Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Someone was in his room, Izuku thought vaguely. He had been pulled out of his sleep by the low murmur of voices nearby, at an hour entirely too early to be awake at. Even with his eyes closed he could tell the the sun had yet to rise.

He would have thought it was a prank by one of his classmates if it weren’t for the fact that the voices all belonged to adults. Adrenaline coursed through his body, One for All humming beneath his skin. He didn’t Full Cowl just yet though, wanting to get as much information about the intruders as he could. He listened hard even as his mind raced, wondering how they had gotten past UA’s security, how they had made it to the dorms without anyone noticing, if they had hurt his other classmates of if he was the only one they were after.

“Five, we are not going to haunt All for One.”

“Why not? Tartarus isn’t that far away—”

“The most important thing is to figure out why this is happening, preferably by discussing things with Eight and Nine.”

Eight? Nine? Five? He recognized one voice—the Fifth One for All holder, who he’d met just last week. Who was, somehow, in his room, along with several other people. The other One for All holders?

“We should wake him.” said an unfamiliar man. “Preferably someone who he’s already met, so he doesn’t freak out on us.”

“I got it!” the Fifth said. Izuku heard someone move towards him. Time to get up.

Izuku opened his eyes and sat up—or tried to. His head smacked straight into something hard, sending both him and what he’d run in to reeling back. He clutched his forehead.

“Ow!”

“Shit, that hurt!”

“Nine, are you alright?”

It was the First. Izuku opened his eyes again to see the white-haired man standing in front of him, concern on his face. Behind him were four other people. He recognized them all from the notes All Might had given him after last week's incident.

Though long-dead, each of the holders looked solid, as real as anyone else—until they moved. Then their forms would flicker slightly, growing translucent around the edges before righting themselves. The constant glow surrounding each one like a color-coded corona was also a dead giveaway to their nature.

“I-I’m fine,” he said, rubbing his forehead. “But what...I mean…”

The Seventh, All Might’s master, shrugged and gave him an apologetic smile. “Sorry, kid. We don’t know what’s happening either.”

Before Izuku could ask, the Fifth clapped him on the shoulder.

“Nice to actually talk to ya, kid! Sorry about earlier.”

“It’s fine,” Izuku said automatically. “Um, so you guys are...real? Physically present?”

“Not at all,” said the Sixth, a man with a really long collar. He attempted to lean against Izuku’s desk and fell through. Instead of falling onto the floor however, he simply remained floating parallel to the floor with his head partially stuck in the desk.

“Uh,” said Izuku.

Six righted himself. “We can affect each other, but nothing else. It seems you are an exception, Nine, due to your connection with us.”

“And here I was hoping we could go full on poltergeist.” Five sighed. “What’s the point of being dead if you can’t properly haunt people? I bet All for One wouldn’t even notice if I went over to Tartarus and insulted him to his face.”

“Speak for yourself,” First said. He had flipped himself upside down and was now floating with his legs crossed. Reaching down, he plucked one of Izuku’s pencils from his desk, twirling it in his hand. He lost control a few seconds later, sending it skittering across the floor.

Five perked up. “Oi, First, how’d you do that?”

“You just have to concentrate. Focus on what you want to do.” First pushed off against the wall, sending himself spinning across the room before he stopped himself on the other side, right side up again. “It’s like using One for All. Don’t give up on messing with my brother.”

“Again,” said Four, a man with crack-like scars in his face. “We are not going to haunt All for One. It is a spectacularly bad idea. First, please don’t encourage Five.”

Five scoffed. “What, like the guards can arrest us?”

“We can’t go to Tartarus anyways,” said a new voice.

Two men walked in from the balcony, one with spiky brown hair that reminded him of Kaachan and a large scar on his face, and one with his hair in a ponytail and a sweatband tied around his forehead. Izuku didn’t recognize them, which meant they had to be the Second and the Third. All Might had only been unable to get any information on the first three holders, given the chaotic time in which they’d operated in.

Neither looked at Izuku as they came to join the others.

“We’re on a leash,” the man with the scar said.

“Can’t get more than about 120 meters away from him,” the man with the ponytail agreed.

“Aw.” Five sighed. “There goes that idea.”

“Hey, don’t give up,” First said. “It’s Halloween today, right? We can haunt Nine’s classmates.”

“Please don’t,” Izuku said, thinking of the sheer chaos that would generate.

“We can even pin it on the other hero class,” Seven said teasingly. “Or the invisible girl.”

“One day won’t hurt, will it, Nine? ‘Tis the season, and all that.” Five grinned at him.

“That’s Christmas,” said Four.

“More importantly,” said Six. “Our situation.”

“Right.” Seven lost all traces of amusement. “Nine, did anything strange happen yesterday? Did you get hit by someone’s quirk?”

Izuku thought back and shook his head. “No, nothing weird happened. I had class like normal, hero training in the afternoon, then I went back to the dorms and did homework. After dinner, I helped Ashido with some of the party prep and trained, then I went to sleep. But, um, shouldn’t you know all this? The Fifth gave me the impression that he could tell what was happening during the joint training exercise.”

“It’s not that simple,” Five said. “See, we’re part of One for All, so we only know what’s going on while you’re using it. We can sorta sense your emotions even when you aren't, but only when you’re particularly fired up. Like when that pink haired inventor girl fell on you a couple months ago. That was hilarious.”

Izuku flushed as he recalled the incident. Face red, he could only stutter out “o-oh, I see,” in response.

“He could be overlooking something,” the man with the scar said to Seven. “Bumping into someone in the halls, forgetting an interaction during break.”

“Oh! That’s right! I did bump into someone, but it was outside of school. I went down to buy some extra decorations for the party and bumped into a woman by the subway station.”

“Did you feel strange afterwards?” Seven asked.

“No…” Izuku frowned. “Well, I did feel sort of...tingly afterwards, but I figured that was just because of the nerve damage in my arm.” He held out a scarred limb to demonstrate.

“Any other incidents?” Four asked.

Izuku shook his head.

“Then let’s look at that woman as the main cause, for now,” First said.

“You should call Toshi,” Seven said. “All Might, that is.”

“Right now? But it’s—” Izuku checked his alarm “—five thirty in the morning.”

“I don’t think he’ll mind if you explain the situation,” she said with some amusement.

Biting his lip, Izuku reached for his phone and dialed All Might’s number. He waited anxiously for him to pick up—if he picked up.

Meanwhile, Five decided to practice the art of poltergeisting. Shuffling to one corner of the crowded room, he tried to touch Izuku’s bookshelf instead of phasing through it. First drifted over to provide tips.

All Might picked up, sounding faintly alarmed.

“Young Midoriya? Is something wrong?”

“U-um, not wrong, exactly,” Izuku said. “But it’s definitely weird.”

“Is it something to do with One for All?”

“Well…” Izuku was still figuring out how to break the news when Seven leaned over.

“Hello? Toshi? Can you hear me?”

Silence. Even though the phone, Izuku could sense All Might’s shock. In a trembling voice, he answered.

“M-master?”

“Hi Toshi! Seems like Nine here had a run in with someone’s quirk yesterday and now all us vestiges have been evicted from One for All Villa. Except for yours, but that’s probably because you’re still alive. Now we’re haunting Nine.”

All Might made a choked noise.

“So yeah, we kind of need your help to reverse it,” Izuku said.

“Hey, I think I got it!” Five shouted from the other side of the room. Four hushed him.

“You idiot, the others will hear us!”

“Dude, we’re ghosts.”

