Hello people! BattleSage here! New Chapter will come out every day or two till Chapter Ten! I bet my soul and muse upon it! Please leave a review to tell me when/where I mess up! I rlly appreciate it! Thanks for reading this fic of mine! Also, I really dislike how fanon treats All Might and several chars in general. So here's a belated warning! This fic is not fanon-compliant!

'"I have no name;
I am but two days old."
What shall I call thee?
"I happy am,
Joy is my name."
Sweet joy befall thee!

Pretty joy!
Sweet joy, but two days old.
Sweet Joy I call thee:
Thou dost smile,
I sing the while;
Sweet joy befall thee!'

"I have no name; I am but two days old."

Yagi Toshinori had lived a life of many, many regrets. He had learned long before that regrets were a part of his life that he could never actually be bereft from.

Even so, there were times when he truly wished he could send a Texas Smash to the past to wallop his past self.

Toshinori gulped and took a look at the smiling teenager in front of him. He didn't even need to check to know that there were tears freely falling from his eyes.

What he had done to the young man was simply… unforgivable.

He may have been limited to only a few hours of hero work as All Might each day, but that does not give him the leeway to crush a young man's dreams underfoot.

Especially so when the young man in question had been so traumatised by his words that he had stress-manifested his Quirk. His Quirk, that seemed to have killed who he once was to make himself anew.

It was his fault that such a shining beacon of heroism, who he had deemed worthy of his own legacy, had looked so deep into the abyss that when the abyss looked back, he had been completely and utterly shattered.

There was simply no other word for it. What else could you call it when your Quirk literally split your dearest ideal at the time of the split from everything else you are?

Yagi Toshinori was many, many, many things.

On this day he learned that he was unworthy. The young man before him had gone through true hell and had preserved his heart and hope through it all. Until he met All Might.

It was on this day that the question was not whether the young man was worthy enough for his legacy, it was whether he was worthy enough to pass it on.

And so, he took the first step to begin amends.

He fell to both knees and begged for the forgiveness of the young man before him, who had lost an intrinsic part of himself because of his own thoughtless words. Words have more power than the strongest punches of the world at times.

"I am truly sorry, young Midoriya. I said some truly senseless things to you! I ask not for your forgiveness, for I don't know if I can even forgive myself had I been in your shoes, but only that you give me a chance to make amends."

He stayed on the beach, begging for forgiveness until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see a very, very teary young boy looking at him as if he had hung the stars in the sky for him.

There was a time for performances, and this was not it. So All Might began to tell the young boy before him what he had intended to do from the very beginning.

He placed his own hand over the hand that had been placed on his shoulder, looked the young lad in the eye, and began to speak. "Did you know, young… Midoriya?"

The boy cracked a smile and spoke, his voice cracking and thick with tears, "Don't worry, All Might! Midoriya Izuku is I, but it is simply the case that I am no longer Midoriya Izuku. That name is not mine. Not till We become one once more."

"Yes. If you say so, young man. Tell me when you stumble on a name you prefer, yes? Anyway," Toshinori took a deep breath. He only had one shot at this, and he would never forgive himself if he screwed it up, "Did you know, young man, that there is a tale common among all the top heroes in the world when they were still kids in school?"

The young viridescent haired young man shook his head, his eyes already tearing. He instinctively knew where this conversation was going, and that he would be told what Midoriya Izuku had yearned to hear for a very, very long time.

Toshinori smiled gently at the kid in front of him and continued, getting up to his feet for some height (he was entitled to some showboating), "they always say, when they saw an injustice in front of them, that their feet moved before they could think. Now, can you tell me what you were thinking of when you went past the barricade and tried to save the young man's life?"

Izuku, his eyes shining bright with the fires of a hope that had been nearly choked out by apathy, spoke, his voice thick and laden with emotions, "I… I wasn't really thinking. The guy's eyes, they were asking for help is all. Before I knew it, I was throwing my backpack at the Villain. It was the right thing, the only thing to do!"

He raised his eyes to meet his idol's, only to see them smiling at him, a smile filled with pride and excitement. The man tapped into his Quirk to burst into his Hero form, pointed at him and said with a booming voice that resounded deep within Izuku's soul, "No matter what, Midoriya Izuku. Quirk or Quirkless, power or powerless, you can be a Hero."

