Chapter 10
.:. Trick of the Light .:.
"Midoriya-senpai, your Quirk sounds amazing!"
Hachinose had sparkling eyes as he looked at Izuku, his awestruck look and smile reminding him of a puppy. This was not an altogether new occurrence with the younger teen—he tended to look like that whenever Izuku gave him advice on his own Quirks—but it still left Izuku feeling more than a little flustered.
"Uh, yeah, it's pretty neat," he agreed, looking down at his bento. Hachinose had basically ambushed him at the start of lunch before he could sneak off to eat in private, as he'd done every day since he accidentally used Crash. The other boy had all but forced Izuku to let him tag along to the rooftop, and had spent the time peppering him with questions about his progress with it. "The learning curve has been kinda rough, and I definitely have a lot more bruises now, but the training's really paid off."
As he spoke he saw something fly towards his head, hand shooting out to catch it almost unconsciously. Blinking in surprise, he glanced down to see it was a bottle of green tea from one of the vending machines. "I'll say! Your reflexes are way sharper!" Hachinose had a sharp and mischievous grin, and Izuku shot him a sour look. He unscrewed the cap and took a sip, making the other boy startle. "Hey, I got that for me!"
"Then you shouldn't have thrown it at me," Izuku retorted after he finished a big gulp. A few months ago he probably would have just given it back without drinking it, but a few months ago he hadn't been subjected to Gran Torino. Being around the cantankerous old man had toughened up Izuku's soft, sensitive heart, just a little bit. It had to, given the man kept pranking him every other time they met, throwing light (but not cruel) insults, and greeting him with flying kicks to the face.
The thought gave him pause, a devious idea forming. "...Hey, Hachinose-kun, do you want to come to training with me today after school?"
The second-year perked up at that, dropping his chopsticks as his mouth formed a small "o". "Really? You want me to come training with you?"
"Sure," Izuku agreed with a smile. "I've been training at this one gym since my Quirk came in. It would probably be a really good place for you to train, too." It wasn't even a lie, Izuku had idly noted some of the equipment and facilities would be a good fit for the other boy's Quirks.
Hachinose became quiet at that, looking more contemplative. "There's not a fee or anything if I tag along, is there?" he asked, and Izuku shook his head.
"There is if you become a full member, but you can come for free as a guest and try it first. And if you decide you like it, students get a discount." He knew Hachinose's family had slightly tighter finances than most, so he wouldn't spring any burdens on him he found absolutely unnecessary. Izuku's membership pass let him bring up to two guests at a time to the gym for free, and besides, he really did think the other boy could benefit from the Mighty Fitness Gym.
His response seemed to reassure the other boy, who nodded more eagerly as he picked up his chopsticks again. "Alright, then let's go! I can't wait!"
Hachinose hadn't exaggerated his impatience. After classes ended Izuku didn't even make it to the door to the classroom when Hachinose burst in, eagerly dragging him to the train station. He chattered excitedly the whole train ride, and when they reached the gym his excitement reached even higher levels.
"This place is AMAZING! Look at all that equipment! I've never seen treadmills in so many different sizes! Or whatever those things are! Oh my gosh, that window—is that a parkour area!?" His eyes practically bulged from his skull as he stared slack-jawed at a glass wall revealing a room that reminded Izuku of a giant playground, with tall ramps, walls, and other obstacles. It even had a bunch of rock climbing walls in the back.
"Yeah, it is, though I don't use it," Izuku confirmed, grabbing Hachinose's wrist to gently lead him away. He opened the door to the training room he used and gestured for the other boy to go in first. "Come on, I train in here. By the way, might want to make a hexagon shield right by your waist. Yeah, right there is perfect."
"This place is so cool, senpai!" Hachinose babbled as he dutifully made a few hexagons form by his waist, head twisted to continue looking back at the rest of the gym over his shoulder. "I can't believe you come here every day—hold on. Why did you tell me to—URK!" He cut off with a pained yelp as he stepped inside only to be hit by a white and yellow blur right where he'd made the hexagon shields. The tiles bounced against his side and shattered at the impact, and he was sent crashing to the floor.