“If it isn't an issue, then why is Danger Sense going off?”

“Well—”

Blackwhip suddenly erupted from Fifth’s arm, but not the small tendrils Izuku had seem before in the dreamscape. No, this was the version that had run wild during joint training. He ducked as tendrils flailed around his room, knocking things off shelves, slamming into the walls, and knocking the vestiges off their feet. With a panicked expression, Five pulled his arm back. Blackwhip vanished.

There was a long silence.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have compared it to using a quirk,” First said, crouched near the ceiling.

“My boy, what was that? Master?”

“Just a little accident, Toshi.”

“...Sorry about that, Nine.” Five looked sheepish, at least.

“I-it’s fine,” Izuku said automatically. “Just be more careful in the future, okay?”

“Yeah, got it. Hey guys, help me put this stuff back.”

“It’s your fault it got knocked off in the first place,” Four said.

“An accident?”

“It turns out the vestiges can use the One for All boosted version of their quirks,” Izuku said. “I even felt One for All activate, which was really weird—oh no.”

“What’s wrong?”

The hallway light had turned on.

“Uh, I think someone heard that. Hold on, All Might.”

Someone knocked on the door. The vestiges fell silent.

“Midoriya?” asked Mineta. “Are you okay? I heard banging coming from your room.”

“I-I’m fine!” Izuku said. “S-sorry for waking you, it was just a quirk accident!”

Five attempted to put an All Might action figure back on the shelf. It fell through his fingers, literally.

“Oh, okay,” Mineta said, though he didn’t sound convinced.

Four sighed and leaned down to help. Carefully, he made himself solid enough to set the figure down. Grinning, Five attempted to clap him on the back. He dodged, sending him on a collision course with Second, who was stubbornly staring at the wall, along with Third. Danger Sense fired.

Izuku sighed in relief as Mineta began to walk away, oblivious to the chaos unfolding behind him.

Here’s the thing: Izuku’s room was designed to hold one teenage student. Two and three were fine. At four, things started to get crowded. With seven adults in the room, all of whom were solid to each other and Izuku but not anything else, one little push could lead to disaster.

Four, otherwise known as Hikage Shinomori, was attempting to avert that disaster. Trying to avoid Second would mean either bumping into Five, who was standing in front of Seventh, or going sideways and crashing into Six, who was watching them in silent judgement. So instead of starting a domino effect of pushing and being pushed, which could affect Izuku, whose alarmed cries would undoubtedly draw his classmate’s attention, Hikage decided to fall through the wall. Hopefully the student on the other side would still be asleep, not that it mattered when he was effectively a ghost.

Unfortunately for Hikage, Aoyama was both awake and able to see him, as evidenced by the horrified expression he had upon seeing the top half of an unknown adult fall through the wall.

Hikage blinked at the pile of cheese in Aoyama’s arms.

Aoyama screamed. The sound echoed through the dorms.

Everyone in Izuku’s room froze.

“Well,” eventually said First, as the sound of pounding footsteps echoed down the stairs. “That’s not good.”

-//-//-//-

It was far too early in the morning for this.

Shouta had been woken from blissful sleep by a frantic call from Aoyama, saying there had been a ghost in his room and that there were potentially more currently haunting Midoriya. Despite the nonsensical contents of the message, the panic in his voice was very real. So against all instincts to ignore the call and collapse into bed again, Shouta rose to get dressed.

When he arrived at the dorm, which was thankfully only a minute’s walk from the teachers', he found several students clustered in the second floor hallway. They looked up as he approached, Mineta appearing on the verge of tears.

“Sensei!” Aoyama cried. “Thank goodness you are here!”

“What’s happening.”

“Aizawa-sensei!” Tenya said, chopping his arms. “I heard screaming coming from the floor below, so I immediately went to investigate.”

“I came along just in case,” Ojiro said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Turns out it was a false alarm though,” Kaminari said. “Sorry, dude, I didn’t think you’d get so freaked out by that ghost story last night.”

“You may not believe me, but I know what I saw! Mon ami, Midoriya is undoubtedly being assaulted by the spirits at this very moment!”

“Ghosts don’t actually exist, Aoyama.”

“Do not be so quick to dismiss his words,” Tokoyami said. “The veil grows thin today. It is entirely likely that spirits have, indeed, crossed to do mischief in the material world.”

“Dude, what?”

“Enough.” Shouta fixed all of them with a glare. “Aoyama, tell me what happened.”

“Oui, of course. I was sleeping as usual when I was awoken by loud banging coming from Midoriya’s room, as if many things were slamming against the walls all at once. I thought it was an incident like last week, when he had not eaten enough cheese, so I gathered some from my cupboards for him. But then!” Aoyama shuddered. “A ghost fell through the wall! I screamed in shock, and it vanished as quickly as it appeared. But it was there, Sensei, you must believe me!”

“I-I heard banging sounds too!” Mineta said. “I asked Midoriya if he was okay, and he said he was fine, but then he stopped answering me!”

“Alright,” Shouta said. “That is concerning.”

He walked over to Midoriya’s door and knocked. “Midoriya. Are you alright?”

Listening closely, he could hear a series of hushed whispers. Unfamiliar voices. Shouta took several steps back, motioning for his students to do the same, then kicked in the door with his quirk active.

Midoriya froze, a phone in one hand. The various faintly glowing strangers in the room stared at Shouta like deer in headlights.

“Okay,” said a white haired man, somehow floating in the air despite getting a full dose of Erasure. “This isn’t what it looks li—”

Shouta’s capture weapon went straight through the woman standing right next to his student, as did Shouta himself a moment later when he attempted to knock her down. He stumbled into Midoriya’s bed, his entire body vaguely numb and buzzing with static electricity.

“Holy shit,” said Ojiro.

The students were gathered around Midoriya’s door, gaping.

“Mon dieu! I told you, ghosts!”

“What a mad banquet of darkness.”

Mineta just screamed.

-//-//-//-

After fifteen minutes of frantic explanations, shouting, and far too much quirk use, Shouta was finally able to restore order and send the students back to their rooms. Everyone in class had ended up involved after Mineta had screamed loudly enough to wake the entire campus. He had no doubt some would disobey him and try to eavesdrop, but he would cross that bridge when he came to it.

He glared darkly at the cause of the trouble as he prepared a pot of the strongest coffee he could find in the dorm kitchen. Once the adrenaline rush had worn off, the full force of being woken up at five in the morning after a late night patrol had hit him. He thought longingly of the sleeping bag he had stashed in the cupboard five feet away.

Midoriya, at least, looked contrite. His companions were either amused, vaguely regretful, or didn’t seem to care.

The pot had finished filling. Shouta poured himself a cup and immediately downed half the contents without taking his eyes off the others.

(“What a mood,” said one of the figures. He was quickly hushed by another.)

Once he began to feel more like a human being and less like a reanimated corpse, Shouta spoke.

“I’ve already contacted All Might and Principal Nedzu, as requested.” He looked pointedly at the white-haired man. “ In the meantime, I’d like some reassurance that you all aren’t just villains with a very odd way of operating.”

Midoriya began to speak, flailing in his eagerness to defend the intruders. Shouta stopped him with a glare.

“We aren’t villains,” the woman said. “We have no intention of harming UA or its students.”

“I apologize for scaring your student,” said the man with cracks on his face. “I didn’t think he’d be able to see me.”

Ah. Yes. That. The supposed explanation for their presence.

“Because you are all ghosts,” he said flatly.

