The Successor (My Hero Academia)

A/N: This is one of my ten Patreon-Funded stories. Currently up to date with all my other public websites, with four chapters of advance content always available on my Patreon at all times. Updates once every two weeks. Enjoy!

EDIT: As of today, 9/1/2024, this story is sunsetted. There are no additional chapters to be found on my Patreon, ignore all such plugs as you read this story.

-x-X-x-

“Young Midoriya… you truly are a worthy successor.”
 
Toshinori Yagi sounds somewhat amazed as he looks over the cleaned beach. Izuku just smiles, taking the praise from the civilian identity of the hero known as All Might for what it’s worth to him. Having completed All Might’s task a week before the U.A. Entrance Exam, he’d certainly let things get a little too close… but not so close as to be worried about it.
 
The Takoba Municipal Beach Park had been an absolute trash heap when Toshinori had first brought Izuku here just under ten months ago. Rampant pollution had turned the place into a literal junkyard, and the worst it’d gotten, the more and more people had used it as a dumping ground, rather than an actual garbage dump that might have been a little further away from their residence.
 
But then, if there was one thing Izuku knew, it was that most people were inherently lazy. Not him though… he didn’t have time to be lazy. Especially when he didn’t even have a Quirk to help him. In a society where Quirks were everything, a ‘Quirkless Loser’ like him was of course at the bottom of the pile. But not for much longer, oh no.
 
“Thank you, sir. That means an awful lot coming from you.”
 
Izuku beams at the deflated form of All Might, even as he pants in near-exhaustion. In response, All Might grins back at him for a moment… and then coughs up some blood, hacking it into his hand. Izuku doesn’t comment nor react to it though, it’s something he’s supposed to have more than gotten used to over the past ten or so months.
 
“R-Right. Should probably hurry this along, shouldn’t we? Hm, Izuku Midoriya… you will be the next bearer of One For All. My Quirk, passed down through the generations, will go to you now. Are you ready for this? Are you up to this challenge?”
 
Izuku pauses for a moment, half-expecting the other man to say something else. When he doesn’t… well, he hides it very well, but there’s no denying that Izuku is just a little disappointed. Smiling widely, he nods his head energetically, his hands clenched into fists at his sides.
 
“Yes sir!”
 
“Very well… then eat this piece of hair!”
 
The gravitas of the moment is undeniably stymied just a tad when Toshinori suddenly plucks a blonde hair from his over-the-top mop of locks and thrusts it out towards Izuku, putting it right in his face. Blinking owlishly for a moment, the younger man raises a single eyebrow at his supposed mentor, who has the good grace to look a little sheepish under that quelling gaze.
 
“A-Aha… One For All is a Quirk that can only be transferred via biological consumption from a willing donor to another person. While there’s certainly plenty of my blood around at any given moment, I imagine my hair would be… much more palatable to you for this.”
 
He’s not wrong. Nodding amicably at the explanation, Izuku reaches out and takes the hair. He spends perhaps a moment looking at it, but not willing to let himself get too caught up in his own thoughts, he promptly puts it in his mouth and swallows as best he can, even if it feels undeniably disgusting letting actual hair go down his throat.
 
Still, he gets it down and keeps it down… and a moment later, he can feel it. He can feel the Quirk slotting into place within him, within a deep section of his soul that Izuku has not allowed himself to acknowledge for over a decade. Swallowing thickly, trembling with excitement and emotion, Izuku can’t help it… the tears start to come.
 
He sort of hates this part of himself, but it’s undeniable. Izuku Midoriya has always been a bit of a big crier, whenever things get too emotional. Of course, seeing his big whopping tears, All Might has to react. Inflating himself up, the man pulls Izuku into a hug.
 
“There, there, Young Midoriya! Do not fear… for I Am Here!”
 
Izuku lets out a watery bark of laughter at hearing the Number One’s famous catchphrase. And then he takes the opportunity All Might is giving him to bury his face in the man’s chest and smile the biggest damn grin he’s ever smiled.
 
“Thank you… thank you, All Might. Thank you so much.”
 
Chuckling somewhat awkwardly at the display of intense, over-the-top emotion, his mentor these last ten months slowly pats Izuku on the back.
 
“No need for thanks, dear boy… it was all you. You did all the heavy lifting, after all.”
 
And wasn’t that the truth. These last ten months had been fucking hell and cleaning this beach had never and would never turn out to be Izuku Midoriya’s idea of a good time. But it was all worth it for this moment. It was all worth it, now that he finally had One For All. Slowly calming down, his big tears finally stopping, Izuku pulls away and All Might lets him.
 
“Now then! We have a limited amount of time together… but since you managed to finish so early, we’ll be able to spend this last week before U.A. training you in the use of your new Quirk! With any luck, you’ll have no problems passing the Hero Entrance Exam.”
 
