Work Text:
The day was going well until it wasn’t.
They’d had a few particularly intense days of tests, and Izuku and his friends had decided to let off some of the tension by going out to eat at a small local diner. The place was scantily lit, sported old chairs that looked like they had been there since the pre Quirk era, sold one thing and was damn good at it, and the group had inhaled the large platter of fried seafood and accompanying sides.
It was only twenty minutes in, while they sat and talked over ice cream, vanilla, the only kind the place offered, that Izuku’s grasp on the conversation started to dwindle, and the appetite and good mood he’d had at the beginning of the meal had left, replaced with a queasy feeling in his stomach and an odd lightheadedness he hadn’t felt since Kaminari had accidentally punched him in the face unexpectedly during a training exercise.
“Midoriya, are you alright, kero?” Tsuyu asked, watching him intently.
Izuku’s ice cream lay untouched. The conversation slowed to a stop as everyone stopped to look at him, various expressions of concern mirroring Tsuyu’s.
“I don’t feel very good,” he admitted.
“You don’t look very good either,” Uraraka commented, eyebrows furrowing, “Was it something you ate?”
Izuku shook his head. “I don’t think so?”
They’d come to this place before, and while it may look dingy at a glance, the food was good, clean and made with care, and Izuku had never had an issue with it.
Tsuyu and Uraraka exchanged a glance.
“Could be food poisoning.”
“Or an allergic reaction.” Tsuyu added.
“Midoriya.” Iida said urgently, chopping the air with his hands. “You should have informed us if you had any allergies so we could have chosen a restaurant to accommodate your needs!”
“I don’t have any allergies though?” Izuku protested. He really didn’t, and he genuinely had no idea what this was all coming from.
His stomach rolled as another wave of nausea hit, and it must have shown on his face, as Tsuyu bluntly remarked. “It sure looks like an allergic reaction, kero.”
Uraraka pulled out her phone despite Izuku’s protests. “I’m not taking the risk Deku. I’ll call you an ambulance.”
“So, you have a shellfish allergy.” The doctor informed him.
Ah.
“Not too serious, but it’s a good thing your friends noticed in time and got you help. You should be grateful to them for that.”
.
The air in the shifting darkness that was the vestiges’ domain was more subdued than usual.
“Yikes.” Yoichi said.
“That’s one way to put it.”
“Can you imagine if after all this, all we’ve fought for, it all ended because Ninth has a shellfish allergy?”
“That would be quite the anticlimactic ending.” Hikage agreed. “What would happen to us?”
Second, blunt as always, was the one to answer. “We would die, obviously.”
“We’re already dead.”
“You know what I mean.”
.
Izuku was released not long after, with a warning to stay clear of any kinds of seafood for the time being until they could schedule a more comprehensive allergen test, and despite Izuku reassuring his friends via message that he was okay, they still crowded around him the day after at school, much to the annoyance of Kacchan, seated in front of him, who disliked having people near his own desk and made it clear to everybody.
Very loudly.
Everyone ignored him.
“I’m glad you’re okay Deku!” Uraraka said. “That was scary yesterday. You really didn’t know you were allergic to seafood?”
“Not until yesterday afternoon.” Izuku confirmed.
“What the fuck.” Kacchan butted in. “You don’t have any allergies.”
Tsuyu raised an eyebrow. “Great news Midoriya. Bakugo says you’re no longer allergic to shellfish. Congratulations.”
“Thank? You?”
“Wait, you really have an allergy?” Kacchan said, studying him.
Izuku shrugged. “Apparently.”
Izuku knew it wasn’t uncommon for allergies to show up out of nowhere later in life, but he never thought it would happen to him. At least it wasn’t a food he was particularly attached to, he rarely had seafood, so adjusting his diet to this news would not require many drastic changes. He would miss his mother’s grilled crab dishes though.
“Fucking nerd. If your mom makes any of her really good seafood dishes, tell her to send them my way since you can’t eat them anymore,” Kacchan declared, as if reading his mind.
“How does having an allergy make me a nerd? You’re lactose intolerant?”
Kacchan shrugged, turning away. “It just does.”
“Wait, Bakugo is lactose intolerant?”
.