“It is rather unbelievable, isn’t it?” The white haired man smiled. “We’ll explain everything when Ei—All Might and the principal arrive. I’m sure you trust their testimony over ours.”

“So All Might and Nedzu know what’s going on with...this?”

“Yes!” Midoriya said. “I mean, sort of? They know who they—” he gestured at the ‘ghosts’ “—are.”

“Hm. Fine. I’ll wait.” Shouta let himself slouch against the counter, careful not to take his eyes off the intruders. Not that it would do him much good. He didn’t completely believe that they were ghosts, of course, but the fact that Erasure hadn’t worked when they’d been floating around and phasing through the walls lent a certain credibility to the claim.

The figures talked amongst themselves as he sipped at his coffee. They were clearly familiar with each other. Midoriya obviously knew them as well, but there was enough awkwardness in his interactions that said he didn’t know them well. The ones he seemed most relaxed with were the white haired man, the woman, and the bald man.

Not everyone appeared to like Midoriya. Two of them, a man with a scar across his face and a man with his hair in a ponytail, were blatantly ignoring him, to the clear distaste of the others.

The man with the cracked face suddenly twitched, glancing at the doorway and looking puzzled when he couldn’t see anything. Shouta’s eyes narrowed.

“Hagakure,” he said, gambling on instinct and the barely visible sock peeking out from the edge of the doorway. “Go back to your room. Now.”

“Sorry, Sensei!”

“And Jirou, stop eavesdropping.”

(One floor above, Jirou retracted her earphone jacks, pale. “How did he know?” she whispered.)

His phone buzzed. There was a message from Nedzu. He read it, then drained his cup.

“Alright everyone,” he said, quietly cursing his life. “Looks like we’re moving to the principal’s office.”

In the main building. On the seventh floor.

Why did he let Nemuri and Hizashi talk him into taking this job again?

Chapter Text

“Well, I think we can all agree that you seem to have had a very interesting morning!” Nedzu said far too cheerfully for the early hour.

“That’s one way to put it,” Midoriya muttered. The white haired man patted his shoulder.

Yagi was silent, still staring at the woman like he’d seen—ugh. No. Shouta wasn’t going there.

“I suppose,” Nedzu continued. “That this situation has something to do with your quirk, Midoriya-kun?”

“With what now?” Shouta asked, bewildered. “What does this have to do with Superpower?”

Nedzu, Midoriya, All Might, and the ‘ghosts’ all somehow managed to share a look. A very specific look that spoke of secrets being kept.

“I believe Aizawa-kun can be trusted,” Nedzu said. “But of course, it is your perogative, Midoriya-kun.”

“M-me? But shouldn’t All Might be the one to…?”

“No, my boy,” All Might said, finally taking his eyes off the woman. “It is your secret now.”

“O-oh. Then I guess...Aizawa-sensei has to know, right?”

“If it’s the fact that Midoriya is your chosen successor, then I’ve pretty much figured it out,” Shouta drawled. “You aren’t very subtle.”

He knew that wasn’t the secret they were referring to, of course, but some of the tension eased from Yagi and Midoriya’s shoulders.

“That’s not it, Aizawa-kun. That is, you are correct, but that isn’t the entire story.”

“Oh?”

Yagi glanced at Midoriya, who nodded, then at the ‘ghosts’. The woman smiled at him.

“Go ahead. We’re dead. It’s not our secret to keep.”

“Then I’ll explain,” Yagi said. “Aizawa-kun...perhaps I should have brought up the idea of telling you earlier, especially after last week.”

“Get on with it then.”

Yagi leaned forward in his chair. The ‘ghosts’ stirred, some coming forward, others remaining to the side. The woman placed her hands on the back of Yagi’s chair. The white haired man stood by Midoriya.

“First,” he began, “I should start with the story of two brothers…”

The story of how One for All came to be was only the tip of the iceberg. Shouta listened as Yagi spoke of his first battle with the Scourge of Kamino, All for One, and how he met Midoriya and chose him as his successor. Midoriya talked about his own experiences with One for All and the unlocked ability to use his predecessors’ quirks. By the time they were done, Shouta had stopped craving coffee and started desperately wishing he had a drink.

“Are you telling me,” he said slowly. “That you’d only had your quirk for less than a month on the first day of class?”

Midoriya nodded. Shouta resisted the urge to sigh.

“You should have told me. I would have worked out a separate training schedule for you, put you into quirk counseling.”

Quirkless for fifteen years. That little fact put many things into perspective. Midoriya’s shyness, his initial inability to control his quirk, and his relationship with Bakugo. Suddenly their relationship didn’t seem like a childhood rivalry gone sour. No, Shouta realized with dawning horror, it was more along the lines of a victim and his bully.

But now wasn’t the time to deal with that. And deal with it he would, along with whatever damage he’d done with his assumptions.

(He’d made them pair up for their final exams. God, no wonder Midoriya had looked petrified.)

“Y-you would?” Midoriya’s eyes were wide with disbelief. “W-wouldn’t you have just expelled me?”

“I would have expelled you that day if you hadn’t shown any potential. But you did. That’s what matters to me, not however long you’ve had a quirk. I would have kept you in even if you were quirkless, as long as you had potential.”

To his horror, Midoriya began tearing up. First, as the white haired man had introduced himself, patted his shoulder and smiled at Shouta.

“Now that Aizawa-kun is caught up, let’s discuss how this happened,” Nedzu said. “Midoriya-kun, any thoughts?”

“Well, it might be the result of a quirk? I went off campus yesterday to buy some things and bumped into a woman near the subway station. My arm felt tingly afterwards, but I brushed it off because, um, it just sort of does that sometimes.”

Shouta twitched at the reminder of the damage his student had done to his own body. Initially, he’d assumed Midoriya hadn’t trained his quirk out of arrogance. Then, as the school year went on and he got to know the Problem Child better, that theory was thrown out. It had been a puzzle he’d pondered over sometimes, when he didn’t have anything else to do. Midoriya didn’t fear using his quirk despite its consequences, so it couldn’t have been that preventing him from practicing. As Midoriya had gotten better control, Shouta had put the situation out of his mind.

But now he knew why. God, no wonder the kid had broken three limbs at the entrance exam.

He and Yagi, Shouta vowed, would need to talk. Not informing Shouta was one thing—he could understand the need to keep One for All a secret. Not properly teaching Midoriya how to use his quirk, however? Unforgivable, especially with a backlash as severe as shattered bones He would have included Nedzu in that statement, but experience had taught him that attempting to confront him about such things would only lead to a meeting filled with smiles. explanations that explained nothing. and too much damn tea.

“Are you certain that that is what caused this to happen?”

Nedzu’s question pulled Shouta out of his thoughts.

“Nothing else really happened yesterday. I’ve been thinking about what else could have triggered this but nothing came to mind. And, um, you guys don’t think this is another aspect of One for All, right?”

“No,” said First.

“Midoriya-kun, what side of the station did you pass by?” Nedzu asked, typing away at his computer.

“Ah, the side facing the cafe. Leblanc.”

“Mhm. And...let’s see, you left campus at six fifteen…ah, this might take a while. In the meantime, would all of you like to offer your perspectives?” He looked at the vestiges. “Did you notice something wrong?”

First and the other vestiges shook their heads.

“I didn’t notice anything wrong,” First said. “Not when he bumped into that woman. We had no clue anything was off until we appeared in his room.”

“I blacked out for a moment,” said the man with a scar on his face. He glanced at the others, who nodded in agreement. “One moment we were in the vault, and the next—outside.”

