It wasn't like the last time, when everything was foggy and aching and his senses began to sloppily return to him in an unordered jumble. This time his senses returned to him in a definite order, and with unusual clarity as though someone had simply flipped a switch to turn them on. First came his sense of consciousness, of knowing he was awake. But how could that possibly be? The last thing he remembered was being blown clean in half, of lying in that filthy alley as he felt himself dying. So how was it that he was alive at all? Had all of that just been some elaborate nightmare?

Suddenly, his thoughts were flooded with sound. It was nothing particularly loud, mostly the background hum of electronics that had surrounded him all his life, but the abruptness of its return from pure silence was quite jarring. Soon after he'd adjusted to its presence, another sound flowed into his mind, though not in an unpleasant way at all.

"Brainwaves are stabilizing. Audio sensors seem to be operating just fine. He's registering sound."

Izuku blushed internally at the soft voice that spoke somewhere nearby. It was a girl's voice, a teen around his own age if he were to judge from sound alone. Was she some sort of nurse? His sense of embarrassment deepened at the thought of a girl his age caring for him, no matter how injured he might have been. He'd never really bucked up the nerve to talk to a girl before, so the prospect of having one see him in such a vulnerable state was almost more than he could bear, especially when she sounded so... nice.

"A-ah, I'm getting signs of distress… Should we put him back in stasis?"

Crap! He'd been so concerned with who was talking that he'd missed what she was talking about. He was clearly hooked up to medical equipment, which had picked up on his boyish, bashful panic.

"No, it's fine. Readings like that are to be expected in cases as extreme as this."

Another voice, this time of a man. He was clearly older than the girl, perhaps middle-aged, but his voice held that same soothing softness that hers had. Perhaps they were related?

"Now Izuku, I know you must be scared and confused right now, but I want you to know you're safe. I'm Dr. David Shield, and I've been treating you here in my clinic since your, err… accident."

If Izuku still had a heart, it would have leapt up into his throat at that. Had he heard that correctly? He was being treated by Dr. David Shield? The Dr. Shield? Anyone who had even the slightest interest in cybernetics would know that name. He was by far the single best cyberneticist in all of Neo Tokyo, perhaps even the world. Just about any technological breakthrough that had been made in the past twenty years had Dr. Shield to thank for it. Most famously, of course, he was the brilliant scientist that had engineered and built All Might's incredible body.

Izuku was only distracted from his internalized fanboying when he heard a girl's amused giggling.

"Well, that's certainly a reaction I wasn't expecting."

Dr. Shield let out a small chuckle himself.

"Toshi did mention he was quite the fan of him, so I wouldn't be surprised if he recognized my name," the doctor replied softly to the girl before more clearly addressing the boy once more. "I'm going to activate your vocal unit, okay? Try not to panic when you can't breathe. You're hooked up to a machine that directly oxygenates your blood, so your brain might think you're suffocating for a moment. Just stay calm and try to talk when you're ready."

Izuku was unsure of what Dr. Shield was talking about for a moment. Vocal unit? Activate? It was all being thrown at him so fast, and it almost sounded as though…

Suddenly, the sense of possessing more than just his ears came back to him, giving him yet another sensory shock. He could feel his face now, even move his mouth. The first thing he tried to do was draw in breath but, just as the doctor had promised, he simply couldn't. He couldn't feel anything below his head. Memories flashed across his mind of being blown in two, of everything below the midway point in his chest just… gone.

Despite the warning, he did indeed start to panic. What state was his body in? How much of it was left? Surely there was no way to salvage that mess. He was dead. Even if they'd managed to scrape what was left of him off the ground and keep it alive for now, he was dead. If he didn't have Analog Disorder, there might have been hope. They might have been able to give him a cyborg body, but… As it stood now, there were no cyborg bodies that wouldn't instantly fry his nervous system as soon as he was hooked up to it. He wanted to cry, but he still couldn't feel his eyes. He didn't even know if he was capable of producing tears in whatever state he was in.

Suddenly, he felt a hand gently stroke through his hair, as though a caring parent trying to soothe their child.

"Hey, easy does it, kid…"

That voice…

"A… A-All… M-Might…" Izuku managed to wheeze out finally, though his own voice sounded a little strange to his own ears. He couldn't quite place what was off about it though.

"Yeah, it's me. I gotta say, what you did back there was incredible. Stupid. Insane. But incredible. I was too slow, and without you that other kid would be dead."

That statement, though it heaped an incredible amount of praise on him from someone he deeply admired, returned his thoughts to that fateful scene.

"K-Kacchan! Is he okay?! What happened to him?!" he blurted out, suddenly finding full mastery of his voice. He heard an almost incredulous chuckle from All Might.

"This kid… Even in the state he's in, he's worrying about someone else…" the Enforcer mumbled mostly to himself.

