Author's Note: This fic will hereby be abandoning the act structure of the previous saga. This new storyline is longer, and more expansive than the last. Hope you enjoy.
As it turned out, because of course it did, there was something to worry about.
About a week after the class's discussion about their festival gimmick, where it had been decided that they'd be doing a live music performance and dance routine to get people feeling better after the string of bad luck suffered by the various students of UA, All Might called him. It was after school on a Monday, so he had the time, and even if he hadn't he would have made time for All Might, but that wasn't the reason that Izuku started to stress as he looked at his phone, displaying the text from his teacher that simply said 'meet me on the running track near the woods'. He and All Might hadn't had one of their secret talks in a while, since Kamino really. There just hadn't been much need for them to meet up and privately discuss anything when Izuku's friends knew about One for All, and he could confide in them about any problem he was having, and All Might had Aizawa, who was also in the know, to talk about specific training techniques with. They'd talked, but their relationship as teacher and student had become far more … normal, for lack of a better term. It felt strange to say he was more or less normal about speaking with All Might now, because he was so nervous and jumpy every time they'd speak when they'd just met, but Izuku had almost gotten used to being the personal successor of the number one hero. Fortunately, Katsuki never truly dropped the subject and constantly made fun of him for being the personal student of the greatest hero ever and still managing to be a loser.
"What's up?" Ochako asked.
They were hanging out in the common room, along with Tsu, as Hitoshi had actually gone and put in extra hours in training for a change, along with Katsuki, who made it a point to routinely push himself beyond any reasonable stopping point. They'd been talking about a movie that Tsu wanted to go and see with Hitoshi on the weekend, but as Izuku suddenly became tense, both Tsu and Ochako looked towards him, which prompted her question.
"Uh, All Might wants to talk to me in private," Izuku said, standing up from the bean bag he'd been comfortably lounging in.
"Do you think it's serious?" Tsu asked.
"Something to do with OFA?" Ochako asked, using the abbreviation that they'd all agreed upon when discussing it in a place where there was even the most remote possibility of someone overhearing.
"I guess I'll find out," Izuku said, beginning to make his way over to the front door.
"Hmm. If you see Hitoshi on the way, remind him that it's him and Ojiro cooking tonight," Tsu said, waving.
"He's terrible," Ochako mumbled with a smirk.
"Uh, yeah, sure. See you," Izuku said, pulling on his shoes.
He waved to the two of them and then walked out the door and into the chilled breeze. It wasn't quite winter yet, that wouldn't come for a while, but it was starting to cool down from the high temperatures of summer. Izuku didn't really know exactly where All Might wanted to meet him along the running track, so he decided that it was as good a time as any to get an extra jog in. He wasn't in his running clothes, but he wasn't aiming to break a sweat, just stretch his legs if anything. As he sped up to a light pace, he remembered how good it felt to be able to even lightly exercise. He'd been back in practical training for about a week now and he'd never felt better than when he'd first fired up One for All after those two long months of recovery. He'd wanted to simply abandon training for the afternoon and fly around to enjoy his newly regained freedom. Izuku smiled as the cold air blew past him and breathed in the fresh autumn air. There truly was no better life that he could've lived than the one he was living, it was so perfect that he sometimes expected to wake up and find out it was all a dream. Sure, he missed his mother sometimes, but they spoke on the phone more or less daily now, and there were the few awkward weeks after Kamino where Izuku and Katsuki had been fresh off of the rescue mission and unsure what their relationship was, but Izuku settled on friends. All in all, he loved where he was at the moment, and he was thrilled to get to spend three years like this, in this bliss.
