Banjo took Hikage to the side while the other ghosts were still wading through their existential crisis.
"Man," he said, "Hikage, bro. You know I love you."
"You do?"
"Like... at least eighty-five percent of the time."
"Ah, continue."
"But next time you think one of us has a secret relative out there, you've got to say something so we don't get blindsided."
"You're sure?"
"Positive."
"Alright, then. I couldn't help but notice that both Ninth's mother and 'Tomura' share a strong resemblance to Nana."
"... I've changed my mind."
.
Although Midoriya Inko had abandoned the tech conference as soon as she heard about the attack on the USJ, she, unlike the mist villain, could not teleport. Therefore, Izuku was stuck in the nurse's office even after he had woken up and paramedics had confirmed that his injuries began and ended at bruises and quirk exhaustion. (And a potentially fractured bone in his foot, but that wasn't worth mentioning.)
Sitting next to the police officer with nothing to do was... awkward. Very awkward. His hands itched for his notebooks, but everything they brought to the USJ was evidence, and he hadn't been allowed to go back to the classroom. He wanted to know what happened to his classmates and Mr. Aizawa, who he hadn't seen since he ran away from the plaza and left him with the hand villain, and Mr. Yagi, who had really taken a beating from Nomu. Danger Sense was quiet, relatively speaking, but Float was just waiting to be used and tested.
Plus, he really, really had to talk to Mr. Yagi about that. Loads of his classmates had seen him use Float. How was he supposed to explain having Float right after telling them he probably had a sensory quirk?
Plus, if he got Float, it stood to reason that he'd get all the other One for All users' quirks as well. So he had to figure out how to make Danger Sense, Float, Smokescreen, Blackwhip, and a strength enhancement all look like the same quirk. Which, maybe they were, technically, considering that Monoma had sensed One for All as a single quirk but whatever was going on with the mist villain as multiple quirks...
Point was, One for All definitely functioned as multiple quirks.
Would his friends think he was lying? No, he'd definitely proven Danger Sense existed by predicting, however loosely, the attack.
"Hey, Tamakawa."
Izuku and the officer looked up at one of the detectives who had come to take initial statements. His name was... Tsukauchi, Izuku thought. Mr. Yagi (as Mr. Yagi) was standing behind him.
"I can take it from here. I have a few more questions for Midoriya."
"Yes, sir. Midoriya." He nodded at them as he left the room.
"How are you feeling, Young Midoriya?" asked Mr. Yagi, taking the officer's spot with a slight groan.
"Uh, better than this morning, actually," he said. "But, um, but what about you? That Nomu guy kept, um..." His eyes trailed towards the detective.
"Ah, this is Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa. He's an old friend of mine. He knows... well, just about everything about me."
Izuku nodded slowly. "So, he knows about, um..."
"I know about One for All," said Tsukauchi.
"Oh," said Izuku. He rapidly gathered together his thoughts, trying to decide what the most important piece of information he had to impart was. "Do you know what happened to Mr. Aizawa? And Ingenium?"
That was most definitely not a piece of information. Stupid brain.
"The portal villain, Kurogiri, teleported Aizawa off UA grounds, but he was able to get help quickly after that. Ingenium had some injuries that need a specialist, so he went home. They'll be alright, but they'll probably have to take a few days off."
"Yes," said Tsukauchi, giving Mr. Yagi one of the driest looks Izuku had ever seen. "Because you heroes are so good about that."
"Teaching isn't exactly strenuous, Naomasa."
"Remind me again how you got injured this time."
Mr. Yagi made a face Izuku would have found hilarious under other circumstances. "That's different," he said, plaintively.
"Is it though?"
Mr. Yagi coughed. "Now, Midoriya, my boy... I'm sure you have things you want to talk about... I think I glimpsed you soaring through the air, earlier. Did you unlock the enhancement aspect of One for All?"
"No," said Izuku. "Not exactly."
.
"Well," said Mr. Yagi. "That's, hm. Certainly something."
"Sorry," said Izuku.
"You have nothing to apologize for, my boy," said Mr. Yagi, patting his knee. "In fact, it's a good thing that you got Float this time. I'd be at a loss about what to do with Smokescreen or Blackwhip. But I'm fairly familiar with my master's quirk, and, well, there's someone else who I should... get back into contact with..." Mr. Yagi force the words out as if they had physically pained him to say.
Which they might have. He did have the whole... coughing... thing. Maybe he was just trying to hold one back?
