32. Five birds, One stone!

All Might gave his testimony to the police before he rushed to the infirmary, worried sick.

He could feel the tug in his stomach, lungs contracting ever more painfully.

His time was up.

All Might ducked behind a nearby building and let put a breath, as steam blew from his pores, and he deflated like a balloon, back into just Yagi Toshinori, All Might's manager.

Taking off his coat, Yagi wiped the blood from his lips, briefly glancing at it with an undiscernable expression, shaking his head.

This wasn't the time. He needed to get to the infirmary, to see his students, to see him.

Matsumoto Yuji. A model young man, smart, pragmatic, and considerate, with a healthy vessel to match.

All he needed in a successor and more.

The boy had even taught Yagi the value of pragmatism once again, after the years of peace had dulled his sense for such things.

And if he was right, it would be needed soon, once more. One of the few things he could agree with Nighteye on.

Evil was on the rise and if Yuji-shounen's words were anything to go by, the world would be in need of a new symbol of peace sooner rather than later.

A resolve blossomed in Yagi's mind as he walked into the administrative building.

He would offer Yuji the power one last time.

Good. I thought. Shutting All Might's book and vanishing it, just as the door to the infirmary opened.

All Might walked in, straining in his muscle form, as the corners of his lips twitched, and teeth ground at their edges.

"Yuji-shounen, a word?" He asked, gesturing towards the door.

I nodded, swinging my legs off the bed, and jumping to my feet, following behind him.

Once we were out of earshot, he turned a corner into an empty store room, and deflated again, coughing up blood by the handful.

"Yuji-shounen, I want to talk to you about something." He said, sincerely.

"What a coincidence, so do I!" I replied.

"Hmmm? You can go first then Yuji-shounen." Small Might encouraged.

"Really? Well then." I said, bowing at a stiff 45 degree angle, "Please let me inherit your quirk!"

Small Might looked at me quizzically, rubbing his chin.

"What changed your mind, Yuji-shounen?" He asked, amused.

"This." I said, pointing at my bandaged hands, hanging from a sling.

"The damage and destruction I witnessed. The hurt it did to my friends. Two people almost died. Because I wasn't strong enough." I said, quivering my voice, bringing forth tears at the edges of my eyes.

"I thought I could make it, with just my quirk and effort, sweat and blood. But I was wrong. I couldn't. I couldn't even save the people within arms reach. If Bakugo was older, stronger. Even a little bit more experienced, who's to say, I wouldn't have lost?

Then what would have happened to those I shielded, to Momo, Tsuyu, Ojiro....even Mina?" I added, through clenched teeth.

"I'm....." I hesitated, making a pained expression, "I'm not strong enough to protect anyone!

So..so please...."

Small Might grabbed me by the shoulders, and pulled me into a hug.

"Say no more, Yuji-shounen. I understand.

I felt much the same once, when I was your age.

Know this, shounen, it wasn't your fault. You did the right thing, standing strong in the face of fear. More than I could have, even. And you did protect them. All of them. Because of you, they are safe." He parted from the embrace, holding me up, looking me eye to eye.

"Feel proud, Yuji-shounen, for you are a hero, their hero!"

I sniffled, wiping away the fake tears I had produced.

"Then...." I asked, hesitantly.

"Yes. You will inherit it shounen. You will inherit One For All!" Small Might said, smiling, almost contagiously.

"Thank you." I cried, "Thank you so much!"

"You're welcome." Small Might assured, pulling out a hair from his head, and handing it to me.

"Eat it!"

"What?!" I sputtered, before acting like I realized, "Oh, right."

Picking up the hair between my fingers, I gave it a look of apprehension, appearing to hesitate, before steeling my resolve.

In one gulp, I swallowed it whole, squinting my eyes close.

Then, nothing.

I looked at Small Might, confused.

"Now what?" I asked.

"Now, we wait. Tomorrow, when your body has digested the hair, we'll begin to see some changes, and then, it'll be time for training.

For today, Yuji-shounen, go and rest." He said, patting my back.

I nodded, and left the room, back to class, as a light scuttling issued from the corridor.

Someone had overheard us. All according to plan.

Just before All Might had arrived, I had used the book to convince Kirishima to visit me.

Knowing him, he wouldn't be able to resist the urge to follow and know more.

And it had worked like a charm!

Now, I had two, potentially more testimonies to my enhanced physical strength, just in case Monoma decided to blab, revealing my secret.

Immediately, I moved to the bathroom, and checking to find it empty, I stuck a finger down my throat, and hurled the hair out.

I found it among the vomit and pulled it out, washing it in the sink before carefully placing it into a plastic ziploc, stashing it away.

With this, I have effectively crippled All Might and ended the line of succession for One For All. Two birds, one stone.

Now, to break the quirk system!

I hadn't just hurled here for no reason.

Not only did it give me a dues ex machina for the future if my quirks were stolen, it also emptied the breakfast from my stomach, leading the way to a very special glitch in the matrix.

I opened my mouth wide, and a geyser of smoke erupted from within, forming into ten clones of me, each copying One For All from the hair.

Then like clockwork, the clones pulled put a hair each, handing them over to me.

I pulled put my book, and sped up my metabolism, till the hairs were digested in my stomach, and I felt a qualitative growth in the accumulation rate of OFA tenfold.

Dismissing the clones, I repeated the process once more, till the copy ran out of time, and I lost the Clone quirk.

But in return, I now had typhoon of power emerging within me, strength coursing through my veins.

A yellow-blue electricity crackled across my skin, as I ran a quick calculus.

As I was now, it'd be 6 years before I became as powerful as All Might at his peak.

Not a bad bargain for the curse that was this quirk, especially without the drawbacks suffered by the other wielders of this power.

Not a bad bargain, indeed!