Soon enough, he spotted All Might's stringy blond hair as he arrived at the stretch of the track that ran alongside the edge of the wearing running clothes, surprisingly enough styled after his hero costume, which was so startling to Izuku to see those vibrant colours that he was rocked out of his thoughts as he slowed to a walk as he approached All Might's tall, gaunt figure. When he got closer, Izuku realised that he wasn't wearing just any running clothes, he was wearing All Might merchandise. That brought a smile to his face as he remembered that he'd wanted the same pair of tracksuit pants and jacket when he was twelve, but they'd been a little too expensive for his mother's salary at the time. Izuku huffed out a laugh, which caused All Might to turn around, as he'd been facing away and seemingly gazing at the sunset silently. He smiled as he saw Izuku, and nodded to him, which Izuku returned.
"Thank you for meeting me here on such short notice," All Might said, his tone strangely low and melancholic.
"Yeah, of course. What did you wanna talk about?" Izuku asked.
"Walk with me," All Might said, gesturing for Izuku to follow him as he began to walk towards the setting sun. Izuku fell into step beside him, and briefly lamented the fact that he'd never be as tall as All Might as it was highlighted by the dramatic difference in their height. "How've you been readjusting to training?"
"I think I'm doing well. It's a miracle One for All wasn't affected by my injuries, mostly. My right is weaker than my left now, which means that it can't handle One for All as well as it could. It's off by a few percentage points. I think I can safely handle about fifteen percent at this point, just from my body acclimating to One for All during my recovery, but from training, it feels like my right arm lags behind that at something like thirteen percent," Izuku explained.
"That'd make sense. Can you activate One for All?" All Might asked, stopping walking and turning completely to Izuku with expectant eyes.
"What, right now?" Izuku asked in shock, stopping as well.
"Yes. I want to see what that two percent difference looks like in practice, if that's okay," All Might said, flexing his bone-thin arm in an ironic kind of way.
"Okay," Izuku muttered, 'flexing' the 'muscle' that he visualised as One for All. Green lightning flared up around him as he brought it up to fifteen percent across his whole body, the pure electricity lighting his nerves on fire and warming him from the inside. "What do you want me to do?"
"Just a smash — on the air, preferably," All Might said, catching his wording and taking a step away with a wry grin on his face.
Izuku laughed, but looked at All Might with an eyebrow raised quizzically. He didn't really know what this was supposed to do, but he could punch the air easily enough. Izuku stepped a few paces away and looked down the running track to check if there were any people there, and when he was sure there weren't, he brought One for All down to thirteen percent and threw his arm out and let his fist wing through the air. It sent a wave of force through the air that lost steam a few metres from him, and he looked at All Might, who was watching with critical eyes. Izuku then brought One for All back up to his safe limit and swung in the same way with his left arm, which sent a similar slash of air rippling through the space in front of him, except considerably larger and more powerful, with it having enough energy behind it to reach about a dozen metres out before it lost power and petered out into a mild wind. Izuku smiled at that, and finally connected a few dots. He thought he knew what All Might was trying to get at now, and turned to see the man nodding appreciatively at the display of power.
"Very good. I've been saving this technique for some time, because the stage you were at with One for All just wouldn't have the same effect, but this is something you can learn now. I never really came up with a fancy name for it, but it's the ability to harness the wind pressure caused by our immense strength to generate tremendous force outside the body. I know you're focused on hand to hand combat, but it never hurts to have ranged options, so now you've got this alongside Blackwhip. What do you think, huh?" All Might said.
"It's great. I've always known you could do this, but I never thought it was intentional. I think everything just believes it's a cool side-effect or something. Knowing that I can manipulate the winds to my will is like a whole new Quirk!" Izuku said, wishing he had his notebook to write in.
"Hold the breaks, though," All Might said, holding his hands up placatingly. "It's got some utility if you're out of range for a smash, but it's not something you can use like a true wind manipulation Quirk. I recall a boy at the licensing exam your classmates attended having that kind of power, and it was a sight to behold, but it was also fundamentally different from what you can do with One for All. That boy could create a variety of different wind streams and other effects, and his fine control was incredible. You can simply create one strong blast in a single direction. It's a tool in your kit, for sure, but it isn't a whole new set of abilities."