Izuku nods and his hands curl back into fists again, even as he feels the power of One For All thrumming just beneath the surface of his skin. It begs to be used… but even after all of this physical conditioning, Izuku is leery of it. Still, he has the best possible source of information on the Quirk standing right in front of him… and he’s not going to let an opportunity like this go to waste.
 
“Show me all of your secrets, sir! I’m ready to learn!”
 
If All Might is put off by Izuku’s wording, the big man doesn’t show it as he laughs uproariously… and begins to put Izuku through his paces on a whole new level compared to the last ten months.
 
-x-X-x-
 
While the rest of the week is undeniably grueling, by the end of it All Might gives Izuku the last day before the Entrance Exam off to rest and recuperate. It’s greatly appreciated, though perhaps not for the reasons his would-be mentor thinks. Having that final day off… it gives him a chance to not just recover his strength, but also to slip away and have a very important meeting with a very important individual.
 
And so, Izuku sends the signal while alone in his bedroom and waits a moment before stepping through the portal that’s formed at the foot of his bed. He finds himself in a room deep underground… where the laid up figure of All For One, All Might’s greatest enemy, awaits him.
 
“I suppose… you’ve done it then, yes?”
 
Now away from expectations and potential spies, Izuku lets his lips split into a wide grin that’s a tad more wicked. Not quite malicious, not quite evil… but certainly impish and mischievous on young Midoriya’s youthful features.
 
“I did it a week ago, in fact… but only today was I able to get away long enough to see you about it. He kept me training hard with my new Quirk all week long, to make sure I would be ready for U.A.’s entrance exam. Still, it’s done. I am now the latest bearer of One For All… father.”
 
Hisashi Midoriya, or so he’d been named when he’d first met Izuku’s mother a decade and a half ago and they’d had Izuku together, leans forward at that. The ancient Quirk hoarder, the former Emperor of the Underworld, lets out a shuddering, raspy chuckle of a laugh.
 
“Well done, my son. Well done. Come.”
 
His father beckons him forward, and Izuku goes to him, unafraid. After all, One For All is not a Quirk that can just be taken, not even by All For One. But more than that… his father is near-death, having been almost destroyed many years ago by the same man who’s been unknowingly training Izuku for months and months now.
 
For much of Izuku’s life, his father has been in this state. Healing, or trying to heal anyways, from the incredibly grievous damage that his nemesis had done him. But even still, Izuku would never forget the strong man who he had known earlier in his life for a few short years before this… this fate had befallen him.
 
Admittedly, it was All Might’s near fatal attack on Hisashi that had led Izuku down the path he was on now. One of unreserved desire to finally end the battle between All For One and One For All, once and for all. And now… he’d done it. In him, both legacies continued on. Because while Izuku had been declared Quirkless by a doctor on his father’s payroll, the truth was he had had his Quirk as long as anyone else had.
 
He still remembered the day his Quirk had manifested for the first time. How he’d accidentally stolen Katsumi Bakugo’s Quirk from her. His childhood best friend didn’t seem to remember that moment much these days, not with how convinced she was that he truly was Quirkless and thus a ‘worthless Deku’, but Izuku would never forget the feel of power from having her Quirk at his beck and call… nor the look of heartbreak on her young face when she’d briefly realized she couldn’t use her Quirk any longer.
 
He’d given it back of course, almost immediately, and with both of them being too young to understand what had happened at the time… well, was at any wonder that Katsumi had seemingly repressed the memory or managed to rework it, so it happened differently in her head. After all, Izuku was Quirkless, the doctors even said so, so it must not have happened that way, right?
 
Regardless, the fact of the matter was… All For One had bred true in him. As his father’s son, Izuku could steal and give Quirks as well. He just hadn’t done so all these years for an incredibly simple reason… he’d been building up a proper cover for their ultimate plan of yanking One For All right out from under All Might with the man being none the wiser.
 
And it’d worked. All Might had no idea he’d chosen his enemy’s own son as his successor. He had no idea he’d delivered One For All to the next generation’s All For One. And if Izuku had his way, Toshinori would never learn. He would simply continue wasting away and eventually be forced to retire as a Pro Hero, before finally passing quietly in some cottage out in the country.
 
Once upon a time, Izuku might have wanted nothing but the cruelest and most painful death for All Might, especially after what he did to his father… but the young man was older now, and wiser too. He had also just spent the last ten months learning at Toshinori Yagi’s feet and that… try as he might have to avoid it, that had forged a bond that at the very least allowed him to show mercy to his father’s great enemy.
 
Placing his hand in his father’s outstretched palm, Izuku waits… and feels it as his father passes along Quirk after Quirk. He’s had to spend all of these years functionally Quirkless. It’s taken a lot of his willpower to do so, it’s taken all of his inner strength, conviction, and resolve to stick to the plan at all costs. So many times he wanted to tear the Quirks from his bullies, from his classmates, from his teachers. So many Quirks he’d wanted to dissect more personally, more intimately… but couldn’t, forced to resort to his notebooks instead.
 