The living projectile huffed as he landed in the doorway, eying Izuku disdainfully while Hachinose quietly groaned on the (thankfully padded) floor. "Brat, did you have him enter first on purpose?" Gran asked flatly, grabbing his walking cane from where he'd left it by the door.
"I have no idea what you mean," Izuku replied, the perfect picture of innocence. Hachinose groaned again as he sat up, rubbing his shoulder. The hexagon shield had protected him from the worst of the impact, but he'd still been hit hard enough to get knocked down, and he didn't have anything to shield him from the floor.
"Dang, that kinda hurt... Good thing the floor's padded—hero!?" He jumped as he finally looked at Gran Torino, taking in the man's full costume. "Pro Hero!?" His jaw fell open once more, and Izuku couldn't help his smile as he stepped forward.
"Hachinose-kun, this is Gran Torino," he introduced. "He's been helping me train since Crash came in because our Quirks are kinda similar. At least the impact part, anyway?" He turned to Gran while Hachinose openly gawked to add, "Gran, this is Hachinose Rikuto, an underclassman from Aldera. He's a year younger than me, but he has two Quirks that are both amazing!"
"Does he now?" Gran huffed, glancing at Hachinose who'd taken the opportunity to stand up. He sharply straightened at the attention and dipped into a stiff bow.
"It is an honor to be in the presence of a venerable and experienced Pro Hero such as yourself, sir! I am only a child, and know I cannot compare to your years of experience and training—"
"Cut all that formal crap, I know you've never heard of me," Gran interrupted.
"I didn't know who he was either," Izuku added, sensing the underlying cause for the redhead's overwhelmingly stiff and formal greeting. "Gran wasn't really a big hero, and he retired years ago." All at once the tension vanished from Hachinose, slumping with a relieved sigh.
"Oh thank All Might. I thought I was supposed to know who he was. N-no offense, sir!" he added quickly as he spun to look at Gran. "I mean, I don't want to make it sound like you weren't an amazing hero or anything—"
"Kid, stop with the blabbering, you're giving me a headache," Gran said irritably, and Hachinose quickly shut his mouth. "I only got my license in the first place as a favor to a friend. Like this brat said, I'm mostly retired. I don't care about being recognized by a bunch of snot-nosed kids or anything like that." He turned to Izuku now. "More importantly, I know you didn't bring him here just to use him as a human shield."
"Of course not!" Well okay, mostly it was to get back at Hachinose for throwing a bottle at him, and Gran for kicking him every time he entered, but still. "You said I might be ready to move on to sparring. Hachinose is younger, but like I said, he has two amazing Quirks. He's been training for the heroics program since the second one came in last year, so I thought he might be a good sparring partner."
"I'll be the judge of that," Gran huffed, turning to face Hachinose who stood incredibly tense with his arms at his side. "Normally I'd count you getting hit in the side like that against you, but this kid obviously set you up so I'll let it slide this time. Those tiles did a good job at absorbing the blow, too."
"Thank you, sir!" Hachinose perked up at the praise. "Hexagon Shield was my first Quirk, so I'd already been training it for years. But to hear a pro say it's good—"
Gran interrupted him with a sharp whack to the head with his cane. "I said it did a good job absorbing the blow, I didn't outright praise it. I haven't seen enough to judge it yet."
"Oh," Hachinose said lamely, shoulders slumping with disappointment. Izuku suppressed a smile at the exchange. Gran was a harsh and strict instructor, but he knew he'd see the potential in Hachinose's Quirks.
"His other Quirk is called Carapace. It's a transformation type that gives him a hard, crab-like shell. I thought between that and Hexagon Shield, he might be able to stand up to Crash. Or, you know, at least give me some targets that I'm actually supposed to try to break."
"Please tell me you mean the shields and not me," Hachinose said with a cringe, and Izuku winced.