"Katsuki is fine," Dr. Shield answered promptly. "I repaired the damage to his shoulder and replaced his arm with a considerably safer model. After that, all he needed was a simple blood transfusion and he was good to go."

Izuku felt a wave of relief wash over him upon hearing that. So Bakugo was still alive and doing well. He was so glad at hearing such news that he couldn't stop a shaky smile from forming across his lips. At least he was able to save someone just once. Even if it had cost him his life, it was worth it.

"Dave…" came All Might's voice after a long stretch of silence. "Can you turn on his eyes?"

"W-well… I was going to wait a bit before doing that. Visual data will be the biggest shock to his brain so far, but… I suppose he's doing well enough up to this point that he could probably handle it."

"Good. I'd like to talk to him properly."

In a flash – quite literally – his eyes were flooded with light such that he thought his visual cortex was going to explode out of the back of his head. After a bit of blinking and waiting to adjust, however, the world settled into focus, and he could finally see.

The first thing that registered were the sleek walls and fixtures of the clinic, all a soft bluish-white and formed in gentle, sweeping curves, not a hard angle in sight. There were a few pieces of equipment in view that had his scavenger's senses salivating. Everything was so sleek and impossibly clean, and every piece of tech the absolute top of the line. He knew Dr. Shield lived all the way up on Deck D, but he never imagined he'd be able to see such a place for himself. It was like he really had died and gone to cybernetic heaven.

"How are you feeling? Any pain? Headaches?" Dr. Shield asked, leaning down in front of him and shining a small light into his eye, presumably to check its reaction. The man was as Izuku had always seen him in the extranet articles and videos; a deceptively plain-looking man of European-American descent, his chestnut brown hair somewhat disheveled as was characteristic of such workaholic types that never seemed overly concerned with their appearance.

As the doctor performed his brief examination, Izuku noted with interest the man's mods that he'd always read about. There were the retractable lenses mounted on his temples, a somewhat popular accessory for upper-deck citizens in need of glasses but unwilling to take the more drastic step of replacing their eyes with cybernetic ones. More interesting were his sleek mechanical arms, the fingers being of particular note. They had no obvious joints and where of such a shiny material that he could see the warped reflection of everything around them in their pristine surface. Still, despite appearing to be one solid piece, they operated with extreme dexterity and precision that bordered on the impossible, as though they were made of living liquid mercury. The scavenger had always admired such an incredible product of expert engineering. He'd even heard rumors that Dr. Shield had installed them on himself, one at a time, as no one else in the world had the skill to understand their inner workings enough to connect them up.

Suddenly, Izuku remembered he'd been asked a question, and quickly averted his eyes from where he'd been staring at the man's hands.

"O-oh! Uhhh… N-no, I feel fine," he replied finally. Satisfied with his answer, Dr. Shield moved on with his examination, moving away from his eyes to the right side of his head. Meanwhile, Izuku went back to desperately examining his surroundings, this time in effort to forget about whatever awkwardness he might have caused.

Unfortunately, his gaze ended up settling on something that proved even more distracting than the doctor's extraordinary hands. Off to his left, monitoring one of the many screens mounted on the wall closest to the exam table, stood one of the most beautiful girls he'd ever seen with his own eyes. She was tall – easily a head taller than he'd previously stood himself – and had wavy golden hair that reached down to her hips. She wore round-lensed glasses over bright blue eyes, though they weren't implants like Dr. Shield's. In fact, Izuku was hard pressed to detect any obvious cybernetics on her at all. Her arms – bare from where her plastic-like top's sleeves ended just below the shoulder all the way down to a simple watch-like device on her wrist – were clearly flesh and bone. As were her legs, made apparent by the section of bare calf exposed by her capris.

He ended up scanning up and down the other teen's entire figure, but – excepting her unusually large bust size – he found nothing he wouldn't expect to find on any natural, unmodified woman. Did she perhaps have some neural mods that weren't immediately apparent?

He wasn't able to speculate further on that, unfortunately. The girl seemed to sense his curious eyes on her and looked his way, flashing him a friendly smile.

"Hi! I'm Melissa Shield. I've been helping my Papa take care of you. It's good to finally see you awake!"

That greeting was all it took for whatever little supply of blood he still had coursing within him to head straight to his face.

"H-h-hi! I-I'm I-I-Izuku M-Midoriya!" he managed to stammer out after a few false starts, and even that much was more shouted awkwardly than spoken in a normal manner. His voice even decided to crack on him as though to add insult to injury. Melissa, to her credit, did her best to politely stifle her amused laughter.