They’d never been enough though, not truly. Now… now though, Izuku feels it and boy what a rush it is. All of the Quirks that his father passes along to him help compliment One For All. In the past week, Izuku has not quite broken any bones… but only because he was training with All Might himself and using less than one percent of One For All’s power at any given time.
 
This package of Quirks that he and his father had prepared and curated together over the last decade however, ever since this plan of theirs had been set in motion… they would allow Izuku to use One For All to a much greater extent, while at the same time being subtle enough to seem like mere aspects of a normal Enhancement Quirk.
 
Not even All Might SHOULD be suspicious, hopefully, if Izuku even saw the man again. That was the plan anyways, and eventually the flow of Quirks between the two All For One users stops and Izuku pulls back, letting out a shuddering breath as he looks down at his hands, clenching them into fists and feeling the sheer combined efficiency of his new collection of Quirks at work. This was power… and after spending so much of his life weak and downtrodden, it felt amazing.
 
“Now… we must decide what you will do next.”
 
His head snaps up at that, and he frowns as he looks at his father.
 
“What do you mean? I thought we both agreed on that. I’m going to join U.A. and become a Pro Hero. I’m going to use their own system against them, to stand on top of the world. They won’t know it, but they will come to adore and praise the son of their most hated enemy. They will flock to me, worship me… and I will show them what true power is.”
 
“Yes… that has not changed. But before all of that, before tomorrow… you must decide what you will do with ME.”
 
Izuku blinks at that, staring at his bedridden father in silence and confusion. Lifting up the same hand that had transferred to Izuku all of those Quirks a few moments before, his father snaps his fingers. One of Kurogiri’s portals swirls into existence a handful of seconds later, and through it is pushed a large box of sorts… with a clear glass front to it that allows Izuku to see the beautiful woman slumbering within.
 
“Who-?”
 
“Nana Shimura. The Seventh User of One For All. Much like All Might believed he killed me all those years ago, he also believed I killed his mentor even earlier. But of course, what All Might believes, and actual reality are quite often at odds with one another, as we both well know.”
 
Izuku slowly nods at that, even as he takes in the beautiful, raven-haired woman. She looks quite peaceful at the moment…
 
“She’s in a state of suspended animation, kept like that ever since I defeated her in battle. I considered her a pawn to be used at some point or other against her protégé, but then he fled to America to hide from me and train, and I never really got the chance. She is… a half-completed project of sorts.”
 
Swallowing thickly, Izuku processes all of this, his brow still furrowed in confusion, a frown marring his way.
 
“Why… why are you telling me all of this? What does this have to do with me deciding what to do with you? What does that even mean?”
 
A raspy chuckle leaves his father’s throat.
 
“You are quite powerful now, my son. But you could be more powerful. All you would have to do… is drain the rest of my Quirks from me. Including the ones keeping me alive. Take them, end the threat of All For One once and for all… and save Nana Shimura. You will solidify your place among the heroes with ease if you do so. All Might himself will be incapable of doubting you for the rest of his meager life.”
 
That was… he was… Izuku’s hands clench and unclench at his sides as he licks his lips. Call it what you will. Ten months under All Might perhaps indoctrinating him to the Pro Hero’s way of thinking? Or just mere age allowing him to look at all the mistakes his father had made, all the things he’d done wrong… and wanting to do them better.
 
The point was, he was considering it. It filled him with a fair amount of self-loathing, but nevertheless, he was considering it. Still, before he could make a decision, he needed more information.
 
“What do you mean by a half-completed project, father?”
 
“Hm… I intended to turn her into a Nomu and send her after All Might. But the process back then was faulty, and in the end I decided to refrain from damaging her irrevocably. Her memory is not what it used to be however, and her mind will never recover. As well, she will imprint on the very first person she sees, considering them the only one capable of providing her with proper direction. Of course, as her savior, it will not seem odd that she is… attached to you after so long in my not-so-tender care.”
 
That was… alright then. Izuku closes his eyes shut and just tries to think for a moment, preferably without any outside distractions. Luckily, his father is fine with going silent and letting him do so, while Nana Shimura isn’t about to pipe up and give HER opinion on anything right now.
 
His own father… wanted him to finish the job that All Might had started all those years ago. There was no denying that the original All For One was right… taking what was left of his villainous father’s quirks would make him stronger, but more than that, slaying All For One and rescuing Nana Shimura would be… well, it would be a PR boon that would boost Izuku along right up until he became a full time Pro Hero. His power, combined with that sort of early success… it would be like a golden ticket.
 
But could he really do it? Kill his father? Accept this one final gift before Hisashi Midoriya died for real this time, instead of simply ‘going overseas’ for much of Izuku’s life? Could he pull that trigger?
 
Opening his eyes, Izuku sees his father holding out his hand to him once more, offering up everything that he had left to his son. Trembling, Izuku doesn’t know what to do. Whether to take that hand or not.