AN: As always, thanks for the reviews and support everyone!

SwordOfTheGods - Inko in danger would… be very bad for whomever is threatening her, between Himiko, Izuku, and All Might.

fencer29 - Himiko's just shipping the two of them as hard as the readers are, she just has the ability to do something about it!

LEGOBRICK13 - Let's just say there's a reason Izuku and Ochako are trying really really hard to avoid talking about time travel for as long as possible. Between OFA and everyone thinking they keep running off to make out with each other, they're hoping they bought themselves a little breathing room, at least.

Toshinori stood outside waiting until he heard the door open again and saw the smiling face of young Midoriya looking back at him.

"Is everything ok?"

"Y-yeah, everything worked out!"

Smiling, Toshinori entered the room and looked at his group of five students. "I am so proud of you! Some day you will look back upon this day, and know that this is where things started for all of you."

"Woah," Aika and Jiro replied, both realizing the full implications of what they signed up for.

Himiko, meanwhile, just looked pensive. "You'll make sure mama Inko is safe, right?"

Toshinori gave her a kind smile as he placed a hand on her head. "You have my word, young Himiko. Inko Midoriya is an amazing woman, and I will gladly do everything in my power to keep her safe."

That seemed to satisfy Himiko, who broke out into a toothy grin. "I will fight to keep Inko safe too!"

"Now then, if everything is in order. Young Uraraka, I believe it is time for you to show off?"

Ochako lit up as she jumped in the air, pumping her fists. "Yes! I can't wait!"

The other three sat there wide-eyed before Kyoka spoke, "What about us?"

Izuku and Ochako turned toward their friends with smiles on their faces. "You're going to come and watch!"

"Seriously? After what we did?"

"Well yeah," Ochako responded. "It's not like this was going to stay a secret for long! You'd have found out next week, after all!"

Once again, Toshinori led the group to Gym Theta again, which the new girls took in.

"Woah, so we're allowed to use our quirks in here?"

This caused Toshinori to chuckle. "Yes, young Shizu, if you want you can try using your quirk to test its limits. Although please, we are here for another purpose right now."

Aika looked ashamedly at Ochako. "Right, ancient super-quirk, sorry."

Ochako couldn't help but smile at her friend's enthusiasm. It helped remind her that these were her friends. Despite the massive revelation that just occurred, they continued to act as if nothing had changed. It was the best outcome she could have hoped for.

Toshinori led the group to the same training dummy Izuku had abused yesterday, and Ochako started stretching to loosen herself up.

"I'm going to try at five percent!" she declared with a fierce expression on her face.

"You think you can do better than me?" Izuku asked curiously.

"Of course!" Ochako flashed a wide grin at her friend before she dropped into a basic fighting stance and sent One For All's power into her hand, enveloping it in soft pink light. With a roar, she pulled her hand back and threw the punch at the training dummy, sending it reeling.

And of course, she felt the feedback of One For All, without anywhere else to go, being sent inward, sending a sharp pain through her knuckles.

"Ow!"

"Ochako!" In an instant, Izuku was next to her, his hands already exploring hers, much in the same way she did yesterday.

"S-sorry!" Ochako dropped her voice into a low whisper so only Izuku could hear. "I forgot how it felt."

"After what you told me yesterday…" Izuku gave her a look, and Ochako couldn't help but feel guilty.

"Y-you're right. Is everything ok?"

Izuku's fingers quickly traced along Ochako's hand, examining for any signs of damage. Ochako bit her tongue when he found one particular sore spot but refused to cry out. "Nothing seems broken. Guess you're going to be at four percent power, just like me."

"Four percent?" Himiko asked in confusion.

"Yes, young Himiko," Toshinori turned to explain. "After all of the training they have gone through, these two are only barely able to wield a mere fraction of my power. They have a long way to go before they can perform moves such as my Nebraska Smash."

"That's not quite true," Izuku began speaking, without realizing it, "if the situation was desperate enough, we could use much more power than we are currently capable of. But we would end up breaking a limb in the process."

"Thanks for telling me that," Himiko remarked, "Now I can warn you not to do that… ever." Himiko shot a warning glare at Izuku while Ochako burst out laughing.