"Young man…"

Izuku's attention seemed to snap forward when he heard the voice of his idol interject once more. Dr. Shield had stepped away, apparently satisfied with the results of his examination. Now, All Might – in his weakened low-power mode – stood over him like a slender titan. The teen couldn't help but marvel at how imposing so frail a frame could be, but he seemed to narrow the cause down to the fiery intensity still burning in those glowing blue optics. Suddenly, that intense look seemed to soften a bit.

"Listen… I want to revise what I said to you earlier…" he began somewhat solemnly. Izuku's eyes widened upon hearing that. What he said earlier? Surely he couldn't mean…

"Enforcers. We're employed by the government to keep the peace by whatever means necessary. Some use the title as an excuse to go carte blanche and live out their own little power fantasy. Some just do the bare minimum and collect their paycheck. When I became an Enforcer, I promised someone very special to me that I would be different. I would be someone that could protect the weak, no matter their status in society. I wanted to save lives, and in so doing I wanted to inspire everyone that there was hope for a better future. Today, I couldn't do that…

"But you did."

Izuku's teeth clenched as he gazed up at All Might. What was he saying all of a sudden? He was All Might! What could some modless twerp like him do that someone strong enough to become the top Enforcer in all of Japan couldn't do?

"I-I didn't do anything, though…" he stammered out in nervous retort, his gaze sinking to the floor in shame. "I tried to save someone, even though I have no cybernetics…"

"Exactly!"

Though he clearly didn't have the equipment to do so, Izuku drew in a sharp gasp, looking up towards his idol once more. The fire had returned to the old Enforcer's demeanor, an almost proud smile gracing his gaunt face.

"Of all the people in the area, it was only you, timid and modless, who acted! Without you, that other boy would be dead right now! Most of the top Enforcers show signs of greatness even as children. Many of them claim that, when danger showed itself, their bodies simply moved on their own!"

Izuku's lip began to tremble at what he was hearing. If he still had a heart and function over his arms, surely he'd be clutching his chest at that very moment. There was no way…

"That's what happened to you, wasn't it?!"

"Y-yes…" the teen barely managed to reply, fighting back the tears that were rapidly filling his vision.

"And I'd venture to guess that's what happened before we first met?! When you encountered that cyborg in the alley?!"

By this point, Izuku could only nod in the affirmative, afraid he'd start blubbering if he dared open his mouth.

"Izuku Midoriya… I was wrong in my assessment of you earlier. Not only can you become an Enforcer… You are the ideal every Enforcer, including myself, should aspire to be!"

The tears were flowing freely down his face now. He never imagined he'd hear those words directed at him in his lifetime, let alone from All Might himself! All those years of being put down by others, or pitied, or simply dismissed as refuse… All of it seemed to melt away at that single affirmation. Despite his heightened emotions, a smile crept across his face. After hearing something like that… Yeah. He could let go and die without regret. There wasn't anything more he could possibly wish for!

"I deem you worthy to inherit my body!"

Izuku couldn't help but freeze dead upon hearing that. Slowly, he looked back up at All Might once more. Inherit… his body? What the hell was he talking about? All of a sudden, the Enforcer burst out into raucous laughter.

"What's that face for?! This is a proposal! I'm asking you if you want to try accepting my body!"

Izuku's pupils shrunk to a pinprick at that, his face going pale.

"U-umm… I'm not sure that's legal… I mean, I'm only fifteen…" he stammered out.

"Wooow, Uncle Might…" Melissa interjected, covering her suddenly blushing face with her hands.

"Toshi…" Dr. Shield admonished in that tone of a parent scolding their child. All Might sputtered at that and managed to cough up a spray of glowing blue blood in his astonishment.

"Oh, come on, Dave! At least you know exactly what I'm talking about!"

"I mean, yeah, but the way you said it made it sound like… something else!"

The Enforcer let out a frustrated groan at that, but directed his explanation towards Izuku.

"Look, kid… You already know I'm on borrowed time. No matter what I do, I don't have much longer as an Enforcer. This cyborg body, though… It has so much life left in it, life I can't endure as much as it can. I want to transfer this body to you so that you can live… and so that you can become the Enforcer you've always wanted to be."

As what All Might was proposing fully sunk in, Izuku could feel his hopes crumbling just as quickly as they'd been raised.

"I-I'm sorry…" he began in a truly despondent mumble. "That all sounds amazing, and it's more than I could have ever dreamed for, but… I can't have any cybernetic enhancements… I have Analog Disorder, so my body would reject them right away. I'm really sorry, but whatever small amount of time you have left is more than I'd have. It'd be better for everyone if you kept it…"

Much to his surprise, All Might responded to his refusal with a hearty laugh.

"Don't think for a moment that I didn't pay attention to what you told me on that rooftop! I'm fully aware that you have Analog Disorder, but that doesn't apply to this body. You'll be able to use it to it's full potential just like anyone else would."

