Opening his eye's for the first time in what seemed like decades to him, he became very aware of his surroundings and the weird location he was seemingly trapped in.

"Where am I?"

"What is this place?"

"Why can't I speak?" His mouth was being covered by some sort of shadowy substance that blocked his mouth and wouldn't allow him to speak.

"Why can't I move?!" beginning to panic he struggled against his restraints only to be forcefully dragged back onto his knees once again. "Feels like I'm kneeling on sand."

"What the hell is going on?!" Thrashing about did nothing to help his movement and after a few minutes, gave up, completely exhausted and out of energy.

Taking a deeper look of his location, the boy slowly calmed himself somewhat and was speechless with what he was seeing. It was like a desert of sorts mixed with some sort of lights in the sky that felt like home to him somehow. In the center of it all, there sat a giant glowing tree that connected the lights in such a way that almost took his breath away. "It's beautiful…" he thought to himself before freaking out again.

"Why the hell did I just think that?!" I've gotta get out of here and get back to-" pausing mid sentence, he racked his brain to try and remember what he was doing before he showed up in that strange place surrounded by those weirdos in costumes.

"Back to-..."

Realizing that nothing was coming into his head, he tried even harder to remember yet nothing came to mind which added even more panic into his mind.

"What was I doing before I got here? Did I bump my head?"

"I-"

"I-" *sniff*

"I really can't remember anything.." Feeling tears pricking his eyes, he didn't even attempt to hold them back and began to sob once again.

"I wanna go home." Lowering his head into the sand he continued with his tirade even though he could only think it as the shadowy substance still plagued his mouth.

"Somebody please help me! I'm trapped and stuck and I can't freaking move my hands!"

Sinking into an even deeper despair, the boy felt darkness began to overcome him once again. He was losing strength at an alarming rate but no longer had the strength or willpower to fight it anymore.

"Is this it?"

"Am I going to die here?" he lamented.

"I can't remember anything, I'm being chained and trapped like a rabid animal, and to top it all off, I can't even remember my own name." At the mention of the word 'name' the boy's eyes widened and quickly remembered the voice inside his head back then.

"Zeke"

Hearing the voice again, he turned his head from side to side hoping to catch a glimpse of someone who could help him. "Who said that? If only these chains were off.."

"Your name is Zeke Kruger." The voice calmly stated, but the boy was still unable to see the one speaking to him.

"The reason you are unable to move right now is due to your own weakness. In time you will be able roam here freely to your heart's content."

"Your power is great, but you must nurture it before it can be used to its full potential so we sealed it until you are ready."

"Wh-What the hell are you talking about and who the hell are you people?!"

"How can you hear me anyway? My mouth is covered so unless you're reading my mind-" He thought angrily to himself before realizing that is exactly what was happening.

Exasperated with his current situation, he continued, "What power are you talking about and who are you people? I don't care about any of this shit, just untie me and let me GO!" finishing his spiel with such animosity he completely forgot about the despair experiencing moments ago.

"Freedom."

"The restrictions placed on your power and very being itself are the things keeping you chained down unable to move. Unless you keep moving forward you'll never be able to achieve freedom here or anywhere else you seek."

"Cmon now, don't take yourself so seriously." A new voice interjected, chuckling away like this was nothing more than a friendly conversation."Not being able to enjoy the little things would kill all the fun, wouldn't you agree?"

Completely confused at this point, Zeke could only watch as three strange figures began to walk out of the glowing tree, towards his direction. At this point, he could no longer find the words to speak as terror rose through his mind.

"No."

"G-Go away!"

"Stay back you freaks! Leave me alone…"

"Please.." he cried.

Getting closer to him, Zeke was able to get a much clearer picture of the individuals that have seemingly trapped him here. All three had stopped moving, but something was… off about what he was seeing. The person in the center of the other two figures was completely detailed, like it was an actual person here with him. "A girl."

"The other two are completely shadowed, so how come I can see her?" he thought curiously.

The little girl in question was much smaller than the other two and was wearing ragged clothes while being barefoot very similar to Zeke which he took note of. "She's dressed like she's homeless." Looking even further he noticed the color of her hair matched his.

"Her hair is blonde like mine is too. This is getting weird."

Examining her features further he realized she was smiling at him. He didn't know whether it was creepy or not, but somehow he knew that her smile held no malicious intent behind it.

"Well it looks like he gets flustered when women are involved." The second voice laughed.