“I do sympathize with Ninth. I have a shellfish allergy too.” Yoichi confided. “I had shellfish on a few occasions before my allergy developed and I quite liked it.”
“I’m allergic to shellfish too, actually.” Banjo said.
“Me too.”
“Me too.”
The last ones to add on were Nana and En, sounding as perplexed as all of them felt.
Everyone looked at Hikage.
“Oh I never had shellfish.”
“Really.”
“How.” En said flatly.
“Acquiring shellfish was not high on my list of priorities at the time.” Hikage said stiffly.
Banjo raised an eyebrow. “What was on your list of priorities then?”
“Strengthening One for All, surviving and not dying at the hands of All for One?”
“Oh right, I forgot about that.”
Hikage gave him an incredulous look. “How-”
“Hey Nana.” Yoichi said conversationally.
“Do you happen to know if Eighth has a shellfish allergy?”
Regrettably, Nana did not know if Eighth was allergic to shellfish, even though Yoichi insisted it didn’t matter to prove his theory. The details of said theory were still a mystery to the rest of them, as Yoichi’s explanation of his theory consisted mostly of rapid fire mumbling and bits of seemingly random information as opposed to any actual explaining. Decades of being stuck together in the depths of One for All had not particularly improved their ability to understand Yoichi when he went on tangents like this.
“Conspiracy theorist Yoichi is at it again.” Third muttered.
“Did he do a lot of that?” Nana asked.
“No-”
“Yes.” Second and Third said at the same time.
“They’re not conspiracy theories-”
“Hey you know who would probably know if Eighth has any allergies?” En said.
“Ninth?”
“Yea.”
“He is an All Might nerd.” Nana agreed.
“And how do you expect to ask him?” Second pointed out.
“Summon him in a dreamlike state to talk to him? It’s not like we haven't done that before.”
“Yes, but that takes effort and energy and doesn’t work half the time and it's supposed to be reserved for important things. We can’t call for him and be like ‘We, the One for All vestiges are here to ask you a vital question. Is All Might allergic to shellfish’”.
Banjo snorted. “No I think we should do exactly that.”
.
Izuku’s allergen test revealed that he was only allergic to crustaceans, which was a relief. He didn’t know if he was emotionally ready to handle being allergic to something else on top of that.
His class was informed of it too, as they sometimes cooked and ate meals together as a class, so that they could keep an eye out for it and possible allergens too.
.
“He’s only allergic to crustaceans!” Yoichi exclaimed, slamming his hands down on his seat. Not too far away, En flinched at the sound. “What has gotten into you?”
Yoichi ignored the question. “Those of you that mentioned having an allergy, were you allergic to mollusks too or just crustaceans?”
Banjo and Nana both had a crustacean only allergy, En simply told them he had never bothered to check.
Hikage shrugged. “I still don’t know. My bad.”
“Hikage you are fucking up my data.” Yoichi told him.
“I’m fucking up your data? What about Second and Third?”
“They’re not part of the study.”
“Why not?”
“It’s impossible to get any information out of them, they just say things are classified whenever I try to ask them questions.”
“Can I not be part of the study too?” En asked.
Nana interrupted then to tell them all to be nice to Yoichi and everyone grudgingly quieted down as he spoke again.
“I also am only allergic to crustaceans. Don’t you guys think it’s weird that we all have the same allergy?”
“Maybe a little.” Banjo agreed.
Third shrugged. “Maybe having a shellfish allergy is a prerequisite for getting One for All.”
“That makes literally no sense.” Hikage told him.
“Well what other explanation do you have?”
“I have one.” Yoichi said before Hikage could reply. “I don’t have much information to go off of, but I think it has some foundation to it.”
En raised an eyebrow and Nana crossed her arms expectantly.
Yoichi looked almost apologetic. “You know how we pass our quirk along to the next user? One for All, and now all the other ones quirks that Ninth can potentially access? It’s literally kinda our thing?”
“Yea.”
“Well. What if it’s not the only thing being passed down?”
There was a beat of silence.
“Oh hell-”
They tossed around ideas for a bit, and unfortunately, the idea did seem to have some basis to it.
“This explains my white hair actually.” Hikage mused.
“White hair?” Banjo questioned.
“Nobody in my immediate family has white hair.” Hikage pointed to Yoichi. “But he does.”
