Izuku found himself slowly becoming aware of the darkness surrounding him. His vision suddenly came to, but for some reason he could tell this wasn't his eyes he was looking through, that he was experiencing someone else's memories.

There was nothing but darkness surrounding him, but when the eyes turned around, a face of red could be seen bleeding a blank void. It had reached out and grabbed his leg with a tendril of crimson, causing pain to shoot up the body he was viewing through.

'This is the dream from last night!' Izuku suddenly realized. 'I'm experiencing the First's memories! Or at least the memories of his Vestige?'

[Resistance is futile.]

The face in the void spoke out without moving its lips, yet the sound echoed out all around him. The cold, emotionless voice clashed with the pain that shot up the First's body as its feeler spread more and more. Yet he continued clutching the bright white orb in his hands no matter what.

"Don't stop now, Yoichi!" a voice suddenly shouted out. Izuku's view followed the voice, and the figure of the Third suddenly jumped in. Fa Jin was charged in his leg, and he blew away the constraints holding the First down in an explosive kick. "Remember your purpose! You need to pass it on!"

[Another pseudo-personality?]

[Unexpected, but still pointless.]

The red continued to bleed into the void, beginning to spread across the Third now. He turned back and shouted. "Keep going!"

And so, the First turned and ran into the seemingly endless void, the mysterious beings reach not far behind him. As the swarm of deadly energy approached however, a cloud of smoke covered him, and a helping hand pushed him in the right direction.

"You've got this!" the Sixth proclaimed before running out ahead of him and distracting the being. He was quickly captured as well, and the void began to bleed again.

[How many have gathered inside this power?]

[It matters not, there is nowhere for you to run here.]

A tendril of red whipped out towards the First at incredible speed but was deflected by a separate tendril of black energy. "You're going to have to try something better than that to stop us!" The Fifth shouted, deflecting a dozen different attacks as the First ran past him.

[Useless.]

The Fifth was soon ensnared, and a blood red bullet shot out towards the back of the First's head. It would have connected, had a hand not pushed him down at the last moment. "Pay attention. This foe isn't like your brother. He doesn't want you in one piece." The Fourth said.

"Right." The First agreed sadly as the two ran away, letting the larger man guide him through the danger. Eventually he was shoved out of the way by the Fourth, and he fell to the ground in pain. But the First kept running.

[What are you expecting to happen?]

[Give up, this place is one without end.]

But then a light shown on the horizon. A faded star flickering in the distance. The First began to sprint towards the shining beacon with all his remaining strength.

[Is that… a hole?]

[Is that where the power is escaping through?]

There was a surge of power from the being behind him, and the space under the First's feet seemed to collapse into a pit of red spikes. As he fell though, a hand grabbed his free one, and his fall ceased.

"You're almost there! Just a bit longer!" The Seventh, Nana, proclaimed as she flew him over the deadly trap. As they approached the light however, a mas of red formed above them. It came flying down towards them in a massive pillar.

[This power cannot be allowed to escape!]

[Begone already!]

A figure of flaming gold shot through the darkness, slamming into the pillar of red with incredible force. The Seventh looked up and smiled nostalgically at the sight. "You always had to be the flashiest one around. Isn't that right, Toshi?"

'Is that All Might?!' Izuku couldn't help but wonder from his view through the First's eyes.

As All Might's figure held back the greater attack, smaller ones began to fly out. One finally caught Nana, and the two tumbled to the ground (or whatever counted as floor in this void). The First rolled with the fall and kept running.

He was almost there. The light was right in front of him. It was… being swallowed by that thing.

The red had begun to converge around the light, swirling around it like a whirlpool. In a few more moments, his goal would be locked away forever.

[You will not be able to reach this exit in time.]

[Once completely contained, there will be plenty of time to analyze these anomalies.]

It was obvious that thing was convinced it had won. And normally it would be right to do so. The distance between the First and his goal was too far to be crossed before being consumed by its power.

But the First knew better than to give up. Especially when he still had one more ally to rely on.

As he ran forward, the all-consuming red not far behind, the familiar figure of the Second stood in front of him. The man simply raised a hand up, and the First placed the orb he was holding into it. The Second then turned towards the light and disappeared in a blur.

