A/N: Hey guys, Scale here again! This chapter is all about exposition, catching up anyone new that might not be familiar with One For All while also more concretely explaining what Lucas' Quirk is and how One For All Will affect it. This chapter is basically Part 2 of the "Prologue Arc" with the next chapter being the final part before starting the school year proper.
Also, sorry if these chapters are kind of short, i'm trying to get better with that. Some maybe shorter, some maybe longer. I'm kinda averaging about 1.5k words per chapter, and I'm kinda hoping to bump that up to at least double that once we start hitting the Orientation Arc.
"Hey kiddo, you alive, there?" A woman's voice asked as Lucas opened his eyes, finding himself laying down on... a beach? The woman laughed at his perplexed expression. "Yeah, this is about as weird for you as it is for us."
She nodded towards a group of 6 others, who seemed to be watching over the green haired boy he saved, as though they were keeping a silent vigil.
He's not...
"Dead? Nah, he's just resting. He doesn't actually know about all this yet. Technically speaking, you aren't supposed to know about it at all. Something about your quirk... It's evolving One For All. I don't know how, but somehow you made it so it can exist in two bodies." The woman said.
"Uh huh... and who the hell are you?" Lucas asked.
"Oh! My name is Nana Shimura, and I am the Seventh user of One For All. The fella you met before you passed out was Daigoro Banjo, the fifth. And Izuku here is the Ninth. Now... you are the tenth, kiddo."
"That... I... what?" Lucas stuttered out. As far as he knew, Quirks were unique to every person. Two people couldn't have the same quirk, much less ten.
"Yes, it is a lot to take in. Here, let me explain." Nana said, conjuring what looked like two lawn chairs and motioning Lucas to sit. "Back when Quirks were first beginning to appear, there was a man who would become known as All For One. His quirk is not unlike yours, except unlike you, he stole Quirks instead of copying them. Well, All For One had a brother who was believed to be Quirkless, but regardless had a strong sense of justice. He resisted All For One at every turn until one day, All For One forcefully bestowed a Quirk onto the brother, which would allow him to stockpile power. However..."
"...He did have a Quirk, didn't he? Something that mixed with this new Quirk and caused it to evolve." Lucas said, catching on.
"Yes." One of the men watching over Izuku said, sitting down with Nana and Lucas. The man was quiet, and looked sickly and malnourished, with messy, shoulder length white hair. "My Quirk allowed me to bestow my Quirk upon another. When my... brother forced that stockpiling Quirk on me, it merged with Bestow, transforming it into One For All. Forgive me, Tenth, as I should've talked to you earlier, when you copied One For All into yourself. You may call me Yoichi Shigaraki. The First."
"Okay, so it's a quirk that stockpiles power and can be transfered from person to person. Got it. I'm guessing that the power grows with every transfer?" Lucas asked, recalling the brute strength Izuku showed off against the Zero Pointer. The only other hero he's seen with that level of brute strength is... Oh my god, he got his Quirk from All Might.
Nana actually laughed. "And I thought the other kid was smart! Yes, Toshi or as you know him, All Might, was indeed the wielder of One For All before Young Midoriya. And to answer your question, yes. But in more ways than you expect. You see, when One For All gets transferred, it isn't just taking One For All. If the previous wielder had a Quirk before obtaining One For All, their Quirk gets added in the stockpile, and grows stronger because of it. what that means for you and Izuku over there is that eventually, you will be able to use the six quirks that got rolled into One For All. You've already used one."
"Blackwhip." Lucas recalled. "Okay, so that means that One For All made my quirk stronger too, right?"
"Well, there's only one way to find out." Yoichi said, his hands glowing. "As the First, I have been here the longest, and as such, I am the only Vestige who can examine your Quirk and tell you exactly how One For All will affect it. It will help if you could describe your Quirk, however, so I can get a baseline and know what I'm looking for."
"Yeah, of course." Lucas said, rubbing his neck. "Well, like Nana said, my quirk lets me permanently copy someones Quirk and use it for myself permanently. I call it Remnant, because the quirk is always weaker when I use it as opposed to its original wielder. Well, with all this being the exception. However, I can push the borrowed Quirk to its breaking point to put it on par with its wielder, but it burns out the Quirk, meaning I'd need to make skin contact in order to get their Quirk again. I'm also limited, only able to call upon 2 Quirks at once, otherwise I burn out in spectacular fashion." Lucas said, not really feeling comfortable elaborating further. If they knew how bad my burnout can be, they'd think I'm no better than All For-
"OW!" Lucas yelled as Nana flicked his forehead.
"Enough of that." She said sternly. "We're connected numbnuts, obviously I'm going to hear those thoughts of yours. What happened wasn't your fault. You were pushed to your limits at an age too young for your Quirk to handle. Now you're gonna drop this 'I'm a Villain' mentality or I'm gonna beat it out of you, understand?"
