….
"It's fine, Midoriya." Dabi hadn't moved from the wall. "Principal Nezu is one of the few people who knows about All Might's secret."
The way he said few made it clear he had opinions about the number of people who qualified for that list and how rapidly it kept growing.
"Yes, hmm." he said, his voice gaining a sudden, feverish clarity. "I did see something… but it was only one person, unlike in the hospital."
He set the juice box on the bedside table. His hands were steady, but his eyes were wide with the weight of what he had learned.
"He told me the power I used... It is called Black Whip. A Quirk that belonged to him once, but now it has been ripening inside One For All for generations, getting stronger, faster... more volatile."
Midoriya's gaze sharpened, his mind already spinning into a familiar spiral of analysis. "He also mentioned that One For All responds to emotions…."
He tried to explain everything he remembered, then he paused.
"And there are still six more..."
The room got quiet.
"Quirks waiting to manifest." Midoriya said.
All Might's face changed, the worry that had been sitting behind his eyes since the training ground came forward and settled across his features, open and undisguised.
He looked at Midoriya, a sixteen-year-old boy.
"Fascinating." Nezu took a sip of his tea. "The implications are significant. If One For All has been accumulating quirks from each successive user, then the power student Midoriya carries is fundamentally different from what any previous holder experienced."
He set the cup down on his knee. "However, I would caution against drawing too many conclusions from a single vestige encounter. There's still a great deal we don't understand about how One For All functions at this level."
He looked at each of them in turn.
"For now, I recommend keeping this information within this room. We still have no leads on the traitor operating within U.A., which means any intelligence about One For All's true nature could find its way to the wrong people."
His voice didn't change when he said traitor. And even as he continued, it maintained the same pleasantness. "The traitor could be anyone. Until we identify them, discretion is paramount."
All Might hadn't moved, he was staring at the floor, his gaunt face drawn and skinny hands trembling slightly.
"What have I done?" he said, almost inaudible. "I gave a child a burden I didn't fully understand. If I had known… and realized it soone-"
"All Might." Dabi's voice cut across the room. "Stop."
All Might looked at him.
"He is sitting right there." Dabi nodded toward Midoriya. "He can hear you, and right now, you're the guy who chose him. The person he looks up to more than anyone else on the planet. So if you're going to stand there second-guessing that choice out loud, in front of him, while he is already dealing with the fact that he just found out he's got six more unknown powers rattling around inside him–"
Dabi paused. "Then you're not helping the situation."
All Might's mouth opened, and closed.
It was a jarring sight; to the public, the Symbol of Peace was a mountain; unshakeable, steady, a man whose smile could hold back the tide.
But here, in the sterile light of the infirmary, he was just a man terrified that his greatest gift might become his successor's greatest curse.
"You're right." All Might straightened, took a breath.
When he looked at Midoriya again, the doubt was still there, but he had pushed it behind his eyes. "Forgive me, Young Midoriya. My concern for your well-being should never be mistaken for a lack of faith in your spirit. I chose you for a reason, and that reason hasn't changed…. even if the power has."
"It's okay, All Might." Midoriya's voice was quiet. "I get it...."
All Might nodded, his voice regaining its resonance. "Now I want you to know that I believe in you Midorya, if anyone can carry this torch without being consumed by it, it's you."
Midoriya searched his teacher's face for a long second, finding the familiar light there, and nodded.
Dabi pushed off the wall.
"Alright, Midoriya. Don't stare at the number, six sounds like a lot, and it is, but thinking about all six at once is just going to paralyze you. One step at a time, focus on what's in front of you right now, which is mastering what you just unlocked."
"Black Whip." Midoriya murmured.
"Yeah." Dabi put his hands in his pockets. "It originally belonged to the fifth user of One For All, a Pro Hero named Daigoro Banjo. Hero name: Lariat."
Midoriya's eyes widened, the fanboy instincts momentarily overriding his exhaustion. "You know about the previous users? I thought most of that history was lost."
"...well most of them were. However, there is some information about the recent users, and Banjo was the first holder to actually operate as a Public Hero. Before him, One For All mostly laid underground."
"He was apparently a loud, flashy guy, and had a reputation for being impossible to ignore in a fight, which tracks, given what Black Whip looks like when it's going full blast."
All Might nodded slowly. "I have additional information on several of the holders. Their backgrounds, their fighting styles, what little I have managed to scrap together about their personalities."
