A Crushing Victory

When Aurdel came back to the training grounds, he found both classes making a big fuss about the mass he’s missed. “Today, Class 1-B achieved its first victory against 1-A! The first of many that are soon to come!” Monoma shouted, cackling.

“Like hell that was a win for you, that was a draw!” Kaminari shouted back.

“Oh, have you forgotten how to count? I wouldn’t be surprised given how-“

“Everyone be quiet!” Aurdel raised his hands, “Now what’s going on?”

“They’re fighting over who won the match,” Aizawa said, “Some of our class is arguing semantics and saying that one of B’s members getting inside of their own cage counts as a capture, and that since Ojiro was on the verge of putting another opponent at the very end of the match it would have also been another capture.”

Aurdel took a deep breath, “In a fight against Villains, there’s no such thing as a victory by technicality. There’s only a victory or a loss. Class 1-B won the previous round and I DO NOT want to hear any further arguments about that. Now, Cementoss, is the field ready for the next match?”

Cementoss stood up, “The training area should be repaired enough for the next two matches. However I insist that you do not cause a great deal of damage to these fields, the other classes still need this field for their own purposes.” Cementoss had been called out of one of his own classes to make emergency repairs to Field Gamma, as the amount of damage that had been incurred by the previous two matches was nearly absurd. Frankly, he was surprised that any of it was still standing. After what had happened during match two he’d taken both teams to the nurse’s office and helped Recovery Girl with their healing, then given them their evaluations once they’d woken up. At first he praised them for the tactical acumen that they had displayed during the match, how they had constantly been trying to outthink and outmaneuver their opponents wherever possible and to a varying degree of success. However, he made a point to strongly condemn the fact that after the chance of defeat was in the air his class had essentially turned to scorched earth tactics by annihilating the field and making sure that no one won. Something like this was only acceptable because it was a practice match, but if they were to be Heroes then something like this would not slide. If they had done it on a real mission then there would likely be a number of civilians caught in the crossfire, essentially invalidating anything they’d done. Ultimately though he told them that he was proud of all the effort they put into the match, and said that once they were ready they could return to the field and watch the remaining matches. After that he was about to leave, until the injuries from the third match piled in. But because he hadn’t actually seen the match he just triaged and cared for their wounds before returning.

Aurdel had his arms folded, “I can’t give you any guarantees on how the field will look, especially not with these last two matches.” He picked up the clipboard he’d left behind to write down the results of the matches. First match, Class A victory four to one. Second match, stalemate zero to zero. Third match, Class B victory three to one. Fourth match… Class A victory, four to zero.

Some of the students noticed this, “Isn’t it incredibly biased to write down the results of the match before it has even happened?”

“For most of these matches, there was never a sign that any one team was guaranteed to win a match. This match is different. I give it five minutes tops before this match is over with the result I just wrote down.” He put down the clipboard, “Teams four, you’re up. Report to the training area and wait for the signal. And Bakugo,” he looked towards him and nodded, “Go out there, and kill ‘em all.” The boy had a wild grin.

Tokage was in somewhat of a state of shock, trying to come up with a plan. They’d all seen the school festival and the previous matches, so they knew what to expect. But this match in particular? Despite the fact that the previous match had been a great victory for Class 1-B, with two of Class 1-A’s strongest members being taken down and captured, there was nothing but worry. They were going up against possibly the strongest member of Class 1-A, Katsuki Bakugo. He’d won the sports festival with a ferocious and ruthless effort, taking first place and having likely improved a great deal since then. So initially during the time they’d had to come up with a plan, they’d decided to try and take him out of the equation as quickly as possible by separating from his team and capturing him. And they had been confident in that plan up until several minutes ago, when 1-A’s teacher boldly and confidently stated that his team was going to win in less than five minutes. To have something like that said with absolutely no hesitation was nerve racking. “We’ll stick with the plan, we just need to strike out fast and try to pull them apart. I’ll distract them by misdirecting their efforts to find us, then you can ambush them. Bondo, once we’re in a position to attack you’ll use your glue to get them stuck. The less they can move to counter our attacks the better. Awase, you’ll be on duty to quickly reinforce any attempts at keeping them in place. Weld them to the ground, walls, whatever it takes. Kamakiri, once they’re in place it’ll be up to you to power through them and knock them out. I’ll try and support you all as best as I can.”