"Right, that makes sense. I should make sure to integrate it with my current roster, because if I could use it to manipulate my Smokescreen after I've already sent it out, that'd be awesome. Plus, if I can Float and then kick up a blast of wind to propel me, that'd be as close to real flight as I can dream of! Wow! I get what you mean about it being limited on its own, but it has so many applications if I pair it with my other Quirks. Thanks for showing me!" Izuku said, beaming up at his teacher.
"No problem!" All Might said, grinning and giving Izuku a thumbs up. "However," he said, his tone and expression becoming more serious as he let his hand hang at his side, "there's something else I wanted to talk to you about."
"Yeah?" Izuku asked, getting a bad feeling about where the conversation was heading.
"The second and third users. Have you been able to contact them at all?" All Might asked, making Izuku sigh heavily.
"No. They won't talk to me. I can talk to the other wielders just fine, but these two are just …different, for whatever reason," he explained. "The third even appeared to me once, back at camp, but now he's just refusing to acknowledge me again! Why'd he even show up in the first place if he was just gonna reject me?"
"I don't know, but I wouldn't hold it against him," All Might cautioned with a grave expression. "Everything we know about the third, and the second by proxy, tells us that they both grew up in a time of despair and desolation. All for One's evil plagued Japan, and they were directly fighting against that evil. I'm well aware that the vestiges you talk to retain the traits and personalities of the wielders they represent, so much so that they may as well be their real souls, and so you must be patient with the second and third users. What if they're simply wary of a child being the holder of a power they themselves died using? What if your attempts to contact them in their world inside your brain are working, just working slower than you'd like? You can't let yourself get discouraged, because even if All for One is dealt with for sure this time, I know you still want to complete One for All and unlock every secret it holds, their Quirks being two of them. You have time, Young Midoriya. You can be patient."
Izuku thought about that for a moment, and decided that All Might was right. All for One was done and locked away in Tartarus where there'd never been a breakout in its seventy years of operation, so he was gone for good. Izuku had time to simply take it slow and let the second and third come to him. He'd already managed to make contact with the third once, even if it hadn't been a pleasant conversation, and so he just had to believe that he could do it again! That's what being the hopeful hero meant, after all. He still had over two and a half years left at UA, too, so even if he never unlocked the last two Quirks in One for All, Izuku doubted that he'd learned all there was to master about the Quirk, or even his other Quirks for that matter. He knew that his technique with Smokescreen could be refined far more than he currently had, since he'd only just unlocked it before he was put in a hero student's version of time-out. He had so much more to learn about his own capabilities, and that thought excited Izuku more than the discovery of Air Force, the name of which he coined in the moment, as it just felt right. He could stand to take it nice and slow for the next few years.
"I seem to recall that you already know what the third's Quirk is, so that should be a good enough starting point, for now at least," All Might said.
"Right. Fa Jin sounds … unwieldy, but also strong. Shinomori was the third's successor, so he's seen it in action, and from what he describes, it's a Quirk that's sure to be a game changer if I can use it. Mastery sounds difficult with Fa Jin, since it's a very contextual power, but I think that if I'm using the larger amounts of One for All's strength by then, it won't be too hard to figure it out," Izuku admitted.
"Well, then, it sounds like you have your work cut out for you when the time comes!" All Might laughed. "That just leaves the second's Quirk as a complete and utter mystery."
"I know! It's so frustrating that I have five ghosts floating around in my dreams who are experts in the exact thing I want to know, and even they're stumped!" Izuku groaned, huffing in agitation.
"Y'know, you'd think the first user would know, seeing as he'd have met the second user at least once," All Might suggested, but it was for nothing.
"I asked him, and he said that he didn't know what the second's Quirk was. It's a shame, but I guess I'm just gonna have to stick it out and play the waiting game with them," Izuku said with a sigh.
"Indeed," All Might said. He turned and looked out at the still setting sun, a kind of sad smile creeping onto his face as he did.