[What is this power?!]

[Stop!]

The red around the light shot out like spikes, and a moment later the Second flew into them, having crossed the distance in a flash. His advance was halted mere inches from the light, the orb he had held close right in front of the light.

It seemed that he had failed, but the orb in the Second's hand shone with an incredible brightness, and the light seemed to open up and form a gate to elsewhere. Through it, a young figure could be seen, obscured in shadow.

[Who is that?]

[Are they connecting with someone from outside?!]

The figure reached a hand through the hole in the light, grabbing the shining orb in the Second's hand. A second later the orb began to transition to an emerald green, and the shadows obscuring the figure disappeared, revealing-

'Me?!' Izuku saw himself through the First's eyes for a moment, before the orb fully shone green, and he found himself looking through this 'other' him now. He could see the First grinning happily at him.

"This is your power now." The First said, as his body seemed to glow a bright white. "Remember, we will be with you, so stand tall." He then disappeared in a flash of light, leaving behind a ball of white energy that flew into the emerald orb in his hand.

[No!]

[That power is not yours!]

Izuku could see through the hole that the other Holders of One for All within that being's hold had begun to glow as well. Each one flashed into a ball of light, flying free and into the orb in Izuku's hand. The gateway of light then began to shrink as he brought the glowing orb through to 'his' side. The red tried to cross over but was blocked by some invisible barrier.

[So, this power can transfer between individuals.]

[That explains why it exceeded predicted energy readings.]

He could see an emotionless face form in front of the ever-shrinking hole, staring directly at him. As the gate formed a pinpoint of light, a voice echoed around him.

[You will be an invaluable point of data, once returned to me.]

And then, there was nothing but darkness.

"Ahh!" Izuku shot up in a start, but his eyes set upon the empty void and crumbling walls of within One for All, and he let out a sigh of relief. He let his back fall backwards towards the ground as he shut his eyes again, feeling his fear from before bleed away. "Just back here again…"

He felt his back lie against the ground, but his head seemed to land on something a bit softer, supporting it off the floor gently. He didn't remember any pillows during his last visit, but the Fifth did say they were in the middle of putting the place together.

Maybe his Quirk would eventually come with his own luxurious mind palace? That would be neat.

"Feeling comfortable?"

"Yeah…" He responded with another content sigh. He suddenly froze a second later, brain catching up to his mouth.

'Wait.'

Izuku cracked an eye open to see Nana Shimura looking down at him from his position on her lap. He quickly felt his face redden but was too surprised stiff to jump away. Nana just chuckled at him, using a hand to wipe his curls aside gently.

"I'm glad we've finally got a chance to meet, Midoriya Izuku." She said with a smile.

"M-Me too!" Izuku stuttered out, not wanting to move as Nana continued to brush with his hair. With each sweep of her hands, his body slowly relaxed, loosening into her lap again. He quickly realized that he didn't seem to be having any difficulty speaking, and lifted his head up slightly to see that his body was almost entirely absent of the shadows that had obscured it before.

"You've made a lot of progress with One for All. Between that and our work speeding things up, you'll have all our Quirks in no time!" Nana said with obvious praise, patting a hand over his heart.

Izuku felt his face to continue to flush at being like a child by the woman. "But I still haven't unlocked Float yet."

"You're almost there. Don't get discouraged." She said insistently. "Float works best when you use it with your heart instead of your head. Just stop thinking and feel, and you'll be zipping around before you know it."

Izuku stared up at Nana, smiling gently down at him, and couldn't help but see another person there. He felt a tear form, and he quickly wiped it away.

"Is something wrong, Izuku?" Nana asked.

"It's nothing, you just remind me of my mom." Izuku said with embarrassment. He felt Nana jump slightly, and he continued speaking. "Sorry, it's just been a while and… I miss her. I've been trying to get a hold of this Quirk so I can save her as soon as possible. But now there's some Villain after me, and it just feels so hard, y'know?"

Nana eventually began to pet his hair again, letting out a sigh of her own. "I know that the burden of One for All feels like a lot sometimes. But you need to not take the responsibility of everything onto yourself. Even with One for All, you're still just a kid."

"Would that be why you're treating me like one right now?" Izuku said, partly-joking.

