Chapter 16: One step forward

Izuku had a problem.

His body was sparking like crazy and he felt One for All run amok with his muscle control. There was a bit of an incident when he had tried to turn the nob of a shower and it had broken off in his hand. Also, his joints felt like they were on fire.

While he felt ridiculously strong, Izuku also felt ridiculously broken. It was like every step threatened to crack his nearly indestructible bones and his Quirk was barely keeping up with it. It was taking all of his strength to try and halt this ridiculous power and control it.

"Bro, you need to go see the nurse." Mineta said worriedly. It was beginning to hurt to breath. "Midoriya?"

"I'm fine." Izuku said weakly. He didn't feel fine. He felt sore all over and it wasn't from the amount of effort he had put in to complete Aizawa's test. It felt worse than a panic attack. (And being the nervous wreck he normally was, Izuku was very familiar with those.) Like all his muscles were tense for too long.

Izuku didn't want to admit it, but it kind of his fault. One for All was wonderful, and terrifying. Izuku now knew why All-Might had him do soft tissue training, as well as had him study martial arts. Precision, control, and endurance… that was what he had been supposed to figure out.

He was the one who messed up and set back his training. He was the one that hadn't prepared correctly and now he was paying for it. Izuku felt worthless and was borderline freaking out thinking he had broken All-Might's Quirk. The one he was supposed to be storing power into…

Izuku hadn't really understood what All-Might had been saying all that long ago. He had a Quirk and he had been training to be able to hold All-Might's power within him, but he hadn't exactly been planning to use it.

Izuku felt like he should be cultivating One for All so someone else could have even more power later, or even so he could give it back to All-Might if that were possible. Instead he had been using that power, not storing it, and now he just felt like trash. The first time with the giant robot had been a kind of spur of the moment thing, and he was sure All-Might would understand, but if he could, he'd like to avoid it in the future.

His goal had been to hang on to One for All and then use the fringe benefits like increased speed and strength like All-Might did but to actually cultivate the power and only use it to save lives… Now, Izuku was worried about not holding in that power and not actually adding anything to it for the next guy to use! And he wouldn't… stop… sparking!

As Mineta and Koda looked at him like he was crazy, Izuku felt even more useless as he was making others worry and-

"Bro, if you're not feeling okay, you're not feeling okay." Mineta said bluntly. "You can't save anyone if you are injured."

Koda nodded vigorously in agreement.

Izuku laughed, thinking of All-Might and how anorexic he looked in his 'Small-Might' form. If he was able to do Hero work even when that badly injured… What he was going through was nothing… he just needed to make sure all that power was contained… His sparks just increased in intensity as he desperately tried to hold back All-Might's power.

"I'm fine, really." Izuku said gritting his teeth. "I'm just getting used to my new Quirk."

"Oh, well that's okay- wait, new!?" Mineta asked freaking out a little bit. Koda's eyes went wide.

"I don't really know a lot about it, but I think it's Stockpiling." Izuku said with a shrug. He winced. Okay, that hurt… Also it felt bad lying but he had promised All-Might not to tell anyone One for All's origin... "That would explain why I wasn't able to use it at all for a few years."

"Stockpiling?" Mineta asked. Izuku remembered when he had asked the same question. Izuku nodded.

"I think it stores power and then stacks it onto my own strength." Izuku said. "But that's just a theory…"

"A Quirk Theory!" Mineta said with little finger guns. Izuku stared at him blankly. "What? You don't watch-? Okay, sorry… It thought you'd be into that show, what with all the Quirk analysis you do…"

"Yeah, but um… sometimes there a fair bit of conjecture, like it's just someone's interpretation, not actual stated facts. Then sometimes they butcher the math or purposefully only choose feats or ideas that fit the theme of the video, and then there's all the click-bait…" Izuku said. Mineta just realized he had introduced himself as basically uncultured swine to a man of culture. "I mean, it's good that it gets people interested…"

'A nerd through and through…' Mineta thought. 'Man, now I just have to make him seem like a badass…'

The guy was sparking like crazy still and it was obviously hurting him… Suddenly, a very dumb idea came to Mineta's mind seeing the boy spark like that.

"You wanna hang out later?" Mineta asked. Maybe DBZ would be a good idea to get him started on- wait, why was the boy making that face? Why the hell was he crying?!

Not for the first time today, Mineta wasn't sure exactly what he got into.

"You want to hang out!?" Izuku asked in shock.

Mineta had popped the question like it was no big deal out in front of the school and Izuku didn't even know what to say! Nobody had ever wanted to hang out with him before! Even with Kacchan, he was usually 'allowed' to let the explosive come over and play, but that was usually only because Izuku had gotten an All-Might game for his birthday.

This was the first time anyone said that to him since he was five! He was overwhelmed with emotion. Seriously, tears began to fall freely from his face. Someone wanted to hang out with him! Oh man! He had to text his mom!

