'I see the Four-fold Man, The Humanity in deadly sleep
And its fallen Emanation, the Spectre and its cruel Shadow.
I see the Past, Present and Future existing all at once
Before me. O Divine Spirit, sustain me on thy wings,
That I may awake Albion from his long and cold repose;
For Bacon and Newton, sheath'd in dismal steel, their terrors hang
Like iron scourges over Albion: reasonings like vast serpents
Infold around my limbs, bruising my minute articulations.

I turn my eyes to the schools and universities of Europe
And there behold the Loom of Locke, whose Woof rages dire,
Wash'd by the Water-wheels of Newton: black the cloth
In heavy wreaths folds over every nation: cruel works
Of many Wheels I view, wheel without wheel, with cogs tyrannic
Moving by compulsion each other, not as those in Eden, which,
Wheel within wheel, in freedom revolve in harmony and peace.'

"Hey! Crybaby Shakespeare!"

Izuku was on a stone path of sorts, walking aimlessly when he heard the snarky voice coming from all around him. He couldn't remember exactly how he had ended up where he did, but he knew that he was safe, at the very least.

Izuku didn't really know where he was or why he was following the old beaten path, but he knew that this was something that he simply had to do, if he wished to follow his dreams.

So, he did.

Izuku walked down the beaten path, made of flattened earth and not much else. Izuku walked. And walked. And walked. Until the old cobbled stone road began to change around him.

Izuku stopped walking an old stone road and found himself walking a modern pathway, between modern buildings. The transition between endless darkness and modern surroundings had been so seamless that it had not even registered to Izuku until he almost bumped into a building while mindlessly following the road, placing one foot in front of the other.

"Ha! Ya really need to work on paying attention to your surroundings, crybaby master of mine. 'Specially if it's so bad that you can't see a concrete building right in front of ya! Ha! I probably could do that in my sleep. Seeing as, ya know, I literally can't."

Izuku, startled out of his reverie by the impromptu monologue by the voice literally talking to him out of thin air for no apparent reason. Why him? He was Midoriya Izuku. He was so useless that it was literally what he answered to. (where did that come from? He had been Izuku all his life, nothing more, nothing less) It wasn't like he was specia-

"Wow, I mean, I called ya a crybaby Shakespeare, I didn't expect ya to live up to the title so quickly. Well, I didn't expect ya to start spiralling so soon either, but I guess we all have a breaking point. Midoriya Izuku, of course, hit his when you came into existence."

Izuku felt a tingling of fear deep within himself as the voice continued rambling wqithout any input from himself whatsoever. "What do you mean? I am Midoriya Izuku. I was born in Musutafu General Hospital on July 15 2xxx. I always had the one dream, that All Might himself said was valid! I'm gonna become a Pro Hero and save as many people as I can with a smile on my face, just like All Might!"

"Ya see, boss-man, there is a problem with that. You aren't Midoriya Izuku. Not anymore. Midoriya Izuku discarded us all as unnecessary on that rooftop with his Quirk when All Might told him that he couldn't cut it as a Hero." The voice paused as Izuku struggled to contemplate what he was being told, and continued with a harsh laugh, "you really don't get it, do you? You are Midoriya Izuku, but Midoriya Izuku is not you. Midoriya Izuku discarded you as unnecessary when he discarded his hopes, dreams, and all that made him good in the pursuit of power."

"And how do you know all that too? Who are you anyway?" Izuku was about two seconds from breaking down, not because what the disembodied voice made no sense, no.

Izuku was halfway to breaking down because what the disembodied voice that he had never heard before in his life that seemed way too overly familiar to him made almost too much sense.

"I know all of that, my dear crybaby Shakespeare, 'cuz I was discarded too. I am all the sharp, stinging words ever spoken against Izuku. I am the shattering Midoriya Izuku's heart went through every time he was taken for less then he was for reasons beyond his control. I am the nightmares held deep within him that chained him to the ground, binding his wings and preventing him from reaching his full potential."

