(Nezu POV – Nezu's Office)
I sit on the couch beside All Might as Kata and Midoriya step in.
Kata, as always, wears a calm look of faint disinterest. Midoriya, on the other hand, radiates so much nervous energy I'm tempted to offer him tea just so he has something to fidget with. Even then, he seems uncharacteristically happy about something.
"Did something interesting happen, Midoriya?" All Might asks before anyone can even sit. His tone is warm, but there's an undercurrent of curiosity there. "You seem… livelier than usual."
Midoriya nods so fast I half expect his head to detach. "Yes, All Might! I was talking with Kata earlier, and—well—thanks to him, I came up with a few ideas to improve my training!" He says cheerfully.
That catches my attention.
'Kata… offering help?' I muse, my ears twitching faintly. 'That's new.'
He's polite enough with his classmates, but rarely proactive—especially toward those outside his immediate circle. For him to willingly assist Midoriya isn't… normal.
'I wonder what prompted that…'
But now isn't the time to pry. I could always find out later.
"I'm glad both of you could join us," I say, giving them a welcoming, practiced smile. "Please, take a seat before we proceed."
Kata sits casually on the couch opposite us, while Midoriya sits next to him like a cadet awaiting inspection, with back straight, and hands clenched on his knees.
"I'm guessing you want to meet Nana?" Kata asks calmly, looking straight at All Might.
All Might grins, then quickly tries to cover it with a cough. "Yes! Would it… be possible to do so now? Or do you need time to prepare?"
"It's fine. No preparations are needed as long as everyone's ready." Kata replies, his tone nonchalant as though he isn't referring to talking with the deceased.
All Might's eyes light up, but before he can speak again—
"Uh…" Midoriya raises a hand hesitantly. "Who's… Nana?"
I blink, then slowly turn my gaze toward All Might.
"You haven't told him?" I ask in amusement.
All Might's eyes dart away. "I… may have mentioned it in passing." He says, pretending to cough again.
I sigh, shaking my head. "Given Midoriya's… direct involvement in this, I think it's important he be informed, don't you?"
"Yes, you're right," All Might concedes, his shoulders sinking. "Midoriya… Nana Shimura was my master… and the seventh wielder of One For All." His voice drops into the deep, resonant register he uses in serious moments.
Midoriya's eyes go wide, darting between All Might and Kata in panic, worry, and confusion.
And because I can't resist…
"I'm assuming you also haven't told him that Kata knows about OFA, or that your injury has been healed?" I say, folding my paws neatly and waiting for the inevitable explosion.
Right on cue, Midoriya bolts upright. "Your injury was healed?!" His voice cracks with joy and hope.
All Might laughs nervously. "Er—yes. Over the weekend. Thanks to Okada here."
Midoriya's gaze snaps to Kata, shining with gratitude. "Is that true?"
Kata simply nods.
"Yes, it is." I interject. "We've run every test imaginable, and All Might is now in perfect health."
"Thank goodness…" Midoriya murmurs, before springing to his feet and bowing a perfect ninety degrees toward Kata. Tears are already pooling in his eyes. "Thank you for healing All Might!"
Kata looks… mildly inconvenienced. "I've already been thanked, and it wasn't a big deal." He waves it off. "It's more important you hear about Nana and why you're here."
Midoriya wipes his face, nodding furiously, then turns back to All Might, who launches into the history of OFA, his connection to Nana, and Kata's idea for communicating with her vestige inside the Quirk.
And while they talk, I watch Kata carefully.
'He's less guarded than before, and more open and expressive, especially around his classmates,' I note with a small, satisfied smile. 'Something happened over this last week…' I deduce, excited to eventually discover what.
'I'll also need to discuss Aoyama's call with him, once Midoriya leaves.' I think idly, as All Might continues to teach the fascinated Midoriya.
(Kata POV – Nezu's Office)
"Just tell me what I need to do!" Midoriya blurts, fists clenched, a stubborn fire burning in his eyes.
Every head in the room turns toward me. All Might leans forward with barely contained excitement, and Nezu's eyes are filled with intellectual curiosity.
"So… you're all ready?" I ask.
They nod in unison.
"Good. Then make yourselves comfortable — it's going to feel a lot like drifting off to sleep. Unless, of course, you want to wake up on the floor."
Midoriya flinches while All Might maintains his grin. Nezu chuckles softly, though I suspect it's more at the idea of humans suffering in general.
They both sink back into the couch, trying to get comfy, and once they do, they give me nods of acknowledgement.
'This should be easier than making clones.' I think. 'I don't need to split their consciousnesses, and just move the entire mind at once.
I draw in a steady breath, extending my radar beyond the physical, feeling not just their flesh, but the lattice of energy that forms the mind… maybe even the soul, if such a thing exists.
Before starting, I zero in on Izuku's quirk factor. OFA is complex, present in every cell, yet somehow not quite part of them.
'Each quirk factor is both real… and not?'
Even if the quirk is embedded in his DNA, it's true core isn't actually physical. It exists more as a collection of energy inexplicably linked together, even outside of Izuku's body.
'Which is why it must be passed willingly… and why the vestiges themselves can meddle with it when they choose.'
I track the quirk's core as it shifts between different quirk factors, never really settling anywhere.
'It's quite annoying.'
A second passes, and I lock it in place, pinning it to the quirk factor it currently occupies, making every step thereafter much easier and less dangerous.
Then, with a thought, I draw both All Might and Izuku's minds towards the quirk. It's easier than expected, since both already have a strong connection to the quirk. And at the same time, I split off half of my own consciousness and send it through with them.
They slump instantly, out cold in their seats.