"Mr. Yagi? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine."
"Okay, are you sure?" He wasn't sure if he wanted to bring the next part up if Mr. Yagi wasn't feeling well.
"Yes," said Mr. Yagi. "I just, hm. It's just... history."
Izuku nodded. "So, um. Did you hear Monoma say that the mist guy - Kurogiri? - had multiple quirks, too? Like Nomu?"
The mood plummeted.
"Yes," said Tsukauchi. "He told me, and I told Toshinori. It appears that Kurogiri's warp quirk is actually several different quirks working as one. Merged together, almost."
Izuku nodded. "I was just wondering... One for All can be passed on, so... are there other quirks like that? Like, if the first person with One for All had family members or something? Or..." Izuku trailed off. Mr. Yagi now looked actively ill. "Did I say something wrong?"
"Toshinori," said Tsukauchi, "you mean you didn't tell him already?"
"In my defense, I thought he was extremely dead."
"What- Who are you talking about?"
"My boy... I think it's time to tell you a story of two brothers..."
.
"So, One for All comes with a built in nemesis? Who may be immortal?"
"That- He's not... It would appear so."
"I am somehow both surprised and not."
.
"There's one more thing I wanted to ask you about before your mother arrives," said Mr. Yagi.
"Please tell me it's not something worse, like me being a descendant of the guy," requested Izuku, picking the worst, most ridiculous thing he could think of.
Tsukauchi snorted, then covered the noise up with a cough.
"I seriously doubt that All for One could maintain a romantic relationship of any kind," said Mr. Yagi, "and even if you were, it wouldn't really matter. I mean, his own brother hated his guts."
.
"That's a bit extreme..." murmured Yoichi.
"Considering some of the rants we've gotten you to go on," said En, "it really isn't."
"Maybe. Maybe not. But the rest of it-" Yoichi promptly left to harass Second and Third.
"How can you two be so close and yet so far?" mourned Nana. "How are you so smart and so dumb at the same time?"
"In Ninth's defense," said En, "he doesn't know what All for One looks like."
"Surely he knows what his father looks like. He sees his picture almost every day," said Hikage.
"Admittedly, I could have phrased that better, but are you rubbing that in, or are you serious? I've known you for, like, half a century and I still can't tell."
.
Despite the example being a joke, Izuku felt much better after hearing that.
"But, no, this subject is relatively neutral and nothing so dramatic. I was hoping to get your permission to tell young Aizawa about One for All."
Izuku opened and closed his mouth several times. "H-huh? Why? And why do you want my permission? You don't need my permission."
"One for All is your quirk, now," said Yagi, "and your secret. It's up to you who knows about it. Outside of an emergency, I suppose. As for why in general..." Mr. Yagi sighed. "There are things young Aizawa needs to know about the villains with multiple quirks and All for One. I can't tell you the details right now, but with how One for All is manifesting in you, if he only knows about All for One, it would be very easy for him to make incorrect assumptions."
"Oh," said Izuku. He could certainly see how that could be dangerous. He didn't want his teacher to associate him with a villain like that.
"Also, if he knows what's happening, it will be easier for him to help you," finished Mr. Yagi hopefully.
Izuku thought about it. "I guess that would be alright. But... He's not the only person who'll know about my quirk being weird and All for One, right? I mean, the Hero Commission, at least..."
"To be entirely honest with you, I tell the HPSC as little as possible about All for One and One for All."
"What? Why?" asked Izuku.
"Well-"
"Izuku!"
"Mom!"
"I'll explain later," said All Might quickly.
.
Kurogiri passed a damp washcloth over the burns on his neck. The metal of his collar was a conductor, and the charge the young man with the electricity quirk had sent through it had been significant. It was only natural for it to get hot, for it to burn.
He should go to the Doctor... Some of the collar's functionality seemed to be damaged. He brushed his mist covered fingers over the cool metal.
Tomura wouldn't tell the Doctor. Kurogiri cared deeply for Tomura, but the young man was certainly shallow and unlikely to realize the extent of Kurogiri's injuries. He was more likely to focus on his own, not insignificant, wounds.
In contrast to those, Kurogiri's paled. He wasn't nearly as important as Tomura, after all.
It should be fine to let his wounds and the collar be. It would do what it was supposed to and protect the vulnerable areas of his body, internal damage or no. He just had to be careful of the burns becoming infected, especially since he couldn't see them.
