AN: Thanks for the reviews everyone! Hopefully your questions will be answered in this chapter…

DestructionDragon360 - The idea just came to me when I was working on a different story, and now every time I have hero Toga, or Toga redemption she collects plushies. I'm actually hoping more people pick up the idea, eventually!

InfinityMask - the idea of late blooming quirks is a piece of fanon I have no qualms incorporating into my work, because it makes more sense than "You get a quirk at 4-5 or you're quirkless"

Fencer29 - Gran Torino as a vestige would be scary!

"Ow!" Izuku yelped in surprise.

"Serves you right!" the voice of Second responded to him.

Hearing Second's voice, Izuku's eyes went wide as he sat upright and took in his surroundings. He was in the vestige realm again. Or at least, what he thought was the vestige realm, considering its appearance had changed radically from the last time he was there.

Looking around, Izuku saw that he was in what appeared to be some sort of fallen structure with no roof. The slight indentations and slopes in the four walls indicated that it should go higher. However, when he gazed upwards, it appeared that parts of the building were just missing, fading into nothingness and revealing the sea of stars that were a familiar sight whenever he was pulled into the vestige realm.

He began speculating as to what he was seeing until he heard an annoyed cough, returning his attention to the figure standing in front of him.

"Which Second are you? Are you the one from All Might's copy of One For All, or-"

"Or am I the one that sent you and the other Ninth back? Of course, I'm the one that sent the two of you back!" Second looked around. "Took you long enough to show up. This place is a mess though."

Excitement brightened Izuku's eyes as he thought about the implications. "That means you came back with us? Where are the others? What about the vestiges from Ochako-"

"Slow down kid!"

He crossed his arms and smugly grinned at Izuku. "Of course, my quirk would send us back as well. I just didn't want to get your hopes up in case something went wrong."

"Went… wrong?" Izuku slowly repeated the words, his eyebrows knitted as he tried to work out what he was saying.

The pale form of Yoichi Shigaraki walked out of a doorway. "When One For All was transferred to you, it finally achieved a critical mass of sorts, undergoing an awakening. That's why we were able to interact with you more directly than we were able to interact with past holders. It's also what allowed you to use the quirks from the previous holders. That part you knew already."

Yoichi gestured to Second. "However, what we didn't know was how this new form of One For All would interact with Second's quirk - we could merely speculate. Due to the risks involved, we had hoped to never test what would happen."

"But you forced my hand," Second candidly remarked, "it was either forced quirk activation or goodbye One For All, bad guys win."

Izuku blushed. "S-Sorry." He instinctively rubbed the back of his head as he processed the implications of what the ancient first holder said. "But the fact that you're here means that it worked?"

"Yes, this was the best case scenario."

"Only one problem though," Second chimed in, "I sent you back far enough that neither of you had One For All yet. Since there wasn't any power for us to merge with, we ended up going dormant."

"That was probably for the best," Yoichi interjected. "If your younger bodies suddenly had the full power of One For All forced into them, that could have caused lasting or even permanent damage to the two of you."

Second glared at Yoichi before he continued. "But now that Eight has finally transferred it to you, that means we could finally wake up. So, some of us are back."

Izuku furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you mean by some?"

Yoichi continued. "Your brush with death caused a rather unexpected awakening within One For All, further changing its nature. And then there was the dual-activation of Second's quirk across both of your timelines. Combined, those two factors caused both copies of One For All to fuse together, forming a single quirk shared between the two of you."

"Which means without the two of you, everything's incomplete." Second waved his hand around, indicating the state of the vestige realm. "I am awake because it was my forced quirk activation that kicked off this chain of events. Meanwhile, ol' Yoichi here is essentially the living embodiment of One For All, so that's why he's here, but nobody else is. So I'm going to ask you again, where's the other Ninth? Where the hell is Uraraka?"

Izuku's brain froze as he tried to process this new information. "W-we agreed to try sharing One For All. Neither of us wanted to claim it for ourselves, and All Might didn't want to give it to just one of us. So he came up with a plan: I would be the one to hold OFA until I could talk to you, and then we were going to see if you would agree to us passing it back and forth?"

"Well, that plan sounds terrible," Yoichi frankly said, causing Izuku to wince. "One For All wouldn't work like that. Especially after it was passed to the two of you and awakened to its full potential."

"Oh." Izuku's face fell. "We knew it was a long shot, but still-"

"Lucky for you, there's a better option," Second cut him off again.

Izuku stared at the two, trying to puzzle out the fundamental piece of information he was missing. "You said that One For All is incomplete, but how can we complete it? Based on what you said, Ochako has the other half, but without a copy of One For All to merge with, it will remain dormant. And there's only the single copy All Might had, which is powering this part. If I have it, how can Ochako also have it? Wouldn't that just leave us in the same situation, where you would go dormant again and Ochako would have an incomplete half?"

"Simple, you pass your copy to her," Second stated matter-of-factly.

