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AFM 11
🕑 Added 2024-10-23 18:36:04 +0000 UTCChapter 11 : The Gift.
All Might
All Might stood on the sidelines, his towering frame casting a long shadow over the students still discussing the final battle trial. His sharp eyes couldn't help but linger on Midoriya Izuku—the boy he wishes to be his successor. All Might had observed Izuku during the trial, noting the boy’s helpful nature and his exemplary performance. What surprised him most was Izuku’s quirk analysis—his predictions about the various battles and insightful comments, that could only come from someone with real combat experience.
The boy had progressed so much in such a short time, from the skinny, quirkless kid All Might met all those years ago. Now, All Might could honestly say that only his own mentor, Nana Shimura, and All For One had influenced his life as profoundly as Izuku Midoriya. Normally, thinking about Midoriya and his indirect influence on the "Might " movement brought All Might joy. He never would have thought such a movement was necessary, and now even Yagi Toshinori could be a hero around the clock. Usually, All Might had only positive thoughts about Izuku Midoriya.But today... today was different.
Izuku was watching him, but not in the usual way a hero fanboy admired the Number One Hero. All Might never expected Izuku to see him as the Number One Hero again after everything. But what truly surprised him were Izuku’s eyes—those emerald eyes, once filled with awe and determination, now held something else. There was still awe on Izuku’s face, just like his classmates', but All Might’s decades of experience could tell it was a mask. A mask not unlike the one he wore whenever he stepped out as All Might. For All Might, it was a smile that reassured others that everything would be fine, but for Izuku... All Might wondered what he was hiding.
Still, All Might was determined to observe him and at least make the offer. He glanced at his watch as the class ended, realizing his time was running out. Not wanting to waste a moment, he decided to make a dramatic exit.
"Heroes! Now that your class has ended, let me show you how a hero leaves after his work is done!" All Might’s voice boomed as he ran out of the classroom.
As he reached the exit, he glanced back and nearly lost his balance when he realized that Izuku’s eyes had been following him the entire time, long before the others noticed he was gone. More than the shock of Izuku keeping up with him at quarter speed, it was the look in his unmasked eyes that truly shook All Might.
There was a simmering anger, a bitterness that All Might had never seen before. For a fleeting moment, the expression on Izuku’s face sent a shiver down his spine.
That expression. Hatred? No, it couldn't be. Not from Izuku Midoriya.And yet, the boy's glare was unmistakable. All Might had faced countless villains, stared into the eyes of madness, rage, and cruelty—but never had he expected to see even a shadow of those emotions reflected in the gaze of his chosen protégé.
Izuku quickly looked away, trying to hide whatever dark thoughts had surfaced in his mind, but the damage was done.
END
Later that evening, All Might found himself standing in the office of Principal Nezu.
“I’m worried about Young Midoriya,” All Might admitted, his voice tinged with concern. “I’ve never seen him like this before. There was anger in his eyes, a resentment that... I never thought I’d see in him.”Nezu, the intelligent, ever-calm, mouse-like principal, nodded thoughtfully as he sipped his tea. “Midoriya has always had a deep emotional connection to you, All Might. You were his symbol of peace. But symbols... they can fracture, especially when reality doesn't align with the image. As I warned you earlier, Izuku Midoriya is an enigma, and I suspect he may have other motives for joining the hero course.”
All might sighed in defeat as his own hopes of a immediate successor crumbled slowly.
All Might sighed, feeling his hopes of an immediate successor slowly crumbling. “I observed him today. His helpful nature is still there, but... I couldn’t stop wondering, what if? His quirk is so similar to mine, and no one would question the increase in power. His eyes kept up with me, even at quarter speed,” All Might confessed to Nezu.
Nezu regarded him with his beady eyes. “That is remarkable. Boost is registered as a Class 3 quirk, but I suspect he’s trained it enough to improve it to Class 4, maybe even higher, to follow you at that speed. Or perhaps, as I suspect, his mental abilities have also been enhanced to predict your movements and follow your exit. But, All Might, you know as well as I do—someone with Izuku’s mindset should never wield that much power. And more than that, your own history with him is... complicated.”
All Might nodded, but his heart remained heavy.
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USJ Day.
