This story take place after another story, The Last Hero, and contains major spoilers for it, as well as likely not making much sense without it. Please don't read this without having read it.

s/13802677/1/The-Only-Hero

Izuku wandered towards the Teacher's Lounge at U.A. High with a sigh. He had spent the morning training at one of the Gyms and needed somewhere to lie down and take a break. His eyes scanned the halls, noticing the festive decorations lining the walls.

'That's right, it's a week until Christmas…' He let out another sigh.

It had been roughly ten months since the start of the Rapture, and most of the world had returned to normal. While some districts were a bit behind, Nezu had pulled enough strings to ensure that U.A.'s students and faculty were returned and back on schedule. But with the holidays now, most of the students had returned home for the time, leaving just the teachers and other faculty.

As for Midoriya, he was here for schooling too. But not from U.A. though. He was having the last of his middle school education finished up by Nezu so he could join the first year Heroics course in April. But they had blown through his old education ages ago, and Nezu had moved onto more personalized lessons. Mostly practical Heroics focused ones.

Since he had been awarded a Hero License for helping solve the Rapture, he could go out and do patrols like any other Pro. Nezu and All Might had made arrangements to have him 'Team-Up' (Read: Glorified Internships) with multiple Heroes so that he could get practical experience while they waited for school to start. In all honesty, he had more experience in the field now than even the soon-to-graduate third years. The only reason he was still being enrolled in U.A. was because it was what he had always dreamed of doing, and he needed a high school education from somewhere.

But that was still a way off. And with holidays in swing, most Heroes were too busy to go on patrols together. So, he decided to spend the time training at U.A.'s gyms while planning what to do for Christmas. He had one major gift he had yet to figure out.

He finally reached the doors to the lounge and opened them, only to find two more had also had similar ideas to him.

Kagome sat on one of the couches, medical books littered all around her on the table. She was glancing between them wildly, looking like a student cramming for a final exam.

All Might was sitting another couch across the table, seemingly in his head and ignoring Kagome. He tapped his fingers against his knees like a nervous tick, a worried look in his own eyes.

At the sound of the door opening, they both snapped out of their own little world and looked up to him. Izuku shuffled back unconsciously. "Uh… Maybe I'll go somewhere else…"

"No, no! Please, come sit, my boy!" All Might insisted, putting the spot on the couch next to him. As Izuku sat down, All Might let out a cough. "Apologies for that. I suppose the both of us have been a bit distracted lately."

"What's going on, if you don't mind me asking?" Izuku asked, glancing between the two of them.

"Well, I'm trying to learn all of this stuff that Recovery Girl insisted I needed to learn if I wanted to intern under her next school year." Kagome whined. "All Might even let me borrow a Memorization Quirk he had, but there's just so much material that reading through it all will take until New Years at least, let alone actually letting the knowledge sink in. I have a Quirk that reads and modifies their very gene's! Do I really need to learn all of this?!"

"Come now, Ms. Kagome." All Might tried to calm the woman. "It's important for any person to not become reliant on only their Quirk to do their job. Recovery Girl has probably used her contemporary medical knowledge to save more people than her Quirk has!"

"Yeah, I know." Kagome huffed, flipping the page of a far too large textbook. "Doesn't make it any less of a pain in the ass."

"I'm sure you can do it, Kagome!" Izuku encouraged. "But All Might, what are you doing here? You looked pretty deep in thought when I came in."

Kagome snickered. "Tell me about it. He just came in here and sat down with that look on his face thirty minutes ago. Not even sure if he realized I was in here too."

"Please, I'm not that unobservant. Though I'm sorry for barging in unannounced." All Might looked away sheepishly. He raised up a hand, producing a wisp-like light from his palms. "The truth is, I'm trying to figure out what to do with all of these Quirks I have now."

After the battle with All for One, All Might had received all the Quirks that had been in the copy of it that Kagome now had. Izuku had filled almost a dozen notebooks listing all of the ones his mentor now had, and they were still discovering more. Unfortunately, since he didn't have All for One itself, he could only use one or two at a time and had no means to transfer them himself. At least the transferred Quirks had kept the adaptions from All for One that prevented overload, or he would have died ages ago.

