Universe #1:

Daigoro Banjo had found the ideal successor for One for All. His student was a brave, powerful hero with a strong quirk. His student had a personal grudge against All for One. His student had a tough body, a keen mind, and ferocious courage. His student's name was Rimu Nakanishi.

Every One for All holder thus far had a number character in their name. Yoichi Shigaraki had the character for one (ichi), Kaiji Kudou had the character for two (ji), Sanzou Bruce had the character for three (san), and Hikage Shinomori had the character for four (shi). When Hikage had encountered Daigoro out hiking in the forest, he'd immediately known he'd found his successor because of his name containing Go or Five. Hikage had firmly instructed Daigoro to find a sixth holder with the character for six. It seemed like the easiest method. Thus, Daigoro had gone through a list of U.A. students and picked out Rimu for his name.

After a hard day's work as heroes, Daigoro and Rimu settled around a table in the agency lobby, getting drunk. A pile of bottles already spread on the floor around them. Their intern, En Tayutai, sat in the corner reading a book.

Red-faced, Rimu raised a bottle. "To myself! The future slayer of All for One!"

"Cheers!" Daigoro shouted. He tried to clash their bottles together, but he was so drunk that he missed. His chair wobbled as he leaned backward.

Rimu slurred out, "All for One caused my family to fall into villainy. I will redeem the name of Nakanishi by defeating him."

Without looking up from his book, En said, "Your family has been well-known for petty crimes since long before All for One was born. Before the dawn of the age of quirks, even. Although All for One has many sins, you can't pin your family embarrassment on him."

Rimu continued, "All for One murdered my father!"

En turned a page. "Your father went to a job interview with All for One, took a wrong turn, and accidentally walked into the Nomu laboratory. By pressing buttons randomly, he released all the tanks. He also somehow locked himself inside. The Nomu, who had not yet had controls installed in their minds, ripped him apart in a feral rage. For once, I don't think All for One is at fault for your father's death. You might be able to blame Dr. Garaki's poor safety standards. But I suspect a Nakanishi could have invaded even a more secure lab."

Paying no attention, Rimu pumped a fist in the air. "It's my destiny to become the pillar of hero society!"

"Aww! Your story is so sad." Daigoro tried to high-five Rimu, but in his intoxication, he missed again. "I'll give you One for All right now so that you can avenge your father." He handed Rimu the bottle he'd been drinking from. "Here, this still has my saliva on the rim. Whoever drinks this can have my quirk!"

En turned another page, muttering, "You couldn't pay me to take the cursed quirk that has led to the death of four previous holders."

Rimu leapt up. "Why are you so boring, intern?" He ran over to En and held the bottle to his lips, forcing him to drink. "Lighten up!"

En waved his arms, pounded his fists, cursed incoherently, and accidentally swallowed some of the spit-infused alcohol.

"Wait, that's the One for All transfer bottle," Daigoro cried.

Rimu struck a heroic pose with his hands on his hips. "I have One for All now! I'm going to kill All for One." He ran out of the agency.

"Come back! You don't have One for All!" Daigoro chased after his would-be successor.

Rubbing his mouth, En shrieked, "Hey! You can't stick me with the cursed quirk with a villain chasing after it. I don't want this thing. Take it back right now!" He ran after the two of them.

Unfortunately, Rimu challenged All for One to a duel and promptly got himself killed. Rimu also managed to crush Daigoro with his corpse, pinning him down long enough for All for One to kill him too. En narrowly escaped.

En never forgave Daigoro for accidentally forcing the cursed quirk on him. Yoichi never forgave either of them for breaking the naming pattern.


Universe #2:

Daigoro Banjo might be a notoriously funky hero, but he'd always been well-liked. When he opened applications for a summer internship including a free trip to the United States, hero students from around the country applied.

Most of the students were drawn by the vacation or Daigoro's easy grading. However, En was a serious fan of the hero Lariat ever since elementary school. He was determined to win. He'd spent hours perfecting every last sentence on his application.

When En came to the agency to drop off his application, he found Daigoro at his desk glaring at a huge pile of papers. The older hero mumbled to himself, "Ugh, I've always been terrible at reading kanji. The white-haired ghost was so insistent about me getting the name right."

En cleared his throat. "Excuse me? I brought my application. I hope I'm not too late." He'd cut it close to the deadline, proofreading for the hundredth time.

Daigoro's head shot up. His eyes were bloodshot. Desperately, he asked, "What's your name? Does it have the character for six?"

"En," En said.

Apparently Daigoro took that as an affirmative grunt rather than a name. Seizing En's hand and forcibly shaking it, he declared, "You're hired, kid."

En spent years petrified that Daigoro would realize the truth about his name and kick him out. But Daigoro never called him anything except "kid."


Universe #3:

En had been working up his nerve for weeks. When he faced his teacher, it took him several times for his words to come out. "Senpai…I…I…I…"

Daigoro looked sheepish. "Is this because I ate the last donut? Please don't be angry, Rika. I'll buy more."

En winced. "I…don't want to be called Rika any longer." This had come out in the wrong order. He blurted out, "Because I'm a man."