Izuku was bawling his eyes out at this point, a full decade's worth of grievances finally being exorcised by one simple sentence. One sentence said with the full weight and authority of the Symbol of Peace.

Midoriya Izuku could have become a Hero.

Behind Izuku, he could hear the sniffles of his stupid demons as they tried and failed to keep up their masks. He could hear the open sobs of Shadow within his shadow, which she had haunted after being ejected from her corresponding tattoo.

Griffon meanwhile, was guffawing at the overblown reaction of Izuku, ignoring the tears running down his own face.

"On that note, I have decided that, should you choose to accept, you can inherit my awesome power!"

It took both Izuku and Griffon several seconds to realise what they were being told.

"... What?"

Toshinori grinned, this had been something he had been looking forward to for a very long time. Even if he had messed up first impressions and kind of changed his newfound charge's life forever already, there was nothing that said he couldn't do so twice.

Right?

But first, he should probably stop the storm of mutters coming out of the boy's mouth as he tried to delve into what All Might told him exactly.

It was just as amusing as it was weirdly terrifying. All Toshinori had to do was tell the boy a single sentence for him to fall off into the realm of conspiracy theories that were both extremely wacky and yet terrifyingly close to his actual Quirk at the same time.

Before All Might could do anything about the situation to snap the kid out of it once his mutterings had gotten completely indecipherable to him, he was preempted. By a strange big green bird that came out of nowhere.

A green bird that snapped the kid out of it by slapping him with its wing and sitting on his shoulder.

"Snap out of it, you crybaby Shakespeare, let the Big Guy finish speaking! You and I both know it's ridiculous, but wait a second and hear him out, why dontcha!"

The bird turned to the 'Big Guy' and… bowed? This was a very strange day for Yagi Toshinori. The bird spoke upon bowing, with impeccable manners and poise, "I am Griffon, nightmare of the stinging thunder. I was once part of the boy who went by the name of Midoriya Izuku. You can think of me as a sentient Quirk of little ole' Crybaby Shakespeare here. We nightmares are here to help him, after all."

There was a lot to unpack from all of that, but first, "what do you mean, we nightmares?"

The bird blinked, let out a sigh and began a long-winded explanation on how exactly they came to be. It was almost the same thing he said to Izuku, too. He had practice with this particular song and dance, after all.

And so, fifteen minutes later, All Might sat down on top of a nearby refrigerator ("it's comfy!" he said, absent-mindedly, when asked) and simply stared off at nothing for fifteen minutes.

Exactly fifteen minutes later, he fully internalised everything he was told, from the fact that a Quirkless fifteen-year-old spontaneously manifested a Quirk just to prove him wrong, the fact that his Quirk apparently split him into the several integral parts of himself, that one part would probably be driven to the less… savoury parts of the world in his quest for power, and more besides.

All Might had trained beside the very best the world had to offer in many, many fields, most of which pertained to combat, battles, and tactics. He was no mere passersby to psychology, he was licensed to deal with various psychological illnesses pertaining to combat fatigue, after all.

But the boy in front of him, by all accounts, should be raving mad in an asylum.

His testimony did not make any sense whatsoever. It delightfully defied All Might's understanding of the human psyche while also making complete and total sense at the same time. All Might felt himself die a little inside when he made the connection that in order to properly train his successor, should he choose to accept the burden, he ought to probably call him.

Now, if only he could get his hands and knees to stop trembling long enough for him to call him or walk over to his house. It had been over two years since they last talked, after all. Perhaps he mellowed out in his old age?

Toshinori swore he could hear his honoured Master's laughter when that last, inane thought passed through his head. He sighed audibly for over seven seconds. A record, with his health being what it was.

So, he brought his head up to look at the boy, his bird, and the large cat at his knees. Green was the unifying factor there, and nothing else.

The personal life of All Might was a comedy, Toshinori thought to himself with a huff as he revised his speech and remembered what his Master had told him, long ago.

"Whenever I speak to reporters," Toshinori began, his voice soft and heavy, but with a genuine smile on his face, "and they bring up the subject that is my Quirk, I make a joke to distract them and divert their attention. Always. Now you know why."