"Of course I mean the shields! I'm not going to try to break you! But I was thinking we could work on testing the limits of Crash, and also expand the strength of the shields! Same goes for Carapace. I've never seen it really in action in a battle, you know? Like, at most we just did some tests like throwing textbooks at you. And I've never done any training against a Quirk, so maybe I can get some new ideas on how you can improve them if we spar."
"...Wait. The training's for your Quirk, but you're still trying to think of ways to improve mine?" Izuku paused as Hachinose looked at him with large eyes.
"Uh, yeah, I guess I am?" he said after a beat. "I mean, yeah, the training's mostly for me, but if you're going to help me, you should get something out of it too, right?" He shrugged awkwardly, while Hachinose's eyes began sparkling.
"You're so selfless, senpai... So cool... That's it!" He pumped a fist into the air with a ferocious shout and bright grin, startling Izuku. "You're too pure, Midoriya-senpai! You're totally going to be Number One someday, I'm calling it now! With a spirit like that you can't be anything lower than the top ten! And when you do, I'll be your first fan! Got it?"
He grinned, sharp and full of confidence, and despite how overwhelmed Izuku felt by the other boy's energy he found himself smiling and nodding. "Y-yeah, got it." Even now it felt so odd to have someone openly support his dream with such fervor. As the two smiled at each other Gran huffed.
"That's sweet and all, but you still haven't shown me anything," he declared gruffly. "My job is to train Midoriya, not you kid. I've already done my time as a teacher, I'm not looking to pick up any more classes of snot-nosed brats. But he's got a point about needing a partner. So show me those shields again so I can see what we're working with."
Hachinose perked up at the request, giving a sharp, "Yes, sir!" as he immediately peeled off several tiles from his arm to create a shield. Izuku grinned, feeling the adrenaline begin to pump even more. Training today was going to be amazing!
Sorahiko wouldn't lie: when he first heard the news that a child appeared with All For One, he'd been horrified.
When All For One died, he, like all the others, had thought it was over. He thought Nana and all her other predecessors could finally rest in peace, that the chain had finally ended. He thought he could rest, could hang up his cape and never, ever have to wear it again. But instead that man's power remained, as if mocking them that not even death could stop him.
That was why he'd agreed to train Midoriya. To see with his own eyes just who had inherited this power with potential for such great evil. A power so unique and dangerous that its name became synonymous with its user, to the point it was quite possibly the only Quirk he'd ever deemed inherently evil. After all, he had never once imagined All For One the man without All For One the Quirk.
Two months had now passed since Sorahiko first met Midoriya Izuku, and in that time he reached a crucial decision.
"The kid doesn't have a single malicious bone in his body," he told Toshinori over the phone. "I've seen bees with a stronger vicious streak than him. Granted, hornets can be nasty on a good day, but the point stands."
"So you don't think he's likely to turn out like... you know?" Toshinori's voice sounded anxious even over the phone, and Sorahiko snorted and rolled his eyes.
"It's admittedly too early to say for sure, since we've been focusing on his mother's Quirk, but so far I'd say it's not too likely. Kid invited a classmate to help train this week, and spent half the time helping him improve his Quirks instead."
"Wait! By training, d-do you mean—?"
"No, I mean Crash, you moron. We're not training that one with a random kid." Irritation bled into his voice, and to his credit Toshinori fell silent. Sorahiko sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, counting to three before he continued. "Look, I get why you're all worked up. Hell, being around that Quirk still gives me the creeps. But this kid isn't All For One. Treating him like he is will just make it a self-fulfilling prophecy—and I'm sure Sasaki can tell you all about those."
"I know that," Toshinori sighed. "Really, I do. By all accounts, young Midoriya seems like a fine young man who truly wants to do good. But still... To see that Quirk still exists..." He trailed off, and Sorahiko could almost hear his grimace.
"I don't blame you. I'd prefer this Quirk died with that man. But it didn't, and we got lucky it ended up in the hands of Midoriya instead of someone more crazy and malicious. Like I said: the kid's good. Can't sense a bad bone in his body. We got lucky, Toshinori, I'll say it again, and we need to make sure he doesn't end up swayed by the other side. And to that end, we need to start training him on that part of his Quirk."