Izuku laughed nervously under her gaze, releasing Ochako's hands. "We were hoping we could get as high as five percent of All Might's strength, but it… hurts. Not enough to permanently damage us, but it would be a bad idea if we pushed it." He glanced at Ochako. "I guess we both have the same goal for the entrance exam?"

Ochako nodded before stepping back. Taking a deep breath, she looked at the training dummy again. "Ok, four percent this time!"

She dropped into a fighting stance and used a mere four percent of One For All's power before punching the training dummy and sending it bouncing around erratically. "Yes! That worked!"

"Excellent!" Toshinori changed into his muscle form in a puff of smoke, giving her a thumb's up. "Now what else can you do?"

"Well…" Ochako gazed around the room. "Time to see if I can show off like Izuku did?"

"What do you mean?" Jiro skeptically asked.

Ochako threw an indecipherable smile at her friend before looking down at her hands, willing One For All to come out. Pink sparks appeared on her finger pads and danced back and forth between the pads before racing outward to wrap her entire body in a soft pink glow. But while Izuku had red veins accenting his green energy, instead Ochako had small black lights sparkling along her limbs and body, simulating stars. It gave Ochako an appearance of being wrapped in the night sky, or if the viewer was looking at a photo negative of the sky.

She heard amazed gasps from her friends but looked at Izuku instead. "Looks better than yours, huh?"

Izuku gave her a warm smile. "It really suits you. What are you going to call it?"

"Galactic shroud."

"That's so cool!" Aika cheered. "I'm glad you don't turn all big and muscle-y like All Might!"

Ochako blushed, the brightness of her face exaggerated by the effects of the galactic shroud. "M-me too!" She turned to look at the walls again and pumped a fist. "Ok! I can do this!"

Ochako knelt down before she took a flying leap towards a wall. While she knew Izuku had picked up his movement style from Gran Torino, she never had to adopt it thanks to her own zero gravity quirk. She would simply turn herself weightless and use either small bursts of air pressure from vents in her boots or when she was stronger with One For All, use air pressure generated by flicking her fingers to travel quickly through the air.

Despite lacking both of those options, Ochako refused to be left behind. As she landed on the wall, she took a moment to adjust herself before launching herself off towards a far wall. Lacking the practice of Izuku, her moves were slower, more deliberate. But she found a smile growing on her face as she launched herself across the room. Given enough time, she could possibly even match Izuku's speed, and then she would have the option available if she needed it.

After she had traveled back and forth several times, she angled herself back to her starting position, landing with a loud boom as she slammed into the ground. She stood up to resounding applause.

"That was amazing! And you can both do that?"

"Seriously, villains are so screwed. I'm glad I'm on your side!"

"You guys are something else. I want to see Izuku next!"

"One step at a time, young Himiko," Toshinori chuckled. "I believe young Uraraka isn't done yet."

The pink glow faded as Ochako released One For All, and then she looked down at her gloved hands. "I-I know you said One For All enhances people's quirks. But I'm not sure how long that takes to work?"

"I guess there's only one way to find out," Toshinori encouraged.

Carefully, Ochako removed her artist's gloves and walked over to a training dummy. She reached out and touched it, brows furrowed in concentration. As everyone watched, instead of seeing the expected pink light from her fingers, they saw a dark green light, and the training dummy immediately collapsed in on itself, crashing into the floor as it formed a crater from its weight.

"Holy crap!"

"What just happened?"

"Seriously?!"

Ochako laughed nervously and touched the tips of her fingers together. "Release." Turning towards the group, she rubbed the back of her head. "That's kind of what we thought would happen. If my quirk was going to get enhanced one of two things would happen: either I could suddenly hold a lot more stuff with my quirk, or I'd gain further gravity manipulation. I guess this means I can make things weigh a lot and collapse upon themselves?"

"Isn't that super dangerous?"

"Indeed, young Jiro. This is why young Uraraka wears those gloves," Toshinori explained, "to prevent any accidents from occurring. I will have to ensure you get additional quirk training to ensure that you can fully explore and control the range of your new power."

"Y-yes sensei," Ochako conceded. She had gotten good at controlling it, but a refresher would probably be good.

"What about that blackwhip thing?" Himiko inquired. "The one Izuku used. Can you use that too?"

"I don't know." Ochako sent him a questioning glance, but he merely shrugged. Looking at her fist, Ochako turned her focus inward, looking for any signs of the vestiges' powers. While she didn't sense anything new, after a few seconds she did find a familiar feeling. Looking at the group, she smiled. "I can do this though!"