“And you can rely on us to do our parts!” Even with the affirmation of her team, Tokage couldn’t help but feel incredibly nervous. They waited for the signal to start.

“I thought I told you damn slowpokes to keep up with me!” Bakugo shouted, blasting forward and over the obstacles in front of him.

“It’s a little hard to move quickly and use my quirk to find out where they are at the same time!” Jiro shouted back, frustrated.

He scoffed, “Whatever, just keep up!” It was a shame that he would have to babysit them for this round, but he had no choice. If he was going to be the one to surpass All Might and become the number one Hero then he would need to be capable of winning an absolute victory no matter what. In this case, it meant winning four to zero in as little time as possible. And since Mr. Aurdel had given him an estimate of five minutes to beat the other team into the dirt, he was going to demolish that time. His minions suddenly stopped behind him.

“Wait, they’re somewhere around here!”

“Lobes, tell me where they are!”

“I have a name and I’m trying! There’s just so much background noise that-“ She stopped mid sentence, “No, It’s a trap!”

“That’s right, it's over.” A disembodied voice spoke behind Bakugo, that lizard girl.

“Shut your yapping extra!” He grabbed the mouth behind him with his gauntlet, snapping it shut and holding tight onto it. “Elbows, make a weave!”

“I’ve told you already, it’s Sero!” Sero quickly sprang into action, firing off his tape into a woven pattern above them.

“Glue Squall!” And it wasn’t a second too soon, as hole-head fired his glue down from above. And while the weave of tape wasn’t enough to catch all of the glue, it had done enough to leave them a path out of the ambush. And that was all they actually needed.

“I’ll take out the most troublesome one!” Bugface jumped downward, blades extending from his arms and going straight for Jiro. Those idiots. They knew that they couldn’t match his power, so they were trying to dissect the team and then win through a battle of attrition. What they should have known is that he wasn’t going to let that happen! He blasted backwards and towards Jiro, kicking her out of the way and letting the blades bounce off his gauntlet.

“Checkmate!” He let out a point blank blast from his free gauntlet, forcing the bug back. He hadn’t felt the full impact of the force though as he’d use his blades to cover up some of his face. “Quick reflexes huh? I’ll give you that! But what you should have been using is the fact that it takes me some time to get into the swing of things during winter. And now since I’m all warmed up, you can’t match my speed!” With one hand behind his back he propelled himself forward, easily catching up to his opponent before reaching out. “Tell me how the dirt and glue tastes!” He grabbed him by the leg, blasting first to set up before chucking him upwards into the weave that Sero had made. It had enough force to undo the weave, causing it to unravel and the wrapping back around bugface with all the tape and glue before landing back down on the ground.

“Behind us!” The three others turned around, there was Awase. Sero fired his tape, catching him and restraining his arms. Sato then charged forward and pummeled him until he was unconscious. “It was a lot easier to figure out where he was coming from once I knew which sounds to ignore, a distraction can only work once.”

“So what do we do about the other two?” Sero asked, “At the very least they’re going to completely stay out of our way, and at most they’ll ambush us over and over until they can wear us down and get an advantage.”

“We won’t have to look, they’re going to lead us right towards them,” he ripped off a piece of Sero’s tape, then stuck it with a grenade onto the lizard girl’s mouth he’d been holding onto. Then, he released it. “Now are you all going to keep up, or am I going to have to carry you all the way there?” There was no need for an answer. He blasted off, and the three followed him. Rather quickly they were able to find the body part back to its source, with two goons standing around trying to come up with a plan.