“Ohh.”
“And you just never questioned it?” En asked.
“Oh, I just assumed the stress from my super anxiety quirk was the cause.”
“Wait, then why don’t we have white hair then?” Nana pointed out.
There was a beat of silence.
“Maybe it's because Banjo is bald and it didn’t transfer past him.”
Banjo smacked Hikage.
.
“Can’t believe an allergy almost took you out.” Kacchan swiped out experimentally with a quick jab, testing the distance between them.
“Were you worried about me?” Izuku teased. It probably wasn’t the best idea to talk while they were sparring, but he and Kacchan always ended up doing so, and in Izuku’s opinion, it was improving his stamina and ability to multitask, even though according to Mr. Aizawa’s mutterings, it was better for all of them if he didn’t improve that last one. Whatever that meant.
“Of course the fuck not. I just don’t want you dying before I can beat you for first place in the hero rankings.”
“Of course the fuck?”
Instead of answering, Kacchan kicked one leg out from under him. Izuku stumbled momentarily. “That would be a pretty dumb way to go,” he agreed.
“Sure would. Dumbass.”
“Almost as dumb as that time you ate too much ice cream despite knowing you couldn’t handle that much dairy and got a stomachache so-”
Kacchan let off an explosion in his face.
.
Nana suggested that to get to the bottom of what traits they had potentially passed down and inherited they needed to get personal by talking about themselves, which wasn’t a suggestion that went down particularly well with the four emotionally constipated of the seven ghosts (aka: En, Hikage, Second and Third).
“C’mon guys, it’s not that bad.” Banjo encouraged.
“Did you conspire with Nana and Yoichi. Is this your attempt to get us to do group therapy you three because if so it’s not working.”
They did end up tentatively drafting a board with various patterns mapped out linking various users.
Third and Second were fantastically tight lipped about the whole thing, but they did get some information out of them too.
“I can’t really think of anything else relevant about me besides what you already wrote on the board.” Third said unhelpfully.
“Nothing at all?” Yoichi pressed.
Third shrugged. “I mean, I had pain in my knee after I broke my kneecap when I was a kid whenever I used my quirk. Does that count?”
Yoichi raised an eyebrow. “That depends, did anyone else have quirk related knee pain?”
“Wait.” Hikage said, looking torn. “Is that why my knee always hurt when I when I used my quirk? Do you know how long I spent looking for the source of that? Was that your fault? What the fuck? Did you guys not get that?”
Everyone else shook their head.
“My knee hurt too.” Banjo volunteered.
“Oh coo-”
“But that's only because I also broke it so it’s probably unrelated.”
“Unbelievable.”
“I don’t know if we can count it then.” Yoichi absently passed the marker between his hands. “If it’s just the two of you. Might not even be connected.”
Hikage looked distraught.
“The shellfish one is definitely the most consistent. As is the fact that half of us are astigmatic in our left eye.” En said, surveying the board.
“Speaking of left, are any of you left-handed?” Banjo asked.
“Yea.”
“Yea.”
“Yea.”
“Ambidextrous.”
Second sighed. “Yes. Add it to the board.”
.
They were two weeks into their rescue hero training and Izuku was doing concerningly well.
There were many kinds of heroes, and most people, with few exceptions, came into UA with their gaze deadset on being a spotlight hero. Nonetheless, students usually showed interest or an affinity for the work typical of a particular hero subtype in their years at UA, and the school provided training in all areas a hero might need to cover to help students figure out what they were best suited for.
Versatility, after all, was one trait of a good hero.
They were currently working on wilderness survival skills, such as providing medical attention with limited resources, starting fires, identifying edible plants, and so on, all things Izuku had never had experience with (he had gone camping exactly once in his life and was only sixty-two percent sure it had actually happened and he hadn’t imagined it.)
So there was no reason for him to be decent, let alone good at it.
“The jagged edges on the leaves aren’t as spaced out as they should be.” He sat crossed legged in the grass with a small group of his classmates. “I think this is the plant Mr. Aizawa told us to be careful about, the really poisonous one that’s really easy to confuse with other species?”
“I think,” he added again hesitantly.
Kirishima consulted his notes again, holding up a picture and comparing it to the plant in Izuku’s hands.