Izuku’s mind raced as he boarded the bus with his classmates, heading toward the Unforeseen Simulation Joint (USJ). His instincts had been screaming for days that something was off, and now, with each mile away from the main campus, his anxiety grew. For a month, he had been aware that Tomura Shigaraki was plotting something big, something aimed at All Might and UA. Despite his best efforts to uncover the details, the specifics of Tomura’s plan had been elusive, even with Izuku’s enhanced intelligence quirks.
Thanks to Giran’s underworld contacts, Izuku had learned that Tomura had gathered 150 low-level villains as disposable pawns, but there were gaps in his information. With his combined Mind Boost quirk—an amalgam of several mental and enhancing quirks—Izuku had tried to piece together the puzzle. Yet, it wasn't until now, on the bus, that the final piece fell into place. The class was being taken away from UA, away from its defenses, and the attack was going to happen here, at the USJ.
Even with limited information, Izuku could now see Tomura’s plan. Kurogiri, with his warp quirk, would be the game changer. From his own All Might news watch, he knew All Might had been kept busy the entire morning by low-level thugs. The strategy was clear: overwhelm the professors and students with 150 low-tier villains, then kill him and All Might using Kurogiri and whatever monstrous Nomu the insane doctor had created.
Luckily, Izuku hadn’t taken any new quirks for a month and had already adapted to the last one he absorbed. At least this way, he could get a good quirk if possible. He kept his thoughts to himself, though every instinct screamed that danger was on the horizon. He knew his father would have ordered Tomura not to expose his cover or to let him get killed. But Izuku also knew that there was a twisted malice in Tomura—an obsession that defied reason. Tomura hated him simply because he was All For One’s biological son, and Izuku knew someone like that wouldn’t sit idly by after being thwarted time and time again in his attempts to dust him.
Izuku prepared his mind for the coming battle while his classmates continued chatting. As they entered the USJ, they saw Thirteen in her costume. Izuku’s eyes darted around the massive dome, scanning for any signs of danger. But nothing seemed out of place—not yet, anyway. Izuku activated his Mental and Physical Boost quirk, an amalgamation of several synergistic quirks he had combined using All For Me. This let him bypass his limit of five quirks at a time. Using his enhanced senses and quirk detection, he scanned the area, but the USJ was so large that he couldn’t sense the thugs who must have already been deployed after the first power surge in the dome when they entered.
Then it happened…
A dark, swirling portal opened at the center of the USJ. Black mist spiraled outward, and from the depths of the void stepped Kurogiri, followed by Tomura Shigaraki. But they weren’t alone. Behind them, an army of villains poured through the portal, their eyes gleaming with malicious intent. Finally, a monstrous Nomu, larger than All Might, appeared, and Izuku almost salivated at the sight.
All For Me buzzed inside Izuku, reacting to the Nomu's powerful quirks. He could sense the incredible quirks: super regeneration, shock absorption, super strength, and super speed. While each was impressive, Izuku’s focus was entirely on the super regeneration. His own Cell Activation quirk he combined with Physical Boost was a remarkable Quirks, allowing him to heal injuries at a rapid pace. However, it came with limitations—he had to activate it consciously, and the toll it took on his body was immense. Every time he used it, his stamina reserves plummeted, leaving him vulnerable.
Cell Activation was far from perfect, despite its impressive ability to adapt to the damage it healed over and above every evolved human body has. In fact, its true strength lay in the adaptation process itself—after healing, his body didn’t just return to its prior state; it became more resilient, more capable. Over time, it would make him a walking powerhouse of evolved muscle and nerve tissue. But the drawback was glaring. Every use sapped his energy to dangerous levels, and while he had combined quirks like Stamina and Energy Stockpiling with Physical Boost to push himself beyond the limits of even quirked humans, even that wasn’t enough. A serious injury—broken bones, deep cuts—could still knock him unconscious from the sheer strain.
As the Nomu settled, Izuku exchanged his Minor Adaptation quirk with one of Tomura’s and no one was the wiser. Tomura was distracted, and Izuku could feel several worthy quirks among the thirty cannon fodder villains gathered in the center of the USJ.
