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When the vestiges finally let Izuku go, he wakes up to All Might tightly gripping his hand and a relieved smile spreading on that gaunt face. All Might’s smile just draws even more attention to his protruding cheek bones. Mom is at the hospital in no time at all and they’re all crying, even All Might.
His mother can’t stop crying when Izuku hugs her and tells her that he must go, that he doesn’t want to be the reason people die.
“But-but Izuku, does that mean you-you’re leaving us? And that you’ll be all alone?” There’s a strange fear growing in his mother’s eyes that Izuku can’t pick apart. He wants to answer both questions with a resolute ‘yes’ but All Might speaks before he does.
“I won’t leave him alone, Mrs. Midoriya,” All Might says, his determination burning bright like his vestige in the depths of One for All. “I promise you, he won’t be.”
Izuku hears Nana fret (“Toshi, don’t make promises you can’t keep”) and he cannot help but agree.
Hawks talks to him, with deep purple underneath his eyes and bandages covering more of his head than they don’t. He asks about One for All and its connection to All for One and Shigaraki.
All Might answers, mostly, for Izuku and he’s glad about that. But Hawks also looks at Izuku a lot, his eyes urging Izuku to do something. Izuku can’t read Hawks. (Or maybe it’s because he doesn’t want to. “Blinding yourself to emotions will always hurt more in the long run,” Daigoro huffs in the back of his mind.)
“What are you going to do now? We weren’t the only ones picking up Shigaraki’s rant,” the phone in Hawks’ hand proclaims with a robotic voice that sounds comically high. Izuku wants to laugh but he doesn’t.
Yet he takes the question instead of All Might. “I’m gonna hide, and then I’m going to train and get stronger and stronger. Until I can stop All for One in his tracks with the flick of a finger.”
He can’t see All Might’s face directly when he says that but afterwards, when Hawks has left, All Might seems to be disturbed. “Like flicking a finger?” All Might broaches the topic, his voice trembling.
“Like ice shattering,” Izuku confirms. There’s a deeply conflicted twist to All Might’s face but he keeps quiet.
Just to get that expression off All Might’s face, Izuku requests a lot of paper and five pens. He has a heap of letters and apologies to write.
The following months are hard. He’s training harder than he did for the entrance exam but that’s okay. That training was for something as silly as play fighting. This training is meant to increase his body’s natural limits, to get Izuku used to fighting with the various quirks folded into One for All, and to get Izuku stronger and stronger. Deku has to be the hero that saves lives.
If All Might weren’t bringing him food and water and equipment, Deku would have passed out from malnutrition and dehydration long ago, he realizes. Izuku thinks he’s a hero but he’s still relying on All Might to provide for him.
Yet Izuku doesn’t feel bad, he can’t when All Might sits next to him and his bones cut into Izuku’s side. All Might’s getting thinner but he’s also smiling and eating. Which, in the end, is what’s important.
Izuku isn’t ashamed to admit that sometimes he cries after All Might has brought him food. Izuku knows the taste of his mother’s cooking, knows the spice of her love and the tenderness of her care. He has learned to eat less while exercising more but he will never reject his mother’s food.
That’s what he thinks at the beginning of his training, though, barely two weeks after leaving the safety of UA. In the wilderness, as Izuku trains and trains and trains some more, days bleed together into a stream of bloody time moments. Sometimes Izuku remembers All Might hugging him, urging him to eat and drink, and tucking a half-delirious Izuku into a sleeping bag.
Izuku wants to believe that the last bit are fever dreams but he’s woken up in a sleeping bag without knowing how he’s gotten into it often enough now. And every time All Might is there in the morning, or the afternoon, or the evening, or whenever Deku wakes up.
When that happens Deku springs up and goes back to training but not before All Might stuffs some egg rolls and salmon cubes into Izuku’s mouth. “My boy, you don’t train on an empty stomach. I told you back then, remember? The American Dream Plan,” All Might says but Deku is only half-listening.
Deku’s gotten stronger. The vestiges work with him more often and he has figured out how to ‘call out’ one of them to stand beside him and look over his shoulder. With every new technique, every advancement in mastering the quirk he’s been given, Deku gets closer to fulfilling One for All’s purpose.
By now, he can fly like All Might in his prime, no, even better. His flight path doesn’t get wonky anymore like it did in the beginning of Izuku’s training. Black Whip obeys and strikes and latches on to the things Izuku wants. (Sometimes they want to cling to All Might but Izuku doesn’t let them, doesn’t let himself. It’s not something he can have.) Danger sense has become a constant companion. Izuku still has trouble regulating the output of Smokescreen but the energy aspect of Fa Jin is an easy concept to grasp, although he hasn’t tried using it yet.