“You’re right. I never would have noticed. You’re so good at this bro.” Kirishima said admiringly.
Izuku blushed.
They had been divided into different groups, each given a handful of different leaves and berries, and had been instructed to work as a group, label them all correctly, and turn in their work by the end of the day.
Mr. Aizawa had given them permission to do their work wherever they pleased, so Izuku’s group had opted to sit outside in the garden while they worked through their material and slowly identify each plant.
Shouji bent down to cross out their previous guess and relabelled the leaf.
“How did you get so good at this Midoriya?” Ashido asked.
“I’m not actually sure?” he admitted. It did happen sometimes for him to remember tidbits of information but not be able to recall where he knew them from, but he felt like he would have remembered studying something like this before. “I might have picked it up in middle school.”
Ashido shrugged. “Wherever you picked it up from, it’s great for us. We’re going to be done with this so fast.”
While being able to identify plants was something Izuku might have realistically picked up on his own and just forgotten about, being able to make an emergency shelter, well. Was not.
“Kaminari, your shelter looks like it would fall over if I stared at it too hard. Ashido, not bad, but your knots are sloppy. Midoriya-”
Mr. Aizawa gave it a considering look. “Decent.”
As if on cue, Kaminari’s shelter collapsed.
Kaminari sagged, bending down in a feeble attempt to pick it back up. Izuku walked over to give him a hand while Mr. Aizawa went on to crush other of his classmate’s confidence in their handiwork.
“I was so sure I had gotten it.” Kaminari complained. “How am I so bad at this?”
“You’re not doing too bad.” Izuku said encouragingly. “It’s hard if you’ve never done it before.”
Which begs the question, how was he doing well?
“My parents were never into camping as a kid. At the time, I never cared for it, but now I almost wish they had been.”
Izuku nodded sympathetically.
“What about you Midoriya? Are you like Bakugo, who, from what he’s told us, went camping so often he might as well have grown up in a tent?”
“I’ve been to his house. It’s definitely not a tent.” Izuku said absently. “But no, my mom isn’t big on camping either.”
“Oh.” Kaminari deflated.
“Sorry.” Izuku felt compelled to apologize for some reason.
“Boys!” Ashido yelled. “I can’t figure out how to fix the knots. If I use acid to try to weld the rope together do you think it will work? Or at least get points for creativity?”
“Yes.” Kaminari said.
Izuku shrugged. “It’s worth a shot.”
.
“This is definitely Hikage.”
“Oh, for sure.”
Hikage looked almost pleased at that. “Cool.”
“Alright, I was skeptical about this quirk passing thing first, but there does seem to be a pattern.”
“Second, you were skeptical, do you have no faith in me?”
Second ignored Yoichi.
“Does this mean each person who gets One for All will just be a mish mash of the previous ones? That’s slightly terrifying.” Nana said.
“Not necessarily?” Banjo pointed out. “Some stuff passed onto every person, other skipped people.”
Yoichi pinched the bridge of his nose. “There has to be a rhyme or reason to this thing. Like genetics. Shit is wack and seems random but there has to be a pattern.”
“I feel like this should be more straightforward than genetics. Quirks are supposed to make sense.”
“Name one quirk that has ever made sense.”
Hikage gave it a second then gave up. “Yea that’s fair.”
“I still think Banjo’s overwhelming bald genes overtook the white ones.”
.
It didn’t stop there.
Every now and then, Izuku would show proficiency in one thing or the other, seemingly at random.
He started wondering if he was imagining things, but oftentimes his classmates would be present as unknowing witnesses to the feat. After fumbling for an explanation the first few times his curious (and sometimes a little jealous) classmates asked, he’d taken to adopting the middle school excuse to cover his unexplained skill.
He doubted anyone truly believed he’d actually picked up all these things in middle school, but it did stop them from asking further. Kacchan was eyeing him more and more suspiciously every day though.
He almost started believing his own lie, because really, what reason would there be for him to suddenly be able to do such things? Nothing about this made sense.
.
Nana sympathized with him. “Poor kid.”
“Look at what we’ve done. We’ve given him imposter syndrome.”
“Why is he getting so many traits anyway? He seems to be more affected than the rest of us were. Or were we all so heavily influenced without knowing it?”