“Villains!” Aizawa shouted, leaping into action as his capture weapon lashed out. “Everyone, get back!”
Izuku remained calm, keeping one eye on Aizawa, who was quickly subduing the low-tier villains. He followed his classmates, running behind Thirteen. But then, another dark, swirling portal opened right in their path, and Kurogiri appeared from the vortex.
"Greetings, heroes," Kurogiri announced in his eerily calm voice. "We are the League of Villains, and we are here to kill All Might."
Izuku could feel Kurogiri’s eyes on him through the smoky form. Internally, he scoffed, while his classmates shouted in shock and denial at the declaration.
Bakugo was the first to make a move. Izuku had to admit, Bakugo’s explosion quirk was powerful, and he had a high battle IQ. Though Bakugo couldn’t see Kurogiri’s neck brace, a weak point, his blast almost hit it. But Kurogiri was prepared, effortlessly redirecting the attack.
"I see, you are the golden students," Kurogiri snapped, exploding outward with his mist. Izuku, preparing to dodge the mass attack, suddenly felt the ground beneath him open up—a portal. Kurogiri had specifically targeted him, otherwise, he could’ve dodged the dispersal attempt.
Izuku passed through the portal and immediately used All For Me to sense his surroundings. He felt Tomura’s decay and the four heavy quirk signatures of the Nomu below him. He had been dropped at the center of the USJ, right above the Nomu. Cursing Kurogiri, Izuku saw Tomura grinning up at him, having sensed his presence.
Aizawa was still battling the low-tier villains, using his Erasure Quirk effectively. All For Me buzzed inside Izuku as soon as the Nomu entered his quirk range, and Izuku unleashed it, aiming for the super regeneration quirk. He had seen many ugly quirks in Nomus before, but this one was different—there was a precision in the way it had been designed, a clear mark of his father’s handiwork. He tugged at the quirk, feeling a green light echo in his senses, the quirk eagerly transferring to him.
“Midoriya!” Aizawa yelled, finally noticing Izuku falling from the air. The shout snapped Izuku out of the high of acquiring the quirk. His expression hardened. Whatever happened, the Nomu wouldn’t be returning to his father. Super regeneration was far too valuable a gift to give up.
Izuku’s Mental Boost kicked into overdrive, generating and discarding plans rapidly. He could destroy the Nomu himself with his combined fire quirk, but that would reveal too much.
“Brat! Finally, I got my hands on you!” Tomura sneered, reaching up to grab Izuku as he fell.
Izuku smirked for a brief moment, then stole Decay from Tomura just before crashing into him.
“No!” Tomura screamed, his voice cut off by a groan as the impact sent them both rolling across the ground. Izuku grunted as his enhanced healing from Physical Boost and super regeneration worked together to mend his broken bones from the fall. By the time they stopped rolling, he was fully healed.
Izuku jumped back just as Tomura, with a crazed look in his eyes, staggered to his feet. That look always came when Izuku had stolen a quirk to protect himself. This time, Izuku had returned Decay just as he moved, widening the distance between them in a matter of seconds.
“Midoriya,” Aizawa, having dealt with almost all the mooks, yelled as he sprinted toward both of them, but Tomura dodged Eraserhead's binding cloth and snarled in fury.
"You’re becoming a nuisance, Eraserhead!" Tomura shouted, lunging at him.
Izuku was impressed that Aizawa could keep up with Tomura’s enhanced speed, but for all his insanity, Tomura had hunting instincts that kicked in when he saw an opening. The moment Aizawa's quirk faltered, Tomura's elbow connected with him, and the decay spread like wildfire, eating through his arm.
Izuku, knowing what was about to happen, didn't hesitate. He moved in a blur, reaching the pair just in time to clock Tomura in the face, sending him flying meters away, landing him near the Nomu.
Enraged, Tomura scrambled to his feet. "That's it, brat! Nomu, kill this brat and Eraserhead!"
The Nomu stepped forward, grotesque and massive, its black skin rippling with muscle. Even with Izuku’s enhanced perception, the creature was a blur, its speed staggering. Izuku’s Mind Boost allowed him to raise his hands just in time to defend himself, but only halfway. The Nomu's first blow glanced off Izuku’s hands and slammed into his stomach like a freight train, sending him flying backward. His body hit the fountain in the middle of the USJ, the impact shattering the stone and sending water spraying everywhere.