"Well, I guess it's because you remind me of my son." Nana said.

"Son?" he looked at her surprised.

"Yeah. His name is Kotaro. He'd be an adult by now though, not that I know what he's up to…"

"Did you, umm, die when he was young?" Izuku tried to ask, hoping he wasn't too insensitive.

"Yeah, I did. But there was another reason I don't know anything." Nana's eyes darkened as she appeared to lose herself in memories. "His father was killed by All for One. He was targeted because the Villain discovered I was the current holder of One for All. I feared he would do the same to our boy, so I… let him go. He was sent into the foster system under a false name so that he couldn't be discovered."

'All for One went after Heroes families? Even the worst Villains weren't suicidal enough to try something like that. Though when you're probably the strongest person in Japan, such fears are probably unwarranted.' Izuku was really glad that All Might had killed All for One before he received his Quirk. He didn't know if he could deal with the worry of a Supervillain going after his mom like they did with Nana. "I'm sorry. That must have been hard."

"Thank you Izuku. But enough about the past. You need to think about the future." Nana said, becoming more serious finally. "You saw our memories of when we tried to pass on One for All, yes?"

"Yeah. But I still have no idea what exactly happened." Izuku admitted.

"Something was invading our Quirk." Nana explained. "A similar thing happens when All for One attempts to steal us away from a host. But this was different. I think that thing was trying to keep us contained inside Toshi. It seemed to be able to tell that the Quirk was being transferred, and somehow entered it to stop us."

"And when it failed, it swore to get One for All back." Izuku finished, thinking of the blood red face that had stared at him through the light. "That's why you're trying to push me to get stronger as fast as possible."

"Yes. Each of us Vestiges have our theories about what this villain is, but what we all can agree on is that they're incredibly old and dangerous. The ones who were in its grip longer say they saw flashes of memory from it, but it was just bits and pieces. It somehow took every person with a Quirk on the planet and is keeping them contained who knows where. We have no idea how they're going to try to get you, so you have to be prepared."

"Is that really all you can give me? There's got to be something more you can show me! Some hint about where everyone is!" Izuku insisted. He needed to find a way to save everyone. He was convinced there was a lead here. There had to be more!

"I'm sorry Izuku. All you can do for now is get stronger and hope that you can beat this Villain once they find you." Nana said sadly, and the realm of One for All began to darken.

Izuku closed his eyes in frustration, trying to let Nana's hand in his hair ease his worry as the darkness overcame him and he slowly awoke.

"Hey, Izuku! Wake up!"

Melissa's voice came from beside him, and Izuku rubbed his eyes open. He looked to his right and found himself sitting next to Melissa. A glance to his left revealed a window showing nothing but clouds.

'Oh right. We were on our way to I-Island when I fell asleep.' He let put a yawn as he turned back to Melissa, who was looking at him expectantly. He could see Mr. Oguro and Nezu also staring from the seats across the aisle, while Eri was sleeping in her seat along with Katsuma and the rest of the kids in the aisles ahead of him. Ms. Kagome and the other help from U.A. were sleeping nearby too, likely tired from getting all the children finally comfortable.

There was silence for a while, until he finally spoke up. "Is there a reason you all are staring at me?"

"We weren't sure if you were okay." Melissa answered, putting a hand on his arm. "You were muttering a bunch in your sleep. You looked like you were in pain. But then you started floating in your seat, and you even started crying for a bit!"

"I was floating?" He quickly asked.

"Of course that's the first thing you point out." Melissa sighed in exasperation.

"Sorry!" He apologized. "I was meeting with Nana inside One for All. It must have activated her Quirk subconsciously while we talked."

He'd have to test more once they got to I-Island and see if he'd gained any more control of it while awake.

"Something tells me a lot more happened while you were asleep. Care filling the rest of us in?" Mr. Oguro asked.

"Alright, but it's a bit crazy…"

He filled them in on what he had seen in his dream. Of the flashback of One for All being transferred, and then of his discussion with Nana. It honestly seemed insane when he explained it all at once. He was fortunate the three were so willing to believe him, because he honestly might not have himself.

"So, you saw the perpetrator of the Rapture?" Nezu questioned.