“How did you-?!”

“You can mull over that in the losers corners, now shut up and DIE!” He pushed both hands forward, then hit those two with everything he had.

“Less than four minutes, you managed to perform even better than I expected,” Aurdel praised his students, “You kept destruction to a minimum, countered the moves of your enemy and worked correctly and efficiently. The only real criticism that I can give you is that the final blow you gave the opposing team was a little bit overkill, but besides that it was near perfect.” Aurdel was happy with the results of his class. Vlad wasn’t nearly as happy as he was, though.

“I understand that you were overmatched when it came to strength and power, but you could have defeated them with proper planning. Tokage, the initial strategy you came up with was smart but it was too rigid to be able to properly change once things started tipping the other way. You must all work on your ability to strategize under stressful and tense situations.”

“Of course Mr. Vlad King! We’ll burn these lessons into our memory!” The members of the other class seemed down about their loss, they were really trying to get this win. Unfortunately for them this wasn’t the kind of world where you could get something just because you wanted it enough, and he had his own class to look out for. So while he did feel slightly bad for them, he didn’t dwell on it too much.

“Right. That’s two victories for Class A, one victory for Class B and one stalemate. This last round will either mean a victory for my class, or Class B narrowly scraping out a draw. Regardless, I expect you all to fight your hearts out for this last one.”

“I dare you to try and too that, you damn nerd!” Bakugo shouted, pointing a finger at Deku.

“Why are you singling me out?!”

“You know damn well why I am!”

Aurdel looked around, there were intense glares on all sides. Both teams were staring each other down, determined to bring victory no matter what happened out there. “Team five, report to the battle area and prepare to fight.”

For the Record

Aurdel watched as the two teams left the foyer, heading off for the battle area. With all of the matches there had been a general tension, he could feel it. That had just been the natural result of Classes 1-A and 1-B squaring up against each other. But now he could feel that there was something else, something different He turned, All Might was staring at Midoriya quite intensely. Upon noticing that fact, he walked over. “Is something wrong All Might?”

He shook his head, “No, just a little nervous I suppose.”

“Nervus about how Midoriya will do? You shouldn’t, with all his training I don't think it's possible for him to be in any better shape for a simple exercise like this.”

“No, it’s not that. I need to talk to you privately for a moment.” The two of them stepped away from the rest of the crowd, walking into a corner where they had relative privacy and couldn’t easily be eavesdropped on, “It’s about his power, One For All.”

“What’s the problem with it?”

“It’s been acting up. Just recently he told me that he experienced a random surge of activity in the middle of the night, an uncontrollable one, and he found his room in a mess. At the same time he’d also seen visions. From what he has described they seem to be visions of the previous wielders of One For All.”

He was silent as he took in the information. “You’re sure about this?”

“Not entirely, I’m still waiting on a call from Gran Torino about anything my master may have said before I come to any solid conclusions. But I believe it’s the case. The only other time he saw anything like those visions was back during the sports festival, long before you arrived. He’d just been brainwashed by Shinso and was about to walk out of bounds when One For All activated by itself and used itself to break him out of the brainwashing.”

“I heard about those previous visions from him some time ago, the only thing is I didn’t get any of the context. But if it’s what you say…” He gave a glance back in the general direction where the students had gone. “If Shinso is what caused it to happen before, then you’re thinking that it will happen again. And with his power not entirely under control, you think it might catalyze into something.”

“As I said, I’m not entirely sure. I’m still waiting on that call. The only thing that I can say for certain for now is that the last time he saw visions appear, it was with a relatively substantial increase in power. If the same thing happens here, then the results could be devastating.”

Midoriya hopped around using One For All, attempting to get a gauge of himself and his control. With the visions and his quirk acting up he wasn’t sure how he would perform, or if he would be able to use it properly at all. But as of right now there didn’t seem to be anything wrong, his control of One For All was as good as it normally was. “Do we have a plan?” Uraraka asked, seemingly worried.

