Chapter Text
If you asked Toshinori Yagi why he woke up early enough to see Izuku Midoriya’s text that morning, the best answer he would be able to give was that it was some form of fate. Nonetheless there he was at the crack of dawn, at Dagobah beach.
“I want to tell my class”, his predecessor said. It had been fifteen years since the day the now number one hero had inherited One for All, at this very location, and Yagi knew that was what Midoriya was referencing. They had a special bond, that way, through their shared quirk or not.
“I’m surprised you haven’t already.”
“It was never the right time, All Might.” The boy never could commit to calling his predecessor anything but his hero name. It was admirable, really, his unwillingness to see the skeletal and sickly man as anything other than the hero.
“A few people know. Ochako knows, as does Tenya.” The boy – no he was a man now, continued, then trailed off for a moment. “And Shouto.” Toshinori bristled at the thought, but quickly shoved his fears aside. His successor was a far better judge of character than he was, and Shouto had made it clear he stopped caring about hero rankings by the end of his first year at U.A. His relationship with his father had always been strained, anyone could at least see that, but the prior holder of One for All knew his successor knew more than he was willing to say.
“As I said, it’s your secret to tell, young Midoriya, I told you that years ago.” The elder hero tried.
“It’s your secret too, All Might. We should tell them together. Today, if we can.”
“That works for me.”
Midoriya took a phone from his pocket, and dialed a number.
“Sugarman’s Café, how may I help you?”
“Oh, uh, hey Satou. Can you do me a favor?”
“Sure, what’s up?”
“Can you make the café private today? I’d like to have a class 1-A reunion, I have something to share with everyone.”
Sugarman’s Café was probably the only place in Japan where that many heroes could stay safe from prying eyes. That day, the blinds were shut, the door was locked, and a ‘sorry, private party’ sign hung outside the door.
Inside, a group of 22 sat across a smattering of tables or varying sizes. Aizawa and Shinso sat in a booth in the corner, along with Tokoyami. Hagakure laughed animatedly with Ashido, Ojiro smiling beside her.
The group was interrupted by the clinking of a glass as a skeletal man stood up, and the chatter stopped almost instantly, out of sheer respect for the man who had held the number one spot for so long.
Next to him, the current number one hero squeezed his wife’s hand gently, and then stood as well.
“Thank you all for making it here, and on such short notice,” Midoriya began. “All Might and I have a story to share with you all today. It’s quite the tale, and I would appreciate it if you all waited until the end to ask questions.”
The heroes Ingenium, Ground Zero, and Shouto looked towards Uravity, who gave a subtle nod.
“It’s about damn time,” Ground Zero complained.
“It really is, isn’t it?” The skeletal man laughed. “I first met young Midoriya… it must have been sixteen years ago, now. I saved him from a villain, and he asked me a very tough question. He asked me if he could become a hero, even without a quirk. I said no.”
“But, he has a quirk..." A voice murmured. "Why did he ask that?” Another asked softly, to themselves.
“Oi you fucks, shut up! They’re getting there.” A screaming Bakugou exclaimed.
“That villain, as it turns out, managed to get free after some commotion. Some of you may remember it as the sludge villain who trapped Kacchan. I ran in to save him, even though I didn’t have a quirk.”
“I had already used up my time limit by then, but young Midoriya’s actions inspired me to push through to save young Bakugou.”
Midoriya blushed at this. Next, the pair shared the story of two brothers, how they had formed One for All, and how it had been passed to Midoriya. The room stayed dead silent for about thirty seconds, and Jiro twitched as her jacks picked up the heartbeats of those around her.
“To reiterate, All Might isn’t your dad?” Shouto asked in jest. It helped ease the tension at least, which was good.
“Not by blood, no,” All Might confirmed.
Ochaco pretended not to see Ashido give Sero a few thousand Yen. She stifled a laugh, poorly.
“When did you first get One for All?” Shinso asked, cautiously.
