My Hero Academia: A Hero's Will

We were given two days off in light of the sports festival. I was fairly excited to celebrate my win with my mother.

By winning the sports festival, I had taken a huge leap towards becoming a hero and I wanted mom to be a part of it. I owed it to her. Since dad wasn't there most of the time to make an impact, mom was the only one responsible for my upbringing. Everything she taught me, the values and the life lessons she gave me, made me the person I had become.

But first, I had to deal with something that had blown my mind away. Standing in front of a skinny and weak All Might, looking at what looked like a fatal wound, shocked me to the very core at the kind of dedication and the sense of duty All Might had for continuing his hero career.

Earlier that day, I was called to the teacher's lounge by All Might himself.

Before I could ask why I was asked to see him, his bulky and muscular form regressed into that of a lanky and skinny man who looked almost malnourished.

So shocked by his sudden and unexpected transformation, I nearly punched him through the wall.

"Wh-what's going on?! Who are you?! You're not All Might!"

He sighed and replied patiently, "Young Midoriya, I am All Might. This is my true form..."

"B-but All Might!!"

"... It's like those people in swimming pools who suck in all the air they can to look more buff than they actually are."

"That's completely different!!"

I stared at him incredulously. Who was he trying to fool?! But the skinny man continued, "Oh well..."

He removed his coat and lifted up his shirt. There on the side of his abdomen, I saw a wound as severe, I wondered how the man was even alive. As I stared at the wound, horrified by the sight of it, All Might began, "I got this wound nearly six years ago in my battle against a villain..."

I cut him off, "You mean Toxic Chainsaw? But that guy was nothing in front of you!"

He laughed, " You are well informed! But no, any information of that battle was closed off for public. I defeated the villain, but I was severely injured. They had to remove my stomach and parts of my intestines. I can barely perform as a hero for two hours a day."

I just stared at him with my eyes widened with shock, awe and a hint of unease. Why was he telling me all of this?

When I asked him, he replied, "That is a way of me building trust within you..."

He looked straight into my eyes with an intensity that showed why he was the best of all heroes, "Young Midoriya, even though you were a little harsh towards some, you selflessly helped them overcome their insecurities, even to the point of fooling the whole country just so that young Shinso could be recognized. You could have easily won your matches against young Shinso, Todoroki and Monoma, but you helped them, could you tell me why?"

With a soft smile, I looked into his eyes and immediately replied, "Because it was the right thing to do. What kind of a hero would I be if I couldn't save someone right in front of me from themselves?"

All Might's eyes widened momentarily as he took a deep breath, "Helping someone when not asked for is the essence of a true hero. Young Midoriya, I have deemed you worthy of inheriting my quirk."

"Eh?"

Inherit his quirk?

All Might continued, "For years the tabloids have debated about what my quirk could be. Many of them have deemed it to be some form of super-strength quirk. I've always evaded the topic in interviews. It won't do well if the all mighty 'Symbol of Peace' were not a 'natural born hero'. My quirk is not unlike the sacred torch from the legends that's passed from one bearer to next. It's a quirk that can be passed over to someone deemed worthy by the bearer. It's called, 'One for All'."

A... quirk that could be inherited? So awed and shocked, I was unable to utter a single word.

"The bearer of the quirk cultivates power and passes it on to the next bearer and again it is cultivated to be passed down to the next one. Young Midoriya, I have been searching for a successor for ages, and now I have finally found one who I deem is worthy. Would you accept One for All?"

I willed myself snap back to reality. All Might had offered to pass on his quirk to me. He had deemed me worthy of inheriting it. Without the slightest bit of hesitation, I replied, "All Might, if you really think that I am worthy, then I accept to be the next bearer of 'One for All'."

All Might laughed boisterously and said, "An immediate response! I like it!! You are already strong enough to not get crippled by the power of 'One for All'. If you were a weak little thing, your body would have exploded!"

I shuddered at the mental image of my appendages and my head blasting off of my body. Meanwhile, All Might transformed into his muscle form and plucked a hair from his head and offered it to me.

"Eat this!"

If the situation wasn't so bizarre I would have laughed at the face he was making at that moment.