“We do,” he landed on his feet. “They’re going to go with the same tactic that the others tried last round, they’re going to try and separate me from the rest of you. They know that if I was able to close the distance then I could easily beat them into submission in a hand to hand fight. They also know that even at range I can still present them a serious threat, with my other combat styles.”

“Yeah sure, but you’re forgetting one big thing,” Mineta said, “Shinso is the biggest problem on their team. You saw what he could do in the first round. If he’s still out there and can brainwash any of us at any moment, then we won’t be able to do anything.”

“Monoma too,” Ashido added, “Because he can copy quirks it means that he’ll take all of his teammates' quirks, including Shinso’s. We’ll have two brainwashers to worry about.”

“Then we’ll take those two out first, lead them into a trap where they can be ambushed,” Midoriya said. “And I’ll be the bait.”

“No way! None of us are as powerful as you in a straight up fight. If something goes wrong and you get captured, then that’s a guaranteed loss. We’ll be completely defenseless!”

“I won’t get captured, and even if I do you won’t be defenseless. Ashido, as soon as the match begins you need to start breaking up the ground and making debris. Uraraka, you’re going to be floating up some of the debris that she makes to use as traps. Mineta, you’re going to cover the floating debris with your balls so they’ll stick to anyone that gets caught under them. You’re also going to fill the pits that Ashido makes with balls, that way there are pitfall traps as backups.”

“You got it!” At that moment, the shot to signal the beginning of the match sounded out.

“I’ll make sure to occupy them for long enough, that way they don’t come until you’re ready. But try not to take too long!” He shifted into Full Cowling and hopped away, he felt a strange sensation as he did. It wasn’t a problem with his body or his mind, but more so with One For All itself. For quite some time he had been trying to squeeze up greater amounts of power out of it, mostly because he felt that he was physically capable of taking that greater strain. But it was like he’d hit a plateau when it came to a ratio between his effort and actual output, where it continued to absorb and grow in strength but refused to actually give him access to any of that additional power. And it didn’t make any sense why. In terms of physical fitness, due to Mr. Aurdel’s increasingly intense fitness regimens, he was rapidly approaching the same level of musculature and physical strength that All Might had when he first received One For All. Even so, he still couldn’t safely use it at one hundred percent. But forget it, that was a problem that he would have to work out later with some help from his teachers.

Then he heard a shriek, and he stopped in his tracks. It sounded like Uraraka, and he had to bite his tongue to resist the urge to call out. He knew fully well that it could have been a ploy by Monoma or Shinso to take him out of the fight. “Why, aren’t you smart?” Monoma said, mockingly. He jerked his head over towards him, quickly finding his position on a nearby set of pipes. “From my own idea of you I would have assumed you’d yell out and ask what was wrong, then be trapped by your own naïveté. But ah, here you are looking all stoic. But think, what if that really was your teammate being attacked? After all, if it was just you and me here then it would mean that it’s a three to four battle for them. And your team definitely can’t win against those odds. And if that’s not the case? Well, then I’d just be wasting your time when you could have been attacking us.” Midoriya said nothing in response, “You’re really wary, huh? Well, in that case I just have one question for you and your class. One directed towards you especially even, so how about it?” Again nothing, “Everyday you all go about with smiles on your faces, carefree about your actions and their consequences.” That odd sensation from before started creeping up again, it was becoming stronger than before. “But how I wonder, how can you do that-?” Stronger now, urging him to act, “-when you are personally responsible-“ It was getting even stronger, “-for bringing about the downfall of the Symbol of Peace?” He raised his hand, ready to fire with his Air Force gauntlets, when it boiled over..

