Chapter Five: A strange dream

The moon was slowly replacing the sun in the sky, yet the Nimbus still flew through the sky. "Hey, how far out are we?" Toshinori asked Bulma, who was still comfortably sitting in his lap, enjoying the prolonged moment greatly. She had nearly fallen asleep on top of him, so she seemed rather annoyed to have been snapped out of her groggy state.

She took the Radar out of her satchel once more and used it to triangulate their location relative to the next Dragon Ball. "We're only seven miles out. Can we call it a day?" Bulma asked, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

"I'm getting pretty tired too," Inko agreed, yawning afterwards. Toshinori feared it was spreading, and he too involuntarily yawned. Goku, however, seemed oddly unaffected, looking at them as if they were weird.

As if listening to Inko's words, the Nimbus began to descend from the rest of the clouds. Bulma sleepily grinned, falling backwards onto Toshinori's chest out of exhaustion. Toshinori felt his face flush red, though he didn't want to be rude and push her off. Besides, it was kind of nice, even if he wouldn't admit it.

Goku looked back, his face lit by the moon. He seemed rather confused as to why Bulma was snuggling up to him, as was Toshinori, though neither said anything. Setting Bulma off on a rant was not the best idea.

The Nimbus came to a stop a foot above the ground in the midst of a clearing. There wasn't a road in sight. Toshinori was thankful the apparently physic Nimbus could tell they didn't want any distractions.

Bulma lazily took out the capsule housing the home they were using, handing it to Toshinori. He pressed the button and lightly tossed it a couple hundred feet away. The group walked into the home as the Nimbus returned to the sky.

Goku didn't even wait to get to any piece of furniture in the house. He fell asleep on the rug in front of the couch, his butt sticking up in the air as he begun to snore.

Inko got to her bed, but she didn't even bother with pulling the blanket over herself. She didn't snore, though her breathing could be faintly heard underneath Goku's monotonous snoring.

Toshinori didn't feel like sleeping on the couch, so he plopped down onto the other bed in the room. "Hey, that's mine..." Bulma moaned, though she didn't try to get him to move. "Fine, we can share," she sleepily decided. Toshinori didn't feel like arguing otherwise, so he lazily rolled to the other side of the king sized bed.

He didn't even know why he was so tired. Maybe part of it was because of all the travelling they had been doing, and the sparring match had no doubt taken a lot out of him as well.

Toshinori didn't even notice Bulma get into the bed, he was too far gone to pick up on it.

As fast as he had fallen asleep, Toshinori woke up. He was in a world devoid of any light, save for the eight lights hanging high in the sky, which was as black as space. The lights, much resembling distant stars, were each their own color.

The first was a pure white, shining dimly. It seemed far away, almost too far to see. Not too far away was a blue star, slightly larger and brighter than the first. It seemed to be closer than the prior.

Another star looked to be inches away from the second. This one was red, and it seemed to pulse with an odd energy.

The fourth star had more distance between it and the purple than all the previous ones before. It was green, and it was easily twice as large as the previous. There was a certain calmness in it that the others lacked.

Next was a fiery orange ball. Strange tendrils seemed to come out from the surface of the ball. Toshinori couldn't tell if he trusted them or not.

After that was a purple star, one that emitted a mist that clouded the shine that came from it. It clearly showed the gradual increase in size from the first to this one, which should be the sixth.

The next was pink. There was a certain comfort Toshinori felt in the relaxed yet powerful presence the star had. He felt a great familiarity with it, but Toshinori couldn't figure out why.

Then there was the eighth of them. It was the same color as Toshinori's hair. The power radiating off of it was overwhelming, almost uncontrollable. The size of the star encompassed all it's companions at least. There was a gravitational pull coming from it, though it was a light one.

"What is this?" Toshinori said, his thoughts becoming words that echoed throughout the surprisingly dark void. "Better yet, how did I get here?"