The synchronised turning of their heads when the trio heard something that didn't really compute was utterly hilarious. So All Might took his Muscle Form and continued, his voice booming, "My Quirk is one of a kind! It is the power to pass on power! It is a sacred torch that has been passed down through the generations till it was handed down to me, to vanquish evil and bring prosperity to the masses!"

All Might took a deep breath. It would be alright, he had told himself when he thought of changing this part of his speech, it would be alright, because That Demon Lord is dead.

And so, he continued, "It is one Quirk made with the sole intention to bring smiles to the faces of all the people in the world! It is the Quirk that makes Villains and evildoers alike quake in their boots! THIS is my Quirk, 'One For All'!"

"And, should you choose to accept, I wish for you to be my successor."

The three who were once a boy named Midoriya Izuku were utterly dumbfounded. Whatever they expected of this meeting when they first got the message, this certainly wasn't it. Not an apology from the World's Symbol of Peace, not a good listener who tried to understand what was happening to them, even though him trying to compute what exactly was going on was hilarious to see, and…

And, they, Izuku most of all, did not expect the Number One Hero to be so impressed by him that he had decided to make him his successor!

"But," he said, his voice trembling, every inch of his body rebelling against his decision, "I have him out there, he… forgot his dreams, his hopes, who he was, in his pursuit for power. How can you be sure that I can be worthy, if he is me as well?"

Izuku felt his heart tense. It would have been wrongto take All Might's power when he was so uninformed on Izuku's own dark side. Even Izuku, Griffon and Shadow had no idea whatsoever what Midoriya (oh, how it chafed, using that name for that part of himself) would do.

How far would he go, stripped as he was of all memories, hopes and morals?

How much blood would be on Izuku's hands when he becomes whole once more?

How many people would-

Izuku felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up. He saw All Might, skinny and weakened, looking him in the eye with an uncharacteristic frown on his face, "That does not matter, young Mido-," Izuku visibly cringed at that and All Might noticed, and so, being the great hero he was, he changed his address without skipping a beat.

"Young Izuku. It does not matter what you think you could do. Even deprived of your dreams, I shall believe, as is my duty as your predecessor, that you will never stray too far from the right path. After all, young Izuku, you are a hero at heart, and your heart is big enough for trivialities like dreams and memories to hold little sway."

Izuku took a deep, shuddering breath as All Might's words truly registered themselves within him, felt his other selves simply lean on him, trusting him to make the right choice, and-

You can't be anything!

You're simply useless!

Izuku! I'm so, so sorry!

You're just a filthy

Deku!

"I-" Izuku choked on his own words, head filled with words and memories he could not remember experiencing, and spoke.

When he spoke, his words came not from a place of desperation, but from a place of hope. "I shall graciously accept this kind offer, All Might! Thank you very much! I promise that I'll live up to-" With a nudge from Griffon, Izuku changed his tune, becoming firmer, "I promise… I promise that I'll surpass your expectations! I'll save everybody I can with a smile on my face!"

Toshinori smiled, his protege was gutsy! Just how he liked it. "Alright, young man! But first, you must tell me, what is the most fundamental thing to being a hero?"

It felt wrong, almost. To immediately switch over to such a light-hearted question after the trauma dump that had been the previous two hours, but if anything else, Toshinori believed in one thing, and that thing was due process.

The kid before him was undoubtedly worthy, his bleeding heart would probably be the death of him if he did not receive proper instruction. Somewhere, an old woman feels the sudden urge to bash a previously undiscovered kind of stupidity out of a certain blonde oaf.

And so, with an explanation regarding the fundamentals of real heroics (We serve the people, not the other way around! People often forget that, but heroes are there to make sure that people live their daily lives free of non-essential worries and can smile without care everyday) and a crash course on working out, Izuku's ten-month hell began.

But, even as Izuku lifted a large safe (who drops a safe at sea?) and carried it to the dump nearby, Griffon was making a great change to his life, by asking a question he probably would have never thought of himself.

"Hey, so… Big Guy, the thingamajig, what number are ya?"

All Might, who was looking at his successor concernedly as he was lifting far more than he probably ought to be able to with his physique and lack of Qui-

All Might slapped his head. It had taken him four hours to notice that the kid was obviously physically enhanced!

Before he could brainstorm a way to make sure that the kid would be fine, he was struck by an idea. An idea that could have honestly come from the great mind of his second mentor himself!

