"I'm afraid I cannot tell you much about how Mugen gained a persona." Yu stated, a serious expression upon his face: "The situation in which you find yourself is beyond me. However, I will grant you a power that may help you. The persona I first awakened to: Izanagi. The other wielders will have more to offer you, but they are too deep within One for All for you to reach at this moment." Izuku's vision darkened at the edges, his connection to the world fading, returning him to his own.

The president of the hero commission scanned through the page, another dead end. The lack of evidence on the world described in the reports made it hard to find anything concrete on the hero in training. She was hardly someone to give up easily, so, for the last 3 hours, she had poured over every report on the teen, but found nothing.

"Perhaps I would be able to help with that." The woman spun around to face the voice, coming eye to eye with a 10 meter long blue and gold snake, it's cobalt eyes staring into her soul.

"What the hell are you!"

"I am known by many things, the being of a thousand forms, the faceless one, the moon howler, though in this form you may call me Apophis. I believe I have a solution to the wall you face with this Midoriya boy. You will not find anything within his past, no, you must look to his future. When my plans come to fruition, a great villain will be killed by his hand, all you need do is give him the chance to continue on despite his crime, at a cost of course."

"Joining us... Thank you for your insight Apophis, I believe the HSPC will get along greatly with you."

Apophis re-appeared within All for One, he wasn't gone long, the pathetic human likely didn't even notice his absence. He looked into the black and red sky, addressing someone who was not there: "Soon, Philemon. Your champion will fall to the flawed rulers of this world and when he does, our wager will finally come to an end."

Apophis chuckled, before developing into maniacal laughter, his form melting and changing, revealing the true creature within, the ancient eldritch monster. Nyarlathotep smiled to himself, the wild card had felled his previous attempt to crush humanity, he would not allow that to happen again.

"So you met the first wielder?" A nod. "And he told you All for One's name?" Another nod. "And that name is the same as the villain who attacked the USJ." A final nod. Toshinori slumped back in his chair within the principal's office.

"That confirms our suspicions then, All for One, or rather Mugen Narukami, is alive, and is the cause of the shadows and personas appearing in this world." Nezu took a sip of his third cup of tea, turning to face Midoriya. "Did the first wielder mention anything else of importance."

"Well, sort of. He did mention that if the man had awakened his persona in the same way Yu did, then it wasn't really normal. You shouldn't really be able to accept your shadow with just a mental quirk, or there would be hundreds of reports about that kind of thing. And the moment the bridge between here and the sea was opened they would all have gained personas."

"I see, so something about All for One's awakening was unnatural, would anything be capable of such a thing Midoriya."

"The only beings that can manipulate cognition like that are all dead to my knowledge, but I suppose it's possible."

"Indeed, it is." A blinding flash of light filled the room the three men sat in, when it faded, Lavenza stood within the room. "I cannot say much, but all you need know is an old cognition has reappeared, one deeply linked with humanity. I am forbid from telling you anything that will grant you an advantage, just know that this is a threat the likes of which the world of heroes has never seen before." Lavenza vanished, leaving the heroes within the room to contemplate her ominous warning.

Izuku was glad to be back within the classroom, his life had felt far to hectic with the ancient villains and ghosts living in his head. That was, until he remembered he went to a hero school: "The UA sports festival is in 2 weeks, it's your chance to show heroes why they should consider you for your internships, so make sure you're prepared." Aizawa's words caused the class a great deal of excitement. It was understandable, it wasn't every day you got to appear on the most watched television program of all time. "Quiet! Because of this, training will be the main focus for the next two weeks. You have the rest of home-room to figure out what you want to focus on."

As the class began to converse about how to train, Shōta approached Izuku's desk. "Problem child." The man reached into his pocket, placing a flask on the green eyed boys desk: "You look tired." The gruff man walked away from the stunned teen. Izuku had known Aizawa for a year, and giving away coffee wasn't something he ever did. Meaning, Izuku had somehow pleased the man, or he was about to get drugged. Oh well, only one way to find out.

As it turned out, he hadn't been drugged, at least, he'd felt fine over the last 2 weeks. He finished pulling his sports uniform over his head, turning around as a voice addressed him: "Midoriya." Todoroki approached, a pensive expression upon his face. "Your one of the strongest members of our class. But objectively, I think I'm stronger than you. So don't hold back against me." The two teenagers were interrupted by a voice ringing from the intercom within the changing room.

"Will class 1-A please make their way to the field. That's class 1-A of the hero course."

The light of the midday sun blinded Izuku as he and 1-A exited the tunnel, the giant crowd around them cheering as Present Mic introduced them. The other classes exited in alphabetical order, Mic's introductions getting less enthusiastic as he got further away from the hero course.

The classes gathered round the podium at the centre of the field, from behind which, Midnight appeared. Izuku chose to ignore the rather inappropriate comments coming from the crowd, instead focusing on the hero's words.

"Welcome, everyone, to the first day of the annual UA sports festival! I'm sure your all excited, but first here's the vice-principal to make a speech!"

...Izuku really hated Nezu.

Authors notes:

A bit shorter than the other chapters, but we're past the parts that I've had in my head for a while. So, in order to make sure I don't run out of ideas, I'm writing a second fic at the same time as this one. Which might be a terrible strategy but it'll probably be fine.

I'll still update this as well though, so if your enjoying this (so if you don't exist) there'll still be more.