Author's Note: Hey! So, I think I'll have the definitive chapter count for this fic either today or tomorrow. It's probably 71, but I want to nail down exactly what I want out of the ending of this story, so it may not be that precise number. That being said, enjoy the chapter and see ya next time!

Izuku's whole body burned. He shuffled over to the dining area in what Hitoshi would probably call a vague approximation of a zombie. As he made his way over, Izuku's eye got caught on the small child that was lurking around Mandalay at all times. He'd first seen the kid yesterday, when the Pussycats had met up with them at the cliffside entrance to the Beasts' Forest. Since then, the kid had practically hung onto Mandalay's leg, so Izuku was starting to get a little curious about who exactly he was. He couldn't have been Mandalay's son, as he only looked to be about five years old and Mandalay had been working as a Hero for longer than that, so taking maternity leave would surely make the news. Just thinking that left somewhat of a bitter taste in Izuku's mouth, but it was true.

As he walked through to the benches around the corner from the dining area, Izuku got a whiff of the food that some of the others had already made a start on. He sat down for a moment, resting his limbs. He was beginning to feel the energy drain, but he needed to help the others. Izuku wouldn't let himself just sit around and do nothing, but he couldn't move his arms. He was beginning to feel like he'd be kind of like a freeloader during this camp, but his thoughts were cut short by Aizawa sitting down next to him.

"How's that leech?" Aizawa asked.

"Not good. It's not knocking me out every time, but I feel like it's hindering my progress even more because of that. At least I had a reason for not continuing before, now I just have to sit some stuff out, which feels even worse," Izuku said.

"Have your ghosts figured out what it is, yet?" Aizawa asked again.

"Not yet. Give them time, and I'm sure they will," Izuku answered.

"We've given them two months. We need to start taking action with this, Midoriya. If something's going wrong in your body, then we need to know what and how to treat it," Aizawa countered.

"I know. I just … don't want it to be One for All that's doing this to me," Izuku admitted.

The air between them was silent for a moment. Izuku berated himself under his breath, wondering why he'd even said that. Izuku had been worried, but he didn't want to make a big deal out of it or anything like that. Aizawa narrowed his eyes at Izuku, making him shrink under his teacher's stare.

"Explain," Aizawa ordered.

"One for All is the combined physical force of everyone who's ever wielded it. Combined with the Quirks, you'd need a hell of a physical constitution to handle that. It's why the Nomu are the way they are; it's to help them handle the strain of multiple powerful Quirks. But, I don't have a body like that. I was a scrawny kid when I started training, and even if I'm not so little anymore, I'm still not built like the Nomu. I have more Quirks than the USJ Nomu, but I'm still just a kid. My body's built for Quirklessness, but I suddenly got four from the end of February to the middle of May. I'm not built for so much so soon, so I've been worried that One for All itself is the reason why I get tired out. I don't want it to be, but if it is, I'll have to do something that I really don't want to do," Izuku elaborated.

"And what's that?" Aizawa prompted.

"If it keeps getting worse, I'll have to stop using it. If it doesn't stop then, I'll have to give it away. The problem with that is that I don't know if this thing is gonna follow One for All if I do pass it on, so I can't do that. My only real option is to stop using One for All and hope for the best, but I can't do that. I can, but I don't want to. It's given me the chance to be who I always dreamed of being, so that same chance eating away at me like this just seems so … scary. What do you think?" Izuku said.

"I think that you and All Might should talk about this when we get back. This is something that could be big. What we can do right now, though, is take you to see Ragdoll. Her Quirk can detect 'statuses', so she may be able to see what's going on. If it's something medical, we'll get you to rest, and then we'll go to a hospital when we can. If it is Quirk related, we can decide what to do when we can speak with All Might and Nezu," Aizawa replied.

"Okay," Izuku said, trying to stand up. His legs gave out almost immediately, but he was helped by Aizawa to sit back down.

"If you really can't move, I'll get the Pussycats to come here so you don't have to hurt yourself. I'll be back," Aizawa said.

