….
All Might stood at the balcony of Training Ground Beta in his skinny form.
His sunken eyes tracked every movement below.
He is aware the approach Dabi suggested is unorthodox; but he still allowed it to happen because: he trusted Dabi's intuition.
Nevertheless, Dabi had promised him that his main priority would be the safety of Young Midoriya, and the students who are involved.
All Might nodded to himself.
Earlier that day Dabi had approached him with an idea to help Young Midoriya; and under normal circumstances All Might might have hesitated claiming it is too hasty, but after what had happened at the hospital, ignoring it was no longer an option.
Midoriya's words had unsettled him.
He had described something far more unusual, that went beyond anything All Might himself had ever experienced as the wielder of One For All.
He is sure that One For All is acting differently than it had with him and his master; unlike Midoriya, he had never encountered the First User, nor the vestiges of all the previous wielders within the quirk itself.
All Might had even reached out to Gran Torino, hoping the old man had some hidden knowledge passed down from Nana Shimura. But the only thing Gran Torino could recall was a vague statement Nana had once let slip:
"It isn't time yet."
Which was, frankly, not helpful at all.
All Might had relayed this to Dabi that afternoon, hoping his colleague might have some insight.
His expectations weren't some baseless helplessness. Because–
Surprisingly, Dabi always had a unique perception towards the working of One For All; and it wouldn't be an understatement to say his contribution to where Midoriya is today is any lesser than himself.
And Dabi had come up with... this.
"Maybe the previous users are living inside him."
The statement had made All Might's blood run cold.
The image it conjured; Young Midoriya carrying the consciousness of eight deceased Heroes, their thoughts and memories crowding his mind, was genuinely horrifying.
But Dabi had immediately clarified: "Not literally, just... a part of them, kind of like their essence and will?"
All Might had listened carefully as Dabi laid out his theory.
…and Dabi made sure that he sounded uncertain of his own conclusions but worked through the logic aloud.
"One For All's core nature is stockpiling power and passing it on, right?" Dabi had started. "Each generation it gets stronger, stores more energy and accumulates more potential."
All Might had nodded, this was basic One For All mechanics.
"But what if it's not just energy that gets stored?"
Dabi's conclusion had hit All Might like physical impact.
Meanwhile, Dabi was mentally giving himself a standing ovation.
Honestly, he was getting tired of the charade, and part of him wanted to just grab the skinny man by his oversized collar and lay it all out–
The Quirk Singularity, the Vestiges, the six hidden Quirks, the works.
But he couldn't.
Knowledge like that didn't just fall out of the sky without raising questions Dabi wasn't ready to answer.
So, he played the long game.
Instead, he was using what happened at the hospital as it had given Dabi exactly what he needed, because Midoriya's Quirk reacting unpredictably, was no longer just an incident, it was evidence, something observable that could be used to connect otherwise unprovable ideas.
The present situation allowed him to lay out a chain of reasoning that didn't sound like guesswork but like a natural conclusion All Might could arrive at himself if guided carefully enough.
So Dabi began from the safest point, grounding everything in what was already known, explaining the core nature of One For All as a stockpiling power, something All Might already understood intimately and required no convincing.
Then, step by step, he expanded that foundation just enough to introduce uncertainty without breaking logic, building toward the real point.
He continued. "Why stop at energy? And why would the Quirk be selective about what it keeps?" Dabi tilted his head. "Energy is just one form of information, so if it's storing the user's physical strength, it's reasonable to assume it's preserving the biological pattern as well; their DNA, and Quirk factors."
All Might questioned. "You're suggesting Young Midoriya isn't just inheriting a single developed quirk, but multiple quirks of the previous users?"
"All Might. I am not saying he is definitively inheriting multiple fully formed Quirks. At best, it's a minute possibility, but it does line up with the kind of unpredictable behavior we have been seeing."
Dabi shrugged.
"And the odds of me being wrong are probably higher than I would like, but we already know one thing for certain, the previous users are still present in some form within that power."
"So whether I am right or not, it makes sense for Midoriya, and for us, to start looking into them seriously, because if he ever gets another chance to connect with them, understanding who they were could make all the difference." he said, holding All Might's gaze. "Which brings us back to the question. What do we actually know about the people who held One For All before you?"
If that question had come from anyone else, All Might would have deflected without hesitation. But here he allowed himself to answer, his expression darkening not with secrecy, but with the weight of what he could not fill in.
"Very little, I am afraid. Because the early wielders of One For All had lived in hiding, constantly pursued by All For One." he admitted. "My master, Nana, shared what she could, but you have to remember the era they lived in; they weren't public figures, their battles with All For One were rarely documented, and much of it has been lost because Hero Society itself hadn't fully taken shape yet."
He began to count them off.
"I know the First, of course, Yoichi Shigaraki, the origin of it all. And I know Daigoro Banjo, the fifth, since my master spoke of him, as well as Nana herself."
All Might did, in truth, possess records, ones he had compiled himself over the years, documenting what little could be known about the previous holders, even going so far as to trace the circumstances surrounding some of their deaths.
But none of it was ever complete, only fragments mended together from memory, scattered accounts, and whatever history had survived.
"That's three." Dabi noted, leaning in. "What about the others?"
All Might shook his head, looking pained. "The second and third are little more than shadows… Names were lost to a time of total war. There is Hikage Shinomori, the fourth, but what remains of his records is… unusually incomplete, and then there is En, the sixth."
He looked up at Dabi, his eyes searching. "If we are right, and those people are truly living within that power, then Young Midoriya isn't just carrying strength, but also a history we don't even fully understand."
And more importantly, he didn't know their Quirks.
"Which is exactly why we are doing this." Dabi said, his voice hardening as he looked toward the training grounds. "If that history is buried inside him, then we're going to uncover it before it decides to surface on its own and bury him instead."
Dabi didn't say what he truly knew; that the full picture would only become clear once Izuku Midoriya began interacting directly with the vestiges themselves.
But he chose not to reveal that information, because revealing that would shift the entire conversation from theory to certainty, and that was not something he could afford yet.
So instead, he kept it simple.
He suggested only that if Midoriya were pushed, placed under enough pressure, in a situation that mirrored the sports festival, then One For All might react again on its own, revealing something without needing explanation, allowing observation to replace assumption.
That was the plan.
And with that, Dabi arranged everything that led to this moment.
Below, on the training ground, Midoriya stood completely still.
His body upright yet unresponsive, his eyes unfocused as he remained caught under the control of Hitoshi Shinso's Brainwashing Quirk.
.
….
[To be continued…]
★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★
Author Note:
Visit Patreon to instantly access +1 chapter for free, available for Free Members as well. For additional content please do support me and gain access to +12 more chapters.
-->patreon.com/WrightBrothers