Izuku froze. "H-How would that help?"

"You misunderstand," Yoichi gently explained. "Between the two of you, there is only one copy of One For All. The best way to put what happened into words is to say the container has changed. As long as you share One For All with Uraraka, it will not leave you. Instead, it will merely reignite the quirk that lies dormant within her, and this—" Yoichi swept his hand, emphasizing the entirety of the vestige realm. "—will once again be complete."

Izuku stood there in stunned silence.

Second spoke again, "Thanks to me, the rules have changed. You're welcome."

Yoichi smiled. "While I wouldn't put it as tactlessly as Second, he is right. This raises many new questions, many of which we don't have answers for, but fundamentally, One For All in its current state will not work properly without both of you."

Izuku's brain continued to freeze up. "What? Really?"

Yoichi nodded. "Yes. I only had a brief moment to consult with the other version of myself before Second activated his quirk and sent us all back. But I am confident it will work. We just need you to transfer One For All to her."

Izuku felt a wave of relief wash over him. "S-So all of the rough emotions we've been dealing with over the past ten months…"

"Sorry kid. If we could have told you, we would have."

"It'll be ok now." Yoichi kneeled down next to Izuku with a small smile on his face. "We will speak again once the other Ninth has awoken."

Izuku watched as Yoichi reached out and touched his forehead with his hand. The vestige realm was yanked from under him as he fell through the sea of stars and back into reality. He awoke with a jolt. His chest heaved as he took the moment to realize he was sitting in his bedroom.

Ochako woke up to the annoying sound of her phone ringing. Drowsily she rubbed her eyes and tiredly glanced at her phone to see Izuku calling. Groaning, she picked up the phone, nearly hitting her arm in her stupor.

"Izuku I swear if-"

"Ochako! We can both have One For All!"

Ochako bolted upright, suddenly wide awake. "Wait, what?"

"I was pulled into the vestige realm last night! Yoichi and Second were both there, and they explained how they came back with us!"

"That means we've had One For All this whole time? But why couldn't we use it then?"

"Because we went back to before the time we received it. Yoichi told me that was probably for the best, suddenly forcing that power into our younger bodies would have been bad."

Ochako remembered the original warning All Might had given her when she had begun her training for the first time and shuddered. "Okay, so it operates by the same rules as we do. But you needed All Might's copy of OFA to restart yours! If you transfer it to me, you would lose it!"

"So here's where it gets tricky. Whatever Second did, it merged our copies of One For All."

Ochako had to be dreaming. She had to be, right? They were sharing a merged copy of One For All? Was she really that upset over Izuku holding OFA?

Only one way to find out. She put her phone down and pinched herself, hard.

Nope. She was awake, and this was real. And this wasn't some dream.

She quickly picked up the phone again. "How?!"

"Yoichi has a couple of theories, but even he isn't entirely sure. But that's not what matters! What matters is if I give you One For All, I don't have to give it up!"

Ochako paused, trying to process the implications of Izuku's words. They could share One For All.

"Are you absolutely sure?"

Izuku was silent for a moment, and Ochako felt a weight settling in her chest. She hated how, even now, she had trouble completely trusting him. She wondered if she would ever be able to control that uneasiness. "Ochako, if this doesn't work, it's because Yoichi was wrong. Even if it turns out that he is, I promise I won't regret what happens."

Ochako rubbed her eyes. Izuku believed in the inhabitants of One For All, so she should too. With a deep breath, she took the leap of faith. She wanted to believe Izuku, so she would, and she felt the weight leave her as a smile spread across her face.

"Okay then, I trust you. So what do we need to do?"

"According to Yoichi, I just need to attempt to transfer OFA to you? Yoichi believes that instead of transferring all of its power, it will simply re-ignite the copy that came back with you, and then we will be sharing our merged copy of the quirk."

"Did he explain what it means for us to share it?"

"No." Izuku's voice fell slightly. "I think even he doesn't know all of the details until we actually make it happen."

"Well, I guess we shouldn't keep them waiting."

"While everyone's still asleep, I'll take a vial of blood with Himiko's equipment. We can meet at our usual spot a few minutes early? Then we can initiate the transfer and talk to All Might after school."

"Sounds good! I'll see you then!"

And then the two fell asleep with giddy restlessness burning from within as they awaited the next day.

Ochako sat with Izuku and Himiko casually eating lunch when she suddenly felt a familiar feeling begin to blossom in her chest. She dropped her chopsticks in surprise as her eyes darted to the clock.

They still had twenty minutes left before the next class. Perfect.

"Ochako, is everything ok?" Izuku gently asked.

Ochako responded by grabbing Izuku's arm and physically pulling him out of his chair as she stood up.

"Roof. Now."

Enthusiasm filled Izuku's face as he understood what she meant, while their friends looked at the pair in confusion.

Izuku seemed to realize something as he turned to Himiko. "Um, sorry Himi. This is kind of private?"