A moment later Ochako was obscured by a large cloud of smoke, effectively hiding her from everyone else. Hearing the startled shouts, she stepped out of the cloud, waving her arms trying to get it to dissipate.

"S-smokescreen," Izuku announced, "used by the sixth holder, En."

"You two are officially the most terrifying people I know," Kyoka announced with a sly smile, "and that includes the fact that I have just learned I've been training under freaking All Might for months!"

"Seriously? How are we supposed to keep up with you two?"

Toshinori laughed, "Why young heroes, you must train yourselves! Even if One For All is a very special quirk, think about heroes like Endeavor and Hawks. They have earned their position through effort and training, and have pushed their quirks to their fullest potential!"

"W-what about my quirk?" Himiko asked hesitantly.

Izuku's eyes darted over to Ochako, who subtly shook her head. Not yet. While Izuku never personally encountered it, in Ochako's timeline, Himiko Toga had undergone a quirk awakening, and when she transformed into someone she was obsessed with, she was able to use their quirk as well. While Izuku could immediately think of hundreds of reasons why that would put her on par with the top ten heroes, even suggesting it would raise more questions that they weren't ready to answer yet.

"Young Himiko," Toshinori began, walking over to her and resting his hand on her head, "even though Japan has a focus on quirks that are flashy and powerful, there is room for a quirk such as yours. Take my sidekick, Sir Nighteye, for example. His quirk allows him to look into the future once every twenty-four hours. Even though he can't use it to beat up villains, it is an extremely powerful quirk, and he has leveraged it into quite a successful career. If you wish, a quirk such as yours could be extremely valuable, even if you can't use it to defeat villains in the same way as your classmates."

Toshinori then lifted his hand away. "And there is no shame if you ultimately pursue a different career, such as becoming a quirk counselor as your mother has suggested. What matters is that you become someone who is seeking to build a better society."

Himiko smiled at the hero. "T-thanks. I have a lot to think about."

After watching Ochako finish her demonstration, Toshinori had Izuku give a simple demonstration as well, so as not to surprise the others next week when their training began. After that was done, he turned toward the three girls.

"Now then, do you have any additional questions?"

Kyoka tapped her ear jacks together as she spoke. "Can I um, have your autograph? My dad's a big fan!"

That caused Toshinori to burst out laughing. "Of course young Jiro! I can even personalize it for you if you wish!"

"T-thanks!"

Aika rolled her eyes at her friend. "Way to ruin the mood."

"Hey! A lot is going on today," Kyoka shot back, "I don't even know where to begin otherwise!"

"Honestly, I feel the same," Himiko admitted. "Ancient quirks, secret bad guys, the symbol of peace. It's a lot! We're just kids!"

"I know, young Himiko," Toshinori affirmed, "if I had my way, I would rather be the Symbol of Peace for another forty years before passing the burden on, but I promise, I am going to do my best to give these two as much time to prepare as I can."

"And now they've got us!" Aika threw her arm over Ochako's shoulder, causing everyone to laugh.

When things calmed down, Izuku turned to Himiko. "I'll tell mom tonight. About having my quirk."

Himiko gave Izuku an extremely serious look. "No, you won't."

Izuku and Ochako were both taken back by this. "W-why not?"

Himiko grabbed Izuku's arm. "You still owe me from yesterday. And after today? I'm cashing in. If you told mom about being some late bloomer, that's going to take up valuable time, and Arcane Dive isn't going to finish watching itself!"

Izuku laughed worriedly as he realized the implications and looked pleadingly at Ochako for help. Ochako simply patted his other arm sympathetically before she whispered into his ear. "You're on your own."

Izuku: We're on episode 18, so I'm stuck here for 2 more hours :(

Ochako giggled as she read the text message from Izuku. True to her word, despite what happened Himiko was forcing Izuku to binge-watch the entirety of her current anime fascination with her. She sent a teasing response before wishing him goodnight.

Setting her phone on her desk, she crawled under the covers of her bed, getting ready to meet the vestiges with Izuku.

Wait…

Ochako bolted upright in bed.

She was meeting the vestiges with Izuku.