Sometimes, he wished his body was like it was before...
Kurogiri frowned at the thought even as it faded from his consciousness. He had been created by All for One fully formed. His body had always been like this.
Hadn't it?
.
Shouta had been in and out of consciousness the past few hours. Apparently he'd never been in serious danger of dying, except from shock, which was just his body being dramatic and didn't count. All his major organs were free of serious damage. He just had to regain his stamina so that Recovery Girl could heal him up, and then he'd be fine.
Unlike Tensei, apparently, who had cracked one of his engines, which needed specialist help and surgery to realign the pieces. Or All Might, who had taken hits to his old injury, and needed to take time off or lose more time from his hero form. Or his students, who hadn't been seriously injured but who were probably traumatized.
The last time he had woken up, though, Hizashi had been there. Now, All Might, Nezu, and Detective Tsukauchi were there.
"Thought I already gave my statement," said Shouta.
"You did," said Tsukauchi.
"We're here to give you more information about the attack, I'm afraid," said Nezu.
"Information I won't like?"
"It can wait until you feel better, of course."
"That's illogical," said Shouta. "The sooner I get the information, the more time I have to process it."
All Might, Yagi, sighed. "Nomu and the portal-using villain both had multiple quirks."
Shouta frowned. "You mean, they had quirks with multiple aspects?"
"No," said Nezu. "As Yagi said, they had multiple quirks. This was confirmed by both the villains' comments and by Monoma, who made contact with the portal villain and was able to copy multiple quirks."
"Kurogiri," said Shouta. "That's what the other one called him. Shigaraki."
Nezu nodded. "Indeed. We weren't sure you had heard that." He tapped his paws together. "What we are about to tell you is classified. We are only sharing it with you because of your unique position and history."
"In the wrong hands, it could cause a lot of damage," said Yagi.
Only two things kept Shouta from leaping out the window and escaping: the fact that he was basically immobilized in plaster casts and the fact that his students were already involved in whatever this was.
"Great. What is it?"
"To begin," said Tsukauchi, "Monoma said he was able to copy three quirks from Kurogiri."
"That's up from what he could do before," observed Shouta. Stress did push quirks to improve, sometimes, although Shouta hated for the improvement to be associated with trauma.
Tsukauchi nodded. "He made note of that as well. He said he picked up a quirk that allowed him to turn his body parts into portals that led to other body parts, a quirk allowed him to temporarily teleport his body parts, and..." he trailed off.
"And a quirk that at the very least bears a strong resemblance to Shirakumo Oboro's Cloud."
"What are you saying?" asked Shouta, ignoring the way his heart had almost stopped.
"At the moment? Only that it is very strange that Kurogiri had a quirk like that, and sent you to the place where Shirakumo Oboro died."
"Oboro would never-"
"We're not saying that," interrupted Yagi. He coughed into his hand. "There's more context. Have you ever heard of the quirk bogeyman?"
.
"I can't wait to never sleep again I'm my entire life," said Shouta.
"Wait," said Tsukauchi, "it gets worse."
"How could it get worse?"
"Naomasa, you're supposed to be on my side," complained Yagi.
"I am. That's why I'll stop Eraserhead here from trying to kill you after you finish explaining."
"Well, it has to do with young Midoriya's quirk..."
.
"Let me get this straight, you gave the quirk with an immortal supervillain archenemy attached to a child... and didn't tell him that the supervillain existed."
"When you say it like that, it sounds really bad-"
"It is really bad-!"
.
"If I'd known he was still alive-"
"What part of immortal do you not understand?"
"Shouta, I, too, believed that All for One-"
"Shut up, Nezu! I don't have the energy to be mad at both of you right now!"
.
Yagi, Tsukauchi, and Nezu were all shown out by an irate nurse while a different but equally irate nurse replaced the plaster cast on Shouta's arm.
It had definitely been worth it.
.
Just because school was canceled, that didn't mean training was canceled.
... except it did, both because Inko was too stressed to let Izuku out of the house, and because Mr. Yagi had a meeting to go to about the attack.
But the second day after the attack was a different story!
That morning, Mr. Yagi pulled up in front of Izuku's apartment in Hercules (still so cool!) and picked him up.