“It was the morning of the entrance exam, actually. Exactly fifteen years ago.” Midoriya chuckled.
“So the first time you used it was…?” Mina asked.
“To save Ochako, actually.” Midoriya blushed as the girls let out a collective ‘awww’.
“Wait, so your body was breaking because you were punching as hard as All Might?” Ojiro butted in.
“Not at first, cause my body wasn’t developed enough for that. Now though, yea. A little harder, I think.” The hero blushed.
“I guess that more or less covers what I wanted to share. We can answer questions now, if you have any. I assume you do.”
“So when I said your quirk was kind of like All Might’s, I was right, Kero,” the rainy season hero butted in.
“Yea. Sorry I never really answered that, but it was supposed to be a secret” Midoriya blushed.
“Why was it secret?” Jiro asked, fiddling with her jacks.
“The nature of One for All was kept a secret because of All for One,” Toshinori explained.
“The villain you fought at Kamino ward, Oui?” Aoyama asked.
“He is, yes. He hunted down the seven wielders of One for All who came before me, before they were ready to use their power. That’s why I went to America, actually.”
“Is this why your child doesn’t have any form of super strength?” Tokoyami, typically the silent type, asked.
“Yea, that’s why.” Ochaco smiled to herself, thinking of their daughter, whose quirk allowed her to establish herself as a point of gravity, and pull things towards her. She was starting to figure out how to reverse the effects, but she was having trouble with it. She was still ten, after all. “Her quirk is a mixture of mine, and of Deku’s mom’s quirk,” she explained.
“How did you get One for All, Midoriya?” Creati asked. She was always one for the specifics, after all.
“Oh, uhhh. My body needed to process the previous holder’s DNA.”
“So he ate one of my hairs!” All Might exclaimed.
Kaminari cleared his throat, only to receive glares from most of the class, especially Iida and Jirou.
“And, uh, the holder has to want to pass it on, too! So, uh, yea.” Midoriya quickly added.
“Yea, get your mind out of the gutter, Denks!” Sero laughed at his friends expense.
“Uh, yea. All Might was like ‘Eat This!’, and I thought I had dreamed the whole thing, to be honest”
“When are you going to pass it on again?” Hagakure asked.
“I, uh, I might not. I mean, I don’t think I will. One for All isn’t something that I need to pass on, per se, and seeing as All for One is dead now, I’d prefer not to pass it on at all unless I know it’s the right person. And also, if the person isn’t physically strong enough to handle it, they’d end up even worse than I was when I started.”
“Additionally, Young Midoriya needed to develop a lot of muscle mass in order to be able to handle One for All at all. Were he not strong enough, his limbs could have exploded from his body.”
“How’d he get so strong, then?” Kirishima grinned, hoping for some top notch training techniques, surely.
“I cleaned a beach.” Midoriya deadpanned.
The questions went on, often interrupted by amusing antidotes and sudden epiphanies, along with a great many jokes from the Containment Squad.
Eventually, Deku and All Might took their seats again, and the number one hero took his wife’s hand again, like he needed to support. He didn’t expect people to take a negative stance on the whole ordeal, but he hadn’t expected them to take it so well, either.
“Did anyone know about this, already?” Aizawa.
“A few. Nezu, and Recovery Girl, among the staff. Ochako did, as did Tenya, Kacchan, and Shouto.” Midoriya confirmed. “Kacchan figured it out after Kamino Ward, cause he knew I was quirkless. I told the other three in the middle of third year.”
“And you never thought to tell your teacher?” Aizawa deadpanned.
“Uhhhh.”
“Consider yourself expelled, problem child. It was my job to teach you and help you grow, and here I just assumed you were stupid. I suppose this just proves you are, though. I'm gonna expel Nezu too, if it makes you feel any better.”
The class laughed good naturedly.
“To think, it only took Aizawa fifteen years to expel his second student from our class. And after he became the number one hero, no less!” Kaminari laughed, only to be stabbed by his wife’s jacks as she rolled her eyes.