain was won without using a quirk.”
Izuku smiled. “Thanks, All Might.” Izuku paused. “Can you tell me about the previous holders of One For All?”
All Might looked away for a moment, a sad expression on his face that Izuku spotted in the reflection of his mentor’s face in the truck’s window. Before he could apologize, All Might answered him. “Sadly, I know very little about them, except for my master and the first. Most of their names are lost to history. The first was a kind, brave, but sickly man. He was believed to be quirkless, and the brother of the man only known today as All For One. All For One, with his quirk that shares his name, tried to conquer Japan. He could take and give quirks, using his powers to place others in his debt and destabilizing the country. His brother tried to fight against him, but ultimately was captured.” All Might paused for a moment. “No one knows why, but All For One forced a power stockpiling quirk upon his brother. Perhaps he was trying to be kind or buy his brother’s loyalty. Who can say? What we do know is that the stockpiling quirk combined with the brother’s hidden quirk. A quirk that, for all extents and purposes could be considered useless. This quirk allowed him to pass on his quirk to another through his DNA. Together, these two quirks became one, the quirk you now hold, One For All. The brother died at some point, either from natural causes or at his brother’s hands, but before he died, he passed on the quirk. Each holder has fought against One For All, until I finally defeated him. However, we never did find a body. Hopefully it is lost in the infinite void of space, but you must be ever vigilant.”
“I’m sorry, All Might,” Izuku said. “You don’t have to tell me about N… your master if you don’t want to.”
All Might startled a bit but brushed it aside with a laugh. “Oh, no, young Izuku. You deserve to know about her. My biggest regret is that you never met her. I think she would have loved you. Nana Shimura was a courageous woman, full of life and laughter, always trying to make others smile. She loved horrible puns and would use them at the drop of a hat. Any hat. Anywhere on earth. She changed her hero name often, sometimes incorporating a pun. She found me much as I found you on your twelfth birthday, bullied by a group of my classmates. She chased them off, and I admit, I was a bit of a young ruffian in those days. I grinned and said, ‘Thanks, toots, but I could have taken them.’”
Both laughed, Izuku holding onto his sides as tears rolled down his face. “Come on, All Might! What did you really say?”
Shaking with laughter, All Might replied, “That’s really what I said. I was an idiot, but I was also fourteen. She laughed even louder than you did, right in my face. I sported a black eye, split lip, bruises all over my body and could barely stand, but she laughed. Then she said, ‘I like you, kid. Where are you planning to go to high school?’ I told her about my plan to get into UA and find the most powerful person in the hero course and guide him into becoming a symbol. She asked why I didn’t just do it myself, and I admitted to being quirkless.”
“What happened then?” Izuku asked, riveted.
“She told me it was a great plan, but that I should do it myself. I reminded her that I didn’t have a quirk, and then and there she told me the story of One For All. When she offered to make me her apprentice and give me her power, I accepted without hesitation. Over the next year, her and Gran Torino trained me relentlessly, and for the first month of that she made ‘Toots’ her hero name because I would blush every time she said it. She passed the quirk on to me a week before the entrance exam and then died in battle with All For One a year later. Her birth quirk was called ‘Float,’ allowing her to hover in the air, but through the power of One For All her punches and flexes made it seem as though she could fly. She… I never knew my birth mother, but Nana was like a mother to me, and your mother reminds me of her, sometimes. Funny and smart but caring so much. You’re a lucky boy, Young Izuku.”
“It sounds like we were both lucky in the mom department,” Izuku said. “She sounds great.”
The truck pulled into All Might’s driveway. “She truly was. There is one question I wanted to ask you, young Izuku,” All Might said as they got out of the pickup truck. “I have decided to accept an offer from Nezu to begin teaching at UA next year, mainly to make it easier for me to act as your mentor. To avoid any appearance of favoritism, none of the teachers can recommend you, although I’m sure Gang Orca or Edgeshot would be delighted to sponsor you.”
“Tenya and I talked about it, since his brother offered to recommend him. We’d both rather take the entrance exam and earn our spots.”
“I figured that’s what you would say, my boy. Considering you and young Tenya have already defeated a villain, I doubt either of you will have much of a problem passing.”
Izuku and Tenya didn’t finish cleaning the beach in five weeks; they finished in four. Since both teens needed to keep a low profile, neither of them attended the ceremony when Gang Orca and Ingenium gifted the beach back to the city as a joint community service project of Might Incorporated and Team Idaten, with the modest admission price going to support local schools and pay for a small staff to keep the beach clean. With the mountains of trash cleared and the sand thoroughly sifted to remove anything dangerous, only a small continuous effort kept the beach spotless. With two free weeks from All Might’s original estimate of six weeks, All Might provided both boys with a considerable amount of cash and an admonishment to spend the time just enjoying themselves and exploring Tokyo.
On the sixth week, Aizawa returned from the summer camp and, while his inclination to give Izuku a week off matched All Might’s, Izuku pleaded for the chance to do some free running with his teacher. Tenya joined in as well, and they spent several days in the city leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Tenya learned some parkour moves from Izuku over the years, and his built-in engines could, in emergencies only, give him a small boost to make a jump he might otherwise miss.
The last two weeks of summer break they spent visiting I-Island for the annual I-Expo. All Might took Izuku on this pilgrimage every year since Izuku’s thirteenth birthday, so he knew that setting it as a “prize” for clearing the beach amounted to an empty gesture, but this year he brought Tenya along. Tenya admitted that he usually attended anyway, as a member of the famous Ida family, but going as part of All Might’s entourage delighted his parents. Tenya’s mother, the pro hero Blue Streak, recently retired, leaving Tensei as the sole active hero from the Ida family. The Ida matriarch’s primary retirement project consisted of establishing Tenya with a good reputation, and the successful Sludge Villain incident and forming strong connections with All Might’s agency left her ecstatic. For his part, Izuku couldn’t wait to see Melissa and David Shield again.
While Izuku found Melissa to be sweet and cute, she also had a few years on him. At this point, the two saw each other as big sister and little brother. If he met her a few years later, the most likely outcomes included falling for her or a hopeless crush, but he felt happy with the way things turned out. He wouldn’t trade her friendship for the world. Meeting Melissa inspired Izuku to learn English, and regular video calls helped keep his skills sharp. She did sometimes seem to channel Midnight though, teasing him about getting a girlfriend. Somehow, she knew that “Midnight Original Costume” appeared in his browser history.
As usual, Izuku geeked out at the I-Expo, filling an autograph book with signatures from pro heroes, walking around the various support equipment demonstrations, and testing his strength at David Shield’s lab. With effort, Izuku lifted five hundred tons, roughly twenty-five percent of All Might’s maximum strength. The Shields took an array of measurements and tests to analyze his quirk, power output, and growth rate.
At All Might’s encouragement, he and Tenya took turns in the villain attack attraction a timed battle / obstacle course against robot villains. For their age group, Izuku set a record and took first prize, while Tenya took home the silver medal.
They returned to Tokyo the day before the fall semester began. Between their heavy class load and training, the remaining months before the UA entrance exam sped by. All their training sessions now balanced between mobility and sparring, with a variety of different heroes who owed favors to All Might coming to Might Tower on the weekends to keep Izuku on his toes.