“That should be it, now we just need to find a way to get Deku back here,” Uraraka commented out loud. None of her teammates said anything since they knew the risk that the Brainwashing quirk posed this round, but she knew that they’d understood and heard her. She looked around, trying to think. The easiest way would be to cause some amount of commotion to lure him back in, though that could easily backfire and instead allow the other team to attack them without even being nearby. There was also the option of physically going out there and dragging him back, but if they were attacked in the meantime then it meant they would no longer have the home field advantage. Ultimately they-

“Watch out, Acid Veil!” Ashido suddenly shouted, then sprayed a stream of acid out from her hands in the form of a protective veil. A number of objects had begun raining from the sky and collided with the debris field she’d set up above the area, dragging them all down. And after avoiding the first few waves of objects that threatened to crush them, they were forced to scatter. Large nuts, barrels and pipes all dropped from the sky, and the moment they touched the ground they launched back up again in a random direction with even more force than before. Uraraka floated what she could, Ashido tried to keep up by melting everything that attacked her and Mineta used his balls to try and stick things to the walls so they couldn’t move again.

“They need to be nearby for them to be able to attack us so precisely, but how could they move so fast?!” Uraraka bounded around, picking up a metal sheet and using it to block a barrage of projectiles “Where’s Deku? If they were able to get to us then he can’t be-!” Her sentence wouldn’t finish, but her question would find itself answered. The loud noise of mass destruction sounded out across the training field. She watched as black tendrils suddenly stretched out from one of the buildings, grabbing onto surfaces and dragging them towards something. And before she knew it she’d found out what that was. Because it wasn’t something, it was someone. “Deku!” She screamed. Even from this far away she could still recognize him, his green outfit and hair. The black tendrils were stretching out of his arm, tearing through his costume chaotically grabbing whatever it could. Pipes were destroyed, supports were crushed. She could see the pain that he was in.

“Uraraka, wait!” Ashido shouted, “We don’t know what’s going on!” Despite the protests she ran over and jumped, using her quirk to float up. The dark tendrils were completely pulling apart the nearby area, revealing where the three students who’d used their quirks to attack them were hiding. She also saw Shinso and Monoma frantically dodging the tendrils as she approached, with them barely being able to do so due to the sheer speed of them. All the while Midoriya was struggling. He looked like he was in physical pain from whatever was bursting out of his arm, trying to get it under control by kicking his arm with his leg. She… She had to do something! The best way they could get this under control was to use Shinso’s brainwashing quirk, forcing him to stop in his tracks. But even that wasn’t a guarantee, since at the Sports Festival he’d managed to break out of it without even knowing. It didn’t help either that Shinso was fleeing in the opposite direction, and because of all the destruction going on it was most likely that he wouldn’t be able to hear her ask. She needed to do something, it had to be bold.

She put one hand on a wall, then pushed off of it in his direction. Using the metal plate from before she was able to protect herself, using it to block one of the tendrils as it swung towards her. The moment she got close she grabbed onto him, using her quirk to start floating him. “Izuku!”

“U-Uraraka! Get back! I don’t want you to get hurt!” He strained his face as he continued to try and get it under control, but it looked like there was no way for him to do so. “It’s too dangerous!”

“No way! We’re a team and that means we need to help each other, no matter what!” She gripped him tighter, not letting go. “Even if you tell me to leave I’m going to be right here to help you!” That seemed to calm him down a little, though it did little to stop the tendrils.

“Midoriya!” The voice of their teacher, who’d at first remained silent when this started, suddenly shouted out.

He remembered their conversation. “You’re having trouble staying focused?”

“Yeah, kinda… A little.” Midoriya had stumbled over his words as he spoke, “I’m not quite sure what it is, it just feels like there’s something trying to pull my attention away to something else that my body thinks is more important.”