As Aizawa left, Izuku sighed. He really didn't want to be having this conversation, but he'd put it off for too long. He knew that. Aizawa knew that. Izuku wanted nothing more than to pretend that this leech didn't exist, but it did, and it was holding him back in a major way. Izuku had only trained for two hours that day before having to take a break, due to a combination of the summer sun and the leech. Everyone else had kept going; hell, it had made Bakugo stronger, but Izuku had been sidelined because of this thing. He'd been able to get back at it, but only for another hour and a half before the students were called in for dinner. It was embarrassing, because everyone had seen him get benched by Tiger when he'd collapsed in the dirt face first. He'd tried to tell him that he was fine, but Tiger could see it on Izuku's face. He'd gotten Izuku to take a break, but the time that it had taken before he'd felt ready again had been too long. He was going to miss half of this training camp if he was lucky, and if he was unlucky, he may just miss out entirely. It all depended on what Ragdoll would be able to see.

"Izuku?" Ochako's voice called out.

Izuku looked to his right to see Ochako, Hitoshi and Tsu standing there. Apparently, they'd managed to sneak away to come look for him. He tried to smile, but just couldn't. Izuku sighed, and made no effort to wave to his friends. That was probably one of the worst parts of this; he couldn't even talk about the full details with his friends. Izuku planned to tell them about One for All, but only when he was absolutely sure. He planned to do it right at the end of their first year, but at this rate, he may be forced to let the secret out sooner than he'd thought.

"Hey," he groaned.

"What's up? Looks like you've got one foot in the grave," Hitoshi said, sitting on the bench opposite him.

"Yeah, that's what it feels like, too. Don't worry about it, this is just the usual," Izuku said, trying to get his arm to nonchalantly wave but failing at even moving it an inch.

"Izuku, you said that you'd tell us what was happening if it was bothering you. You promised," Ochako said, sitting down next to him and giving him a stern look.

"I did! Huh, wow. Would you look at that, the consequences of my actions catching up to me. Fine, I'll .. explain. The energy drain I told you about is getting worse. Aizawa's getting Ragdoll to come and check me for anything that could be wrong with my body," Izuku said, breaking out in a nervous sweat.

"You mean that you're just now getting this checked out? You said this has been happening since the Sports Fest. Why did you wait?" Tsu asked.

"Well, it hasn't been … super relevant. I've been fine, for the most part. It's only sometimes that it gets to the 'I need a hospital' extreme," Izuku explained.

"Do you need a hospital?" Hitoshi asked, narrowing his eyes.

"No! I mean, that's what we're about to find out—but it's fine. I'll be okay. You three should go and eat dinner. Seriously, I know that you all worked hard today, so you should rest," Izuku said.

"We should rest? Look at yourself. You can't even move, Izuku. I think you're the one that needs to rest. This training is intense, yeah, but you shouldn't put up with it if it's hurting you more than it's improving you. You've talked to Aizawa about this; what did he say?" Ochako said.

"He's getting Ragdoll to check me out. When they come back, I think you all should go," Izuku said, letting his head hang. This was hard to say.

"What?" Hitoshi muttered.

"I just … don't want you to hear if it's bad. I have no clue what's going on, so if something is seriously wrong, I want to be the one to tell you. Can you please just go and enjoy your dinner? I'll tell you the result, no matter what it is, but they'll be back in a minute, and they'll probably want privacy as well," Izuku said.

Izuku didn't look back up at them, but he heard his friends get up and leave. He felt Ochako's hand on his shoulder for a moment, and took comfort in its warmth before it left as well. Izuku sat there for a few minutes, waiting, until the door over by the other side of the sitting area he was in opened, revealing Aizawa and the Pussycats. At another time, Izuku would probably laugh at 'Aizawa and the Pussycats' sounding like a weird jazz band or something, but this was it. He was about to see if his leech was physical or a Quirk related condition.

"Here we are. I hope you don't mind that the Pussycats as a whole came to see you," Aizawa said, frowning at the three others that accompanied him outside.

"Not at all. Thanks for coming so quickly," Izuku said, sitting up with a groan.

"Alright, Midoriya. I'm gonna use my Quirk on you to see if I can spot anything going on that'd give you these episodes of fatigue. I have to ask if that's okay," Ragdoll said, abandoning her usually jumpy and excited persona that she'd displayed earlier that day.