But now All Might was retired, and he currently had a thousand or more Quirks just sitting around in him.

"Maybe you could give some to Quirkless people?" Izuku suggested immediately.

"Ha! I knew you would suggest it first, my boy. It was also my first idea." All Might smiled warmly. It wasn't his typical Hero smile, but a more genuine one. "Nezu is working on arranging something. But as you know, there aren't many Quirkless people. Most are older people who likely wouldn't care much about receiving a Quirk at this point. We'll keep an eye out for younger cases, of course, but Nezu doubt's that I'll give away more than a hundred this way."

"Oh. That makes sense." Izuku nodded. He put a hand to his chin, beginning to think of more ideas. "Wait. Why don't you just give Quirks to people who already have them? Like other Heroes?"

"Overload, remember?" All Might reminded. "The three of us in this room are probably the only people on the planet who can naturally hold as many Quirks as we want. Even a single extra Quirk might cause issues for someone."

"Oh, right. I got a bit caught up in the idea." Izuku admitted, rubbing a finger along the scar on his palm. One of many that ran along his entire body after nearly dying of having too many Quirks. He didn't want anyone else to have to experience that. He supposed All Might could swap peoples Quirks for ones they'd prefer more, but that wouldn't result in All Might's stockpile of Quirks going down. "Hmm… If only there was a way to make multiple Quirks into one."

There was a silence in the room, before Kagome slammed her hand down on the table in front of her. "That's it! There is!"

"There is?" Him and All Might both looked at her in confusion.

"Yeah. You know how I was able to see what All for One was doing while he was in control of my body? Well, it turns out the one that All Might was fighting discovered that he could use Genetic Modification to fuse the Quirk Factors of two Quirks into a single one. It's what allowed him to use so many Quirks simultaneously by creating one conglomerate Super-Quirk." Kagome raised up one of her hands, producing a red double-helix pattern along it. "And it just so happens that I have that Quirk too. So, you two want to run some tests?"

"I don't know. Are you really able to do that?" All Might asked apprehensively.

"I mean, that's technically what happened with All for One and One for All when thy fused into All as One. I say it's worth a shot." Izuku decided.

"Alright then. If you think it is a good idea, then it's worth exploring." All Might relented, turning to Kagome. "Which Quirks should we start with?"

Kagome thought for a moment. "How about the multiple versions of Strength Enhancement? That's the one the All for One tried fusing first. You would get a lot of use out of that, right?"

All Might nodded. "Yes. Even though I'm retired, I still make a lot of public appearances. Using only one or two Quirks makes it hard for me to keep up my previous image in terms of strength."

"Alright then. Lets give it a go." Kagome got up and walked over to All Might's side of the room.

She held out her hand, and after a few moments of contemplation, All Might took it and the red light of Genetic Manipulation worked its way from Kagome's hand and up into All Might's body. They both sat there, their eyes closed in contemplation before the light retreated a moment later.

"Did it work?" Izuku asked as they opened their eyes.

All Might let go of Kagome's hand and stood up. He flexed his hand and arm a couple times, before nodding happily. "While I can't fully test it, it certainly seems stronger. And I can't feel the similar versions of it as well within me. It appears they truly fused!"

"Yep. From my end, they appear now as one Quirk, which confirms that we can turn two Quirks into one." Kagome said with a smile. "So, where do we start?"

"How about with the U.A. staff? Most of them are big Heroes who could use a boost in strength. They're all currently on campus doing holiday organizing. And they all are aware of my true condition and Kagome's Quirk, so we don't have to come up with an excuse on how we can give them an extra Quirk." All Might revealed. "And it would work great for a gift! They're going to be my co-workers soon, but I'm still getting to know them well. This will make things much easier."

'Gift?' Izuku suddenly had a thought about his own gifts, but another matter quickly popped up in his head. "Shouldn't we get permission for this first? From Nezu or Recovery Girl at least-?"

All three of their phones buzzed at the same time, and they all looked down to see a single message.