Izuku stood there for a moment, wondering if All Might wanted to talk about anything else. He was still terrible at ending conversations like these, where they just sort of taper out and he's stuck standing there in silence for a while before the other person decides that they're done talking to him. He wondered if now would be the best time to ask about something he'd been wanting to know for a while, and so when he was sure that All Might wasn't going to say anything more, Izuku went for it.
"When can I visit Tenko again?" he asked, bracing for negativity. He'd only visited his former enemy once after his surrender and the Vanguard's fall, but he wanted to make sure he was still handling incarceration well. All Might looked at him with surprise, but then that expression softened into something like amusement.
"Oh, right. There's been a bit of unrest in Tartarus, and so the warden has made it so that only individuals with full hero licenses can enter, and that's after a thorough clearance process. I don't think you'll be able to visit any time soon. I'm sorry," All Might said.
"That's fine. If there's no other way, I get that," Izuku said, letting his shoulders slump. "Well, what about the others?"
"Others?" All Might asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah! I know that Himiko Toga and Jin Bubaigawara aren't in Tartarus. Could I talk to them someday?" Izuku asked, looking up at All Might with his best expectant smile.
"I don't know about that. While you are correct that Toga and Twice weren't sent to Tartarus upon their arrest, they are still in a maximum security holding facility that you wouldn't be allowed to enter, even under special circumstances, like your last visit to Shigaraki. Warden Kanshu was very lenient with me because we used to work together when he was Police Commissioner of Tokyo," All Might explained, making Izuku deflate at the mention of the man in charge of the prison. He didn't like the way the warden spoke about the people he watched over, like they were subhuman or something.
All Might didn't notice Izuku's dislike and kept talking. "Tartarus is for villains whose Quirks or other skills make them unable to contain any other way, or if their crimes are especially heinous. Shigaraki is a good example of this, as Decay is capable of completely trivialising any box they put him in anywhere else, as is Stain concerning the second criteria, as he would've gone on to kill every hero he could if you didn't do what you do and convince him otherwise. Muscular is possibly on par with One for All at around half-power, and so his threat-level constituted a sentence at Tartarus as well. Dabi's Quirk is powerful, and he seems to be clinically insane and sociopathic. The less we say about All for One, the better. Tartarus has the unique tools to contain the most dangerous, problematic Quirks and people. However, for those people that almost qualify for that but are technically containable by other means, that's when we send villains to the VCU; the Villain Containment Unit. There are a few around Japan, but the one in Musutafu was where Toga, Twice and Mustard were sent. There were a few exceptions to this distinction, such as Kurogiri and the Nomu, who were taken to Central Hospital so that they could study exactly what made the bioengineered creatures tick."
A shiver travelled down Izuku's spine at the mention of Kurogiri. It was unfortunate to learn Kurogiri's true identity as Oboro Shirakumo; he didn't think Aizawa and Yamada had truly accepted it yet, as they refused to talk to him at the request of those studying him. Izuku knew Aizawa wasn't the type to talk about his feelings, but he wanted to make sure he and Mic were okay one of these days. It didn't sound fun to find out something like that. Hell, Izuku knew it wasn't fun, as he'd gone through a similar thing finding out that All for One was his father. That had been a rabbit hole that he'd spent many a sleepless night thinking about. The depths of that man's depravity knew no bounds, however, and he'd eventually decided not to think about it too hard, or he'd never stop.
"All that is to say that I don't think you'll be able to see any of the Vanguard for a long time, if at all. I'm sorry," All Might said, concluding his long winded explanation of the way things worked for villains after they're arrested.
"Right. I can accept that. I just … think that there's more to uncover with them. I know they're caught and it's over, but it doesn't feel finished for some reason. I keep getting hung up on them and I want to ask them some things," Izuku admitted.
"What would you ask them?" All Might asked, prompting Izuku with a gesture with his hand.
