Chapter 12
Shouto irritably shoved his phone into his pocket, his old man had just called him trying, and failing, to try and coerce Shouto into using his flames in the Sports Festival. Of course his old man had known the Festival's date, he was probably going to provide security, more likely he'd just use it as an excuse to watch and "encourage" Shouto as he fought in the Festival.
Though the bastard would be disappointed when Shouto didn't use his fire quirk in any of his fights. He'd never use those flames, never let his father have the satisfaction of seeing him use them. Not after what happened because of how similar his left side looked to his father.
Shouto shook his head, trying to dislodge the thoughts from his mind, they were for later. He stepped into the hall, moving a strand of his hair out of his eyes as he started to walk towards the lunch room. Only to freeze mid-step when he saw All Might and Midoriya talking.
He looked for someplace he wouldn't be seen, in the end he stepped into an empty classroom, and watched his classmate and teacher from a distance. Shouto couldn't hear what they were saying, he couldn't read their lips either, but something Midoriya said made All Might cough into his sleeve before he laughed it off, and motioned for Midoriya to follow him as he stepped into the break room.
Midoriya had a powerful strength enhancing quirk, though it had the unique ability of being sentient, and heroes often take in people with quirks that are somewhat similar to their own, was Shouto's classmate All Might's apprentice? If so, then why wasn't he among the recommended students? Or did he only become All Might's apprentice once the school year began?
Or were they, perhaps, closer than just teacher and apprentice? No. That was crazy. They both had strength enhancing quirks, but they were no where near similar enough to be related. Besides the two looked nothing alike.
However Midoriya came to be All Might's protege, or whatever he was to the number 1, wasn't important, what was important was that Midoriya was working with All Might, and that if Shouto could defeat All Might's student with only his ice, then he could prove to his father that he didn't need the bastard's quirk to become the number 1 hero.
Shouto gained a slight smirk, he'd show him, he'd finally show Endeavor that he didn't need his quirk!
And then maybe... maybe he'd finally be able to face his mother again. Try to reclaim her love despite how horrifying his left side is to her.
"So what do you want to talk about, Yagi-San?" Izuku said as he sat down on a stool across from All Might who sat on a sofa. Once they had stepped into the break room All Might had, kinda, deflated into how he had looked when he had introduced himself as Toshinori Yagi.
"First, how'd you know that this form." All Might said gesturing towards himself. "Was also me?"
"Firstly, it's common sense that you'd have some type of ability to alter your body, seeing as there aren't daily sightings of you. Secondly, your hair is practically the exact same, just not blasted back. And thirdly, Venom gives me an extremely powerful sense of smell, and both your "muscle" form and regular, I suppose, self share the same scent." Izuku quickly said each explanation of how he had figured out All Might's secret identity making the hero slowly pale.
"Is it really that obvious?" All Might said his sunken eyes were wide with shock.
"Yes, immensely, blondie!" Venom said laughing as it created a manifestation from Izuku's neck.
"Venom, don't be rude." Izuku said poking the manifestation's cheek. "Now, could we please get onto why you wished to speak with me, sir?"
"Ah, that... well after your... symbiote explained itself, explained it's secret to me, I began to think." All Might said leaning towards Izuku, his face serious. "I began to think that I owe you, both of you, a secret of my own."
"A secret?" Izuku said his eyes wide with surprise, there was only three things about All Might that were a secret to the world. His name, which Izuku already knew, his age, and his quirk, something that had been speculated over since All Might had made his debut. "From All Might!?"
"Really? A secret for us? We are curious as to what it could be." Venom said speaking Izuku's mind for him.
"Yes... I wish to reveal to you, Young Midoriya, the nature of my quirk." All Might said taking a deep breath in preparation. "My quirk is called One For All, it gives me immense strength, speed, agility, and durability, and it is unique in the fact that it can be passed on to a new user."
"A quirk that can be passed on?" Izuku said shocked. "But... how? That shouldn't be possible, everything we know about quirks says otherwise."
"Izuku, if there's something I've learned from my two centuries upon this world it's that humans will always find a way around the rules." Venom said looking down at Izuku. "Especially if those rules pertain to quirks."
Izuku looked away from Venom and to All Might. "Okay... how exactly does this One For All work?"
"It... essentially is a stockpiling quirk that amplifies everything about it's user, their body and quirk, with the unique ability to pass itself on to another person. The first user stockpiled a certain amount of power, and then passed it on to the second, the second did the same until they passed it on to the third, and so on until we get to me, the eighth user." All Might said placing his hand on his chest as he spoke as if he could feel the quirk, burning within him. "By now it has so much power that I can level a skyscraper with a single punch, and that's with a user that's originally quirkless, imagine the kind of power that could be born from someone like Young Todoroki or Young Bakugou."