'Nezu: Feel free to do as you wish, you three! This certainly sounds like a fun idea, so consider it approved!'

"…"

"…"

"… I don't remember giving him my number?" Kagome finally said.

There was another awkward silence, until All Might let out a small cough.

"So, what Quirks should we give them? I'm not sure where to start." The retired Pro Hero admitted.

"Oh! Leave it to me!" Izuku said, suddenly producing a blank Notebook from seemingly nowhere. He started scribbling the names of the teachers, along with their current Quirks. "Let's see… From what a remember of your list of current Quirks, the most obvious one would be…"

"Oh? And what do you three all want with me?" Midnight smirked as she saw the trio of future U.A. staffs and student approaching her from down the hall. All three were dressed like Santa for some reason, including All Might having a rather impressive beard. She couldn't tell if it was a fake, or something he made with one of his new Quirks. She let out a hungry smirk as she looked to All Might and Kagome. "I happen to have some free time. One of you two wouldn't happen to be interested in getting a gift from me early this Christmas?"

Izuku couldn't help but blush at the playful wink the R-Rated Hero shot at the two adults present. All Might merely sputtered at the flirt, but Kagome responded quickly.

"Actually, we're here to give you your gift now." Kagome replied plainly, leaving Midnight surprised.

"Oh, all three of you?" She quickly recovered. "I'll admit, you have my attention now. What can all three of you give me?"

"It's about your Quirk!" Izuku quickly answered, smiling wide as he began to babble about it. "Your Quirk is Somnambulist, which allows you to produce a mist-like aroma that puts others to sleep. It tends to effect men more strongly than women but is still effective on them. Its main limitation is being unable to be directly manipulated upon leaving your body, forcing you to use support items like fans to direct it or move closer to targets."

"Yep, that's all correct. But what exactly does that have to do with my gift?" Midnight said.

All Might cleared his throat. "Well, the three of us were talking of ways to use up the Quirks I have now, and the topic of giving extra Quirks to Heroes came up, so-"

"So, we wanted to give you a Quirk that'll allow you to overcome your weakness!" Izuku exclaimed, before looking back at All Might. "Erp! Sorry, All Might, I got a little excited."

"It's fine, my boy." All Might insisted.

"Wait, isn't there a risk of overload?" Midnight asked appropriately.

"I can fuse Quirks together into one." Kagome revealed to her. "And before you ask, we've already tested it and got Nezu's approval."

"I see." Midnight looked between the three of them. "If I were to accept this offer, what Quirk would you give to me?"

"We picked out one that we call Scent Manipulation!" Izuku quickly began to explain again. "It allows one to naturally control and manipulate the smell that comes from their body. For a normal person, this would have very little effect beyond changing how they smell, but it's a whole different story for you! It should allow you toe freely manipulate where your aroma goes. Not only that, but it might also even be able to completely manipulate the potency of Somnambulist to extremely high effectiveness to nothing at all!"

"Seriously?" Midnight looked between the three, and seeing their serious expressions, she finally relented. "Oh alright, I'll give it a shot. So how does this work?"

Kagome put a hand on All Might, then held out another to Midnight, both glowing with a red double-helix. "Just hold my hand for a minute. You won't feel a thing and we'll be done in a minute."

"Alright, here goes…" She took Kagome's hand and closed her eyes as the red lines circled up her own. A few moments later, she felt something odd in her gut, and felt Kagome let go. She opened her eyes and looked herself over. "I don't feel much different, honestly."

"Try using Somnambulist! Let's see if it worked!" Izuku immediately cried out.

"Alright kiddo, calm down." Midnight let out an amused laugh as she walked over to the window in the hall and stuck her arm out of it, so that her Quirk didn't accidentally affect anyone. She ripped her costumes sleeve slightly, and the pink aroma of her Quirk began to leak out of it.

"Now try to see if you can manipulate it!" Izuku now asked excitedly.

"Alright…" Midnight said hesitantly. She tried to reach out to the aroma and felt a new feeling welling inside her. She took old of that feeling and tried to condense the aroma coming out of her arm to a single point. Moments later, there was a pink ball of aroma floating above her palm. She let go, and the aroma dispersed again and floated away in the winter air. "No way."