...Vault? Shouta decided not to ask.

“Eight’s vestige didn’t come with us, though. Probably because he’s alive,” said the bald man.

“Yes,” Yagi coughed. “I can still, ah, sense it within One for All.”

Midoriya looked at him with wide eyes. “You can tell what your vestige is feeling?”

“To a certain extent, yes. And it seems rather...distressed? Anxious.”

The vestiges all made a face. First drummed his fingers on the back of Midoriya’s chair.

“That’s why we need to return as soon as possible. I’ll admit, it’s nice to interact with the world and all, but there are certain things we were keeping at bay in One for All that we can’t do out here.”

“That bastard can’t break out that easily, but it’s still too risky with only Eight there,” the man with the scar agreed.

“‘That bastard?’” Nedzu echoed.

“He means my brother,” First said.

Yagi choked. “A-all for One?”

“He’s in One for All too?” Midoriya asked, panicked.

Unfortunately,” First said. “In the time between acquiring it and forcing it onto me, his vestige was stored in the original stockpile quirk.”

“Don’t worry,” the woman assured Yagi. “We have him under lock and key. That vestige of his can’t overcome our will.”

“But he might be able to if we aren’t actually there,” said the man with the high collar. “None of us want to take that risk.”

“Wh-what will happen if he does break out?” Midoriya asked, anxiously strangling the ends of his jacket.

First frowned. “Hopefully, the most he’d be able to do is speak to you in your dreams, as we did before.”

“The worst case scenario?” Shouta asked.

“He could try to take control of One for All.” The man with the high collar stepped forward. “He tried it with me once, using both his vestige and his physical self to force it from me. The attempt failed of course. With Seven’s vestige helping now, another attempt would likely lead to another failure. That is, if all of us were still within One for All.”

The information was concerning, to say the least. Midoriya and Yagi had gone pale. Shouta glanced at Nedzu, who was frowning deeply.

“I see,” he said slowly. “I’ll have to speak to my contacts at Tartarus. If All for One makes any moves today, I’ll know. And in the meantime, I’ll focus on hunting down that woman Midoriya-kun mentioned.”

Shouta hid a frown of his own in his capture weapon. He had known Nedzu for almost fifteen years now, and had learned many of his tells. The twitch in Nedzu’s nose meant that there was something else the principal was concerned about, but for some reason he had chosen not to voice them. He chose to ignore it for now.

“Aside from that,” he said. “What are we going to do about them?” He nodded his head at the vestiges. “We can’t exactly have a group of ghosts wandering the halls.”

“We could have them stay in one of the break rooms,” Nedzu offered, but First was already shaking his head.

“We have to stay within 120 meters of Nine. If we try to go any further…” he glanced at the scarred man.

“It’s like being jerked back on an invisible leash,” the scarred man said.

First smiled apologetically. “I’m afraid we’ll have to follow Nine around for however long it takes before this is resolved.”

“That is a problem,” Nedzu hummed thoughtfully. “Midoriya-kun, Aizawa-kun, you should think of what you’re going to tell the other students.”

“Quirk accident,” Shouta said. “It’s only logical. The truth is easier to remember than a story. Also, the students have already seen that they—” he jerked his head at the vestiges “—aren’t affected by Erasure. The only reason that would be the case was if they were not the source of the quirk.”

“Very concise.” Nedzu put his paws on the table. “That’s all for now, then. Midoriya-kun, please be sure to inform either Aizawa-kun or Yagi-kun if you start feeling strange.”

Izuku walked back to the dorms with All Might and Aizawa-sensei. The vestiges gave them some space, which he appreciated. He was still reeling from the revelation that a vestige of All for One was hidden somewhere in his quirk, with only All Might’s own vestige there to keep him in check.

“Don’t worry, my boy,” All Might said. “I’m sure Nedzu will figure something out.”

Izuku nodded mutely. What would he do if All for One made a move? What could he do? He didn’t even have a mouth in that strange in-between space One for All brought him to! What would happen if—he felt sick just thinking about it—if All for One could somehow control him through his vestige?

“Problem Child,” Aizawa-sensei said. “Stop thinking so hard. I can hear you panicking.”

“S-sorry Sensei.”

“Yagi’s right. Don’t wear yourself out worrying about it.”

“Okay,” he said, but his mind wouldn’t stop racing.

It was just before seven when they finally arrived at the 1-A dorms. Izuku had hoped his classmates had calmed down after the morning’s events, but to his dismay he saw several of them waiting in the common area, even those who wouldn’t normally be awake at the time. Everyone looked up as Izuku entered.

“Midoriya!” Iida greeted. “Sensei! Have you resolved this morning’s issue?”

Aizawa-sensei sighed. “Not exactly.”

As if on cue, the vestiges came floating in through the walls. First waved to the shocked students.

“These people are under the effect of a quirk. They will be forced to follow Midoriya around until the issue is resolved. Try not to bother them too much about it.”

Ashido raised a hand. “So are they actually ghosts?”

“No,” Aizawa-sensei said flatly.

“Are you sure?” Kaminari asked. “The whole floating through the walls thing seems pretty ghostly.”

“That woman looks kind of familiar, actually,” Uraraka said, frowning. “I swear I’ve seen her somewhere before…”

All Might winced and leaned in, speaking in a low murmur. “Aizawa-kun, perhaps we should—”

Aizawa-sensei glared at him. “If you have a good explanation as to why seven ghosts are haunting Midoriya,” he hissed back, “please feel free to share it. Do you?”

“Er…”

“No? Then they aren’t ghosts. Just people affected by an unfortunate quirk accident. In any case, I’m leaving. Midoriya, you know my number. If anything strange happens, call.”

“I will,” Izuku said.

“Yagi, you’re coming with me.”

“Eh? But Aizawa-kun—”

“We need to talk.” The look on Aizawa-sensei’s face said arguing was pointless.

“Don’t worry, Toshi. We’ll take care of him.” Seven said just before he was forced out the door.

Then they were gone. There was a bit of an awkward silence in which Izuku, the vestiges, and his classmates just sort of stared at each other.

“So like,” Kaminari said, gesturing.“You guys are actually ghosts, right?”

“Gee Kaminari, I thought ghosts didn’t exist,” Ojiro said.

“Shut up, man! That was before I actually saw them, y’know—” Kaminari gestured wildly. “Floating around and going through walls and shit. Also one of them went through me, which is so not a thing I want to experience again.”

Six looked vaguely guilty.

“U-um, I really can’t answer that,” Izuku said. “I-I’d prefer if you didn’t ask me about it!”

“Hmm. That sounds like a conspiracy.”

“Kaminari!” Iida said, chopping his arms. “Aizawa-sensei has requested that we not bother Midoriya or his guests!”

“It’s pronounced ‘ghosts’, Class Prez.”

“I’m gonna go get breakfast,” Izuku said and fled into the kitchen. Iida helpfully blocked the way as his classmates tried to follow.

The kitchen was thankfully empty, save for Kacchan, who was frying bacon. He looked up and scowled.

“Oi, Deku, what was with all the fucking noise this morning? Dunce Face was saying some shit about ghosts.”

“It’s quirk stuff,” Izuku said. Kacchan’s eyes narrowed.

“Same as last week?”

“Kind of? And, um, Aizawa-sensei knows now.”

“Good. Maybe he can help kick some sense into you.”

Izuku could hear his classmates interrogating the vestiges back in the common room. A flicker of movement caught his eyes. First floated in, pausing momentarily when he saw Kaachan. “Ah. You must be Bakugo.”