“En is right, Ninth does seem to be more affected than us. I don’t recall having random skills pop up out of nowhere when Hikage passed One for All onto me.”
“He’s also the only person who can use all our quirks, at least, theoretically.” Nana pointed out. “Maybe it’s intensified and he’s getting the brunt of it.”
“If One for All’s power has increased, that would also explain why he kept breaking his bones in the beginning.”
I just assumed that was because he has weak bones- wait oh my god. What if the reason he kept breaking his bones is because he inherited my weak constitution?” Yoichi said in horror.
There was a moment of silence, then Second snorted. “Nice one Yoichi.”
“I think that’s enough trait mapping for today.” Nana pried the whiteboard marker out of Third’s hand before he could write 'Yoichi’s weak ass bones.' under Ninth’s column.
.
Somehow, it only occurred to Izuku that his new development of random skills could be related to One for All upon meeting All Might in the infirmary, while he was getting a quick check-up after getting thrown around a bit too much during training. Out of sight, out of mind, he supposed. And while he did use his quirk daily in training exercises at school, it had somehow slipped his mind that there was someone else who had gone through the experience of having his own quirk who might be able to shed some light on the strange string of skills he’d acquired since entering UA. It was worth a shot.
Izuku lazily rolled his wrist in a circle while he formulated a question. It and his knee had been bothering him particularly, even after Recovery Girl used her quirk on him.
“All Might-” he began hesitantly, “Can I ask you a possibly stupid question?”
“There is no such thing as a stupid question! Ask away my boy!”
“When you first received One for All, did you experience any- Did you get any new skills you didn’t have beforehand, out of nowhere?”
All Might’s eyebrows furrowed.
Izuku pressed on. “Because weird things have been happening lately.”
He went more in detail, explaining the odd series of events which, taken individually, Izuku would’ve brushed off, but as a whole, were quite peculiar indeed.
By the end of it, All Might was leaning back in his chair, a thoughtful frown on his face.
“I do think I know what you’re talking about. I didn’t have as many changes as you are experiencing, I never developed any allergies for example, but there were a few strange things that I brushed off.”
“Really?” Izuku said excitedly, “Do you think it’s related to One for All?”
“It is possible.” All Might said gravely. “One for All is a peculiar quirk, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more to it than what I was told.”
.
“How did it take them a few weeks to notice what we didn’t figure out in decades?”
“We’re terrible detectives.”
“Eighth didn't even get the shellfish allergy.”
“Oh I don’t have that one either.” Second spoke up.
“I think that’s the first time you’ve voluntarily offered information about yourself.”
“He didn't break his bones using his quirk either.”
“Unbelievable.”
“Nana, where did you even find this boy?”
“Throwing hands with a mugger twice his size.”
“Yea that checks out.”
.
All Might: midoriya my boy
All might: I just remembered that my mentor, Nana, was also allergic to shellfish
All Might: i think your theory has merit
Izuku: oh!! That’s cool, thank you!!
It became a slight problem when Izuku stopped being surprised by a new skill and would just show it off almost unconsciously. It was a combination of his tendency to mumble, his tendency to do things on autopilot and the bad luck of having the class be particularly quiet while Izuku muttered out the translation for a text on the board in a language he did not speak.
Or well, should not be able to speak.
Aizawa raised an eyebrow, almost imperceptibly. “Thanks to Midoriya, who has kindly translated for us-”
Izuku flushed, sinking in on himself.
“I was unaware you spoke Spanish Deku!” Uraraka said brightly. “That’s cool! How did you learn?”
“Uh, you know. Middle school.”
Not for the first time, Kacchan eyed him.
.
“Alright, let’s get this over with.” Nana said. “Who is it.”
There was silence.
Everyone looked at each other.
Banjo shook his head, and En’s gaze flitted quizzically at the others.
“Maybe he did learn it in middle scho-” Hikage began.
“Second.” Yoichi leaned against a chair, scrutinizing his successor.
Second let out a pained groan. “This is the worst way for you guys to find out things about me.”
“Wait, you speak Spanish??”
“We are learning such wonderful things today.” Yoichi said gleefully.
“You know, until this whole thing, I never realized how little we know about each other.” En said.
“Agreed. We used to just spend time here shit talking whoever the current user was.” Third contemplated. “I kind of preferred it that way.”