The declaration was met with heavy silence, which Sorahiko had expected. The idea of training someone to use All For One—training them to take Quirks—made his skin crawl and his blood curdle. He hated the idea just as much as Toshinori, it felt like a slippery slope. But they had to do this, if only to make sure Midoriya wouldn't trigger it accidentally in a high-stakes situation.
And boneheaded as he could be, Toshinori probably knew that too, because he didn't try to argue. "You want to use one of my Quirks, don't you?" he asked grimly.
"Besides One For All, you have a total of three now." And wasn't that ironic: that Toshinori had somehow acquired not one, not two, but three Quirks in the fall of All For One. "We can't have him test it on just anyone, and out of everyone in the know, you've got the best set. Sasaki and Tsukauchi's are too passive to really test. Same goes for Nedzu, but that also carries the risk of messing with both their heads in ways we can't predict. Heal would be the best choice if it didn't need an injured guinea pig to test it. Jet's the next best, but it's also a mutant. The reports say that sludge guy woke up fine and dandy after he got it back, but I'd rather not see how ripping it out of my body at this age could go wrong."
The remark was met with a quiet groan. "No, I don't either. You're right, I really am the only choice we have for this... I suppose you want to do it soon since you're asking now?"
"The sooner, the better," Sorahiko agreed. "I'd like to do a test by the end of the month, but don't push yourself if you're not ready. This is a big thing to ask, so don't feel pressured to do it. Having you break down over it will just traumatize the kid."
"Alright, I understand. I'll... I'll call you when I'm ready, Gran. I should get going now, Yowai is waving at me through the window, and I'd rather not keep her waiting."
"Alright. Try not to let her bite your head off."
"...No promises," Toshinori chuckled, and after a quick farewell hung up. Sorahiko set down his phone with a sigh, closing his eyes as he leaned back in his recliner.
"What is the world coming to, Nana," he murmured softly to himself. "I'm asking a holder of One For All to willingly give a Quirk to the holder of All For One." There was an unspeakable irony there, even if it was just meant to be temporary. Not for the first time, he wondered how Nana would respond to them training someone to use her nemesis's—her killer's—Quirk.
And yet at the same time, he wondered how she would respond to Midoriya.
He hadn't been lying when he told Toshinori the kid was good. What he didn't say was how much that kid reminded him of Toshinori and Nana herself. The influence from "All Might" was strong and obvious enough in the way he smiled and clearly worshipped the idiot (seriously, even his backpack was All Might themed), but traces of Nana existed too.
The kid was empathetic and had a kind heart, truly valuing the happiness and safety of others above even his own happiness. The kid was the kind of person who'd sacrifice himself if it meant saving others, which was a problem in itself that they'd have to work on. The kid didn't just lack a single selfish bone, he might almost be too much of a pushover. However, in terms of people to end up with All For One, this was honestly one of the best outcomes they could have hoped for.
He couldn't say it enough: they really did get lucky Midoriya Izuku inherited All For One.
Izuku was on edge the moment he walked through the door to the training room. For starters, Gran Torino didn't greet him with a flying kick this time. That alone was strange enough to set off alarm bells in his brain and leave him wary. Immediately he dropped to a half-crouch, eyes darting around the room suspiciously until it settled on two figures conversing near the back.
One he recognized instantly as Gran Torino. The other, meanwhile, was basically Gran's opposite. Tall and lanky, easily seven feet tall, with a thin, angular face that looked almost like a skeleton and shaggy-looking blond hair. Izuku found himself staring as they continued talking, the stranger having to bend over while he spoke. Side by side, the two looked like something out of a cartoon given how radically different they were.
His arrival hadn't gone unnoticed of course. The two had briefly glanced his way and quickly wrapped up their conversation before approaching him. "You're early," Gran huffed, looking only slightly irritated.
"Y-yeah, the train was a little ahead of schedule today. I think it got thrown off by a villain attack this morning?"