Dabi turned his focus back to Midoriya. "The reason we are sharing it with you isn't for trivia. The more you know about who these people were; how they fought, how they thought, what they loved, the better you will be able to harmonize with what they left behind. When you meet them in the vestige space, you won't be going in blind."
He paused.
"All Might's going to fill you in on the rest of what we know. And next time you end up in that space… and there will be a next time… you will be ready."
He scratched the side of his jaw. "I don't think putting you under Shinso's quirk again will get you back in there. The conditions were specific today. From what you have mentioned just now it only worked because of the combination of factors… the exhaustion, emotional state, and desperation in the fight. We probably can't recreate that artificially again. So the next time it happens, it will be on One For All's terms, not ours."
Midoriya was quiet, processing, then he nodded, slowly at first, then with more conviction.
"I understand, sensei."
"Alright, head home now. It's already late and your mom's going to worry, even if I managed to smooth things over for now by having Aizawa call and cover for your 'special training.'"
Midoriya got out of bed, then he bowed to Dabi, All Might, and Nezu, grabbed his yellow backpack, and headed for the door.
But he stopped in the doorway.
"Sensei."
Dabi looked at him.
"Thank you for today…" He bowed again, deeper this time, his voice thick with a promise. "I won't waste this chance."
"I know you won't." Dabi said, the corner of his mouth twitching into something that wasn't quite a smile, but wasn't a scowl either. "Now get out of here before Recovery Girl comes back and blames me for you still being held up by us."
Midoriya left, his footsteps faded down the hallway, uneven but determined.
….
After Midoriya and Nezu left, Dabi and All Might remained behind in silence.
Dabi sighed. "Alright… I will explain."
What he meant wasn't Midoriya or One For All, but All Might's master investigation. Even without saying it outright, All Might's hesitation was obvious, and Dabi had sensed it long before this moment, yet he chose to move forward anyway.
He paused, glancing up at the ceiling, then back at All Might.
"I have got a bad feeling."
"About what, specifically?"
"All Might." Dabi's voice was even. "Do you honestly believe that a man like All For One; a man who has spent centuries hoarding power, eliminating threats, and dismantling everyone who's ever stood against him… would leave your master's family alone? Just because they don't have One For All anymore? Just because they're civilians now?"
All Might's expression shifted, the color that was left in his gaunt face drained out of it.
"No, he wouldn't." Dabi continued. "He would have pursued every lead, used every method available to track them down."
"Then you think they're–"
"I don't know what I think yet. That's why I am looking into it." Dabi held up a hand. "And before you spiral… there is a good chance he never found them. Your master covered her tracks well, and she wouldn't have left her family exposed. So this is me being cautious..."
That wasn't all.
Dabi knew more than he was saying, and the lie sat in his mouth like something sour.
But he needed All Might looking in this direction, asking the right questions, searching in the right places, so that when certain truths surfaced later, the groundwork would already be in place.
He pushed forward before All Might could examine the statement too closely.
All Might was very still, his blue eyes were locked on Dabi's face, reading him.
Toshinori Yagi hadn't survived decades as the world's greatest hero without learning to tell when someone was holding something back.
But he trusted Dabi, had since USJ, when he stepped between his students and death without hesitation, and that trust, earned in that moment, was why All Might nodded now instead of pressing further.
"Alright, I will help with the investigation." All Might said, his voice steady but quieter than usual. "…and now that I understand your reasoning, I realize I probably should have done this years ago."
"Yeah, you should have." Dabi said it without judgment.
All Might accepted it without argument, he adjusted his oversized suit, straightened his thin shoulders, and headed for the door.
"Dabi."
"Hm."
"Thank you for what you did for Young Midoriya today, and for... looking out for things I should have been watching myself."
"Don't thank me. Just follow up on it."
All Might nodded and left.
Dabi stood alone in the Recovery Girl's office.
He had done what he needed to do.
Midoriya had Black Whip, the vestige connection was active, and All Might was pointed toward Shimura's family, which meant he would eventually find what Dabi already knew was there.
Dabi checked his phone, a message from Rumi.
A photo of Eri and Toga sitting on the living room floor of their temporary quarters, drawing with crayons.
Eri was showing Toga how to hold the crayon properly.
Toga was watching with the focused intensity of a child learning something important.
Dabi looked at the photo for a long time, and headed home.
.
….
[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