The training room at Might Tower was mostly for show. Though it housed massive equipment meant for All Might, the hero himself rarely used it, except during press tours or to impress guests. Heavy-duty machines, far too dangerous for the sidekicks or employees, stood idle, their surfaces gathering dust that was wiped clean by janitors on a bi-weekly schedule.

Over time, the other staff members had grown weary of navigating the towering, intimidating equipment just to reach their own, much less impressive machines. Several complaints flew around the offices that it felt like a constant reminder of their limitations. In response, management had drafted a plan to have the floor below revamped into a more practical gym for the rest of the building's employees. All Might was happy to sign off on it.

As a result, the original training room remained eerily quiet and empty most of the week—visited only briefly by the janitors, who spent no more than an hour or two tidying up. But this desolate floor had one perfect use: it was the ideal place for Izuku's training.

Who was currently staring at the nearest monster of a machine with stars in his eyes.

A Leg Press machine, that towered above him, it's sheer size intimidating, but what drew his attention was the lack of weights normally seen on such machines. Instead the entire mechanism was essentially an oddly angled hydraulic press that pushed back against the leg movement of the user. Nearby the seat was a control panel with different ranges of weights.

At first Izuku was a bit confused that the numbers were so low. Until he realized that the units being used were metric tons instead of pounds or kilograms.

Just as he fully processed that, a gruff voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Quit gawking at the machine. You'll be using it soon enough once that quirk of yours kicks in."

"O-Oh, hello sir!" Izuku greeted, turning to elderly man. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Why wouldn't I be here?" the old man replied, deadpan. "Did you think you'd escape my training now that you've got a quirk? Ha!" He barked out a laugh, his sinister grin sending a chill down Izuku's spine. "The real work starts now, kid."

Before Izuku could respond, another voice cut through the room.

"Relax, you old geezer," Recovery Girl reprimanded as she entered, her grandmotherly voice firm. Sir Nighteye followed behind her, his expression deadly serious, which was something Izuku was told was not unusual.

"No need to scare the poor boy half to death," she continued, giving Izuku a reassuring look. She carried a small bag that resembled a first-aid kit. "Don't worry, Izuku. I'll be keeping an eye on you, and him. We need to make sure your body adjusts to your quirk properly before any intense training."

Gran Torino huffed. "Always spoiling my fun." He then turned his gaze up toward Sir Nighteye. "So, Stringbean, where's the meathaed? He's supposed to be here already."

Sir Nighteye didn't miss a beat, taking the rude nickname in stride. "All Might is likely still at UA, finishing up his briefing with Nezu. How long he's delayed depends on how much Nezu feels like talking today."

Izuku listened as he looked around the room, noting the amount of All Might memorabilia that was kept at random points in the room. It was more like an All Might collection showcase than a private gym.

As he considered what they said, he realized it made sense. After All Might's dramatic speech at the press conference, Nezu had started explaining the changes UA would be making. The press didn't get many details, just the overall picture, but from the little Izuku could piece together, it sounded like things were about to get wild.

"Midoriya," Sir Nighteye called, his voice drawing Izuku's attention. His gaze was sharp.

"Yes, sir." Izuku responded, a little nervous about meeting the hero.

"All Might apologizes for his absence. With his new responsibilities at UA, the amount of time he'll have to speak with you in person will be significantly reduced. He suggests you rely on us when you can't reach him."

Izuku nodded. He had expected All Might to be busier, but it still stung to know he wouldn't always have access to his hero.

"On that note," Recovery Girl chimed in, her expression thoughtful, "I heard you were confused about how One for All manifested?"

"Yes, ma'am," Izuku replied, standing straighter. "When it showed up yesterday-"

"It already manifested?" she asked, raising a brow. "That's fast. Usually, it takes longer for the quirk to settle."