"It worked!" Izuku cheered. "You must tell me everything you can do with it later! Be sure to try and change its potency as well!"

"Sure." Midnight stared at her hand in amazement, before looking up at them all again. "Thanks, you three. This is… incredible."

"You're welcome, Midnight!" Izuku said, before turning to run down the hall. "Come on, we gotta try another teacher. Mic should be…"

He quickly ran out of earshot, and All Might chuckled, before turning to follow. "Well, we better go keep an eye on him. See you later, Ms. Nemuri."

"Yeah, what he said. Merry Christmas and all that." Kagome hurriedly said, trying to match the Pro's fast pace.

As they all left, Kagome stared down at her palm again. Her entire world changed in a single moment, she only had one thought in her mind currently.

'What the hell kind of gift am I supposed to get them in return?!'

A couple hours later, the trio of sudden Santa's found themselves huddling over Midoriya's notebook.

"Alright team," Midoriya began. "We've gotten pretty far down the list. Let's see who's next…"

They looked down at the list of teachers they had given gifts to so far.

Midnight – Quirk: Somnambulist, Gifted: Aroma Manipulation

Present Mic – Quirk: Voice, Gifted: Ventriloquism

Snipe – Quirk: Homing, Gifted: X-Ray Vision

Cementoss – Quirk: Cement (Manipulation), Gifted: Cement Creation

Vlad King – Quirk: Blood Control, Gifted: Boosted Blood Production + Bloodlet

Lunch Rush – Quirk:

"Um… Do either of you know what Lunch Rush's Quirk is?" Kagome asked.

"I could never figure it out actually. I looked everywhere but found nothing." Midoriya admitted shamefully.

"I've never even seen him out of his uniform. I suspect he's really just a robot Nezu made to avoid paying for a cafeteria staff." All Might admitted in a conspiratorial voice.

"Seriously?" Kagome looked between the two men unimpressed.

"Well, I do have a couple theories, but it would probably be easier to ask him…" Izuku suddenly trailed off, feeling the buzz of Danger Sense. It was so faint and clearly wasn't truly threatening in nature, but he could detect another's ire directed at him. Suddenly, the feeling vanished, along with the rest of his Quirks. "What-?!"

A grey scarf shot out the door of the empty classroom nearby, wrapping all three of them up together and dragging them inside. Izuku and the others were quickly strung upside down, hanging from the ceiling of the dimly lit classroom. Two glowing red eyes bore into them from the shadows, preventing them from using their Quirks to escape.

"Mr. Aizawa?! What's the meaning of this?!" All Might cried out.

"I want to know which one of you did this." The teacher in the darkness growled.

All Might let out a very conspicuous chuckle. "I don't know what you're-"

The three of them were suddenly shook. Pro Hero Eraserhead let out a huff. "Stop joking around. I want to know which one of who thought it was a good idea to give Present Mic of all people a Quirk that lets him isolate and project his voice anywhere within ten meters. Which one of you ruined my perfectly good nap?!"

"Ah." Izuku looked down (up?) in shame. "That was my idea. We were giving people Quirks as gifts and, well…"

"One reason." Aizawa suddenly said. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't leave you three hanging here until New Year's."

"We can give you a Second Eyelid Quirk so you can always keep Erasure active?" Izuku offered.

"…"

"Finally! I think that's all of them." All Might collapsed onto the couch back in the Teacher's Lounge.

"Why are you so tired? I did all the actual work!" Kagome shot back as she collapsed onto the other couch.

"We actually managed to find a Quirk for every teacher at U.A. High." Izuku said in amazement. It had been fun to come up with combinations for all of the Heroes at the school.

"I'll have to get you to help come up with more combos for other Heroes, my boy." All Might said, before putting a hand to his chin. "Though I'll have to come up with some way to do so without revealing mine or Kagome's secret. Well, whatever. I'm just glad to not have to worry about Christmas gifts this year."