"Why? Why'd they end up this way? What happened to them to make them the way they are? How does a person get to where they ended up? I know what happened to Tenko, at least what he knows, but it's just … I'd like to know. I know it wouldn't change anything that happened, but maybe if I know, then I can see the signs in someone else and help them before they go too far. Is that silly?" Izuku rambled. He didn't know if it made any sense, but it was what he felt was right.
"I don't think that's silly. I think it's a wonderful idea, one that I admittedly never thought of. I spent so much of my career as All Might just stomping out fires wherever I went. I sought to provide the safety that society needed to stabilise after the extended period of chaos that came when Quirks emerged and villains all but ruled. I'm seeing now that it's not enough. I look outside nowadays and see that villains are getting bolder after the publicity the Vanguard received from Kamino. Endeavor is doing a good job as the new number one, but he isn't a symbol, and he's definitely not a symbol of peace. He's always marketed himself as the kind of hero who gets the job done and puts the villain away, not as the kind who goes out of his way to make sure an upset kid gets home okay. I'd hoped you would be that kind of symbol for the people, but the change had to happen sooner than was ideal," All Might said.
"I think we'll be okay. Endeavor's approval rating is higher than ever! Though that doesn't exactly reflect how the average person feels in private," Izuku said, retreating into his own thoughts as he mumbled out his entire train of thought. "While he is doing a good job, I don't think his particular brand of heroics is what's needed right now. I wish I could get out there on an internship or something."
"What did we say about slowing your roll, kid? I respect that you want to get out there and help people, but you don't even have your provisional licence yet," All Might said with a laugh.
"I know," Izuku mumbled.
He hadn't been able to attend the exam to get a provisional hero licence with the rest of his classmates in August, because of his injuries, but Aizawa had insisted that it was fine, as most students don't get even a provisional licence until halfway through their second year. The first years took the test this year because of the threats they'd already had to face, and they didn't know how many more attacks would happen, and so they thought it would be good to have the students in 1A and 1B able to legally act as heroes in at least some capacity if the need arose. Everyone that had attended managed to get licences, and the stories that Izuku had heard afterwards were enough for him to feel as though it was better he'd missed out. It sounded like a lot of stress he wasn't sure he wanted, even if they got provisional licences out of it. He did know that there were makeup exams for those who'd failed, but the start date for those had already passed. He'd already missed out, but he was completely fine taking the test next year.
"Don't fret about it. What you should be worried about is your event for the festival," All Might said, eliciting a groan from his successor.
"I know. We've sorted out most stuff, but there's been a problem that I didn't account for," Izuku grumbled.
"And what's that?" All Might asked with a smirk.
"Ashido is very good at getting people to do what she wants and I'm… not. I thought I was just gonna do managerial stuff, but she roped me into dancing," Izuku confessed.
"I think it's wonderful! I don't see what's so bad about it," All Might said while trying not to laugh.
"You don't have Hitoshi Shinso laughing in your face whenever you try to follow the instructions," Izuku said with a sharp look at All Might. He wasn't feeling very humorous about it after getting laughed all the way to his room the last few days because Izuku did what Ashido told him to do. "I have no idea how she expects me to 'do what's natural' when I don't have a rhythmic bone in my body!"
"I have faith that you'll get it!" All Might said, unable to hide his grin at the thought of his student's predicament.
"No, but then how will Hitoshi get his entertainment?" Izuku asked. He, too, couldn't help but begin to laugh at himself. "I won't lie, it is kinda fun when I'm not getting made fun of."
The two of them fell into another silence, but it was more comfortable for Izuku this time around. He began to look at the sunset, the sky finally beginning to get dark as it vanished over the horizon, and smiled. If any part of his life felt like a dream nowadays, it was this part; talking with All Might under the light of the setting sun felt like a scene from a storybook come true, and Izuku decided he was going to relish it for a while. He and All Might took a walk together after the conversation slowly became simple silence as they enjoyed each others' company. Spending time together in the peace of the moment was brilliantly basic, but it instilled both with an inner calm that none could replicate. Izuku felt at peace with nothing in his way. It was perfect.