"You are?" Daigoro gasped. "I didn't notice all this time! I must have accidentally filled out your internship paperwork wrong. I'll fix it now."

"No, it's not your fault." En grabbed his senpai's arm to stop him from running off. "I'm a trans man."

"Oh, got it. Congratulations on coming out!" Daigoro delivered a hearty backslap. "What's your new name?"

En smiled in relief. "I picked En."

"Huh…unlike Rika, that doesn't have the character for six, though." Daigoro tilted his head.

"Does that matter?" En asked. "I like the name."

"The others seemed to think you couldn't defeat All for One without the character for six in your name."

"That's stupid, senpai."

"Can't you call yourself En-Roku or something?"

"That's really, really stupid." En saw his teacher's face fall and felt bad. True, Daigoro was sort of an idiot, but he was En's idiot. "How about we make Roku into my middle name?" Middle names were so rare in Japan there wasn't even a space for them on documentation, but he figured it could be his unofficial middle name.

"Sure, that will work!" Daigoro's entire face lit up. "Come on, let's go celebrate your new name."

Thus En's full name became En Roku Tayutai, but he never used his middle name because he thought the whole naming tradition was stupid. As a result, it took All for One an unusually long time to find him.


Universe #4:

En Tayutai had started working for All for One from a very young age, ever since he'd been taken into the villain's orphanage. Because of his brilliant intellect, he'd been picked for a very important spying mission. He would infiltrate the heroes and spy on the fifth successor to One for All.

Before En left, All for One gave him the fake name Syouroku.

En asked, "Did you give me a name meaning right or proper in order to trick the heroes into thinking that I'm virtuous?"

"No, I picked it because it has the character for six," All for One said mysteriously. "I know how my idiot brother and his successors think."

Sure enough, it took only five minutes of acquaintance before Daigoro insisted on becoming the personal trainer of "Syouroku."

Although All for One might have good naming abilities, he had terrible interpersonal skills. Predictably, he annoyed En so much that he defected to the hero side.

In the Void, Yoichi was surprisingly okay with En being a former spy, but refused to call him anything except Syouroku.


Universe #5:

En knocked on the office door. "May I come in?"

"Sure," Daigoro called. When En opened the door, he had his feet up on his desk as he ate Cheetos.

En braced himself for unpleasantness and cleared his throat. "Senpai, you've been using two quirks lately."

"Weird, no one else noticed." Daigoro blinked. "Uh, I mean, I work out a lot."

"I didn't even say it was strength." En narrowed his eyes. "Bodybuilding alone wouldn't explain how you broke five chairs and your pinky finger in the last week."

Daigoro mumbled something under his breath about hermits not warning him about side-effects.

En forged forward: "I'm worried that you cut a deal with the mysterious and powerful villain who can gift people quirks. Still, I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt." Also En had considered that Daigoro might be dense enough to make a deal with a villain by accident. "So I came to talk to you first, instead of telling the commission." Noticing his senpai's face becoming paler, he added, "I promise that I'll listen to you and believe you—"

In a mad panic, Daigoro screamed, "Eat this hair so you'll become an accomplice too!" He ripped off the only hair on his head and forced it into En's mouth, along with One for All.


Universe #6:

Yoichi Shigaraki was firmly convinced that it was destiny that he had the character for one in his name. As a child, he believed it meant he was destined to become number one hero. A fragile body and a cruel brother had crushed his dreams. Yoichi switched to deciding it was destiny for him to be the first One for All holder, and his hero to be the second. He got the feeling that Kaiji Kudou never paid much attention during his rants about the perfection of their names. So he made sure to drill the naming theme into his hero's head. This was very important for their destiny of defeating his evil brother.

Decades later, as Hikage Shinomori lay dying in a forest, a hero picked him up and carried him to the hospital. "What's your name?" Hikage asked, aware that he had only moments left to live.

The hero smiled in a way clearly trying to comfort the frail hermit. "I'm Daigoro Banjo, but you can call me Lariat."

"Five. Perfect," Hikage said, then pressed a bloody finger to the hero's lips. Hikage forgot to explain why the naming characters were so important before he fell over dead.

Not very long after, Daigoro arrived in the Void. In his defense, no one had even warned him about the supervillain trying to steal his quirk.

Looking around at the shadows, Daigoro said, "Huh, that All for One is a tough bastard. Nice to meet you all!"

Two heroes faced the wall. Two more lounged on thrones. Hikage waved, which was about as emotive as he ever got. However, the pretty white-haired one turned his face away, shunning Daigoro.

Marching over, Daigoro waved his hand in Yoichi's face. "Hi!"

"I'm not speaking to you," Yoichi said dramatically. "You ruined our succession!"

Daigoro tilted his head. "No, I have a successor. A brave and wonderful boy named En Tayutai."

"That's the problem!" Yoichi shrieked. "En Tayutai?! Where's the six?"

"The what now?" Daigoro asked.

"Oops, I forgot to tell him," Hikage admitted. He turned to Daigoro. "Yeah, there was some name theme that Yoichi kept ranting about. But I was dying when I found you, so I had more important priorities."

Yoichi gasped. "More important?! I'm not speaking to either of you."

