Youchi looked across the space, with each of the holders sat in the other thrones.
"We all need to talk about finding a ninth, we'll discuss the problems and the things ninth should have, we'll go by order and if you have questions or want clarity from someone on a point, wait for them to finish and raise your hand." Youchi said, explaining some things for Yagi since this was his first meeting.
"Second shall go first and I will go after Yagi, Second." he further said, motioning to Second, sitting on his left to speak.
Second stood up, his hands on his hips.
"Unfortunately, we probably won't have the time to find a quirkless successor, Eighth likely only has three to four years left in him before he has to pass us on." Second stated getting a nod from the more strategic-minded wielders.
Nana frowned and Yagi curled in on himself at the reminder of how much longer he'd have to live.
"Even if we use Junior to help find a relatively in shape normie and have enough time to buff them up, their mindset would be incompatible, either they'll be self-loathing like Eighth or a second All For One in the making when given us." Second elaborated without prompting.
Yagi sputtered but he was ignored and Youchi just gave up and stewed in embarrassment from the child being declared his.
They had better things to argue about than whether Midoriya was somehow his 'son'.
"Most likely we'll need to focus on finding someone that has a quirk that will lessen the damage mentally and physically, even then it will probably be a problem in using all of our quirks so we'll each need to consider cutting ourselves off from ninth to lessen their load." Second advised.
The others reacted in kind, shocked and affronted by the idea of it, and he could understand why.
If they shut down the connection to the ninth then it would protect them more in theory, it was tested with Yagi and was considered a success, well it was before they learned about the quirkless part was contributing more to that from Midoriya.
Even then when it was considered a success it was controversial, because the ones the shut themselves out wouldn't be able to know what was going on outside their space and would need for the connected ones to explain what was happening with the current holder.
However, it would likely become very necessary for the safety of ninth.
"We should also focus on someone that has at least a little combat experience, ninth will be in the most danger out of all of us and knowing how to at least fight with their bare hands or a weapon of some kind to compensate for the inability to use our quirks." Second added.
"Any questions?" Second asked looking around.
En raised his hand "How much experience would be advisable?"
"Intermediate level, beginners would struggle learning and working to put on muscle for us, and experts would be too ingrained in their choice to be able to get their body in the right shape." Second answered without blinking.
getting nods from the others and Hikage raised his hand "Would skills with a weapon or a martial art be preferable?"
"A mix of both would be the goal but with that likely being impossible we should prioritize a long-range weapon or fast-moving martial artist. Anyone else?" Second responded.
No one else held their hand up and Bruce stood up next with Second sitting down.
"I mainly agree with Second, and the only thing I have to add is that we should try and look into the family lines of the ninth too, the less generations between the first quirk and the ninth the better." Bruce told them all.
Yagi hesitantly raised his hand "Yes Eighth?"
"Can I ask, how does that play a factor?" Yagi replied.
"Having been around since the dawn of quirks, all of us have seen how quirks have grown more complex and powerful over the three centuries." Bruce began to answer.
"Even before Junior's talk about us being more than one quirk we could see that One For All was growing more complex with each quirk added to it, and the users with fewer generations of quirks, like fourth, sixth and seventh, fared better than those that didn't." Bruce explained, pointing to the three wielders in question.
"So, if possible, we should look for someone with as few quirks in the family as possible." Bruce finished "No arguments with that?" Bruce asked then sat down and Hikage stood himself.
"While it might be difficult, I think we should consider looking for a successor in another country, there are quirkless majority countries we could scout someone from." Hikage proposed.
"The populations would have a better mental attitude and likely grew up with better foundations than the starved minorities here, there would also be the safety of distance in another country to protect ninth." Hikage elaborated for them all.
Youchi took a moment to think about it, it was a decent idea all things considered.
"Wouldn't there be problems in getting someone else involved though?" En pointed out with his hand raised.
"Admittedly yes, there would be the chance that someone outside of the country would be hard pressed to do this but All For One will likely not stop at just Japan and the rest of the world will have to acknowledge him eventually." Hikage answered in turn, and no one could argue that.
Banjo was next to stand "Like Fourth said I think we should consider people in other countries as options, but I think we know someone that would already make a good pick for ninth, the Shield girl." Banjo purposed.
Youchi didn't need to look over to see Yagi's hands clench his arm rests, both of which were making the wood of the throne creak.
"The Shields are Eighth's good friends and can be trusted with this secret, the girl has already gained a decent amount of strength and has skills with support gear, and more importantly she's quirkless so she wouldn't be harmed by wielding us." Banjo went on to say.
"Plus, the girl wanted to be a hero, when she couldn't be one, she didn't let that stop her from finding a way to help people, so we know that she has the right mindset as well." Banjo said and though he hated to admit it Youchi conceded the man had some good points.
"Have you forgotten just how well known the Shields are? If their previously quirkless daughter were to suddenly gain one people would notice." Nana said clearly against the idea along with Yagi.
"As the daughter of a famous support engineer it wouldn't be hard to fake a few gadgets to make us look like the results of support gear and not a quirk." Banjo defended and Second scoffed.