“That’s not an uncommon issue, a lot of people have trouble with staying focused. At its core it’s more of a psychological issue than it is a physical problem, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be solved.” Mr. Aurdel had folded his arms as he’d begun to elaborate. “Back when I was being trained with all of my teammates, being able to focus on the situation ahead of us as stoically as possible was something that was ingrained into us. But they knew it was possible for that concentration to be broken, so they provided us with the tools to regain that focus.” He raised a finger, “To reset your focus you’re going to need to calm down, and the most effective way to do that is by using techniques to recognize your present moment. First, close your eyes.” Midoriya had done as he’d said. “Now, take a deep breath over the course of several seconds, then hold it for a few more seconds before releasing that. Repeatedly doing that helps you to slow down your heart rate, allowing your body to calm down.”.

“It’s somewhat working, but there’s something that still feels off.”

“In that case...” He’d seemed deep in thought for a moment. “You’ll want to find yourself a pillar. It doesn’t have to be literal, it just has to be something that you can use to ground yourself. So long as it’s able to help you establish that you are physically present in that moment, then it works as a pillar. It doesn’t even have to be an object either, it could be a person too. If you trust them, and know you’re safe with them, then, it will work.”

“A pillar…”

“Midoriya!” He remembered that lesson as Mr. Aurdel shouted out his name, he didn’t need to be reminded of what to do.

He squeezed his eyes shut, then took a long deep breath. After the first exhale he felt his body slightly relax, then he did it all over again. All the while he could feel everyone’s eyes on him, unsure of what they should do or think. But he knew what to do. He’d made up his mind the moment this match had started, he was going to win. And wasn’t going to give up on that just yet. He just needed his pillar. “D-Deku?!” Sorry, Uraraka… He grabbed her hand, squeezing it tight. Even with his eyes shut the embarrassment was just as obvious. But it was working. Soon enough he could feel himself relaxing and the black tendrils retreating, then he reopened his eyes. It all came back to him, the control.

“I… I’m sorry, I’m not sure what happened to me…” With One For All back under his control he drastically reduced its power, not wanting to cause another sudden burst of activity. Quickly he took them to solid ground where Uraraka released her quirk, allowing themselves to catch a breather.

“Are… Are you sure you can keep fighting? I’m think that if we asked the teachers, then they would be willing to stop the exercise and-“

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m not going to quit. I said that we were going to win this match, and I’m not going to let myself get in the way of our victory. The only problem is I won’t be able to fight with my full power.”

“Oh, you’re not going to fight with your full power? Is that how much your class thinks little of us?!” Monoma appeared out of nowhere, taking the both of them by surprise. “In that case, I’ll just use that power against you instead!” Monoma slapped him, using his quirk to copy One For All

“Monoma, wait!” All Might had told him what might happen if someone hadn’t trained to receive One For All, Monoma was going to hurt himself badly! Midoriya quickly leapt forward, watching as Monoma flicked with one of his fingers and…! Nothing.

“Damn, it’s a blank!” Monoma threw out several nuts and bolts, increasing their sizes once they’d passed him and Uraraka before using Twin Impact to launch the objects back towards them..

“I got this!” Uraraka quickly responded to the threat, floating the pieces and throwing them into the air. That gave Midoriya his chance.

“You’re the kind of person to use any scheme to get an advantage, right Monoma? That means anything underhanded goes. That’s why I’m going to assume those clocks on your outfit aren’t actually tied to how long you can use a quirk, because they’ve already stopped and you’re still using your teammate’s quirks.” Midoriya bit his lip, using it to counter a sharp pain that spiked through his body. “You’re trying to finish this fight because you’re running out of time!”

“I don’t like how observant you are!” Monoma threw more objects over him, enlarging them to create an obstacle in his path. But he was able to avoid them, weaving through the projectiles and gunning straight for Monoma. The power from before was trying to break out again, but he kept it suppressed. He was going to win this battle through his own strength. He dropped and slid across the ground as the objects behind him rebounded, flying past him and instead going for Monoma. Only at the last second was it able to avoid him as he used Poltergeist to redirect the objects. Then Midoriya attacked. He ran and tackled Monoma, headbutting him and throwing both of them off the edge of the building’s roof. Despite being dazed he still managed to get out a number of objects, using the copied quirks to pull himself away and be carried to safety. But Midoriya wouldn’t allow it. He grabbed onto Monoma’s leg as he flew, slightly dragging him down and giving himself another chance to strike. Then he threw a number of punches into Monoma, striking him repeatedly in the abdomen and causing him to curl up. The two of them slammed face first into a series of pipes, bouncing off before landing on top of another roof with Monoma still reeling. There was a taste of blood in his mouth, but he kept going. He grabbed Monoma with both arms, then lifted him up and put him into a choke to knock him out.