"Are you finally asking him out?" Himiko asked eagerly, which caused both students to blush.

"N-No! It's actually about quirks! I promise we'll be right back."

Ochako bobbed her head fervently. "Yes! Boring quirk talk! Back soon!" Without another word, the two practically ran out of the classroom together.

As soon as the two were out the door, Himiko looked at the others with a sly grin. "So, you don't believe a word of that, do you?"

Aika shook her head. "Nope! That was too suspicious to just be something quirk related!"

"So, we're going to go listen in, right?"

"I'm in, Kyoka?"

Kyoka took a moment to recover from the suddenness of the two bolting off before she looked between the other two girls. "Catching them in the act? Of course, I'm in!"

"Aren't you three being a little nosy?" Hikari accusingly asked, stabbing a piece of food as he shot them a pointed stare. "Those two have their own thing going on. I'm sure they'll tell us when they're ready."

Himiko stuck her tongue out at the boy. "Nope! Where's the fun in that? Besides, I've claimed big sister privileges. This is exactly the kind of thing I need to be doing."

That earned a giggle out of Aika while Hikari rolled his eyes. "Fine then, you three have fun. I'm just going to sit here and say I told you so when you get back."

The three girls got up and went to the door, quietly opening it. Himiko peeked her head out and peered down the hallway. Confident that the coast was clear, they carefully snuck down the hallway and headed towards the stairwell.

After reaching the roof, they made sure that nobody was coming up the stairwell along with double-checking that the door was closed. Certain that they weren't being followed by a concerned student or teacher, Ochako finally held up her hand.

The pads of her fingers started glowing pink, the light increasing in intensity until sparks of pink lightning started dancing between the five pads. A moment later the lightning expanded outward, racing across her hand and down her forearm, leaving her arm bathed in a pale pink light. Her face lit up at the sight.

"Gravity Hammer," she teased with a proud smirk, "because one of us has to be original with our move names."

Izuku stared in awe. "It really suits you."

"Was Yoichi right? Do you still have One For All?"

Izuku was so caught up that he didn't examine himself. He turned his thoughts inward and focused on himself. Immediately he felt the familiar warmth that he had regained yesterday. "Yes!" he excitedly declared. "I-I still have it!"

"Show me!"

Raising his hand, Izuku channeled the energy of One For All, wrapping his fist in a familiar green glow. The two looked at their glowing fists, then at each other, their smiles growing even wider by the second as they saw the green and pink light reflecting off of their partner's eyes.

"Yoichi was right!"

They didn't know how or why, but they didn't care. The two extinguished One For All's power and crashed into each other, laughing in relief as ten months of worry went down the drain. One for All would be theirs together.

"All this time - all those months, and we were worried over nothing!"

"I actually told that to Second and Yoichi last night!" Izuku said, "If we had known sooner…"

"It doesn't matter!" Ochako pulled back enough to look at Izuku, a warm smile on her face. "What matters is we both have it." The two slowly separated. "I guess this means we really did both deserve to be the ninth holder, huh?"

"I guess so. We have to tell All Might! And we have to test this! I don't know how this affects our upper limits, or how we can use the additional quirks or-"

Ochako broke down into a fit of giggling. "You know, we deserve a few minutes to celebrate. Just the two of us."

Izuku flushed pink. Ochako's grip was the only thing keeping him from rubbing the back of his head. "S-Sorry. I'm just excited! I have so many questions."

Ochako smiled serenely at him. "I'm sure you'll figure it out. You always do."

"I'm pretty sure I won't be able to focus on classes this afternoon," Izuku admitted.

"Me neither. Lucky for us the material's so easy, huh?" Ochako smirked at Izuku.

"Y-yeah, I guess. I'll send All Might a message when we go downstairs. Hopefully, he can meet us at UA and we can use one of the training sites."

"We also have to work on our cover story. The part about you being a late bloomer and me having a quirk awakening made more sense when we weren't expecting to both suddenly have explaining to do."

Izuku laughed nervously. "I didn't think about that part. Not only will we have to explain why I'm showing up to training next week with a quirk, but now we'll have to explain what happened to you as well."

Ochako let out a dramatic sigh before offering a resigned smile. "Well, we'll figure it out, right?"

Suddenly, the two heard a loud bang coming from the direction of the stairwell and froze. Reactions kicked in and they spun to face the door. As they watched in horror, the door slammed open, only for Kyoka and Himiko to spill out onto the roof. Seconds later, they saw an extremely nervous Aika follow them out, glancing at Izuku and Ochako with a sheepish expression as she bashfully rubbed the back of her head.

"Umm, so you guys were actually talking about quirks after all? Ehehehe…"

AN: Let's be honest, there was only one way this was going to end.

And in case anyone is worried about Ochako here: The arbitrary restriction of OFA rapidly aging someone who already has a quirk is bullshit, and so I'm choosing to ignore it. If given the chance, Ochako is going to live a long, happy, and healthy life wielding both OFA and her own quirk.