Izuku bounced enthusiastically into the car and then froze. "Oh my gosh, what happened to your eye? Was it a villain? How hard did they hit you?" his hands fluttered. "I have some cream-"
"Oh," said Mr. Yagi, "no need, young Midoriya! I, er, sort of deserved it. It's a sort of reminder to take it easy, too. People would be disturbed to see All Might with a black eye, after all!" He smiled, then winced.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, very. You should buckle up, my boy."
"Oh, right," said Izuku. "So, where are we going? You said there was someone you wanted to introduce me to."
"Yes," said Mr. Yagi. "My old teacher. It's been a while since I've seen him. Hopefully he won't make up for lost time with a kick to the face..."
"What?"
"Don't worry about it."
When Mr. Yagi spent most of the way over muttering about kicks to the face and head, Izuku decided that he should, in fact, worry about it.
.
The broken-down building was not what Izuku had been expecting.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" asked Izuku.
"Absolutely," said Mr. Yagi, who was shaking somewhat. "This Pavlovian response only confirms it."
"Um." The building looked condemned. "Maybe he moved."
"One can only hope," said Mr. Yagi. "Maybe you sh- No. I have to see this through." He steeled himself visibly, squaring shoulders. "Please not a kick to the face," he said, under his breath.
"Is he really that bad?" asked Izuku.
"My boy, I guarantee you that he's worse."
.
"Poor kid has no idea what's coming," said Banjo. "Although we wouldn't have believed it either if we weren't riding along and watching."
"Nana," said En, "I just want to reiterate that I'm very glad you never thought about giving One for All to Gran Torino."
"Come on. Sorahiko isn't that bad," protested Nana.
"We know," said everyone else, "he's worse."
.
They walked up to the apartment building door. Mr. Yagi sighed heavily on seeing the door was hanging open, which was a radically different reaction than what Izuku would have expected.
"Is Danger Sense doing anything?"
"I don't think so?"
"Let me know if that changes."
"R-right," said Izuku. Mr. Yagi pushed the door in, and Izuku followed cautiously after him.
They went down a few hallways, peeking in rooms. Then they got to the kitchen, and Izuku covered his mouth with both hands with a gasp at the grisly, bloody scene. Gran Torino laid on the floor in a pool of red liquid. "Oh my gosh, he's-"
At the same time, Mr. Yagi said, "At least it's not a kic-"
The supposedly dead hero was suddenly airborne, and flying towards Mr. Yagi, foot first. Specifically, at his face. "You thou-"
Danger Sense spiked. It was a tiny spike, but still.
Izuku reacted. Specifically, with nerves shot by the USJ attack, he reacted violently, lashing out with a fist, swatting Gran Torino out of the air and back into the puddle of what was, in retrospect, probably diluted ketchup.
For a moment, everything was silent.
"Oh my gosh," wailed Izuku. "I assaulted a senior citizen!"
Gran Torino bounced back to his feet. "I like this kid, Toshinori!"
"I'm... glad?"
"Now show me what you've g-"
"Gran, please, we're only here for quirk help, not battle training."
"What's the difference? You're going to want to use it in battle eventually, right?"
"I mean," said Izuku, hesitantly, feeling like he had whiplash several times over, "yes?"
"See?"
"Just help with controlling Float. Please." Mr. Yagi pressed his hands together. "Please do not pick a quirk fight with a civilian teenager. Please."
"We are on private property."
"Assault is still illegal on private property."
"He's the one who hit me!"
"I know! I'm so sorry," said Izuku, doing his best to bow in the cramped space. "It was a reflex."
"After you attacked me!"
"Yeah, but you knew I was going to do that!"
"That doesn't make it better!"
Gran Torino turned to Izuku. "Kid, I don't know how you did it, but it looks like you made this big softy grow a backbone. Next step is to see if you can get him to do this with Mirai, too."
"Um," said Izuku. "I think he already had a backbone? He's All Might, after all."
"Nah, he's just a giant spindly amoeba who needs to take better care of himself."
Mr. Yagi slumped.
"But back on topic," said Gran Torino, eyes much sharper than before. "Do you really have Nana's quirk, kid?"
"Y-yeah. I think so. It was only a little bit, during the attack, but... yeah."
"Let's see what you can do with it, then."
"Um," said Izuku.
"Gran, maybe you should get cleaned up first? Young Midoriya and I can take care of the kitchen..."
"You don't know how to turn it on, do you?"
"Not really, no," said Izuku.
"We've got our work for today cut out for us, then, don't we, you zygotes?"
Wow. Gran Torino really did call people zygotes.
Wild.