In front of Izuku, the shadows gathered together and formed together into a four-winged nightmarish bird that let out a good-natured laugh when it, he saw that Izuku's reaction to his appearance was nothing but intense curiosity without an ounce of fear. "I was expelled from Midoriya Izuku for being the wings bound by simple words, for being too weak to escape the chains of spiteful words and one phrase that followed him for over a decade. I am the Nightmare Bird Who Comands Lightning. Call me Griffon, kid."

Izuku hesitated. That had been quite the grandiose opening act. But he supposed that his grand theatrical bits had to go somewhere, after all. And Midoriya Izuku had a sense of theatre. He just never had the chance to develop it much. And so, with all the sincerity he could muster, Izuku spoke. "Alright. I guess I should get a new name for myself, but I'm Midoriya Izuku. Nice to meet you, let's be friends, Griffon!"

As he extended his dominant arm to the bird, he almost fell to the ground. For some reason his arm began burning the moment he spoke Griffon's name. It felt worse than a burn, however. It was like his heart was being ripped out and healed over and over as, through Izuku's tear ridden eyes, he saw tattoos forming all over his body.

"What," Izuku spoke through gritted teeth for fear of biting his tongue off, "is going on, Griffon?!"

"Oh don't you worry, you crybaby Shakespeare with a backbone, its just that we unwanted bits ought to stick together, ya know? The others really don't know how to talk, so they just made me deal with the making of the contract and all that jazz. Just know that we shall always have your back, you may be a crybaby Shakespeare, but you're our crybaby Shakespeare, got it?"

Izuku, out of the ridiculous amounts of pain he had been in and ever so slightly delirious, nodded at that. The bird grinned at that and began to speak. Izuku had not known that birds could grin before right that very instant, but shoved down his morbid curiousity when Griffon began speaking, because he sounded more serious than he had before.

"Now, you can summon all three of us in the waking world with impunity. I, of course, am the most badass and can incapacitate just about anybody with my shocks and lightning. Don't worry about tempering my power, you crybaby!" Izuku flinched and stopped the objection rising up his throat. That had been exactly his worry. "Yes,yes. Don't forget that I, we, are in fact part of ya and can guess what you are thinking at any given point in time if we so want to. Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, blasting schmooks with impunity. Don't worry! The only guy capable of killing things is the big guy, and that is cuz he's… different. Don't call the big guy too much, alright? He'll be the death of ya."

The bird took a deep breath and jumped up on top of Izuku's shoulder, where his corresponding tattoo was, and continued speaking, "Me and the big silly cat are nightmares. We are memories. We hold but impressions of pain, nothing more, nothing less. Where I hold the pains that Midoriya Izuku's heart endured, the cat, whose name is Shadow, by the way, don't you forget it, is the culmination of all the physical pains Midoriya Izuku had to go through. She is the Nightmare Cat of Shadows And Pain."

"We Nightmares can't kill, only incapacitate. Whoever heard of memories killing somebody, right?" Izuku smiled at that, fully aware that there existed people whose nightmares had very much been the death of themselves. "But why isn't Shadow here?"

Griffon blinked at that question and looked at Izuku like he was stupid. Which he might very well be. Izuku sometimes forgot common, simple things when he started thinking and acted stupid. Only sometimes, however. He was pretty sure this was not one of those times. He had asked a valid question!

"What did I say the cat was a Nightmare of, do you remember?" Izuku very much remembered. It was of shadows and pain. But how was that relevant to his-

The nightmare bird was pointedly looking down, at Izuku's shadow.

Oh.

"Oh."

"Yes. Oh. She doesn't like coming out in dreams. Makes her remember some bad experiences. Just call her out to cuddle when you're awake. She likes cuddles."

Izuku nodded. That made perfect sense. There was just one bit that bothered him, however. "Griffon?"

"Yeah, crybaby Shakespeare?"

"Why is a big part of me a girl?"

"Cuz a big part of you is a girl, crybaby idiot. Live with it. Thrive in it. When we are Midoriya Izuku again, make your peace with it."

"Oh."

"Anyway, go train with All Might, crybaby Shakespeare! You'll need it! Just don't be an idiot about it, alright?"