"It is," Izuku said.

"Alright," Ragdoll whispered, as her eyes glowed yellow.

Izuku had read about Ragdoll's Quirk, but had never seen it in action before. It was called Search, and it let the user 'scan' something and learn about that particular thing. Ragdoll often used it to search for people who were trapped or lost, as Search allowed the user to know where the thing they'd scanned was within a radius of kilometers, so it was a perfect Quirk for search and rescue. But, Izuku had also read that it was useful as a support Quirk in combat, as it allowed the visualization of weak spots when used on people. Izuku knew that this entire thing hinged on whether or not a sickness or Quirk drawback qualified as a weak spot. As he was thinking, Ragdoll closed her eyes and then humed in thought.

"There's something freaky going on in you, kid. It's like a storm of emotion, different waves crashing into each other in a mess of willpower and passion. I've never seen anything like this before. There's something in there that's different to the rest of it, something that I can't quite get a read on. These different waves and forces feel like they belong to you, but this other thing is so foreign that I can't get anything out of it. I'm sorry, but I can't get anything more than that," Ragdoll said, opening her eyes and letting the glow fade from them.

"Thank you," Izuku said quietly.

All was quiet for a moment, but Ragdoll looked over at a wall suddenly and stared at it like something was there. Izuku flinched back when this happened, following her gaze but seeing nothing. Izuku looked back at Ragdoll and saw that she looked … scared. Terrified, even. He almost went to ask if she was alright, but felt something cold and overwhelming in his core pierce through and take his breath away, filling Izuku with bone deep horror that kept him from speaking.

He looked around, trying to find the source of this overwhelming fear that he was feeling. Eventually, Izuku's search brought him back to the same spot that Ragdoll was still staring at, and he felt drawn to it as well. He looked, and the more he did the more he felt that fear in his heart grow. It was like ice had filled his veins and pierced his heart. It almost felt like … All for One. That couldn't be happening, though. He'd purged All for One out of his system months ago. Hadn't he?

Izuku felt a brand new kind of energy fill him, forcing his legs to work as his body worked against him in order to get away from this feeling overcoming him. He didn't know what was happening, maybe it was just him being scared that was giving him this boost in strength, but it ran out almost immediately as he fell to the ground as his legs gave out once again. Ragdoll was much the same, moving away from the direction that sense of dread was permeating from and tripping herself up on the bench, falling into a sitting position and breathing harshly.

Aizawa flashed his Quirk on both of them, and this feeling instantly stopped, allowing the two to breathe comfortably once more. Izuku looked at Aizawa, feeling tears streak down his face, as his eyes went from red to a dull gray. His hands shook, and looking over at Ragdoll told Izuku that she was in the same boat as him, confused and frightened beyond the normal limits of the human mind. Izuku knew what this was, though. This was the Demon Lord of the Underworld. This was All for One, coming for him once again. This was bad.

"What's going on?" Aizawa asked, his voice sharp and raised.

"All for One!" Izuku managed to gasp out, choking on air now that he could breathe properly.

"I felt it. It was looking at me. It was hungry," Ragdoll murmured, her expression blank and her eyes still wide and unfocused.

The Pussycats all grouped around Ragdoll, comforting her and asking what 'it' was. Izuku tuned them out, giving Aizawa a look that he knew his teacher understood. By the grim look on Aizawa's face, he did. Izuku managed to stand up, despite his limbs screaming at him to stop, and stumbled into a stable position. He looked around, and found that the six of them were still alone. Izuku did notice that the kid he'd been curious about peeking around the corner, his red hat giving him away.

Aizawa traced his gaze and landed on the kid, too. He inhaled sharply, but remained calm. He cleared his throat, which got Mandalay to look over at him, and then over at the kid with a gesture from Aizawa. She tensed, but managed to control herself. Mandalay smiled at the kid, and began to approach him.

"Kota, what are you doing out here? I thought you were with the students," Mandalay asked.

"I don't wanna hang around some wannabe Heroes," the boy, apparently named Kota, asked.