"I think? Honestly, I don't even know what they are. They had no features and spoke in an almost artificial voice. It could have been some Quirk effect, or maybe even a Vestige from an even stronger Quirk." Izuku theorized.

"That's great and all, but does any of it actually help us solve the Rapture?" Mr. Oguro asked.

"Maybe not directly, but we have gotten a step closer." Nezu assured. "With Izuku able to now freely converse with the Vestiges in his sleep, he might be able to quiz some of the more knowledgeable ones. Nana said that some of them saw glimpses of its memories, yes?"

"That's right." Izuku confirmed.

"Then we will have to rely on that for now. I'm sure once we put together our work with the I-Island team, the pieces of the puzzle will begin to fit together." Nezu explained. "In other news, I believe you finally caught a glimpse of the Second's Quirk in action. While it being in a dream may muddy perfect analysis, we can likely trust it is functionally similar, considering the other Vestiges used identical powers to those that Izuku can now wield."

"Seems logical. So, what exactly could he do, kid?" Mr. Oguro asked, as all three looked back to him again.

"I think he was like you, Mr. Oguro. Or at least, like you used to be." Izuku began to explain. He reran the memory of the Second in action. "He just suddenly disappeared, and then reappeared somewhere else. It appeared to be some sort of speed Quirk, judging by the fact that he ran into the spikes. But I don't see why it could potentially kill me if I used it. Maybe he was worried I'd activate it at the wrong time and fly into a wall or something?"

"Maybe. But speed Quirks can be complicated. I doubt it's something as simple as just 'go fast' though. Even a Quirk like Overclock had hard limits that could be detrimental to your health if used improperly." Mr. Oguro explained.

"Really?" He turned to Mr. Oguro, beginning an excited ramble. "I always figured there was some hard limit to your Quirk, but since most of your Hero work wasn't out in the open there wasn't too much footage for me to analyze. But with a name like Overclock, I assume it worked by running your body faster than it could usually function at. By that logic, you probably had to stop using it frequently in order to recover. That explains why you're often seen pausing in your attacks in the few videos I've seen, instead of just blitzing all nearby enemies."

Mr. Oguro stared at him for a few moments, opening and closing his mouth a couple times like a fish. He eventually just shook his head and shrugged in amusement.

"You pretty much hit the nail on the head. To be specific though, it worked by stimulating the brain faster than usual, allowing me to think and act at a much faster speed. It was like seeing everything in slow motion while I moved the same speed. The main issue though was oxygen. Moving the body so fast used it up faster than usual, meaning I'd have to literally take a breath after every couple of seconds of using it. There's also the issue of overheating. Prolonged usage of the Quirk made the brain overworked, resulting in a rising temperature that could eventually turn into a fever."

"The name Overclock is surprisingly apt then, huh?" Melissa noted. "Overclocking is the ability of a computer to run it's processor past the recommended speed for greater results. In this case, the 'processor' is your brain, and the 'computer' is the rest of your body."

"Yeah. While I sold myself as a speedster, the acceleration of brainpower was closer to a mental Quirk. I wasn't able to maintain speed for long distances as well as someone like Ingenium. But when it came to momentary bursts of action, I was the king." Mr. Oguro said.

"Wow! I can't believe I never theorized that." Izuku exclaimed, before putting a hand to his chin. "I don't know if the Second's Quirk was like that though. He failed to dodge that thing's attack at the end. He was going so fast that he seemed unable to react to them. Some ability that increases speed without enhancing your reaction time, maybe? There's got to be something more to it…"

"At least we have a general idea of what to train for now. Bet you're pretty glad you brought me along now, huh?" Mr. Oguro let out a laugh before being shushed by Melissa, not wishing to disturb the sleeping children and workers. He let out a yawn and leaned his chair back. "Well, it's not like we can train One for All here anyways. Let's get some shut eye and focus on it once we get to I-Island in a couple hours."

Izuku reached into the bag under his feet, pulling out a notebook. "I don't think I can get any more sleep after all of that. I think I'll do some brainstorming about One for All's Quirks for a while."

"An excellent idea, Midoriya! Be sure to show me the results once your done. I'm interested in seeing your improvements in multi-Quirk combat." Nezu said as Mr. Oguro and Melissa put their seats back and began to fall asleep.