"But… I'm so behind! I don't know how to ask you all to help me properly yet! I don't know what to do about the me with the mutation Quirk running around for no apparent reaason. I don't know how to become Midoriya Izuku again. I don't know what my original Quirk would have been like. I don't know if I can live up to-"

"Listen to me, you crybaby, I ain't gonna repeat myself ever again, so you better listen close. You are everything that is good about Midoriya Izuku, and maybe a bit more. You are the wings that have been left unchained after years and years of stolen freedom. You may not be Midoriya Izuku, but Midoriya Izuku is you, and that is a fact that is entirely indubitable. If you can't believe in yourself, believe in us, who believe in you from the very depths of ourselves."

"You are the best that Midoriya Izuku has to offer, kid. You are the Unclipped Wings of The Imprisoned Hermes. You ain't tame no more. Go wild! Become the best hero that you can be! Tell everybody in the world that-"

"I AM HERE! WITH THE MORNING!"

Izuku snapped awake at the sound of his limited edition All Might alarm clock, which he had set for the ungodly hour that was half-past four in the morning. Because All Might had asked him to come to Dagobah Municipal Beach. Where he would train him.

Because All Might wanted to give him, Midoriya Izuku (part of Midoriya Izuku, semantics) formerly Quirkless nobody, his own Quirk.

Because All Might had found him worthy.

Izuku was up in a snap and had dressed himself in the black leather clothes he had worn the previous day, because he had somehow gained two inches overnight and had nothing else that could fit him.

And the style was growing on him. Perhaps it was the Griffon in him. But the same part rejected parts of the costume, simply because it was way too tacky.

The sleeveless coat was… fine. It needed some personality, however. Izuku already had a shirt maker from several centuries prior to help make his punny shirts. How hard could revamping an already stylish leather coat possibly be?

Izuku hadn't ever actually gone for the 'goth' look, but he could certainly feel the appeal. Perhaps he could have gone for it. If he were thirteen.

Actually wearing the getup he had the previous day, including the silver staff that his mom hadn't immediately confiscated for being a dangerous object over two kilos in weight and three feet in length from his room was weird.

Izuku won't say much, just that he wore very sturdy red boots for a reason. His feet and long metal objects did not have a good history with each other.

Speaking of, he had walked around for an entire day without his shoes and somehow had managed to not have to visit the hospital for a Foot-Related-Incident.

Izuku felt his face heat up as he remembered the events of the previous day run through his head once more. He felt a really strong urge to scream into his pillow.

"I… I sassed All Might and he just laughed! All Might wants to train me! I passed out in front of All Might! All Might knows my name and where I live! How do I tell Mom? What do I do? Is there a procedure for this kind of- OW!"

Izuku's rant had been stopped from his rambling by a well-placed wing to the face, courtesy of his newfound and newly manifested other self (presumably) and friend. "I know it's a lot to take in, but by the gods, just leave the talking to me, alright? Sheesh, I thought I and Shadow took all your traumas from ya the day before yesterday. Why are you still so… you?"

Izuku, snapped from his near-panic, rubbed his face and looked accusingly at his new friend and demon, "what does that even mean? I'm still Izuku Midoriya, even if Midoriya Izuku ain't me, not really. I know that. I can deal with that. But what on earth do you mean about traumas?"

The nightmare bird got very silent, a behaviour that Izuku, after only a solid half an hour of meeting him, was uncharacteristic of him. Before he could ask what was wrong, the bird chirpily said, "Hey, don't ya got that meeting with the Big Guy about something in an hour? Why ain't ya panicking 'bout that?"

Izuku glared at the obvious attempt at misdirection. What did the dang bird think he was? Four? He wouldn't fall for such an obvious-

Izuku had opened his notebook, where All Might had given him his autograph, where on the next page was a place and a time written in a neat, small handwriting that very clearly juxtaposed the flashy autograph from the page just before it.

Izuku checked his alarm clock as he absent-mindedly thought about how his life's idol seemed to know that he would prefer the other sides of the pages he had used for the autograph empty and how considerate he was. A hero sometimes was a hero always, after all. No matter what All Might might say about that.

