I stared at him, taking in his different look. Was this really All Might, the most famous hero in the world?
"Yes, this is my true form, Young Midoriya." He spoke like he could read my mind. "When I'm not using my quirk, I look like this."
I didn't know why All Might was telling me this or that what he'd say next would rock my world.
"My quirk is special, able to be given from one person to another. It was given to me by my teacher, who received it from her teacher, all the way to the first generation of heroes." He explained, lifting his shirt to reveal an old wound, one that looked like it hadn't ever healed properly.
"That's where Toxic Chainsaw hit you, right?" Remembering the footage of the fight I'd seen online.
"No, this is from a much more powerful. villain, the same one who killed my master." He told me, looking at my face and nodding. I guess I hit my horror poorly.
"It's not the prettiest, is it? During that fight, I won, but at a steep cost. My stomach was lost, and my respiratory system was damaged beyond repair. Since then, the time I can use my quirk has gotten shorter and shorter." He tells me, and for a second, I hope I know what he's saying, what he's about to say before I hope that I'm wrong.
"You're active for about three hours a day. That's because of your wound?" I asked, and he nodded.
"Why tell me?" I asked, watching him drop his shirt.
"Because Young Midoriya, you embody a vision, fueled by a goal to protect and save people. I believe that you are a worthy candidate to receive my quirk." He told me, and I felt my brain get a little fuzzy. Was this real?
"Me? But I'm quirkless." I finally managed to spit out, the biggest concern. How could I use a quirk when I'd never had one?
"So am I." He said calmly, and I looked at him. All Might, the most powerful person alive, was quirkless?
"But what about after? The world can't just lose you." I argued. If I agreed, then who was gonna take the responsibility? Me? I'm a fourteen-year-old kid.
"Don't worry, I'd have a spark, enough of the power to push me along until you were ready to be the next symbol of peace." He explained, and I looked at my hands. Could I do it? Was it this easy? Was I this lucky?
"I accept. I want to save people, and I was going to do that quirkless. But if I can save someone with a quirk, then I can save more people and inspire them like you do." I told him, humbled by his offer and his words. If All Might thought I could be the next Symbol of Peace, I knew I could.
"Excellent. We'll need to build up some more muscle, but you've made great strides since then. Once your body is ready, then you'll receive your quirk." He told me, and I just nodded. He could tell me I had to burn my hair off, and I'd still listen to him.
"All Might, what's it called? I mean, your quirk?" I asked him, wondering if he'd tell me. Maybe you got to name it when you got it.
All Might looked at me, and he smiled wide before he told me. "One-For-All."
From that moment on, I trained under All Might every free moment I had, using the personalized plan I'd made with the experience that he brought, we'd started pushing me to my limit, and my goal changed from normal weight lifting and learning Muay Thai to cleaning the beach he'd offered me his quirk on, no small feat for anyone, especially someone with average strength and size.
"Good work. You've been clearing out this dump way faster than I thought you could have." He told me, halfway through the beach, and I would have said something, but I was busy lugging a refrigerator through the sand at that time.
Finally, the day came, the beach had been cleared, and I had just under a month left before the U.A. entrance exam when All Might offered me the quirk in the weirdest way possible. I had to eat a piece of his hair, and as weird as that was, I did it.
"So... now what?" I asked while All Might looked at me with pride.
"It'll take a few hours to kick in. Which is why you'll be spending the day resting. Go have fun, go to an arcade, something, anything besides pushing your body." He told me, giving me a pat on the shoulder before making his way to wherever he was going.
"Okay... resting. Fun stuff... Arcade? There's one near my house, I'm sure I could find something to do." I mumbled, walking off with my head in the clouds, thinking about what there would be at an arcade. It had been so long since I'd gone, I'd been avoiding them to avoid Katsuki, who used to go there all the time with his lackeys. I wasn't worried about that anymore. Whenever we were in the same room, he'd taken to ignoring me, like I wasn't there. It made my life way easier and a lot quieter.
It was loud, and people of all ages, from young children to teens hanging out, were running around, enjoying themselves. I wondered for a moment if this was the place for me, but my eye caught an All Might plush in a vending machine, and I pulled out a little bit of the allowance money I had, taking two turns to figure out how I needed to grab it, and then using the third to finally get it.
"Woah!" A little boy with pink hair and skin laughed, excited to see someone win.
"You want it?" I asked, offering the plush to him with a smile, kneeling to his level.
"Really?" He reached for it, taking it slowly before laughing and running off excitedly.
I went around to other machines, getting more prizes and giving them out. I didn't have room for them all, and besides, they'd love them instead of looking at them as part of a collection.