"Gifts…" Izuku muttered to himself. He finally could think about gifts himself. He had already picked out his own gifts more most people. His mom, Kagome and All Might. He even found something for Nezu, though he was pretty sure the principal had manipulated him into buying it in the first place. There was just one more person he needed to get a gift for.

He wasn't sure what he could get for her before. But now he had a great idea.

"Hey you two. I might need you two to make another Quirk."

It was finally Christmas, and Izuku's family was invited by Nezu to U.A.'s Christmas Dinner. His mother, and Eri were all mingling with the teachers of U.A. while he sat in the corner with his girlfriend.

Melissa and his father had been in Japan ever since the Rapture. David Shield was one of the main members of the team responsible for setting up the devices that returned people back from the Rapture, so he and his daughter were given an extended stay of absence from I-Island. This had the bonus of allowing Izuku and Melissa to not have to deal with a long distance relationship.

"This is a real nice party, isn't it?" Melissa said, leaning into Izuku.

"Yeah." Izuku agreed, squeezing her hand. He smiled as he watched Eri met all the Heroes at the party with her own grin. "Usually it's just me and Mom during Christmas. Getting to spend it with so many people feels amazing."

Melissa nodded. "I know what you mean. There's usually a big party at I-Island, but they were mostly just people that dad knew at them. I tended to just sit in the corner and wait until we could go home."

"You mean like we're doing right now?" Izuku asked playfully, and Melissa shoved him lightly.

"Don't joke around! We're just sitting over here because you wanted to talk privately, right?" Melissa said, before leaning over and whispering in his ear. "That is, unless you want to go home just the two of us right now?"

"N-Now you're the one joking around!" Izuku cried out. Melissa just giggled before pecking him on the cheek. "Anyways… Do you think my gift will be ready soon?"

Melissa let out a sigh, this time in annoyance. "Any day now. I had hoped to get the parts for finishing your Full-Armour Suit before now, but I guess I-Island has been a bit behind on requests lately. Sorry."

"It's fine. I know it'll be great whenever I get it!" Izuku said, and Melissa seemed to cheer up. "But speaking of gifts, I wanted to give you mine now."

He reached down and pulled out the wrapped gift, handing it to Melissa.

"Is this… a book?" Melissa raised an eyebrow at Izuku, but eventually turned back to the gift and began to unwrap it. Once the colorful concealment was removed, Melissa found herself holding a notebook, just like one of the many that Izuku could be seen carrying around. She squinted at the title written on the front of it. "Build-A-Quirk Recommendations?"

"Y'know, like Build-A-Bear, but… for Quirks?" Izuku said.

Melissa stared at him, before looking down at the book and flipping open the first page. "Izuku, what exactly is this?"

"Well, I recently discovered with Kagome and All Might that we could use Quirks together, and we gave a few extra to the teachers here." Izuku began to explain.

"Ah. I thought the gifts you three received were rather… impressive." Melissa noted.

"Yeah." Izuku eyed the pile of expensive gifts he had received, piled up in a corner of the Dining Hall. "Anyways, I figured that I could help you come up with the perfect fusion of Quirks to receive for yourself. The book is filled with all the Quirks you might find interesting, along with a couple potential combinations. But you're free to pick any that you want… Melissa?" He stopped as he saw the tears from Melissa dropping down onto the pages. "I-I'm sorry! I should have asked if you wanted a Quirk in the first place! You can forget about it! I can just get you something else and- oof!"

"You dummy." Melissa said into him as she wrapped him up in a hug. "I love it. Thank you, Izuku."

"Really?" Izuku asked.

Melissa looked up at him. "Yes, really. Honestly, I probably could have asked for a Quirk a while ago. But I always just felt… awkward about it. The idea of asking Uncle Might for one just felt so… daunting for some reason. Maybe it's because I haven't had one for so long, or maybe it's because I had no idea if there was a kind of Quirk I even wanted. But this," she looked down at the notebook. "I feel like this will finally help me figure out what I want, so thank you."

"You're welcome." Izuku put his head against hers gently. "Merry Christmas, Melissa."

Melissa leaned into him, bringing her lips in for a kiss. "Merry Christmas to you too, Izuku."

The End - Merry Christmas!