The bird spawned from nightmares let out a sigh of relief as his partner let out a high-pitched squeal upon realising that he had only about an hour before the established meeting time with his idol several kilometres away.

The boy hurriedly put together a decent outfit to wear, which ended up pretty close to what he wore upon being… ejected. The differences were simple, but easily noticeable. For one, he wore his red boots under his pants, a long-sleeved green shirt he had for a long time for no particular reason under the jacket, and finally, perhaps most importantly of all, he wore a hat to cover the changes to his hair.

Something told Griffon that the hat wouldn't stay. Said something was glaring at the hat, willing it to spontaneously combust. Where on earth Izuku Midoriya found a trucker's hat that read 'hat' would be beyond Griffon's mental capacity. He didn't, as he had forgotten to profess to Izuku-who-needs-a-new-name (oops), have any particular memories of their shared past.

Neither for that matter, does Shadow. Only instincts. Shadow's were to slink in the shadows and remain out of sight, while Griffon's would be loudly exclaiming his location for all to hear, to divert attention from someone else to himself.

Izuku's, it would seem, would be to run straight to danger and cook up a gamble that would help him reach his goal.

They were truly one hell of a trio.

Izuku (It was becoming a point of distaste for Griffon that he had absolutely no idea what to name the embodiment of Izuku's humanity) had managed to reach the place described in his notebook by All Might's hand five minutes early while Griffon had been mentally characterising himself and Shadow.

While they waited, Griffon discovered two new things. One, when manifested, he had absolutely no ability to concentrate on anything at all. Two, that Izuku's jacket had pockets, one of which happened to contain a book on poetry, of all things.

It had the Roman numerals 'IX' engraved on it and had lots, and lots, and lots of English poems by some dude called William Blake. Griffon reckoned that beggars couldn't be choosers, and began to leaf through the pages, reading whatever caught his eye.

Reading poems several centuries out of date in a language that was not your own turned out to be a great way to kill time. All Might arrived fifteen minutes late, on the dot. He blinked when he saw Izuku and a bird staring intently at a book. At a poem that seemed to fir their circumstances a bit too well…

What else could they call themself, other than the four-fold man? They weren't exactly all man, or four, per se. But that was semantics.

Before the bird-kid duo could slip off into the havens that were their own minds, they were snapped out of it by the thinner form of All Might tapping his shoulder bemusedly.

After a minute-long freakout, in which Griffon decided that the best course of action for himself would be to return to Izuku stealthily before-

"A-ALL MIGHT! I'm So sorry for what happened the day before yesterday! I'm so sorry for brushing you off like that and forcing you to take me all the way to my house despite your injuries and my pathetic behaviour! I'm sorry for interfering where I didn't need to and stopping the Pro Heroes from doing their jobs! I- I know that becoming a Hero while being Quirkless is a ridiculous dream, and I'm sorry for dumping my expectations on you. I know that I should not have done that, and that-"

That.

Griffon sighed internally as Izuku went on and on with his self-sacrificing speech. Before he could stop him from digging himself all the way down to the centre of the Earth, however, something unexpected happens.

Something unexpected to Griffon, at least.

All Might, the Number One Hero of Japan, perhaps of the entire world, the Symbol Of Peace that had almost single-handedly brought forth the new era of peace to the world after centuries of strife, got down on one knee and hugged Izuku.

The act was so unexpected that it made Izuku eject both Griffon and Shadow from their comfortable resting space in his body and shadow respectively. Not that they minded. They were just as gobsmacked as he was. Griffon had the feeling that if the other guy had emotions, he would have been gobsmacked too.

"I… I am so sorry, my boy. I was wrong."

All Might in his shrunken form, it turned out, could put all of his gravitas and personality into his voice, just like his bigger self. But unlike his bigger self, he spoke quietly, slowly. Where All Might the hero spoke loudly to inspire hope wherever he goes, All Might the person spoke quietly, to fix his mistakes, to reignite the dreams of one person.

Griffon… didn't know what exactly he could say to that. had stopped working right about when he had been hugged, so he was of no use in this situation. All Might was under the impression that he was talking to a green haired-and-eyed Quirkless teen, not a green-haired and heterochromatic one.