Turning to the first shadow, he touched his shoulder and continued "He must get that from you because I was told I was quite the lady's man growing up."

"This isn't a game." The first figure stated in annoyance.

"You know as well as I do the problems that'll make themselves known if he fails...we don't want a repeat of last time." he said with far less edge in his tone.

"You don't think I know that, I was there after all. It's nothing we can do to erase the past, but what we do here will affect his future."

Watching the shadowy figures go back and forth was to say the least mesmerizing. Zeke could sense no ill intent in their voices for some reason which terrified him to no end.

"If you care so much about my future then why not untie me and tell me what's going on? How am I the only one who can see this girl? Why are you two covered in shadows?" he asked them.

Neither shadow said anything and only continued to stare towards his direction completely unmoving. This only made Zeke angrier as it felt like the two were hesitant in what they wanted to say.

"Are you cowards?!" he shouted. "I-I'll kill you if you don't let me go!

"That's a promise." he finished with as much venom as he could muster.

The second figure looked towards the first and muttered something unintelligible before turning back to him with a look of sadness in his stature.

"It doesn't matter what he thinks of us, the only thing we can do is give him the power and hope he makes the right decisions. We all promised no matter what happened this child would be free to do whatever he wanted even if we may disagree."

"The power you possess is still far too young to be utilized in its full capacity so, we can only give you a small portion of it for now and hope you develop it properly."

"I can only hope you nurture it correctly. Your future and the very people you care about depends on it, Zeke." The figure finished with finality in his tone.

"I don't understand. Why am I here and what does all this even mean? At this point Zeke could somewhat process the fact that they weren't evil monsters trying to harm him, but he still felt like an animal being looked down upon by his masters.

"We don't have much time." the second figure began. "He'll be waking up soon so we need to wrap this little reunion up."

"To keep it brief, everything in this realm belongs to you and only you can decide how it should be used in the near future. For good or evil, for right and wrong, these are the choices you will have to make and although I'm skeptical, I'm sure you were the right choice after all."

"If you want to break the chains that bind you here and uncover your past there are a few things you need to keep in mind."

"For starters while we have locked away most of your power, you can still tap into some of it in order to view and sense the auras of others around you. It's incomplete at the moment, but the stronger it becomes the more facets of it you'll unlock."

"Another thing you need to keep in mind is that in order to develop it, you have to form strong bonds with the people around you. Everything is connected, never forget that."

"The final thing you need to understand no matter what is that no matter how bleak things may be, as long as you never stop seeking freedom for yourself, you can do anything."

"Alright your turn buddy." he said whilenudging the other shadow by the shoulder playfully.

"Listen Zeke, you won't be able to meet with us again until the next stage of your ability manifests itself. How long that may be is entirely up to you. There are also a few precautions we must take in order to make sure things flow as they should."

Walking to the little girl, he leaned down to her level and whispered something in her ear and began to walk forward with her. "What are they saying?" he thought, still in a state of disbelief with what he was hearing.

"This girl is going to temporarily erase your memory of speaking with us here. It's not ideal, but allowing you to remember this place may cause you to remember things about yourself and a past you aren't ready to face yet." Upon hearing this the boy began thrashing forward trying to reach the figure.

"You know my past! Tell me who I really am and where I came from!" he cried.

"I'm sorry."

"We can't." The second voice joined.

The little blonde girl began to walk forward and stuck her hand forward covering his entire face.

"I can't see anything." Panicking to himself he found that he was no longer able to move. "What's happening to me?"

"I told her to leave you the knowledge about what quirks are, what yours is and how it works. You're gonna need that at least. It's all we can allow you to remember for now."

Feeling himself teetering on the edge of unconsciousness, Zeke attempted to stay awake long enough to hear the rest of the figure's speech. "Damn it, why is this happening to me?"

"No matter what happens or others may tell you, you have to move forward and fight for what you believe in. If you don't fight you might as well be dead and I've felt your emotions in the past. There's no doubt in my mind, you can be the one to achieve true freedom."

"Fight."

"Fight."

"Fight."

As he slipped into unconsciousness he could barely make out something being said that was surely directed at him. "What is he saying? It sounds hazy." he thought.

"Don't worry, you got this." The second voice said as calm as ever.

Unable to hold out any longer his mind completely turned itself off and the boy slipped into unconsciousness, but not before barely making out the last thing that was being said to him.

"You *static noise*" and with that Zeke passed out unable to fight off whatever the girl was doing to him any longer.