"They'd be unstoppable." Izuku whispered his eyes wide. That kind of power... it was almost unimaginable.
"That power... why are you telling us about it? We know you said it was to repay the secret we told you... but that seems like a lie." Venom said staring into All Might's sunken eyes. It's lips were pulled back into a wide, sharp-toothed smile as it spoke. "And we can smell lies."
"What? No we can't." Izuku said looking at Venom, totally confused. "I thought you hated lying."
"It's not a lie, little host! Just a manipulation of the truth." Venom said moving in front of Izuku's face as it spoke.
"That is exactly what a lie is, Venom." Izuku said pushing Venom out of his face.
All Might coughed, drawing Izuku and Venom's attention back to him.
"What Venom said is partially true, I wasn't telling the whole truth when I said that I wanted to repay the secret you told me. I told you the secret of my quirk because... I believe you are worthy of my quirk, if you wish to take it." All Might said leaning towards Izuku as the boy's jaw dropped.
"You... you want me to take your quirk?" Izuku said disbelief practically dripping from his words.
"Why?" Venom hissed glaring at All Might. "Why would you wish to give up so much power?"
All Might sighed and grabbed the hem of his dress shirt, tugging up the left side of it, revealing a massive scar that consumed the entirety of the left half of his chest. A scar that could only be born from a brutal attack upon his person, a brutal attack meant to kill him.
'His organs... that attack was meant to tear them apart, brutally. But it wasn't meant to kill him... at least not quickly.' Venom whispered in Izuku's mind as they both stared at All Might's wound. 'No it was meant to kill him slowly, let him slowly bleed out in agony as he tried to hold in his ruined organs. Whoever did it was either a sadist, or hated All Might here enough to do something like this. Either way, the person that did this... would have to be powerful as hell.' Venom sounded strangely... impressed.
"I gained this wound... five years ago in a battle against a powerful foe, I lost my stomach, had to have one of my lungs removed and the other needed heavy surgery before it would function properly, and I now have a time limit. Before I fought that nomu creature, I could be in my "muscle form" for only three hours a day." All Might said looking at his wound in shame. Like he thought that his being injured was somehow his fault. "But after I fought that thing, fought it past my time limit... I can only last fifty minutes, at most." All Might looked up at Izuku, staring him in the eyes as he continued. "The shorter my time limit, the closer I am... the closer I am to death. I'm going to die, Young Midoriya, I'm going to die, and I need to pass on my quirk before that happens."
"B-But why me?" Izuku said in shock. "How can I be worthy of-of your quirk?"
"How can you not be?" All Might said smiling at Izuku. "At the USJ you charged in to fight a dangerous villain to protect both Aizawa-San and your fellow students, even leaping to stop the villain with the decay quirk, Shigaraki Tomura, from hurting Young Asui, putting your own life in further danger. You did something only a true hero, someone who doesn't care about the fame or the glory, who only cares about helping people, would do that day, and only a true hero is worthy of One For All." All Might's smile grew as he spoke. Joy burning in his voice. "If you accept it, I'd train you, train you to become the next Symbol of Peace."
Izuku grew quiet, contemplating the hero's offer. He had always wanted a quirk, always wanted to become a hero as great as All Might, and now... now he had the chance to have and be both. The chance was at his fingertips, the chance to become the next number 1, the chance to be... to be...
More. To be more than just a weak, little quirkless that everyone avoided touching because they were afraid of catching his lack of quirk. To be more than the pitiful boy that was laughed into submission whenever he tried to express his want to be a hero.
More... but wasn't Izuku that already? With Venom he had become a vigilante that villain and hero alike feared, had joined U.A. rubbing shoulders with the future greats, had... had fought against evil, and had saved his fellow heroes-to-be from Phage.
With Venom, Izuku had become more, more than he ever thought he could have alone.
'Izuku... if-if you want this quirk, then it's fine for you to have it. It wouldn't be the first time one of my hosts had a quirk, far from it.' Venom whispered in Izuku's mind, trying to hide it's fear. 'Many of them have.'
"I..." Izuku took a deep breath. "I can't accept, sir. I'm sorry." He lowered his head, fearful of what All Might's response would be, but the spark of joy that Izuku could fearing burning in Venom's "heart" made him smile despite that.
"It's fine, my boy." All Might said holding his hands up. "I'll simply find someone else that is worthy, but please... try to keep this a secret. If it got out that I had a quirk that could be passed on, hundreds, thousands of villains from the world over would come here, trying to force me to give up my quirk to them."
The world over? Izuku didn't know much about the villain situation in other countries, but what little he knew from researching some foreign heroes, like Tennessee Mud, he could create, manipulate, and turn parts of his body into mud, or White Noise, she could send out powerful blasts of sound from her hands that were strong enough to shatter any glass in the vicinity, was that in other countries the villains were often as bad as or worse than Japan's. But since there were far more villains in those other countries, due to them being larger than the island of Japan, they could overwhelm the Japanese heroes, and perhaps even defeat All Might. Through sheer numbers, if not through power.