“And you must be one of the ghost fucks Deku talked to last week.”

“K-kacchan! Don’t call him that!”

“I’ll call him whatever the fuck I want.” Kacchan jabbed the spatula at Izuku. “And you better explain what the hell is happening.”

“W-well, like Aizawa-sensei said, there was a quirk accident.” He rubbed the back of his head. “I bumped into someone who might have used her quirk on me yesterday.”

“If that’s the case, then why didn’t they pop up yesterday?”

“I don’t know.”

Kacchan looked at First, who shrugged. “We don’t know either. We didn’t think anything was wrong until we appeared in his room.”

He snorted. “Fucking useless. How sure are you that whoever you bumped into caused all this?”

“I’m...not,” Izuku admitted. “But I can’t think of any other explanation. I keep searching my memory, but that’s the only moment that really sticks out.”

“Tch. Whatever. So you’re stuck with the nerd, right?” Kacchan asked First.

“Yes. How did you know?”

“It’s obvious. Why else would you come back here if all the extras can see you? Can’t exactly keep Deku locked up either if fixing this shit takes more than a day.”

“You’re very astute.” First tilted his head to the side. “I wouldn’t have minded you as the Tenth, if it didn’t mean abandoning Nine...and if you weren’t so abrasive.”

“Fucking what? The hell does that mean?”

“A-ah…” Izuku flailed. Luckily, he was saved from having to explain the Nabu Island incident to Kacchan when Todoroki came in.

“Midoriya,” Todoroki said in a tone that immediately put him on edge. The last time he’d heard that voice, Izuku had been accused of being All Might’s secret love child.

“Are the ghosts your deceased relatives?”

“I. Uh. Huh?”

“The fuck, IcyHot?”

Todoroki didn’t blink even as Kacchan snarled at him. “Tokoyami said that the veil between the land of the living and the dead is thin today. He thought it was likely that your relatives would have come to visit you.”

First was making strange choking noises in the background, as if he was trying to stop himself from bursting into tears...or laughter.

“Oh,” Todoroki said, looking at the trembling vestige. “I apologize. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“I-it’s f-fine,” First managed, head bowed, hands covering his face. “I’m not u-upset.”

“Are you sure?”

“They’re not related to me!” Izuku cried. “Y-you heard what Aizawa-sensei said, they just got caught up in a weird quirk accident, haha.”

“It’s too simple of an explanation.” Todoroki leveled a flat gaze at Izuku. “Which is why I didn’t believe it. That brings me to my second theory—your quirk is haunted.”

“I—ah?”

“The ghosts keep referring to themselves with numbers. Five, Four, Six, Seven, and so on. I believe this refers to the order in which they died.”

“Well,” First said to himself. “He’s not wrong.”

“First, don’t encourage him!”

Izuku realized his mistake too late. The passive expression on Todoroki’s face had been overtaken by the manic gleam in his eyes.

“It’s possible that you came across their spirits when you were young and they attached themselves to you because of your quirk,” Todoroki continued, emboldened. “Which brings me to Superpower. Originally, you claimed it was a generic strength enhancer—”

“I-it is!”

“But just last week, you produced shadowy tendrils that wreaked havoc on your training area. Those have nothing to do with enhanced strength.”

“U-um, well—”

“I believe that your quirk actually allows you to control energy. It would explain everything.The lightning that appears when you use your super strength, the shadow tendrils, and the ghosts.”

“How does that explain ghosts?”

“You are unconsciously providing them with enough energy to manifest in the physical world.” Todoroki nodded to himself.

“If you’re just here to spout your stupid fucking conspiracy theories, then get out,” Kacchan snapped, whirling around to glare at Todoroki.

Todoroki ignored him and stared right at Izuku. “What do you think?”

“Th-that’s a very interesting theory, Todoroki!” Izuku laughed, hoping it didn’t sound as fake as it felt. It was very interesting, and something Izuku might have come up with himself if he didn’t know about One for All, but for obvious reasons he didn’t want anyone looking any more closely at his quirk. “B-but I wouldn’t know if you were right or not!”

“Don’t just ignore me!” Kacchan snarled, sparking off. Todoroki finally deigned to look at him.

“Kacchan!”

“What, you want him to keep saying that stupid shit Deku?”

“Not that! Well, yes that, but also your bacon is burning!”

Indeed, the pan was smoking.

“What? Fuck!” Kacchan quickly took the pan off the stove, cursing. “Fucking Deku, you and your shitty problems made me fuck up my cooking.”

“Sorry, Kacchan!”

“Don’t ‘sorry’ me.” With a scowl, Kacchan dumped the burnt strips onto a separate platter. “Deal with this shit yourself. I’m leaving.”

Izuku could hear his classmates start bombarding Kacchan with questions, all of which were ignored with angry shouting and a few explosions. Classic Kacchan.

Uraraka came in, followed by Seven and Five.

“You don’t have to keep hiding in here, Deku. Iida convinced everyone to leave you alone for now,” Uraraka said, glancing at First. “I don’t think that’s going to stop them for long, but you can at least get your stuff without getting dogpiled.”

Izuku’s shoulders slumped in relief. “Oh good.” He pulled out his phone and texted Iida a thank you. “I’ll go now.” Maybe if he used Full Cowl and used the stair rail to launch himself...

“Hey, make sure to eat breakfast first,” Seven said, interrupting his thoughts. “It’s the most important meal of the day, you know.”

“She’s right,” First said.

“Not eating is so not cool, N—kid.”

“Hm,” said Todoroki, who had produced a notebook from somewhere. “They appear to care for his well being. One point for the deceased ancestors theory.”

“Todoroki-kun...where did you get that from?” Uraraka asked. “How do you and Deku keep doing that?”

Todoroki was too busy writing in his notebook to respond.

“I can’t go to class without my stuff,” Izuku protested. “Besides, I have plenty of time to get there and back.”

Seven shook her head. “You didn’t see them, kid. Even with that Iida boy getting your classmates to calm down, you’re definitely gonna get mobbed.”

“Six and Four are still stuck answering questions,” Five added. “Well, Six is. I think Four is using Danger Sense to avoid everyone.”

“What happened to Second and Third?”

The three vestiges shared a look.

“They’re sulking,” First said.

“Oh.” It had to be startling to be pulled from One for All so suddenly, Izuku supposed. And with the earlier revelation about All for One, it was no surprise they’d be upset. Though calling it ‘sulking’ might be a bit much.

“I can get your things, Deku.”

“You’d do that? Thanks, Uraraka.”

“No problem!”

She left, and Izuku was left with three ghosts and a still madly scribbling Todoroki.

“Breakfast,” Seven reminded. Izuku nodded.

As he put something together, Todoroki walked up to the vestiges.

“Excuse me,” he said. “Are you secretly the spirits of the long-departed haunting Midoriya’s quirk and, by extention, him because it’s the only way you can interact with the physical world?”

Seven and Five stared at him, then turned to look at First, who held up his hands.

“Don’t look at me. He came up with that on his own.”

“So at least part of it is true,” Todoroki concluded.

“Todoroki, please,” Izuku said. “I woke up almost two hours ago and had to have an hour-long meeting with the principal. I really don’t want to deal with questions and theories right now, and I don’t want you to bother the v—the others.”

He stared hard at Todoroki, hoping to convey the enormity of his exhaustion. After a moment, Todoroki nodded.

“Very well,” he said. “I will keep my observations to myself.”