"I don't believe it," Gran Torino interrupted, walking up to Izuku. "When that idiot first got his quirk, he broke his arm on the first use. Sure, you're fitter than he was, but your body's still smaller, and the quirk's even stronger now. If it had manifested and you used it without control, you'd have been severely injured by now."

Without warning, Gran Torino smacked Izuku's shin with his cane.

"Ow!" Izuku yelped, grabbing his leg and hopping on one foot.

"See what I mean?" the old man said, turning to Recovery Girl and Sir Nighteye, who both nodded thoughtfully.

Izuku blinked, confused. "What does that mean?"

"It means," Recovery Girl explained, "if your body were already strong enough to handle One for All, a light tap from a cane wouldn't be nearly enough to hurt you. So the quirk isn't fully adjusted to your body yet."

Izuku hesitated. "But… it did manifest. Just—"

"Boy, do I need to test my cane again?" Gran Torino threatened, raising his eyebrow.

"No, sir!" Izuku said quickly. "It's just… it was different."

"Midoriya is telling the truth," Sir Nighteye said, his eyes glowing as he studied Izuku. "The energy of One for All has spread throughout his body, but unlike All Might, it seems to focus near his hands."

Both Gran Torino and Recovery Girl frowned, still unconvinced.

"Yes! That," Izuku continued. "Last night, these black tendrils appeared from my hand. They were strong, but they disappeared before I could figure them out."

"Show us," Gran Torino demanded.

"I… I can't." Izuku looked away, embarrassed. "I've tried, but I can't make them come out again."

"Were there any special circumstances when they first appeared?" Sir Nighteye asked, while Recovery Girl added, "If we know more, we might help you trigger them again."

Izuku bit his lip, reluctant to share, but under the adults' expectant looks, he cracked.

"I… got in a fight with my mom," he admitted quietly. The adults exchanged concerned glances. "She found out about my training. She thought All Might was some creepy guy. When she tried to delete his number from my phone, I just… wanted to stop her."

He swallowed the guilt building in his throat. "The tendrils came out, pushed her away from the phone, and smacked it out of her hand. But they disappeared right after."

Recovery Girl sighed, her expression stern but compassionate. "We'll discuss that with All Might later. I'm not happy you've been keeping this from your mother, young man."

"Yes, ma'am," Izuku mumbled.

"Strange quirk," Sir Nighteye mused, his eyes shifting color as he looked Izuku up and down. "Why would One for All manifest like that? Are we sure he was quirkless?"

Recovery Girl nodded. "Our tests showed no quirk energy in his body."

"Enough about how it happened," Gran Torino interrupted. "What matters now is how to control it." He fixed Izuku with a piercing stare. "What were you feeling when it appeared? Fear? Anger?"

"Uh, I don't know… maybe—"

"See that over there?" Gran Torino cut him off, pointing to a limited edition All Might figure on display across the room.

Izuku nodded, still unsure where this was going. "Yeah…?"

"Think fast!" Gran Torino suddenly yelled, throwing his cane with terrifying speed.

Izuku's eyes widened in horror. He recognized that figure, and it was priceless—only ten in existence! Sir Nighteye leapt forward, his eyes similarly wide with horror, but his eye-related quick gave him no tools to stop the flying projectile.

Izuku's mind raced. He couldn't stand seeing such a valuable piece of All Might memorabilia be ruined. He reached out, hand tensing, fury surging through him. He had to stop it!

Before he even realized it, black tendrils shot from his hand, lashing out and wrapping around the cane. They snapped it in half mere inches from the case, and then just as quickly retreated back into his arm.

Recovery Girl and Sir Nighteye stared at Izuku's hand in stunned silence, but the room echoed with wry laughter as Gran Torino grinned wickedly.

"Found your trigger," the old man declared. "Now let's start the real training."

"Welcome, everyone." Nezu smiled as everyone settled into their seats. All Might was pleasantly surprised that his assigned seat was just as comfortable as his custom chair back in his office.

"Now that we have successfully separated from the HPSC," Nezu began, pausing to allow the expected cheers from some of his staff members, "and announced our plans to the world, it's high time we kicked things into gear."