Lucas couldn't help but chuckle. "Yes, ma'am." He muttered ruefully as Yoichi cleared his throat.
"Well, it seems that One For All has evolved your Quirk in two ways." Yoichi held up a finger. "First, your copied powers are now permanently on par with its original user, even surpassing them if you push the Quirk to it's limit." He held up his second finger. "Second, your Quirk limit has been raised from two... to ten."
"I'm sorry, ten? You're saying I can use 10 Quirks at the same time?" Lucas asked incredulously.
"For now, yes. One For All, mixing with Remnant, is constantly evolving constantly growing. There is no telling what your final limit will be... if there even is one."
"What he means, kid, is that you're dangerous. You need to keep that power in check, otherwise you'll be just like the villains I gave my life to putting down." A gruff voice said, glaring daggers at Lucas.
Yoichi sighed. "That's Kudo, The Second. Forgive him, he was the first to be given my... our Quirk, and he's not taking the fact that you managed to get it without the traditional transfer too well."
"He has a point though." Lucas said quietly. "You're telling me all this information, but... why? What the hell did I do to be so worthy? I just stumbled into this by accident. If I hadn't touched Midoriya during the exams, I never would've-."
"Chance is a funny thing, Young Knight." Yoichi said patiently. "It was chance that I had a Quirk to begin with. It was chance that that Quirk would then become One For All. It was chance that every user so far has not gone mad with power and instead chose to focus that power for good. It is chance that brought you into this, but I don't think it is chance that made you worthy of such a gift. We could have very easily refused to grant you our power, every one of us. You had no idea what power Young Midoriya even had, and yet you took the chance because you needed everything you could to save a total stranger. In that regard, you and Young Midoriya are very much alike. I think the two of you will grow to become very admirable heroes indeed."
"For now though, you need to wake up, kiddo. You can't be a great hero sleeping for the rest of your life." Nana chuckled, wrapping her arms around Lucas in a motherly embrace.
"Good luck, Young Hero."
Inside Recovery Girl's Office
"Oh man, that's the worst kind of headache..." Lucas muttered as he sat upright in the hospital bed. The other users of One For All gave him so much to think about, and he knew that he had to have a nice long chat with Izuku and All Might.
"Well, you did push yourself quite hard to save me." A girl croaked. The frog girl! She was okay!
Lucas shrugged with a small smile. "Test or no, I'm not about to let anyone get hurt." He said.
"Still though, that save was awesome! You were moving like a rocket! And then that energy that shot out of your hand! What was that?!" The girl with the brown hair said.
"Oh that? I call it Blackwhip. I copied it a few years ago and kiiiinda forgot that I had it during the chaos of the exam. I'm Lucas by the way." Lucas said, rubbing the back of his head. He didn't necessarily like that he had to lie about One For All, but if it was as dangerous as the other users thought it was, he figured he'd better be safe than sorry.
"Oh! I'm Ochako Uraraka, nice to meet you! Your Japanese is really good by the way." Ochako said with a small bow
"Yeah, I would've thought you lived here your whole life if I didn't see you talking to your mom in English. I'm Tsuyu Asui, but you guys can call me Tsu." Tsu said with a bow as well.
"Yeah well, my mom is a good teacher. Being an international hero means she has to-" Lucas covered his mouth, not wanting to reveal who his mom is just yet, but the damage was done, as the minute the words "international hero" were uttered, a certain broccoli haired individual was awake and pelting him with questions.
"You'remom'saninternationalhero?Whoisshe?Whatisshelike?What'sherQuirk?" The boy continued to mutter while the 3 others continued to watch, amused.
"Damn, you could be a professional speaker if you can say all that without a breath." Lucas chuckled, putting his hand on Izuku's shoulder. "Breathe, dude. I'm... not exactly ready to talk about my family. We kinda like to keep our life private, y'know? You seem like a good guy and all, but I don't really want to get into it right now."
Izuku deflated a bit, but he understood. It was rare for heroes to have children for that very reason. "W-wait, but if you're the son of a hero, then why were you taking the entrance exams? You could've gotten in on recommendations, right?"
Lucas nodded. "I could've, but I wanted to get into UA on my own merits. With a Quirk like mine..." Lucas looked down at his hands, pulling his gloves back on with a small frown. "...Well, a quirk like mine could be seen as dangerous. Some would argue it's villainous, but I wanted to prove to myself that they're wrong. That it's my quirk, and I'm going to be a hero with it."
So there you have it! Next time, a bit of a wind down chapter to see where Lucas and Izuku's heads are at in between the day they finished the exam and getting their acceptance letters. Also I'm kinda flip flopping on if I want the IzuOcha pairing or not. Put your preferred ship in the reviews, the one that convinces me for a specific ship will be presented in a future chapter
In the meantime, thanks for reading! Be safe, drive the speed limit and love one another. Pizza!
