Chapter 3: Determination
"Not only that, I believe you are the one worthy to inherit my quirk." All Might added, as the sun began to set on the horizon behind him.
"...Wat?" Izuku asked, bewildered at the unexpected statement. "Did I hear that right, or am I just that tired?" he thought to himself.
"WHAT KIND OF RESPONSE IS THAT?" All Might asked with a loud laugh, coughing up blood in the process. "I'm asking you to take on my quirk, my boy."
"Wha-, worthy, take on?" Izuku stuttered out, trying to understand what the hero was saying. He started to get a headache, his brain couldn't handle processing new information right now.
"I'm sorry, All Might, but can we talk some other time?" he asked as he rubbed his temples. "It's been a long day, and I don't think I can handle any surprises today."
"Sure, kid."All Might said, completely understanding after what has happened today. He took out a pen and a small notepad he had in his pocket and wrote something down. "This is the number to my personal phone; whenever you're ready to talk, just reach out."the hero said as he handed the sheet of notepaper to the boy. "Make sure no one else knows it's me that contact reaches."
"Thanks, sir. I'll be sure to call as soon as possible." Izuku answered, taking the paper. He gave the hero a proper farewell and continued walking home. The hero waved goodbye before he started walking away as well.
It was almost nightfall when Izuku reached his home. When he entered inside, he gave Inko a big hug that she returned, took a nice, hot shower, had dinner, and went to bed, reaching sleep immediately. He didn't have any weird dreams that night.
The next morning, Izuku woke up well rested; the mental and physical fatigue he had yesterday was now gone. Seeing that it was Saturday, he decided to contact All Might to see what he wanted to talk about yesterday. He asked where and when they should meet, the hero responded with a time and location.
OOO
All Might decided to have their talk from yesterday at a small, independently-owned diner called 'Fives'at around 1:15pm. It was a decent establishment that was local to the area; and with the usual lunch rush having already ended and most of the staff going to take their break, it was a great place to continue their discussion in private.
All Might was washing down the day's lunch special with a cup of coffee when Izuku entered the establishment; he saw the hero in his skinny form and went to sit at his table across from him.
"Welcome to 'Fives'," a waitress greeted the boy with a smile, handing him a menu after he sat down, "here you go; when you're ready to order, let me know." she then returned from her previous spot behind the counter.
"Thank you, I will." Izuku said before she left. "Sorry for making you wait, All Might. I was really tired yesterday."he said, addressing the hero.
"It's quite alright, young man, I understand." The blond hero said, "Also, I'm not a hero right now; when I'm like this," gesturing to his current appearance, "call me by my name, it's Yagi Toshinori."
"Ah, right. Sorry, Mr. Toshinori." Izuku said in a hushed voice, looking around to see if anyone heard his blunder. The only other people in the diner at the moment was the waitress from earlier, who was currently on her phone not paying attention to anything else, and the cook who was busy in the kitchen.
Izuku then noticed the empty tray that was in front of Yagi. "I thought you said that your stomach was practically gone." he remarked, remembering the conversation on the rooftop.
"It is, but there's still enough left for me to be able to digest solid food." the hero explained, "I just have to eat slowly and take small bites. But let's get to the topic from yesterday."
"Right," Izuku agreed, now mentally prepared for the discussion, "what did you mean exactly when you said that I was 'worthy to inherit my quirk.'?" he asked, quoting what he said.
"It means exactly what was said," Yagi answered, "I want to pass on my quirk to you because I believe that it will be in good hands being in your care."
"Pass on your quirk to me?" Izuku asked, then thought to himself, "There's a quirk that can be passed on to someone else? There has never been any quirk in history that has that ability. Even then, it doesn't sound like something that can be useful to anyone; so that must mean his quirk has another ability. What is All Might's quirk anyway? People have been theorizing for years about it, the biggest one being that it's a powerful strength-enhancing quirk; but every time he's asked about it, he doesn't give a straight answer."
"Let me explain it to you, Young Midoriya," Yagi said, seeing the kid across from him in deep thought, "My quirk is called One-For-All; a person builds up their strength to its greatest height and is then past on to the next person, who then builds up their strength to its greatest height on top of the previous person. The more the quirk is cultivated and passed on, the stronger it becomes; this is the power of One-For-All."