As if to answer, the orange star pulsed with energy, becoming blindingly bright. Toshinori shielded his eyes. "Hey, kid," came a deep, almost intimidating voice. Toshinori uncovered his eyes, not recognizing the owner of the voice.

He was a tall, well built man. He lacked any hair on his head, which had a pair of goggles strapped on, sitting on his forehead. The man wore a biker jacket, one that hung tightly to his shoulders. "I'll admit, I'm surprised," he said, smirking as he eyed up Toshinori. "One for All's been clocking in some overtime hours! This kinda improvement is unheard of!"

Toshinori quirked an eyebrow, still trying to figure out what was happening. Those stars had to represent the users of One for All, one for each of the eight, himself included. So this guy was the fifth? That would make him the one who taught Nana's teacher.

"I'm the only one of us who can get through to you, but still! I didn't think I'd be talkin' to anyone for at least another go around!" the man exclaimed. He pointed at himself with his thumb, grinning. "The name's Daigoro Banjo!"

Daigoro punched him on the arm, laughing. "Kid, if One for All's already letting some of us talk to you, I'd expect some big things to come," he said, his voice echoing in the vast emptiness. "Maybe you'll even start getting our old Quirks!"

"Wait, what?"

"No time to explain!" Daigoro said, "Looks like you're about to wake up!"

Everyone could see that Toshinori seemed rather disappointed when he woke up. Something seemed to be eating at his insides, even as he took a bite out of a sandwich he had made for himself. "Is something wrong?" Inko asked, beating Goku to the question.

"No, I'm fine," Toshinori said, his eyes not leaving his plate as he grumpily took another bite. "Just still a little tired," he added, though Goku didn't believe, and he was pretty sure the others didn't either.

"Level with us," Bulma said from the couch. "You don't even look tired, so what's up?"

Toshinori sighed. "I can't exactly say everything, but I had a weird dream, and now I'm wondering what could've been," he answered, looking out the window to the open field around the house. "Can we just get a move on soon? I wanna find this next Dragon Ball soon."

"As soon as you lose your attitude," Bulma snapped back, not budging an inch. "I'm not dealing with your grouchy ass."

Toshinori took a deep breath, then finishing the sandwich. "Okay, fine. I'm calm, can we go now?" Toshinori asked once more, standing up before receiving an answer. Bulma looked at him, analyzing every muscle in his face for any hint of anger.

"I guess we should get started," Bulma decided after some inward debate. She stood up, walked over to the door, and left them immediately.

Inko sighed. "She'll leave if we don't hurry."

"We'd be able to keep up either way," Toshinori said, looking at the now closed door.

"I wanna finish my food first!" Goku chirped in between mouth fulls of food. The rate at which he ate was gonna empty out the pantry before too long. Both Toshinori and Inko could only watch in awe as he practically inhaled the food before him like a vacuum cleaner, only stopping when there was none left to be eaten.

"Okay, we better get going now if we're gonna find Bulma before she gets into town," Inko said, approaching the door. Toshinori and Goku followed behind, walking out and being met with the tranquil environment around them.

Taking initiative, Toshinori cupped his hands around his mouth. "Nimbus!" he shouted, his voice causing a few birds to fly out of a nearby tree. Sure enough, the cloud was once more in front of them, and they mounted it as they had the day prior.

"Okay, if I remember correctly the town's that way," Inko said, pointing towards the east.

"We should stick to the road, we'll be able to find Bulma easier that way," Toshinori added.

"She'll be in that same thing as yesterday, right?" Goku asked, to which Inko nodded with a soft smile. "Alright, let's get going then!" he exclaimed.

The Nimbus rocketed forward, flying high above the trees. The road below became much smaller, the cars on it looking like their toy counterparts, the details tiny yet noticable from the height they were at.

Toshinori's thoughts weren't on the cars below, but rather the dream he had experienced in the night. That Daigoro guy was a past user of One for All, and he had visited him from beyond the grave somehow. Nana had never mentioned anything like that before as far as he could remember.