Back at the hospital, Toshinori had just finished wrapping up his tale of good and evil for Aizawa and while he felt like he had only skimmed the surface, hoped he had done a good enough job of explaining the long standing history between One For All and All For One.

"This is absolutely insane." He muttered. "You mean to tell me a man this dangerous has been ruling the underworld for years and I wasn't able to pick up on it."

"He is a very elusive man, Aizawa. Do not blame yourself for my failures." Toshinori calmly stated.

"If I had done my job correctly all those years ago, this incident could have been prevented." Looking down at fists he balled them up with anger building in his body. "Damn that man. I don't have any sort of proof he has returned so I'm hoping you and Torino can do some digging for me."

"He's the man who helped train you, correct?"

"Yes and while he was hesitant in wanting to explain things to you, he knows that this is the best possible choice I could've made. I don't regret it as I feel like you'll become a great ally in the near future." He said with another warm smile on his face.

"He would also like to meet with you in private if that is ok with you, Aizawa."

Thinking to himself about what he heard from Toshinori about the man being reclusive even though he has a hero license and obviously could've been ranked, his interest was piqued.

"That's no problem. I wouldn't mind meeting the man who was able to turn someone as clumsy as you into the symbol of peace." He said with a growing smirk on his face.

"I almost forgot." he thought.

"What'll happen when you find a successor? With that injury you showed me, it's obvious you'll continue to be put in situations where your time limit will become a problem. Just like today."

Toshinori looked down again at his palms before answering. "If I'm being honest even I'm not sure. I'm kind of new to the whole mentor thing myself so I'm taking a good hard look at everyone before I can make a final decision. It's beyond important that I get this right as the ramifications of a wrong choice is horrifying to even think about."

"Do you think you'll last long enough to at least stay in that muscle form when we talk to the kid." Tsukauchi asked.

"Not at all. I don't know what it was about that boy, but it was like being near him gave me another rush of adrenaline that allowed me to bypass the time limit even if it was only for a few moments longer." He thought back to how scared and hurt he looked when he was trying to calm him and it brought him nothing but sadness.

"I do not need OFA to comfort a scared and innocent child. That is something no one needs a quirk to do." he said with a proud gleam in his eyes.

"Speaking of the kid, what'll happen after we talk to him?" Aizawa was no fool about the damage needing a face and a name to place on it. He just hoped they were able to get something from the interrogation they could use to help him out of this mess.

"Unless we can find some concrete evidence that the boy had nothing to do with this, he'll be scapegoated and shipped off to Tartarus unfortunately." Tsukauchi said, still looking towards the room he was being held in.

A sickly sense of dread now flooded the room as all three of the men know that a child as small as him wouldn't last long in a place like that. Either he'd break and go off the deep end or in some of the rarer cases, ending your own life had been known to happen from time to time with some of the younger inmates.

Aizawa began to think about all the negative implications putting a child let alone a foreigner inside that hell hole and to say the thought made his skin crawl was an understatement.

Sitting back up in his seat, Toshinori didn't allow this to deter him in the slightest proclaiming. "Aizawa, I told you we'd save this young man, didn't I? Don't tell me you're doubting our ability to save him."

"Not a chance Toshinori. I wouldn't dream of letting those commission pricks get their hands on him."

"Sorry to interrupt." Mishima san was currently on standby in the other room and had pressed the intercom to alert them to what was beginning to happen. "Something is wrong with him."

Rushing out of their seats to begin filling his room, they all stopped short upon seeing what was happening to him. Beginning to activate his quirk on the boy in fear of him attempting to off again he noticed unusual markings under and around the bottom of his eyes.

"What is that?" Toshinori asked.

"Not sure, but stay on high alert. As long as I keep looking at him we should be fine." Looking even closer he noticed that the boy's markings weren't disappearing which made his mind worry. "Why the hell aren't those damned markings going away?"

"Aizawa, why isn't his quirk turning off?!" Tsukauchi exclaimed.

"I am erasing it, I think, but we don't even understand what his quirk is to begin with. It could be a mutant based quirk and if that's the case then I can't erase it."

"If it's mutant or transformation based, then don't you think him being able to set off an attack that big makes no sense? The quirk he seems to possess has many different qualities than it being emitter based." Toshinori stated, still staring at the boy.

"Tsukauchi, when he wakes up, can you use your quirk to find out whether or not that blast downtown was his fault?" Aizawa said.