"Hey you, green hair guy!" Someone called, and I looked around, finding no one else with green hair before I pointed at myself.
"Yeah, you." And I saw the owner of the voice, a girl with pink hair and skin, her eyes somewhat square-shaped with yellow irises and black sclerae, notably long eyelashes below and around the sides of her eyes, two horns on the top of her curly fluffy looking hair who decided to get way to close to my face.
"Woah." I managed to get out, taking in her features for a second before she pulled away, narrowing her eyes before finally nodding like she'd been judging me on something.
"You don't look creepy!" She decided, and I wanted to celebrate. Yay, I didn't look like a predator.
"Okay, so n-now that we've e-established that, can I h-help you?" I asked her, stuttering through my first sentence with a girl my age in weeks as the boy I'd given the All Might plush moved out from behind her slowly, nervous as he mumbled from behind the toy. "Thank you."
I felt a grin growing on my face as I waved to him.
"You're very welcome."
"Are you going to try out for a hero course? I mean, you got those crazy muscles, so it's a possibility." The girl told me, poking and prodding my arms and side, getting a ticklish laugh out of me.
"Sto-stop that, or at l-least tell me your n-name first. I'm Izuku Midoriya, and you are?" I asked her, feeling uncomfortable with her touching, but I didn't want to be rude.
"Huh? Oh yeah. I'm Mina Ashido. Nice to meet you, Izuku. This is my little brother Junsui." The little pink boy waves, and I noticed his eyes looked just like his sisters.
"So, are you trying out for a hero course? I'm hoping to get into the U.A. program." She told me, talking about her quirk at a million miles per hour, not noticing me as I wrote down what she said, and in between my notes I didn't notice her stop talking, expecting me to say something but quickly sketching her for reference.
"Whatcha doin' there buddy?" She asked, and I showed it to her, my face red as she looked over it.
She looked at the paper, then me, then back to the paper, before speaking, and I wondered if she was angry. "Can I keep this sketch? That's a pretty good eye you got for details." She told me, and I shook my head.
"I can m-make you an-another one, but I can't rip the paper. Once I do, it's not in-intact, and the p-paper always has to be perfect." I told her, probably sounding crazy but she laughed, nodding.
"Sure, but if you're gonna do that, let's do it some other time, okay? I just came in looking for Junsui. We're supposed to be helping our grandmother." She took my pen and wrote her name and number on my palm.
"Um, like a h-hangout?" I asked, feeling nervous over the idea of it.
"Yeah, like a hangout. Any guy giving out free toys can't be too bad." She told me, both she and Junsui walking away.
When I'd managed to think of something, she was pretty close to leaving, but I wanted to answer her question from earlier.
"I'm going to the U.A. entrance exam, too. I hope you make it!" I called, watching her turn and give me a thumbs up and a smile, calling back.
"I hope you make it too, Izuku!" She called back, leaving me with a wide grin. I'd managed a whole sentence with a girl without stuttering, even if most of the conversation had me reeling.
I felt pretty good about myself by the end of the day, coming home and getting ready for school, twenty-seven days to go, even if I hadn't felt the quirk kick in just yet. By tomorrow, it probably would.
The next day, I woke up and accidentally crushed my doorknob, so I was pretty certain it kicked in.
I had to explain to Mom what happened and pretend like I had no idea how I did it. But the doorknob still worked, so she didn't worry too much, just telling me that I was growing and needed to learn to watch my strength.
Once All Might knew, he had me go to the beach after school, tossing special rocks into the ocean and seeing how far they flew, little trackers on the bottom measuring the distance.
My first and shortest throw was 121.8 meters, and my longest was 838.2 meters, and I had to wonder how much further they'd have flown if the rocks had been lighter. Five pounds of ball weren't the easiest thing to throw long distance.
"Very good, Young Midoriya, very good. I commend your progress." He told me, and I wondered if that was it. Did I just have super strength now? Were we going to test it out further?
We did test it, All Might taking me to a special gym for quirks, and watching me lift over a ton, run over twenty miles an hour, and jump over twenty feet before he was satisfied with the results. It felt strange, but with time, I'd get used to using it.
"Not bad, and you should improve as time goes on. Just don't forget to keep training here ." He told me, handing me a card that would let me in here whenever I needed.
"This might be the last time we see each other for a while, at least until you get into U.A. I wanted to let you know, however, that I'm extremely proud of you." He told me, and I felt my eyes moisten slightly.
"Thank you, All Might. I'll do you proud." I told him, wiping the tears away with a big smile.