"Bro…" Mineta said staring at Izuku's tearful face. "Okay, I just asked if we could exchange numbers and hang out sometime…"

Izuku, the horribly socially retarded sweetheart that he was, barely stopped himself from picking up the smaller purple haired boy in a back breaking hug. Barely.

"Can we hang out today since classes went out early?!" Izuku asked excitedly wiping his tears and treating the bewildered boy a million watt smile.

Mineta tried slowly backing away when Izuku was (thankfully) distracted seeing Koda looking nervous.

"Hey Koda! I was thinking about hanging out with you and Mineta here!" Izuku said excitedly before pausing. "Oh! I should probably ask if Mineta wants to go, I mean if he has plans-"

Mineta mentally steeled himself, putting on a big forced smile. "Yeah! I don't really have any plans! You wanna come hang with us?"

Koda looked up in surprise then down in utter shock, and like Izuku, he began to cry and then hurriedly texted someone on his phone. When he seemed to get a response he quickly scribbled down in a pink unicorn notebook: 'My mom says I can go as long as I am back before eight!'

Izuku was just about to ask his mother as well when he noticed a text on his phone. From All-Might.

Opening up the text he quickly read and felt terrible for having to lie to his new friends, not only that, but Koda seemed excited to hang out with them all. Sighing, Izuku prepared an excuse. All-Might had wanted to talk to him right after school to go over how he was using One for All.

"Can't go?" Mineta asked. "I understand. Parents are kinda strict like that…"

Seeing Izuku and Koda's dejected faces, Mineta quickly came up with a plan. "Hey! How 'bout since it's a school night, we do a video conference and study together?"

Izuku and Koda blinked. "Video conference?"

"Yeah! Just lemme get your emails and I could set you two up tonight!" Mineta said happily. Koda seemed to consider it while Izuku beamed.

"That sounds great!" Izuku said excitedly. "Koda! Most online video conference rooms have a spot to send messages! That means you can just text us without worry!"

Koda began to get a little nervous but he eventually agreed. Mineta had both boys emails soon enough, and gave them a thumbs up with a smile. He was going to find out what made both of them tick and then… he would know exactly how to make them famous or infamous.

"Just leave it to me guys!" Mineta said.

Izuku rushed to get home even though he texted his mother saying he would be out for a run. She was hesitant, but let him be about not coming home immediately. Panting, Izuku ran. He had to make it to the Naboo Humanitarian suite where All-Might would be ready to give him important pointers for One for All!

Reaching the strange eatery Izuku noticed that he was sparking again and immediately tried to hide it. Most of the time, police officers didn't condone Quirk use in public, but if you weren't hurting anyone they'd usually let you off with a warning.

There were still sticklers for the rules sometimes that might just write you up a ticket with a hefty fine if you were caught using your Quirk in public. Strangely enough, though law enforcement offices claim that they do not have a quota of tickets to fill, tickets are most often given at the end of the month for one reason or another…

Izuku took a deep breath and did his best to calm the heck down. One for All felt like liquid lightning in muscle fibers and his own Quirk Marrow felt like warmth. It was just a theory, but Izuku felt like his two Quirks were trying to merge with one another. But it was just a theory to explain his random muscle spasms and the electricity arcing in his body.

His healing factor was keeping up with it, but Izuku was in some real pain earlier. It felt like the panic attacks he used to get when he was younger; where all his muscles clenched up and he felt really sore and tired afterwards. Kinda like that…

Now, he was mostly used to that sort of pain, and was doing his best to calm down before he made use of his dreadful habit of cracking his back along with every other joint. The tension building up, Izuku sighed and prepared himself. After a series of disturbing cracks along his back and in his joints, the tension was relieved with a 'it hurts so good' type of feeling. Slowly, his breathing slowed, and his body and mind seemed to relax.

He looked at the Humanitarian center and readied himself for both advice and service!

Once he went inside and the strange smell of fresh fabric and a warm 'homey' smell filled his nose, he saw All-Might in his 'Small-Might' form waiting for him.

"Midoriya, my boy!" All-Might waved. "There's a lot we need to discuss."

The superpowered duo sat down and began working on a quilt together. They were here under the pretense that they were building a quilt for Izuku's mother for Mother's Day. The older woman who supervised was touched by the gesture and remarked how she wished her children would be thoughtful enough to do something like that and let them be after a while.

Izuku was picking out the pattern, trying to find out what kind of print his mom would like. She seemed to like pink, but she might want something different… Maybe a white quilt with pink trim? No, that'd be too hard to wash… A spring theme maybe? But his mom's birthday was in summer so…

"I wanted to talk to you about the use of your Quirk during that test Aizawa set up." All-Might said quietly, picking out some yellow fabric. Actually, that wasn't a bad idea… "I noticed that you were struggling to regulate it."

Izuku frowned. "Sorry, I'm still getting used to it… I won't waste any more energy…"

"Waste? Wait, what are you talking about?" All-Might asked.

"Well, I've been wasting excess energy when using One-for-All and…" Izuku said trailing off.

