The sun is setting by the time Class 1-A is released for the day. All Might watches them go through the office window, waving good bye to one another as they go home for the night. Young Midoriya waves on Uraraka and Iida before doubling back toward the building. He's an honest boy; he'll tell them that All Might wanted to talk to him. It's not much of a secret, he supposes, that he's taken a special interest in the boy, even to the other students.

(Aizawa had once idly mentioned that some of his students had quietly speculated that Midoriya was All Might's secret love child, on account of the similarities in their Quirks and the interest All Might showed him. It's not true, of course, but he finds that the thought of being the boy's father figure isn't entirely displeasing to him. He's wondered ever since whether Midoriya would feel the same.)

All Might begins to turn away from the window, but catches a hazy glimpse of his reflection in the glass. He looks terrible; he resembles more of a skeleton with skin still attached, pulled taut across deeply sunken eye sockets. The shadows under his eyes are so deep they look painted on. He certainly looks like he hasn't slept in three weeks, and he's sure he hasn't. He sighs, shoulders slumping forward so his already badly slouched seven-foot frame is closer to six, and shuffles his emaciated body toward the sofa.

He sits, hands clasped and trembling, as he waits.

The knock on the door is tentative, and so is Midoriya's entry into the room. He sits on the stool across from All Might, looking rather fidgety and certainly dreading the upcoming conversation. He's not alone.

All Might casts about for a gentle way to ease into the conversation, but can come up with none. He thinks about telling Midoriya how proud he was to see how well he had controlled One For All during their class that day, how worried he had been upon hearing about the Hero Killer, how Midoriya was growing well into his new power-

Instead, he launches into an apparently unnecessary reassurance that a villain consuming Midoriya's blood cannot acquire One For All through force, and from there, the origin of One For All and All For One spills from his mouth before he can convince himself not to dump this burden on Midoriya's shoulders.

To avoid having to look into those earnest eyes and see fear, or worry, or resignation, All Might gets up and walks to the window. He stares at himself again, at the husk of his former body, now resorted to resting all the time and eating tiny portions so as not to upset his ruined stomach and injecting fluids directly into his body to make up for the nutrients he can't get from his inadequate diet.

"Young Midoriya," he begins hesitantly, "you may one day have to fight against this great evil."

All For One had nearly killed him; could he really live with himself if he had to see Midoriya suffer the same way?

"This is harsh on you, but-"

"I'll do my best."

All Might turns his head in surprise. There's no hesitation as Midoriya stands, shoulders back and head held high.

"I'll do whatever you ask of me, no matter what it is!"

His earnestness nearly breaks what's left of All Might's resolve. He swallows back the blood threatening to force its way out and is about to caution Midoriya about falling headfirst into situations without thinking when Midoriya says something that does break him.

"As long as you're with me, I can do anything!"

He idolizes All Might, reveres All Might almost as a god. To him, the Symbol of Peace will always be there to drive back evil and bring smiles and hope to everyone who sees him. His hands are balled up into fists of determination. He won't let All Might down because All Might has never let him down.

Tell him, the voice in his mind pleads, and he puts his hand over his mouth. Tell him, All Might. You must...

"That's not it, young Midoriya," he begins. Falters. "I... I..."

Midoriya has a slight tilt to his head as he watches his hero struggle to articulate something that All Might would never, never say, because All Might is infallible. All Might will always be there.

He can't bring himself to crush such an earnest boy's image of him. He can't pull himself from the pedestal Midoriya has so carefully placed him on.

"Thank you," he whispers instead.

He shuffles across the room and places a hand on Midoriya's shoulder, leading him to the door. Midoriya is relaxed; All Might is anything but.

They bid one another good night, Midoriya walking with his shoulders pulled back.

All Might leans heavily on the door frame as he watches Midoriya walk. He had been so close to saying what he needed to say, what Midoriya needed to know. His hero had laid a burden so great on his shoulders that the weight of it may kill him someday, and yet he accepts it without reservation, because his hero will always be by his side.

That's not it, young Midoriya, he thinks forlornly, closing the door behind him. The setting sun casts a warm glow in the room, but All Might has never felt less comforted by it. Probably, by the time you must face your fate, I won't be able to be by your side anymore...

A fit of coughs overcomes him. He hunches over on the sofa, hand over his mouth, as pain spikes through his injured stomach. When he pulls his hand away, it's covered in blood.

At least young Midoriya didn't have to see this, he thinks, wiping it on his pant leg. It'll stain, but he doesn't care.

He breathes in. His lungs rattle; his stomach stings. Blood rises at the back of his throat again and he forces himself to swallow.

There's nothing he wants more in the world than to see Midoriya succeed. Nothing more than to watch Midoriya step out from All Might's shadow and into the sun to become the new shining light of hope to a weary world, the new Symbol of Peace.

Midoriya had never wanted this fate. He wanted only to help people, to reassure them through his smiles that everything would be fine. Everything is fine now, he would someday say, flashing a thumbs-up and a dazzling grin, I am here. He wanted only to be a Hero.

But instead, he had been given an impossible future, one where he would be pushed to his physical and mental limit trying to defeat the evil All Might wasn't strong enough to defeat.

In such a future, could Midoriya keep his honest smile? In such a future, where All Might is nothing but a starved shell of a man, who coughs up blood and can't sleep at night from the pain of his failures?

In such a future, where All Might may not exist at all?

All Might cannot shed a tear. His strength comes not from his physical prowess, but from his ability to reassure those in need through his smiles. Midoriya had inherited that mantle from him. What a heavy mantle it is. But he, perhaps, wears it better than All Might.

All Might, Symbol of Peace, the hero who smiles in the midst of adversity and the one from whom countless people drew strength and courage, cannot shed a tear.

But Yagi Toshinori, who draws his strength and courage from young Midoriya, has no such convictions.