"Don't be a moron Fifth, there is no way for her to hide her quirk behind gadgets, people would find out in a month." Second spat back.
Before Banjo could counter him Bruce also spoke up.
"And it would be a media shit-storm when people find out, all those old gossip rags would have even more 'evidence' of the girl being Eighth's 'secret love' child. And the last thing that ninth would need is a bunch of cameras down their throat." Bruce told him adding to Second's argument.
Yagi winced at that throwback, a memory of Yagi's overtook everyone's vision.
A newspaper in his hands, a picture comparing himself and little Melissa's school picture with their similar features.
Youchi shook himself, forcing the memory out of mind.
"Enough. We'll put this matter to a vote, those in favor of looking to Shield Melissa as the ninth?" Youchi called out.
Unsurprisingly Banjo was the only one to raise his hand.
"Those against?"
Second, Bruce, Nana, and Yagi held their hands up.
"Majority says they are against, Shield Melissa won't be the ninth holder, is there anything else you want to say?" Youchi asked but Banjo huffed and just sat back down on his throne with his arms crossed.
"I think we should make a list of our quirks and how they work for Junior." En said once he stood up.
"Junior clearly has a much greater understanding than any of us do about quirks as a whole, if we can write down all of our quirks and the data we have on them then we can narrow down the types of quirks we can look for ninth in." En explained.
"While we've all seen the damage One For All we've only thought of a few ways to counter it, but Junior could greatly help in this area." En said likely to sooth any who took offense to his last comment.
"I'm willing to put the matter to a vote as well. All those for making a list?" En asked.
Youchi, Nana and Hikage's hands came up.
"Those opposed?" En inquired and only Second and Banjo's hand came up.
"And those undecided?" En asked.
Yagi and Bruce's hands came up.
"Majority rules, we'll make a list of our quirks as we know them for Midoriya." Youchi declared and En sat back down giving the room over to Nana.
"Regardless of who becomes ninth, they will need a support group beyond ourselves, our most successful wielders all had people they could fall back on for help." Nana said firmly and Youchi was sure everyone knew why Nana was taking this stance.
Not that anyone could argue with it, much less dare too.
Nana was the first one besides himself to have a family and his brother was all too happy to rip it apart because Nana had tried hard to keep her family in the dark about what was going on and in the height of her bad choices, she sent away her son.
Nana sat back down and Yagi, after gulping stood up.
"I'm… not sure what more I can add to this discussion... I believe I'm woefully out of my depth here compared to the rest of you." Yagi admitted wringing his hands, looking and sounding more like the nervous teen that Nana passed them onto.
"But, I believe that everything must be told to them before I give them this quirk." Yagi said.
"Through no fault of any of you I'm sure, things about my- our quirk has been lost to time and there is a lot that none of us know about One For All, things I never would have learned if it wasn't pointed out to me." Yagi went on to explain.
"And I'm sure a few of you also would have liked to have known a few things more about this quirk before your… passing." Yagi pointed out, pausing only from thinking of how to phrase the fact they were dead.
After a minute and no questions were asked Yagi awkwardly sat back down and Youchi finally stood up himself.
"All of you have covered things that agree with, for the most part." Youchi told them "So I'll be brief, in addition to our quirks I believe we should also give Midoriya our names so that he can find any extra information he can from our families as well." Youchi purposed and of course there were a few people that weren't keen on the idea.
"I understand that our birth names are sometimes best left forgotten, but by looking through our families I'm certain he can figure out more about the cons of each of our quirks by looking at our families quirks." Youchi explained.
Second glared at him but didn't raise his hand, a tense silence coming forth, but no question was asked.
With a sigh Youchi assumed it was allowed to pass.
"Okay, we won't have much longer with Yagi, but currently speaking we've all agreed to gather what we have on our own quirks and names for Yagi and the others to research when we meet up with them again. Though he is free to research what he can on his own before he meets back up with them." Youchi stated.
Nods and grumbling from the other wielders until they watched Yagi's young form blinked and then slumped over before disappearing from view.
Nana was the only one that was surprised, having not been on the other side of the current user 'waking' up before now and En stepped up to explain to her what was happening while the rest of them left for their personal spaces.
Youchi, however, sat back down and let his head hit the throne.
Feeling rather tired as he did.
Current state of each of the OFA users
Nana: Depressed over her family but overjoyed to reconnect with Yagi
Banjo: Grumpy over being overruled and sulking in the corner
2nd: Pissed with Youchi and sulking by kicking imaginary butt
Bruce: Also pissed with Youchi but not sulking about it but likes the stress relief of punching someone's lights out
Yagi: Overwhelmed with everything that just happened and numbly eating a yogurt wondering WTF
En: Shifting between being Nana and Youchi's rock, feeling mostly neutral
Hikage: Has noped out for the time being sitting in a hot tub in his space, he can deal with everything from the meeting later
Youchi: So very tired, has completely given up arguing over if he has a kid and accepts he has pseudo-adopted Midoriya despite all of the circumstances