The half of my mind I've split off enters OFA's vestige world.
'Time to see how this quirk really works.'
(Izuku POV – ???)
My eyes flutter open.
The first thing I notice is the silence.
A still, suffocating silence that presses against my ears until I can hear my own heartbeat. I look around, and there's nothing. No horizon. No stars. Just… a black, empty void. Not even the comforting glow of the vestige world All Might described.
"Where… am I?" My own voice sounds small, swallowed instantly by the void.
I wait, half expecting some kind of response from the vestiges within OFA, but there's nothing. No seats, no figures… not even Kata or All Might who should've been with me.
I swallow hard. "Shouldn't I be in the vestige world?"
My thoughts begin to spiral immediately. 'Did I mess something up? Did I get lost somehow? Can that even happen here?'
My panic continues to rise, but I grit my teeth and force myself to take a deep breath. "Okay, no. Panicking doesn't help." My fists tighten until my nails dig into my palms. "A real hero wouldn't just… sit around and wait to be rescued."
I pick a direction, if you can call it that, and start walking.
Everything about this place feels… wrong. There's no floor, but my feet move as if there is. My steps make no sound, but I still feel the impact. There's no light source, but somehow, I can see myself clearly.
'I'm not on Earth. I know that much.'
Then—
"…voices?"
I stop dead, my head snapping to my side. Somewhere in the dark, muffled murmurs leak through. My chest tightens, and without thinking, I run toward them. The sound grows louder with each step, but… it's warped. Garbled. Like the words are trapped underwater, and no matter how close I get, I can't make them out.
Then I see it.
A mirror.
It stands in the void like it can never be affected by anything. It's taller than me and wide enough to be a door. The voices seep out from it, louder now, but impossible to distinguish.
My reflection isn't there. Instead, the glass shows a cramped, shadowy room.
My stomach twists. 'Is this… safe?'
I press my palm against the surface. It ripples like disturbed water, cool against my skin. My fingers slip through before my mind can decide otherwise, and I inhale sharply, and step forward.
The moment I pass through, the world changes.
The air is cool and smells faintly of dust. The solid weight of wood creaks under my feet. Somewhere in the distance, the faint ambient noise of a city, wind sliding through cracks, rattling windows. Everything feels almost… normal.
Then—
"Do your job and take care of him properly, Suko! Don't make me repeat myself again!"
The voice is deep, sharp, and angry. It's not just the sound. The voice carries physical pressure that slams into me, and even the air seems to vibrate with it. My pulse begins rising.
"Or else what, huh?!" A woman's voice fires back, equally sharp, and dripping with venom. "You'll hit me again? I never wanted this marriage! I never wanted that child! Don't you dare think—"
I freeze where I stand. My thoughts blur into a mess. 'What is this? Who are they talking about? Why are they fighting?'
The voices don't care. They keep clashing, getting louder, angrier, and more spiteful with each moment. The room feels colder now, like the air is being pulled out of it, and the floor trembles beneath my feet.
"I'm warning you." The man growls, each syllable said slowly to emphasize the threat. "Don't make me force you."
My mouth goes dry.
"Oh please, Mr. Hero. You care too much about your goddamn reputation to do anything to me."
'Hero?' The word lands heavy in my gut, making my sense of dread drill deeper.
My eyes scan the room, trying to pinpoint the voices, but they originate from beyond the room. Then, in a dark corner, I spot a crib, seemingly abandoned by the world.
There's something in it.
My feet move before I think, taking slow, careful steps forward. My heart rattles my ribcage, as I inch closer to the crib, worried about what I'd find, when—
"You're nothing but a fake, and don't think for a—"
SLAP.
The sound is loud, violent, and final.
It cuts through everything.
The air shatters. The walls fracture into a million shards of light and shadow, breaking apart in a soundless explosion as the world collapses around me.
*************
A/N: Hello Everyone. How are you all? If you've enjoyed the chapter and book thus far, please consider leaving me some comments, reviews, or power stones. It really helps the book out.
So yeah, sorry for the 3 day delay. I was mostly occupied with my sister's chess tournament and didn't have much time to write, as well as getting stuck in this chapter, mainly the Izuku POV. But moving on...
Does it seem familiar🙃? I wonder why? Deja vu? How queer...
But in a serious note, this is how best I think to do it. I was gonna show the next scene, but I felt that'd have required me to write the entire thing, but I'd prefer an entire chapter of this continuous confusion. I had almost decided to discard it all, but luckily I got Komi's help on discord to bounce ideas around, and even if I didn't use those ideas, it helped get here🤣.
As for some other things, I did check in canon, and Izuku doesn't know about Nana. So now he does. It'll be awkward. A few other complex things to be considered, is that since Kata is fully in control of his mind, how is he not aware that Deku, and maybe All Might are in there? I don't know either. Still trying to decide on a reason.
Currently, I'm going with it being a time lag. They entered first, and time flow in the mind is weird. So from Kata's perspective, a second might not even have passed, but hours would've in his mind.
Also, he's probably going through something as well rn (spoilers???), so he doesn't have the time to realise without reason to.
And unlike canon, with Shigaraki and Deku, they can't influence his memories. 1, he's mind is immutable, so it wouldn't work, and 2, I don't want to spoil the second reason. So just know there's another reason I'll expand on later.
But yeah, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter (it was quite difficult to write the last bit, so I hope it was worth the wait🤣).
I'll be writing Danmachi next, and that'll come out tomorrow (I really really hope😭).
You can also read 10 chapters ahead and support me at [email protected]/AMV_WEAKLY
Anyway, I hope you all have a great night (or day)😁