"Power Loader, Cementoss, Thirteen, how is progress with Ground Alpha? I assume it will be ready for the sponsorship event?"

"Should be," Power Loader responded. "It's the most complex and expensive of the lot, so naturally it's taking us the longest."

"What makes it so complex?" Midnight asked. Her raven hair was tied in a neat bun above her head, with a few loose strands falling to either side of her face. Her sharp yet soft features had earned her the spot on many magazine covers. Her beauty was a key part of her branding, after all.

"It's effectively a perfectly simulated mixture of several of Japan's major cities blended into one compact mini-city. It doubles as a training ground and the location for our entrance exams," Cementoss explained. "Its layout is adjustable with large walls that can separate sections of the city, and we can repair practically all damage done to the buildings themselves overnight. The whole layout has surveillance that blends seamlessly into the environment, allowing us to observe the training from an external location. We're also currently working on a system that will allow us to simulate several city-wide scenarios with the help of robots made by Power Loader."

"Sounds a bit overkill, doesn't it?" Lunch Rush asked, the mechanical beeping of their support gear punctuating the sentence. "That alone sounds like an upgrade that meets most scenarios we want to prepare our students for. Do we even need Ground Beta, Gamma, and Omega at this rate?"

"That's the intent," Thirteen spoke up, still in her hero outfit that resembled a white space suit. The voice filter on her suit made her voice sound more mechanical than it actually was. "From the sponsors we've picked up so far, we have enough funding for Ground Alpha and just barely enough to run the rest of the year normally. On the chance that we don't pull enough sponsors in with the upcoming event, we will at least have a little of everything in Ground Alpha, rather than find out halfway through building everything that we don't have enough money."

"The sponsors we've picked up so far?" Vlad King scratched his neck, his two sharp, vampire-like teeth peeking out from his bottom jaw. "They must be big fish if they can comfortably spare enough money to make up what we lost from the HPSC and more. Who exactly are they?"

"Most of them are UA alumni. Names such as the Idaten Agency and Edgeshot have pledged a significant amount, although the bulk comes from smaller, individual contributions from a collection of smaller heroes who are also alumni. By far the largest contribution on that front is All Might himself." Nezu directed applause towards All Might. He took it graciously but noted a sour look or two as he did. "Not only financially, but he got me in touch with one David Shield from I-Island, who has been instrumental in helping with the more technical side of our plan, hasn't he?"

"Sure has," Power Loader snorted. Everyone understood that his attitude towards the man was largely out of professional jealousy; few could rival the academic achievements of All Might's first sidekick in this day and age.

"Though I believe the biggest portion of our funds comes from one donor, is that correct, Ectoplasm?" Nezu asked.

"Yes," Ectoplasm gargled as he nodded. Not a fan of speech due to his lack of lips and exposed teeth, he kept things short. "Yaoyorozu."

"What on earth got them interested in funding us? They're one of the companies funding I-Island, aren't they?" Snipe asked through his gas mask.

"Their daughter has apparently developed an interest in heroics and is just the right age to join our first batch of students next year," Nezu smiled.

"Is that even okay?" Present Mic asked, the long spike of yellow hair on his head bobbing from side to side as he spoke. "What happens if she doesn't get in? Won't they pull their funding? On that note, don't the Iida family have a kid who's also the perfect age? Same for them."

A few heads nodded, All Might's too.

"I have ensured that they won't do that," Nezu said. "In exchange, we'll be hosting a sponsor-exclusive entrance exam to fill a certain number of spots reserved for students who have sponsors recommending them."

A few murmurs broke out at that. All Might decided to speak up.

"How many?" he asked.

"Of course you'd want to know." A voice rang out, followed by the sound of a sleeping bag unzipping, drawing attention to Eraserhead, the resident underground hero. His dark, oily hair, five o'clock shadow, and dirt-stained black clothes painted an unflattering picture. He looked like a hobo, to put it shortly, and many thought he acted like one too—sleeping on the job, talking without tact, and regularly eating energy bars and drinking coffee instead of indulging in an actual meal.