"Wait, something just came to me. Two days ago, when we were laying in Recovery Girl's office, you mentioned a villain who could take and give quirks as he pleased, and that his name was All For One, an inversion of your quirk's name." Venom said it's manifestation leaning closer to All Might. The symbiote's usual brutal honesty shining through. "Is he somehow related to this quirk?" Venom stopped and glared at All Might's side where his scar was beneath his shirt. "Is he the one who caused that wound of yours?"
"Yes. To both questions, unfortunately enough." All Might said looking away from Izuku and Venom. Trying to hide the fear and pain that burned in his sunken eyes. "All For One... a monster in the form of a man. Ages ago, at the dawn of quirks, he was born with the unique ability to steal, use, and give out any quirk he saw. He's brutally killed hundreds of people throughout the centuries, his attacks often mistaken for calamities or natural disasters." All Might took a deep breath, trying to keep his voice calm. "His younger brother, born weak, frail, and sickly, was seemly born quirkless, so All For One forced a stockpiling quirk upon him, during a time where having a quirk was a death sentence. But despite what both brothers had thought, the younger brother did indeed have a quirk, the ability to pass on his own quirk. The two quirks fused together becoming one, becoming-"
"-One For All." Izuku finished for All Might. "One quirk For the protection of All people."
All Might nodded a small smile on his face.
"Heh, what a childish name. It's just an inverse of your enemy's, how uncreative." Venom said ignoring Izuku's disapproving glare. "It'd be like someone devoting themselves to defeating you, All Might, and them calling themselves something like All Fright! It's so boring!" Venom laughed, it's manifestation producing small arms so it could clap.
"Stop being so rude, Venom." Izuku said poking Venom's cheek again making the symbiote playfully growl, lightly nipping his finger.
"Heh, it's fine, Young Midoriya." All Might said rubbing the back off his head. "Venom does have a point."
"It's still no reason to be rude." Izuku said resting his hands on Venom's head. "Um, is there anything else you wanted to speak about, sir?"
All Might nodded. "The Sports Festival is a chance for all students to make their first true impressions as the next generation of heroes, the whole country, the whole world will be watching. This is your chance to present yourself to the world, to begin your career as a pro." He pointed at Izuku's chest. "This is your chance to say "I am here"."
"No." Venom said a broad, sharp-toothed smile on it's face. "It is our chance to say "We are here"! Isn't that right, little host?"
Izuku looked at Venom, a contemplative look upon his face. Making the symbiote's smile become uncertain, it couldn't read his thoughts, not when the boy was concentrating on something to a certain extent.
"Yes... yes it is, Venom." Izuku said smiling at Venom.
Izuku spent the rest of the day thinking of a strategy, the Sports Festival always had three main events, and the third was always, with one exception where it was a battle royal, a tournament. Venom could easily overwhelm most enemies, though it was just a brawler, using it's immense strength to beat any foes into submission... but Izuku wanted to do more in their partnership, wanted to... actually fight.
And Venom was fine with that, even it had admitted that it's normal unions had the host fighting and it supporting them. Not the other way around.
But if Izuku wanted to learn how to fight... well he and Venom would need to revisit their old hunting grounds.
'We have two days to prepare for the Festival, two days for me to learn how to actually fight.' Izuku thought as he got ready to leave, it was minutes from the final bell. 'We use our strength like a brawler, no skill, no technique. Just flailing around using our size and strength to overwhelm our foes.'
'I'm aware, Izuku.' Venom said. 'My hosts often lack in... finesse, combat experience. You could be different, you're rather experienced in dodging thanks to Bakugou, all we need to do is teach you to use your fists.' It said as Izuku allowed some of it's tendrils to flow from the fingertips of his right hand, willing them to connect and fuse together into an intricate spiderweb as he threw his backpack onto his left shoulder.
'Yeah... and we'll be taking out a few criminals in the process.' Izuku thought smiling as he walked to the door, letting the tendrils fade back into his hand.
Though that smile quickly faded as the door to the classroom was pulled open by someone, Izuku thought it might have been Uraraka but he wasn't sure, and revealed a mass of people waiting outside the door.
"W-What's going on here?!" Yep it was definitely Uraraka who opened the door.
'Other students?' Izuku thought as he peered over the shoulders of the taller 1-A students.
'They're probably here to scope out the competition, trying to see just how strong we are.' Venom whispered in Izuku's mind, a small manifestation appearing on his head as he looked at them. 'We were the class to survive a villain attack.'
Apparently Bakugou had the same thought as he stomped up to the door, his hands stuffed into his pockets as he quietly growled. The fake eye he had seeming to glow.