“Wait, you guys talked shit about us?” Banjo asked.
“Oh for sure.” Hikage said at the same time Yoichi said “No.”
“That’s- alright let’s not unpack that. We don’t shit talk Ninth though?”
“Oh he’s a kid I’m not going to talk shit about a kid.”
.
“Deku.” Kacchan said in lieu of a greeting. “What the fuck is up with you?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” Izuku said way too brightly.
.
“Christ this kid is a bad liar. Who did he get that from? Yoichi? I’m betting it’s Yoichi.”
“Hey stop blaming me for everything, the bad lying thing is his own thing.”
.
Kacchan was onto him. He was unsurprisingly direct with his line of questioning, immediately asking about Izuku’s bizarre array of new skills who he, out of everyone else in the class, knew he hadn’t really picked up in middle school (with a lot more swearing involved than was strictly necessary).
Izuku really didn’t have a proper explanation for him either, but he offered his and All Might’s theory that it might be related to his quirk.
Kacchan rocked back on his heels, looking perplexed.
“What the fuck Deku? Your quirk made you able to speak Spanish? What kind of bullshit is this?”
“It’s only a hypothesis for now. And if it makes you feel better, I can no longer eat cilantro.” Izuku offered.
.
“Which of you motherfuckers got the cilantro soap gene I swear to God.”
.
Recovery Girl’s face was kind as Izuku sat once again in the infirmary.
His wrist pain had faded since his last time here. The pain in his knee had not.
“I took a look, but there really seems to be nothing wrong dear. Have you had this kind of ache before?”
Izuku flexed his knee, testing it out. “Not really. I switched to using my legs more because my arms were injured so I was really careful about not overdoing it, I swear. I didn’t injure it or anything either.”
Recovery Girl hummed. “That is odd. Keep an eye on it for me dear, won’t you? We don’t want it getting worse.”
Izuku’s knee had been aching for over two weeks now, not enough for it to be that serious of a problem but enough for it to be a consistent annoyance whenever he used his quirk. It faded out when he walked around normally, but activating One for All seemed to set it off, which was a problem, as when he used One for All were the times he needed to move around and react the most.
It came and went, and the pain ebbed and was barely noticeable at times, but Aizawa had told him to go have it checked out anyway “given his track record.”
.
“HE GOT THE BAD KNEE TRAIT.”
“Hikage-”
“I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE.”
“You really should not be happy about this.”
“How is that transferable anyway?” En interrupted. “I understand the shellfish allergy, but learned skills like languages and physical problems that arose with time like Third’s bad knee, how are those passed on? It makes no sense.”
“I think it kinda does actually.”
Yoichi propped himself up. “One for All has two aspects. Being able to be passed on, and stockpiling.”
“One for All gets stronger with every user because the previous user has cultivated the power and increased it. The second could easily apply to other traits, such as learned skills during one’s lifetime.”
“I would hardly consider a knee injury a skill.”
Yoichi shrugged. “One for All isn’t sentient-”
“What are we then, chopped liver?”
“I meant that it’s not like the quirk can choose which traits are ‘good’ and which are ‘bad’. A bad knee could have been learned muscle memory about how to assemble a gun. One for All just picks up on things and passes them along.”
“Yoichi. This was probably your original quirk, wasn’t it? Passing down physical characteristics, learned skills, traits, and so on?”
“Oh.”
Izuku gripped the corners of the sink, staring hard at his reflection. He’d thought it had been just a trick of the light at first, but over the past few weeks, it had become more and more evident until it was now impossible to ignore.
His hair was turning white.
It was just his roots, obviously, the rest of his hair was still green, but there was now a clear section near his scalp where the green had rapidly faded to a shocking white.
Well this might as well happen. Maybe it was the stress.
“Uh, mom?” he called.
Izuku’s mom also seemed rather perplexed by the new development. She told him she’d had a friend whose hair had also changed color during middle school, but not this drastically, and over a longer period of time.
“You’re still young though, so I guess it can happen.”
She smiled and brushed a strand of hair out of his eyes. “Your father had white hair.”
.
“Huh, nevermind. Looks like the white hair gene made it through after all.”
.