"One-For-All." Izuku repeated in awe. "So that's how All Might's quirk works; it's incredible." he thought to himself, "Theoretically, that quirk can have no limit to its strength if it keeps getting passed down. It sounds dangerous though."
"That's right, kid," Yagi said, "And I want you to be the one who I pass it on to."
"But why me?" Izuku asked, "Surely you know other people who are just as worthy, if not more, to give it to. What makes me stand out?"
"It's what you did yesterday that made me choose you," Yagi told him, "You, a kid who was essentially quirkless, rushed into the fray without hesitation to save someone who needed help. You have the heart of a true hero in you."
Izuku could only smile at that, no one has ever said such things to him in his life; it was heartwarming.
"While we're on the subject," Yagi said, changing the topic, "You did something back then that didn't look like how you described Ancestry. You didn't lie to me about your quirk on that rooftop, did you?"
"I didn't lie to you, Mr. Toshinori; honest." Izuku assured the man, "That was the first time in my life that I was able to do what I did." He recalled what he did the other day; he felt a new sensation in his arms and he was suddenly able to manipulate the fire around him.
"If I didn't know better, I'd say that I got a combination of mom and dad's quirk. But that would be impossible, no person in history has ever had more than one quirk. Is this another result of Ancestry evolving; if it is, what else is it going to do? Am I going to start getting my ancestors' quirks if they had them? I already have the problem of involuntary memory flashes and my body copying their movement. If things keep adding up, I'll be back to square one with my quirk; and it'll be much harder to master than before." he thought to himself, unaware that he has been muttering aloud the entire time.
"I see," the blond man said, hearing everything the boy had just muttered, "in any case, I am offering you to be the successor of my quirk; but it's your choice whether or not you accept it."
Izuku stopped his muttering when he heard his hero say that. He opened his mouth to give his answer, but he remembered what someone told him yesterday.
"You're pathetic, you know,"
It was Katsuki's voice,
"Unlike you, I don't have to rely on the hard work my family did to succeed. My accomplishments are from my own talent while yours are from others; it sickens me when people take credit for others' work."
"... I'm sorry, All Might," Izuku said looking down, momentarily forgetting to call the hero by his real name, "but I feel like I would be succeeding from other people's hard work if I accept your offer. I'm already making things easy for myself with the past experiences of my ancestors; with this change my quirk has, I want to start accomplishing things with my own hard work."
Yagi could only smile at the determination Izuku was now showing. "It's alright, Young Midoriya, I understand. But allow me to offer you my help in your training."
"Oh, you don't have to do that, Mr. Toshinori," Midoriya politely refused, "I couldn't possibly let you take time from your work for my sake."
"It's okay, my boy," Yagi insisted, "it's the least I can do for you since you helped me remember the meaning of being a hero. Besides, there's no harm in letting others help you succeed. Humanity has only gotten as far as it has because of cooperation and learning from the lessons of the past, so don't hold back on using your ancestors' experiences to help you move forward."
"... Alright," Izuku agreed, it is a lifetime opportunity to be trained by the Symbol of Peace, "Thank you for doing this for my sake."
"You're welcome, kid," Yagi said, "now why don't you order something; I'll pay."
Izuku nodded and opened the menu. "Oh man, All Might is gonna train me," Izuku fanboyed internally, "this is going to be great. I should ask mom and dad for any tips they might have to help me." That's when he realized something.
"AAH, I DIDN'T TELL MOM WHAT HAPPENED!" Izuku exclaimed, startling Yagi, the waitress, and the cook. "SORRY, SIR, BUT I HAVE TO GO NOW!" he promptly got up and ran out the diner without another word.
"Hey, you didn't order anything?!" the cook shouted from the kitchen.
"It's alright, sir," Yagi said to calm the man down, "I'll have another order of your lunch special on his behalf."
The hero looked out the window; it looked like he'll have to call Izuku once he got a training regime prepared and a place to use.
In the outskirts of another city, a hero was paying full attention to his environment as he went on his night patrol. There were increasing incidents of missing children being reported in the area the last four months, and there was no sign of it slowing down.
The police around the area have already searched the area for any leads on what is causing the disappearances, but nothing came up each time an incident happened. But recently, a patrol car reported hearing a child crying and calling for help at night a month ago; the patrol failed to make a follow up report and the department was only able to find the patrol car, but not the officers that were assigned it.