Danger sense is dragging him towards the cities, though, and Deku follows, only occasionally stopping, so All Might can catch up to him. Since Deku has begun moving, All Might has stopped bringing the food made by the hands of Izuku’s mother every time. Instead, Deku receives bento boxes.
Every bento box becomes more and more delicious and it takes way longer than it should to realize that All Might has been making them himself. (“Isn’t that thoughtful of Eighth,” En whispers, envy and want in every curve of his letters.) It warms up something within Izuku, something that begs to be let out and to go back.
But then Danger sense screams and Izuku retreats, leaving Deku to fly up and head towards what’s happening. “A giant villain,” Deku says, almost mocking the words of his own younger self.
Is it normal to feel so much older than the self he’s been barely a year ago? Deku doesn’t have the answer but he’s reminded of an ethics class Aizawa-sensei held, shortly after the Overhaul incident. Deku smiles.
(“Heroes,” Aizawa-sensei said, “can break, bend, or fold. The best ones do all three. But it has the unfortunate side effect of aging them, which, naturally, leads to a faster burn out. Which, in turn, leads them to dying faster.”
His quirk activated and the classroom held its breath. Aizawa-sensei smiled his creepy grin, no hint of happiness within the glint of his teeth. “My advice to you? Don’t die and never warp.”)
He fights Muscular again and–it’s so much easier. Has a little more than three quarters of a year really made such a difference?
Things go sideways fast. Deku’s attacked by the former Assassin of the Hero Public Safety Commission, Hawks’ predecessor. He defeats her using a combination of his quirks, changes her mind and heart, and he cannot help the balloon of pride swelling in his chest.
That balloon is punctured when the building All for One is supposedly hiding in is rigged to explode and does so, raining hell and fire onto the heroes gathered. Deku is fast enough to save them all, wielding Float and Black Whip like the sharpened weapons they are. But he also listens to All for One’s mockery of All Might’s iconic retirement words.
Fear blooms in his heart and the next time All Might follows him, Deku pushes him away. All Might will be safer not following Izuku around. Once All for One is gone, Izuku will lean against All Might and they’ll eat the bento boxes together on a picnic blanket.
Deku just has to defeat All for One and his strongest followers. Deku is strong himself, and he’s getting stronger and stronger, strong enough to clear away the rot.
As soon as his goal’s been reached, Deku will apologize for the spilled bento box. Izuku will go down on his knees if he has to and beg for forgiveness. (The vestiges are silent, neither approval nor disapproval radiating from their corner of Deku’s mind. Only Second breathes and says, very gently, “Time is against you.” Deku thinks Second means the fight against All for One.)
All Might has stopped following Deku, finally, one month after Deku set All Might free. It smarts a bit when Deku can’t feel the presence dogging his steps anymore. But he’s also happy that All Might is resting and waiting for him. However, he takes a day to rest and hide within the wilderness.
Deku isn’t sulking, no matter what his hurt feelings say. He was the one who told All Might to stop chasing Deku.
(Within One for All flames coalesce into a clear body and Toshinori wakes up. He smiles when his Master drags him down to hug the stuff out of him. He’s thinner than he’s been in his prime but there’s more meat on his bones since shortly after receiving his life-changing injury.
“Should we tell bean sprout-” Nana begins but Toshinori shakes his head.
“I wanted to tell him to not be like me, to rest, to accept the help offered to him,” Toshinori breathes, sad and hand clutching his shirt over his heart. “My boy is too much like me. If you tell him about no, he will lose focus and try to take revenge on nothing and everything. He will get even more reckless.”
Toshinori falls to his knees and begs the vestiges that once resided in him. “Don’t make me watch my boy self-destruct even more, please, oh please.”
His master is crying but they all nod. Toshinori suddenly wonders if his master begged like he had, however, with no one capable of hearing her but the vestiges, that request went unheeded.
First cautions, “If he calls you out, we can do nothing. If he comes here, we can do nothing.”
“If he doesn’t know I’m here, he won’t call me, will he?” Toshinori smiles, aching at his catchphrase. “If he comes here, I can hide.”
Deku does neither and Toshinori watches, regret and pride mixing in with his tears.)
