….
'Are they the vestiges of One For All?' that was the only conclusion Midoriya had reached.
There were a total of seven figures, representing seven previous holders.
He is the ninth inheritor.
Fushhh–!
Then, all at once, they vanished.
Every figure, every outline, every trace of the people who had carried this power before him… gone? The dark swallowed them, and Midoriya was alone in the formless space with the green mist clinging to his body again.
"Come with me."
A voice?
Midoriya turned, two new figures had appeared in the dark.
He was sure they hadn't been there a moment ago, and materialized only now, as if the space had decided to show him something different.
One stood tall: Blue shirt, blue pants, a lean frame and a posture that radiated command. And, in front of him, kneeling, was another person, a bit smaller, thinner and head bowed.
The tall one spoke. "Dear foolish little brother."
Midoriya's eyes went wide.
He recognised that voice, he had never heard it in person but somehow he could.
All For One.
"Why do you resist?"
The kneeling figure didn't look up, his fists were clenched on his knees.
…and they were arguing.
The details were fragmentary, the words coming through in pieces like a radio signal fading in and out, but the shape of the conversation was clear.
All For One was offering something to his younger brother, who was rejecting it.
The same exchange continued over and over, two brothers locked in a cycle of demand and defiance that had apparently been going on for a very long time.
'Is he the first user?' Midoriya thought.
He looked at the brother, who was still kneeling.
'Is he the person who started One For All?'
Neither of them seemed to notice him.
The scene was playing out like a recording, being projected into this space for him to witness. The past, unfolding in front of him like pages turning in a book he couldn't touch.
Then things moved, the younger brother refused again.
Something final in it this time. A line drawn, a door closed, a decision made that couldn't be unmade.
All For One's posture changed, the casual authority sharpened into something colder.
And then Midoriya understood as he watched it happen…
All For One raised his hand, as the power flowed, from one brother to the other.
The power that would become One For All was forced into a body that already held a small, unknown quirk, one that allowed the transfer of quirk. When his brother, All For One, added a stockpiling quirk on top of it, the two merged, giving birth to One For All.
"STOP!" the first user screamed.
His body convulsed, back arching, hands clawing at empty air as searing pain tore through him, deep and fundamental, like his very cells were being rewritten.
"STOP!!! PLEASE–"
Midoriya reached out, trying to move toward him, to help, to do anything–
But suddenly everything disappeared again…
The darkness and the screaming, gone in an instant, leaving only the same formless void and silence.
Then the voice returned, a bit different, and definitely not All For One, but the first user.
"So you're the ninth."
Midoriya still couldn't speak as the mist was still covering his mouth, but he could listen.
"This is happening sooner than I anticipated, and you're developing at a pace I didn't account for, and the connection between us is forming far faster than it should."
A pause, the voice was calm, but there was something underneath it: urgency, maybe, or concern.
"But it still isn't enough, and I had intended to show you far more, there's so much you still need to understand, but you're barely operating at thirty percent of your capacity, and if you don't reach the level required, your body won't be able to withstand what's coming."
A shape emerged from the dark, hand, reaching toward him.
The outline of the first user, closer now, his face almost visible.
"Be careful, because the singularity point, the moment when One For All becomes greater than the sum of its parts, was crossed long before it ever reached you. And what you carry now is no longer the same power I held, nor what any of us before you held. It has evolved into something else entirely."
The hand got closer, almost touching.
"But you will be fine."
The voice softened.
"You're not alone."
Midoriya reached for the hand, but everything shattered.
….
The window of the hospital room exploded outward.
Glass blew out into the night in a shower of fragments, the frame cracking, and the wall around it spiderwebbing with fracture lines.
The sound was enormous in the quiet ward - a sharp, percussive bang followed by the tinkling rain of glass hitting the ground three stories below.
Bakugo was upright in half a second, covers thrown aside, bandaged hands raised, eyes sharp and searching, every combat instinct firing despite the hospital gown and fingers that would not close.
"WHAT THE… WHO'S THERE?!" He was scanning the room, window, and the door. "IS IT A BREAK-IN?! WHICH BASTARD… I WILL BLOW YOUR FACE OFF–"
Todoroki sat up with calm, blinking once as he took in the shattered window, Bakugo shouting, and Midoriya.
Midoriya was sitting upright in his bed, gasping, his chest was heaving, his hospital gown was soaked through with sweat, and his right arm, the one that wasn't fully casted, was crackling.
Green energy arced across his skin, flickering and surging, One For All discharging in uncontrolled bursts that made the air around his hand shimmer.
The heart monitor beside his bed was going haywire.
He grabbed his own wrist with his casted hand, forced himself to breathe [Total Concentration Breathing], inhale, hold, exhale, hold.
The green energy flickered, sputtered, and slowly died down, his hand stopped crackling and the monitor settled.
"DEKU!" Bakugo had located the source of the disturbance and was now redirecting all of his rage accordingly. "DID YOU JUST BLOW OUT THE WINDOW?! IN YOUR SLEEP?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW?!"
"Bakugo." Todoroki's voice cut through cleanly. "I think you should calm down."
"DON'T TELL ME TO–"
"He obviously didn't do it on purpose, look at him." Todoroki nodded toward Midoriya, who was still gripping his own wrist, still breathing hard. "His Quirk discharged while he was unconscious, it's something that can happen under strain."
Bakugo whipped toward him. "Do you even hear yourself? THAT MAKES IT WORSE!?! Because this idiot can't even keep his Quirk under control while he's asleep. So what do you think happens if MINE goes off the same way, huh? Because I would end up blowing this entire hospital sky-high and we would all be dead, and honestly at this point I wouldn't even MIND if it meant I didn't have to spend another second stuck in this room with you two idiots!"
While Bakugo continued venting three days of accumulated hospital frustration onto a target that couldn't fight back, Todoroki got out of bed.
Slowly, carefully, his ribs were still healing and his lung wasn't fully recovered. He crossed to Midoriya's bed and sat on the edge.
The door banged open, two nurses from the night shift rushed in, already talking over each other, drawn by the sound of shattering glass and Bakugo's continued shouting.
"What happened?! Is everyone–"
Bakugo pointed accusingly at Midoriya with a bandaged hand. "Get me a DIFFERENT ROOM! I AM DONE! I AM LEAVING! I WILL walk out of here on my HANDS if I have to–"
"Sir, please, you can't–"
"DON'T TELL ME WHAT I CAN'T–"
Todoroki looked at the nurses. "He discharged his Quirk unconsciously during a dream, but no one has been injured." he said, pausing briefly before adding. "Although the window will need replacing."
One of the nurses followed his gaze to the shattered glass, then to Midoriya, who was still shaking and gripping his wrist as he tried to steady himself, and finally to Bakugo.
It was going to be a very long night shift.
.
….
[To be continued…]
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