Izuku groaned in pain, his ribs shattered, his hands bruised from the failed block. But he could already feel the super regeneration quirk working, knitting together his broken bones. He activated the Cell Activation aspect of his Physical Boost quirk, using the injuries to further enhance his body as it healed. Even in the midst of recovery, he rolled to the side just as the Nomu crashed into the fountain, splintering it further.
Pushing his muscles beyond their limits, Izuku tore through his own body to increase his speed, narrowly dodging the Nomu's next attack. Knowing that staying grounded would only expose his abilities, Izuku leapt into the air. His Boost, along with the effort of pushing his body past its limits, carried him upwards, at least 50 meters high. The Nomu, undeterred, followed, leaping after him with monstrous strength.
Izuku quickly activated Pull, halting his upward momentum and sending him plummeting back toward the ground. The Nomu, lacking such an ability, continued to soar skyward, giving Izuku precious time.
Eraserhead who couldn’t dodge the Nomu’s attack was lying in his blood, was protecting Uraraka, Asui, and Kaminari, who had just arrived from the lake zone.
"Hey, you dry-skinned ugly ball sack!" Izuku shouted, hoping to distract Tomura from the students as he saw Eraserhead fading fast and the students couldn’t power through the sheer killing intent of Tomura, "Your Nomu’s defeated. Now come get what’s coming to you!"
Tomura’s eyes widened in shock. There was no Nomu in sight, and the brat was still standing.
"Impossible!" Tomura yelled, panic creeping into his voice. "Nomu! Where the hell are you?"
High above, the Nomu heard its master's call. It punched the air, changing its trajectory mid-flight and rocketing toward the ground.
Izuku’s enhanced senses and quirk sense alerted him to the Nomu's rapid descent. But before he could react, a villain the size of All Might caught him from behind, locking him in a bear hug.
"Got you now, little bitch," the villain sneered, tightening his hold around Izuku’s waist. He had enhanced strength, but Izuku could sense that his quirk was durability. The villain tried to lift Izuku off the ground, but his enhanced leg strength prevented it.
"Let the monster be the hammer, and I’ll be the anvil," the villain taunted.
Izuku could have easily broken free, but this was a golden opportunity to steal another useful quirk. His mind raced, calculating the perfect timing for his next move. He pretended to struggle, prying at the villain’s arms to sell the illusion to Tomura and his classmates. Tomura’s savage grin spread wider, and panic flashed across Uraraka, Asui, and Kaminari’s faces as they realized the Nomu was bearing down on Izuku.
When the Nomu was just 20 meters away, Izuku acted swiftly. With a calculated move, he lunged backward, using all his weight to throw the villain off balance. In an instant, both of his legs moved so quickly that they became a blur, raised high enough to be nearly perpendicular to the ground. Then, with a burst of enhanced strength, Izuku swung them down in a powerful arc. His legs traveled downward with ferocious force, and at the same time, he pushed his upper body forward, leveraging the momentum of his legs. Izuku’s leg passed through the villain's widespread stance as he held Izuku.
The villain, caught completely off guard by the sudden maneuver, lost his balance. The sheer speed and force of Izuku's movement sent them both into a somersault in mid-air. The two of them rotated, the villain still clutching Izuku around the stomach for dear life.
Izuku had already taken the villain's quirk and activated it, causing the villain to lose his footing. They continued to rotate in the air, and the timing was perfect; the Nomu's punch landed on the villain's back, just as Izuku had planned, with the villain's back turned toward the Nomu.
However, then things did not go according to Izuku's plan. He felt the punch on his spine through the villain and heard the Villan’s bones crumbling, flesh smearing, and a grunt from the villain before his heartbeat stopped. Only the additional durability quirk prevented Izuku’s spine from breaking under the Nomu's punch. In the next second, after the punch, they accelerated drastically toward the stairs from the entrance dorr, while still rotating in the air. Even with his enhanced mind and body, everything was a blur, and only luck made the villain hit the hard cement first, cushioning the landing. Dust and broken cement parts sprayed everywhere as Izuku felt pain all over his body.