"B-but… How is that possible?" Izuku replied incredulously. "No one's ever been able to design mods that can be installed on people like me! If anyone could do it, I'm sure Dr. Shield would be the one, but… How could you possibly know it will work when you're the only one who's been using it for over twenty years?"

At that retort, All Might's smile seemed only to widen further.

"The fact that I've been using this body for so long should be all the proof you need. Everyone thinks that I was born with incredible genetics that allow me to tolerate unusually high-powered cybernetics, but that couldn't be further from reality. The truth is… I also have Analog Disorder."

Izuku couldn't believe what he was hearing. The top ranked Enforcer in all of Japan… How on Earth could someone like that have Analog Disorder?! He was a full cyborg, everything aside from his brain replaced by cybernetics! Yet, gazing up into All Might's intense eyes, he somehow knew that this was a man incapable of lying about something like this.

"Th-then you did figure it out!" he said with cautious optimism, shifting his attention over towards Dr. Shield once more. "Y-you've found a way to bypass Analog Disorder! Why haven't you told anyone about it?! This has to be the greatest achievement in over a century!"

To that, the doctor merely let out a small sigh.

"Trust me, I wish it was me who figured it out, but I'm afraid I can't take credit for it."

"Wh-what? B-but I thought you were the one who built All Might's body…"

"That's what we told everyone, yes," Dr. Shield replied, looking a bit uneasy about admitting all this to a young teen boy. "But this body was built a very long time ago, long before Toshi and I were even born. I've learned a lot from studying it over the years and performing its repairs, but I'm afraid I still haven't figured out how it's able to get around the Analog Disorder problem."

"The person that created this body," All Might continued for his companion, "He held the same hope for the future of Neo Tokyo that you and I have. He wanted to bring about peace and prosperity for everyone, and all of his work towards that goal culminated in the creation of this remarkable body. This body has the ability to learn from those that use it, to adapt to anything they encounter, and take all of that data with it to the next person that uses it. With each new host, this body grows more and more versatile. It was hoped that, one day, the user of this body would fulfill the noble wish of its creator: through this one body, deliver hope for all. One For All!"

Izuku could only stare up in stunned silence as he absorbed the fantastic tale he was being told.

"One… For All..?" he repeated once it had all started to sink in. All Might's grin widened still.

"That's right, kid. But while this body can go the distance, I'm afraid my time with it is coming to a close. That's why I've been searching for a successor for years now, but none have matched up to the ideal this body's creator aspired to… until now. You may be modless, you may be a mere Enforcer fanboy, but back there, you were more heroic than any Enforcer I've ever worked with! That's why I want to pass this body on to you… If you'll accept it, that is. What do you say?"

Izuku didn't really need to consider. After all, what was the alternative? He was going to die if he didn't accept. He couldn't just lay there hooked to life support machines for the rest of his life. Besides, what better chance would he ever get to live his dream of becoming an Enforcer?

"Alright, I'll do it!" he announced, never feeling more sure of himself than he had that very instant.

"No hesitation! I expected no less from you, kid!" All Might replied with a hearty chuckle.

"Oh man, that's certainly a relief…" Melissa seemed to think aloud to herself. "For a minute there, I thought we'd done all that work for nothing."

"W-work?" Izuku repeated, thoroughly confused. This seemed to catch both adults in the room off guard as well, as they immediately froze and looked between one another in the same way two brothers would when their parents discovered something they'd surreptitiously broken. Finally, when the silent debate between the two men seemed to come to an end, Dr. Shield awkwardly cleared his throat to explain.

"Y-yes, well… Toshi was so sure you would accept his offer that we figured it would save you a lot of time and pain if we, err… went ahead and prepared you for the transplant…"

Izuku's eyes widened once more at that. They'd prepared him for… What did that even entail?! What had they done to him while he was unconscious?!

Melissa, clearly seeing that he was panicking again, seemed to decide that ripping the bandage off quick would be the easiest way to settle this matter. She retrieved a small mirror from where it was propped up on one of the other worktables and positioned it so that he could finally see himself.

Izuku wasn't sure what he'd expected, but what he saw in that mirror certainly wasn't it. His face was the same as it had always been, the top of his head was still covered in a thick blanket of green curls, but aside from that he recognized nothing about himself. His eyes held a faint green glow in the iris, and he could swear he saw an almost camera-like lens buried deep inside each pupil. His ears were gone, replaced with the smooth circular disks that protected most cybernetic audio sensors. From where his hair ended all the way down to the base of his skull, he could see exposed metal plating that usually hid and protected a cyborg's precious braincase. Where his neck should have started, he saw only a myriad of cables, wires and tubes leading to almost as many machines that were clearly what were keeping him alive. Then… Nothing. That's where he ended.

He was nothing but a head carefully propped up on a stand on Dr. Shield's worktable.