All Might was well aware of this man, especially his quirk—the ability to deactivate quirks with nothing more than a glare. This man had the potential to reveal All Might's secret identity at a moment's notice. All Might was only thankful for two things, that that man hadn't gotten his hands on Eraserhead as a boy, and that Eraserhead had no reason other than curiosity to try and use his quirk on All Might in a public setting.

If that happened, decades of effort separating Toshinori Yagi and All Might would be for naught.

"Sorry?" All Might asked.

"Don't act dumb," Eraserhead remarked. "I know you have a successor. Your speech seemed a little too personal to not be directed at someone specific."

"I don't see how that's your business," All Might challenged, earning a few surprised coughs from the rest of the UA staff and a spit-take from at least one. No one seemed to expect All Might to match Eraserhead's bluntness.

"It's my business because I'm most likely going to be your successor's teacher," Eraserhead returned. "I know you're a good hero at the end of the day, but your public persona defined the genre of self-centered hero that drives me up a wall. The type that are in it for the fame and the glory, not to do their damn jobs. You might deny that you're anything like that, but you can't deny that assholes like that flock to the image you created like there's no tomorrow."

"Your successor, whoever they are, better be better than them, because they're going to define what it means to be a hero for the next few decades." Eraserhead leaned forward. "If I see a single thing that shows me they'll make a worse leader for their generation than you did for ours, I will not rest until I have rid this school of them."

The silence in the room was tense but began to alleviate as All Might chuckled slightly.

"I don't think you will have anything to worry about," All Might said, meeting Eraserhead's bored eyes head-on. "I'm not only sure he'll meet your expectations, I'm confident he'll find a way to exceed them."

The staring contest between the two lasted for a few moments before Nezu intervened.

"Sixteen."

"Sorry?" All Might turned to look at Nezu.

"You asked how many spots are reserved for those from the recommended exams." Nezu explained. "The answer is sixteen."

"You can't be serious, that's almost half the entrees." Eraserhead complained. "How is that fair to those taking the regular exam?"

Several murmurs of agreement rung out from among the staff.

"Ladies and gentlemen, relax, please." Nezu smiled. "Remember, we are no longer bound to the restrictions of the HPSC, we have a lot of freedoms. One of which is the ability to mold our own curriculum to our liking. We have more than half a year before we open, so I welcome you to take this time to bring up concerns so that we can ensure our system is the best we can make it."

"Is that so?" Eraserhead asked, and the sound of zipping was heard before he pulled a thick binder filled with overflowing papers from his sleeping bag and slammed it down on the table. "Then I have some notes."

Walking into his old gym, All Might had to suppress a laugh as the scene before him unfolded. Midoriya stood shirtless, screaming at the top of his lungs, hand outstretched toward a stack of heavy plates. His torso was covered with blinking stickers, each one emitting a different colored light, and the bizarre setup only grew funnier as Gran Torino circled him, shouting encouragement.

"C'mon! Think! What makes you mad? People not putting the toilet seat down? Putting pineapple on pizza? Think!" Gran Torino barked.

The young hero-in-training yelled louder in response, his face flushed with concentration. All Might, careful not to interrupt, made his way over to Sir Nighteye and Recovery Girl, who were monitoring some kind of machine that had clearly been moved in from Recovery Girl's medical floor.

"What's happening here?" he asked, watching the odd training ritual with a mix of curiosity and concern.

Recovery Girl, absorbed in the machine's readings, didn't respond, but Sir Nighteye glanced up.

"One for All manifested a bit… differently in Midoriya. While Gran Torino figures out how to activate it, we're monitoring the quirk's energy levels and behavior."

All Might raised an eyebrow. "Differently?"