Was it purely a result of the strength One for All had gained during the transference, or was it something that had been growing since the dawn of the Quirk?

Speaking of, Daigoro had mentioned the possibility of using his Quirk one day. How would that even be possible? The body was only built for one Quirk, with a few rare exceptions, such as the past users of One for All, but in those instances the users had possessed Quirks before they had gotten One for All.

Gaining a Quirk without being born with it was already bordering on impossible, and gaining multiple Quirks from one was quite literally unheard of.

Then again, One for All wasn't a single Quirk. The first user had a hidden Quirk until the moment he gained another, and those two had merged. The stockpiling power he gained could've meant the Quirk stored more than just physical strength. What if it had stored the Quirks of the past users as well?

From the second all the way to Nana, all of their powers could be inside of him, just waiting to be unleashed. The idea was frightening, truthfully speaking. All that power shouldn't be in the hands of one teenager. Could he handle all of that? He could barely deal with the base One for All power, let alone potentially six other Quirks.

"You're making that face again," Inko commented. "Something's gotta be wrong."

Toshinori sighed. "Look, if it was something I was able to tell you guys, I would. Maybe when I get to know you all better I can tell you, but for now it's gotta be private."

"Oh," Inko said, looking dejected. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make you upset," she apologized, melting Toshinori's heart.

"No, no!" Toshinori sputtered, "It's fine, it's just that what's on my mind is very secret."

Inko gasped. "You're a spy!" she exclaimed, "What kind of info are you trying to get from us!?"

Toshinori laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. "I wish it were that simple," he said, looking at the rising sun in the distance. "It's about my Quirk. It's... well, I guess you could say it's unique."

"What's a Quirk?" Goku asked, resigning from his duty of car watching. He turned to look at Toshinori and Inko, who both seemed very surprised.

"You're joking, right?" Toshinori asked, but he then saw the confused look on Goku's round face. "Oh, wow, you're completely serious. Okay, well it's probably good to start from the beginning."

Toshinori recalled the lesson Nana had told him. It had what was taught in classes worldwide, and a bit more.

"A long time ago, there was a baby born with supernatural power. He glowed with the brightness of the sun. He was the first of many, and at first the different were treated worse because of their differences from regular people. As the powers, Quirks, began to spread across the world, one boy was born here in Japan with a special Quirk unlike anything before or since."

"Wait, this isn't the normal story," Inko butted in, realizing Toshinori had deviated from public knowledge. Toshinori probably shouldn't be saying what he was, but he knew Goku could handle himself, and neither of them would let anything happen to Inko.

"There are some things not everyone knows," Toshinori responded, now gaining Inko's full attention as well.

"Okay, so there was a special boy?" Goku prompted.

"Right," Toshinori said, his expression turning grim. "This boy had the ability to steal other people's Quirks, and either give them to another or to keep it for himself. Naturally, this went to his head, and he soon wished to have power untold," Toshinori said, his mind filled with what Nana had said of One for All's nemesis. He was a monster, one almost as old as the first Quirk.

"He was put on a pedestal by his parents, who valued ability over all else, which was only strengthened when his younger brother was diagnosed as Quirkless," Toshinori explained. "The older of the two grew up practically raising the younger, and one day, he took pity on his Quirkless brother, giving him a Quirk, even though it was useless."

Toshinori grinned, thinking of how one mistake was going to cost the villainous All for One his life someday soon.

"But due to a mistake common in tests for Quirks at the time, the younger brother was misdiagnosed. He had a power he otherwise never would've learned of, which combined with the gifted ability. Those two would be two sides of a war that would last centuries, one that lurked in the shadows. All the while, Quirks would grow and evolve to what they are now, superpowers both great and small."

Inko looked at Toshinori with what could only be described as a mix of skepticism and awe. She was no doubt wondering how Toshinori could know so much that the public did not. Even then, Inko hadn't heard the whole story.