Izuku ultimately decided not to dye it. His mother had proposed it, but Izuku didn’t have the time or energy to routinely touch up on his roots, especially when his hair was showing no sign of going back to green.
Besides, he kind of liked the white roots look.
Izuku’s friends noticed the hair eventually.
Uraraka and Tsuyu told him he looked cool, Kirishima and Kaminari mourned the loss of what they had referred to as ‘The Traffic Light Trio’ and Iida also acknowledged the new look.
Kacchan was blunt.
“Nerd. What the fuck is up with your hair.”
“It’s turning white.”
Kacchan stared at him. “What.”
Izuku shrugged helplessly. “Yea look I don’t know either.”
Izuku: Hey All Might
Izuku: so with uh
Izuku: recent developments
Izuku: I’m going to start charting the things I think I’m getting from One for All.
Izuku: Would you mind telling me what exactly you noticed when you got One for All, so I can do a comparison between the stuff I’ve noticed and the stuff that affected you too?
Izuku: and anything you can remember about your mentor, Nana? If not that’s okay too! I just figured the more information we have, the better.
All Might: Of course!
.
“Hey, maybe the trait passing down thing is why the kid can do such a good impression of Eighth. He inherited his face.”
“No, I'm pretty sure that one is just practice.”
.
“Yoichi.” Hikage spoke. “You once said that One for All doesn’t decide what traits get passed down, as it isn’t sentient.”
“I mean yea. We are, but we don’t control that part of the quirk.”
“What if we could?”
“Ah. Yea we. Hm.”
One for All was a pulsing, ever present force in that background, easy to get used to but impossible to ignore. It was the sheer power that kept them all together.
Their own individual quirks had joined it, recently, all balled up and tangling together, ready to be used, once Ninth was ready for it.
Skill sets were more subtle. They weren’t quite there, not as tangibly as the quirks were, but surely there had to be a way to access them, to pass them along.
Banjo was of the opinion that they shouldn’t force it. They tried for a bit, brainstorming and scratching their heads over it, but got no closer to figuring out how to pass traits onto Ninth on purpose.
“The kid has enough on his hands on his own.” Banjo was saying. “Without throwing this in too. Besides, we’ve been at this for a while. Frankly, I think it’s out of our control.”
“I’m with Banjo. Would we even be helping? Are we ruining him by forcing traits he doesn't know onto him? Or are they his to begin with? Does One for All erase people’s individuality?”
Second summoned a blanket with a groan, which was what he did whenever the others got philosophical, and Hikage followed suit.
“You spent your entire life as a hermit and you never spent any time being philosophical?”
“Exactly En. I had plenty of time in my life to be philosophical. I’ve had enough of it.”
.
Izuku's hair grew longer and whiter. It was a stark difference from his former hair, the pale color framing his face differently compared to the darker green.
His classmates and teachers took the change gracefully, though a few did ask him if he intended to change his hero costume color to match his hair.
Izuku hadn’t even really considered it until they had brought it up, but didn’t spend too much time pondering the matter. He liked his green costume, and it was the costume his mom had made him, so he had no intention to change it.
.
Hikage brushed his own white hair out of his face. “You know, with the white hair, he kinda reminds me of someone.”
“Who?”
“I’m telling you, he looks like Yoichi.” Hikage insisted.
“Mmm I guess I can kinda see it.” Banjo said, though he didn’t sound very convinced.
“He does seem to have picked up a lot of Yoichi’s traits, in particular, out of all of us.”
At that, Yoichi started coughing furiously into his sleeve.
“Dude, what.”
“Nothing. There may be a reason for that actually. One that is uh, unrelated to me.”
“What?”
Third shook his head. “It’s not Yoichi he looks like.”
“What, you don’t see the resemblance?”
“He looks like-” Third paled. “He looks like his brother.”
.
.
“Ninth has no siblings. And if he did, it would make sense for them to look alike?”
“Not Ninth’s nonexistent brother.” Second snapped. “Yoichi’s.”
“Oh.”
“Why didn't you tell us?”
“What the fuck?”
“All for One is way too old to have a son that young.”
Yoichi held his hands up in front of him, overwhelmed by the barrage of questions. “I did tell you guys- or well, I told Second and Third.”
Everyone momentarily stopped harassing Yoichi to turn towards Second and Third.