Soon the school year of what would have been Deku’s third year will dawn, in two weeks, in fact. But Deku is standing over the soulless husk of All for One’s body. In the end, the key to defeating All for One is laughably easy.
Deku uses the Second’s quirk, a quirk Second calls Enhancement. But it’s not the body Enhancement strengthens but the quirks of others. All for One has too many quirks hidden in the fragile crooks of a human body. Strengthening them all at once has torn All for One apart from the inside.
He even manages to save Shigaraki but Dabi, Todoroki Touya, dies as so many others of All for One’s followers do. Deku knows he should feel sorrow for them, grief, shame for being the trigger for their death.
But Deku has fought and been isolated and he has witnessed the terror and death those followers have sown with glee distorting their features. They chose their path and Deku? Deku can’t pity them. Maybe Izuku could have, but Izuku is still sleeping within Deku.
Maybe tomorrow those lost in the last battle will be mourned by him. Because Deku has reached his goal, has ended All for One’s reign and people are tentatively cheering, their voices getting louder and louder.
It takes everything within Deku to stand there and be a pillar of strength, to stand as big as he can and as tall as he can and as strong as he can. The police arrive on the scene and take Shigaraki into their custody and arrange transport for the remains of the villain that died. They also reassure the civilians peeking on the battlefield with mistrust and fearful hope.
Tsukauchi passes Deku, ignoring him, and Deku fixes his face on the detective. Deku wants to melt away, Izuku taking his place, and ask Tsukauchi how All Might is doing, if All Might is hiding somewhere with Izuku’s mother. Before Deku can ask, the hungry darkness having waited at Deku’s heels rears up and devours Deku.
Izuku rises from the darkness and someone with thin hands is holding his hand. All Might has put some meat on his ribs, Izuku thinks and happiness bubbles up within him. All Might rested! That’s good, that’s good and Izuku can’t wait to take All Might and his mother and maybe his classmates and teachers to the most perfect spot. While hiding in the wilderness, he has found some beautiful places to hold a picnic at.
Smiling, Izuku opens his eyes, All Might’s name already on his lips, but it’s not a thin face with blond hair he’s looking at but the mother Izuku remembers from his childhood. She’s as thin, if not thinner, as when she found out that Izuku would never receive a quirk in the natural way. She’s crying, red staining her cheeks permanently.
“Welcome home, baby,” Izuku’s mother croaks, her voice trembling too much to be described as anything but weak.
“Hi,” Izuku greets back, excited and happy. The nightmare is over, his mother is here, All Might is probably fetching something to drink for him and mom. There will be a lot to do in the aftermath of All for One’s death but Izuku doesn’t have to face that alone. He feels secure in depending on All Might again, now that All for One isn’t implying that he’ll target All Might instead of Deku.
Mom smiles at something above Izuku’s head and squeezes his hands. She prattles on about something, Izuku isn’t even listening. He’s just enjoying the sounds of her voice, the prittle-prattle of it rising and falling.
But twenty minutes after he wakes up, All Might still isn’t back. “Mom, where’s All Might? He’s been gone awfully long for fetching something.”
The expression on his mother’s face is so familiar it makes Izuku sick. It’s helplessness mixed with ‘What should I do’ and resigned ‘I don’t want to be the one telling him’. It’s ‘why do I have to be the one’ and ‘it’s not my fault’. It’s his mother hugging him, wailing and chanting that ‘I’m sorry, Izuku, I’m so sorry’ when it wasn’t what Izuku wanted to hear.
“Izuku,” his mother chokes out, staring at his lips. “All Might died four months ago. It was all over the news.”
A hole opens within Izuku, dreams of picnics and apologizes and forgiveness shared shattering. Izuku loses himself, even as his mother starts calling him.
Darkness rips into him again, dragging him under.
Darkness howls until Izuku wakes up in a different kind of darkness. Thrones spear the darkness here and Izuku, for the first time, has a full body – he has arms, legs, a chest, hands, a nose, ears to hear and a mouth to scream.
Izuku wants to join the howling of the darkness, why, why, why on his tongue, but arms wrap around him and drag him into a thin chest.
“You did good, my boy, you did good. Rest now,” All Might whispers but it’s not All Might, is it? It’s his vestige inside of One for All, inside of Izuku.
“I’m so sorry,” Izuku wails, breaking.
“I should have listened to you.” Izuku bends.
“You are here now,” All Might croons into Izuku’s ears and holds him tighter.
Izuku folds, breathing in All Might’s scent and promises, “I am here.”