Hopefully the Number One Hero wouldn't notice how blatantly different the kid looked. He couldn't have possibly had a close enough look to memorise Midoriya Izuku's eye colour, right?

"My boy, I… I feel that I must apologise, but there are two questions I must ask you, and depending on your answers, I have an offer to make to you. My first question is whether you truly are Quirkless?"

had returned basic functions to nominal capability, enough so that he could answer the question without Griffon's interference. "Midoriya Izuku was Quirkless all his life."

At All Might's questioning gaze, Izuku continued, his voice quivering, fully aware of what he was telling the kind man in front of him. A man that Izuku dared to hope was going to tell him what he wished to hear all his life. He gathered his wits and spoke, levelling his voice so as to give the most information in the least amount of time possible. "Midoriya Izuku died two days ago, when his dreams were crushed by his idol in life. His Quirk spontaneously manifested due to the stress of the situation and his overwhelming feelings and ended him."

Izuku looked at the horrified face in front of him and rushed through his explanation. "Midoriya Izuku may have been killed, but he did not die! Um, his, my Quirk, split him into the most fundamental parts of himself, but skewed heavily towards furthering his goal at the time."

The skeletal blonde in front of Izuku gulped and hesitantly asked, his voice choking and full of emotions, "And- and what was his goal?"

Izuku simply looked at him and spoke simply, his voice dead and emotionless, "his dearest wish was to never be powerless ever again." Even speaking without emotion, those five words were full of emotion. Izuku continued as his idol fell to his knees before him, "his one singular goal was to never have the word liability ever associated with himself ever again. But his Quirk was no miracle worker."

Izuku took a shuddering breath, his face level with the kneeling shrunken form of the Number One Hero, "I can tell you that I spontaneously manifested my Quirk after I slipped to unconsciousness when you came to talk to me. It's true, even, in a way! All Might… You're my hero. I- I don't want to- If you- I'm afraid."

Izuku took a shuddering breath, coming face to face with what he who was not himself had done not two days prior. "Midoriya Izuku's Quirk is named Yamato. It is the sword that can cut all. It can split the demon from the human."

All Might's face had gotten painfully still, his ever-present comforting smile gone, his eyes wide with horror at the words coming out of the young boy's mouth.

The boy, who spoke about an absurd Quirk and the further absurdity it had done unto him. "With one wish in his heart and the power to bring it to fruition in his hand, Midoriya Izuku, when he was at his weakest, decided that he wanted power above all else. Nothing was worth stopping for in the pursuit of power."

The boy, whose tears flowed freely, spoke, "And so Midoriya Izuku ran himself through with his sword, and split himself into the part that wanted power, and everything else. Including his memories, dreams, loves, traumas and nightmares."

The boy smiled a watery smile. It was the bravest, most beautiful smile Yagi Toshinori had ever seen.

"Hello. Midoriya Izuku is I, but I am not Midoriya Izuku. I am his humanity. I am the weakness left behind in his blind pursuit of power. I have no name, for I am but two days old."

His heterochromatic eyes stared at All Might as he waited for his hero to answer, his hat slipping off his head by a particularly strong gust of wind, showing off his now viridescent hair.

He was the same boy All Might had met two days prior. But All Might could tell that he had changed.

There were some days when the Number One Hero wished he could blame his incompetence entirely on his chronic pain and injury.

There were some days when the Symbol of Peace would wish that he could do things slightly differently.

It was rare however, for there to be a day where Yagi Toshinori would curse his own self with every ounce of his being and wish for the ability to go back to the past.

Elsewhere

A demon seeking power encountered a demon lord who once had it all. The demon fought the demon lord and piqued his curiosity. The demon lord decided to grant the demon's wish, for the small price of his free will.

The demon accepted the offer without a single ounce of hesitation. He would be a Deku no longer.

Power makes the world go round after all.

Wasn't that right? Kacchan?

Yeah, um.. why, hello there! You know the drill. Comment/Leave a review if you see anything particularly egregious. Booyah- /cuYSXesV5j for long talks where i get very, very dissed. Or worse, praised! Anyway, thanks for reading!