"Ah yes, I heard about that," the blond man commented with a nod. "The power was cut off for nearly an hour before abruptly starting up again. They decided to fix it tonight after the trains stopped for the night. I don't use the train much, so I only heard about it from Yowai." Izuku looked at him with surprise at that, recognizing the name of All Might's secretary.
"You know Yowai-san?" he asked. "Do you—do you work with All Might too!?" His excitement began to rise as he spoke, his shyness around the stranger evaporating slightly at the prospect of meeting another of All Might's employees. The question had the man staring at him in shock though, while Gran Torino frowned up at him.
"Toshinori, are you telling me he doesn't recognize you?" he groused, and the blond—Toshinori, apparently—laughed sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Ah, th-that is... I never had a reason to show him this form?" he replied.
"Didn't you go to his apartment?" Gran deadpanned, and Izuku frowned as his confusion grew. He'd never met the man before, so he must have visited while Izuku was at school or something, right? Gran sighed and turned to face him. "Kid, this walking skeleton is All Might."
Record scratch. Brain freeze.
All Might?
"ALL MIGHT!?" Izuku yelped, spinning to stare at the man with his jaw hanging open. Taking a deep breath, the man's body then inflated, that lanky frame bulking up and filling with bulging muscles while Izuku's jaw felt ready to fall off.
"I am here!" he announced in that booming voice of his with his trademark laugh.
(Briefly, Izuku was reminded of Oniguro-kun's eyeballs and how they popped out of his head. Mainly because he wondered if his eyes looked like that right now.)
"You can transform?" Izuku managed to wheeze out, and the man laughed.
"Yes, I can! It's one of my additional Quirks, Muscular Morph. I use it to transform into a less conspicuous form without my muscles. Granted, I also don't usually make myself look quite as thin as today," he added with a more sheepish chuckle. "I just wanted to be absolutely sure no one would recognize me. I'm still just as strong, but it's much easier to strain my muscles while using it so I use it purely to hide my identity."
"I see," Izuku muttered, brain already churning with the new information. "It must condense the muscle mass then, rather than erase it completely. Your body is so thin though, your face looked skeletal with it, so that raises the question of what happens to body fat—hold on, did you say you had an extra Quirk? No, extra Quirks? As in plural?" Izuku jolted as the first part of All Might's explanation abruptly registered, and the man laughed.
"Indeed I did, young Midoriya!" he confirmed with that bright, shining smile, and Izuku's brain felt ready to short-circuit.
"Wait, are you saying you got multiple Quirks from the second boom?" he asked slowly. "I mean, I heard about the hearing, but you got two?"
The question made Gran snort. "The enhanced hearing thing's a myth started by the public, we just didn't bother clearing that one up because it wasn't worth the effort. But yeah, this idiot somehow got three Quirks," he announced flatly, and Izuku's brain definitely short-circuited. Three Quirks? All Might got three Quirks?
"How are you even functional!?" he blurted, staring at the number one hero with a mixture of awe and horror. He hadn't heard of anyone getting more than two additional Quirks without something going horribly wrong. One only needed to look at that livestream and all the other cases of "Kaijin" from that day, as the victims of the horrific transformation had become known.
The most common trend was that most of the victims had a total of three identifiable Quirks, including their original, though a few people had only two. It was speculated the sudden awakening of additional Quirks was too much for their brains to handle, leaving them in a mindless state fueled purely by instinct. Instincts that tended to lean towards violent rampages like monsters in old kaiju movies like Godzilla or Ghidorah.
Was it even possible to get that many Quirks at once without it overloading your brain? But this was All Might, so why would he lie? Also, how!? Wait, would Izuku be able to hold multiple quirks? He hadn't even really given any thought to a limit like that.
The man laughed again, though this time it was more quiet and almost awkward. "Yes, well, I can't blame you for being so surprised," he chuckled. "Honestly, we do not fully understand why it didn't, ah, overload me like all the others either. We have some theories, but we'll probably never know for sure."