"You wanna see what the fuck a person who survived a villain looks like, huh?" Bakugou growled as he reached the front of the class 1-A students. He pointed to his false eye, and the deep, blackened scars that surrounded it. "Take a good long fucking look, and fuck the hell off! I got shit to do."
"So this is the famous 1-A? Well... I'm certainly unimpressed." A voice, tired and annoyed and deep and absolutely dripping with malice, called over the chatter of the crowd. They quieted, seemingly fearful of the voice's owner, immediately parting like the Red Sea as the person walked from all the way in the back of the crowd to the front.
The person was a he, a tall boy with long purple hair that stood on end, making him look like a surprised cat at all times, deep bags rested beneath his angry, jealous, dark purple eyes.
He looked at Bakugou, stared into his eyes, trying to see something within him before he spoke again. "All of you in the Hero course as arrogant as this moron?" He said after a moment of silence, his eyes darting to the class behind Bakugou.
Izuku could see Uraraka and Iida rapidly shaking their heads. Venom quietly scoffed in his head.
"'Cuz if so... well I wouldn't be very surprised. You all probably think you hot shit for surviving a villain attack, even fighting against some of this "League of Villains'" top brass." The boy glared at them, gauging their responses. "Well I'm here to tell you that you sure as hell aren't."
'This guy... must be either pretty cocky, or pretty powerful to be speaking this blatantly.' Izuku thought as he glanced at the boy. 'Especially since Bakugou is in front of him.'
"The Sports Festival is the perfect chance for those of us in the General, Support, and Business courses to show that we're just as good as you cocky bastards in the Hero course." A smile slowly crept across the boy's face as he spoke. "Y'see the majority of students in General, and maybe even the other courses, originally wanted to be in the Hero course, but we didn't quite make the cut."
The boy paused, not a single sound being heard as he did, before speaking again. "Some of our quirks don't really work on robots. Making the entrance exam a bit unfair for us with quirks that aren't physical." He said making it rather obvious that he was a person who lacked a physical quirk. "This Sports Festival might seem like fun and games to you, but to us... it's our chance to transfer into the Hero course. And if any of us get in... they'd have to transfer some of you out, wouldn't they?"
Transfer out? Izuku's eyes grew wide with rage and shock, he couldn't be transferred out, he had worked to hard and for to long to get into the class already! He wouldn't lose his spot, he wouldn't... he couldn't!
'Izuku, calm down you're... forcing me out.' Venom said snapping Izuku out of his thoughts.
He glanced down, and saw that Venom was right, black biomass was escaping the flesh of his forearm, already starting to wrap around it and creep up it. Izuku took deep, calming breaths, never noticing the deep purple eyes that had locked onto him. He forced the biomass back within him, letting it settle deep within his bones, his muscles, his veins, his blood, and his cells.
"Consider this a declaration of war, Hero course." The boy said stuffing his hands in his pockets. "This my chance to begin my destiny, and the chance to knock you bastards off of your pedestals. And I think I'll take both." He said a tired smile on his face as he looked at them, past them.
The boy stared into the 1-A classroom, his back ramrod straight. His dark purple eyes stared at the classroom, a dreamy haze obscuring his sight as it lingered on every desk, every student, every book in the shelves as he seemed to fantasize about it all. Before he snapped back to reality.
"I'm going to take that chance, and no of you bastards who were lucky enough to be born with so-called heroic quirks will stop me." With that the boy left, his body submerged in the massive tide of people that surrounded 1-A's classroom door.
"Hey I'm from class 1-B! From down the hall!" A new voice shouted, drawing everyone's attention, it was loud, rough, and scratchy like an old brush against steel. "Heard you guys fought some villains, even that one of you kicked the shit out of a top villain. I wanted to find out more, but all I'm seeing is a bunch of arrogant bastards!" The voice's owner, another boy who looked strangely like Kirishima, said pushing his way through the crowd. "You shouldn't look down on people like us just 'cuz of that!"
"Arrogant?" Izuku said his heart feeling like a chunk of ice in his chest as he spoke, he glared at the Kirishima lookalike as he stepped up beside Bakugou. The blond glaring at him with his fake eye, did it allow him to see? "How are we arrogant?" He said glaring into the black eyes of the steel haired boy. "We all nearly died, I was torn in half, my quirk's ability to heal is the only reason I'm still alive, and Bakugou lost his eye and half his face. Tell me, how are we arrogant?"
The boy's jaw dropped, he stared at Izuku unsure of what to say.
"Thought so." Izuku said stuffing his hands into his pockets, hiding the dark biomass that had crept up the backs and palms of his hands. "Now, I'm leaving. So, would you all please get out of my way?"
The crowd parted for Izuku and he walked through them, ignoring their stares and the stares of his classmates.