Ochako squeaked, her face heating up. They had been so excited by the prospect of sharing One For All, they hadn't considered the full implications of what that meant. She eyed her phone on the nightstand. Should she text Izuku? Did he realize that meant that they, effectively, shared dreams now when they both decided to visit the vestige realm at night?

Ochako began the breathing exercises her therapist had taught her. Breathe in, hold, breathe out, hold. Repeat.

It's ok, Ochako told herself, you two were already partners in this whole mess. You always were going to be, especially if you followed All Might's original plan of sharing OFA. This is just an unexpected benefit.

Ochako blinked as she mentally reviewed her words. As she realized she did just think what she thought she did, she hung her head, buried her face in her hands, and groaned. While she found herself excited by the benefits, especially since it meant they could have some privacy away from Himiko and Kyoka, she could already tell she was going to suffer through several long nights of embarrassment before she was used to it.

Of course, it would be Himiko's fault that she was so excited by this, Ochako lied to herself. The girl, across three separate timelines, had been laser-focused on her, Izuku, and their relationship. And somehow, it was worse when she played the role of big sister, instead of acting like some sort of yandere stalker towards the two of them.

It took time, but once Ochako had finished digging herself out of the mental hole she had dug herself into, she crawled back under the covers and closed her eyes, ready to be taken to the vestige realm.

"Ow, hey!" Ochako protested when she felt Second smack her in the back of the head. "Izuku's not gonna be here for a while, you didn't have to do that!"

"You both get the same treatment," a smug Second responded.

As she rubbed the back of her head, Ochako looked around. She saw she was in what appeared to be the lobby of a building. "So this is the vestige realm, huh?"

"Yep," Second replied, "welcome to our new home."

Pushing herself off the ground, she noticed En leaning against the wall along with another vestige she had seen before but not met personally. He was a muscular man wearing a leather jacket with golden shoulder pads, leather pants, a bandolier, and a set of goggles. She must have been staring as the man straightened up and walked over, offering a hand.

"Name's Banjo, although around here, people also know me as Fifth."

"Nice to meet you." Ochako took his hand and shook it. "Your quirk was Blackwhip, right? That means you came from Izuku's half of… this?"

"Aye, that I did! Although I've picked up the memories from your half as well, so my brain's all messed up. Gonna be a bit before I figure it all out."

"Memories from my half?"

"Do you remember when this all started, how there were two copies of me, and we became one copy right before your eyes?" Second asked.

"Of course, it was kind of a life-changing event after all."

"Ha! I like you." Second gave a ghost of a smile. "Well, it seems it wasn't just me. All of the vestiges, save for ol' Yoichi himself, and Eighth ended up having the same thing happen to them. I just was the lucky one who had time to sort it all out, while these guys aren't so lucky."

"I see, so what does that mean for us?"

"Well, we're waiting on the council of Yoichi's trying to figure that out. Ever since this place finished building itself earlier, they've been trying to figure out what the hell is going on, since it's kind of important that we know that as soon as possible."

"That does seem pretty important. What should I do in the meantime?"

"Well, I guess we can give you a tour of the place. Then you can show the other ninth around later."

"Ok!" En pushed himself off the wall while Second rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, but he joined the others as they led Ochako out of the lobby.

It turned out that this new form of the vestige realm was that of an observatory. On the ground floor past the lobby, there were many small rooms and side offices, similar to what Ochako remembered from her past time in the vestige realm. she saw the other holders standing in these side rooms, each looking partially manifested. The vestiges then led Ochako up a stairwell to a second floor dominated by multiple large conference rooms, each already set up with eleven chairs. In addition, there were many closets and side offices filled with supplies. Ochako found it strange, but she made a note of it to come back through later with Izuku.

Finally, they took her to the top floor, and Ochako gaped at the sight. It was a large dome. Where there should have been a telescope, there was nothing, but she didn't care. The dome still split open into the sky, revealing the slowly moving starscape of the vestige realm beyond.

"So pretty," she exclaimed as she watched.

Well, she knew where she would be spending most of her time in the vestige realm. Ochako had already begun making plans for how she was going to spend her nights with Izuku when a copy of Yoichi walked into the room.

"The other ninth has arrived."

"Finally!" Second exclaimed. "Lead the way."

They went back down to the second floor where Izuku sat with another version of Yoichi. Ochako slipped into the chair next to Izuku while the three vestiges sat in various chairs around the table.