"Midoriya my boy, how do you think that Quirk is supposed to be used?" All-Might asked. Izuku ducked, embarrassed. "You thought you were just supposed to hang onto it and build up its strength, huh?"

Izuku's eyes widened confirming All-Might's suspicion.

"It's not a bad mindset to have, but the whole reason I decided to give you my power was because you tend to rush into things without a thought to save someone." All-Might said softly. "It'd kinda go against the whole meaning of the Quirk to never use it… Hmm… I guess I didn't explain it too well… Look, 'Stockpiling' isn't exactly the correct name for the Quirk anyways, even if that's the type of Quirk it is…"

"Wait, it isn't really Stockpiling? Then what is it?" Izuku asked confused. All-Might coughed into a handkerchief filling it with thick globs of congealed blood. Izuku looked worried but All-Might just held up a hand.

"Ugh… I thought about it a lot, and I think the best way to describe the Quirk is by understanding a stock investment." All-Might explained wiping the blood from his mouth. "If it were just 'Stockpiling', you'd only have what you or the previous users put into it. But in the case of One-for-All, it's more like paying a portion of 'stock' in a company and then it building gradually as the years go by. The more power or stock you put in, the more you get out of it. And just like a normal stock, you can inherit stock from the previous stockholder.

"Remember, each person improves upon the Quirk when it passes on, so… all of the people who have wielded that mighty power before… all their hopes, all of their dreams, their strength, their blood, sweat, and tears… All of that… is now yours to inherit.

"When you pass on the Quirk, you will only have left what you put into it. I've had the Quirk the longest, so I have a good bit of 'stock' saved up. But now, without the rest of the 'stock shares' I only have a limited amount of time per day that I can keep using it without totally running out. So, basically, don't worry about the amount of energy you are consuming. Just continue to grow, continue to use that power to fulfil the past users dreams, but… even if you decide not to do that, it's yours to decide what to do with it…" All-Might finished, picking out some yellow and blue squares.

Izuku suddenly felt the weight of responsibility that One for All carried with it. All those hopes, all those dreams… they were now his to fulfill… How was he supposed to do that? What dream should he pursue that would keep those dreams alive? What of All-Might's dream? He didn't know what he could possibly do to-

"You really need to work on that muttering problem…" All-Might said flatly before looking down, and looking like the man had the weight of the whole world on his emancipated shoulders. "I know what I'm asking you isn't fair, but… My dream is to continue being the Symbol of Peace for as long as I can, and I want you to finally take that mantle off my shoulders when you are ready. You may have the power, the mind, and the heart, but there is still a lot more I need to teach you. I don't expect you to become me- hell, I don't even expect you to become super famous or the Number-One Hero or anything like that… I just…"

All-Might sighed and put down the fabric.

"I want you to promise me something." All-Might said. "No matter how famous, or infamous… No matter how powerful or unstoppable you become… I want you to never change from what you truly are, a Good Man. I didn't give you my power because you were a perfect candidate, or even a perfect vessel, I chose you because you were the one that I knew would always do his absolute best and never stop trying to do the right thing. If you can keep doing that for me, then I don't have any doubt in my mind you are a worthy successor… Do you understand me Young Midoriya?"

Izuku nodded quietly looking down again. "I won't let you down All-Might… I promise… and, thank you… for believing in me."

All-Might clapped the boy on the shoulder. "No my boy, thank you for giving me hope. I wanna see you giving it your all from now on. No more holding back! Speaking of which! Let's make your mother the best quilt that we can make! Between the two of us it shouldn't be too hard right!?"

Izuku nodded. He hadn't thought about it, but if he truly had been holding back, he would be disrespecting those who had come before him. He made himself a promise then. He was going to make All-Might's, no- the previous holder's dreams come true. He would hold onto their hopes and dreams for as long as he lived.

"So, what do you think? Do you think Polka dots are too cheesy?" Izuku asked. All-Might shrugged.

"She's your mother, don't you know what her favorite color or pattern is?" All-Might asked.

Izuku and All-Might stared at each other for a minute before returning to the colored squares.

"Maybe a pastel pink followed by a hot pink polka-dot on a mostly white background…" Izuku suggested. Even if it were really light if it got stained it'd wash out… All-Might nodded and both tried to find an appropriate color for the next row.

"Young Midoriya?" All-Might asked. Izuku looked up.

"Yeah?" Izuku said. All-Might was smiling. Not a forced smile like the one that he wore every day, but a genuine smile, and as typical of those kind of smiles, it was filled with happiness, a little sadness, and enough tiredness to last several lifetimes.

"Thank you. I know you will do me proud." All-Might said.

Izuku couldn't help it. He began to tear up, and he tried desperately to wipe his eyes before the waterworks really started.

"I promise All-Might, no matter what happens, I'll never stop trying to be good man!" Izuku swore. "I'll make you proud, and become the best Hero in the world!"

All-Might smiled again. In many ways, the boy already was.