"Pouring milk before the cereal?" Gran Torino suggested calmly and his voice echoed across the room.

"HAAAAAA!"

Before All Might could receive clarification, four massive black tendrils exploded from Izuku's outstretched hand, lashing out with terrifying speed. Gran Torino had to dart out of their path, narrowly avoiding being struck as the tendrils wrapped around the stack of weights.

All Might's eyes widened in disbelief as the metal plates crumpled like paper in their grasp, bending and cracking under their strength.

Izuku's face shifted from anger to sheer joy as he saw the tendrils crushing the weights. The tendrils reacted by immediately retracting back into his hand as quickly as they had appeared. The warped metal clattered to the floor with a heavy thud.

Too fast for anyone in the room to fully register, All Might was at Izuku's side, carefully inspecting his hand.

"What on earth was that?" he asked, mostly to himself, staring at the boy's hand, finding no evidence of the quirk they'd just witnessed.

"It was my quirk!" Midoriya cheered, paying no mind to his arm being held up to the tall man's face.

"What quirk?" All Might frowned.

"One for All," Recovery Girl answered, drawing everyone's attention.

"Are you sure?" Sir Nighteye asked, leaning over to check her screen.

"Yes. One for All is unique in that the energy it stockpiles can be detected by certain sensors."

"I'm aware," Sir Nighteye interrupted, his tone flat.

"Yes, yes, your eyes. Forgive me. May I continue?" she shot him a pointed look. Sir Nighteye, looking slightly chastised, nodded. "Good. When One for All is used, that energy signature spikes. That's what happened just now—see?" She pointed at a reading on the screen, and Sir Nighteye gave a confirming nod.

"But this doesn't match how One for All usually behaves," Nighteye mused. "It's an enhancer quirk, this is more like a conditional emitter or orchestrator quirk. Could One for All be hiding a second quirk?"

"Unlikely," Recovery Girl responded. "I'm not a quirk theory expert, but I've been monitoring him for months. If he had another quirk, I would have noticed."

"Uhm," Izuku timidly spoke up, pulling his arm free from All Might to tug on his green hair. "I heard that mutations like this can't happen unless you already have a quirk. Could I have had a dormant quirk that One for All activated?"

"That might explain his high physical strength compared to other quirkless kids," All Might suggested.

Recovery Girl shook her head. "I considered that too, but there's a medical condition where people have mutations without quirks. It's more common in those of Japanese descent, and it's far more likely than a dormant quirk. People usually discover their quirks in the first few months after developing them. Midoriya is much older than the oldest known case of a dormant quirk awakening."

"So, it has to be One for All then?" Izuku said, looking at his hand, still puzzled.

"I don't like that we don't know what's happening," Sir Nighteye voiced. "This is uncharted territory, and it could lead to unforeseen problems if we're not careful."

"I understand, but for now, we should accept that One for All is behaving strangely in Midoriya's body and continue with the plan," All Might concluded, finishing his inspection of Izuku's arm.

"Exactly," Gran Torino chimed in. "We need to focus on training him for the entrance exam. So, come on, you skeleton in disguise. Spill the beans! I want the sweet insider information."

Izuku turned to him, defiant. "I'm not going to cheat. I'll do this the right way."

Gran Torino's face remained deadpan. "Boy, you're 14 years behind your peers when it comes to using your quirk. We need every advantage we can get."

"I don't care. I'll make it in the honest way."

All Might could see that while Izuku understood the logic of Gran Torino's plan, his resolve wouldn't budge.

"About that," All Might interrupted, drawing attention. "Nezu's refusing to give me any exam details for that very reason."

"Damn that rodent!" Gran Torino cursed, before noticing the smug look on Izuku's face. "What's that look for? Now you'll have to train a hundred times harder just to get in. No, a thousand times harder!"

Izuku turned pleading eyes toward All Might, but the hero, wary of Gran Torino's temper, refused to meet his gaze.

"All Might, no!" Izuku cried in mock betrayal.