Izuku supposed that was the best he would get.

The next few minutes passed in blissful silence. Izuku put together an egg sandwich with slightly burnt bacon. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was until he sat down. Izuku picked up the sandwich, stomach growling.

But right before he could take a bite, a voice rang out from the doorway.

“Hey, Midoriya.” Kaminari grinned, shooting finger guns at him.

“...Hi Kaminari.”

“Soooo, I know Aizawa and Iida said not to bother you, but this sorta thing is just way too wild to not talk about.” As he spoke, Kaminari slid into the kitchen, giving the vestiges a wide berth. Izuku tried not to sigh when his classmate sidled up to him. Or when he caughts sight of several people trying and failing to appear as if they weren’t watching them through the doorway.

“Seriously, though. Ghosts. How the hell did that happen, dude?”

“His quirk’s haunted,” Todoroki said, finally looking up from his notebook.

“...What?”

“Quirk’s haunted,” Izuku echoed, then took a bite of his sandwich so he couldn’t answer any follow up questions.

“Huh? What do you mean his quirk is—”

The vestiges suddenly turned to face Kaminari and said, in unison:

“Quirk’s haunted.”

Kaminari froze.

The vestiges continued to stare at him, the faint auras surrounding them suddenly blazing with power. Faintly, Izuku felt a pull on One for All.

Wide-eyed, Kaminari slowly backed out of the kitchen. The moment he and the ones spying at the door had gone, the vestiges turned back to normal.

“Want some coffee, kid?” Seven asked, holding up the pot Aizawa-sensei had brewed earlier.

Izuku swallowed.

“Please.”

Chapter Text

After breakfast, Izuku decided to take a power nap in one of Aizawa-sensei’s stashed sleeping bags. If Sensei hadn’t wanted sleep deprived students to use them, he shouldn’t have hidden them in such obvious places. The students of 1-A, having a Pavlovian reaction to the specific shape and color of those sleeping bags geared towards not waking up whoever was in them upon pain of death, left him alone.

The ring of highly protective ghosts might have had something to do with that too.

Izuku was woken by a poke in the side. He groaned and curled in on himself.

“Up and at ‘em, kid,” Seven said, poking him again. “Un-caterpillar yourself before I toss you in the fountain out back.”

“She will,” First warned. “She did the same thing to Eight, but with a swimming pool.”

Sufficiently threatened, Izuku reluctantly emerged from the warmth and safety of the sleeping bag. Uraraka, who had been anxiously hovering nearby, handed him his backpack. He thanked her and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

“Iida got everyone else to leave already. I think he’s gonna give them a more serious talk about bothering you and your friends.”

Izuku had wondered why the common room was so empty. He pulled on his backpack. “Thanks for waiting for me. Let’s go.”

While First and Seven stayed with Izuku and Uraraka, the other vestiges kept at a distance.

“Been a while since I’ve been to school,” Five said cheerfully. “You think the teachers will let us join in?”

“Let’s try to disrupt N—Midoriya’s life as little as possible,” Four said. “And that means not disturbing his classes.”

A group of General Ed students stopped and stared at the group of strange adults making their way across campus. Five waved. After a moment of hesitation, he got a very confused wave back from a first year. Four frowned at him.

“Or doing that.”

“Oh, come on. I’m just being friendly. We’re going to be around all day, and unless someone figures out how to become invisible, dozens of students are going to see us. Nothing wrong with that—unless Danger Sense is telling you something?” he added, seeing Four’s tense shoulders.

Four shook his head. “No. Technically yes, but it’s only minor things. It’s been powered up the same way Blackwhip has and unlike your quirk, I can’t turn it off.”

“Wait, really? I thought that was a fluke.” Five held his hand up and concentrated briefly. Smoky black tendrils erupted from his fingertips, towering over the two for an instant before he shut off his quirk.

“Oh. Guess not.”

That was as far as he got before he was attacked by the other vestiges.

Shinsou Hitoshi, who had been behind the earlier group of Gen Ed students, squinted at the bald man. He was dressed like a Pro, albiet a Pro Shinsou had never seen before. More importantly, the quirk he had just used looked identical to the one Midoriya had sponteneously manifested last week. He watched as Midoriya himself ran over to the bald man and the other strangers (more Pros?) and begin talking.

Eh. Probably a relative with a similar quirk. Shinsou sighed. Born with a great quirk and Pro hero relatives...some people really did have all the luck.

For some reason, Shinsou felt a chill go down his spine. He shrugged it off and kept going.

At his desk, Todoroki stared down at his theory notebook. He often got hunches, though this one had come out of nowhere and didn’t seem to be based on any evidence. He went to thoughtfully tap his pencil against his chin, missed, and smacked himself in the mouth.

No matter. His intuition had never steered him wrong. He added another point to the ‘Midoriya’s Ghosts are his Relatives’ category, then closed the notebook and continued reassuring Iida that Midoriya and Uraraka wouldn’t be late to class.

There was good news and bad news. The good news: whatever talk Iida had had worked because no one had come up to Izuku and asked more uncomfortable questions about the ghosts. The bad news: his classmates might not have been bothering Izuku about the vestiges, but that didn’t mean they weren’t talking about them.

“How would that even work though?” he overheard Kirishima ask Kaminari. “How does a ghost haunt someone’s quirk? Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say that Midoriya’s the one being haunted?”

“I dunno. That’s just what the ghosts said.”

Izuku bit back a groan and buried his head in his hands. He heard Kacchan snort.

“Shut the hell up, you idiots,” he drawled. “Ghosts aren’t real. Stop yammering about it.”

Kaminari gestured wildly at the vestiges. “Then what are those?”

First snickered. Second and Third shot him twin expressions of deep disappointment.

“Midoriya,” Tokoyami said lowly, leaning forward. “As you may already be aware, I have some experience with the occult. If the spirits following you ever turn hostile, know that Dark Shadow and I will come to your aid.” Dark Shadow, hovering close over Tokoyami like a second skin, nodded.

“I don’t think that will happen, but thanks.” Izuku paused, thinking about All for One’s vestige. “Actually, do you know how to exorcize someone who’s being possessed?”

“My knowledge is more along the lines of invoking spirits or banishing them to the land beyond the veil, but I can consult with my peers.” Tokoyami tilted his head to the side. “Why? Are the spirits attempting to possess you?”

“No, of course not! I wanted to know just in case.”

“In case of what?” Mineta shrieked. He grabbed Izuku’s shoulder and began shaking him. “Midoriya, in case of what? Are they gonna try to possess us?”

“What’s with all the noise?” grumbled a voice before Izuku could answer. Aizawa-sensei shuffled into the classroom, a steaming mug of coffee in his hands. Everyone quickly settled into their seats. He stared balefully at the the back of the room before starting homeroom.

It was a surprisingly normal school day. Izuku didn’t know what Principal Nedzu had told the other teachers, but they all took their impromptu guests in stride. Though definitely distracted by the presence of the vestiges—especially Mineta, who kept glancing back as if expecting an ambush—the rest of the class kept disruptions to a minimum. For their part, the vestiges seemed content, if a bit bored, to keep watch from the back of the classroom.

Things got strange in history class. While taking notes on Yamamoto-sensei’s lecture, Izuku suddenly felt angry. Not the brief flash of anger you feel when your earphones get yanked out after the cord catches on something or when your pencil tip breaks off right after you sharpen it, but the sort of anger that burns and boils and simmers under your skin for years and years and years. A mixture of contempt and fury he had never felt before.