“I can’t let you do that!” Shinso threw out his binding cloth, grabbing Midoriya’s right hand.

“And we can’t let you do that either!” Ashido burst out of nowhere, spraying her acid and burning through a section of the binding cloth wrapped around him. Then Mineta quickly threw his balls, covering Shinso and what remained of the binding cloth with them and forcing him to become stuck to the ground. There was no way for Shinso to become unstuck unless he completely undressed.

“We’re going to win this!” Uraraka floated in, floating up a number of objects that Monoma and the others had been using as weapons. This gave him the chance to fully perform the choke on Monoma, knocking him out before going to help his team. Though, that’s if they actually needed his help. And by the looks of things, they didn’t.

“Acid Skates!” Ashido rushed forward, spraying acid from her feet before leaping upwards. Using the objects Uraraka had floated as platforms she was able to get high into the air, making her way above the members of the enemy team. “Acid Rain!” She spun and sprayed out more acid, using her spinning to cover as large of an area as possible. Kodai, Shoda and Yanagi all used their quirks to make covers for themselves and avoided being covered by the acid, but that proved to be their undoing.

“Falling Vine!” Mineta’s scalp was bleeding as he threw a barrage of balls at the enemy team, completely surrounding and immobilizing them by having them become stuck to their cover.

“Release!” As soon as Ashido was off and at a safe distance Uraraka released all of the objects, dropping them directly on top of the opposing team. With no time or way to react, all three were trapped beneath a pile of rubble and debris. Midoriya let out a sigh of relief. All they had to do now was take them to the cage.. He took one step forward, then collapsed.

Vestige of the Past

“Now what the hell is all this about?!” Less than a second later he was back inside of that dreamlike world from his visions, with a man standing in front of him and shouting. “Weren’t you listening to us last time? we’re here to help you! Not to just have you go kickin’ and screaming to send us back so you can put your hand on some girl!”

This guy was one of the wielders! But he hadn’t grabbed Uraraka for no reason, he had no idea what was going on and didn’t want anyone to get hurt. He had to get it under control!

“Whaddya mean ‘get it under control?!’ It was! That was the whole reason my quirk activated under these circumstances, it was perfect for the scenario.”

His… Quirk? Wait, he was responding to him without even talking?!

“Yeah, of course I can hear you. I’m inside your head. Look, there’s a lot you don’t know about One For All so I’ll give you something basic to start working on. First, all of our quirks were mixed into the main core of this power. We’ve always been there with you, that’s why you’ve been having those visions. The reason you haven’t fully seen any of us until now though was because you had to get the ball rolling first, you had to to reach a certain level of power first.”

Then… was that why he’d been experiencing the pain? One For All’s power was growing by itself after he’d taken it to a certain level, and he just hadn’t adjusted to it yet?

“Exactly, which takes me to my second point. Now that you have gotten the ball rolling it means you’ll be able to tap into all that extra power, more than you had before. It’ll take some time to get used to it, but by the time you do you’ll get all six of our quirks! What you got access to was my quirk, Blackwip. It’s more powerful now than it used to be, but it’s still perfect for capturing people.” The man grinned, but then it faded. He folded his arms. “But one last thing, before I go and you wake up. Keep a close eye on that teacher of yours. None of us trust him.”

Mr. Aurdel? But why-

“Why? Kid, he was given All For One by the bastard who started this whole long mess! If that doesn’t justify it to you, I don’t know what will!”