"We're kind of busy, Kota, so if you don't want to be around the kids, then you can go to your room if you want. I know you don't like crowds, so …" Mandalay explained, but trailed off when Kota began to look past her at Ragdoll.

"What's wrong with Tomoko? Is she hurt?" Kota asked, making the other adults tense up.

"No. Tomoko's fine, Kota. She just … saw something that was a bit weird. We're trying to help her now, but we need some privacy to do that, okay?" Mandalay said.

Kota looked at Ragdoll, his face scrunched up in thought, but eventually nodded. Mandalay began to lead him away from the group, and went inside with him. As soon as Kota was gone, Izuku could feel the tension drain out of everyone present, including himself. This was a bit too intense for a kid his age to witness, so it was good that he'd been persuaded by Mandalay to leave. Izuku supposed that he could leave his questions about Kota until later, now that All for One had been brought up.

"You wanna explain?" Tiger asked, making his knuckles crack and pop just by squeezing his fist, somehow.

"Don't threaten him, Tiger. This isn't his fault," Aizawa said.

"Then who's fault is it? It sure as hell isn't Ragdoll's! This has never happened before, so we're gonna need an explanation for this," Tiger continued.

Aizawa gave him a look, and Izuku nodded. He took a deep breath, making time for his heart to slow down even more and his hands to stop shaking so much, and he thought about what to say. He still didn't really know himself what had happened. Izuku started from the beginning. One for All and All for One were Quirks that interacted in weird ways. The first time they did, One for All itself was born. The times the two powers interacted after that were also strange, because All for One couldn't steal One for All. A unique feature of One for All was that it could be given, but only if the current user willed it. So, All for One was unable to forcefully take One for All, as it had to be given with consent. When One for All and All for One interacted at the Sports Fest, it seemed that the will of All for One himself had penetrated through the vestige realm where the previous users' consciousnesses dwelled. There, he battled the vestiges for One for All, but was driven back when Izuku was able to interfere. But, Izuku hadn't considered that he could've planted something in the vestige space, and One for All as a result. All for One could've left a piece of himself behind and kept eating away at Izuku's energy, little by little, but because it was such a small piece of All for One, and he was now attached to One for All, it only happened after using the Quirk for extended periods.

For Ragdoll's case, it could've been that she'd Searched that small part of All for One that was still in there, and connected with him, wherever he was. Izuku had no clue how many Quirks he had, and what they could've been, but it stood to reason that he'd have a Quirk to tell him if he was being affected by another person's Quirk, and a Quirk to dissuade that person from continuing. Maybe that was what the two of them had felt; All for One reaching into their minds in response to them accidentally reaching into his. That made sense, in a way that only All for One could.

Izuku felt himself stop shaking as he figured it out, and looked Aizawa in the eye with an expression that he hoped told Aizawa that they needed to talk in private. Aizawa looked over at the Pussycats and back to Izuku, his eyes calculating. Izuku had enough of this, and let himself fall back onto the bench.

"Everyone, just calm down. Danger Sense isn't going off, so nobody's in physical danger. I think that Ragdoll's just spooked. I am too, to be honest. I think I know what happened, but you'll have to suspend your disbelief for the context of this whole mess," Izuku said between shallow breaths.

"Alright, talk," Tiger said, taking a seat next to Ragdoll and Pixie-Bob with a loud thump.

"My Quirk is weird, and powerful. I have multiple abilities, and that's valuable to some dangerous people. A few people in particular want my power for themselves, and are willing to fight for it. They've attacked me before, but we've managed to fight them back every time. But, one of the times they came after me specifically, I don't think I got them to one hundred percent leave," Izuku said.

"What do you mean?" Aizawa asked, seemingly silently wondering how this connected to what he knew.

"When he invaded my mind, I got rid of him," Izuku said, flicking his gaze over to Aizawa as he made it clear to his teacher who he was talking about. "I think that, in that interaction, a piece of his will was able to latch onto me. During that fight, he was draining me of my stamina and will to fight. Looking at our timeline of events, the day after that is when I started having these episodes. Logically, I think we can presume that he has been responsible for my episodes. The vestigial will he left in me has been eating away at me for months, right under my nose," Izuku said.