“I thought you were joking.” Second burst out.
“Why would I-”
Confusion erupted again.
It took a good while for everyone to calm down, and even longer for everyone to fully accept the news. Banjo and Nana had gotten over it pretty quickly, while Second, Third, En and Hikage were currently a good manifestation of four of the five stages of grief.
“Ninth is All for One’s son.” Hikage’s head was in his hands. “We’re doomed.”
“He is a really good kid though.”
“I mean, I’m All for One’s brother? Should I be offended? This doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”
Second stared blankly off into the distance.
“Class, today we're going to learn how to assemble a gun. Despite quirk usage being very prevalent guns are still very danger-Midoriya how did you do that.”
Izuku froze, holding up an assembled gun. Uh. “Middle school.” he said reflexively.
There was an interesting pause after that.
“I mean-” he stammered.
.
“Oh my god.”
.
Izuku caught Kacchan’s eye and mouthed help.
Kacchan stared emptily at Aizawa. “Deku used to shoot people in middle school.”
“I- what, no I- Kacchan!”
.
“I know we established that we can influence the traits Ninth gets but that was extremely funny. Who do we have to thank.”
“Second.” Yoichi said. “He tried to shoot me when we first met. I have no doubt he can use a gun.”
“Oh shut up.”
“Alternatively, Third. He actually did shoot me when we first met. Good times.”
“So Second is the bad shot and Third is a good shot. We will have to see if Ninth can hit a target to determine who he got it from.”
“I’m going to murder all of you.”
“Second we just established you’re the bad shot. How are you going to hit us?”
Second lunged at Banjo and the two went down in a scuffle.
Nana sighed.
.
Mr. Aizawa pulled Izuku to the side momentarily. “Personally I could not care less but per school protocol I need to ask. Did you shoot people in middle school?”
“No!”
.
“That seems like a very specific thing to be in a high school protocol.”
“I mean have you seen what goes down in this high school.”
.
“Follow up question. Why do you know how to shoot a gun.”
I’m not sure either.”
Mr. Aizawa raised an eyebrow.
“I think it’s muscle memory.” Izuku mulled.
“Muscle memory.” Mr. Aizawa repeated flatly.
That probably wasn’t the right thing to say either.
“I think it’s part of my quirk?”
“Your power based quirk lets you assemble guns?”
“I think it’s haunted.” Izuku said honestly.
“So you’re not sure, it’s muscle memory and your quirk is haunted?” Mr. Aizawa summed up.
“Basically yea.”
Mr. Aizawa sighed. “Alright, you can go.”
.
“I mean he’s not wrong on any of those counts.”
.
“What kind of excuse was that?” Izuku hissed to the side after Mr. Aizawa had left.
“What?” Kacchan snapped back. “It was better than your stammering.”
“No it wasn’t!”
Kacchan clicked his tongue in annoyance, looking away.
“Deku used to shoot people in middle school?” Izuku repeated, his face burning.
“What? Fuck, did you?”
“No!!”
“How the fuck do you come up with an excuse for you being able to assemble a gun? Also you could've just not assembled it.”
Izuku had nothing to say to that. He’d seen the pieces on the table and had idly started putting them together and before he knew it he was holding a gun. “That's a fair point.”
“Fuck yea it is. Next time I’ll say something worse.”
“I don't know what’s worse than you saying I shot people in middle school.”
“Oh that’s a challenge.”
“No!!”
Eventually the new traits Izuku had received dwindled down as he slowly figured them all out.
His notebook, which he’d initially spent hours annotating observations into, slowly became less and less used, if only to consult old entries on his new abilities.
“It makes sense that he’d figure them all out eventually.” Yoichi said, looking dejected. “It was kind of fun while it lasted to see what would pop up next though.”
“I wonder what he’ll pass onto his successor.”
“Slow down there Third.”
“Hopefully something better than what I got. All I got was knee pain and an allergy.”
“Hikage you don’t even know if you got the allergy.”
“Emotionally I have decided I did. I need something to blame Yoichi for.”
“Hey!”
“I mean the white hair is right there.” Banjo pointed out.
“Oh yea.”
“What’s wrong with my hair?”
“Oh don’t worry about it.”
“I can’t believe you guys are my successors. I’m disowning you all.”