When he looked up from his intense and very rewarding brainstorming session, he found Griffon about two inches from his face looking him dead in the eye.

The Symbol of Peace let out a very many yell as he jumped backwards. The bird did not laugh. He was waiting for an answer.

An answer he received once All Might remembered the question, which took an embarrassingly long period of time.

"Ah, yes! I am the Eighth inheritor of One For All, and when the day comes, you will be the Ninth!"

Griffon merely murmured at that, as if he was entirely unsurprised.

"Hey," he shouted at the kid, who was just barely avoiding being crushed under the weight of a safe about four times his own weight, "Crybaby Shakespeare, I think I got your name!"

"Huh?" A very woozy and tired Izuku looked up at his familiar, tried to move… pretty much anything at all, failed, and promptly decided that right then would be a good time to take a nap.

It took him five minutes to recover. Five long, hellish minutes filled with a panicking All Might dousing him with ice-cold water, the laughing hyena that was Griffon, and worst of all, the silent mirth emanating from Shadow.

"So?" a very disgruntled and under-dressed Izuku said, his coat and shirt hanging out to dry, "I'm sorry for being so cut-and-dry, but I truly do not appreciate being thrown under the bus."

All Might laughed nervously in his normal form, before ceding the stage to Griffon. "So, kid. I just asked All Might, and it looks like you will be Torchbearer Number Nine! Like that… other name that one guy gave Izuku, this can be misinterpreted from your name too!"

Griffon grinned at the unnamed boy, and spoke, "Well, you ain't gonna love some fancy schist, so let's make your name a pun on who you are, shall we? So, let's call ya Kyū! How do you like it? It's awesome, right? I came up with it, after all!"

Izu- Kyū smiled, it just seemed right. Like one last puzzle piece that he had not known was missing had finally fitted into place. "Yeah. I love it, you stupid bird."

All Might simply smiled at the scene before him, at the newfound brotherhood between boy and demon bird, before discreetly taking a picture. It was a very touching scene and he wanted it for posterity.

Once they had all snapped out of it, he smiled at his protege and spoke, "Hello Kyū, my name is Yagi Toshinori, and I want to teach you how to be a Pro-Hero."

Kyū smiled at the Number One his mentor, and gave a watery smile. Of course, his response could possibly have been heard from one end of the beach to the other, "Of course! I am in your capable hands! Shishou!"

Toshinori smiled gently at his protege, before his smile took a more demonic tint, "Now, you have ten months till the entrance exams, so you better be ready to experience death at least seven times by then. We have to get your body up to par first, but then, we will need you to get your combat instincts, basics of your style, and finally, the bare minimum of your Quirk figured out."

"You can't get out of this contract, kid. There was no dead man's clause."

All Might had never claimed to have been sadistic, but he had excellent teachers.

He may have enjoyed it a tiny bit too much, though.

Elsewhere

"So Doctor, how is the new Project going?"

"Splendid, sir! I believe he will be ready for activation within a year! His Quirk factor, his baseline strength, everything blows the initial Noumu I could have created straight out of the water! He could possibly go head-to-head with the blonde oaf at his prime! As expected of you, sir!"

"Leave his consciousness be. He will be loyal."

"Are… you sure sir? Even Gigantomachia-"

"Are you questioning me Doctor?"

"Of- of course not!"

"I thought so. Leave his consciousness be. Let him revel in the pain his pursuit for power will bring him. Never let him lose his consciousness, Doctor."

"Y-yes sir! Splendid! That would give me more time to integrate more Factors and Plus Alpha genes! Are you sure a dead man's switch won't be necessary, sir?"

"No, indeed, Doctor. I have a special present for him in the unlikely scenario that he strays from his path."

"Of course sir, I shall begin right away!"

Power. It is all for power, so I shall never lose. Power, so I shall never be weak again!

So... Um... That happened. I wonder what long-standing repurcussions that will have for the future. It certainly will be small, and not break the canon timeline into pieces, right?

Right?

Ahem. Anyway, thanks for reading! Obligatory Discord- /cuYSXesV5j

Does anybody know where good ole' Toshinori lost his empathy? I think it's right next to his picture with Kyū on his desk. Somebody probably ought to hand it to him. Kyū desperately wants it.