"Of course."

Noticing the boy begin to stir, Aizawa gave Mishima the signal to activate her quirk so they wouldn't alarm the boy when he awoke hearing a foreign language in a strange place.

Snapping her fingers, an invisible bubble quickly surrounded every corner of the room they were stationed in.

"It's done." she said.

"Alright, get ready." Not taking his eraser quirk off the boy even for a second, he motioned for everyone to back up in case things get messy.

"He's crying." Toshinori said in disbelief.

"What is that young man dreaming about that is intense enough to make him cry in his sleep."

"You Are Free." The boy mumbled to himself slowly waking up from his dream.

Sitting up in his bed he failed to notice the four other people surrounded by his bed. He also failed to notice the markings and tears stains on his face either. "What is this place?" he thought to himself before making eye contact with the mummified looking man standing to his right.

"Hello, young man. Do not be alarmed, you are in safe hands." he said with yet another warm smile plastered on his face.

"My name is Toshinori Yagi and everyone in this room wants to help you."

Zeke was still pretty groggy, but was no longer the emotional wreck he was downtown. He looked side to side at the individuals around the room yet didn't say anything.

"What is your name, young man?" He walked over to him and placed a kind hand on his shoulder. Zeke felt nothing, but warmth, kindness and leadership from the man.

"Is it really safe to trust them?" he thought for a moment soon remembering his current situation. "I can't remember anything other than my-"

"Zeke." the boy said.

"My name is Zeke Kruger."

Tsukauchi had already activated his quirk in preparation for the event he was coherent enough to answer questions.

"A Truth." he jotted down in his notebook.

"I can't seem to remember anything else though. I honestly don't even know who any of you people are." he muttered loathingly to himself.

Toshinori took this in stride just happy the boy was opening up somewhat. "Do not fret, anything you can answer will help us in the long run. Just do your best." hand still placed on his shoulder.

Zeke nodded at them ready and awaiting more questions. "You can do this. Just stay calm." he thought.

Realizing they could understand him he gave a very confused look towards Toshinori before asking, "How come you can understand what I'm saying? This didn't happen last time we met."

"The lady to your left name is Yukari Mishima and her quirk allows her to act as a universal translator. Anything within this invisible that we're in right now allows everyone to hear the language they are most comfortable in, so while we may be hearing Japanese, you are probably hearing German right now.

"That...makes sense." Zeke said. "Wait a minute, I remember you! You were with that giant man who calmed me down earlier.

"My name is Aizawa Shouta and I'm a pro hero. My quirk is called Erasure and it allows me to cancel any quirk that is in my line of sight." Zeke stared in wonder as he continued the man's eyes glowed red and his hair was standing upwards like it had no gravity. "Do you remember what kind of quirk you have?"

"I think it has something to do with aura sensing. I see..no I can feel all these colors surrounding you guys." Tsukauchi almost dropped his pen hearing this.

"Wait, so it doesn't have anything to do with that lightning strike downtown?" Aizawa asked.

"Um...I don't think so." Thinking to himself he tried to rack his brain for how he knew this and came up completely empty.

"How did I know that? I don't remember anything before today, but I remember my quirk." Groaning internally to himself about his problem, he grabbed his head to attempt the rising headache he was beginning to feel only to feel something on his face.

Moving slowly he grazed each little marking he possessed and soon felt the dried tears that his face was caked in. "What the hell is on my face?" he didn't feel like they were wrong to be there for some reason, but there was another problem.

"Why the hell was I crying?" Zeke couldn't remember the dream or nightmare that caused his such distress and it only worried him further. "Maybe the markings are a part of my quirk, but the tears make no sense at all."

Looking back up at Aizawa, he answered, "I think the markings signify when my quirk is active. It's the only thing that makes sense."

"Truth." Feeling the need to interject, Tsukauchi having heard enough began walking over to Aizawa. "You can turn off your quirk. He's telling the truth." he said.

"Sorry I've yet to introduce myself. My name is Naomasa Tsukauchi and my quirk allows me to tell whether or not someone is telling the truth or lying. It also detects a lie even if the person has been brainwashed or fooled themselves into believing a lie." Looking back towards Aizawa he repeated with more sense of finality,

"His quirk wasn't responsible for the destruction earlier today." He could see Toshinori become slightly agitated upon hearing this.

Balling his free hand not on the boy's shoulder, rage began coursing through his mind. "I knew this had nothing to do with him! Damn those villains! The moment I recover I'll hunt every last one of them down myself!"