"That tracks. He's a wicked son of a bitch, we know that much," Aizawa mumbled, taking a seat.

"Yeah. I just feel so stupid for not figuring that out. It feels like it was so obvious, but I needed someone else to get caught in my feud with him to see it," Izuku said, looking at the shivering Ragdoll.

"How does this relate to Ragdoll?" Pixie-Bob asked, holding her teammate close.

"He has a number of Quirks at his disposal. I think Ragdoll's Quirk unwittingly connected to him through his vestige in me, and he struck back with a psychic attack that overwhelmed us mentally. I've fought with him before, so his … vibe is less debilitatingly horrifying than it would be for someone unused to it. I think that's why Ragdoll's so spooked. I didn't consider these options when she Searched me, so I'm sorry for letting this happen," Izuku explained.

The five of them sat in silence after that, thinking about what this meant. Izuku wasn't getting any pings from Danger Sense, so they were safe for now. He looked over at Aizawa, who was staring at his goggles in his hand, looking like he was deep in thought. Izuku knew that Aizawa was highly analytic, more so than Izuku was, and with much better planning skills, so for him to be silent this long meant something. He looked over at the remaining Pussycats and saw that Pixie-Bob was helping Ragdoll, who looked to be regaining her wits, to stand. He felt bad for getting them caught up in his fight with All for One, but without them, he wouldn't know what he did now. That was something.

The Pussycats took their leave after that. They led Ragdoll inside, the shorter woman giving Izuku a worried glance, and left. Izuku frowned at the turn of events, and let himself relax for a few minutes until the searing pain in his arms began to fade slightly. Aizawa looked over at him and stood up, offering his hand to help Izuku, who took it and stood as well.

"Absolutely nothing from Danger Sense?" Aizawa asked.

"Nothing," Izuku answered, after increasing the range to include all of the class around the corner of the lodge and reigning it back in again.

"Go eat, then. I'll catch All Might up on what we've learned, so you can go and eat dinner. I'll rethink what I want from you this week and tell you in the morning. If you get anything from Danger Sense, don't hesitate to tell me, even in the middle of the night. Got it?" Aizawa said.

"Got it," Izuku said, turning to walk around the corner.

As he walked over, he got a glimpse of Ochako, Hitoshi and Tsu sitting together with a seat for him empty with them. Izuku saw them wave at him, Ochako gesturing to the bowl they'd prepared for him. He smiled, forcing it to go to his eyes. Izuku thought about telling them just what had been going on, or generalizing it so that it fit within their worldview of single-Quirked individuals being the only kind that existed. He couldn't tell the truth after that, but he was also getting tired of lying. He decided on an inbetween, and sat down next to the three of them with a silent wave.

"Hey. What'd Ragdoll tell you?" Hitoshi asked.

"She just said that there was an increased link between my Quirk's energy reserve and the production of lactic acid in my body. Lactic acid is what causes our muscles to burn and get tired when exercising, so a deeper link between that and my Quirk's energy pool is causing my body to tire out faster when I use my Quirk for long periods of time. She didn't say all that, but that's what I could glean from her explanation. It turned out to be a blend of physical and Quirk related, which were my two theories. So, yeah! We've solved that," Izuku said, struggling to get comfortable on the wooden bench.

"Oh! That sounds painful," Ochako mumbled.

"It is, kinda, but I'm managing it. Anyway, what happened while I was gone?" Izuku deflected.

The four of them then started talking about the training they'd gone through that day, and Izuku was glad the spotlight was off him. He relaxed as he ate, but couldn't shake the feeling that he and Ragdoll had experienced when All for One had retaliated. Izuku didn't think that All for One knew where they were, as not even Izuku did, and their link was the stronger of the psychic connections that had been made, so if All for One was even able to glean information out of those links, it would be from Izuku. Aizawa hadn't told the class where this lodge was, only that it was 'in the countryside', so Izuku was comfortable in saying that they were safe at the lodge. Just to be sure, Izuku flared up Danger Sense's range again, this time encompassing the two classes in their entirety, and felt nothing. They were safe. Nothing was coming for them. Izuku was able to breathe easily knowing that, and dug into his meal, knowing that they were alright.