The feeling vanished after a few seconds, leaving Izuku shaken. For the rest of class, he was on alert. It didn’t happen again.

When lunch came, he hung back in the classroom, waving his friends on when they stopped at the door.

“I’ll catch up with you later. I need to talk to them about something.” He indicated the vestiges.

Uraraka hesitated, but eventually nodded. “Okay Deku. See you later.”

Iida loudly declared that he would save Izuku a seat. Todoroki stared hard at him before silently coming to some conclusion and leaving.

Once the classroom was empty of everyone else, the vestiges came forward.

“Is something wrong, Nine?” First asked.

“Not really wrong, but weird. You know how you could feel my emotions even while you were inside One for All? I think the same thing is happening in reverse.” Izuku rubbed the back of his neck. “During history class, when Yamamoto-sensei was talking about the first Quirk Rebellion, I suddenly felt really angry for no reason. The feeling went away after a few seconds.”

“How angry?” First asked.

“Really angry.” Izuku paused. “I wanted to get up and punch Sensei in the face.”

“It must be one of you three, then,” Six said. “You’re the only ones who would have enough cause to feel so strongly about it.”

“I don’t think it was me.” First frowned to himself. “I was upset about all the whitewashing, but not that upset.”

“Then…” Seven glanced at the back of the classroom, where Second and Third were still facing the wall. “Second? Third? Either of you want to weigh in?”

Third turned his head. “It was probably me.”

Seven waited, but he didn’t elaborate.

“We need to bring this up to Eight and Eraserhead,” Six said in the wake of the silence that followed. “And tell us whenever that happens again, Nine, no matter what. Your emotions are being affected here. Let’s not take any risks, especially with him in the equation.”

A chill went down Izuku’s spine at the reminder.

“I can tell Toshi,” Seven said. “I need to have a chat with him anyways.”

“Then I’ll speak to Eraserhead,” Four said. “Was that all, Nine?”

Izuku hesitated, then shook his head. “Is it just me or have you guys gotten less…ghosty?”

The change had been gradual, so gradual that Izuku hadn’t noticed at all until he compared the result to his memories of this morning. The glow around the vestiges had vanished. He’d thought the reason was increased light—the faint glow they’d had at first faded under a more powerful source—but if that was the case, he should still be able to see a faint trace of color over their skin. He couldn’t.

That wasn’t the only difference. The flickering effect that happened every time one of the vestiges moved had also diminished. You could still see it if you tried—a brief blink-and-you-miss-it moment where the edges of their bodies fuzzed out. Nearly invisible if you weren’t looking for it.

Izuku outlined his observations, leading the vestiges to stare contemplatively at each other.

Four waved his hand through the air and frowned. “You’re right.”

“Another thing to report,” Six said. “Has anyone else noticed anything concerning?”

There was a quiet wave of dissent.

“Meeting adjourned, then.” First put a hand on Izuku’s shoulder. “Let’s get you some lunch.”

He was smiling, but the faint furrow between his brows betrayed his concern.

By the time Izuku had finished getting his food, Uraraka, Iida, and Todoroki were already seated at their usual table. For some reason, there was also a large pile of salt packets in the center. Todoroki slid the pile over to Izuku the moment he sat down.

“Here,” he said, staring Izuku dead in the eyes.

“Um.” Izuku blinked at the pile and picked one up to see if there was anything special about it. Nope. Just regular salt. “Thank you?”

“I overheard your conversation with Tokoyami and did some research. If you are concerned that one of your relatives may try to possess you, these should help.”

Izuku waited. Todoroki did not explain how packets of salt would help prevent possession.

“They aren’t my relatives. And that question was really just out of curi—”

All for One.

“...Nevermind. Thanks.” He put a handful of packets into his pockets, to First’s visible amusement.

Todoroki gave him a serious nod, then returned to his soba.

Uraraka looked around. “So…where’s everyone else? There’s only three of you here.”

“Second and Third are…elsewhere,” First said. “Four’s talking to Eraserhead and Seven went to speak with All Might.”

Iida raised a hand, glasses glinting. “Is it alright for them to be so far away from Midoriya? I don’t know the specifics of the quirk accident you were affected by, but it seemed as if Aizawa-sensei wanted you all to stay together.”

“It’s fine, as long as we don’t leave the building.”

“I see! Will they return later?”

“Seven’s talk will probably take the whole lunch period. Second and Third are not likely to appear. Four doesn’t like large crowds, so he’ll probably stay in the teacher’s lounge even after he’s finished.”

“Four…that’s the one with the long scars on his face?” Uraraka asked, tracing a line on her face where Four’s scar would be. “That must suck, suddenly having to stay in a huge school like this.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it!” Five said. “It’s not the people he has a problem with, it’s the fact that they set off his super anxiety.”

“That sounds as if he has a problem with people,” Iida said slowly.

“Nah, the super anxiety’s just his quirk.”

This only confused him further.

“Super anxiety…” Todoroki pulled out his notebook and scribbled something down. “Midoriya can be very anxious at times,” he muttered to himself. “Could it be genetic?”

“I don’t think that’s how genetics work, Todoroki,” Uraraka said.

They were interrupted by a familiar and very unwelcome voice.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t class 1-A!”

Monoma swaggered up to the table, grin set firmly into place. “Oh? What’s this? Has 1-A fallen so low as to require a group of babysitters?”

Five squinted at him. Why did this random kid seem so familiar?

“They are not babysitters,” Iida said. “This is a temporary arrangement due to an unfortunate incident.”

“An incident? My, my, it seems 1-A can’t even go a week without getting into more trouble.”

Oh, now he remembered! “You’re the blond from that training gig! I was wondering why you looked so familar.” Five gave Momona a double thumbs up. “Thanks, kid. You helped me win the bet.”

Monoma paused, the smile fading from his face. “The bet?”

“A bet? What bet?” Izuku asked, suspicious.

“The one about which you-know-what would show—”

Six jabbed Five in the side. His face wasn’t visible beneath the high collar, but by the look in his eyes, it was clear he was scowling. First jumped in front of them.

“Nothing! There was no bet. You didn’t hear anything.” He waved a hand in front of Izuku’s face. “These are not the droids you are looking for.”

Izuku stared blankly at him. First held the pose for a few more seconds, then slumped. “Kids these days are so uncultured.”

Monoma’s grin returned. “Ha ha! Yes! You 1-A fools are so uncultured, even your babysitters acknowledge it. It’s just like you braggarts to be so ignorant of the world around you, even as you place yourself above the rest of the masses!”

“So you know what he meant by that?” Izuku asked curiously.

“Ha ha! No!”

“This kid’s hilarious,” Five said. “Can we keep him?”

“I’m glad you think so highly of me,” Monoma said, smirking. “Unfortunately, I have no intention nor the desire to join the ranks of 1-A’s pompous, showboating—”

“Monoma!”

Kendo marched over with all the intensity of a guided missile. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Monoma turned, hands held up in surrender. A bead of sweat dripped down his forehead as he hastily backed away. “I was merely questioning 1-A on their newly acquired babysitters, that’s all. Don’t tell me you aren’t interested either.”

“That’s their business, not ours. How many times have I told you to leave their class alone!”

“I was only curious!” Monoma protested, gesturing. “What, you think it isn’t odd that their class is suddenly being followed around by a group of adults? That Midoriya in particular is being coddled?”