"But wait, you had appendicitis at the time, didn't you?" Izuku asked, and then froze, color draining from his face. "Wait. Did—did Muscular Morph destroy your appendix somehow!? No, wait, forget that, isn't the heart a muscle!? Does it get affected by it too!? Oh my gosh—"
He cut off with a sharp yelp as Gran whacked him over the head with his cane. "For crying out loud, stop overthinking and scaring yourself!"
"To answer your question, no, none of my Quirks contributed to my health issues," All Might explained. "In fact, one of them helped me recover faster." Izuku perked up at that, eyes sparkling with curiosity as All Might explained. "I happened to get a Quirk we call 'Safe Mode' that day, which sped up my recovery! It put me in a comatose state for twenty-six hours, though."
"And that's why you didn't make any statements after the boom," Izuku realized slowly. "You got an additional Quirk so you were put into quarantine like everyone else who went to the hospitals." His mom had chosen to delay going to a hospital when Burst Dash came in for that very reason. They didn't know how long the quarantine would last and they had no one to watch Izuku, so she'd decided to wait for the initial clamor to fade.
"That is indeed the case," All Might confirmed with a nod. "Of course, we decided not to release any of my Quirks to the public for my own safety. Letting someone know I have a healing Quirk that renders me comatose would be dangerous after all! And I do like the privacy from being able to transform," he added with a quick wink. "You never realize how nice it is to go on a quick jog in the mornings until you don't have to worry about being recognized by everyone."
Izuku just continued to stare in amazement, still awestruck that All Might had more than two Quirks. He could absolutely understand why All Might would hide both those Quirks. "But wait, you said you got three, right?" he pressed. Rather than answer, All Might laughed and briefly patted his shoulder.
"Yes I did!" He withdrew his hand and pointed at Izuku's shoulder, and the teen twisted his head and jumped when he saw a glowing white handprint left on his sleeve.
"Wha—glowing?"
"Glow Ink," Gran Torino supplied for him with a snort. "Just leaves a glowing mark, any color he wants. It's definitely the most useless of the bunch, and the one we want you to try to grab."
Cue Izuku's brain shutting down for probably the fifth time since walking through the door. "What?"
"We've been training you to use Crash, but that's not your core Quirk," Gran told him gruffly. "Crash is good, but your original Quirk needs training too. Otherwise you might end up with a repeat of that sludge villain." The reminder had Izuku wincing and sucking in a sharp breath. He'd like to say that wasn't possible, since taking Quirks was such a conscious process, but if he ended up in the same position again... Yeah, he'd probably reach for the attacker's Quirk on instinct.
"You also need to practice returning them," All Might added. "So far you've only used your Quirk two times, once on the sludge villain and once on your mother, but you only returned the first Quirk. Since I have three additional Quirks, we decided I would be the best option, especially since Glow Ink is so passive. If you have trouble returning it right away, it won't impact me."
"Yeah, that's true," Izuku mumbled to himself. "I haven't used my original Quirk much, so I don't fully understand its mechanics, just that it gives me a sense for Quirks... And Glow Ink's an emitter Quirk, so it won't have as much of a negative impact on either of us if I make a mistake. I should also practice on people with multiple Quirks so I can try to tell them apart..."
He mumbled quietly for a few more seconds before All Might gently cleared his throat, startling him out of his musings. "Well, since you understand, let's get started!" he said, holding out a hand. "Midoriya, please use your Quirk and pull out Glow Ink."
Izuku gulped and nodded, taking a breath as he willed his original Quirk to surface. Though he hadn't used it, he had practiced manifesting the holes while lying in bed at night, so the holes appeared in his palm almost instantly. Izuku placed his trembling hand against the palm of All Might's much larger one, and tugged the same way he had at the villain.
The effect was as immediate and blatant as if someone had flipped on a floodlight right in front of his face, except that it didn't hurt. As his senses adjusted, he could slowly make out the Quirk nestled deep inside All Might, something as unfathomably huge and bright and strong and hot and unreachable as the sun. His attention was drawn to it immediately like a moth to flame, a sense of awe and grandeur washing over him.