At first, everyone assumed Yoichi would get over it. But by the time En arrived in the Void, Yoichi was still giving the silent treatment.

En bowed politely. "It's nice to meet all my predecessors." He went around getting their names. "Uh…does the white-haired guy not talk?"

Daigoro shook Yoichi's throne. "Hey, come meet my successor, First. Why so quiet?"

"YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID!" Yoichi shrieked.

Hikage sighed. "Will you never get over it?" He went over to poke the second and third holders facing the wall. "Can't you two talk some sense into him? This isn't En's fault, it's mine."

Loudly, Yoichi said, "I don't have a successor named En."

"Yes, you do," Daigoro said, in a tone as if he sincerely intended to be helpful.

"Humph." Yoichi turned over in his throne and looked away from them.

"What's with him?" En whispered to Hikage.

Hikage whispered back, "He's convinced you were defeated by All for One because you don't have the character for six in your name as the sixth holder. All of us followed a numerical pattern, until you."

En stared. "But you all lost too, didn't you?"

Forgetting about his vow of silence, Yoichi placed a dramatic hand on his brow. "And now we will be forever destined to lose against my brother, because only someone with the correct name can defeat him. He's like a demon that way."

En shrugged. "If it matters that much, I picked Nana Shimura for my successor."

"Nana with the character for seven?" Yoichi leapt out of his throne.

"Yes, but it's all a coincidence. I didn't even know about the naming theme," En said.

Yoichi grabbed En's hand and pumped it. "Darling boy! You've saved my legacy. Because of you, I still have hope that All for One can be defeated." He swept En up in to a hug. "You're my new favorite."

Thus peace was restored in the Void. Although the other holders quickly came to wish Yoichi would go back to being silent.


OMAKE TIME!

Yoichi: Why does my sixth successor not have the character for six in his name?

Nana: More importantly, why are you all men? Couldn't you find a single other woman? It's a sausage fest around here. I feel outnumbered.

Daigoro: Didn't you pick a man too?

Nana: I had no other choice, he had the character for eight in his name.

Yoichi: She gets it.

#

Rimu: I will redeem the name of Nakanishi by defeating All for One.

All for One: Despite my high opinion of my own evil, I still know it would take a lot more than defeating me to redeem your joke of a family name.

#

Yoichi: Funny coincidence, my older brother has the character for zero in his real name.

All for One: No, I don't. My name is—

Yoichi: I meant the author of Captain Hero, my one true brother.

#

Yoichi: Why did you break our naming pattern?

Daigoro: I thought En did have the character for six. I'm bad at kanji.

Yoichi: His first name has one syllable!

Daigoro: Actually I can't read.

#

Yoichi: Hey Syouroku, want to join us for Monopoly night?

Daigoro: Can't you call En by his real name already? It's getting tiresome.

En: It's okay. This is my penance for serving All for One as a spy.

Hikage: It's not, Yoichi doesn't care and has no ground to stand on as All for One's brother. He's just salty about having a single person break our naming pattern.

Yoichi: I don't know what you're talking about, Syouroku is my only sixth successor.

Hikage: With your level of denial, you're acting like All for One.

Yoichi: You take that back!

#

Izuku: My first time using One for All broke my arm. Why did the Fifth only break his pinky?

Daigoro: The quirk was weaker in my era. Actually I only broke my pinky finger because I punched a chair at the wrong angle.

En: I didn't break anything at all. Except my broken heart when my own senpai forced a haunted quirk on me. Oh, yeah, then All for One ripped me in two.

Daigoro: I did say that I was sorry about the fifth universe. Hikage pretty much tricked me into taking One for All and didn't tell me anything either.

Izuku: Suddenly All Might seems like the perfect teacher in comparison.

#

Yoichi: Fifth, I can't believe you forced One for All on your successor in the fifth universe—

Daigoro: I'm sorry, I panicked.

Yoichi: —Without even making sure he had the character for six in his name first.

Daigoro: …

Hikage: Ignore Yoichi, he's hopeless.

#

Daigoro: I can't find a young hero with the character for six in his name.

En: I'm the youngest of six siblings.

Daigoro: Yet your parents didn't name you sixth son. What a waste. You're such a great hero too.

En: I have six different jackets in six different colors.

Daigoro: Here I thought I was going insane because your coat kept changing color.

En: My favorite book series has six books. It's all about heroes.

Daigoro: Yoichi would approve of that, at least.

En: My favorite TV brand is Roku.

Daigoro: Know what? You're close enough. Eat this hair.

Yoichi: Not close enough! Give my quirk back!


Author's Note: I wrote this fic for Middle May, an awesome contest dedicated to the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth holders. Delete the spaces to get the contest link:
tumblr.
com/fractiflos/747788582440304640/4-5-and-6

My inspiration came from getting En Tayutai's official last name and learning he's the first holder confirmed not to have a numerical character in his name. (We don't yet have full names for Second and Third, but Kudou and Bruce may also break the trend, in which case I'll have to write something to explain them too.) Thank you to Axio for brainstorming.

The universe #5 and last omake were inspired by JaneAliceRosewood's headcanons for En. Thank you and I hope you enjoy this contest entry.