“I’m not—”

“Frankly, I’m surprised this hasn’t happened sooner. Remember last week? It’s nearly the end of the second semester and certain people still haven’t gotten control of their quirks. It really is—”

Six had been getting closer during Monoma’s rant, hoping to talk—or shake—some sense into him. Unfortunately, one of Monoma’s gestures went wide, going straight through Six before he could turn off his intangibility. There was a coincidental lull in the cafeteria’s background noise just as he did so, creating a sudden hushed silence.

Six blinked at the hand in his sternum. Monoma stared at his phased hand. Kendo stared. Izuku put his head in his hands.

Monoma slowly withdrew his now-numb hand, eyes wide. “I…apologize.”

“It’s fine,” Six said diplomatically.

“Ah. Well. Ahem.” Monoma cleared his throat. “That is a very interesting quirk you have there. Rather similar to one of the third years, if I…recall…correctly…” As he spoke, Monoma began to look more and more puzzled, staring at his hand as if it had betrayed him. “That’s odd. Why haven’t I—”

“It’s not his quirk.” Todoroki said. “He’s just a ghost. I don’t know what his actual quirk is.”

“He’s a what? What nonsense are you—” Monoma puffed up, clearly gearing up for another rant. Then Kendo chopped the side of his neck. He dropped like a sack of potatoes.

Kendo caught him before he could hit the ground. “Sorry about him,” she said. “We’ll get out of your hair now.” She dragged him away.

The interaction however, had not gone unnoticed. Everyone sitting in the tables nearby began whispering to each other. The word ‘ghost’ kept being repeated. Izuku groaned into his arms.

“Look on the bright side,” Uraraka said. “He’s gone now.” She poked Izuku with the ends of her chopsticks. “Your katsudon’s going to get cold if you don’t eat it.”

Meanwhile, Five sighed. “We’re not doing a very good job of being inconspicuous, are we?”

Six rolled his eyes. “Do you even have to ask? This situation has been doomed to disaster from the very beginning.”

“There’s one good thing that’s come out of this,” First countered. He looked off to the side, following the connection to his Eighth and Seventh. Six and Five followed his gaze.

“I hope their talk is going well.”

Toshinori gripped his cup like a lifeline. His hands trembled, causing the tea inside to slosh dangerously close to the lip. Across from him, Nana smiled.

“Careful, Toshi,” she chided. “You’re going to burn yourself.”

He set the cup down. His mouth was dry. The pain of his master’s death hadn’t lessened in the thirty-five or so years since he’d lost her. Now she was marvelously, miraculously here, not quite alive and yet not quite dead. There were so many things he wished to say to her, so many questions he wanted to ask. Had she been watching over him all this time? Was she proud of him?

But first, above all, there was one thing he had to do. Swallowing. he rose smoothly from the couch and fell to his knees.

“Toshi?” Nana asked, startled. He lowered his body into a proper dogeza.

“Master,” he said to the floor. “I am so sorry. I harmed your grandson with the very power you gave to me. I failed him when he needed me most.”

There was silence. Then, footsteps coming around the table. Hands touched his shoulders and gently pulled him up until he was looking at her. Nana slapped him.

He reeled back with the force of the blow. The grip on his shoulders tightened.

“Do not,” Nana said fiercely, “apologize. Toshinori, listen to me. He is a villain. When you hurt him, he was a villain that was actively threatening your students. I would have done the same exact thing if I was there and I knew who he was. You did nothing wrong.”

Toshinori stared at her, mouth open. “Bu—but—”

She covered his mouth. Her gaze softened.

“There would have been time for talking later. Rehabilitation. But at that time, in that moment, you did nothing wrong. You did what you had to do for your students, and that’s okay.”

“I—I still should have—”

“You should have what? Recognized someone whom you’ve never met before? No, Toshi. The blame for this mess rests with All for One.” Nana sighed. “What’s done is done. All we can do now is our best.”

She pulled him up until they were both standing.

“Chin up, Toshi.” As she spoke, Nana gently chucked him under the chin, having to stretch up to do so. “Don’t let him win.”

“But still…” Toshinori struggled for the words. “Master, your son…”

Nana’s eyes grew dark. He instantly regretted bringing up Kotaro. Still, she continued.

“Toshi, don’t blame yourself for him either. You were only doing what I asked you to. I can only hope he was happy up until then.”

They stood in silence for a moment, Toshinori with his failures weighing down him down and Nana with the consequences of her actions haunting her gaze.

“You understand what I’m saying, don’t you?” she asked.

Toshinori swallowed. “Ye-yes. I do.”

Really, truly, he understood that she didn’t blame him. That alone lifted some of the weight from his shoulders. Even so, he couldn’t help but think: what if? What if, in those moments of weakness in which he would type Shimura, Kotaro into search bars and spend hours trawling government databases until his guilt made him stop, he had kept looking? What if he had found Kotaro Shimura, made contact with him before All for One had destroyed his family with the same calculated cruelty in which he did everything? What if he had been able to find Tenko Shimira before he had become twisted into Tomura Shigaraki?

So many possibilities. So many choices he could have made. He acknowledged his master’s words and yet—

“Toshi?”

“Yes,” he said again. “I understand.”

“I want you to say it. Say ‘it isn’t my fault that Tenko is a villain.’” Her gaze brooked no argument.

He awkwardly cleared his throat. “It—it isn’t my fault that Tenko is a villain,” he repeated.

“And hurting him in order to protect others was okay.”

“And hurting him to protect others…was okay.”

“Good. Now sit down and drink your tea.”

He sat and picked up the cooling cup of tea. Raised it to his mouth and took a single sip.

Ah. Perhaps not as cool as he’d thought. He swallowed a burning mouthful and covered his discomfort with a cough. Nana had her own cup, which he’d poured for her before realizing that she could not, in fact, drink anything. She had still appreciated the gesture.

Nana tapped her index finger on the table, a habit she’d picked up from Torino, used mainly when she was thinking.

“There’s been some development with our situation,” she said. “Nine is starting to get flashes of our emotions. The same way we get his, I think.” She briefly explained the incident in young Midoriya’s class.

Toshinori frowned. “Ah. Is that—will that be an issue?”

She shook her head. “Hopefully not. Our main concern, of course, is whether the same rule applies to the other vestiges. Particularly—his.”

Blood and bile rose in his throat. Toshinori choked it down temporarily while his cup returned to the table and he grabbed his handkerchief. He coughed into it a few times before speaking.

“You mean…All for One could influence young Midoriya?” He was pleasantly surprised at how steady his voice sounded.

“We don’t know how much influence the vestige has. It likely won’t affect him as long as it’s locked up, and even then I don’t know if it can affect him in that way or if it’s reserved for those of us who’ve been ejected from One for All. All we can really do is keep an eye on him and wait.” Nana looked just as happy about this course of action as Toshinori, which was to say not at all.

“Has someone gone to inform Aizawa-kun of this?”

“Four’s speaking to him now. That’s not all we found out either.” Nana explained Midoriya’s observations.

“I did think you seemed more present,” Toshinori admitted, “but this doesn’t seem like a huge cause for concern.”

“I don’t think so either. It’s just something else to keep an eye on.” Her eyes sparkled playfully as she smiled at Toshinori. “Now, speaking of Midoriya…how have you found becoming a mentor yourself? I managed to catch a few glimpses while you were using One for All, but I didn’t get to see most of the training process. Now come on, spill. He was such a scrawny little weed when you saved him from that slime villain. ”

Toshinori’s chest warmed. He beamed back at her and began to tell his master all about young Midoriya’s early training.

In the cafeteria, Izuku sneezed.