"You want me to eat your hair?!"

"How else do you think will I transfer this quirk to you? You need to digest my DNA for the transfer to be successful!"

I was about to suggest that drinking a small amount of blood would be easier but All Might's form reverted back to his skinny self as he comically spat blood from his mouth. Suddenly, eating his hair seemed a lot less disgusting. Reluctantly, I accepted the hair and gulped it down.

"Now what?"

All Might smiled and said, "Now, you should go home and celebrate with your mother!! Tomorrow meet me at Dagobah beach at five in the morning! I will start your training to help you get used to 'One for All'."

I nodded and thanked him before running to my home.

Later that night, when I was sleeping in my room, I was jolted awake when my 'Conqueror's will' began leaking out of me uncontrollably. I fought for control but my will was beginning to overpower me.

Quickly opening the window of my room, I jumped out in order to get away from mom as I didn't want her to get hurt. I wasn't thinking much when I jumped out of the window, I didn't know how much force I had applied in my jump, but it didn't seem like I was descending down towards the ground at all.

My will had gotten strong enough to conquer the earth's gravity.

'I'm flying!'

Was it because of One for All? I could only make a guess. I sped towards the sea as 'Conqueror's will' was raging like wildfire inside me, fighting back and wanting to be released.

Just when the beach was out of sight, I relaxed my control over my will. The effects were mindboggling. 'Conqueror's will' was manifesting itself in the form of violent arcs of green lightning that were striking the ocean below me as the water was being hydrolysed wherever the lightning struck.

A gigantic whirlpool came to life as the sea itself was being conquered by my will. With a mighty roar, I released all forms of control and let go of my power.

(BNHA)

The next day I told All Might what had happened. When he asked me to use my quirk, to say he was shocked at the results was an understatement.

He trained me to integrate 'One for All' with my quirk. Despite how strong I was, my base strength or the strength with armament wasn't enough for my body to handle the complete power of 'One for All'. My maximum limit was 65%. So he gave me a training plan for me to be able to use 100% of OFA as soon as possible.

The two days quickly sped by and I was back in school. The ride on the subway was... interesting. Everyone recognised me immediately and congratulated me for winning the Sports Festival. Some kids even asked for autographs. I won't deny it, I was feeling a little overwhelmed.

I guess the same happened with many of classmates as they were talking among each other about being recognized by people over the two days.

Finally, the bell rang and Aizawa-sensei entered the classroom, this time, without his bandages. Recovery Girl really did a wonderful job in healing him.

"The old lady's treatment was excessive. But nevermind that, today you have Hero Informatics Class. A special one at that..."

The shit was at it again, creating tension among us. If he wasn't my teacher and wasn't recovering, I would have pounded his stupid face.

"... Today you'll be coming up with your hero aliases."

As everyone quietened down after a brief moment of excitement, Aizawa-sensei continued, "But first, concerning the pro draft picks I mentioned the other day. It's based on who the pros think is ready to join the hero workforce after another two or three years of experience. So you could say it's a way for them to show interest in your futures."

The draft pick results were... weird. I only had around 300 picks while Todoroki and Katsuki had more than three thousand.

Then realization dawned upon me, 'Endeavour pulled some shit huh? It doesn't matter though. Any hero intimidated by that guy won't be of much help.'

Mineta, who was sitting behind me said, "See? You were too scary that day. You scared the heroes off."

"More like Endeavour did.'

Right when Aizawa-sensei was about to finish explaining about the drafts, a woman entered our classroom who's appearance muddled my young teenage mind. Midnight, the woman of my midnight dreams. I couldn't help it! After all, she was my childhood crush.

We were given placards to write our aliases on. As my classmates began announcing the names they had chosen, I focused on choosing my own alias after thinking about some very pleasing and happy thoughts about a certain heroine.

"Midoriya, let's see what alias you have chosen."

Nodding, I willed a certain part of mine to relax and walked up to the class podium to display my placard.

I activated armament and allowed it to cover my entire body. With the addition of 'One for All', even the colour of my armament had changed.

"Armoured Hero: Emerald Knight."