"Are you ok?" Toshinori looked down at the boy with confusion on his face.

"You felt really mad and your colors got all warped. Sorry I didn't mean to pry."

"Young man do not apologize, this was my fault. You did nothing wrong at all." Smiling again, he could only frown as the boy said something that froze him in his tracks.

"How come you and that giant man feel the same?" The moment he said that the entire room froze right along with him. "Your colors look the same too. Are you his brother or something?"

Aizawa by this point had fully turned off his quirk and had a complete list of questions he wanted to ask the boy. "We don't want to scare him back into a shell, so I at least need to figure out what his quirk is and why I had such a hard time turning it off." he thought.

"Can you elaborate on what you're seeing?" Aizawa asked. "If his quirk works how I think it does, then Toshinori might be screwed."

"Well for starters, I can see and feel the auras of people around me. I can feel silhouettes of their auras from here even if they are far away from me. Even if my vision is impaired, I'll still be able to see the silhouette if I concentrate hard enough." He pointed at Aizawa before continuing,

"I can see yours for some reason just like Mr. Toshinori here." The others I can only feel, but I can directly see the colors of you two. I'm not sure why though. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful." he frowned to himself again feeling useless. "Why can't I just remember? This freaking sucks."

"What do they look like?" Tsukauchi asked.

"Mr. Aizawa's is mainly red with hints of purple, bright yellow and…" He hesitated on this last part. "There's a cloud like white that's located near his heart. I don't know why, but it felt extremely wrong for me to say that."

"Shirakumo." Just like that Aizawa's heart began to ache and he knew why. "Your quirk is extremely accurate kid. Don't sweat it."

Moving on to the man beside, Zeke grew wide eyed when he fully examined his aura. "I don't even know where to begin when it comes to yours Mr. Toshinori. Squinting at the man beside one more time he started.

"The main body is a bright golden color and I think it has every color under the spectrum wrapped around it. It's like your main color has absorbed every other one and integrated it into yourself. I don't really understand it, but it's beautiful." finishing his observation, he looked around the room to see everyone with worried expressions on their faces.

"I-I'm sorry if it came off as weird. I just wanted to be as accurate as I possibly could have been. I don't want to cause you people anymore headaches with me being here." saying with sincerity in his voice.

"Do not worry, young man. You are not entirely wrong with what you are seeing. I'm related to the man known as All Might so our auras are probably similar because of that."

"He's lying." Zeke thought. "Even twins don't have the exact same auras. This has gotta be that big guy who helped me. Maybe he has a reason for hiding it from me."

"Toshinori here is quirkless and because of who All Might is and how powerful he is, we deemed it necessary to hide their relation so people don't target him. He has some very powerful enemies so you can imagine how bad it'd be for him if all his villains started coming for his brother." Tsukauchi finished.

"Quirks like yours are rare due to the nature of how they work so I'm asking you to keep this quiet and don't tell anyone."

"There's more to this, but I'm feeling sleepy and my head is far too cloudy to think about that right now."

"Can you do that, Zeke?" Tsukauchi asked once again. "Who he is can't leave the confines of this room."

"Yes sir." "Even if I know this is bs."

With that out of the way Tsukauchi looked down at his phone and saw a text message that made him feel like he needed another cup of coffee. "They work fast, just like usual." Groaning in his head but unable to do anything about it.

"Zeke, I'm afraid we'll have to end our talk here for today." Giving the other two heroes looks that they immediately understood. "We'll be back tomorrow to finish off our talk and hopefully jog something in your memory."

Knowing he was too tired to continue with the question's he turned his quirk off and began to lay back down on the hospital bed. "Wonder what I'm pumped with anyway?" Noticing the IV attached to his arm.

"That's fine with me sir. I'm kinda tired anyway."

As the heroes said their goodbyes and left the room, Zeke was left alone with his thoughts for the first time since he's been here and surprisingly his mind is somewhat calm after the talk with them. "Safe."

"Around Mr. Aizawa and Mr. Toshinori, I feel like I could tell them anything and they would accept it. It's almost like I've known them my whole life even though it's only been half a day."

"I have a lot more questions." Glancing at the clock above him he notices it's 9:30 and his eyelids continue to betray him. "For now though, I'll make the best of what I have and keep moving forward."

"No matter what." He thought to himself with determination before closing his eyes for the last time and drifting off to sleep.