I'm one day away from returning to UA.
One day away from the announcement of the Sports Festival.
I've managed to make 10% of One For All not be a nuisance just by using it, but it's still not a percentage I feel comfortable fighting with.
Blackwhip, on the other hand, has become extremely docile once I understood how to use it.
For now, I can only use one Whip, but I can use it freely and as I please, which gives me an immense advantage in a fight.
All Might is still gathering information on the rest of the One For All wielders.
He's only informed me of the simplest ones: Float, from Nana Shimura, and the transfer Quirk of the first wielder.
But when he told me about the first wielder and his Quirk, he gave me the perfect excuse to keep questioning him until he reveals the history of All For One.
And all of that brings us to this point.
"Toshinori, I think we've hidden enough from the brat." It was about damn time.
"Hidden what from me?" Play dumb, Midoriya.
"...Tell me, Young Midoriya, have you ever heard of a man who can steal Quirks?" He didn't originally ask Izuku that. What a curious change.
"A man who steals Quirks? I've read theories online about giving and receiving Quirks, but they're just rumors. Such a thing is impossible. Society would have collapsed if someone like that existed." Gotta keep up appearances and feign ignorance.
"They're not rumors, Young Midoriya. That person existed, and his name is All For One." Finally! I've wanted to discuss this man with them since I arrived in this world.
"But that's impossible! The history books don't mention any of this!" This is what Izuku originally said. The closer I stick to the norm, the less likely I am to arouse unnecessary suspicion.
"History books don't mention what isn't convenient for them to mention, brat." Of course, that's how the world works behind the scenes.
"Alright, and I'm going to assume that All For One and One For All are connected by more than just the similarities in their names. Am I on the right track?" They both nod at me.
"That's right, Young Midoriya. One For All was born thanks to All For One. Isn't that ironic? How good is born from evil." I have to agree with him on that. Good often comes from evil. Just take the Avengers as an example: they were born because of the threat Loki represented. The same applies to almost any well-known hero.
Batman was born from the death of the Wayne family.
Spider-Man, from the selfishness of someone who wanted to use his gifts for himself.
Iron Man, from his arrogance.
Even Captain America was born from the need to have a powerful weapon to win the war.
But at the same time, good creates evil.
It's like Vision explained in Civil War: the strength that heroes demonstrate, their values and heroic mindsets, all of that led to the creation of people eager to challenge them, to take their place.
Good wouldn't exist without evil, and evil would have no reason to exist without good.
Because if there is no good, how do you know something is wrong?
It's something that really makes you reflect if you think about it deeply and not just as heroes doing things beyond what science can explain.
"As you may know, in the early days of quirks, people with these gifts were not well-regarded. They were considered freaks. Not only that: with the appearance of quirks, the world came to a halt. Science and technology stopped advancing." Yes, that's a strange thing about this world.
It's very futuristic in some aspects and very limited in many others.
Humans have only reached the Moon, but they are capable of creating floating islands that are proof against almost any natural danger.
Quirks have facilitated many things from what I've seen, but many others are simply stagnant.
My theory is that humans, at least in this world, have become too dependent on Quirks and don't progress on their own like in my old life.
That's what I believe with the little I've seen since I arrived in this world, which is ironic, because I haven't even been here for a year, and yet it feels like an eternity.
I suppose the fact that I've been training like a maniac without rest has something to do with that.
"Governments began to lose control of the situation in the face of the increase in 'different' people, and that's not a good thing, no matter how you look at it." I'd like to disagree with that: sometimes it's necessary for a government to fall or be exposed to achieve positive change.
The French Revolution is what comes to mind when I think about that.
"And that's when a man appeared, one who was capable of taking away quirks in exchange for a single thing: loyalty." Classic villain origin. All For One would be a wonderful enemy for the X-Men.
He represents everything the X-Men fight for, at least in part.
I know I should be paying attention to his story, but I know it by heart, and it's fun to see how much Horikoshi was inspired by Western culture to create this world.
"That's when All For One became known in the underworld. He had the necessary influence to overthrow the government, and he was just one man. You'll understand that this didn't sit well with the higher-ups." Gran Torino makes a great point: a single man with the power to turn the country in his favor? If he's not assassinated on the spot, then he's incredibly lucky. And All For One is just that: a powerful, lucky, and methodical bastard. And I'm on his blacklist of things to eliminate.
"But this man had a brother, a weak one, without a quirk and with a heroic spirit that his brother lacked." The betrayals in this origin story come and go.
"All For One, feeling sorry for his brother or something worse, it's not known, gave him a quirk. But what he didn't know was that his brother, that useless brother he considered weak, did have a power: the power to pass on power." How many times has All Might said "power"? Cool story and all, but he should choose his words better.
"And like a sacred torch passed from generation to generation, One For All was born. That power came to my master, from her to me, and now it's yours. You must make this power your own, Young Midoriya, and continue the legacy that began eight generations ago."
"I understand. I will make this power my own and make you proud. I will be the hero this world needs me to be." I owe it to Izuku, after all.
"I'm glad to hear that, Young Midoriya. For a moment, I thought you would refuse to continue wielding One For All after learning about All For One." And I would be well within my rights to do so. Hiding so much information in the way he did is not right.
"Don't worry, master. I'm quite annoyed with you for hiding this from me, and even more so knowing that you weren't at the U.S.J. when the suspicions were already at your disposal... But there's no point in backing out now. The progress I've made with this power is immense." Besides, I'm already in All For One's sights. Being weak is not an option.
"Even the kid is more mature than you, Toshinori. In the end, you should be learning from the kid, not the kid from you." Heh, Gran Torino and his never-failing comments.
"You ruined the serious atmosphere, master," I said with an amused smile on my face.
Toshinori looked too embarrassed to respond.
"And what do I care, brat? You're just two sissies talking to each other as if it's the end of the world." Damn it! Gran Torino can't be this cool! "I'm bored. Get up, brat, let's train. And you, Toshinori, go buy some food."
If Gran Torino had gotten One For All instead of Nana, All For One wouldn't have stood a chance. I'll just say that.
After that chat, everything continued as normal.
I trained for the remaining time and started trying to bring out two Whips at the same time.
Now I no longer have to hide my thoughts about All For One. If I want to discuss him with Toshinori or Gran Torino, I can.
Thanks to that, I've been able to learn more than I originally knew: specific ways of acting, among other things.
I feel much more prepared than before and more confident.
Now I just have to focus on the Sports Festival.
Help Todoroki use his fire side and have a small but productive chat with Endeavor.
Beat Bakugo.
And succeed in general.
It'll be quite fun, to be honest.
At least I won't be in mortal danger.
Anyway, the things I do to save this world.
...
Author's Note:
Hey.
Well, this chapter was shorter than average by exactly 400 words.
Why is that?
I'm a bit tired of writing this every day and so on. Maintaining two stories without stopping to upload chapters almost every day is not easy. At least not for me.
Anyway, I just need to clear my head a bit, and that's it.
By the way, I just happened to check the rankings of this story and got the following surprise:
Top 1 in Isekai.
I was very surprised, I must say.
I write this story for pure fun, and it's rare for me to write something serious, so when I saw that, I was stunned.
Not even my other story has given me that surprise.
So I thank you. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be in that top spot.
I hope to continue meeting your standards when I write.
See you, and thanks to all of you.