Whatever is causing the disappearances, it has become a Superhero-level case.
The hero that is patrolling the night-lit area was a small-name hero from the city going by the name 'MorningStar'. He volunteered to follow the case, along with another small-name hero going by 'Hitmarker'. Currently, the two heroes decided to split up and patrol the central area of where the incidents were taking place while the local police searched the perimeter.
"Man, this place is really spooky at night," MorningStar commented to himself. The area was a small suburban area that had parts of the nearby forest bleeding into it. The houses were dark, signifying that they were either empty or the people inside were sleeping. The trees that line the roads, alleys, and yards came in various heights and sizes. They also blocked most of the only light he had, which came from the widely spaced lampposts,the crescent moon, and a few stars that shone through.
Not only did this limit his visibility, even with the flashlight he brought, it also caused the effect of many shadows emerging and moving, making the hero see things in his imagination.
"Why did I volunteer to take this case?" MorningStar asked himself; just because he was a pro hero doesn't mean he's immune to fear, "I feel like I'm in a horror game; this is not worth getting my name on the news."
"Hey MorningStar, come in." the feminine voice of Hitmarker broke the quiet through the commlink, making the hero jump.
"Dammit, Hit!" MorningStar exclaimed through the device, "What is it?"
"Sorry," Hitmarker apologized, "I just want to know if you found anything on your end."
"If I did, you'd have heard about it already." MorningStar snarked. He didn't like the fact that he had to work with another hero on the case. If he manages to find and stop the cause of the missing kids and cops, he'd have to share the credit with the heroine. This means that he won't get enough recognition as a hero and boost his hero ranking.
"Okay, okay; just thought you might want something to break the silence." Hitmarker said through the comm. She was starting to get on his nerves; not only is she taking half of the credit, she's also not taking this job seriously.
"I don't," he said, "focus on the task at hand; the sooner we stop these disappearances, the sooner we can leave this place. Over and out." He then turned off his commlink.
As he continued to patrol the streets, the area seemed to be getting darker. The shadows began to move as the trees were blown by the night breeze. Soon, the shadows became so dark that it looked like the surrounding light was cut off from it, making it pitch black.
Then a small noise was faintly heard from the sound of the quiet outdoors. MorningStar listened closely; it sounded like a crying child, a baby maybe.
His eyes widened and began to run to where the noise was coming from. "This is it." Morning Star thought, "It sounds like whoever is responsible for the disappearances is striking again. Only this time, I've caught him in the act."
The sound of the baby's cry was getting louder as he ran. He was close enough to the source of the sound that he could tell that it was coming from the alleyway ahead of him. He turned into it; and that's when he saw a hunched figure walking through it, away from him.
MorningStar continued running until he was a few feet from the figure, making sure that his footsteps were loud enough to be heard. The crying was clearly coming from the figure.
That's when the crying, and the figure, came to a sudden stop.
The black shadows appeared to start growing, consuming every space that held light in the alley. MorningStar saw that he was surrounded by darkness, leaving the only other thing visible was the hunched man in front of him.
Putting on a brave face, despite being more frightened that he ever was, "You think you can scare me with this, villain?!" MorningStar asked, activating his quirk: Flail Arms, which turns his upper appendages into the bludgeoning weapon the quirk is named after, "Your time of taking children away is finished! Now what did you do to those kids and the two cops?!"
The figure slowly straightened his back from its hunch, rising to its full height; it was apparently a full torso taller than MorningStar, who was 6'5". The figure turned to face the hero; what the hero saw drove all thought and emotion out of his soul in an instant, leaving nothing but fear.
The figure's face was that of an unkempt man with shoulder length black hair, and pale skin. But something did not feel right about the face; it felt off, it was uncanny.
Then the figure's mouth opened, and kept opening. It's lower jaw split down the middle, opening the mouth wider and revealing another pair of large mandibles that looked like it should belong to an insect. The upper jaw split apart as well, two more pairs of insect mandible protruding out. Behind them were two sets of teeth, the outer set was nothing but fangs and canines of various lengths, widths, and shapes; the inner set was all molars. There was no tongue to be seen, only numerous writhing, fleshy appendages lining its gum walls. In the middle of the nightmare was nothing but darkness.
MorningStar was frozen on the spot, eyes wide and breathing fast and shallow. He remained frozen as the figure approached him. Soon, his head was engulfed by the mouth, then his torso, then his legs, then his feet.