"So, what do we know?" Second started.

"Well, let's begin with the obvious," one of the copies of Yoichi began, "we have surveyed the entire facility, and all of the original eight holders have been accounted for, even though four of them are still in some sort of suspended state. In addition, as you three are aware, all of the holders beyond myself have merged together."

"In practical terms, what does that mean?" Izuku asked.

Yoichi gave him a mysterious look. "In practical terms, it means that, much like Second's quirk had been strengthened, the other five quirks contained within One For All have all become significantly stronger. However, it does have a drawback: only one of you can use each of the vestiges gifts at a time."

"How does something like that even work?"

Second laughed. "Let me just cut to the chase and remind everyone that quirks are bullshit."

"Indeed," Yoichi continued, "if this space is a physical representation of One For All, it means that depending on where we stand inside the space determines who gets our strength. Because my counterpart and I are separate, we will continue to lend our strength to you individually, allowing you to use the base power of One For All unhindered. But you will have to decide amongst yourselves how you wish to use the other gifts available to you."

Izuku looked at Ochako as they quietly deliberated before they turned back to Yoichi. "I think, for now, it would be easiest if Blackwhip stayed with me, and Smoke stayed with Ochako."

Ochako nodded her agreement, after all, if they were going to train her gravity powers further, she would prefer not to learn a whole new quirk on top of that. "What about Second, though?"

"You can't use my quirk, unfortunately," Second stated flatly, "or perhaps, fortunately, since if you use it, that means only one of you is going back this time. I can't take you both back again." This caused Izuku and Ochako to both pale. "Not that it matters, you can't use my quirk while within a time loop created by my quirk. It doesn't work like that. No matter how hard I tried, I could only send my consciousness back in time by 13 seconds. If I needed to go back 30 seconds, I couldn't chain together multiple uses of my quirk to go back further in time. I was stuck."

"Which means we're over twenty months out before we can use it again," Izuku added.

"Exactly, not that I expect you to use it again. Well, not unless one of you is dead."

Izuku and Ochako subconsciously found each other's hands at the implication and held onto each other. They knew he was right. Now that they had been brought together, they weren't going to abandon each other.

As the meeting concluded, Izuku and Ochako felt more comfortable about the status of One For All. While there were still many unknowns and some new limitations, they both felt a sense of peace as their status as ninth holders finally settled.

Watching the other holders take their leave, Ochako stood up and grabbed Izuku's hand. "Come on, I have something to show you!"

Izuku nodded and stood up. "Lead the way!"

Ochako led Izuku out of the room and down the hallway towards the stairwell. "There's a lot of things in here that are probably super interesting, books and notes and stuff, but we'll figure that out later! After today, there's only one thing I want to do!"

Opening the stairwell, Ochako led Izuku up to the open space on the top floor, racing forward, she spread her arms out and turned around. "Look! It's an observatory! We can see all sorts of stars from here!"

Izuku looked up and his face lit up at the sight of the open sky. "This is amazing!"

"I know, right!" Ochako laughed as she collapsed on the ground, looking out into the starscape. "It's our own private sky!"

She heard Izuku lay down next to her and adjusted herself so their shoulders touched. "So, when are you going to start picking out constellations?"

Ochako giggled as she nudged his shoulder. "You know me too well." Turning her head to look at him, she offered him a warm smile. "Soon. Not tonight though - after the day we had, I just want to spend the rest of my night not thinking and staring at the stars."

Izuku smiled back before looking at the sky. "That sounds nice."

Weaving his fingers between hers, Izuku raised their hands, and the pair took turns idly tracing patterns through the night sky until it was time to wake up.

AN: Meanwhile, seated in one of his lairs, a masked figure sat in front of a computer, his hand hovering over the keyboard as he absorbed information. If he had eyebrows, he would frown.

He knew what he saw yesterday. In the vestige realm, off in the distance, it was like watching a star go supernova. There was only one other quirk that could cause such a sight. Yet, there was no news about All Might. He hasn't been particularly active these past two days, but that wasn't unusual for him. Ever since he wounded the eighth wielder of his brother's quirk five years ago, there had been a decline in his foe's activity, including days when he was simply inactive. But after yesterday, he expected the news to be filled with reports of his death or retirement.

With a heavy sigh, the figure withdrew his hand.

"Something has changed."