Flipping the notebook over to the Second's entry, Izuku began to jot down as much as he could remember from his dream of it's use. Once he was done, he flipped forward to the section titled 'Quirk Combinations and Actions'. While he may not be able to understand how the Second's power worked, he understood it's effect, allonging for initial planning of new moves.

He felt himself slowly forgetting about the fear and stress from before, melting away into the comfortable familiarity of Quirk analysis. It was amazing how much more fun it was to do when it was for your own Quirk. He couldn't wait to get into one of I-Islands state of the art training rooms and put his ideas to the test!

He tried not to think about the fact that if they weren't good enough, the fate of the world may be doomed…

He also failed to notice the smirk that appeared on the supposedly sleeping Kagome's face as he had been talking earlier.

[We'll be arriving tomorrow. Be ready for us, as planned.]

Nine pressed send on his phone, delivering the message to his new acquaintance on I-Island.

He was happy how easy the man capitulated under his threats. Getting Kagome to supply him with those photos of that girl had been worth the risk. Samuel had quickly agreed to help them infiltrate I-Island, and he didn't even question what they were planning to do.

Maybe he figured that his crew wished to do whatever his previous contacts had been planning. Not that he would know what that was. The message on the Doctors terminal was rather vague about what they had been after, only that they planned to steal a piece of equipment created by David Shield.

It didn't matter to him. No fancy gadget would ever be equal to his power once he gets his hand on that boys Quirk.

"How goes the preparations?" Nine asked, looking up at the Purple Oni toiling at a control panel nearby.

The four of them were currently on a rather fancy Yacht that had been docked at a nearby harbor. They needed to find a method of reaching I-Island, and Dragon of all people had recommended this vessel.

"Should be ready to go any moment now." Dragon said, pressing a few more buttons. He let out a laugh as the engines blared to life. "Man, technology is amazing. These things are so advanced nowadays a blind man could probably pilot it successfully."

"How exactly did you know about this boat anyways, Boss?" Komodo asked curiously.

"I worked security on this thing for some bigheaded HPSC official. He'd throw parties on the down-low here all the time with a bunch of Heroes in order to cozy up to them. Of course, the bastard thought my muscles were some Quirk, and he fired me and ruined my chances of employment everywhere else for 'lying to his face' about my talents when he discovered otherwise." Dragon made a face. "He's the asshole who assumed I had a Quirk in the first place, and I did a perfectly fine job without one anyways. I swiped a secret copy of the keys for his ride when I left and planned to steal it out from under him once I got big enough as revenge."

"So that's what happened." Chameleon said quietly, as they turned to look out the window in disgust. "This society sure loves to judge outliers. We're more than just 'Quirkless' or 'freaks'. Yet even in the world of the abnormal, they find a way to put us down."

Nine nodded silently as he listened to his followers' complaints. He had initially written them off as mindless brutes, easy to use and then throw away. But they too saw the problems with the world they lived in, and wished to use their power to reshape it as their own.

"He feared you because you couldn't be controlled." He said, and Dragon turned to look at him. "He was a man who used his control over the strong to lift himself over them. He ruined you because your strength was outside his ability to manipulate. In a sane world, you would have been the one to command him."

The others nodded in agreement at his words.

"That's right! You could probably have kicked that guy's ass back then. It was only because he sucked up to those Heroes that he had any leg to stand on!" Komodo said.

"And now that we have more power, we can change the world to the way we want it." Chameleon agreed.

"You guys are right! Let's show everyone why they should fear the Purple Oni's!" Dragon shouted, pushing a lever forward.

The Yacht lurched, beginning to speed forward out of the docks and into the Pacific blue. As it bounced along the waves, Nine sat back in the captains chair, a smirk hidden by his mask. His goal was back in reach.

He may have been interrupted the first time by that meddlesome Hero-in-training, but he won't be stopped this time. His mistake was getting distracted by that fascinating power of his and attempting to take it, but now he knew that was impossible.

That Quirk was too strong. It was even stronger than the Quirk he now held, of the infamous All for One.

And if said power can't be made his, then it couldn't be permitted to exist. Only he may be king of the new world.

Any other pretenders to the throne must die.

Next Chapter: Learning and Landing