OOO
MorningStar failed to report back to the police station when morning came. Hitmarker searched the area that he was assigned to patrol, but found no trace of the hero.
MorningStar's name was on the local news later that day as the latest disappearance in the area.
Izuku found himself dragging an old fridge across the sands of Dagobah Beach, grunting and shouting as the object moved slowly from his efforts.
"Come on, Young Midoriya," All Might shouted at the sidelines, "use your legs more when you're pulling! Surely one of your forefathers worked with heavy lifting!"
"Right!" Izuku shouted, taking the advice. The fridge moved much farther with each pull, but it was still a slow process. After two minutes of dragging, he was able to get the fridge to the parked pickup truck by the beach entrance, which was filled with other objects that he either dragged, shoved, or carried there.
"Good work, Young Midoriya," All Might said with a thumbs up, "You're getting stronger, you took two minutes less than last time dragging an object with the same weight."
"Thanks, All Might." Izuku said, huffing. He's been moving heaving objects since this morning, and he's exhausted.
"Come on, then," All Might said heading back to the beach, "let's find another fridge for you to take out."
"Right." The greenhead said with determination, following his now trainer. As they walked back, there was no shortage of junk Izuku can move out.
Dagobah Beach was once a very scenic beach that attracted a lot beach goers and tourists; but years of litter washing to its shore from ocean currents and illegal garbage dumping has turned the once beautiful area into a literal oceanfront junkyard.
"All Might," Izuku called out, getting the hero's attention, "why exactly am I moving all this junk for training? It doesn't really help Ancestry, or my Fire Armory ability become stronger."
Izuku told his mother about his newfound ability the other day as soon as he got home. Inko was surprised at the news, and even more so when he demonstrated by manipulating the flame of a match. Inko didn't know what to think of the development, so she took her son to the doctor.
Unlike the apathetic doctor the previously had, their new doctor had a much better personality and treated her patients with care and compassion. When Izuku told her what happened, the doctor got a few blood samples and did a quick test.
*(flashback)*
"Well, Midoriya-kun," the doctor said, looking at the teen with the test results in hand, "I must congratulate you in achieving something not thought possible; you have two quirks."
"Really!?" both Midoriyas were baffled at the news; they couldn't believe it.
"Yes." she confirmed, then went to explain.
"This is what the genetic structure of an individual with a quirk looks like," she showed them the image, "it looks confusing, I know, but the only thing you have to know is this pattern here. This pattern indicates that the individual has an active quirk gene."
She then placed another image next to the other one, "And, this is Midoriya-kun's genetic structure from the blood sample we got."
The pattern didn't seem that different to the Midoriyas, aside from being a different pattern and being a darker shade of color.
"It may look normal at the first glance; but if you look closely, you can see that the pattern is the result of two patterns overlapping." the doctor explained. They looked closer, and sure enough, the smallest lines of light coloration could be seen at the edges for the pattern.
"We ran the test multiple times to make sure it wasn't an error in the systems; I even did the test myself just to be sure." The doctor said, "The results are clear, Midoriya-kun, you are the first person in history to possess two quirks. This is a landmark event in the field of quirk research, if I may have your permission."
Needless to say, the mother and son had quite a day that day.
*(flashback end)*
"We're working on your strength training because, honestly, it really needs work." All Might answered. Izuku looked down at himself; he's not wrong, he could use more meat in his diet.
"Also," the hero continued, "it's part of the lesson I want to teach you right now."
"A lesson?" Izuku repeated.
"Yes. This beach was one a beautiful place, but years of neglect has turned it into the dump you see now. Superheroes nowadays see no profit in doing something as small as cleaning up litter." All Might said, starting to crush the large steel freezer in front of him.
"I want you to ingrain this lesson in your memory, Young Midoriya. THE SMALLEST ACTS CAN MAKE THE BIGGEST IMPACT!"
With that, the freezer was crushed completely, revealing the setting sun resting on the calm waters of the sea; it was a beautiful sight.
"You said that you're aiming for U.A., right, Young Midoriya?" All Might asked, getting a nod from the boy.
"Then we have ten months to get you to your fullest potential," he declared, "Are you ready, kid?"
"Yes, sir!" Izuku answered with a smile, determination in his eyes.