The only thing it could have been was All Might's original power, the one that had let him rise to the top. It made him want to stand there forever, to bask in it and let its gravity draw him closer, but Izuku forced himself to tear his attention away. Even if this was just a test, even if he'd somehow been able to, he could never bring himself to mess with something that amazing.
As he turned away, his thoughts brushed against a small handful of other Quirks, pebbles in comparison to the first one, but glowing like small moons in its rays. The smallest Quirk was covered in what felt like little bare branches that kept growing smaller and smaller, and Izuku was pretty sure he could feel it reaching down into every cell of All Might's body if he focused hard enough.
The next quirk felt kind of dense and swollen, like a sponge filled to bursting, and clung to Izuku's hand in a weird way when he brushed it. He wasn't entirely sure, but he guessed that this might be the Quirk All Might had used to disguise himself. He didn't spend too long on that one; it reminded him a little too much of the feeling of his body wobbling and shrinking while he held the Sludge villain's Quirk.
Finally, there was something that wrapped around Izuku's hand and made him think of finger painting and sticking his hand in cool creeks, of the scratch of a pencil on his hero notebooks. This one was almost glowing in a literal sense, but it wasn't like the almost-blinding 'light' of All Might's great big Quirk. This light was softer and smaller, quieter in a way; more like fireflies than anything. This was the one All Might had told him to look for, he was sure of it.
With a deep breath, he closed his hand around it and dragged it towards himself. When he pulled his hand away from All Might's, there was a glowing green handprint left behind in the center of the hero's massive palm.
"Well, looks like it worked," Gran Torino declared a snort, but Izuku could barely pay the success any mind.
"What... what was that?" he asked, feeling almost dazed. "The big Quirk. I mean, I know you've never really revealed anything about it, so I understand if you can't tell me, but..." He trailed off, unsure what to even say. Even now, he felt like he could see the light on the back of his eyelids whenever he blinked.
"I'm afraid I'd prefer to keep that one to myself," All Might answered after a few moments, and Izuku felt a pang of disappointment, but he didn't dwell on it long. His eyes quickly returned to All Might's palm, eyes lighting up as he looked at the handprint.
"I took Glow Ink," he said, a wobbly smile starting to spread. "I took Glow Ink!" He quickly looked down at his palms, scrutinizing them intensely. He could feel its energy focused around his hands, flexing his fingers in wonder. "My hands don't look any different, so it's not directly tied to my skin like paint. Earlier when you used it on me your handprint was white, but the one I left on you is neon green—wait, did I stain your skin!?"
He shot All Might's chest a horrified look, but was met with a cheery laugh. "Relax, Midoriya! You can remove it."
"I can? How?"
"...Er." All Might's grin faltered, and Gran gave a tired sigh.
"This idiot's not gonna be much help. All his Quirks came weirdly naturally to him, it's an instinct thing for him. Though that one did have a bit of a learning curve at first."
"Instinct..." Izuku frowned down at his palm. If All Might could use it on instinct alone, then... maybe he could too? Okay, how do you usually erase finger paint? Well, that didn't help because you couldn't, really. But it did make him think of wiping marker from a white board, and after a moment's thought he awkwardly reached out and swiped his palm across All Might's hand.
To his delight it worked, the handprint vanishing. "It works! I just need to picture myself erasing a whiteboard! But what about making the marks?" He glanced at his palms with intense concentration once more, and soon marched over to the foam blocks. He slapped his palm against one, and frowned when it didn't leave any marks. "Okay, so that didn't work. Maybe if I...? Oh, I just need to think of leaving markers!"
He beamed as a handprint remained when he peeled away his palm, neon green just like the first time. Success! But All Might left a white handprint, not green. Maybe the color varied for the user? Or maybe he needed to experiment and practice more? Also, did it need to be a handprint? It felt like some of the power was concentrated in his fingers—and it was! His face lit up as he traced a long, glowing green line with his index finger.