Even then, Izuku felt bones breaking as he was sprayed with the blood and gore of the villain, who was now a smear on the broken stairs. Izuku's breathing quickened as he lay entangled with the broken body parts; for the first time in his life, he was bathed in the blood and internal organs of a human. Even before disgust and pain settled in, the parallel processing aspect of his Mental Boost quirk lost control, and the pain of taking two quirks at the same time hit his head like a freight train.
Izuku could take two new quirks simultaneously by now, but using them at the same time was another challenge entirely. He immediately deactivated the durability quirk and activated Cell Activation, even though super regeneration had already started knitting his broken body back together. He tried to focus the Cell Activation primarily on his brain to reduce the migraine and harmful effects of using both quirks simultaneously, though he had no clue whether it would be effective or not.
Luckily, the dust and blood splattered outside the area created by the dust made the Nomu think Izuku had been killed. Izuku used his quirk sense to determine whether the Nomu was coming to attack and felt its presence near Tomura’s decay. He sensed his stored stamina already drained and Cell Activation consuming his natural stamina, which was quite high considering all the workouts he had done over the years.
Knowing he needed stamina and needed to use Kinetic Absorption to gather it, he understood he needed movement. He crawled out of the crater, wiping blood from his face while trying not to make any sound. Uraraka and Asui had already retrieved Eraserhead and ran away by that time, and Izuku saw Tomura and Kurogiri arguing over something. Kurogiri’s eyes landed on him, and their argument immediately stopped. Alarmed, Tomura looked back and saw the blood-covered Izuku.
“Hell, yeah. Now I got to kill you myself, you brat.” Tomura lunged toward him, and suddenly there was a loud bang as All Might entered the USJ by punching the door open.
He was not smiling, and his next step was to save the students in harm's way, starting with young Midoriya. The boy was covered in blood and gore, and only his years of experience allowed him to keep his composure.
Even Izuku couldn’t see All Might due to his speed as he was held by the villain, but he arrived near Uraraka and Eraserhead. In addition to young Midoriya, he also gathered the other students near the front and pulled them back to the doorway in large groups. Less than five seconds after he arrived, Aizawa, Thirteen, and the students were safe, and All Might stood in front of them, ready to protect them with all his strength. That also meant he had to protect their spirits.
“Worry not, my students, for I am here!” Several of the students had not even realized he was in the building before he whisked them all away from danger.
Tomura snapped in anger, “Nomu! Kill All Might!” The bird-faced villain leapt forward, his speed rivaling All Might's. With the warning provided by the order from below, All Might was able to catch the massive fist of the villain and quickly found that its strength was also comparable to his own.
There was a blur of punches, and Izuku could finally see the Shock Absorption in action. Even as All Might gradually increased his strength, he could see the quirk keeping up with any blunt attacks, and Izuku was tempted to acquire that quirk too, even considering the heavy risk of brain damage. Finding a quirk that could withstand All Might-level punches was not easy. Izuku contemplated his own stamina, as even now, both super regeneration and Cell Activation worked overtime to heal his broken body.
As All Might's punch frequency increased, Izuku could see that All Might was trying to overpower the Shock Absorption quirk. Izuku decided to gamble; he wanted the Shock Absorption quirk as well. Just as All Might prepared the USA Smash, Izuku took the Shock Absorption quirk using All For Me. The punch landed, and without the quirk, the Nomu flew upward through the dome at blistering speed. Even All Might lost his balance, as he didn’t feel the expected resistance of the absorption quirk.
A second later, Izuku collapsed to the ground, his body trembling. He had taken on too much—too many quirks, too much strain. Blood poured from his eyes and nose, his mind barely holding on. With his last conscious thought, Izuku concentrated all of Cell Activation on his brain before he fell to the ground.
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Authors note: that was bitch to complete, but I finally did… Izuku’s UA arc will be skipped a lot and only major events are shown.. you can expect a quirk diary sort of chapter in nov/dec and yes after major thought, I also made izuku take Shock Absorbion too. Initial plan was regeneration only, but I want a strong Izuku who actually uses his intelligence and All For Me to become powerful.
Poor classmates they are traumatized seeing Izuku covered in blood and intestines.