As he continued leaving handprints and marks Gran Torino and All Might watched in silence for the most part. "He looks like a toddler just discovering crayons," the older of the pair remarked with a quiet snort.
"He's certainly enthusiastic," All Might agreed with a soft chuckle. "When I first got it, it was more annoying than anything. I could never control when it would activate in those first days." Even as he spoke Izuku drew the outline of a large tree, and let out a delighted noise when he managed to change it to a different shade of green. From the distance they could hear him mumbling about brown not working, making All Might smile softly.
Watching him now, he couldn't help but feel his chest grow warmer at the obvious childlike wonder the boy sported. It almost made him regret what came next. Almost. "That's enough experimenting, my boy," he called. "It's time to try to return it."
Izuku turned in surprise at the call, feeling his shoulders slump with slight disappointment. "Oh... okay." He'd just figured out how to start changing colors, managing to add some red apples and a yellow flower, though he couldn't get brown to work for some reason. Still, he couldn't ask to hold onto it any longer. It was still All Might's Quirk after all.
All Might held out his hand as Izuku returned, the teenager clasping it and closing his eyes. Just like when he'd returned the sludge villain's Quirk, finding Glow Ink inside himself took little time. Unlike then the void in his mind had two lights this time though, and he barely needed a glance to recognize them as Glow Ink and Crash. It made sense they'd exist in the same space in his mind, but it was still a surprise.
Returning Glow Ink was a quick and painless process. A gentle push had it drifting back into All Might and rejoining the other lights there. When he opened his eyes again and pulled his hand away, All Might gave his hand a brief squeeze before letting go. His palm now had a bright yellow glow, making him perk up.
"Well, looks like it returned just fine!" All Might said, and quickly slapped Izuku's palm to return it to normal. "Good work, young man!"
"Thanks," Izuku said with a smile, though he felt strangely... hollow. Returning Glow Ink left him feeling just a little emptier, even if it didn't belong to him.
He didn't get to dwell on it long though, because his senses suddenly blared with alarm as he felt something like a shift in the air and dropped into a roll. He moved just in time to avoid a flying kick from Gran Torino, which instead hit All Might dead-center in the chest and sent him flying back into the wall. Izuku found himself wincing sympathetically; even if the wall was padded and All Might had endured worse, he'd hit it enough to remember how it felt.
"Enough of that," Gran declared, turning to face Izuku with a stern look that had the teenager standing ramrod straight. "We still need to work on Crash. And since All Might's here, it's a perfect opportunity for you to have an actual human crash test dummy instead of these foam blocks."
"I get to train with All Might!?" Izuku blurted, eyes sparkling with delight and not noticing the way All Might slumped in dismay at being volunteered without his consent. When Izuku turned to face him the hero quickly pasted on a beaming smile, chest puffing as he placed his hands on his hips.
"Of course, young Midoriya! I'd like to see your progress as well. Now, come charge at me with Crash so I can see what you've got!"
At this point Izuku had too many amazing days to label just one as the "best day of his life," but this was definitely going to be in the top ten.
And so Gran's influence begins to seep into Izuku...
So since "Noumu" means brainless and that seems a bit rude to use for victims even as slang, we're using "Kaijin" instead. "Kaijin" basically means "mysterious person". To quote Wikizilla: "In Japanese, kaijin is a relatively broad term that encompasses any fictional human-like character that possesses strange supernatural abilities, and is usually used to refer to villains. Kaijin has no true equivalent in English, but possible approximations include 'supervillain,' 'superhuman,' 'mutant' or simply 'monster.'" It seems fitting, especially with kaiju movies!
Also, fun fact: originally we had the idea to give All Might FOUR extra Quirks, with the fourth being super hearing since all superheroes (coughsupermancough) seem to have that. We nixed that idea and kept it to three, but made it a rumor while hiding all his other Quirks. (And on that note, Cocoa writes all the Quirk-sensing scenes. So give him a shout-out if you like those parts!)
Since Friday is Christmas, we'll be updating on Saturday instead. Happy holidays to all who celebrate! And we hope you all stay safe this holiday season!